It's great to see this father holding his baby and talking about this subject and hearing the baby vocalizing. It's so wonderful to raise children. God bless every loving parent across the earth.
Hey Dave - I'm a 71 year old woman on a fixed income who moved to south/central FL from NY four months ago. I was a new gardener in NY and was starting to achieve a little gardening success before I moved. I was terrified by the growing conditions here in S. FL, especially with the food shortage pressures looming on the horizon. Your videos and your lectures at the homesteader's conference in Blountstown a couple of months ago have helped a lot. Making soaked biochar, using alfalfa pellets, and adding manure are some of the things I learned from you. I have plants that are actually growing in the ground, in a raised bed, and in grow bags. Your approach has set me free to experiment and press on. Many thanks and God bless.
@ Sharon Pineo: Happy Relocation & Happy Gardening. You are doing well in your experimentation. Somehow David is making us all a little bolder,creative,crazy in our gardening, even my little God 🙏 Blessed Garden in BK. Blessings to ALL!
Where in south/central Florida are you? I am in DeSoto County and the Arcadia Garden Club has been Re-vitalized coming out of the pandemic. Look for us and our activities on Facebook, maybe come down to visit.
I do use fireplace ash with potting soil for growing cantaloupes. They grow huge and sweet and with so much water in them. When you shake them, you can hear the water inside. Their size is bigger than a big saucer and a bit smaller than a dinner plate. I grow them on a chain link fence and when they are ripened, they fall to the ground without breaking open. ASH RULES !!!
Just bought 3 books, I live in Charlotte County and have watched you for years. First time I could afford the books , gardening helped me go from nearly disabled to mostly functional and you definitely are partly to thank for that. God bless you, can't wait to read your books!
The incans buried large stone blocks under their soil, that way crop roots didnt freeze too bad during the winter. Thats cause even in the winter, the suns radiation still penetrates the ground a good depth, so the stones would absorb it during the day and radiate the heat during the night, keeping the soil on top somewhat warm. Happy planting.
@@norxgirl1 Not sure exactly, deep enough to plant on top of, shallow enough to still be heated by the sun. And some of them were the side stones on the wall of the terraces, so exposed to the air and sun. Im thinkin abouy burying naturally black stones under my crops to try have same effect, without the stones being large.
@@dustinbrandel59 across Europe they set small fires in vine fields to stop the grapes being frozen by frost and one person stays up and tends them. I'm sure it's been done for other crops too.
I never understood why people felt the need to fertilize a huge area for a few plants. I have always just made the ground fertile only underneath what I was growing. It saves so much money and gives you great returns.
The little special pumpkin I'm pretty sure is the Cherokee small tan. It is amazing! At every leaf it sets roots down so it is really hard for squash bugs to kill it. Huge spreader.
We're in East TN with heavy clay soil (although not as rocky as what you describe) and we're doing more or less the same thing you are. Just making individual planting holes for each individual annual or perennial. They end up as little planting mounds, since I'll typically dig out a bucket of native soil, then mix that with another bucket or two of compost, leaf litter, dead varmints, kitchen scraps, nosy neighbors, or whatever to fill it back in. (I'm kidding about the nosy neighbors. People around here mostly mind their own beeswax.) I think of it as improving the soil a cubic foot or two at a time. I'd go broke in one year for sure if I tried to improve the whole place at once, and even just doing a couple 1000 sq ft plots would add up to a whole lot of work and expense. I figure in the main garden plots, eventually each row of planting holes will become a raised row of rich healthy soil over the next couple-few years.
@@FeelingShred you're absolutely right, choosing plants with strong roots is always a good idea, especially the first year in a new spot. I've had good luck with beans and sunflowers and okra for breaking into this clay. Beans have the extra advantage of being nitrogen fixers. If you can wait a year, it can be very helpful to grow grasses and clover in a new spot and just let them work for a season. Many such cover crops can be grown over winter if your climate is mild enough. The grasses put out lots of fine but deep roots and the clover (or other legumes) fixes nitrogen into the soil. Whenever possible/practical, let plant roots do the work for you. Plus I almost always leave roots in the ground when I harvest a plant or even cut down a tree, so those roots will compost in place and return organic matter into the soil.
@@imaniniles-perez8529 I was kidding about burying the nosy neighbors. Honest. But we do have a sign on our gate that reads "Trespassers Will Be Composted" LOL
@@FeelingShred well there are about a thousand different kinds of grasses. You sure wouldn't plant quackgrass... I was speaking about ones used specifically as cover crops, like wheat, oats etc. Rye grass is often used and yes it can be a bit difficult to get rid of. But at worst turning over the thin layer of sod, covering that with cardboard, dumping a little compost on it and moving forward with whatever works pretty well. The cardboard will break down and eventually become soil. Black tarps etc will certainly knock back anything that's already there, but they don't really do anything to actually build more soil. I prefer to always keep living roots of one kind or another in the soil whenever possible. There are a LOT of ways to skin this cat... one of the most accessible and budget- friendly ways to start a new bed is "lasagna gardening," there are loads of videos about that.
Funny thing is this is not click bait and thank you david for sharing a piece out of compost everything for free for us freeloaders on youtube. I love all your content and you have a great family David thank you
I took a clay quarry and put two years into the area extreme changes and pretty much what you are doing except for the meat and had extra ordinary growth that made neighbors feel they needed to liberate their minds a bit about gardening. Raised gardening is their thing but nothing else when the soil has had only minor changes. The seeds and their individual needs, types for this part of the country, quantity of light each day, and many other factors. I love watching gardeners that pay wonderful attention to experimentation and making magical kingdoms of their soil. Your little one is doing her experiments. Fun.
DTG, been watching you a long time. Bought your books. T-shirts. Just wanted to thank you for the incredible gifts you give humanity. You truly are a Renaissance man. Seriously the best content on YT. Also, that Song of the Siren tune you wrote is fantastic. God bless.
Can't wait for the follow up!! A couple years ago I buried old clothes that would've been trash... in a line by my plants to hold moisture like a sponge cuz my outdoor water spickets are broken and I can't afford to fix... It worked enough that I would do it again. I also buried cardboard and sticks... Fixed areas that were always mud like quicksand. Planted garlic and a flower area. I really hope I'm well enough to garden again this year. I also have seeds for a giveaway if I can get strong enough after mourning my son, where I can make a video. Luv y'all.
@ Speak Life Garden: Thanks for the old clothes, cardboard idea..... How creative & ingenious..... circumstances & necessity will birth them both ( creativity and ingenuity).... Condolences to you and your family........YOU WILL BE WELL THIS YEAR AND BEYOND. BLESSINGS & GREATER EXPECTATIONS MADE MANIFEST!
So sorry for you. My daughter died at 26. I carry on for a son and and daughter. Son is 60, 2x prostrate cancer. I trust God's plan. mine never worked. We are all gonna die, anyway. SO I believe in Jesus just in case God's not done with us. Like the seeds,, they die but become like JESUS AND HOLY SPIRIT IN ME.
@@jeannemurray276 sorry for your loss. Yes, we all will die in this world, but there is hope for those who love Jesus for he will raised the dead at his return. This is the blessed hope i am waiting for.
" 1491 " had a chapter on peoples of the Amazon building soil with biochar , pottery chards and animal bones. My grandfather grew tomatoes on a farm way back . The soil was depleted when he bought it . He built the soil back to health with bones from the slaughter house and manure from the stock yards .
A little Greg Judy cow ranching advice: put an electric wire along that creek allowing them just enough room to poke their head in to get a drink without allowing them to get in and play water buffalo. If they're allowed to go buck-wild in the riparian area, they could degrade or destroy it.
Really likes this tastic of using the holes as your inground nutrients' stores for the indiviual plants. So they can get what they need yet still have access to the entirely of the native soil. I GOT to try this for sure!!
I had so much fun watching this 'Operation Xtreme Pumpkins Galore' and felt as though I was there! Such healthy natural methods and so good to experience the family involvement. Love to all of you, from South Africa.
Fancy hat for a gardener with dirty hands! We were in a friend's shed. There was a nice stack of large banana pumpkin. I asked about them. They gave them to the cows for food and the cows dropped the seeds in the field in the manure... Only work the friend did that year was to pick them up in the fall. Cow pies were the pumpkin pits...
Thank you for saying you can bury chicken manure deep under your garden transplants... people freak out so much about fresh manure along with the fetid swamp "water" ... I call it tea...seems alot less abrasive to those who do not use commercial garden products!
This is the first time I ever watched your channel. Love your laid-back this is who we are presentation. The baby, the , oh, I have to put my coffee down. When you got inards out of freezer. Then the breaking them up, throwing them against trees. Hysterical. Made me laugh.
There was a dorment lemon tree ...been that way for years...and years ...I asked a farmer if I could have some of his well rotten dung and stuck it under the tree hoping... Oh wow one day flower bud popped out!...I didn't think much about it all sudden flowers everware and then fruits wow really heavy with most wonderful lemons ever tasted!
Great ideas we get from you, David! I simmer bone broth for 1-2 days, then remove and char the bones either separately or with other biochar, and bury them in the melon pit (an idea I heard from you last year) or deep potato trench with whatever not-usually-edible chicken parts we have from chicken processing day. Or with chicken or cow manure, fresh or not. Or weeds. Or whatever. It can get a little wild, but plants like to grow in the wildness.
That's awesome and very efficient. We sometimes boil up a pot of chicken leg quarters to feed our dogs, pull all the bones out, make broth with the water and save the bones. I haven't made bonechar with them yet but I'm pretty close to having a full bucket of the bones to work with.
@@annestrada1724 Thank you, Ann! I'd heard of that, but the chicken feet dragged around in the dirt for a day or two before I could process them, so into the deep garden rows and pits they went. Because of your encouragement I'll try to boil the feet on chicken processing day. Any additional source of collagen is welcome!
If you have access to somewhere that sells or gives away old bread, try giving some to your cows. They love bread & will quickly learn to come to you, to the point that you can hand feed it to them. I've had several dairy cows that became big 'pets' just by us treating them to bread. Also works for goats!! God bless!
I love your down to earth and humorous style! I grin when I watch, and I find your children delightful! Thank you for entertaining and educating us at the same time!❤
That's fighting banter! It flows strongly in my family! I planted nut trees on a slope with each having their own cheap wicking system. I planted winter squash and winter melon about two feet away on the downward slope of each tree, so as to take advantage of the downslope flow of the water under the trees. Fun experiment, they should also shade the trees with their big leaves and feed when I do chop and drop. Thank you for the lessons! (I'm in N. TX)
You are so blessed David to have all those little helping and then they're learning all that good knowledge God bless you and your family and may your soil get perfect
I am loving the cowboy hat. And the cows! After watching you try so many approaches for gardening for years, it's exciting to see how much you're branching out into animals and fill in the missing pieces of the nutrient loop cycle or whatever they call it in permaculture. Stacking functions and whatnot. I also loved the frozen chicken guts snowballs. Clearly they should always be frozen together in giant chunks, because that looked like a lot of fun.
I just found your channel and really enjoyed the video. It makes me smile to see you working outside with your family. It is quickly disappearing (doing things outside with kids, that can teach them to survive or at least be self sustaining. God bless you all.
Throwing frozen chicken guts at trees with my dad was one of my fondest memories growing up. Keep up the good work!!! Cant wait to see a video on the cows!
@@FeelingShred I grew up in America's Dairyland, surrounded by farmers, and my experience was much the same as yours. It's sad. Even now many/most of them really resist any idea other than burn fuel tilling, buy tons of synthetic fertilizer and lime and patented seed, repeat forever. And they can't figure out why they're always broke :/ They're also doing a lot of damage to the soil, creating run-off problems and erosion issues, etc. It's because of a century of relentless brainwashing as you said (marketing, advertising, whatever you want to call it). The Big Ag corps that sell all that stuff have the farmers by the balls, and they own the gov't too.
@@dogslobbergardens6606 Sounds like you and Jim Kovaleski would get along just fine, good guy in Florida. Green Dreams channel has a new vid featuring him.
@@NoNORADon911 I think I've heard that name or saw a video with him somewhere. Thanks for the tip, I'll check that out! EDIT yep I remember that guy! Thanks for the reminder. I've been thinking about using soil blocks, just haven't got around to it yet. I like the air-pruning aspect very much. I've started some things in homemade little grow bags and ventilated pots, and they do a lot better in transplanting. No root-bound plants and they just take right off with no shock.
Great compost video! I’m reading Compost Everything each evening, and today I received Grocery Row Gardening in the mail and am looking forward to it. Our last average frost is May 20th so I should have plenty of time to read them and utilize them. Thanks so much! 🌱
I'm thrilled you're doing a Maxima landrace. I'm currently doing a Moschata that's utilizing many of the ones you are but I tossed in Lofthouse's and the Guatemalan Green Fleshed Ayote. I'm also doing a Southern Cucumber landrace. Stoked!
@@patriciatinkey2677 you mix together a diverse set of seeds, let them crossbreed, and then select seed from the healthiest most prolific plants each year. After many seasons you develop something that thrives in your area.
@@ManMtn7 Thank you for the explanation! Sounds cool, & much more sensible than attempting to grow stuff (year after year) that just doesn't like your area. 🍀 to you!
I think its Joel Salatin that talks about composting whole pigs in his normal compost bays (8'x8'?) Like you said, _nature_ composts meat, the way I see it, its just bloodmeal and bonemeal in an unprocessed state. My grandmother grew absolutely amazing roses and part of her method was burying the leftovers from fish the kids had caught in the planting hole.
I do chop and plop for same reasons. Free compost. I just find what works and go with it. Work with nature, not against her. I'm permaculture, hugelkulture, organic as I can be in here SW AR surrounded by chemical plants, refinery, etc. I create my own little eco system with my birds as pest management. Works great. Adding goats for cheese and poison ivy control.
You've been "weird" since long before the baby and sleep deprivation 🤣 that's why I'm a subscriber. Lots of love to your family, it's really cool to see you all working together ❤️
Watching your videos makes so much sense. I always wished I was one of my older siblings so I could have learned the old ways from my grandparents but I wasn’t. I feel like I’m getting a second chance. Thanks
Mr. David, you seem like the parent I aspire to be. Your children are beautiful and happy. All your plant babies look like they will be well taken care of too! I am new to your channel, but rest assured, I will be back! Thank you for your astounding ideas! And now, I will go watch your other vids about other veggies bc I simply love your "hippie" style! Thank you for sharing your family and planting methods with those new to gardening (I'm on my fourth year of planting veggies) like me! Awesome, man! I have a new favorite channel! Subscribed!
Your video just appeared on my YT after I was having a discussion with my husband about planting pumpkins. 🤔 Thanks, UA-cam! 🤔 Sure am thankful I found you. I will definitely try your method. It looks fun. Glad you told about the ashes making them sweeter too. I purchased some of the same seeds that you are planting and the packaging looks like from the same seed company.
Ha! Walkin' coffee! Love it! You're in my kid's generation and your enthusiasm and fun are part of their, and their freinds', personality too. I really enjoy your videos. Planning on buying Compost Everything later this month. Really, really got a lot of great information from Push the Zone. I'm going to try a Bartlett pear though I'm in zone 4b. Your book pointed out how to locate the microclimate. Oh, on chicken butchering....we used to turn them upside down and rock them by their feet. They sort of go to sleep and we'd use a loper on them, after praying our thankfulness. God bless you and your family always.
Another compost option a grandpa used on 'sterile' soil, was to put compost in a small area during winter. If you got freezing temperatures, In spring it was usable, else you need half year.
13:12 That's funny I'm american indian, & about a year ago i came across someone having issues of fertilizer on top of their plants always getting into their end product. So i decided to ask why they would place it on top of the plant? It seems like a really inefficient way to use compost or fertilizer not to mention messy depending on what your using. I asked why wouldn't you bury it underneath the plant & not have to worry about it? Idk maybe i think outside the box or perhaps i know a bit more about growing food than i think i do, but yeah its what i would do. It makes the most out of it because its just going to become soil after anyway. But apparently most people don't do it. I feel like its weird just to place it on top, its defiantly not all gunna leech into the plant's & soil that's for sure like it would in the ground. I'm just happy I'm not the only wierdo out there. lol
Fantastic idea to do it all in one mound! You and your daughter adding the kelp reminded me of me and my dad when I was a little bit older then her. He told me to go fertilize the garden while he was at work. Said to spread out some trip 13 and don’t get too close to the plants. I spread too much, too close and burned up the garden. He said it’s ok, now you know what not to do. He was incredibly smart and loved to teach. I learned so much. At your daughters age we went frog hunting every night when the street lights came on. I took my bucket & we both had flashlights and collected frogs. Then when we got home I had to let them “go back to their family”. Guess what? Frogs are great for gardens, they eat all the funky bugs, like slugs lol. Happy Spring! 🪣 🔦 🐸 👍🏻🌱🌱🌱🌱👍🏻
Love stories like that. It's so important for youngsters to have those positive experiences; it sticks with you your whole life. My Dad used to send me out fishing for bullheads a couple times a summer. Partly to get me out of his hair I'm sure, but then he would chop them all up and bury them between our garden rows. I think he learned that from reading about Native Americans' techniques. I'm fifty-ish now and we still save all the guts and heads whenever we go fishing, even if we take the fillets first, for the same purpose.
I’m late fifty ish lol. I think it’s important to share what we know. Thanks! And yes, thank you…my Dad was very amazing and loved gardening, he had the compost and chickens, lots of books, etc. Another thing he did was plant around and over the chicken coop/pig pen. It looked like your grocery row garden. Whatever grew inside the animals got, whatever grew outside we got lol. Such fertile, rich soil! And the critters loved it 😊 Vines like grapes & mirlitons, cucumber, peas and beans. I bet fruit trees would have done really well there.
@@deannewilliams3321 we're going to try a technique called "forage circles" in our chicken run. You just make little rings of wire fencing or whatever and plant greens etc inside them; they're mostly protected from the chickens till they grow some, then you pull off the fencing and move it a little and plant more the same way. So the birds have a steady supply of fresh greens and then they're fertilizing each spot in turn. Another channel plants fruit bushes and small trees right in the chicken run like you said. He surrounds the bottoms of them with log chunks or whatever's handy so the chickens don't dig into the roots.
I am a newbie to your channel...not prepping but ur channel amd its by far taught me so much in such a short period of time...i just bought an old farm house and cant wait to start my garden and building my gréenhouse...i only have a quarter acre...but excited...and ill have ro build an irrigation system due to having a well
I think I'll try this in my new orchard area between the trees where there's still grass/yard. I don't have enough plants after planting my main garden to do the grocery row gardens in the rows of trees, but am adding in plants (herbs, edible flowers, fruiting bushes) around the trees as I go and trying to keep the grass out/back. I hope to just keep expanding between the trees until the planted areas join up and make a grocery row. The Bermuda grass, Johnson grass and some other type of grass that grows with aggressive rhizomes here in NE AL is vicious! It grew up and over and completely covered buckets, pots, kiddie pools full of dirt and a few pieces of roofing tin and a roll of fencing I had on the ground during the time I got injured/sick (about 2 months). I've scaled the grass and even took sod out, sheet mulched with cardboard and 6 inches of compost over it at times and about 3 months in, there it is starting to come up. Sigh
@@tesha199 no but it gives me time to get a crop in and ahead of the grass. And a tool to knock it back between rows. Plenty of compost seems to help knock it back too.
Your videos are so very fun!! I enjoy hearing you talk while your beautiful kids are talking and helping. You’re a wonderful dad! I would love being one of your kids.
TY for all of the tips! I was wondering why we're told to only compost vegetables but have to buy blood and bone to add into the soil. I'll start burying those scraps now.
I grew up on a [family] dairy farm in Ohio in the 1950's, and we grew most of our cattle feed as well as having chickens, pigs, and a large (over one acre) truck garden for us. There were also apple, peach, black walnut, chestnut, and pecan trees, along with wild blackberries, raspberries, and morel mushrooms. Add three young steers every year, several pigs, a couple of chickens each week, and lots of fish, squirrels, rabbits, opossums, raccoons, and the annual deer or two, and there was never a food shortage. We didn't have a lot of money, but we always had plenty to eat. I have just discovered your channel, and I like what you are doing. I do wish, however, that you would wear proper boots!
What a little sweet child, she will be a plant pro having learned the important issues at a young age... Teach Your children well...The lessons of plant husbandry, it will feed you for life....
I have been saving all of our spoiled food and anything the toddlers pick at but don't finish in bags in my freezer. Love your videos and your books (I've bought 3 so far!)
I'm doing an experiment with planting Seminole Pumpkin seeds in hay bales. They will have a 9' fence wall to climb. Never grown them before. Love your videos.
I have no idea why your channel came up on my feed. I live in Australia & mainly subscribe in my areas, due to same climate. Thoroughly enjoyed your content, will definitely try your method of planting holes. No frills, to the point & abundance of great advice, I'm in, just subbed, thank you 👍🇦🇺
I always dig super-deep holes when I plant tomatoes and peppers. I bury one or two raw eggs under each plant, separated from the plant by a couple of inches of dirt. This year we've saved all of our fish heads when we cleaned fish, and we're putting those under corn in a Three Sisters patch. I think we may try what you showed us in this video with burning carbon materials in deep planting holes before we add the fish heads. We're going to ring the patch with hot-fence to keep the coons and dogs out. We've never done this before, so we're pretty excited!
The gardening thing (obsession for me) has taken me from sitting and missing my husband. He died 2 years ago and the loneliness is all consuming. Not having resources for soil improvements like I want, all your ideas including bio-char, are really not expensive. I finally bought one of your books. Totally crazy easy. Came today. Will have it read before morning. Which one do you suggest for my next read?
I am sorry to hear you lost him - I can't imagine. It is good to garden, though. That is where I meet with God, many times. You might enjoy Florida Survival Gardening for an additional read.
I was taught this basin method by an indigenous Mexican . His people did these since the time of the Aztec. It is used in deserts, as a way of saving irrigation. By leaving a berm,, not a hill, You water the roots, not the area. And as you said, you only prepare a growing zone, not a whole field. Thats not practical for hand gardening. I think this is a case of convergent technology. 😁
I noticed, that I am so issolated, that I was watching your pumpkin thing, like I was the ones you were talking too, and it helped my extreme isolation. Thanks
I remember a horror movie: The roses gardener; he has the best roses ever planted over the bodies of all his victims: he was a serial killer! Other time a tree fall in a storm and at his exposed root was the body of a civil war soldiers who maybe hid or die next the tree, who knows how he end up surrounded by roots! So I totally believe this idea is great, I used only to care about eggs shells, but now my trash in the kitchen will lighthen a lot, I remember in Paraguay we had a letrine that become full, so we cover it with dirt and made a new one, after awhile it become a sunken place so my grandpa added more soil with leaves, he made broom sweep all the leaves etc from surrounding areas and more dirt until it become a mound, and he planted there bananas, it sunk again a little and it collected a little of rain water, but the bananas grew from the root he put there came out a bunch of bananas and the banana fruit become so long with fruits that people marvelled at them, now I know that bananas only fructify until they feel there is not more food for them; but if you keep feeding they keep fructifying and keep also their size, then we have like a doble long banana fruit until the floor, the best bananas ever! Imagine!
Just discovered your wonderful video blog. We spend much time in Mexico, which is ahead of the U.S. in its ability to survive. Thansk so much for sharing your expertise. Your family gives me hope. God bless you.
So I'm guessing that with 4 different strains next to each other, will they cross-pollinate each other. Will the cross breeds show up in the first batch of pumpkins? Will adjacent pumpkins on the same plant potentially be different strains?
@@davidthegood yes... we knew that basic concept, but nonetheless we ended up creating a new set of crosses by accident. Got a lot of rather strange and highly-varied squash last year out of one package of saved seeds LOL. One of your videos helped me understand which squash/pumpkin varieties will cross with one another, so thank you for that!
I have a friend in New York who is retired from commercial dairy farming. They finished out with some Dexter's, still have a couple for household use. She has a lot of stories about how smart they can be.
My dog killed a black racer snake in the back yard, a big one at that, and I threw it in the worm bin without a thought and the snake was just bones within 10 days or so, incredible stuff to feed the soil and plants with, just like humans we need protein, and we are not so different than plants, we as humans originated from the dust of the earth, everything that is healthy for us is healthy for the soil
I composted meat and the Black Soldier Flies loved it so much! I fermented them first with bokashi and put it on the other side of my worm bin. The worms ate the ressh unfermented veggie scraps and the Black Soldier fly larvae ate the fermented chicken bones. All that was left was wet black dirt! LOL
Can we rear fish in a permacultural pond? I have a very clayey soil, with a ground water table only 1.5 foot below the surface, which reaches at the surface during the rainy season, the only time I can garden in it is during the dry season, so I have planned to dig trenches upto the water table and make raised beds from the dug out soil , so I can rear catfish in the trenches and grow lotus and grow yard long beans and turmeric over the beds
Judging strictly by every single hole I've ever dug in our very clayey soil, those trenches will fill with water quickly, and stay full a long time even if it doesn't rain for a few days. (which is not much fun when you're putting in a bunch of fence posts.) The not-so-great part is that the water in them will always be the color of, well, clay... and sometimes it'll seem almost thick enough to stand a spoon up in. I suspect that might be a problem for fish. ;) I do think that catfish are probably the most likely type to be able to deal with it, since they're used to muddy rivers. But even in really muddy rivers, the water is constantly moving/refreshed. That might not be the case in your trenches. Fishies generally need quite a bit of oxygen in thier water. Also, stagnant water has an alarming tendency to fill up with mosquitoes in warm weather. I do not mean to discourage you, just thinking out loud. I'll be watching for answers that are more helpful than mine :) It's a fascinating idea for sure.
BTW I'm also pretty sure you could line the trenches with heavy plastic pond-liner to keep the water cleaner. That may or may not be prohibitively expensive, depending on what that stuff costs in your area and how much of it you need. We looked into building a fish pond on our property and ran into a LOT of problems. Not just our clay soil and the expense of lining it, but also the fact that our soil is only about 18" deep and then you hit solid bedrock. That's just not enough depth/volume of water to support most food fish. In our case we decided to just skip the pond, and instead we're starting a fairly big raingarden with plants that can handle the constantly wet soil, and berms around that sort of like the raised beds you described, for planting things that like better drainage.
@@dogslobbergardens6606 actually, the fish specie I am going to rear is known as walking catfish, and they like muddy water, and if they will get a slight flow of water , they tend to swim away against that, and they generally inhabitant the bed of stagnant water bodies, so I am going to plant my trenches in such a way that they will not be able to escape , and as the water level will fall , they can be easily harvested, if I will try to catch them in high water level, then they can easily give a painful sting I have already made a liner pond in my upper garden and stocked it will Native snails and Gambusia fish to keep the mosquitoes in check , they will also serve as a food source for my Catfish Unlike the Carps or barbs or many other fishes, the Caliras Batrachus and under studied Caliras Magur can breath atmospheric air, and can survive in ammonia rich waters , where other fishes may suffocate, and the African Caliras , the Sharp tooth Catfish can even survive in sewar systems, but I don't want that, because it's an invasive specie and under a legal ban by Government of India since 2000 But as a precaution, I have planted Lotus on the treach bed and Ipmoea Aquatica ,the water spinach on the sides to keep the nitrates under check, if I have to remove some nitrates, then I can easy cut and remove Lotus or Water spinach leaves, and use them as green manure for my garden, as dinitrifyling Bacteria will convert Ammonia into nitrites and than into nitrates, that should not cause any problems And I am going to also use that liner pond as the hatchery for the catfish eggs I can understand your worries my bro, but I have measured the water before going down into it ;) Btw, thanks for your suggestion:-D
Hey,David! we're living in Pensacola,FL. Pumpkins a melons will grow here good? I have no experience, because just moved here last August. thanks for any advice 😉❤️ and one more question: do I need to plant far away different species of pumpkins to avoid cross pollination?
See my other pumpkin vids on breeding and crossing. Same species cross, diff usually do not. Seminole pumpkins and C. moschata types do well there. So do watermelons.
I grew up in Louisiana and they Cajun grandfather taught us to bury the seafood cleanings, cooked and uncooked, in the garden beds and to do the same thing with the unwanted remains of the hunted game. Do this along with composting kitchen scraps and you end up with rich dark soil. Amending the soil never stops. If we take amendments out by growing plants and food it only makes sense that we must return amendments to keep the soil rich and strong.
Love your content! My wife said you had a class on processing chickens, I’d really like to watch that, but I couldn’t find the link for it. Looked on your website but didn’t see it. Do you have another place that I can find that?
Filling holes with "highly concentrated nutrients" is yet another great reason to spend a chill night chasing the curs or hounds through the swamp on a coon hunt, as if an excuse is needed. Possoms & armadillos work in those holes,, too. Any volunteers that don't end up in a hole get split and go to the velociraptors (chickens) for always much-needed and free protein. Sometimes I'll put a carcass or gutpile a day or 2 ahead of the chickens so they'll have plenty of larvae to eat when they rotate on to that section.
Possums kill copperheads. That is their favorite meal according to a possum specialist on a PBS documentary. We have an abundance of copperheads in NC, that is why I will never kill a possum unless because of Biden times I get that hungry.
Very interesting, not sure how well the pumpkins would do down here in south west Florida. I planted some butternut squash back in September in a pot, I have done the same concept I guess let it run wild it is actually grown into the canal and into the neighbors lawn L O LHave to vine does look dead but it is still producing fruit have probably harvested over 20 squash on the one plant so far.
I need to get the compost book for my mom. She's always saying you cant compost this, you cant compost that..oy..I COMPOST EVERYTHING..I learned this from you..I am in Shed Wars and my very first teaching video was on how to make "Dave's Fetid Swamp Water (TM)" with a twist. I add dried worm casting to my brew..thank you for all you do and have done!
I can totally relate to a guy who thinks on his toes & knows how to separate lunch bags with style. It's what I woulda done without even thinkin' 'bout it ;) Subscribed!
When she was coming with that brick, I was anticipating: NOT ON DADDY'S FOOT! One critique: you do realize you blew a chance to actually yell FIRE IN THE HOLE ;-)
I live on the Florida/Bama line, and the weeds are SO VERY AGGRESSIVE!! Not just weeds but TREES. I am going almost 100% Florida Native this time around, hoping the Seminoles can beat the Polk Weed, (the more I pull, the happier they are) Mimosa trees (again, they dare me to pull them, they have a deep underground root that is always making new sprouts) Hoping the Everglade tomatoes can strategically outwit the thorny vines, and everything else. Got your book, Crazy Easy Florida Gardening! Expecting some good results!! Thanks a bunch!
It's great to see this father holding his baby and talking about this subject and hearing the baby vocalizing. It's so wonderful to raise children. God bless every loving parent across the earth.
Amen!
Yes especially these days……I remember my Dad playing catch with me and I ended up being a great ball player.
it's a pleasure to see the wholesome
Hey Dave - I'm a 71 year old woman on a fixed income who moved to south/central FL from NY four months ago. I was a new gardener in NY and was starting to achieve a little gardening success before I moved. I was terrified by the growing conditions here in S. FL, especially with the food shortage pressures looming on the horizon. Your videos and your lectures at the homesteader's conference in Blountstown a couple of months ago have helped a lot. Making soaked biochar, using alfalfa pellets, and adding manure are some of the things I learned from you. I have plants that are actually growing in the ground, in a raised bed, and in grow bags. Your approach has set me free to experiment and press on. Many thanks and God bless.
Great work, Sharon. You'll like the new book I have coming out in a few weeks, too - it's just on South Florida. You can do so much there!
Which video did you learn about soaked biochar? This is my first time seeing one of his awesome videos.
@@jofipps376 I learned of it first at an in person lecture. The first video I viewed about it was from a month ago, "Backyard Biochar....."
@ Sharon Pineo: Happy Relocation & Happy Gardening. You are doing well in your experimentation. Somehow David is making us all a little bolder,creative,crazy in our gardening, even my little God 🙏 Blessed Garden in BK.
Blessings to ALL!
Where in south/central Florida are you? I am in DeSoto County and the Arcadia Garden Club has been Re-vitalized coming out of the pandemic. Look for us and our activities on Facebook, maybe come down to visit.
I do use fireplace ash with potting soil for growing cantaloupes. They grow huge and sweet and with so much water in them. When you shake them, you can hear the water inside. Their size is bigger than a big saucer and a bit smaller than a dinner plate. I grow them on a chain link fence and when they are ripened, they fall to the ground without breaking open. ASH RULES !!!
is the ash fresh from the fire, or does it set awhile? water washes out the nutrients, so i'm wondering...
This has been the process used in Asian crops and rice fields.
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Just bought 3 books, I live in Charlotte County and have watched you for years. First time I could afford the books , gardening helped me go from nearly disabled to mostly functional and you definitely are partly to thank for that. God bless you, can't wait to read your books!
Thank you very much. If you ever could use something I have but don't have the money, just write me. I will give it to you.
@@davidthegood choking up here David. What a great heart, and mind👑❣
Update AND FUNNY!
@@davidthegood thank you for inspiring others. I've watched you in many places. Even your island home. I enjoy each issuee.
New Brunswick?
Buckaroo - I'm in Charlotte Co. also.
The incans buried large stone blocks under their soil, that way crop roots didnt freeze too bad during the winter. Thats cause even in the winter, the suns radiation still penetrates the ground a good depth, so the stones would absorb it during the day and radiate the heat during the night, keeping the soil on top somewhat warm.
Happy planting.
Wonder how deep they buried the blocks....interesting....
@@norxgirl1 Not sure exactly, deep enough to plant on top of, shallow enough to still be heated by the sun. And some of them were the side stones on the wall of the terraces, so exposed to the air and sun.
Im thinkin abouy burying naturally black stones under my crops to try have same effect, without the stones being large.
@@dustinbrandel59 across Europe they set small fires in vine fields to stop the grapes being frozen by frost and one person stays up and tends them. I'm sure it's been done for other crops too.
Wow! Good to know.. going to get some big rocks from the river bank and try that. Even just placing them around the plants may help.
Wow that’s genius !
Oh David! These videos are weird even when you aren't sleep deprived! THATS WHY WE LOVE YOU!
Yeah... I didn't really notice anything different. (That's not a bad thing.)
I never understood why people felt the need to fertilize a huge area for a few plants. I have always just made the ground fertile only underneath what I was growing. It saves so much money and gives you great returns.
Yeah, or my mother just sprinkling it on the surface. Lol. "Ma, stop it. I got it."
The little special pumpkin I'm pretty sure is the Cherokee small tan. It is amazing! At every leaf it sets roots down so it is really hard for squash bugs to kill it. Huge spreader.
Do you have any seeds to share?
My grandmother always planted a fish head at the bottom of the hole for tomatoes. She always had lots of great tomatoes.
Mum would put a liver under the passion fruit vine :)))
Ha! "Throw the whole bucket in there without eating it and grow something healthy." I love it, very wise words there
I love that you have so much land to grow and experiment on. You look so happy while do it. I am really happy for you ☺️
We're in East TN with heavy clay soil (although not as rocky as what you describe) and we're doing more or less the same thing you are. Just making individual planting holes for each individual annual or perennial. They end up as little planting mounds, since I'll typically dig out a bucket of native soil, then mix that with another bucket or two of compost, leaf litter, dead varmints, kitchen scraps, nosy neighbors, or whatever to fill it back in.
(I'm kidding about the nosy neighbors. People around here mostly mind their own beeswax.)
I think of it as improving the soil a cubic foot or two at a time. I'd go broke in one year for sure if I tried to improve the whole place at once, and even just doing a couple 1000 sq ft plots would add up to a whole lot of work and expense.
I figure in the main garden plots, eventually each row of planting holes will become a raised row of rich healthy soil over the next couple-few years.
Where did you buy the nosey neighbours
@@FeelingShred you're absolutely right, choosing plants with strong roots is always a good idea, especially the first year in a new spot. I've had good luck with beans and sunflowers and okra for breaking into this clay. Beans have the extra advantage of being nitrogen fixers.
If you can wait a year, it can be very helpful to grow grasses and clover in a new spot and just let them work for a season. Many such cover crops can be grown over winter if your climate is mild enough. The grasses put out lots of fine but deep roots and the clover (or other legumes) fixes nitrogen into the soil.
Whenever possible/practical, let plant roots do the work for you. Plus I almost always leave roots in the ground when I harvest a plant or even cut down a tree, so those roots will compost in place and return organic matter into the soil.
@@imaniniles-perez8529 I was kidding about burying the nosy neighbors. Honest.
But we do have a sign on our gate that reads "Trespassers Will Be Composted" LOL
Dry climates could plant into 1x1 depressions, kind of like "waffle gardens" in the desert.
@@FeelingShred well there are about a thousand different kinds of grasses. You sure wouldn't plant quackgrass... I was speaking about ones used specifically as cover crops, like wheat, oats etc. Rye grass is often used and yes it can be a bit difficult to get rid of. But at worst turning over the thin layer of sod, covering that with cardboard, dumping a little compost on it and moving forward with whatever works pretty well. The cardboard will break down and eventually become soil.
Black tarps etc will certainly knock back anything that's already there, but they don't really do anything to actually build more soil. I prefer to always keep living roots of one kind or another in the soil whenever possible.
There are a LOT of ways to skin this cat... one of the most accessible and budget- friendly ways to start a new bed is "lasagna gardening," there are loads of videos about that.
I love pit composting and planting squash on top, the yields are incredible and the shelf-life is extended by several weeks.
Funny thing is this is not click bait and thank you david for sharing a piece out of compost everything for free for us freeloaders on youtube. I love all your content and you have a great family David thank you
Freeloaders feed the world (for free)!🤭
Yt introduced us.
Some of us watch videos AND buy books! You can too!
@@sharrylou i have bought his books and even his fiction books.
@@joshuavazquez5534 Great! Then you are not a freeloader!
I took a clay quarry and put two years into the area extreme changes and pretty much what you are doing except for the meat and had extra ordinary growth that made neighbors feel they needed to liberate their minds a bit about gardening. Raised gardening is their thing but nothing else when the soil has had only minor changes. The seeds and their individual needs, types for this part of the country, quantity of light each day, and many other factors. I love watching gardeners that pay wonderful attention to experimentation and making magical kingdoms of their soil. Your little one is doing her experiments. Fun.
DTG, been watching you a long time. Bought your books. T-shirts. Just wanted to thank you for the incredible gifts you give humanity. You truly are a Renaissance man. Seriously the best content on YT. Also, that Song of the Siren tune you wrote is fantastic. God bless.
Thank you very much.
Gnosticism is fake and gay.
Can't wait for the follow up!! A couple years ago I buried old clothes that would've been trash... in a line by my plants to hold moisture like a sponge cuz my outdoor water spickets are broken and I can't afford to fix... It worked enough that I would do it again. I also buried cardboard and sticks... Fixed areas that were always mud like quicksand. Planted garlic and a flower area. I really hope I'm well enough to garden again this year. I also have seeds for a giveaway if I can get strong enough after mourning my son, where I can make a video. Luv y'all.
@ Speak Life Garden: Thanks for the old clothes, cardboard idea..... How creative & ingenious..... circumstances & necessity will birth them both ( creativity and ingenuity).... Condolences to you and your family........YOU WILL BE WELL THIS YEAR AND BEYOND. BLESSINGS & GREATER EXPECTATIONS MADE MANIFEST!
So sorry for you. My daughter died at 26. I carry on for a son and and daughter. Son is 60, 2x prostrate cancer. I trust God's plan. mine never worked. We are all gonna die, anyway. SO I believe in Jesus just in case God's not done with us. Like the seeds,, they die but become like JESUS AND HOLY SPIRIT IN ME.
@@jeannemurray276 sorry for your loss. Yes, we all will die in this world, but there is hope for those who love Jesus for he will raised the dead at his return. This is the blessed hope i am waiting for.
I would love to have any seeds that you're giving away. I would be happy to send you postage and an envelope!
Comfort to you. Blessings.
" 1491 " had a chapter on peoples of the Amazon building soil with biochar , pottery chards and animal bones. My grandfather grew tomatoes on a farm way back . The soil was depleted when he bought it . He built the soil back to health with bones from the slaughter house and manure from the stock yards .
A little Greg Judy cow ranching advice: put an electric wire along that creek allowing them just enough room to poke their head in to get a drink without allowing them to get in and play water buffalo. If they're allowed to go buck-wild in the riparian area, they could degrade or destroy it.
Really likes this tastic of using the holes as your inground nutrients' stores for the indiviual plants. So they can get what they need yet still have access to the entirely of the native soil. I GOT to try this for sure!!
Thanks to David The Good the world will have more varieties than we can imagine
I had so much fun watching this 'Operation Xtreme Pumpkins Galore' and felt as though I was there! Such healthy natural methods and so good to experience the family involvement. Love to all of you, from South Africa.
You too, Therese.
Fancy hat for a gardener with dirty hands!
We were in a friend's shed. There was a nice stack of large banana pumpkin. I asked about them.
They gave them to the cows for food and the cows dropped the seeds in the field in the manure... Only work the friend did that year was to pick them up in the fall.
Cow pies were the pumpkin pits...
Pumpkins and Shrooms, sweet lol
You really have guts posting this video, David.
I'm not too chicken
Thank you for saying you can bury chicken manure deep under your garden transplants... people freak out so much about fresh manure along with the fetid swamp "water" ... I call it tea...seems alot less abrasive to those who do not use commercial garden products!
Chicken manure is extremely strong & will burn your garden veggies if you don't dilute it's concentration.
This is the first time I ever watched your channel. Love your laid-back this is who we are presentation. The baby, the , oh, I have to put my coffee down. When you got inards out of freezer. Then the breaking them up, throwing them against trees. Hysterical. Made me laugh.
There was a dorment lemon tree ...been that way for years...and years ...I asked a farmer if I could have some of his well rotten dung and stuck it under the tree hoping... Oh wow one day flower bud popped out!...I didn't think much about it all sudden flowers everware and then fruits wow really heavy with most wonderful lemons ever tasted!
I recall a very productive orange tree that grew over a septic drain field.
Great ideas we get from you, David! I simmer bone broth for 1-2 days, then remove and char the bones either separately or with other biochar, and bury them in the melon pit (an idea I heard from you last year) or deep potato trench with whatever not-usually-edible chicken parts we have from chicken processing day. Or with chicken or cow manure, fresh or not. Or weeds. Or whatever. It can get a little wild, but plants like to grow in the wildness.
That's awesome and very efficient. We sometimes boil up a pot of chicken leg quarters to feed our dogs, pull all the bones out, make broth with the water and save the bones. I haven't made bonechar with them yet but I'm pretty close to having a full bucket of the bones to work with.
@Karalevsky Borzoi I'm thinking because the processing date was some time prior so they were put into the freezer. Good idea though 😊
Hope u know chicken feet and maybe beaks are boiled for collegen. Makes great soup for colds, leaky gut, etc.
@@annestrada1724 Thank you, Ann! I'd heard of that, but the chicken feet dragged around in the dirt for a day or two before I could process them, so into the deep garden rows and pits they went. Because of your encouragement I'll try to boil the feet on chicken processing day. Any additional source of collagen is welcome!
If you have access to somewhere that sells or gives away old bread, try giving some to your cows. They love bread & will quickly learn to come to you, to the point that you can hand feed it to them. I've had several dairy cows that became big 'pets' just by us treating them to bread. Also works for goats!! God bless!
Chickens really like it too. I have "caught" my darling wife buying extra bread just for chicken treats :p
I love your down to earth and humorous style! I grin when I watch, and I find your children delightful! Thank you for entertaining and educating us at the same time!❤
Loved the video incorporating the children. Great helpers!
That's fighting banter! It flows strongly in my family! I planted nut trees on a slope with each having their own cheap wicking system. I planted winter squash and winter melon about two feet away on the downward slope of each tree, so as to take advantage of the downslope flow of the water under the trees. Fun experiment, they should also shade the trees with their big leaves and feed when I do chop and drop. Thank you for the lessons! (I'm in N. TX)
You are so blessed David to have all those little helping and then they're learning all that good knowledge God bless you and your family and may your soil get perfect
I like your weird videos and appreciate the glimpse into your life and your gardening advice is pure gold. Daisy looks a lot like her mama too.
Thanks, K
I am loving the cowboy hat. And the cows! After watching you try so many approaches for gardening for years, it's exciting to see how much you're branching out into animals and fill in the missing pieces of the nutrient loop cycle or whatever they call it in permaculture. Stacking functions and whatnot.
I also loved the frozen chicken guts snowballs. Clearly they should always be frozen together in giant chunks, because that looked like a lot of fun.
I just found your channel and really enjoyed the video. It makes me smile to see you working outside with your family. It is quickly disappearing (doing things outside with kids, that can teach them to survive or at least be self sustaining. God bless you all.
Throwing frozen chicken guts at trees with my dad was one of my fondest memories growing up. Keep up the good work!!! Cant wait to see a video on the cows!
@@FeelingShred I grew up in America's Dairyland, surrounded by farmers, and my experience was much the same as yours. It's sad. Even now many/most of them really resist any idea other than burn fuel tilling, buy tons of synthetic fertilizer and lime and patented seed, repeat forever.
And they can't figure out why they're always broke :/ They're also doing a lot of damage to the soil, creating run-off problems and erosion issues, etc.
It's because of a century of relentless brainwashing as you said (marketing, advertising, whatever you want to call it). The Big Ag corps that sell all that stuff have the farmers by the balls, and they own the gov't too.
@@FeelingShred Yeah. It's really hard to get through to people like that.
@@dogslobbergardens6606 Sounds like you and Jim Kovaleski would get along just fine, good guy in Florida. Green Dreams channel has a new vid featuring him.
@@NoNORADon911 I think I've heard that name or saw a video with him somewhere. Thanks for the tip, I'll check that out!
EDIT yep I remember that guy! Thanks for the reminder. I've been thinking about using soil blocks, just haven't got around to it yet. I like the air-pruning aspect very much. I've started some things in homemade little grow bags and ventilated pots, and they do a lot better in transplanting. No root-bound plants and they just take right off with no shock.
You are an inspiration. We use this method for panting trees but it never occurred to me to plant pumpkins this way.
Great compost video! I’m reading Compost Everything each evening, and today I received Grocery Row Gardening in the mail and am looking forward to it. Our last average frost is May 20th so I should have plenty of time to read them and utilize them. Thanks so much! 🌱
You are a bit behind me! We are almost done planting.
Thank you, too.
🤣🤣love how you tell about your funny dreams!! You are a character!! Great video!
I'm thrilled you're doing a Maxima landrace.
I'm currently doing a Moschata that's utilizing many of the ones you are but I tossed in Lofthouse's and the Guatemalan Green Fleshed Ayote. I'm also doing a Southern Cucumber landrace. Stoked!
Dude - that is awesome.
Guess I'm gonna sound really ignorant here, but this is the first post I've seen on this channel, What is landrace???
@@patriciatinkey2677 you mix together a diverse set of seeds, let them crossbreed, and then select seed from the healthiest most prolific plants each year. After many seasons you develop something that thrives in your area.
@@ManMtn7 Thank you for the explanation! Sounds cool, & much more sensible than attempting to grow stuff (year after year) that just doesn't like your area. 🍀 to you!
I think its Joel Salatin that talks about composting whole pigs in his normal compost bays (8'x8'?) Like you said, _nature_ composts meat, the way I see it, its just bloodmeal and bonemeal in an unprocessed state. My grandmother grew absolutely amazing roses and part of her method was burying the leftovers from fish the kids had caught in the planting hole.
I do chop and plop for same reasons. Free compost. I just find what works and go with it. Work with nature, not against her. I'm permaculture, hugelkulture, organic as I can be in here SW AR surrounded by chemical plants, refinery, etc. I create my own little eco system with my birds as pest management. Works great. Adding goats for cheese and poison ivy control.
Good work!
I can't wait to do your melon pit method this year. It should really open up some space in the garden. It's very exciting 😀 😄 ☺ 😊
You've been "weird" since long before the baby and sleep deprivation 🤣 that's why I'm a subscriber. Lots of love to your family, it's really cool to see you all working together ❤️
Hahahaha
Watching your videos makes so much sense. I always wished I was one of my older siblings so I could have learned the old ways from my grandparents but I wasn’t.
I feel like I’m getting a second chance. Thanks
I love how you focus on the method to achieve the goal in this pumpkin experiment. Really cool. - Rick
Mr. David, you seem like the parent I aspire to be. Your children are beautiful and happy. All your plant babies look like they will be well taken care of too! I am new to your channel, but rest assured, I will be back! Thank you for your astounding ideas! And now, I will go watch your other vids about other veggies bc I simply love your "hippie" style! Thank you for sharing your family and planting methods with those new to gardening (I'm on my fourth year of planting veggies) like me!
Awesome, man! I have a new favorite channel! Subscribed!
Thank you.
Your video just appeared on my YT after I was having a discussion with my husband about planting pumpkins. 🤔 Thanks, UA-cam! 🤔 Sure am thankful I found you. I will definitely try your method. It looks fun. Glad you told about the ashes making them sweeter too. I purchased some of the same seeds that you are planting and the packaging looks like from the same seed company.
Thank you.
Best schooling ever ! Love to see your children learning like that !
Ha! Walkin' coffee! Love it!
You're in my kid's generation and your enthusiasm and fun are part of their, and their freinds', personality too. I really enjoy your videos. Planning on buying Compost Everything later this month. Really, really got a lot of great information from Push the Zone. I'm going to try a Bartlett pear though I'm in zone 4b. Your book pointed out how to locate the microclimate.
Oh, on chicken butchering....we used to turn them upside down and rock them by their feet. They sort of go to sleep and we'd use a loper on them, after praying our thankfulness. God bless you and your family always.
Great information and advice. Love that it's so practical and full of your humor!
Another compost option a grandpa used on 'sterile' soil, was to put compost in a small area during winter. If you got freezing temperatures, In spring it was usable, else you need half year.
13:12 That's funny I'm american indian, & about a year ago i came across someone having issues of fertilizer on top of their plants always getting into their end product. So i decided to ask why they would place it on top of the plant? It seems like a really inefficient way to use compost or fertilizer not to mention messy depending on what your using. I asked why wouldn't you bury it underneath the plant & not have to worry about it? Idk maybe i think outside the box or perhaps i know a bit more about growing food than i think i do, but yeah its what i would do. It makes the most out of it because its just going to become soil after anyway. But apparently most people don't do it. I feel like its weird just to place it on top, its defiantly not all gunna leech into the plant's & soil that's for sure like it would in the ground. I'm just happy I'm not the only wierdo out there. lol
Fantastic idea to do it all in one mound! You and your daughter adding the kelp reminded me of me and my dad when I was a little bit older then her. He told me to go fertilize the garden while he was at work. Said to spread out some trip 13 and don’t get too close to the plants. I spread too much, too close and burned up the garden. He said it’s ok, now you know what not to do. He was incredibly smart and loved to teach. I learned so much. At your daughters age we went frog hunting every night when the street lights came on. I took my bucket & we both had flashlights and collected frogs. Then when we got home I had to let them “go back to their family”. Guess what? Frogs are great for gardens, they eat all the funky bugs, like slugs lol. Happy Spring!
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Love stories like that. It's so important for youngsters to have those positive experiences; it sticks with you your whole life.
My Dad used to send me out fishing for bullheads a couple times a summer. Partly to get me out of his hair I'm sure, but then he would chop them all up and bury them between our garden rows. I think he learned that from reading about Native Americans' techniques. I'm fifty-ish now and we still save all the guts and heads whenever we go fishing, even if we take the fillets first, for the same purpose.
Your dad was amazing - thank you.
I’m late fifty ish lol. I think it’s important to share what we know. Thanks!
And yes, thank you…my Dad was very amazing and loved gardening, he had the compost and chickens, lots of books, etc. Another thing he did was plant around and over the chicken coop/pig pen. It looked like your grocery row garden. Whatever grew inside the animals got, whatever grew outside we got lol. Such fertile, rich soil! And the critters loved it 😊 Vines like grapes & mirlitons, cucumber, peas and beans. I bet fruit trees would have done really well there.
@@deannewilliams3321 we're going to try a technique called "forage circles" in our chicken run. You just make little rings of wire fencing or whatever and plant greens etc inside them; they're mostly protected from the chickens till they grow some, then you pull off the fencing and move it a little and plant more the same way. So the birds have a steady supply of fresh greens and then they're fertilizing each spot in turn.
Another channel plants fruit bushes and small trees right in the chicken run like you said. He surrounds the bottoms of them with log chunks or whatever's handy so the chickens don't dig into the roots.
Great ideas! You could also start plants in planters and give them one at a time.
I am a newbie to your channel...not prepping but ur channel amd its by far taught me so much in such a short period of time...i just bought an old farm house and cant wait to start my garden and building my gréenhouse...i only have a quarter acre...but excited...and ill have ro build an irrigation system due to having a well
amazing how you make natural compost so plants thrive. you are great
Look into no till cover crops to build up your soil. It’s worth a look.
I feel ya- my youngest it 31 months and he’s slept through the night 5 times! I’ve aged so much in the last 3 years!🤣
This is close to becoming my favorite channel. Great guy.
I think I'll try this in my new orchard area between the trees where there's still grass/yard. I don't have enough plants after planting my main garden to do the grocery row gardens in the rows of trees, but am adding in plants (herbs, edible flowers, fruiting bushes) around the trees as I go and trying to keep the grass out/back. I hope to just keep expanding between the trees until the planted areas join up and make a grocery row. The Bermuda grass, Johnson grass and some other type of grass that grows with aggressive rhizomes here in NE AL is vicious! It grew up and over and completely covered buckets, pots, kiddie pools full of dirt and a few pieces of roofing tin and a roll of fencing I had on the ground during the time I got injured/sick (about 2 months). I've scaled the grass and even took sod out, sheet mulched with cardboard and 6 inches of compost over it at times and about 3 months in, there it is starting to come up. Sigh
You need to plant some vigorous plants that will cover the ground completely before those invasive grasses get a chance to re-establish.
I give up on no till when Johnson and Bermuda get involved.
@@timothypollard4332 is tilling gonna make them go away?
@@tesha199 no but it gives me time to get a crop in and ahead of the grass. And a tool to knock it back between rows. Plenty of compost seems to help knock it back too.
Your videos are so very fun!! I enjoy hearing you talk while your beautiful kids are talking and helping. You’re a wonderful dad!
I would love being one of your kids.
TY for all of the tips! I was wondering why we're told to only compost vegetables but have to buy blood and bone to add into the soil. I'll start burying those scraps now.
Rats are the usual reason not to put meat or cooked vegetables in a compost heap.
@@valeriepritchard677 ya, it can attract coyotes, raccoons and all sorts of other predators too. Never thought of burying it! Such a great solution.
I love watching the kids help!!!! So cute 😍
I grew up on a [family] dairy farm in Ohio in the 1950's, and we grew most of our cattle feed as well as having chickens, pigs, and a large (over one acre) truck garden for us. There were also apple, peach, black walnut, chestnut, and pecan trees, along with wild blackberries, raspberries, and morel mushrooms. Add three young steers every year, several pigs, a couple of chickens each week, and lots of fish, squirrels, rabbits, opossums, raccoons, and the annual deer or two, and there was never a food shortage. We didn't have a lot of money, but we always had plenty to eat.
I have just discovered your channel, and I like what you are doing. I do wish, however, that you would wear proper boots!
That sounds amazing.
Nothing better than bare feet soil. Winter comes to soon.
@@jeannemurray276: Until you get the ground itch.
What a little sweet child, she will be a plant pro having learned the important issues at a young age... Teach Your children well...The lessons of plant husbandry, it will feed you for life....
I just ordered, “Compost Everything”. Next one on my list is , “Grow or Die, mostly because I like the title, which makes it a great gift idea. 😂
I'm waiting on Grocery Row Gardens.
I have Grow or DIE book also. I'm still alive, phew...
This is awesome, inspiring. also good to see someone else uses sticks as markers.
I have been saving all of our spoiled food and anything the toddlers pick at but don't finish in bags in my freezer. Love your videos and your books (I've bought 3 so far!)
I'm doing an experiment with planting Seminole Pumpkin seeds in hay bales. They will have a 9' fence wall to climb. Never grown them before. Love your videos.
Interesting idea! See what happens.
My first mistake was not having enough kids as I dig all my holes myself lol
I have no idea why your channel came up on my feed.
I live in Australia & mainly subscribe in my areas, due to same climate.
Thoroughly enjoyed your content, will definitely try your method of planting holes. No frills, to the point & abundance of great advice, I'm in, just subbed, thank you 👍🇦🇺
I always dig super-deep holes when I plant tomatoes and peppers. I bury one or two raw eggs under each plant, separated from the plant by a couple of inches of dirt.
This year we've saved all of our fish heads when we cleaned fish, and we're putting those under corn in a Three Sisters patch. I think we may try what you showed us in this video with burning carbon materials in deep planting holes before we add the fish heads. We're going to ring the patch with hot-fence to keep the coons and dogs out. We've never done this before, so we're pretty excited!
Good luck!
Love how you are including your daughter. Remember to teach her the whys.
So entertaining and informative at the same time!
Co-laboring in Christ with you,
Mini homestead homeschooling family
Way to go, homeschool mom!
The gardening thing (obsession for me) has taken me from sitting and missing my husband. He died 2 years ago and the loneliness is all consuming. Not having resources for soil improvements like I want, all your ideas including bio-char, are really not expensive. I finally bought one of your books. Totally crazy easy. Came today. Will have it read before morning. Which one do you suggest for my next read?
I am sorry to hear you lost him - I can't imagine. It is good to garden, though. That is where I meet with God, many times. You might enjoy Florida Survival Gardening for an additional read.
@@davidthegood thank you.
I was taught this basin method by an indigenous Mexican . His people did these since the time of the Aztec. It is used in deserts, as a way of saving irrigation. By leaving a berm,, not a hill, You water the roots, not the area. And as you said, you only prepare a growing zone, not a whole field. Thats not practical for hand gardening.
I think this is a case of convergent technology. 😁
I noticed, that I am so issolated, that I was watching your pumpkin thing, like I was the ones you were talking too, and it helped my extreme isolation. Thanks
I pray good people come into your life. Thank you, Jackie.
I remember a horror movie: The roses gardener; he has the best roses ever planted over the bodies of all his victims: he was a serial killer! Other time a tree fall in a storm and at his exposed root was the body of a civil war soldiers who maybe hid or die next the tree, who knows how he end up surrounded by roots! So I totally believe this idea is great, I used only to care about eggs shells, but now my trash in the kitchen will lighthen a lot, I remember in Paraguay we had a letrine that become full, so we cover it with dirt and made a new one, after awhile it become a sunken place so my grandpa added more soil with leaves, he made broom sweep all the leaves etc from surrounding areas and more dirt until it become a mound, and he planted there bananas, it sunk again a little and it collected a little of rain water, but the bananas grew from the root he put there came out a bunch of bananas and the banana fruit become so long with fruits that people marvelled at them, now I know that bananas only fructify until they feel there is not more food for them; but if you keep feeding they keep fructifying and keep also their size, then we have like a doble long banana fruit until the floor, the best bananas ever! Imagine!
That's Beautiful! Unfortunately that would be illegal in the USA. :"(
Grass is always greener over the septic tank
Very interesting use of the land.
Many blessings.
And now you are playing seed mancala with your daughters pumpkins. Dad of the year.
Just discovered your wonderful video blog. We spend much time in Mexico, which is ahead of the U.S. in its ability to survive. Thansk so much for sharing your expertise. Your family gives me hope. God bless you.
Thank you, George. I agree. The "third world" still grows a lot of food in backyard farms and gardens.
So I'm guessing that with 4 different strains next to each other, will they cross-pollinate each other. Will the cross breeds show up in the first batch of pumpkins? Will adjacent pumpkins on the same plant potentially be different strains?
They will cross but it will not be obvious until we plant next year's seeds.
@@davidthegood yes... we knew that basic concept, but nonetheless we ended up creating a new set of crosses by accident. Got a lot of rather strange and highly-varied squash last year out of one package of saved seeds LOL.
One of your videos helped me understand which squash/pumpkin varieties will cross with one another, so thank you for that!
I have a friend in New York who is retired from commercial dairy farming. They finished out with some Dexter's, still have a couple for household use. She has a lot of stories about how smart they can be.
My dog killed a black racer snake in the back yard, a big one at that, and I threw it in the worm bin without a thought and the snake was just bones within 10 days or so, incredible stuff to feed the soil and plants with, just like humans we need protein, and we are not so different than plants, we as humans originated from the dust of the earth, everything that is healthy for us is healthy for the soil
Right, protein is high in nitrogen among other good things.
I agree with your outlook; everything on this earth is intertwined one way or another.
I composted meat and the Black Soldier Flies loved it so much! I fermented them first with bokashi and put it on the other side of my worm bin. The worms ate the ressh unfermented veggie scraps and the Black Soldier fly larvae ate the fermented chicken bones. All that was left was wet black dirt! LOL
Can we rear fish in a permacultural pond?
I have a very clayey soil, with a ground water table only 1.5 foot below the surface, which reaches at the surface during the rainy season, the only time I can garden in it is during the dry season, so I have planned to dig trenches upto the water table and make raised beds from the dug out soil , so I can rear catfish in the trenches and grow lotus and grow yard long beans and turmeric over the beds
Judging strictly by every single hole I've ever dug in our very clayey soil, those trenches will fill with water quickly, and stay full a long time even if it doesn't rain for a few days. (which is not much fun when you're putting in a bunch of fence posts.)
The not-so-great part is that the water in them will always be the color of, well, clay... and sometimes it'll seem almost thick enough to stand a spoon up in. I suspect that might be a problem for fish. ;) I do think that catfish are probably the most likely type to be able to deal with it, since they're used to muddy rivers. But even in really muddy rivers, the water is constantly moving/refreshed. That might not be the case in your trenches. Fishies generally need quite a bit of oxygen in thier water. Also, stagnant water has an alarming tendency to fill up with mosquitoes in warm weather.
I do not mean to discourage you, just thinking out loud. I'll be watching for answers that are more helpful than mine :) It's a fascinating idea for sure.
BTW I'm also pretty sure you could line the trenches with heavy plastic pond-liner to keep the water cleaner. That may or may not be prohibitively expensive, depending on what that stuff costs in your area and how much of it you need.
We looked into building a fish pond on our property and ran into a LOT of problems. Not just our clay soil and the expense of lining it, but also the fact that our soil is only about 18" deep and then you hit solid bedrock. That's just not enough depth/volume of water to support most food fish.
In our case we decided to just skip the pond, and instead we're starting a fairly big raingarden with plants that can handle the constantly wet soil, and berms around that sort of like the raised beds you described, for planting things that like better drainage.
I like the idea.
@@dogslobbergardens6606 actually, the fish specie I am going to rear is known as walking catfish, and they like muddy water, and if they will get a slight flow of water , they tend to swim away against that, and they generally inhabitant the bed of stagnant water bodies, so I am going to plant my trenches in such a way that they will not be able to escape , and as the water level will fall , they can be easily harvested, if I will try to catch them in high water level, then they can easily give a painful sting
I have already made a liner pond in my upper garden and stocked it will Native snails and Gambusia fish to keep the mosquitoes in check , they will also serve as a food source for my Catfish
Unlike the Carps or barbs or many other fishes, the Caliras Batrachus and under studied Caliras Magur can breath atmospheric air, and can survive in ammonia rich waters , where other fishes may suffocate, and the African Caliras , the Sharp tooth Catfish can even survive in sewar systems, but I don't want that, because it's an invasive specie and under a legal ban by Government of India since 2000
But as a precaution, I have planted Lotus on the treach bed and Ipmoea Aquatica ,the water spinach on the sides to keep the nitrates under check, if I have to remove some nitrates, then I can easy cut and remove Lotus or Water spinach leaves, and use them as green manure for my garden, as dinitrifyling Bacteria will convert Ammonia into nitrites and than into nitrates, that should not cause any problems
And I am going to also use that liner pond as the hatchery for the catfish eggs
I can understand your worries my bro, but I have measured the water before going down into it ;)
Btw, thanks for your suggestion:-D
@@basantprasadsgarden8365 that's fascinating, thank you for sharing!
We just finished the last of our Tahitian Melons this week, we grew a lot, but it wasn't enough, I guess. They have amazing flavor!
Hey,David! we're living in Pensacola,FL. Pumpkins a melons will grow here good? I have no experience, because just moved here last August. thanks for any advice 😉❤️ and one more question: do I need to plant far away different species of pumpkins to avoid cross pollination?
See my other pumpkin vids on breeding and crossing. Same species cross, diff usually do not. Seminole pumpkins and C. moschata types do well there. So do watermelons.
@@davidthegood appreciate your help!
I grew up in Louisiana and they Cajun grandfather taught us to bury the seafood cleanings, cooked and uncooked, in the garden beds and to do the same thing with the unwanted remains of the hunted game. Do this along with composting kitchen scraps and you end up with rich dark soil.
Amending the soil never stops. If we take amendments out by growing plants and food it only makes sense that we must return amendments to keep the soil rich and strong.
Love your content! My wife said you had a class on processing chickens, I’d really like to watch that, but I couldn’t find the link for it. Looked on your website but didn’t see it. Do you have another place that I can find that?
It's not up yet. Waiting on my wife to film the stock-making portion.
Filling holes with "highly concentrated nutrients" is yet another great reason to spend a chill night chasing the curs or hounds through the swamp on a coon hunt, as if an excuse is needed. Possoms & armadillos work in those holes,, too. Any volunteers that don't end up in a hole get split and go to the velociraptors (chickens) for always much-needed and free protein. Sometimes I'll put a carcass or gutpile a day or 2 ahead of the chickens so they'll have plenty of larvae to eat when they rotate on to that section.
Possums kill copperheads. That is their favorite meal according to a possum specialist on a PBS documentary. We have an abundance of copperheads in NC, that is why I will never kill a possum unless because of Biden times I get that hungry.
David! Can I graft onto a graft? Loved your grafting video btw. Plan on grafting another variety of fig onto my store bought fig tree.
Yes, you can graft onto a grafted branch.
Very interesting, not sure how well the pumpkins would do down here in south west Florida. I planted some butternut squash back in September in a pot, I have done the same concept I guess let it run wild it is actually grown into the canal and into the neighbors lawn L O LHave to vine does look dead but it is still producing fruit have probably harvested over 20 squash on the one plant so far.
I loved when you hurled the frozen chicken guts at the tree!! 😂😂😂 Looks like something we would do 🤣 Good fun!
18:30 love the mow hawke! It’s the perfect up-do
I need to get the compost book for my mom. She's always saying you cant compost this, you cant compost that..oy..I COMPOST EVERYTHING..I learned this from you..I am in Shed Wars and my very first teaching video was on how to make "Dave's Fetid Swamp Water (TM)" with a twist. I add dried worm casting to my brew..thank you for all you do and have done!
Thank you.
I can totally relate to a guy who thinks on his toes & knows how to separate lunch bags with style. It's what I woulda done without even thinkin' 'bout it ;) Subscribed!
When she was coming with that brick, I was anticipating: NOT ON DADDY'S FOOT! One critique: you do realize you blew a chance to actually yell FIRE IN THE HOLE ;-)
I live on the Florida/Bama line, and the weeds are SO VERY AGGRESSIVE!! Not just weeds but TREES. I am going almost 100% Florida Native this time around, hoping the Seminoles can beat the Polk Weed, (the more I pull, the happier they are) Mimosa trees (again, they dare me to pull them, they have a deep underground root that is always making new sprouts) Hoping the Everglade tomatoes can strategically outwit the thorny vines, and everything else. Got your book, Crazy Easy Florida Gardening! Expecting some good results!! Thanks a bunch!