Is a No Weed/No Water Garden Actually Possible?

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0:00 Intro
0:24 Claim #1 Saves You Time
1:50 Claim #2 No Weeding
12:37 Claim #3 No Watering
20:30 Claim #4 Saves You Money
24:45 Most chaotic ad read ever
26:05 A message about the channel

MORE ABOUT ME

I'm Anne of All Trades. In NASHVILLE, I have a woodworking, blacksmithing and fabrication shop, a selection of furry friends, and an organic farm. Whether you've got the knowledge, tools, time or space to do the things you've always wanted to do, everything is "figureoutable."

I became "Anne of All Trades" out of necessity. With no background in farming or making things, I wanted to learn to raise my own food, fix things when they break and build the things I need.

12 years ago I got my first pet, planted my first seed and picked up my first tool.

My goal is to learn and share traditional techniques and skills while showing my peers how to get from where they are to where they want to go, how to do the things they are passionate about, and what can be done TODAY to engage their own community and grow deep roots.

Whether it's carving spoons, making my own hand tools, restoring my antique truck or growing heirloom tomatoes, the farm and workshop definitely keep me busy and support - whether financially through Patreon, through shopping my affiliate links, through buying merchandise, plans or project videos, or even just liking, commenting, and sharing my content with others helps me GREATLY to keep producing quality content to share.

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Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means by clicking and shopping through these links, I might earn a commission, at no additional cost to you - which is a great way you can help the creation of more free content just like this. Your time and attention mean the world to me. I know you work hard, and I'm careful to only share brands and products that I FULLY support. Keep being awesome!

Help Support this project and others!

Other places you can find me:

[terryulmer]

I do old fart gardening. Right before the rain, I scatter seeds in the breeze off of my balcony. Wherever the seeds grow, that's where they grow.

[HillCountryGardenGirl]

You are hands down one of the best gardening teacher I’ve encountered on YouTube. You always seems to go into just the right amount of explaining why doing something (or not doing it) is valid. I’ve learned so much from you and thoroughly enjoy your content. Thank you for doing what you do.

[alexhuxley]

It's exactly what happens in the forest. No one turns the topsoil every year there, or pours lots of chemicals over the forest floor? Yet things grow fine, every year.

[rodneywallace]

"If you're lazy, I don't think I can help you." Those words ring true in so many scenarios 😆

[edgeofentropy]

Lazy gardening doesn't mean do nothing. There is this thing called LAND MANAGEMENT. You still have to manage and maintain your land. The land is just like children. If you don't pay attention to it and correct it, the land will get out of hand quick.

[borderlinejamie]

Peeps thought "lazy gardening" meant hiring you to do it for them. Only explanation....:P Love seeing everything you've accomplished over the past 6 years!

[tealkerberus]

If you ever do need a herbicide for that invasive grass, boiling water is your friend. Just be extremely careful not to spill it on yourself - but that goes for any herbicide really.

[topaz]

Your advice is so spot on! I'm in a subtropical area in the US and I have to reapply cardboard every two years bc it breaks down/composts so fast in the heat and rain. When I retired, I purchased an older home that didn't have anything living in the soil...no trees, shrubs... absolutely nothing but sand. Five years in, I'm just now seeing the results of creating an underground ecosystem for my plants. I have fruiting shrubs and trees, and lots of bees and butterflies buzzing everywhere. Thanks for your honesty, as I'm not sure there is any such thing as a lazy gardener. LOL

[spiderlady]

I’ve only recently started following you, and you’re already one of my favorites. So informative!

[jessicaleighdargaclark]

I LOVE MY WEEDS! They're so delicious and nurtritious, and medicinal! (at least for many of them) Lazy Gardening isn't quite an oxymoron, but a lazy gardener is still a hard worker. Cheers!

[brooke]

I love the fact that you are as enthusiastic about all the projects and not one. I tend to do the same myself.

[ann]

I have over the years done the exact method that you describe. It’s not really lazy gardening. There’s no such thing. However, the amount of work you’re putting in in the beginning to prep the garden with the wood chips is a trade-off for the weed pulling and watering that you do throughout the season. Unfortunately, some of us don’t have the access to the wood chips that you have. The first several years that I did this method, I had an abundance. However, my local municipal no longer has a mountain of wood chips that I can go harvest. I have tried repeatedly through tree services to get them to drop wood chips in my yard when they’re done with their cleanup. It has been next to impossible. No one responds to my messages, texts, and calls. I just so happened to get a load this past Tuesday by Wednesday afternoon they were all laid out in my garden. I have asked this particular tree service that if they’re in the area to please dump them in my yard. We’ll keep our fingers crossed as to whether or not we get anymore.

[jenniferdruery]

If I kept gardening the way I used to back in the 90s, I would have quit long before now. I am too busy now to garden that way. Mulch, compost and such changed my life and made me “mostly- hands-off”. If you compare a tilled up garden to how we do it now-way different!!! It makes me think I’m “lazy” but I’m not. Love your videos!!!

[TeriHarker-bpte]

I don’t garden. Desire to. Can’t. Disabled. But enjoy you & your genius lazy gardening. Trust me when I say you have explained your lazy gardening in such a way that people should “get it”. No worries. You have ALWAYS explained it well. More than well. Thank you for sharing!

[noniamaus]

We are also helping ourselves when we do this work. Not just by giving us food and beauty, but our physical and mental/emotional health, and our spiritual health can be improved via gardening. Trouble shooting, patience, and our ability to follow through with a task are improved. I am a brand new (first year) gardener, older, and have a disability. However, gardening has shown me and others that I am still able to do so much...I just need the help of others from time to time. That is not a bad lesson to learn, either. We all need a little help now and then. We can all give a little help now and then, too. Thanks, Annie, for helping keep some of the old ways alive! There is something to be said for the sense of community that gardening/shared interests bring. And the empowerment of learning to create things, rather than purchase them is fabulous!

[BootsandBountyHomestead]

I'm "lazy gardening" this year....got too much to do elsewhere while it grows 🤣 this is my second year at this property. Ready for it to maintain itself! Lol

[lyamainu]

I’m so happy I found your channel! I’ve been interested in gardening for years, but I have intermittent health problems that have me stuck in bed for weeks at a time, so I can’t keep up with things.

This seems like a perfect system for me- I can do all the work while I’m healthy, and not have to worry about it when I’m not.

[KerryGiggenbach]

Got my husband to watch your videos. He loves your approach! It's what we try to do here. I call it "killing the weeds" 'cause, we do not have grass. It's ALL weeds!! Bain of my existence! I have been carboarding/newpapering for YEARS and now, we're on a complete mission to cover the whole property! People think we're nuts!! Keep up the fantastic work gurl!

[sqeekable]

When you pulled back the cardboard, you had some nice microbial life there!

[jaketallorlin]

I have a 20x40 garden. I rototilled it to start and did alot of shoveling to make raised rows. Its half raised rows and half walkways i covered in cardboard. No wood chips on the walkways. I replace the cardboard every 3 years. But i also dump a ton of leaves into the garden in the fall which helps with weed suppression.
For my beds, I use cut grass as mulch. I spend very little time weeding. I do spend quite a bit of time raking and moving grass though. 😊