G'day Everyone, I hope you enjoy the video! It's getting close to the end of the year, but I won't be slowing down because all this rain and hot weather is turning our garden into a jungle, so I have to keep "getting into it" like Santa on Christmas Eve or nature will take over! Anyway, thanks for your support and I hope you have a happy Christmas. Cheers :)
I lucked out this fall and was at Walmart when they were getting rid of all the gardening stuff on the parking lot. Everything was $1 except one kind of miracle grow. Peat moss, potting soil, pavers, sand, gravel, mulch, everything $1 each! I have a small car, but I made 4 trips and got 140 bags of raised bed mix, potting soil, peat moss, and even 58 bags of miracle grow indoor potting mix. I spent $150 but probably saved $1,500. I topped off my current raised beds and have put in 3 new ones! It was a lot of work but sooo worth it.
What a haul. I would have put in the work to take advantage also. Except I would have left behind the Miracle Gro potting soil. I have had a fungus gnat problem with that brand, so do not recommend for using indoors. I have heard ofothers having the problem also. Maybe a treatment of something or using outdoors (?)
@@dianeweeks352 yep. I’ve got them and have been spraying them with water and hydrogen peroxide mix. Nothing has been damaged by them that I can see. But that’s probably where they came from. I didn’t pore boiling water on it first though so kinda my fault.
@@Gardeningchristine yep I do the boiling water before starting micro greens. I have heard that mulching your indoor plants so the gnats can’t get to the soil ends the lifecycle overtime.
It's winter here in Pennsylvania, US. When my wife and I bought our home last year I used a lot of your videos to start our raised beds. They produced phenomenally, and I'm glad to see a guide to help us use to compost we've been making. Our tiny yard has turned into a dynamo for food and is the gem of the neighborhood. Thank you for your helpful videos and happy holidays to you and yours!
Wow, that's great to hear, and congratulations on your gardening success! The "circular garden economy" via reusing garden waste to grow more food is one of the most satisfying elements for me personally. Well done again and all the best over the Christmas and holiday season 👍🙂
When you were putting the fish waste in, I was recalling what they taught us in first grade about the pilgrims, and how the indigenous people taught them about putting a dead fish in each hill of corn as a fertilizer.
Every video that concerns raised gardens we watch them multiple time as to not miss anything we are still pretty new to all of this and with your tips our garden has gone crazy. A big thank you Mark and greetings from the prairies in Canada
Same - My family actually gave me an intervention that I was working too much and that the stress and anxiety wasnheading me to a heartattack. I also gained 30 pounds...I quit in December and Janaury 1, became a consultant of my own! Good luck to us both. Here's to 2024
Mark, The chunky bits of charcoal will help the soil by providing a "home" for the microbes in the soil. Love you videos. Can you do a video on signs of plant nutrient issues or disease issues that can be solved organically, or by using the proper fertilizers to help the deficiencies. I have learned a ton of new tips and tricks from your videos. Keep them coming!!!
Hello from Canada! Love the content. You should look into making a fish fertilizer at home. Just a 5 gallon bucket with a tight fitting lid, brown sugar, and the same fish wastes you put in the bed. Mix thoroughly and leave it with the lid on for 6 months and you’ve got a homemade fish hydrolysate. Amazing stuff! And very affordable
Good stuff Mark couple of additional steps I use. 1. I never let the weeds go to seed in my garden beds. Even if I just have to cover them with grass clippings to stop them flowering 2. Before I start rebuilding the beds, I leave them fallow for a couple of weeks, get any weed seeds to germinate, and then rake them back into the soil on a hot day. After a couple of growing seasons, the beds become almost weed free, even the onion and nut grass. Cheers
Good day Mark! I can't wait to see the comparison of the veggies grown between the raised beds! Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas and a productive and prosperous new year!🦋
Mark, don't let anyone give you grief about being dig vs no dig. Everyone's situation is different and you should do whatever works best for you in your area. It's a win either way if you're growing your own food.
Nutgrass (nutsedge) and Bermuda grass are the devil for gardeners, and basically require that you dig out your beds once in a while to keep them at bay.
@@teebob21 Is that nutgrass the same plant that preppers talk about as being a really high calorie producer per hectare/metre grown? If so, there's the solution, just harvest & eat it :) I have absolutely no idea if it's the same plant though or if it's edible or poisonous & I'm guessing it probably doesn't taste great or it would be grown commercially, just a fun alternative for the no-dig religion though :)
An American programme I watched they did identical garden beds, one with hay as mulch and one with woodchip. The one with wood chip produced about 50% more veggies after one year.
David the Good did a video comparing twelve fertilizers. Then he and his wife tasted the radishes and other stuff grown in each. There was a difference in taste in turnips and radishes they said.
Mulch selection should never make that big of a difference unless they were royally messing up watering or if slugs were crazy in their area. I'm guessing they watered both the same amount and thereby the hay-mulched areas were chronically underwatered.
What a great topic! Great timing too as most gardeners here in the northern hemisphere are prepping beds now in time for spring (where the ground isn't frozen!).
Been watching your channel for years, always good solid gardening information. I too use raised beds so I can sit and I reach across with no problem. Mine are 3 feet wide. At 83 they are godsent, since I can no longer reach the ground with my back issues. I love grass clippings, leaves, kitchen waste, etc. to raise the nutrient value in the soil. Previous decades ago I composted using the batch method. Even moved my compost in trash barrels when I moved to a new property years ago. I liked the large U shape wider than deep and used the two corners to pile the compost back and forth to turn the mass every couple weeks. Just a few turns and I had a batch ready to go. I miss those days. Carry on and happy holidays to you also.
Hey Mark, love your vids. We also use eggshell dust. I bake the eggshells and chuck them through a coffee grinder to mix with my soaked chook food and also use it in gardens with specifically tomatoes and zucchini’s to minimise blossom end rot.
We get horse manure for free. They’ll load it into the back of our truck and then we’ll take it to our compost pile and let it sit there for the spring and and till it into our garden after last harvest so it’s ready for the spring planting
Great vid Mark. I usually put my fireplace ashes into my compost during wood burning season rather than straight on the bed. Seems like it would mix better within the compost.
I wonder which is better, I truly don't know. "potash" is just ash & that's what's used commercially as potassium fertliser. I wonder at what point the potassium is mostly released, does it release immediately? in which case straight into the bed would be vastly superior, or does it need microbes to help with it's release, in which case into the compost would be much better. Would be interesting to do a test & see what results you got
Thank you Mark, as always you give real life videos for those of us trying to grow a little food. I started watching you in the beginning, now going into my third year, I successfully make my own compost and mulch. I love the fish idea, I will go over to the coast to get seaweed and fish parts and starting weed tea.
I imagine each bag you used will be $8-12 a bag. With that said you could have $50-60 a bed. Though it may grow better foods, I can’t imagine the average homeowner seeing it beneficial on a cost basis. I’m interested to see outcome of cheap bed vs expensive bed. Great video
@@TheSkillotron fertiliser unalives the soil, it wipes out all the soil microbes, meaning plants then REQUIRE you give them all the nutrients they need in available form at the time they need them for their growing cycle, very high maintenence long term! If you create healthy soil, such as what you see being demonstrated in this video with adding stuff that feeds soil microbes, then the microbes will always be there, breaking down the nutrients the plants need into the form the plants need, so you don't need to artificially add any fertilisers, making the garden much more productive with much less effort. Think of something like iron, you can throw an old piece of metal into a garden & with your system, it will sit there & do nothing, with a biologically active soil, the microbes will break it down (rust it) & once that's done, the plants will be able to uptake that iron at will to feed on. Much easier to just throw in some iron & microbes & let them do what's needed when needed compared to having to fertilise with bio-available iron twice a week! I grew some cucumbers in hydroponics a couple of years back, gave them all the heavy feeder fertilisers, did everything perfectly to get a good crop & they started out thriving, but as the season continued, they got powdery mildew & eventually that seriously impacted their growth & yield. Now sure, I could have also added twice week chemicals to treat the powdery mildew & all the other diseases they got, but I just didn't have the time to do that in addition to the regular fertiliser level checks & adjustments. The hydroponics sat right next to my main natural garden bed, all conditions with light etc were identical but powdery mildew didn't even cross over ot the garden cucumbers, even though both groups had leaves literally touching! Yellow lady beetles did take up residence in the garden, so presumably they did get some hints of the mildew on them to feed the ladybeetles, but there was never any visible mildew on any of them & they continued cropping heavily all season, way after the hydroponic ones had died from disease. Simple fact is that avoiding chemical fertilisers & tending to the soil results in far more robust crops with far less effort. It's also much cheaper, I throw a handful or 2 of chook poo into the garden once a year if growing plants like cucumbers & that's it! They don't need anything beyond that if waste from the garden is going back into the garden, it's a self sufficient system :)
very good, as always!!! i started watching you last year when I only had a small cage with 4 quails, now i have about 20 chickens, 30 quails, 5 ducks, a medium compost pile and almost 19 m² space with large pots lined up for gardening.
I realy enjoy you and i am in south africa so you clainet is simmelar, but my garben costs my nuthing. Nather givis it all. Sotty for my spelling. 3 years now . Fantastic soil
Hi Mark and all I use 3/4 finished home compost all the time. I like it for blending into the top 3 or 4 inches of garden beds. Makes a good layer to cushion the chunky mulch for the top layer. Finished compost I use for general fill for the top 12 inches.
Great video. Idk what plans you have for those beds, but seeing a side by side growing comparison with a variety of crops would be a cool video in the future to build off this one. Possibly do a running total of the produce weight harvested by each to see if one would produce better than the other.
I've followed you for quite some time, but I've only just found this video. I completed preparing my veggie garden for winter, including spreading sugarcane mulch over it. Now my son has given me a couple of large containers of ash from the firepit he uses just about every night. Your very helpful video not only showed how you had forgotten to spread the ash before the mulch (similar to my problem), but how you were then able to spread it after, and water it in. Excellent advice that solved my problem. At my age I don't have the energy to remove all of the mulch, spread the ash, then re-apply the mulch. Thank you Mark!
My personal approach is to dig a trench like you did with the second bed (but in different places each season rather than always down the middle) & then put all that grass & garden waste from the first bed into the bottom of the trench upsidedown & then throw newspapers & torn up boxes deliveries come in on top of that to prevent the weeds coming back up to the top (I soak first if the weather's dry or I want everything broken down & productive again fast) & each year I dig that trench, it's moving that now composted material back to the top & around the garden & then I throw a little blood & bone or chicken poo/dynamic lifter onto it if I'm going to grow heavy feeder plants, otherwise just leave as is & I get great results with fantastic biospheres in the garden with worms, mushrooms & everything else in there & soil looks great & holds water great. I think it's great you did this video & showed both options really well & I'm sure a lot of people will really appreciate it, but I think people often want to overcomplicate things & feel like they need to do more than they actually need to. If you put what grows in the garden back into it, it will always have enough nutrients present, just needs that small amount of the plant that's harvested to be replaced in nutrient value. & I love compost too, but I have limited space, really not enough for a proper compost, so I have a kitchen flip top garbage bin in my garden, with the bottom cut out of it & I just put all my kitchen scraps directly into that & the nutrients from them leach down into the garden where the plant roots can access them, as can the worms, making it an in-garden worm farm & when it fills, I just stop adding new stuff for a few weeks (I've got a second smaller bin to use during that time) to let the last added stuff break down & then move it to a different location & spread the stuff above garden height into the garden around the bin & that corner becomes my super growing spot next planting :) I'm taking my ground level garden into a raised garden bed right now, have put 1 layer of besser blocks in position & all my hedge trimmings & paper/cardboard waste is being dumped into it section by section to build it up to the besser block level & once it reaches the top, I'll add a second layer of blocks to raise the height. Sweet potato & beans growing in it at the moment, they seem happy to grow over & around the cardboard being added & when I harvest the sweet potato, I will end up mixing the cardboard into the ground soil & if it's the same as my main raised garden bed, I will probably need to add a bag or 2 of sand at some point for better drainage, but my main raised gardenbed is basically ALL compost/garden waste/paper & a little sand, nothing else & everything I plant grows super well without the need for any additives, have been for 12 years now, have never seen any productivity lost. Lots & lots of carbon (compost, ash, manure etc etc) in the soil is absolutely the secret to a super productive garden imo & avoiding chemical fertilisers over time really improves the soil & makes plants FAR more productive due to increases in soil microbes that break down everything to release micro-nutrients in plant available forms Just wish I had more space available, love the amount of space & set up you have!
Thank you so much for keeping us involved with everything I have learned a lot and also from the dad jokes keep up the good work and Merry Christmas to you and your family😊
every autumn I collect Leafs from the neighbors. They usually dump it away and let the city collect it... so i offer to clean the driveway and take care of the Leafs. Best mulch and an easy compost element especially when combined with kitchenscraps and grassclippings. + I can get Horsemanure from a local stable which only feeds organic hay so potential herbicides are not a big issue
My wife and I have been enjoying your videos on our television youtube channel and never get to give you a thumb's up! Thus this comment! We've learned and as I said, enjoy watching your videos. I'm retired but she's not. We live on the Atlantic Ocean in a condo and though the weather's great, and the views are wonderful we intend to move in a few years to a place where we can do some serious fruit and vegetable growing; just an acre or so. I want to landscape with a water feature or two. Up until three years ago we always had a home (four new ones constructed throughout our 44 years of marriage), and I liked landscaping with stone. I hope to do more of that with fruit trees, and grape vines. I have to stay in shape, and nothing would motivate me more.
I'm near Brisbane River. Often we catch the Carp which I then put whole into garden beds. Same with cane toads. Both humanely killed. I love knowing I'm doing my bit with Australia's pests & 'sowing' the benefits. Two birds, one stone 😅 Thanks legend!
Most potting mixes use worm castings, good quality ones at least. So you're spot on! Technically it IS actually adding compost most of the time!!💛 Great idea. I would add though, if you want to use any water based or brew, just toss an air pump and airstone and will be night and day difference in number of the highly beneficial aerobes. Can use solar pannel/battery to avoid needing any wires💪
Get yourself an IBC drum and an air pump. Throw 2 large goldfish and feed them peas and greens from the garden. Always drain of syphon from the bottom where the poop is. If you can get the drum up high you can just have a hose running from it to water the garden and refill the drum. Just be careful not to use more than 30% of the water out of the drum each week of the fish could die.
I started using horse alfalfa pellets to return nitrogen to the soil. WHAT a difference I am seeing. Especially for peonies and roses. Also, the rhubarb and veg gardens are just starting to take off. I am in arid Colorado, USA so it has also helped keep moisture in the soil. It's only 8.00 a bag at the farm store for a 40 lb bag. A neighbor gave me a huge, gutted fish, it went in my big tote with the musk melon plants.
Nutgrass is a really nice crop in its own right. The tubers it forms are calorific, sweet, and exceptionally rich in fiber, and it can be very productive. It was one of the most important foods of the first humans to settle Europe, before agriculture developed. It does grow aggressively, and it does compete with other crops, so it's usually treated as a weed. But even still, would you be interested in sparing a container to grow it, just to see what you get?
Mark, thank you for this. I only have a small garden but sometimes when I have setbacks I feel like maybe this just wasn't for me. But knowing that the 'big kids' with big gardens have similar setbacks, I feel like I'm not alone and I feel like I can get up go back into the garden and start over again. Thank you for showing me this kind of video❤
The Tree trimmers were here trimming around all of the wires... They ran everything through a chipper. I asked the guy what they were going to do when the chipper truck was full. It was a big dump truck mind you. The chipper sprays it all right in the back of it. He said we pay to dump it. I said you can dump in my yard for free... Two years later after turning it occasionally, I have a mountain of really good compost. It almost looks like potting soil... The best part is: It was FREE! It would have cost me a pile of money to buy all of that compost...
Great Mark, You should have bagged up a heap of seaweed whilst you were at it. A very old Gardening Australia episode with Peter Cundal in Tassie, showed him layering seaweed over his garden beds. Also, U K gardener, Charles Dowding, uses seaweed liberally. No need to hose of salt or try to remove it in any way.
I LOVE your videos. Just happened to find you. Watch while on the treadmill. I live in Florida but am currently in a community that doesn’t allow gardening. Won’t make that mistake again. I live vicariously through you and your garden. 🥰 You are very talented and entertaining. God bless. Darlene
Hi Mark, I just want to say thank you for your channel, I’ve just started following you. I’m a new home gardener in Adelaide and I’m really enjoying your content. You’ve helped me heaps.
Hi Mark , I hope all is good with you. Great video. Would you let us know about how much it cost to prepare the commercial bed? Also do a comparison planting, and production of the two beds. You are very lucky you have access to free manure, and wood chippings, most of us have to pay for that stuff unfortunately. More power to your growing thumbs , Muffy from Oz.
Wow! Zeolites!!!🎉 last year I grow potatoes in it…2-4 mm granulation… 30 cm deep, in 60 liters containers… production, 18-20kg on square meters Feeding culture with liquid type Jadam from grass this year, I put in zeolites to grow onions, garlic 🥕 carrots and potatoes
Mark, I live in Kentucky USA. Walnut trees are everywhere. They produce juglone, which is toxic to other plants. Should I be concerned if I accidentally throw some into a bonfire or cook fire, and use the ash? Thank you for taking all the drama out of beginner gardening.
G'day Mark, and lovely people, well i have everything i need to start my little container Veg Garden, i've been composting for a few mths now, so really getting on top of that at the moment. I've saved a heap of litter and branches to half fill the beds ect, i live with bush around, so have plenty of organic material :) now all i need is time to get it all together, Thanks for all you do for everyone out here in Veg world :) :) Karla
The ground is free (if you already own it, haha)! You don’t have to use expensive raised beds. Sure it increases productivity, but seeds are cheap. Just plant more in the ground. I’ve started larger in ground beds, and I just plant a lot more than I used to. The practice Mark shows here still applies. You just might need an initial till at the beginning if it’s very hard clay.
One thing I do over winter with the fruit trees. Is put used crushed coffee beans around the base of the trees let the worms do there work. When spring comes my apricot cherry gooseberry trees have a fertilizer boost
Merry Christmas Mark. That potato salad looked a banger. Ill be setting up some large raised beds like those in this video soon. Looking forward to shortcutting as much as possible.
Learning so much thanks You make my day ❤ Love gardening even though my garden is not that big but gives me such joy just to pick my salad greens purely organic
Hi Mark, due to financial constraints the only way I can fill my garden bed is with grass clippings and any organic matter I can find, it works, cheers!!! and merry chrissy to you and your family xx🥰😘💕👌👍👍👍🐕🐔🐔🪱🪱🌱🌳🐟🎄🎉🎁
Se mais pessoas tivessem se preocupado em cuidar do nosso planeta, reciclando coisas e praticando sustentabilidade, hoje nós não estaremos enfrentando tantas catástrofes naturais ao redor do mundo. Mas nunca é tarde pra começarmos a mudar nossos hábitos. Assim espero! Parabéns!
For years my grandma use dandelions water as soir fertileser. You just pick up all dandelions in your garden, put it in a big container and fill it with water, cover and leave it for 2-3 weeks. It need to be like half container of dandelions and rest water. And then its ready just use that water from container half dandelions water and rest plane water. Also we use old ruster nails and other iron stuf for plums and other stone fruits as a source of iron for trees.
I keep my worm bin in a shed and throw all my weeds in there including the seeds the worms eat everything then when the seeds sprout they die from no sun and are eaten. It works especially well with pumpkin seeds I don’t want
Thank you for another inspiring video. I’m in the process of trying to restructure my whole garden after it’s lay fallow for a few years and seeing this gives me ideas for how to do it without spending a fortune. I love your channel. Merry Christmas, Mark. 🎄
Your local livestock feed supplier can sell you 25kg bags of lucerne pellets or soybean meal. I don't do it often but when I start a new vegetable garden or flower bed I like to break up the clay and load it with lucerne pellets for the first growing season. I like that without planning I can add large amounts of nitrogen and organic matter to infertile soil, using one product and plant into it immediately without risking burning from using fresh manures or the like. I also lack the space to run several composting stations to break down various types of soil amendments, so its another solution for me.
My cousin Peter, told me an expression. "You have to pay to play." Even if the retail one comes up with bigger/better vegetables. Look forward to your experiment. Great idea!
I just wanted to point out that those chunkier bits of charcoal are good for the soil anyway & help with aerating it and also help prevent fungal growth but you probably already know that. Interested to see the comparison update of these two beds. I’m watching this today which says 3 months ago, so hopefully soon!? 🙂👍🏽
What a great comparison! I just want to add to hopefully save people in the US: much of the feeds given to cows and horses, unless you specifically source manure from organically-fed animals, is grown with an herbicide called Grazon. I've read reports from people who have used them, and even at times in a product called Black Kow, which then sterilized their garden beds. It's so unfortunate.
I am keen to see the outcome of these two beds. Sadly I have lost all my gardens that were in my planted raised garden beds this year. Due to the relentless heat we have had, just couldn’t keep the water up. I have a medical condition that when the heat and humidity elevates it means I need to be inside in the air conditioning. My Vegepods are doing ok with greens mainly for my chickens. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you Mark and the family.
Hey, if you use a 40% shade cloth and put it over your garden it will keep your plants and burning up in the summertime. That's what I had to do otherwise my tomatoes and everything would have burnt up. They didn't start ripening until it got below 86 degrees but that's the secret tip for that problem. Hang in there! I know you're working on things the best that you can, just work in 5 minute increments. That's what I did and eventually I had something to show for it.
Thanks Mark for this informative video. I can't manage outside gardening really any more and grow some vegies in tubs on my verandah. I will be buying some zeolite to help refurbish my tubs. I do also use compost and worm compost but we don't generate a lot of that. Hope you had a great Christmas. All the best for the New Year. 😀💚
I was told that if soil is already high in alkalinity that woodash should not be used, but I believe a little added to compost which is probably more acidic with all the leaves and other things breaking down that it must balance out? I just feel like there are good things in woodash that must help the soil, and I hate wasting it. What do you think? I don't add it directly to my garden beds though. Happy Christmas to you and your loved ones!
Well, now I will use the whole fish I catch. Bury in the garden I shall do. Excellent video. Just waiting for the snow to go away to get into the garden here in Canada.
All that plastic when you use commercial amendments. I hop out have a soft plastic recycler where you are, as I do here in nz. I do wish we could get sugar cane mulch !!😊
I heard you say your growing sweetcorn.... I recently added some sliced up corn cobs to the soil, as I was in a hurry, because I was going away. Yesterday, I transplanted the little seedlings, into rows in a small bed. Last night and early this morning, we had some wonderful rain, just perfect timing for my seedlings.😊
Charcoal ground up with fish waste makes, Terra Preta ( the black soil ) turned sandy Amazon rainforest soil into soil so fertile they dig it up and export it to north America to sell , also to grow food to feed the Amazonian civilization . What I am saying is the charcoal holds nutrients and moisture in the soil and plants love it . When I put it on my garden beds I put all the ash and charcoal from the fireplace and my soil ended up to alkaline even after adding chicken manure I had to add some sulphur to bring to pH down but after that it was my top producing bead for years.
G'day Everyone, I hope you enjoy the video! It's getting close to the end of the year, but I won't be slowing down because all this rain and hot weather is turning our garden into a jungle, so I have to keep "getting into it" like Santa on Christmas Eve or nature will take over! Anyway, thanks for your support and I hope you have a happy Christmas. Cheers :)
Looking forward to the follow-up! Please plant the same things in each one 😊
What town you in ?
Merry Christmas and thanks for all the UA-cam videos I’ve enjoyed over the years.
Hey mark can you do a tour if your property of what’s growing on your property
We're in Bellmere just north of Brisbane 👍@@jacksemenoff2148
I lucked out this fall and was at Walmart when they were getting rid of all the gardening stuff on the parking lot. Everything was $1 except one kind of miracle grow. Peat moss, potting soil, pavers, sand, gravel, mulch, everything $1 each! I have a small car, but I made 4 trips and got 140 bags of raised bed mix, potting soil, peat moss, and even 58 bags of miracle grow indoor potting mix. I spent $150 but probably saved $1,500. I topped off my current raised beds and have put in 3 new ones! It was a lot of work but sooo worth it.
Awesome!
What a haul. I would have put in the work to take advantage also. Except I would have left behind the Miracle Gro potting soil. I have had a fungus gnat problem with that brand, so do not recommend for using indoors. I have heard ofothers having the problem also. Maybe a treatment of something or using outdoors (?)
@@dianeweeks352 yep. I’ve got them and have been spraying them with water and hydrogen peroxide mix. Nothing has been damaged by them that I can see. But that’s probably where they came from. I didn’t pore boiling water on it first though so kinda my fault.
@@Gardeningchristine yep I do the boiling water before starting micro greens. I have heard that mulching your indoor plants so the gnats can’t get to the soil ends the lifecycle overtime.
The god of gardeners smiled upon you that day for sure. Well done!!!
You have always consistently been one of my favorite gardeners on UA-cam!
Yes! Me too.
Can't believe a half-an-hour went by already. You have such a kind voice to listen to.
The guy is totally not in my gardening zone but I find him to be very entertaining and a good talker yes.
It's winter here in Pennsylvania, US. When my wife and I bought our home last year I used a lot of your videos to start our raised beds. They produced phenomenally, and I'm glad to see a guide to help us use to compost we've been making. Our tiny yard has turned into a dynamo for food and is the gem of the neighborhood. Thank you for your helpful videos and happy holidays to you and yours!
Wow, that's great to hear, and congratulations on your gardening success! The "circular garden economy" via reusing garden waste to grow more food is one of the most satisfying elements for me personally. Well done again and all the best over the Christmas and holiday season 👍🙂
When you were putting the fish waste in, I was recalling what they taught us in first grade about the pilgrims, and how the indigenous people taught them about putting a dead fish in each hill of corn as a fertilizer.
when our pet fish died I put it in a hole in planted a tomato on top😂
I did the same at tractor supply company
@LILLYbug_9999 what did you do at TS? Did you get a good sale? When was that?
Nothing beats a good organic humor as well...love you mark keep it up🍻🍾
Mark's side gig is off grid burials, his plants really relish a freshy from time to time 😂🤣
I can’t wait to see the follow up on how things grow in these two beds!❤
Just caught myself giving you a thumbs up back 😂 love the videos all the way over here in Florida. I’ve learned a lot watching your videos.
I always say "let's...get into it" along with him, out loud. It's therapeutic lol
I do all my housework while binging Marks videos and every new task I come across I always end up saying Lets.... Get Into It!
My wife doesn't know it yet, but she bought me a couple birdie beds for next seasons grow. 😂thanks for all the tips and great videos. Love your stuff.
Such a great wife you have! 😁👍
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🥰
Every video that concerns raised gardens we watch them multiple time as to not miss anything we are still pretty new to all of this and with your tips our garden has gone crazy. A big thank you Mark and greetings from the prairies in Canada
The Prairies in Canada... now that sounds picturesque! Thank you and I'm glad you're having success in your raised beds 👍🙂
Is there going to be a part 2 to this video, showing how the vegetables grow in both beds if there is any difference?
Yes, for sure! Too many people are asking for the comparison, so I'll start sowing seed tomorrow 👍😁
Same - My family actually gave me an intervention that I was working too much and that the stress and anxiety wasnheading me to a heartattack. I also gained 30 pounds...I quit in December and Janaury 1, became a consultant of my own! Good luck to us both. Here's to 2024
Mark, The chunky bits of charcoal will help the soil by providing a "home" for the microbes in the soil. Love you videos. Can you do a video on signs of plant nutrient issues or disease issues that can be solved organically, or by using the proper fertilizers to help the deficiencies. I have learned a ton of new tips and tricks from your videos. Keep them coming!!!
Hello from Canada! Love the content. You should look into making a fish fertilizer at home. Just a 5 gallon bucket with a tight fitting lid, brown sugar, and the same fish wastes you put in the bed. Mix thoroughly and leave it with the lid on for 6 months and you’ve got a homemade fish hydrolysate. Amazing stuff! And very affordable
Good stuff Mark
couple of additional steps I use.
1. I never let the weeds go to seed in my garden beds. Even if I just have to cover them with grass clippings to stop them flowering
2. Before I start rebuilding the beds, I leave them fallow for a couple of weeks, get any weed seeds to germinate, and then rake them back into the soil on a hot day.
After a couple of growing seasons, the beds become almost weed free, even the onion and nut grass.
Cheers
Great tips! Thanks for sharing 👍🙂
Great video! I’m moving from buckets to metal raised beds and this helps me out a lot😊
Good day Mark! I can't wait to see the comparison of the veggies grown between the raised beds!
Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas and a productive and prosperous new year!🦋
Yes, the comparison will be interesting 👍Merry Christmas! 🙂
The amount of dadness at 28:42 is just absolute perfection
Mark, don't let anyone give you grief about being dig vs no dig. Everyone's situation is different and you should do whatever works best for you in your area. It's a win either way if you're growing your own food.
Nutgrass (nutsedge) and Bermuda grass are the devil for gardeners, and basically require that you dig out your beds once in a while to keep them at bay.
So true...
I really wish 🙏 I could do NO DIG... Here in Northern Thailand....
Not 🚫 a hope with the monsoon rains.
Thanks for All your help 🙏
would it help to add way more mulch? i imagine that might help to stop things from growing through@@nigelfitzpatrick6580
@@teebob21 Is that nutgrass the same plant that preppers talk about as being a really high calorie producer per hectare/metre grown? If so, there's the solution, just harvest & eat it :) I have absolutely no idea if it's the same plant though or if it's edible or poisonous & I'm guessing it probably doesn't taste great or it would be grown commercially, just a fun alternative for the no-dig religion though :)
@@lilaclizard4504 No, that's Jerusalem artichoke, which is equally impossible to rid from an area once it gets established.
An American programme I watched they did identical garden beds, one with hay as mulch and one with woodchip. The one with wood chip produced about 50% more veggies after one year.
Were they really small wood chips or the standard tree wood chips that are about a inch
@@toriphillips7383 ABOUTONEINCH TO TWO INCHES
That was my question too@@toriphillips7383
David the Good did a video comparing twelve fertilizers. Then he and his wife tasted the radishes and other stuff grown in each.
There was a difference in taste in turnips and radishes they said.
Mulch selection should never make that big of a difference unless they were royally messing up watering or if slugs were crazy in their area. I'm guessing they watered both the same amount and thereby the hay-mulched areas were chronically underwatered.
What a great topic! Great timing too as most gardeners here in the northern hemisphere are prepping beds now in time for spring (where the ground isn't frozen!).
This guy seems so genuine and friendly. I bet it's partially from so much time by himself in the garden. Time to reflect.
Reaching way back to Elementary School days, I recall that native Americans would place a small fish next to the seeds they were planting.
Been watching your channel for years, always good solid gardening information. I too use raised beds so I can sit and I reach across with no problem. Mine are 3 feet wide. At 83 they are godsent, since I can no longer reach the ground with my back issues. I love grass clippings, leaves, kitchen waste, etc. to raise the nutrient value in the soil. Previous decades ago I composted using the batch method. Even moved my compost in trash barrels when I moved to a new property years ago. I liked the large U shape wider than deep and used the two corners to pile the compost back and forth to turn the mass every couple weeks. Just a few turns and I had a batch ready to go. I miss those days. Carry on and happy holidays to you also.
83! I hope I'm going that well when I reach that age... it's so good to hear your tips and that you are still gardening 👍🙂
Hey Mark, love your vids. We also use eggshell dust. I bake the eggshells and chuck them through a coffee grinder to mix with my soaked chook food and also use it in gardens with specifically tomatoes and zucchini’s to minimise blossom end rot.
Top tip! Thanks 👍🙂
We get horse manure for free.
They’ll load it into the back of our truck and then we’ll take it to our compost pile and let it sit there for the spring and and till it into our garden after last harvest so it’s ready for the spring planting
Great vid Mark. I usually put my fireplace ashes into my compost during wood burning season rather than straight on the bed. Seems like it would mix better within the compost.
I wonder which is better, I truly don't know.
"potash" is just ash & that's what's used commercially as potassium fertliser. I wonder at what point the potassium is mostly released, does it release immediately? in which case straight into the bed would be vastly superior, or does it need microbes to help with it's release, in which case into the compost would be much better. Would be interesting to do a test & see what results you got
Thank you Mark, as always you give real life videos for those of us trying to grow a little food. I started watching you in the beginning, now going into my third year, I successfully make my own compost and mulch. I love the fish idea, I will go over to the coast to get seaweed and fish parts and starting weed tea.
Good on you Sandra! Thank you and all the best 👍 🙂
Such great information. Kentucky USA here and garden madness planning for our growing season has begun. I need all the free tips I can get. Thanks!
I imagine each bag you used will be $8-12 a bag. With that said you could have $50-60 a bed. Though it may grow better foods, I can’t imagine the average homeowner seeing it beneficial on a cost basis.
I’m interested to see outcome of cheap bed vs expensive bed.
Great video
Yes, I think your cost estimate is reasonable. I'm also very interested in the direct comparison in growing 🙂👍
$15-$22 a bag
Or you could just skip all the other stuff that does little to nothing and just use the actual fertilizer at a fraction of that cost.
@@TheSkillotron fertiliser unalives the soil, it wipes out all the soil microbes, meaning plants then REQUIRE you give them all the nutrients they need in available form at the time they need them for their growing cycle, very high maintenence long term! If you create healthy soil, such as what you see being demonstrated in this video with adding stuff that feeds soil microbes, then the microbes will always be there, breaking down the nutrients the plants need into the form the plants need, so you don't need to artificially add any fertilisers, making the garden much more productive with much less effort.
Think of something like iron, you can throw an old piece of metal into a garden & with your system, it will sit there & do nothing, with a biologically active soil, the microbes will break it down (rust it) & once that's done, the plants will be able to uptake that iron at will to feed on. Much easier to just throw in some iron & microbes & let them do what's needed when needed compared to having to fertilise with bio-available iron twice a week!
I grew some cucumbers in hydroponics a couple of years back, gave them all the heavy feeder fertilisers, did everything perfectly to get a good crop & they started out thriving, but as the season continued, they got powdery mildew & eventually that seriously impacted their growth & yield. Now sure, I could have also added twice week chemicals to treat the powdery mildew & all the other diseases they got, but I just didn't have the time to do that in addition to the regular fertiliser level checks & adjustments. The hydroponics sat right next to my main natural garden bed, all conditions with light etc were identical but powdery mildew didn't even cross over ot the garden cucumbers, even though both groups had leaves literally touching! Yellow lady beetles did take up residence in the garden, so presumably they did get some hints of the mildew on them to feed the ladybeetles, but there was never any visible mildew on any of them & they continued cropping heavily all season, way after the hydroponic ones had died from disease.
Simple fact is that avoiding chemical fertilisers & tending to the soil results in far more robust crops with far less effort. It's also much cheaper, I throw a handful or 2 of chook poo into the garden once a year if growing plants like cucumbers & that's it! They don't need anything beyond that if waste from the garden is going back into the garden, it's a self sufficient system :)
@@TheSkillotronsure, but lots of people don’t want to use Miracle Gro or something similar.
I am so keen to see the outcome / harvests from each of the beds. Thank you so much for doing this.
very good, as always!!! i started watching you last year when I only had a small cage with 4 quails, now i have about 20 chickens, 30 quails, 5 ducks, a medium compost pile and almost 19 m² space with large pots lined up for gardening.
Love how you mention gardening keeping us fit, healthy and also giving us produce in return! It's a win win!
I realy enjoy you and i am in south africa so you clainet is simmelar, but my garben costs my nuthing. Nather givis it all. Sotty for my spelling. 3 years now . Fantastic soil
Hi Mark and all
I use 3/4 finished home compost all the time. I like it for blending into the top 3 or 4 inches of garden beds. Makes a good layer to cushion the chunky mulch for the top layer. Finished compost I use for general fill for the top 12 inches.
Great video. Idk what plans you have for those beds, but seeing a side by side growing comparison with a variety of crops would be a cool video in the future to build off this one. Possibly do a running total of the produce weight harvested by each to see if one would produce better than the other.
Yeah, that's a great idea. At this stage, I'll be planting corn in both beds (same variety) and we'll do a comparison 👍🙂
@@Selfsufficientme Corn's a nice heavy feeder, so that's a great test for it. Looking forward to seeing the results :)
I've followed you for quite some time, but I've only just found this video. I completed preparing my veggie garden for winter, including spreading sugarcane mulch over it. Now my son has given me a couple of large containers of ash from the firepit he uses just about every night. Your very helpful video not only showed how you had forgotten to spread the ash before the mulch (similar to my problem), but how you were then able to spread it after, and water it in. Excellent advice that solved my problem. At my age I don't have the energy to remove all of the mulch, spread the ash, then re-apply the mulch. Thank you Mark!
Another great video bud!
My personal approach is to dig a trench like you did with the second bed (but in different places each season rather than always down the middle) & then put all that grass & garden waste from the first bed into the bottom of the trench upsidedown & then throw newspapers & torn up boxes deliveries come in on top of that to prevent the weeds coming back up to the top (I soak first if the weather's dry or I want everything broken down & productive again fast) & each year I dig that trench, it's moving that now composted material back to the top & around the garden & then I throw a little blood & bone or chicken poo/dynamic lifter onto it if I'm going to grow heavy feeder plants, otherwise just leave as is & I get great results with fantastic biospheres in the garden with worms, mushrooms & everything else in there & soil looks great & holds water great.
I think it's great you did this video & showed both options really well & I'm sure a lot of people will really appreciate it, but I think people often want to overcomplicate things & feel like they need to do more than they actually need to. If you put what grows in the garden back into it, it will always have enough nutrients present, just needs that small amount of the plant that's harvested to be replaced in nutrient value.
& I love compost too, but I have limited space, really not enough for a proper compost, so I have a kitchen flip top garbage bin in my garden, with the bottom cut out of it & I just put all my kitchen scraps directly into that & the nutrients from them leach down into the garden where the plant roots can access them, as can the worms, making it an in-garden worm farm & when it fills, I just stop adding new stuff for a few weeks (I've got a second smaller bin to use during that time) to let the last added stuff break down & then move it to a different location & spread the stuff above garden height into the garden around the bin & that corner becomes my super growing spot next planting :)
I'm taking my ground level garden into a raised garden bed right now, have put 1 layer of besser blocks in position & all my hedge trimmings & paper/cardboard waste is being dumped into it section by section to build it up to the besser block level & once it reaches the top, I'll add a second layer of blocks to raise the height. Sweet potato & beans growing in it at the moment, they seem happy to grow over & around the cardboard being added & when I harvest the sweet potato, I will end up mixing the cardboard into the ground soil & if it's the same as my main raised garden bed, I will probably need to add a bag or 2 of sand at some point for better drainage, but my main raised gardenbed is basically ALL compost/garden waste/paper & a little sand, nothing else & everything I plant grows super well without the need for any additives, have been for 12 years now, have never seen any productivity lost.
Lots & lots of carbon (compost, ash, manure etc etc) in the soil is absolutely the secret to a super productive garden imo & avoiding chemical fertilisers over time really improves the soil & makes plants FAR more productive due to increases in soil microbes that break down everything to release micro-nutrients in plant available forms
Just wish I had more space available, love the amount of space & set up you have!
Ahhhh......I so love watching garden videos in our northern hemisphere winter! Keeps the dream alive!!!
Love your tips and tricks mark! I appreciate everything you share with us. Keep up the great work. 👍
Merry Christmas from The States, Mark!
Hey Mark. You are my absolute favourite UA-camr. Thanks for explaining things so clearly and making it fun too! 😊
Did you use the Hügelkultur method in these beds?
Thank you! Fav YTber is BIG call and very generous of you to say 🙂👍
Thank you so much for keeping us involved with everything I have learned a lot and also from the dad jokes keep up the good work and Merry Christmas to you and your family😊
Thank you and Merry Christmas! 👍🙂
every autumn I collect Leafs from the neighbors. They usually dump it away and let the city collect it... so i offer to clean the driveway and take care of the Leafs. Best mulch and an easy compost element especially when combined with kitchenscraps and grassclippings.
+ I can get Horsemanure from a local stable which only feeds organic hay so potential herbicides are not a big issue
My wife and I have been enjoying your videos on our television youtube channel and never get to give you a thumb's up! Thus this comment! We've learned and as I said, enjoy watching your videos. I'm retired but she's not. We live on the Atlantic Ocean in a condo and though the weather's great, and the views are wonderful we intend to move in a few years to a place where we can do some serious fruit and vegetable growing; just an acre or so. I want to landscape with a water feature or two. Up until three years ago we always had a home (four new ones constructed throughout our 44 years of marriage), and I liked landscaping with stone. I hope to do more of that with fruit trees, and grape vines. I have to stay in shape, and nothing would motivate me more.
I'm near Brisbane River. Often we catch the Carp which I then put whole into garden beds. Same with cane toads.
Both humanely killed.
I love knowing I'm doing my bit with Australia's pests & 'sowing' the benefits.
Two birds, one stone 😅
Thanks legend!
Most potting mixes use worm castings, good quality ones at least. So you're spot on! Technically it IS actually adding compost most of the time!!💛 Great idea. I would add though, if you want to use any water based or brew, just toss an air pump and airstone and will be night and day difference in number of the highly beneficial aerobes. Can use solar pannel/battery to avoid needing any wires💪
hmm that's a great idea I'd never thought of, but makes perfect sense :) thanks
The best way to get rid of nut grass is with Manscape
Get yourself an IBC drum and an air pump. Throw 2 large goldfish and feed them peas and greens from the garden. Always drain of syphon from the bottom where the poop is. If you can get the drum up high you can just have a hose running from it to water the garden and refill the drum. Just be careful not to use more than 30% of the water out of the drum each week of the fish could die.
I started using horse alfalfa pellets to return nitrogen to the soil. WHAT a difference I am seeing. Especially for peonies and roses. Also, the rhubarb and veg gardens are just starting to take off. I am in arid Colorado, USA so it has also helped keep moisture in the soil. It's only 8.00 a bag at the farm store for a 40 lb bag.
A neighbor gave me a huge, gutted fish, it went in my big tote with the musk melon plants.
Nutgrass is a really nice crop in its own right. The tubers it forms are calorific, sweet, and exceptionally rich in fiber, and it can be very productive. It was one of the most important foods of the first humans to settle Europe, before agriculture developed.
It does grow aggressively, and it does compete with other crops, so it's usually treated as a weed. But even still, would you be interested in sparing a container to grow it, just to see what you get?
Looking forward to future updates on how the two beds produce. 😊
Mark, thank you for this. I only have a small garden but sometimes when I have setbacks I feel like maybe this just wasn't for me.
But knowing that the 'big kids' with big gardens have similar setbacks, I feel like I'm not alone and I feel like I can get up go back into the garden and start over again. Thank you for showing me this kind of video❤
The Tree trimmers were here trimming around all of the wires... They ran everything through a chipper. I asked the guy what they were going to do when the chipper truck was full. It was a big dump truck mind you. The chipper sprays it all right in the back of it. He said we pay to dump it. I said you can dump in my yard for free... Two years later after turning it occasionally, I have a mountain of really good compost. It almost looks like potting soil... The best part is: It was FREE! It would have cost me a pile of money to buy all of that compost...
Best gardening channel on UA-cam thanks for everything mark.
Great Mark,
You should have bagged up a heap of seaweed whilst you were at it.
A very old Gardening Australia episode with Peter Cundal in Tassie, showed him layering seaweed over his garden beds.
Also, U K gardener, Charles Dowding, uses seaweed liberally.
No need to hose of salt or try to remove it in any way.
I LOVE your videos. Just happened to find you. Watch while on the treadmill. I live in Florida but am currently in a community that doesn’t allow gardening. Won’t make that mistake again. I live vicariously through you and your garden. 🥰 You are very talented and entertaining. God bless.
Darlene
Always enjoy your videos - thank you 💚✌🌿
Hi Mark, I just want to say thank you for your channel, I’ve just started following you. I’m a new home gardener in Adelaide and I’m really enjoying your content. You’ve helped me heaps.
Hi Mark , I hope all is good with you. Great video. Would you let us know about how much it cost to prepare the commercial bed? Also do a comparison planting, and production of the two beds. You are very lucky you have access to free manure, and wood chippings, most of us have to pay for that stuff unfortunately. More power to your growing thumbs , Muffy from Oz.
Wow! Zeolites!!!🎉 last year I grow potatoes in it…2-4 mm granulation… 30 cm deep, in 60 liters containers… production, 18-20kg on square meters
Feeding culture with liquid type Jadam from grass
this year, I put in zeolites to grow onions, garlic 🥕 carrots and potatoes
Mark, I live in Kentucky USA. Walnut trees are everywhere. They produce juglone, which is toxic to other plants. Should I be concerned if I accidentally throw some into a bonfire or cook fire, and use the ash? Thank you for taking all the drama out of beginner gardening.
I wouldn't be concerned if it's burned. I have tons of hickory and it doesn't really effect my plants.
Just found this via gardening Australia abc. Thanks from Australia 😊❤🙏🇦🇺
G'day Mark, and lovely people, well i have everything i need to start my little container Veg Garden, i've been composting for a few mths now, so really getting on top of that at the moment. I've saved a heap of litter and branches to half fill the beds ect, i live with bush around, so have plenty of organic material :) now all i need is time to get it all together, Thanks for all you do for everyone out here in Veg world :) :) Karla
For a minute, I thought you were going to show us free bed! Got so excited!!
I'm also excited about the free bed filling. 😊❤
The ground is free (if you already own it, haha)! You don’t have to use expensive raised beds. Sure it increases productivity, but seeds are cheap. Just plant more in the ground. I’ve started larger in ground beds, and I just plant a lot more than I used to. The practice Mark shows here still applies. You just might need an initial till at the beginning if it’s very hard clay.
😁👍
@@D71219ONE I'm not as young as I used to be 😉 The raised beds keep me gardening since they reduce my bending and kneeling.
One thing I do over winter with the fruit trees. Is put used crushed coffee beans around the base of the trees let the worms do there work. When spring comes my apricot cherry gooseberry trees have a fertilizer boost
Merry Christmas Mark. That potato salad looked a banger.
Ill be setting up some large raised beds like those in this video soon. Looking forward to shortcutting as much as possible.
I have started to grow chilli's and okra, potato's and pumpkin. Thankyou I love every video. U help so many people ❤
Looking forward to the follow-up on this. Looks fantastic.
The other advantage of the free bed is that you're not using plastic packaging either...
Thanks, and yes, no plastic is another great reason 👍 🙂
Learning so much thanks
You make my day ❤
Love gardening even though my garden is not that big but gives me such joy just to pick my salad greens purely organic
I enjoy your videos you are giving alot of valuable gardening tips.
"Extra Texture." What a good name for a band! lol PS Merry Christmas to you and yours, Mark.
Hi Mark, due to financial constraints the only way I can fill my garden bed is with grass clippings and any organic matter I can find, it works, cheers!!! and merry chrissy to you and your family xx🥰😘💕👌👍👍👍🐕🐔🐔🪱🪱🌱🌳🐟🎄🎉🎁
Se mais pessoas tivessem se preocupado em cuidar do nosso planeta, reciclando coisas e praticando sustentabilidade, hoje nós não estaremos enfrentando tantas catástrofes naturais ao redor do mundo. Mas nunca é tarde pra começarmos a mudar nossos hábitos. Assim espero! Parabéns!
Wow Mark. That nut grass is a right old bully.N We have Gwtch grass here which is similar. Compost bins still looking great pal. Brill video mate
For years my grandma use dandelions water as soir fertileser. You just pick up all dandelions in your garden, put it in a big container and fill it with water, cover and leave it for 2-3 weeks. It need to be like half container of dandelions and rest water. And then its ready just use that water from container half dandelions water and rest plane water.
Also we use old ruster nails and other iron stuf for plums and other stone fruits as a source of iron for trees.
I keep my worm bin in a shed and throw all my weeds in there including the seeds the worms eat everything then when the seeds sprout they die from no sun and are eaten. It works especially well with pumpkin seeds I don’t want
Thank you for another inspiring video. I’m in the process of trying to restructure my whole garden after it’s lay fallow for a few years and seeing this gives me ideas for how to do it without spending a fortune. I love your channel. Merry Christmas, Mark. 🎄
G'day Amanda, all the best with your garden makeover and Merry Christmas and happy New Year 👍🙂
Your local livestock feed supplier can sell you 25kg bags of lucerne pellets or soybean meal. I don't do it often but when I start a new vegetable garden or flower bed I like to break up the clay and load it with lucerne pellets for the first growing season. I like that without planning I can add large amounts of nitrogen and organic matter to infertile soil, using one product and plant into it immediately without risking burning from using fresh manures or the like. I also lack the space to run several composting stations to break down various types of soil amendments, so its another solution for me.
My cousin Peter, told me an expression. "You have to pay to play." Even if the retail one comes up with bigger/better vegetables. Look forward to your experiment. Great idea!
I just wanted to point out that those chunkier bits of charcoal are good for the soil anyway & help with aerating it and also help prevent fungal growth but you probably already know that. Interested to see the comparison update of these two beds. I’m watching this today which says 3 months ago, so hopefully soon!? 🙂👍🏽
Hello Mark, Always useful information, good humor and great amusing entertainment. I always appreciate the positive attitude. Best to you friend.
I just love you and your videos so informative for all us gardeners. Merry Christmas to you and the family
With your new fishing channel, I’m sure you’ll make a bunch of fishing friends who would love to get rid of their waste for your garden. Bonus!
What a great comparison! I just want to add to hopefully save people in the US: much of the feeds given to cows and horses, unless you specifically source manure from organically-fed animals, is grown with an herbicide called Grazon. I've read reports from people who have used them, and even at times in a product called Black Kow, which then sterilized their garden beds. It's so unfortunate.
Oh my dear! A fishing channel! something for me here and my husband there, with you as a host, marvelous!
I am keen to see the outcome of these two beds. Sadly I have lost all my gardens that were in my planted raised garden beds this year. Due to the relentless heat we have had, just couldn’t keep the water up. I have a medical condition that when the heat and humidity elevates it means I need to be inside in the air conditioning. My Vegepods are doing ok with greens mainly for my chickens. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you Mark and the family.
Hey, if you use a 40% shade cloth and put it over your garden it will keep your plants and burning up in the summertime. That's what I had to do otherwise my tomatoes and everything would have burnt up. They didn't start ripening until it got below 86 degrees but that's the secret tip for that problem.
Hang in there!
I know you're working on things the best that you can, just work in 5 minute increments. That's what I did and eventually I had something to show for it.
Another great video Mark thank you.
I like the info about how the mulch taking nitrogen thing is a myth. I always thought it sounded like BS. Happy to know I was right. Great video.
Thanks Mark for this informative video. I can't manage outside gardening really any more and grow some vegies in tubs on my verandah. I will be buying some zeolite to help refurbish my tubs. I do also use compost and worm compost but we don't generate a lot of that. Hope you had a great Christmas. All the best for the New Year. 😀💚
I was told that if soil is already high in alkalinity that woodash should not be used, but I believe a little added to compost which is probably more acidic with all the leaves and other things breaking down that it must balance out? I just feel like there are good things in woodash that must help the soil, and I hate wasting it. What do you think? I don't add it directly to my garden beds though. Happy Christmas to you and your loved ones!
What a timely and informative video, can't wait to get into it 😁 Thanks for your hard yacker, Mark
😁👍
Well, now I will use the whole fish I catch. Bury in the garden I shall do. Excellent video. Just waiting for the snow to go away to get into the garden here in Canada.
All that plastic when you use commercial amendments. I hop out have a soft plastic recycler where you are, as I do here in nz. I do wish we could get sugar cane mulch !!😊
I heard you say your growing sweetcorn....
I recently added some sliced up corn cobs to the soil, as I was in a hurry, because I was going away.
Yesterday, I transplanted the little seedlings, into rows in a small bed.
Last night and early this morning, we had some wonderful rain, just perfect timing for my seedlings.😊
awesome. please set an alarm in your phone's calendar for a few months from now to show the progress!
Charcoal ground up with fish waste makes, Terra Preta ( the black soil ) turned sandy Amazon rainforest soil into soil so fertile they dig it up and export it to north America to sell , also to grow food to feed the Amazonian civilization . What I am saying is the charcoal holds nutrients and moisture in the soil and plants love it . When I put it on my garden beds I put all the ash and charcoal from the fireplace and my soil ended up to alkaline even after adding chicken manure I had to add some sulphur to bring to pH down but after that it was my top producing bead for years.