8 REAL Farm and Garden Hacks You Probably Haven't Seen Before. 

Have you seen them all before? Which ones are new to you? Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! If you haven't seen my life hacks video, check it out here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q0JeDrpZ1Ck.html

My dad uses cattle panels as tomato cages, but he doesn't cut them. He just plants the plants in a row and runs a full panel down either side of the row about a foot to a foot and a half apart. A few metal t fence posts and some rebar wire ties to hold it all together. Then he can just walk the row and reach in the holes in the panels to pick the tomatoes.

The permethrin treatment is used in the military. I remember it coming in a bag made to soak the garments. It's wild that it survives washing, but it's true.

You are very good at explaining complex topics in a non-boring way. I really like your content!

We are using cattle panel sections for individual tomato cages, too. However, my husband bent them into “L” shaped units by standing on a 2x4 on top of the panel and pulling the free end up. This allows us to take 2 “L” opposite each other to form a square. We zip tie them together for use and can still stack them into a corner of the shed taking up very little floor space. They could also be hung from the junction of a wall and ceiling! Hope this helps others figure out how to store cattle panel tomato cages.

the tomato cages, the old propane tank and the permethrin really impressed me. Only thing to note is that permethrin is poisonous to cats and fish so maybe keep it away from those or yourself from them when your clothes are impregnated with it.

As someone in the trades occasionally lifting heavy stuff, doing manual labor hours a day, I really liked the legs/back tips. Also smart with the bonfire lighting. Good stuff all around man.

Once you get the flame established in a bonfire you can also use a leaf blower to keep it going. I watched a guy burning up a pile of medium sized stumps in a constant misty drizzle by driving the fire with excess air. It also helps keep down the soot/smoke to burn with an excess of air. I had no idea he was burning until we were within 100 yards of the property. Edit: Permethrin can also be dangerous for cats, worth looking in to at least.

The shovel-leg thing works in any situation involving a shovel, scalping grass, digging, lifting a full shovel. There's always a way to use your leg strength or even just as a pivot point to avoid back fatigue. Legs are cool

These are very good advices! Now i need a big American farm!

We use cattle panel tomato cages more simply by cutting them in squares and pairing two panels like an A frame. This folds up flat for off season storage. Also, a small handheld propane tank with a soldering torch works great for starting a wood pile and a battery leaf blower will supercharge the flame into a self-sustaining bonfire with minimal effort.

As a 5' female I have used all the lifting/carrying hacks. You can also carry heavy and/or large/bulky objects on your back using your legs for the lift and letting it rest on your back as you walk (of course you have to bend over somewhat, but it works).

Great advice on checking PPE before putting. When I worked as a Database Administrator we used to toss around this question; Who consistently makes backups of their data? Answer: People who have experienced a catastrophic data loss. I once stuffed my foot into a muck boot that had been in the garage all winter and it didn't fit right. I took it off and dumped out a dead chipmunk.

For starting big brush pile fires I have found using a bag of match light charcoal works well too. I put it at the bottom in as far as I can shove it (entire bag unopened), light the bag, and it’s as simple as that.

All good tips/hacks! I've used lifting like you do for years and had many a young man question (and then hopefully learn from) me. Great permethrin and bonfire hacks! Here's a tip for you: screwdriver handles really go down easy with some sour cream Ranch dip!

Some good tips - there's an easy way to improve burning off though (which I do): Let the pile season (you don't want to burn green, way too much smoke, hard to start etc) and just before it rains, cover with a tarp, or at least most of it if the pile is too big to cover it all. Then burn after the rain has soaked everything. That way you are burning dry seasoned wood whilst everything is wet so no chance of starting spotfires. To burn slower, better off with a long, narrow pile than a high even pyramid or cone shape. Then burn from the top of the middle, and it will slowly spread down and outwards. Very controllable and little to no smoke.

Great back saving tips. I needed to see this 30 years ago

The one on ticks and your shovel hacks. Going to use them this weekend, I appreciate it amigo, start posting more…

Love the back saving tips. I'm all about preserving what's left of my increasingly fragile, aging back. I'm looking forward to using some of those techniques in the future. Also, I had a similar experience with my PC headphones. There was an actual earwig in one of mine several years ago and I found out after I put them on. Luckily I felt him moving around next to my ear and he didn't bite, but yeah, I can't even imagine finding a wasp nest in them. Thanks again for such great content FarmCradt101!

My Grandfather taught me most of this things when I was growing up. He was an “old school” farmer who grew up during the Great Depression and never threw anything away as he may need it at some point. The only thing that you do differently is using the weed torch for bonfires. He always used diesel as it has an ignition delay compared to gas. Really enjoy your videos!

Those tomato cages look awesome. I think I'm going to make a few for next year.

I love this channel so much!!! I enjoyed all the tips, but if I had to pick a favourite, I particularly enjoyed the repurposed obsolete propane tank being used as an easily mobile air tank. Edit: Forgot to mention that I religiously check my hearing protection for spiders too! 😱

What we have done differently on the tomato cages is we do triangle cages, each side is two sections wide and we use the extra wire to create a hinge. It's nice when you can unfasten one corner and lay them flat for storage.

I'm an old retired rehab nurse that now gardens without help. Your advise on using your legs (quadriceps) and saving your back is really important information. I have worked with big strong guys that had injured their back so I was faced with doing the lifting myself. I do what ever I can to prevent some heavy thing being on the ground. I keep a tarp or something in my car not to keep dirt out but so I can just pull something heavy out and on to a garden cart with boards over it. I then transfer from the cart to a storage bin with the top so I can just flip it over into the cart if I need to. I do allot of drag and flip. Easier than lifting people.

My fav was the last bite from the screwdriver! I'm 76 and a farm/countryboy. I still enjoyed the video. I am also a John

I've used a couple of these tricks before. The first one about putting a battery maintainer on infrequently used equipment I used on my personal pickup after I got a company truck and rarely used my pickup. I read about a tip to connect the maintainer to the wall outlet with an extension cord long enough to go through the steering wheel so you don't drive off without first unplugging the maintainer. This was an excellent tip for my absent minded self. This works as long as the vehicle is inside or at least under roof.

We do something very similar for tomato cages - but instead of using the cattle panels we use concrete reinforcing steel mesh, or "remesh" I believe it's often called. It you need to make a lot of cages, it might be even more cost effective. And if you buy it in a roll, it already wants to take the shape of a tomato cage vs starting from a flat panel.

For the most part yes, but I am 51 years old and have been around the block a couple times. The only difference is the tomato cages were made from leftover concrete reinforcement wire. It was free, and I love putting things to use like that. Love the video. Hat's off for helping younger people get a clue. Especially with the fire. My old foreman wasn't as lucky as you. 😎

Oh man. Didn’t expect to see you tea bagging a tomato cage today.

Outstanding video! Your information was delivered succinctly, the examples were thorough, and you didn’t waste time with clickbait type nonsense. I learned a lot and enjoyed it the whole time. Well done, sir!

Great video and tips, thank you! I can attest to gasoline and diesel being extremely dangerous when used to start a bonfire/brush pile fire. When I was a teenager I went to burn a pile of brush. I had a mix of gasoline and diesel that we used to start the fire. I sprinkled a small amount on the pile and went to put the gas/diesel can back on the wagon away from the pile. I went back to start the fire with a wad of paper that I lit and threw into the pile where I had put the fuel mixture. The whole pile exploded into flames and put me in the hospital for two weeks with burns to my face, arms, hands, and lungs. It was later decided that the hot temps and high humidity that day served to quickly vaporize the fuel and the fumes spread through the entire pile and caused it to explode when an ignition source was introduced. Be careful out there, it could happen to you and it could be worse.

This video popped up on my feed again today (5/14/2024), and reminded me again of things I have wanted to do but not implemented. I did purchase a propane torch for hand-held small bottles, and found that it works great for started fires in my backyard pit, as well as heating metal. The tomato cage hack is one yet to get done. I am going to share this to a couple of local gardening sites on Facebook, so hopefully you'll get some new viewers. I got my Toyota forklift from Bidadoo/eBay last week. $215. It doesn't run, but for that price I can do a complete rebuild on it and still be money ahead. I will use the Farmcraft 101 method of cylinder repair if and when the time comes. Love the channel Jon. You are the guy I have always wanted to be.

The lift with your legs tip was amazing! It seems so simple, but seeing you show examples made it so much more doable. Especially to pick up the tongue of a trailer.

Cattle panels are great for all sorts of uses. I designed a cage similar to your tomato cage but bent the wire at 90° angles to make a tall square or box shape. Then I could place a game camera inside the cage looking out through one of the rectangular openings. Now you have a camera mount that enables to place your camera wherever there isn't a tree or structure to mount it to. The cage offers protection to the camera, has a frame that can be camouflaged and allows you to pick various heights to mount the camera. You can make the cage taller or shorter depending on need and can make the bottom tines or stakes longer as needed for pushing into the ground. Also recommend a chainsaw refueling safety guide if you feel comfortable doing something like that. Had a friend using his chainsaw on a cool day and he stopped to refuel it with catastrophic results. Like lighting bonfires with gasoline, the fuel vapors will find a balanced triangle together with heat and oxygen. A fraction of a second later you don't have a fire, you have a problem. He died.

I use the same construction design but instead of cattle panels, I use concrete reinforcing wire. It's a smaller gauge (bends a little easier) but still much heavier than what you can get on pre made cages. Mine give me about 6-8 years of service before the wires that stick in the ground rust bad enough to break. I cut the old points and the next ring of wire off the bottom to give it fresh points to stick in the ground. It leaves the cage one square shorter but I get another 6 years of use. I have no idea how much this wire cost, I just get leftover pieces from friends that work with concrete construction. I use 11 sections to make mine. 10 for the cage and the 11th to bend back around to lock the ends together and make the circle.

I made a tomato tunnel with em .bend that thing into a rainbow and put some t posts in to secure it to the ground. Zip tie a bunch together. Plant tomatoes on both sides. By the end of the summer you're walking through a tunnel of tomatoes. It's kinda magical and delicious too.

My grandfather made tomato cages in a similar way. My dad told me about it after i complained to him about the store bought ones. I then made some this way with Concrete-Reinforcing Mesh. I didn't think to wrap them around for the seam but we did cut the bottom for spikes. Very cool to see great minds thinking alike.

I also lift with my legs, but one drawback is if you get under something, it's a lot harder to get out from under it if something goes wrong.

I've seen a few of these and they are all great ideas! The tomato cages, I've been making mine out of what we call "hog wire" which is pretty much what you used but I buy it in a 360ft roll. I not only cage my tomatoes, but also my potatoes and some other vegetables too. I container garden and made the greatest (at least I think so) vegetable containers that I made from landscape cloth and baskets which allows me to hill my potatoes twice as high. I plant everything in them. I plant 150 containers of vegetable and at least the same flowers every year. I love it and the cages protect my vegetables from critters and keep my plants standing tall. Great tips and great video! Thanks!

for gloves, roll them up if you are storing in a shed, then the outside area for bugs to enter is just at the outside and they can't get inside just at the surface.

planting corn miles from home the gravity box of starter fertilizer covered with tarp doubles as "safe location" from pissed off swarm of yellow jackets its saved me more than once

We just bought some ground in southern Missouri and noticed several farms in that area that made “tomato cages “ similar to your version, then filled them with the local large rocks laying all around. They use them for boundary markers. They actually look pretty nice.

Lifting advice was A++ for me after throwing out my back last month. Thank you! Edit: There were several other amazing tips, the fire starting one hit me hard. Had a similar incident 15 years ago also. Came scary close to burning down the family orchard as a teen, but thankfully my father came with a tractor and mitigated the spread. I would use the same fire starting technique you first showed, years back, but we would be lighting nearly 1/2 an acre of prunings or more. After thousands of trees were pruned, the row of limbs were pushed to the back of the property and gathered into separarted piles, but they would get big fast if not burned weekly. Fire is truly scary and I use the same method of fire lighting, ever since and I never want to be that terrified, because of a runaway bon fire, evere again. Lesson learned, thank you for sharing these life saving tips, with the next generation!

Yes I have 6-8 of these Mr R made for me and they are MANY years old. He is a farmboy and I am a suburbanite. I'm glad he's a farmboy especially in these times! Mrs R

re: bonfire... place all the timber in a heap and cover it with a tarpaulin. the moment you get a few hours of rain then you light it after taking the tarpaulin off, ground all around is wet.

I've seen or used all before, you can grow the other "tomatoes" with those cages as well, baking soda vinegar will settle the smell on your portable air tank. I use essential oil blends for bugs because smells good. Use quick grip vrs C clamps and bamboo arc for lightweight drill holes in 2×4 for bamboo and quick grip the 2x4 to your bar.

The mater cages are a good idea, a friend of mine has made them from concrete wire before, hadn't thought of cattle panels though, those things have about as many uses as duct tape

The permethrin trick is pure gold for us in Wisconsin --- especially with Lymes disease being common THANK YOU !

You have a great clear strong voice. Being hard of hearing...makes it difficult to understand many folks on RU-vid....but not with you. Good tips!!! The lifting ones are going to be put to use immediately. Thx!!!

Interesting, I remove the propane valve and dump the oil out (likely Ethyl Mercaptan) and replace valve. Smell dissipates after a while. Great tips video.

I have seen or used most of those. That weed burner was probably the best $20 I have spent. For free tomato cages look for free ibc totes on marketplace or Craigslist then cut the cages off of them, they bend with a little cutting. We used them just as flat panels and tied the plants to them. Worked good for something for cucumber to climb as well.

I have seen all of them before The Torch at the end is My favorite just so much easier to deal with weeds and Bon fires and debris

Permethrin is a much better idea(and less stinky) than in an old camping book I read of smoking your clothing with tobbacco stems.

We use rebar mesh (used for pouring concrete) to make tomato cages 🙂 We’ve also used cattle panel, but the rebar mesh is cheaper.

Love your stuff man!

Those are fantastic tomatoe cages and they would also protect fruit trees from the deer rubbing them!!!

I'm a 73 yr old very active petit woman, thank you for your back-saving tips, especially the grass scalping and lifting with thights, I'm sure I can be active until well in my 90's.👍👍👍

I've actually made similar tomato cages, learned it years ago from my wifes father, an old school farmer. They used hog wire c-clamps. When not in use, they'll fold up flat. Really like the tip on spray to keep ticks and chiggers away, I'll be looking to use this! Great video, awesome content, presented simple for folks just like me! God bless you and your family!👍

I got some of that permethrin clothes spray (they sell it pre-diluted now) and it does work wonders. I got some socks pre treated with it and they have saved my ankles from chiggers. Every year my ankles would be just torn up with flaming red bites from chiggers but no more! Thanks some better than typical tips in here!

Great tips. The screwdriver was worth the subscribe

I discovered permethrin thanks to you! Not sure how I didn’t know about this earlier, but none the less it works amazing on carpenter bees, problem solved

Thank you ! Have seen several of these and have been making the cages for years. I got a lot out of the lifting techniques and will put those to use ! The flammable liquid tip is great. I had a very close call once bottle feeding a classic car… nothing to mess with. Thanks and please keep your videos coming. I love them all. Curious how you got your mathematical skills…engineering?

They where all good. I liked the tomato cages and the portable air tank.

I have surgery scheduled for replacing my l5s1 disc and eventually need to replace 4 more discs in my neck . I’m 39 years old and have been in agony for over a decade since I was injured . SO PLEASE ! Listen to FarmCraft101 on this advice of saving your back . I wouldn’t wish this pain on the worst of enemies. I watch this channel to learn hacks like this . Now that I’m no longer in the Navy , I plan on moving my family back to Montana . My back injury is scary. These tips and tricks are getting cataloged in my brain for when we have our own ranch again . I think about winters and how my back will take the crap end of the stick when it comes to labor . So first order of business when we move is to buy a excavator and any other equipment to make my job easier and give my back the time to slowly get better and eventually ( hopefully) have enough core strength to prevent further injury . I can say one thing for certain- I will continue to watch , like and follow every video to learn as much as I can in order to help my family and my health in the future. Thank you FarmCraft101 for everything! I truly appreciate it :) I wish you and your family ( as well your channel) the best of success and happiness in the future. -Taren Meacham

You ever try spraying permethrin on your hearing protectors to keep those bwidows out of there? Great tomato cages. I always learn something really useful from you. Cheers!

I've got one for you. Instead of using toxic wasp spray that is thinned down nerve agent (which is bad for everything), I use Mean Green cleaner concentrate. I mix it half and half with water, and use an off the shelf spray bottle. The nozzle can be adjusted to mist or stream, and usually has pretty good range. Once you get some of the cleaner on the abdomen of the wasp, it begins to aspirate and dies. It takes the fight right out of even the meanest red paper wasps and yelllow jackets. The best part is that the cleaner is biodegradable, and won't have any lasting effects after your encounter.

All but one. The wire turner is brilliant

If there's any tip that I need more than the others, it's the starting a big fire safely. Thank you for the knowledge!

*#6: I never heard of Permethrin SFA. I am definitely going to do that.* *#5: I worked on the docks as a longshoreman & I learned how to use my legs the same way & many other ways. Although I am a small man I could keep up with everyone else because of how I created leverage.*

I have been using most of these tips for years now. Love all your videos, I came up poor and had to work hard and fix things that breaks and/or buy something broke and fix to save money like you do. First video I watched was the first video of you buying the excavator because I wanted to buy a used excavator as well and wanted learn some in and outs of fixes.. Awesome!. Then I seen the boom lift fixes... I purchased a boom truck a few years ago that I need to repair still, similar to your fix.. wowed from your videos and hats off to you buddy. My favorite saying is: POOR MEN has POOR WAYS.

My fave is the firestarter! I had used Gas & diesel before and every time I thought "There's got to be a better way!" Now I know!

Don't move your body when you shovel, and always grip the blade end of the handle with your hand over (palm down) not under (palm up). An expansion of your shovel work. A too common job is filling the wheel barrow or filling the cement mixer. Two things are important. First, pick the position that you absolutely do not need to turn, raise, or shift your body. What is on the shovel weighs 6 pounds, 10 pounds,, If you are moving or turning your body to lift or throw the shovel load,, you are moving 150 pound to throw the 10 pounds. That IS the total number of calories expended to move that single shovel load. It is IMPERATIVE that you find the position of the wheel barrow or cement mixer or pickup bed,, that is inline with the pick up and throw of the shovel. It will double or triple your productivity for the day or week. Second,, you have two hands on the shovel. The one hand is up near the end of the handle or gripping the D handle,, the second hand is gripping down nearer the blade. Nearly everyone grabs that lower hand palm up. No. Wrong. Nearly every shovel job your hand should grasp the lower hand near the blade with palm down. There are exceptions to this,, but they are few. Palm down, gripping over the handle,, once you get used to it,, greatly increases your range of motion,, range of throw. And reduces the total calories expended. I'm old. Been doing this a long time. Long enough that I have excavated for basements with a hand shovel and pick and wheel barrow. Yep. You cannot get a backhoe into some sites, can't. Also,, so many placements of sand or stone were dropped from the back of a double bottom on the street,, and bobcats were very uncommon, or bobcats cannot get into a basement excavation to lay the sand bed prior to the slab pour. Shovel and wheel barrow. There are 1,000 tons of pea stone under one house I can think of and 40 yards of sand under the slab of another. The 40 yards was placed in a single day. One man, one wheel barrow. Don't move your body when you shovel and always (nearly) grip the blade end of the handle with your hand over not under. These two things can double your productivity.

Honestly, as long as you keep your back straight when you lift you are fine. I mean people deadlift 100kg+ without hurting their backs. If you are too tired to hold proper form when lifting, stop.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your life to make these videos. A lot of the hacks that you do I’ve been doing that you have showed me different ways to do it. Working smarter not harder. I’ve been making tomato cages for years. But what I do is. I take sections out. Keep them square. Them zip tie them cut the zip ties when I’m done so they fold up nice and neat out of the way. I also use the blow torch for getting rid of weeds. I’m gonna try your PERMETHIN hack never seen that. Thank you for making a quality video have a good day and God bless you

Cattle panels are great in combination with raised bed gardening. We just take a full panel and arch it over the walkway between two raised beds and plant tomatoes each bed, next to the arch. Tomatoes grow up the arch and form a canopy which makes easy pickings. I also made a fence around our raised beds out of cattle panels and tee-posts. Keeps the deer out.

I don't know about US environmental laws, but I can tell you where I live (Belgium), it is illegal to buy and use permethrine as it is considered toxic to live stock and humans alike. In fact our local FDA even checks for traces of the stuff on produce. It used to be used a lot though, on flea collars for cats and dogs, a few years back. And by the way, local farmers here used to do the same "trick" you do but with DDT. But DDT has been made illegal for use for over 20 years at least now (if not longer)

My dad made some super durable tomato cages out of a roll of remesh that is typically used for reinforcing concrete. Same idea as the one you showed. They have lasted for years!

I keep a propane bottle on a cheap dolly using bungie cords. Makes it easy to pull around. Starting brush piles or edging my gravel driveway. Saves your back too!😁

Quick fire starting trick I use is a few easy light charcoal briquettes. Light them under the pile, once they are burning for a few minutes then get out the ol' leaf blower and blow those briquettes. Simple alternative to the propane torch.

Only "hack" I would add is never under any circumstances buy a short handled shovel.

A roll of "remesh" from home depot is pretty cheap and sturdy for tomato cages too. It will rust, but is meant to. A roll of the stuff will make all the tomato cages a family could likely want. Give a couple extra as gifts to neighbors that give you veggies and stuff. The roll of remesh is easier for some folks to get home than the huge hog panels. The hog panel approach will have a less rusty look and will certainly also last. I agree on your commercial tomato cage complaints. We grow some in a greenhouse, and they get 10' tall. $ wise it's a close race. Loved all these tips. The lifting tips would have been to practice when splitting 4' rounds. Nice tip!

I sold the owner of Battery Tender his bay boat back in 2015. Really nice guy with an awesome product I put on every single motorcycle and dirt bike we sell. Little off topic but great product none the less.

For tomato cages, we used a whole roll of concrete reinforcement mesh, which is 6’ tall and about 100’ long. Makes a bigger tomato cage, and very sturdy. Our tomato plants are big enough that cattle panel is inadequate. To fasten them into the ground we use stainless steel staples.

Yeah, tossed my eyes at the "lift with your legs" part. Then watched it, and thought, wait a minute. That's new. Thanks.

Ive seen all of those, except for the cattle fencing as tomato cages. All those tips are useful, of course. Love your channel. I can't wait for the next video to come out. I look forward to them! :)

Hey, I like your videos. Thank you for taking the time. Can-do and can-explain don't often overlap and it's so useful to the rest of us when it does!

Recently I tore my Psoas muscle working in the garden, lifting things and digging improperly. Wish I'd seen this video before, I assure you. Great tips. Thankyou.

I am a housewife from SA. I found your information very helpful. Thank you.

Discovered the permethrin thing treated two sets of work clothes and realized from the smell that my military uniforms had been treated with it to. Zero ricks after that. Great tips, thank you.

Your advice is common sense helpful. If there's anything I knew, I know it better now. Thanks

That last one is the ticket. I recommend even buying the long one from Home Depot when that one goes out. I used to take a while to start my brush fires.

Wow, this channel is a breath of fresh air! All great tips.

Thanks for the tips!! You have a thoughtful approach to everyday events. Keep up the good work!

This is an excellent "Tips to save you time and maybe your life" . Well done. Yes I too have the harbor freight weed torch. It is a life saver when we have long overnight rains that wet your pile of limbs! Saves the day. Carry On Sir!

Fire starting - I found a blow torch or even a fire-lighter is enough to get it started, however I then use a leaf blower to fuel that thing with oxygen and watch it rip through. Even when down to embers, get that air in there and feel the heat sky rocket for whatever you are going to throw on top, wet or dry!

I've been making and using those tomato cages for close to five decades. Nothing better.

For sure, the Lift with your Legs is most important for all people not just DYIers or your fans of which I am one. The joke: eating the screwdriver at the end, Yes, I laughed and gave you a like!

I love your content and your sense of humour.

All of your Hacks are very helpful, thrifty, and the only one that I had seen before is the Tomato Cages. You Rock! Blessings!

I lost all the skin on my arms and most of it on my face from a fuel related bonfire incident. Excellent method you have shared.