How to Fill a Raised Bed and Save 60%+ on Soil Costs
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- Опубліковано 16 кві 2020
- Get the raised beds I use in my garden: shop.epicgardening.com/ Raised garden beds are my preferred way to grow in my urban garden, but filling them can cost a pretty penny. Now, there are MANY ways to fill a garden bed on the cheap, and this is just ONE of them. It makes use of existing organic matter on your property (sticks, logs, brush, grass clippings, unfinished compost, etc.) to fill the bottom half of your bed.
Then, fill the remainder with a high-quality mix that you can either buy or make yourself. This method is particularly useful when growing in TALL (18"+) beds, as you don't need the perfect soil mix all of the way down. Over time, the fill material will break down and become food for bacteria, fungi, and other soil life and turn into high-quality soil for your garden over the years.
SPONSOR: ESPOMA ORGANIC
Espoma Organic has been organic from the start and makes absolutely epic raised bed soil mixes, potting mixes, and organic fertilizers. Their Raised Bed mix is my favorite bagged mix to fill a bed up. To find out where to buy, click here: www.espoma.com/where-to-buy/
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Lol whenever I’m filling up a new raised bed, I remind my friends this is the perfect place to hide the bodies.
Like That Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode.
Organic fertilizer 🤔
@@danielson2454 very much non-organic
Wow thanks FBI
@@AG-oe2wt you do realize it’s a joke, right?🤣
Great use of common sense. You saved me a lot of effort. I am 80 and getting into farming now.
If you want to do hügelkultur, you SHOULD put in some coarser matter like logs and twigs at the bottom since they will take a long time to compost, providing natural heat for your raised bed. Next level is plant and grass clipping, then a layer of partially composted material and manure and then garden soil mixed with fully composted matter. While the layers compost, the density will increase and you fill up your raised bed with compost/soil every year. That way a raised bed will last around six to seven years till you have to start it anew. Of course you can leave it but then you lose the advantage of earlier and more abundant growth.
ETA: Please don't use any soil that contains peat. While it's fantastic for your garden, it comes from bogs which are decimated for peat production, resulting in the loss of a unique natural habitat. It is not considered re-newable.
couldn't we simply load peat bogs up with organic material for it to start breaking down all over again???
Use Coconut Coir in the place of Peat. Very sustainable.
@@BlueJadeU Hi, I live in Texas; so cotton Hulls and rice husks are a good replacement for peat. In addition, we have a lg. Compost pile.
@@jerryscanas Not really, because you drain them to harvest the peat. It was fine in the past, when it was only taken for local gardens and home fuel, but industrial-scale extraction is removing it faster than it's replenishing. It's a fossil fuel like coal.
That's what I expected him to do when he mentioned Mark's method, Mark uses logs at the bottom. I much prefer brown matter to grass clippings but that's mostly cause in my area there's a bore grass everywhere and it and some invasive weeds will grow up many inches if it gets the chance to, collect heaps of leaves in autumn/fall and use them.
True that and the Australian homie who doin his thing holding in down down under with the self sufficientness....that guy legit too
He's a total cornball which I love. Wish he was doing veganic permaculture á la Will Bonsall though.
Self-sufficiency
@@HandlesAreForPussies Do you offer translations of comments in other languages, too?
Shawn Connell could you repeat that in English please? Thank you
Since people are still commenting and I'm getting notifications for this- I, as a native English speaker trained in second language acquisition and linguistics, want to make it clear that Shawn Connell is speaking English and that to say he isn't speaking English is quite rude.
I've been doing this for years. Totally a money saver. Basically use bottom half of your bed as a compost pile and cover with raised bed mix to plant in to. Works like a charm. Great video!
I ended up spending $80 on soil ingredients (peat moss, leaf humus compost, vermiculite, and perlite) today to fill a 12' x 5' bed, which I anticipate will be about 12" high. I appreciate this video very much because to purchase any more of those ingredients would almost defeat the purpose of saving money by growing my own food. Lots of us growers need to do it on a budget, so I appreciate the thought that went into this video.
Throw your fireplace/bonfire ashes into your mix, shredded newspaper, coffee grounds (ask your local coffee shop), fur from the pet groomer, spent mushroom compost, etc. Lots of materials available for free or nearly free.
Anyone else notice Kevin kinda looks like Dean Cain? I feel like Superman is teaching me how to garden 😄❤
Stumbled across your channel this morning and wanted to say thank you! We lost out house in the city to a fire, and decided to move to the country. We have never gardened before, so my daughter and I are brand new to this. Weve just put up about 12 raised beds and started some tomatoe seedlings. They just started poking their little heads up and- i started to panic lol. Now what? How do I move them? When and how often do I water? So many questions and no one to ask. So, thanks to google, I found you and a few other amazing gardeners who are sharing their knowledge. We appreciate you so very much. ❤
You can also use cardboard and newspapers as well, I even shredded up the box that the raised bed came in and mixed that in with the other materials I put in the bottom.
totally, and mix up that shredded cardboard with absolutely free manure at the bottom, there aint nothing more therapeutic than mixing dry cardboard with fresh wet manure, if cant get rotted manure you could actually just use fresh if its right at the bottom and your plants will do a little dance when it come to 3 months in and its time for their roots reach that far down, they'll say thank you....of course!
I’m planning on starting a raised bed garden in our property. We’ll have to protect it from deer etc. but this has been so helpful, because we have lots of brush from fallen trees this last winter! Thank you for saving me more $$$.
I follow the Aussie guy too, since I am Ausmerican, myself.
Karen - When you build your raised beds, add pieces of rebar (#4, 1/2”) in the corners embedded at least a foot in undisturbed soil. It’s then easy to attach deer netting. We’ve added 3/4” pvc pipes connected with tee’s at the rebar for a top and to keep it more rigid. Another option is to drill a 5/8” hole halfway into a 2x2 or 2x4 to slip over the rebar and exterior wood screws to connect the pieces of wood into a frame.
What about shredded paper?
My hubby is a shredding machine! I thought I could use it too
I have access to a bunch - A BUNCH- of flat egg cartons that I plan to use to fill some of my new beds this year. Just tear them up & toss em in.
This channel and self sufficient me are my favorite garden channels very informative. It would be awesome to see you guys do a colab video
We did one in the past, but we're going to do another!
@@epicgardening 😮 I didn't even know what a wanker
Hollis and Nancy is awesome too...so is the Rusted Gardener and project diaries
Charles Dowding is also great.
@@JNYC-gb1pp it's so great to get a variety of ideas and info from different sources.
Thank you so much!! My husband is building a raised bed for me for Mother’s Day tomorrow and I’m super excited to start gardening! We were freaking out about the cost of soil this morning though and feeling pretty discouraged. So glad I just found this! ☺️👍🏼
How did your veggie patch go?
What I like about your garden is that it takes up room that would normally be lawn which you would have to mow the grass.
3:00 Get you some 1/3 *COMPOOST*
B/c manure works too :)
I came to see the poo 💩
Epic Gardening I see what you did there
@@epicgardening Nice save.
I see I wasn't the only one to catch that😂
You and Self Sufficient Me are my favorite people to watch on this topic. Keep it up you two
Awesome! Thank you!
This last October we had a massive ice storm. The power company, as they cut down downed limbs and trees, they just piled them up and left them for homeowners to clean up. I used it to start six 4×12 foot raised beds. I have also gotten a kiddie pool and some fabric pots to start a small 'necessaries' garden until I can fill my beds with organic materials.
Thank you for all of the info, am a new subscriber, and will be bingeing your channel tonight! Much love from Oklahoma!!!
Mel Bartholomew always leaves a warm spot in my heart! I never missed Square Foot Gardening in my misspent youth. I even got the book and started my own garden. Thank you for that callback!
I started with Mark then Charles Dowding. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one learning from them.
They're masters
I love both of them too!
Apollo SOL Mark in Queensland Australia is great 👍
Love Mark & Charles. 👍🏻🥰
Yrs ago I learned a trick for taking up space in lg containers which is to literally throw in pages of newspaper, chunks of cardboard, organic filling like leaves about halfway up, then fill with soil, the filling breaks down in the soil and feeds it. It works very well. BTW those metal containers are $199 each.....ouch
OUCH !!!! I CAN MAKE THEM IN STEAD
Mary Mande how?
@@mimimo59 Metal fabrication
199 my god thats maybe 3 dollars of metal and 2 dollars of screws talk about a crazy markup.
Just use metal or aluminum roofing and some 4x6 and make it yourself.
This is exactly what I'm planning to do in my new raised beds, and larger containers. The price of compost has become astronomical here in England (more profiteering!!!) so I'm using pruning, leaves, garden, and kitchen waste. Keep calm, and carry on! 😊👍🌱
You got this
A lot of profiteering going on right now with the few annointed companies that are allowed to stay open. Kinda fucked up.
How neat that you got to actually work with Mel! And thank you for the tips
Nice vid - thank you 👍🏽
I generally fill big pot and raised areas with any old smashed crockery, plastic objects and broken bricks.. plants like to wrap their roots around things which also serves as oxygen pockets.
I would suggest avoiding plastic matter but otherwise totally agree with your post.
I've got my compost from Sacramento county. And it's up to 5 yards free for local resident.
Thanks for producing informative videos which are packed with ideas. Plus, you're to the point and I don't get bored.
Thank you for this! We’re starting our first outdoor garden and I’m a complete newbie. Your videos are very informative which I love
Thanks so much for this video and all the others. I run a native nursery here in SD and just started a veggie garden in my yard and I'm SO BAD at it! You've already saved me from making some major mistakes but I know I'll still make a lot along the way.
LOVE MARK. I have 2, now 3 gardening channels I subscribe to, Mark was my first. What a wealth of information you all provide! Thank you!
great video, finally a video that gets right to the point. I have a huge compost bin that will go to good use now filling up my raised bed. Thanks for the info!
You and Mark are two of my top favorites!
Brilliant video. We’ve just bought exactly that type of raised bed in the UK. Your video was informative and has given me confidence on how to fill it properly and economically. Thank you!
I garden in 9 galvanized horse troughs since they are plentiful here in Montana and I fill them with local renewable peat moss from a small pond bed along with branches, leaves, aging apples from our orchard, grass clippings, and cardboard/newspaper. We have a dairy nearby that has a methane digester putting out wonderful compost which we buy in pickup truck loads. I add worms when I find them in my garden. I just put together my first water-wicking trough after learning from Gardening with Leon. Now if it would just warm up. I don't know what I would do without all you generous UA-cam teachers.
Hi I'm new to this..
Don't I need to drill holes in the bottom for drainage?
@@ricksussman1411 If only using it as a raised bed: I remove the plug found on the side. It’s about an inch hole which seems to allow for plenty of drainage in our area. If you live where it rains a lot, maybe you would. But once you do, the trough has no other value than as a raised bed or wood box.
If creating a wicking tub, no.
PS: I have moved away from wicking tubs in our area. We are too dry a climate.
Love Mark's channel, Love your channel!
Thank you!
Thank you so much! Mel’s Mix was so expensive for us. It’s too late for our garden, but we need alternatives if we want to expand.
I've been doing that for months, kitchen scraps, yard clippings, filling two huge raised beds. Did some big limb trimming and mulched the branches, that went in too. Once it was about 1/3 full or so, I went out and got a few Huge bags of organic raised bed soil, and now I got veggies on one side of my patio and some decorative plants on the other side.
Love your channel and have learned so much from it.
That being said, peat bogs are being destroyed by the harvesting of peat moss and take decades to restore. While it’s not the topic of the video, it becomes a silent endorsement of the devastating practice. Please create a video on the alternatives and refer to it in all such situations.
We’re in the process of filling some really large raised planters and used rice hill compost. Rice hulls are the waste product from harvesting rice and used to be burned, so doubly beneficial to use them as a soil amendment.
Mark is awesome. Love his videos!!
My local council comes and picks up all my grass, sticks, leaves and food waste, I can see why they done that to keep the bins in better order, but now I'm interested in gardening that won't be happening again. My neighbours overgrown trees are going over into my garden they will come in handy too.
Thanks Kevin! Love how you just accentuated and expanded on something I already do -- and I'll definitely use some of your tips. Some additional things I use include "old used" potting mix (window boxes and containers that are ready for fresh soil after some years of use), lower quality ground soil that I partly replace when planting roses, shrubs, and perennials, leaves leaves leaves saved from last fall, and the boxes and boxes of organic matter from my husband's orchid growing hobby (okay, "obsession" -- tons of leaves, roots, flowers, and used growing medium). Thanks again -- love your channel -- just discovered it this winter. So ready to use your tips in my small Chicago vegetable garden!
Yes, mix that soil with plant clippings and lots of leaves and let the bugs and worms get to work.
I can't believe you posted this 45 mins ago. Just right in time, thank you so much!!
Got you covered!
Another one here referred from Mark's channel Self Sufficient Me. I just finally order a few birdies beds I am getting my garden ready thanks a lot to both you and Mark, subbed.
Thank you for all your videos. They are so informative!!
Awesome raised bed gardening tips! We are just now clearing out the leaf coverings from our beds. Can't wait to get into that soil! Very glad to meet you. Just happily cultivated all of the positive buttons. Hope you are having a fantastic day ♡
You can do it!
We used tree branches and compost/ mulch, finished off with mushroom compost.
Oh, and, you have helped me tremendously with this technique - thank you !!
We just bought some big pots for decoration and I am glad I saw this before I put some of my good stuff in it. We've got a lot of sticks and logs that will work fine.
We built 6 raised beds and underestimated the cost of filling them 😂 the growing season for us is almost over anyway so I may start a compost pile for the next season.
Gardening with Leon has a great video on filling large tubs with materials. Well worth watching !Also great for moisture control.
Thanks for the info!
Super BRILLIANT idea...great gardening information.
Thanks so much for sharing..❤💖💝
This blew my mind! Thank you so much.
Im making my garden beds at least 1 metre tall as im also 6'4" and also keeps my Jack Russel and Mini Foxy off my garden i live in the tropics of Northern Australia great channel cheers.
Wesley Raistrick I’m American. Australia is such a beautiful place, I’d love to go there someday.
Sheila Johnson yes it is but I think it will now be a long while before Americans are allowed into Australia unfortunately with their Coronavirus well managed
@@sheilajohnson6478 Yes it is a nice place i live in the North of Australia a place called Cairns in the tropics.
Great videos Kevin!! Keep them coming, I live in ontario, zone 5b so these videos have been very informative. They will also serve me well for my batchelor of agriculture and sciences!!
Love your containers!!
Five seconds into your video and I subscribed. You're awesome.
Love this. Down here in Texas we use stock tanks for raised beds. Maybe not as fancy looking, but definitely much less expensive than any I’ve seen on all the online sites. As for filling them up, glad to learn what we’ve been doing is the recommended way. Thanks. 😊
So I found his planters ( the one he showed) to be the same cost as the ones he showed but much larger and modular. Just got mine, check it out
How do you keep fire ants out of your raised beds? I'm in the Hill Country. Those little bastards are everywhere.
Organic matter, but if you need a lot for several beds, straw is great, it makes the perfect soil.
I am new at this, where would you recommend I go can in Florida to buy or get straw?
Doris Velez you can check feed stores. They often have bales of hay for sale.
@@dorisagape9768 ~ Tractor Supply is a great resource, if you have one close by. Feed, and lawn and garden stores also should be able to help you out. If they don't carry what you are looking for, they almost always know where you can locate some.
Doris Velez If you go to Tractor Supply, it’s bedding straw for animals.
You can also use cardboard and newspaper as well.
I love Mark from SS Me! That's actually how I found your channel and learned about the Birdies! I'm excited to start Veg gardening!
When we were in Manilla our appartment had deep concrete planter boxes. I filled them up with 3/4 coconut husks then bought planting mix.
Beautiful tropical garden.
Buzzin you mentiones Mark from SSM! He's such a legend :) really loved your video man, thank you so much for sharing. Big love! ❤️
Well done ! Very well explained with great advice on using the logs, twigs and veg trimmings 👍🏼👍🏼 Try to avoid using peat here to preserve our remains peat bogs. All the best from Ireland, Hugh 😊👍🏼🌿
Guessing you don’t have a lot of rice production in Ireland, but it is a local (CA, left coast) waste product turned beneficial alternative soil amendment. Wish more people would promote it and save your bogs.
Agreed, please don’t use peat!
Here two years later - after buying 6 birdies beds from you! I need a super cheap way to fill. The soil in my area is really bad (had it tested) and working on amending that area in the mean time. thanks Kevin!
Just built 2-8x4 beds . I put mesh cloth on bottom first, to keep voles out. People in gopher areas do this too. Cardboard at bottom, then logs, shredded wood to fill in between, leaves, emptied my compost pile into it, and got a load of OMRI soil. (Your Mels mix basically). Filled em up. And they are spouting already. This is a great method for Florida, I believe. The dirt here is pretty much sand. And we have dry winters. So with summer rains. I’m hoping the bottom volume stays moist. I love this method.
You can turn upside down plastic flower pots to take up space.
Yep, done this in large containers for flowering annuals
It is slightly missing the point. This is the long term solution. The organic matter and cardboard turn into soil and useful fungi and earthworms love it. A cheap way to grow your own soil while growing crops.
@@Iloathsnow That's true, but I don't see any reason why someone couldn't do both things at once.
Many plastics degrade over time and can leach toxic chemical into your soil. Consider clay pots?
@@adenbuford7396 clay ia great! I always put clayshards in my pots and claypots in biggee cobtainers. Great for distributing water
I love Mark of My self-sufficient me!
And I am so glad we can finally get those raised beds here in the US.
Still, with things the way they are it's going to be an expenditure. But well worth it I'm sure in the long run
Glad I found your channel!
Totally - these are not for those looking to save $ right now, that's for sure. But if you do the math on time + cost of wooden beds + replacing every 5-7 yr...it starts to make a lot more sense!
These aren't that heavy from what I understood. How come it's such expensive shipping? Are they coming from Australia?
Not that they're not worth it just curious.
We had a giant cottonwood removed last year at the time we were building raised beds. We used the stump grindings to fill 12 beds halfway. We used a bag mix for the top half. There was still enough shredded stump for the paths between the beds. In the fall we added 6 more beds. We used plant debris for the bottom half of those beds. All the beds were topped with a couple inches of shredded leaves before winter. We forked the mulch into the beds this spring and started planting. Amazing soil now.
Wow...I'm jealous just reading this!
Thanks for this. I have some 17 1/2" tall beds to fill. I am going to line the bottoms with some old grey firewood I never got around using.. also some branches and tree trunks laying around yard. Will save a lot of money.
Kevin I emailed you about this very subject, thanks for addressing it in a video. I found a video from a old Penn state cement block raised bed garden where she uses hay/straw bales. We got 2 for each bed and they fit perfectly in the large Birdie beds (which I love). Filled the rest with the soil /compost mix and just planted my cool weather veggies
Very cool, glad this worked!
depending on what you use and grow you can go higher with the filler. In one bed I actually had sticks and twigs and leaves just bellow the surface and it caused no problems. Some plants even seem to like this. Not recommended for most root crops though or not at least until it breaks down more.
Thanks for a great video
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You can get free mushroom compost at mushroom farms. Chip drop is free wood chips delivered from arborists. Perlite and vermiculite are pretty cheap. Peat moss is not sustainable, coco coir is an alternative but both introduce fungus gnats, especially indoors. Kratky is something to check out too. Happy gardening!
Something about the spelling of compost into comPOOst at 3:05 nearly made me spit my coffee out laughing. Thank you Kevin. For everything you do for us LOL much love
I've used this method in the past without knowing that it had a name.
I started just six inch raised beds this way with good results
@@jeepwran My great aunt and uncle had raised beds (which converted to cold frames in the winter) that he made. They were wonderful! They were about 10 inches deep, but were on waist-high legs. If I ever have property on which to make such things, I want to use their set-up as my model!
Thank you for this video! I love it!!!😉
Though I love the idea of Charles Dowding’s No Dig concept, I much prefer the extra tall bed method I learned from Mark at Self Sufficient Me as you’ve mentioned! So easy on the back & convenient that I’m more likely to get out & garden! 😆
We did one bed this way this fall - so far it's a couple of logs on the bottom, yard waste, shredded leaves, coffee grounds, some ground-up eggshells, and remnants of bagged compost; I'll top that off with bagged mix before planting in the spring.
My husband and I have decided that we'll use our Christmas tree for the next one. 😄🎄
Learning a ton from you, Mark, Charles, Liz Zora, James Prigioni, and then for my climate MI Gardener this year.
Thanks for sharing your information, love your garden containers 👍❤️😊
You can also add a layer of sand or even pebbles at the very bottom of your raised bed for drainage, as well as take up volume so you don't have to use so much compost. Rotted tree limbs and such are generally very easy to find along the road side in most areas or at a creek bed or such. I am assuming that you do have drain holes in the bottoms of your raised metal garden containers. Nice video and information.
Rocks and pebbles in a raised bed? Nah. That can lead to root rot because the water isn't draining properly
I had a good giggle at the 3:00 mark. Compoost🤣🤣
This is great tip. I’ll definitely follow this. Did not want to waste all that space.
That was so helpful. I am definitely going to use it for my raised beds.
Heck yeah. This is the way to go. I call it a "modified hugulkulture" It works great with chunky compost at the bottom (which for us is usually chicken manure and wood chips from tree trimmers.)
Can you put the chicken manure directly into your raised bed? My neighbor has chickens and just tosses the stuff into the city waste. I would love to have it but am worried about burni g the garden.
Chicken manure needs to be composted before used.
@@beckyc.244
That is a great idea for urban gardeners, Kevin. I suspect the bottom carbon rich layer will become a water retention reservoir that may cause the plants to grow their roots a bit deeper than they are used to
Thank you Siloé - yeah, I'm curious to see myself! Hope you are well and great to hear from you
Very helpful to know this especially for us beginners
Thank you Kevin and God bless. New gardener. Learning a lot from you.
How very appropriate that this video should appear today, as I'm building a new raised bed in my home garden (I'm in lockdown London..) I'm filling up most of the bed with wood chips, free from the local tree surgeon. I will also bulk up the precious little compost I have with coconut coir. Would you please consider going peat free, as peat moss is hugely unsustainable and intensive mining of peat has adverse effects on the climate, and destroys valuable ecosystems. In the UK, peat is being phased out, and although we did not meet the target of 2020,it will happen.
Thanks for great content and useful channel! 🌱🌱
Yeah there's a lot of debate around peat, the crazy part is that about 1% of global peat use is for home gardening applications, the other 99% is for industrial / commercial scale stuff. So home gardeners even if we completely quit peat, are making almost no difference in usage
those raised beds are pretty!
I think so too!
Love you and your videos. I forgot about the mulch, thanks for that reminder! I used leaves at the bottom of mine...thankfully I had not gotten rid of them yet.
Thanks for this (and all your other) videos. I'm a new gardener with bad knees. I'm thrilled to see a raised bed assembled at this height.
Glad it was helpful!
I just get free compost from the city green waste dump. Had to make a few trips but free is free 😀.
What city do you live in
Doris Velez I live in the Bay Area in Northern California. I go to the Sunnyvale SMaRT station for compost. My parents live in the twin cities in MN, they can get free compost too.
Good idea,I’ll check into it
@A H The place I get it from claims to be certified organic. I think most chemicals (herbicides and pesticides) will degrade during the composting process. It's mostly leaf waste around here as there's not many lawns.
Most municipal compost piles are rife with anaerobic organisms which is a breeding ground for pathogenic organisms. This is because municipal composting operations are more concerned with sterilization versus maintaining aerobic conditions in the pile, obtaining 131°+ temperatures for the given period requirements, etc.
Thanks for the tips man! Glad you made a joke of spilling that soil😂
;)
Excellent video! You made it so easy! Sure beats digging in the ground too.
Thank you! Great information! I am in Missouri and most people need raised beds because it's so rocky.
"Compoost" , lol!
The kids and I are making raised beds this year... it has been.... an experience, lol!
I use the wood shavings I scoop out of my chicken coop. The wood is carbon, the chicken poop is nitrogen, and they break down into the perfect compost over time. Nothing goes to waste.
This is Great, I'm filling 12 beds 8 that are fairly tall and I need this! Great Vid
I'm so glad I was able to come across this video. I just spent a little over $100 for top soil and potting mix; and still seems like that wasn't enough. That was my garden budget! I do have lots of grass clippings and cut up branches that I needed to do something with (spouse will be happy to see that gone). Thank you for the knowledgeable and well spoken information.
Awesome tip. I have partially composted matter that would be perfect for this. Thanks Kevin and glad you gave a shout out to my fellow Aussie Mark, whose vids I also love. Let's get into it!
No problem 👍
Great video, I do the same kind of things with my raised beds, it's so brilliant. The only things that bother me more and more these days are those plastic bags that the soil comes in... They end up in land fill ie buried in the earth or being burned in Malaysia.. I dump so many plastic bags, I really want other options..
Check out bulk soil suppliers in your area. I get 18 of those 1.5 cubic foot bags worth for $30-$50. I’ve even seen people without a trailer have it dumped on a tar and shoveled into plastic totes to go in the back of and suv. Home Depot and others also rent pickups cheap.
The plastic bags can become liners in cardboard boxes to create mini raised beds.
I love the style in which you explain things and make it easy for anyone to pick it up. Great work. Love the channel.
Awesome! Thank you!
I like this guy, he seems pretty practical.
5:12 LOL no sir I saw that very clearly 😂😂
I filled the bottom six inches of my 24" raised beds with the low quality clay soils I had to get rid of in my yard on my first couple of raised beds, but the next six I've done exactly as you suggest. The big mistake I made was with the first two beds that were put in close to a young peach tree and I'd never even thought to put weed matting on the bottom. Five years later, peach tree is 10 feet tall and both these raised beds have been choked out by the roots of that tree sucking the life out of all the vegies in them. All I can do is dig out all that soil and lay down weed mat hoping it will do the job and start again!
Oh no! Hope that works
I use cardboard, which works great (you have to save big pieces if possible)
@@wchiwinky Thanks for the suggestion. I've got plenty of cardboard around so will try using that combined with the best quality weed matting I can get hold of.
In areas where there are a lot of weeds I use three layers of cardboard, then straw, then branches, then soil mix. In my work area I used old carpet covered with straw. Went over two years before a few weeds showed in the carpet area.
Phil De Punter. It happened to me last year. I put 3 raised beds under my Mango tree and even with that black tarp, the tree roots went through! Hope you have better luck. I moved mine. Be safe ❤️😁👍
Ty for sharing your videos and information with us ALL. I am glad I found your channel today. New friend here now. GOD bless us ALL
I learned that very thing with filling the beds from dirtpatchheaven! thanks! your beds are very attractive and a great use of urban yard.
So nice of you!