A trick I use is in the fall I gather up all the leaves and pile it up. Over the summer every time it's time to mow the grass I spread a layer of leaves out then mow the leaves and grass up together. It chops up the leaves and mixes in a nice blend of fresh grass. I put that in the mixed pile until next spring when it gets added to garden, and I start over.
Its not lost to me. Southern born, raised and will die that way. GOD gave us everything in the form of green plants. Thank you for sharing and be safe.
I have just decided today to gather the leaves from the five different trees that's hangs over the fence and dropped leaves in my yard I'll compost them I do have a lot. thanks for sharing this video Danny 👍
Thank you Mr. Danny. I have a back acre that has a lot of trees on it and nothing has ever been done with it. Good old oak trees as well as others. Gonna take a walk back there.
I am blessed with lots of leafs, they are gathered up into piles . I add chicken litter to it so it breaks down quickly , great planting material. Great video.
Danny, if you add hard cooked rice to your leafmold piles, let the mycyleum fungi grow and then add that to the leaf soil you put in your garden you can add beneficial substance to your garden areas...(Korean natural farming)
You are a wealth of knowledge Danny, I'm sure i speak for most of your sub's when i say thank you so much for sharing all you have learned over your life with us
Very interesting. I live in Minnesota and I only have 1/3 acre and an entire line of 100 year old oaks and a couple of maple trees. That's how they used to mark property lines in my town. In other words, I have my own little forest. I have been buying soil for starting plant for as long as I been here, I guess thanks to this video, I don't have to buy anymore, just shred the ones from last year.
You are correct. Lived in deep heavy oak forest for many years. Very old lead mold was very fine stuff for starting seeds. Mixed with finished compost it was good for starting just about anything. It is indeed a lost art and people looked at me like I was crazy twenty years ago.
Great advise Danny. My husband and I went to the back wooded part of our property and got lots of leaf mold to use for starting plants. I enjoy how deep and rich it smells. Good stuff.
Great video. I know the importance of leaves and have oaks in backyard. Please do more videos on this topic. Never could understand why people rake and burn leaves when they could mulch and enrich their soil.
happy EASTER DANNY&WANDA,, wow gorgous woods to bad mine is buried under snow right now, your right DANNY iwas using leaf mould way before i knew you could buy soil in bags at the stores,, thank you for another great video
Excellent presentation here Danny. Way to step things up as so many folks have been asking about this information. Nature is our great source of learning that God has provided for all to have and share. Teachers, instructors alike, we need to step it up. Thanks Brotha!
Up at my cabin, there is an area I call The Bowl, that has towering tulip poplars in there, along with several springs that keep everything wet. No lie; I have this stuff and humus, close to three feet deep in some spots. It is absolutely amazing. When I finally build my retirement home up there, I will mix that stuff with mica sand from the bottoms along the creek for the best garden this side of Eden.
Wow! Thank you Danny! I have a new plan for my leaves this fall! How awesome ! I see my spring planting becoming less and less costly every year! Been saving seeds, And repurposing things, now, Leaf Mold! Wow! I’m happy! :) God Bless you. 🍁🍂
I live in a smallish town and have been gathering leaves in the suburb for almost ten years now. every autumn, what you call fall. I agree with you all the way, but never thought of shredding the leaves, although it makes a lot of sense. So thank you very much. God bless.
Thank you so much for this video. I have 5 acres of leaf mold! And Thank you Wanda for mentioning this video. I’ve gone through dozens of old videos, but hadn’t come across this one yet. I’m so excited. Much WV love and Many Prayers! 💙💛🙏
we collect leaves up each fall and put them in black plastic bags and leave outside - usually is ready to go by spring. Lot of elm and birch up here :-)
Great idea...We have huge trees in our yard and I have fussed at my husband every year to stop bagging up the leaves and taking them to the dump...I am going to show him this video...
We're in N. Georgia on just .44 acres. There is a strip of woods behind our lot that probably hasn't been touched. I was there just yesterday with a trowel checking out the ground covering. Some of the richest sweetest smelling soil. Appreciate you making this video.
I went to the edge of my yard today and gather about 6 5gallon buckets full of leaf mold, to use in filling some 5 gallon buckets and I also used some in making a 2x4 ft on top the ground planting bed. I am going to go get some more leaf mold, and sift and mix it with some old poring soil tomorrow, to use to start my SWEET pepper SEEDS, maybe some lettuce too. I been so worried I was going to over load my clay beds with carbon by using leaf mold.
Thanks for sharing all the Great info and tips on how to forage for everything I need it's will be very helpful. Thanks and have a Great and Blessed day 👍🏻😎
I watch a lot of times on my phone but write on my tablet my responses.. Great video Mr. Danny...seems we have a lot of that on our property . We pulled our 28 foot camper down here to missisippi and this is our second morning on the land and have gotten a lot accomplished.. m6 husband is setting all the metal post for the fence for 700 feet to start..pray for me because unlike my husband all cheery, I am like that house on 20 acres already to move on sure would have been nice lol...his dream is to build and I am standing behind him but need encouragement big time...I just want a garden , some animals and start farming ...we head back home tomorrow for Easter with family but are coming back for one week before going back to our home for awhile. Little at at a time I know and we will get there.
i rake my leaves and put in compost pile each year. I also turn them several times a year and add my kitchen waste to it. Makes great compost. i also screen the compost and throw back the stuff that does not go thru the screen back into the compost bin. Nice video.
For those wanting to start healthy compost piles, harvest some of this material Danny is speaking of from several places in gallon zip lock bags half full with lots of air in it, keep them cool and add them under your own compost material. Remember to add worms to this material and they will help the microbes and fungus spread throughout your compost. Add a little water once in a while and turn the material or use other methods to allow oxygen into your piles. There are many places and materials available to learn how to make the richest soil on earth, a Google search will yield a mountain of information. Don't throw away yard waste if you can help it, turn it into black rich garden gold. May YHWH bless your gardens with nutritional food.
Good morning thank you for sharing you have a happy Easter for he is risen and spend some time with your family and make a little time for you and Wanda take care and walk in his grace
if you are forest harvesting leaf mold.... look for these things, fallen big logs, big rocks, low spots, and stone walls in the woods. This is where leaves will accumulate the most and your harvest will be bigger and better.
Through prayer I have been thinking about mowing over my maple and oak leaves, for my upcoming garden I didn't know till now why thank you Danny for you insight on gardening and soil I'm learning a lot from you and Wanda
Jane Heichel Not the oak. They have a chemical in them that kills other plants. Same like walnut & black hickory--- edit... This is from My farmer Uncle Harry Ritchie. He said those plants weren't willing to share nutrients.
Danny, thank you so much for this video. This is such valuable information. I'm starting my first garden on my new property and this information will help me keep things more natural. Thank you for all you and Wanda do to teach people how to do things the old way.
I'd heard of using leaf mold to improve poor soil to turn it into something you could garden, but I never knew about using it to start seedlings. This is good to know.
Great info Danny. I don't buy soil. I tried to make my own leaf mold but I only let it sit (or set as southerners say) for about 4 months. I broke down the leaves with the mower first too. I guess I need to leave it longer. Thanks again.
It is all about the soil. Why buy expensive soil when God gives it to us free? I cringe when I see people buying bags and bags of bagged soil at the store. Amanda at Freedom Acres posted a video this morning on checking soil ph with Danny. This video and Amanda's are very important videos that everyone should watch. Thanks for sharing!
I pile my leaves up and leave for a year or two. In the late fall I put the chicken fence around the large pile and let them finish mixing etc. It is the most awesome stuff for your garden beds. I had the best watermelon crop the year that I raised up the ground in a mound. It was mostly "woods dirt" like Danny showed. I planted 5 watermelon in the top of this hill. then I wrapped the hill with dry leaves. I basically covered the whole hill and ground around with leaves so as the watermelon runners started, they had a soft bed to grow on. I had so many watermelons. Less water needed and limited weeding.
Thank you for putting hi tech into normal understanding. we are ready for part 2 how to grow after seedling stage. ( yes we are a hungry willing flock ) this is not only lost information unraked leaf's are believed to be a bad thing that's why raking is mandatory by code enforcement throughout America. Thank you for real truth.
Awesome info! Here I am looking for and buying potting soil. I have 7 acres, mostly woods and was wondering if I could use the rich leaf matter on the ground. Needed info for today when potting soil may be more in demand.
Good morning Danny and Wanda! I've been wondering how to amend your soil if you don't have access to commercial amendment's...as someone who has limited funds I am looking for ways to bypass commercial products...even pest control if possible not sure yet how, worms (cabbage worms and horn worms) got my cabbage, and broccoli, and tomatoes something awful...I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge...
Hi I do not do this much but I feel like Danny will be ok with it. After all I have been with them just about from day one. Here is the post I made to someone here will share with you. Hope this helps. I am living on 9000 grand a year. We do not have much cash. One thing that I use is free coffee grounds from Starbucks. This has been helping a lot with the rest of what we can get from the farms and out of the woods. I have videos on it if you would like to see them. Maybe it will help some. Hope all is well. God Bless.
Albany Mountain homestead -- for the worms... I only know if you plant those veges with a "collar" around them it protects them till they get larger then have to check the whole plant & underside of leaves, too for the pests. A collar can be a toilet paper tube or even poster tube cut into 4-6" lengths pushed in ground AROUND seedling about 1/2" deep. That should help in the beginning. Hope this helps as other than chalk dust Gramma used to do ... I got nothing.
I appreciate the replies, some good idea's...those worms were relentless, I tried neem as well. And went after them by hand and they just took them out, even the bigger cabbage...
Incredibly informative! I’m starting my first garden and trying to do it naturally with inexpensive strategies. I always ask myself, how wouldn’t great grandmother have done this? She lived in a small city but had a small plot of land that she farmed with her children that lived on the same block. I know they didn’t buy potting soil, it was the depression and then wartime. I know they composted, perhaps they brought in leaf mold from their summer “camp.” So happy to find your video and channel. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
This is how i have been able to do any gardening the last couple of years.There wasn't money for buying bags of soil amendments.Another reason why trees are important
I am living on 9000 grand a year. We do not have much cash. One thing that I use is free coffee grounds from Starbucks. This has been helping a lot with the rest of what we can get from the farms and out of the woods. I have videos on it if you would like to see them. Maybe it will help some. Hope all is well. God Bless.
For someone who hasn't gone through the Environmental Chemistry classes I have, you did a fantastic job explaining natural compost. You are wise in the lost art of YHWH's natural ways. Life begets life, in that handful of dirt there were billions of microbes all living out their lives and the land is better off for them, but in today's world farmland is dead and the food grown is void of nutrition.
Seeds like those of pine and privet berries aren't much use in a compost pile, but there are hot types of composting that would cook the seeds and poisons, but I wouldn't recommend it for a small farm or home garden. There are materials like large bones as an example that take many years to break down, I try and keep composting simple and when possible large items should be shredded or sifted out of the final product and kept composting. Enjoy the black gold.
no I have several Chinese privet trees in my yard, and they do break down. took around eight months just in a pile of leaves in a trash can and it got rained on and submerged, but they broke down. actually the leaves I had in black bags just in the yard that I sprayed with the hose then tied shut, all of those seeds broke down faster than the stuff in the garbage can. for leaf mold though, it needs contact with the ground, and either under a tree or near one so the fungi from the roots of the tree move into the leaves and seeds etc you have piled up. they all break down eventually
Danny, I have trees on my land, I feel blessed. They make a lot of shade, so it's not great for tomatoes and peppers, lol. I have noticed there are lots of areas in those stands of trees that have places with sunshine for most of the day. Would it hurt anything to plant some crops in the woods where this sunshine lies? Being in Alabama, my peppers and eggplants don't mind a little shade in the heat of the day, so maybe this will work.
Which plant's would fair well in leaf mold compost? What was your best experience with leaf mold gardening? Would you incorporate leaf mold into commercial peat moss or any other products to compare growth and taste? If you could sell leaf mold by the 5 gallon bucket, how much $3 ?
Danny reminds me of a story my dad told me when he was a boy and one of the family friends took him fishing, they stopped in a wooded area and moved the leaves to get worms then on the way to the pond, the old man didn't tell them but he stopped and got some horse manure and mixed in with his bucket of worms and my dad said he was over there catching fish right and left, told them they must be in a bad spot so they changed spots, and he was still catching fish right and left, so he tells them to get a worm out of his bucket and dad said as soon as it hit the water there was a fish on it
Thank you, Danny I was in the yard today breaking up some piles of last falls leaves. Some of it is really broken down and some not so much, so I will see about getting a shredder or could we just go over it with the lawnmower? Would that do what we need to make it workable? I bought growing bags and want to do sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers...We don't have garden space... Thank you so much for all you do to help so many people...
This has nothing to do with this video, but when do you sell the sugarcane starts? I didn't see any in the etsy shop. No rush since I live in Minnesota and I want to grow some in pots.
Malcolm Small actually not. I've had both in my garden in Maine (don't live there now) and the deciduous leaves decomposed up to 2 seasons faster in our area there.
Here in Eastern Canada I keep my evergreen material separate from my leaves. When it breaks down I use it specifically for my soft fruits like blueberry and raspberry plants.
thank you SO much for this info danny! i KNEW there was something wonderful on the forest floor! would leaf mold from pine trees be too harsh? or could it be mixed with the leaf mold from other trees?
A trick I use is in the fall I gather up all the leaves and pile it up. Over the summer every time it's time to mow the grass I spread a layer of leaves out then mow the leaves and grass up together. It chops up the leaves and mixes in a nice blend of fresh grass. I put that in the mixed pile until next spring when it gets added to garden, and I start over.
Its not lost to me. Southern born, raised and will die that way. GOD gave us everything in the form of green plants. Thank you for sharing and be safe.
Good talk, nice to see some natural forest floor leaf mold.
The Master Gardener of the earth does it right. After all, he created it. :)
I have just decided today to gather the leaves from the five different trees that's hangs over the fence and dropped leaves in my yard I'll compost them I do have a lot. thanks for sharing this video Danny 👍
Thank you Mr. Danny. I have a back acre that has a lot of trees on it and nothing has ever been done with it. Good old oak trees as well as others. Gonna take a walk back there.
Great video, Danny ~ GOD's black gold ! You & Wanda be blessed ~ Happy Passover & Resurrection Sunday ! HE IS RISEN !
@Devin Fulham , thanks, I will check it out !
As always.....well spoken....clear and concise. Always a pleasure to learn from you. Thank you for sharing
I am blessed with lots of leafs, they are gathered up into piles . I add chicken litter to it so it breaks down quickly , great planting material. Great video.
Well done Danny
Danny, if you add hard cooked rice to your leafmold piles, let the mycyleum fungi grow and then add that to the leaf soil you put in your garden you can add beneficial substance to your garden areas...(Korean natural farming)
You are a wealth of knowledge Danny, I'm sure i speak for most of your sub's when i say thank you so much for sharing all you have learned over your life with us
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Very interesting. I live in Minnesota and I only have 1/3 acre and an entire line of 100 year old oaks and a couple of maple trees. That's how they used to mark property lines in my town. In other words, I have my own little forest. I have been buying soil for starting plant for as long as I been here, I guess thanks to this video, I don't have to buy anymore, just shred the ones from last year.
You are correct. Lived in deep heavy oak forest for many years. Very old lead mold was very fine stuff for starting seeds. Mixed with finished compost it was good for starting just about anything. It is indeed a lost art and people looked at me like I was crazy twenty years ago.
Great advise Danny. My husband and I went to the back wooded part of our property and got lots of leaf mold to use for starting plants. I enjoy how deep and rich it smells. Good stuff.
Great video. I know the importance of leaves and have oaks in backyard. Please do more videos on this topic. Never could understand why people rake and burn leaves when they could mulch and enrich their soil.
happy EASTER DANNY&WANDA,, wow gorgous woods to bad mine is buried under snow right now, your right DANNY iwas using leaf mould way before i knew you could buy soil in bags at the stores,, thank you for another great video
I've used leaf mold for years as a soil amendment and mixing into a seed starter mix. It's garden magic.
Thank you for sharing this wisdom, it is something I have wanted to know for a long time, this information is gold, blessings
Excellent presentation here Danny. Way to step things up as so many folks have been asking about this information. Nature is our great source of learning that God has provided for all to have and share. Teachers, instructors alike, we need to step it up. Thanks Brotha!
i guess I'm pretty off topic but does anyone know a good website to stream newly released movies online ?
@Kingston Mateo flixportal
@Alfonso Darwin thanks, I went there and it seems like a nice service :) I really appreciate it!!
@Kingston Mateo No problem xD
Up at my cabin, there is an area I call The Bowl, that has towering tulip poplars in there, along with several springs that keep everything wet. No lie; I have this stuff and humus, close to three feet deep in some spots. It is absolutely amazing. When I finally build my retirement home up there, I will mix that stuff with mica sand from the bottoms along the creek for the best garden this side of Eden.
Wow! Thank you Danny! I have a new plan for my leaves this fall! How awesome ! I see my spring planting becoming less and less costly every year! Been saving seeds, And repurposing things, now, Leaf Mold! Wow! I’m happy! :) God Bless you. 🍁🍂
Good information, as usual!
I live in a smallish town and have been gathering leaves in the suburb for almost ten years now. every autumn, what you call fall. I agree with you all the way, but never thought of shredding the leaves, although it makes a lot of sense. So thank you very much.
God bless.
Enjoyable. Lost art indeed!
Great video ❤❤👍👍👍
THANKS FOR THIS INFORMATION
Thank you so much for this video. I have 5 acres of leaf mold! And Thank you Wanda for mentioning this video. I’ve gone through dozens of old videos, but hadn’t come across this one yet. I’m so excited. Much WV love and Many Prayers! 💙💛🙏
we collect leaves up each fall and put them in black plastic bags and leave outside - usually is ready to go by spring. Lot of elm and birch up here :-)
Do you wet them? I tried that years back and they stayed whole for years.
Great idea...We have huge trees in our yard and I have fussed at my husband every year to stop bagging up the leaves and taking them to the dump...I am going to show him this video...
Great video!! Thanks for sharing!
Good morning Danny and Wanda.
We're in N. Georgia on just .44 acres. There is a strip of woods behind our lot that probably hasn't been touched. I was there just yesterday with a trowel checking out the ground covering. Some of the richest sweetest smelling soil. Appreciate you making this video.
Great video Danny. A lot of good information. I’ve use this quite a few time planting. My grandpa always went to get some of this for his raised beds.
This cat is smart. Thanks for the insight.
I went to the edge of my yard today and gather about 6 5gallon buckets full of leaf mold, to use in filling some 5 gallon buckets and I also used some in making a 2x4 ft on top the ground planting bed. I am going to go get some more leaf mold, and sift and mix it with some old poring soil tomorrow, to use to start my SWEET pepper SEEDS, maybe some lettuce too. I been so worried I was going to over load my clay beds with carbon by using leaf mold.
Thanks for sharing all the Great info and tips on how to forage for everything I need it's will be very helpful. Thanks and have a Great and Blessed day 👍🏻😎
I watch a lot of times on my phone but write on my tablet my responses..
Great video Mr. Danny...seems we have a lot of that on our property . We pulled our 28 foot camper down here to missisippi and this is our second morning on the land and have gotten a lot accomplished.. m6 husband is setting all the metal post for the fence for 700 feet to start..pray for me because unlike my husband all cheery, I am like that house on 20 acres already to move on sure would have been nice lol...his dream is to build and I am standing behind him but need encouragement big time...I just want a garden , some animals and start farming ...we head back home tomorrow for Easter with family but are coming back for one week before going back to our home for awhile.
Little at at a time I know and we will get there.
Thank you
From far northern Kali, good stuff Danny. Matches my experience and free compost to boot.
Thank you Danny!
i rake my leaves and put in compost pile each year. I also turn them several times a year and add my kitchen waste to it. Makes great compost. i also screen the compost and throw back the stuff that does not go thru the screen back into the compost bin. Nice video.
Thank you for taking the time to share this Danny. I have a large pile of leaves that I plan on using for leaf mold.
Love your channel!
appreciated
For those wanting to start healthy compost piles, harvest some of this material Danny is speaking of from several places in gallon zip lock bags half full with lots of air in it, keep them cool and add them under your own compost material. Remember to add worms to this material and they will help the microbes and fungus spread throughout your compost. Add a little water once in a while and turn the material or use other methods to allow oxygen into your piles.
There are many places and materials available to learn how to make the richest soil on earth, a Google search will yield a mountain of information.
Don't throw away yard waste if you can help it, turn it into black rich garden gold.
May YHWH bless your gardens with nutritional food.
Composting is something I enjoy. Although, I still toss privet and pine cones in the yard waste can.......unless you have a better idea?
Shalam
Good morning thank you for sharing you have a happy Easter for he is risen and spend some time with your family and make a little time for you and Wanda take care and walk in his grace
if you are forest harvesting leaf mold.... look for these things, fallen big logs, big rocks, low spots, and stone walls in the woods. This is where leaves will accumulate the most and your harvest will be bigger and better.
Thanks for the video I learned alot !
Through prayer I have been thinking about mowing over my maple and oak leaves, for my upcoming garden I didn't know till now why thank you Danny for you insight on gardening and soil I'm learning a lot from you and Wanda
Jane Heichel Not the oak. They have a chemical in them that kills other plants. Same like walnut & black hickory--- edit... This is from My farmer Uncle Harry Ritchie. He said those plants weren't willing to share nutrients.
The maple is good though thank you
Jane Heichel yes. Excellent.
I like this guy
Danny, thank you so much for this video. This is such valuable information. I'm starting my first garden on my new property and this information will help me keep things more natural. Thank you for all you and Wanda do to teach people how to do things the old way.
I was just telling my mom about this the other day. Bless u guys!
I'd heard of using leaf mold to improve poor soil to turn it into something you could garden, but I never knew about using it to start seedlings. This is good to know.
Nicely Done. Thank You.
I find good soil in my wooded area. The leaves gather in a swale and then break down
Excellent advice Danny thanks so much!!!
Gr8 info here.thanks Danny
Great info Danny. I don't buy soil. I tried to make my own leaf mold but I only let it sit (or set as southerners say) for about 4 months. I broke down the leaves with the mower first too. I guess I need to leave it longer. Thanks again.
I had no clue, thanks Danny! I am going to check out my woods and try it out.
Happy Easter!
GREAT VIDIO ! THANKS
I always use leaves in my compost piles...it seems to help. Also, pine needles for my tomato plant compost. God bless!
Great information 😊
It is all about the soil. Why buy expensive soil when God gives it to us free? I cringe when I see people buying bags and bags of bagged soil at the store. Amanda at Freedom Acres posted a video this morning on checking soil ph with Danny. This video and Amanda's are very important videos that everyone should watch. Thanks for sharing!
Great video. Thank you for taking the time to educate us.
Happy Easter to you. Danny you are a wealth of information. Always learning from you, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I pile my leaves up and leave for a year or two. In the late fall I put the chicken fence around the large pile and let them finish mixing etc. It is the most awesome stuff for your garden beds. I had the best watermelon crop the year that I raised up the ground in a mound. It was mostly "woods dirt" like Danny showed. I planted 5 watermelon in the top of this hill. then I wrapped the hill with dry leaves. I basically covered the whole hill and ground around with leaves so as the watermelon runners started, they had a soft bed to grow on. I had so many watermelons. Less water needed and limited weeding.
What timing, I just grubbed up some good black soil from decaying leaves to use in my gardening and pots to start flower seeds in. Thanks Danny.
No . Thank you. And that was brilliant. Keep up the good work.
Love your videos sir.
Fabulous!! Thank you so much!! 💗 There’s just never quite enough time..
Freedom Acres Im sorry i didnt get to have this talk with you in person. Thanks
Thank you for your perspective and knowledge Great presentation joe I can find some here in the city
I really enjoyed this. Can leaf mold be used only in the garden? I would like to see another expanded video on this. Thanks for hard work and sharing.
Thanks!
Good stuff. Thank you.
Thanks Danny very good information to know.Be well you all.♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡........
This is valuable information. I'd never heard of leaf mould. Thank you Danny for sharing.
Thank you for putting hi tech into normal understanding. we are ready for part 2 how to grow after seedling stage. ( yes we are a hungry willing flock ) this is not only lost information unraked leaf's are believed to be a bad thing that's why raking is mandatory by code enforcement throughout America. Thank you for real truth.
Thanks. We have so much of that and I really want to start using it
Good Stuff My Friend !!! Nice MUSHROOM Hunting area LoL
Awesome info!
Here I am looking for and buying potting soil. I have 7 acres, mostly woods and was wondering if I could use the rich leaf matter on the ground.
Needed info for today when potting soil may be more in demand.
I have pine needle mold here... if there is such a thing. All we have is pines and a few gum trees here and there.
Good morning Danny and Wanda! I've been wondering how to amend your soil if you don't have access to commercial amendment's...as someone who has limited funds I am looking for ways to bypass commercial products...even pest control if possible not sure yet how, worms (cabbage worms and horn worms) got my cabbage, and broccoli, and tomatoes something awful...I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge...
Hi I do not do this much but I feel like Danny will be ok with it. After all I have been with them just about from day one. Here is the post I made to someone here will share with you. Hope this helps.
I am living on 9000 grand a year. We do not have much cash. One thing that I use is free coffee grounds from Starbucks. This has been helping a lot with the rest of what we can get from the farms and out of the woods. I have videos on it if you would like to see them. Maybe it will help some. Hope all is well. God Bless.
Albany Mountain homestead -- for the worms... I only know if you plant those veges with a "collar" around them it protects them till they get larger then have to check the whole plant & underside of leaves, too for the pests. A collar can be a toilet paper tube or even poster tube cut into 4-6" lengths pushed in ground AROUND seedling about 1/2" deep. That should help in the beginning. Hope this helps as other than chalk dust Gramma used to do ... I got nothing.
I appreciate the replies, some good idea's...those worms were relentless, I tried neem as well. And went after them by hand and they just took them out, even the bigger cabbage...
I'm making raised beds and the bottom layer is all leaves.
Do y'ou guys container garden any veggies?
Incredibly informative!
I’m starting my first garden and trying to do it naturally with inexpensive strategies.
I always ask myself, how wouldn’t great grandmother have done this?
She lived in a small city but had a small plot of land that she farmed with her children that lived on the same block.
I know they didn’t buy potting soil, it was the depression and then wartime.
I know they composted, perhaps they brought in leaf mold from their summer “camp.”
So happy to find your video and channel.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Forgot to say, I live on the woods in NH.
I can harvest leaf mold in my back yard!!
This is how i have been able to do any gardening the last couple of years.There wasn't money for buying bags of soil amendments.Another reason why trees are important
I am living on 9000 grand a year. We do not have much cash. One thing that I use is free coffee grounds from Starbucks. This has been helping a lot with the rest of what we can get from the farms and out of the woods. I have videos on it if you would like to see them. Maybe it will help some. Hope all is well. God Bless.
could you post a link on the coffee grounds videos? thank you!
I will try it may go to his spam you can find it over at my place just click on my name..
ua-cam.com/video/bDb5zaUlqmI/v-deo.html
Cindi Perron -- if you click on the icon next to yankee4 s comment it will take you to his channel. It's the 2nd or 3rd vid from top.
For someone who hasn't gone through the Environmental Chemistry classes I have, you did a fantastic job explaining natural compost. You are wise in the lost art of YHWH's natural ways. Life begets life, in that handful of dirt there were billions of microbes all living out their lives and the land is better off for them, but in today's world farmland is dead and the food grown is void of nutrition.
Seeds like those of pine and privet berries aren't much use in a compost pile, but there are hot types of composting that would cook the seeds and poisons, but I wouldn't recommend it for a small farm or home garden. There are materials like large bones as an example that take many years to break down, I try and keep composting simple and when possible large items should be shredded or sifted out of the final product and kept composting.
Enjoy the black gold.
no I have several Chinese privet trees in my yard, and they do break down. took around eight months just in a pile of leaves in a trash can and it got rained on and submerged, but they broke down. actually the leaves I had in black bags just in the yard that I sprayed with the hose then tied shut, all of those seeds broke down faster than the stuff in the garbage can. for leaf mold though, it needs contact with the ground, and either under a tree or near one so the fungi from the roots of the tree move into the leaves and seeds etc you have piled up. they all break down eventually
Who is this fun guy you say makes leaf mold and where can I find him?
Danny, I have trees on my land, I feel blessed. They make a lot of shade, so it's not great for tomatoes and peppers, lol. I have noticed there are lots of areas in those stands of trees that have places with sunshine for most of the day. Would it hurt anything to plant some crops in the woods where this sunshine lies? Being in Alabama, my peppers and eggplants don't mind a little shade in the heat of the day, so maybe this will work.
Excellent vid. Thank you.
IS THAT SIMILAR TO BACK TO EDEN? EXCEPT LEAVES ARE USED INSTEAD OF MULCH
GRANDMA DEE Yes but with better results. Thanks
I bet if u amend you soil with it, it would make a great medium for growing carrot...or broken down log hummus..loosening soil and not adding nitrogen
Which plant's would fair well in leaf mold compost? What was your best experience with leaf mold gardening? Would you incorporate leaf mold into commercial peat moss or any other products to compare growth and taste? If you could sell leaf mold by the 5 gallon bucket, how much $3 ?
Danny reminds me of a story my dad told me when he was a boy and one of the family friends took him fishing, they stopped in a wooded area and moved the leaves to get worms then on the way to the pond, the old man didn't tell them but he stopped and got some horse manure and mixed in with his bucket of worms and my dad said he was over there catching fish right and left, told them they must be in a bad spot so they changed spots, and he was still catching fish right and left, so he tells them to get a worm out of his bucket and dad said as soon as it hit the water there was a fish on it
jam jam's Thats a great story Thanks
Thank you, Danny I was in the yard today breaking up some piles of last falls leaves. Some of it is really broken down and some not so much, so I will see about getting a shredder or could we just go over it with the lawnmower? Would that do what we need to make it workable? I bought growing bags and want to do sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers...We don't have garden space... Thank you so much for all you do to help so many people...
The lawn mower will do just fine to mulch the leaves. Thanks
This has nothing to do with this video, but when do you sell the sugarcane starts? I didn't see any in the etsy shop. No rush since I live in Minnesota and I want to grow some in pots.
1caramarie They are only avalible in the fall. Thanks
Big problem, fall here is deep winter everywhere else.
northern new england we have more evergreen like pine they degrade fast than flat leaves I think.
Malcolm Small actually not. I've had both in my garden in Maine (don't live there now) and the deciduous leaves decomposed up to 2 seasons faster in our area there.
Here in Eastern Canada I keep my evergreen material separate from my leaves. When it breaks down I use it specifically for my soft fruits like blueberry and raspberry plants.
thank you SO much for this info danny! i KNEW there was something wonderful on the forest floor! would leaf mold from pine trees be too harsh? or could it be mixed with the leaf mold from other trees?
Cindi Perron it is ok just a little more acidic than leaves. Thanks