So I’m new to gardening and never used mulch before. You said never to use mulch that’s not broken down on garden bed so as one that’s starting out would you recommend I used bagged mulch on the garden bed and then in the pathways use the mulch I can get from tree servicing co? At least to start out that way for this first year?
Start a Lazy Garden From Scratch | NEVER Weed/Water Again! th-cam.com/video/hfBSgHgcSc4/w-d-xo.html In case you didn’t catch the video above, the answer to your question is actually that you totally can use arborist chips the first year on top of your garden, but I recommend you screen them first so you can weed out the larger wood pieces, and mix your screened chips about 50/50 with compost. What I mean by screening is to build a square wood frame just a little bit bigger than your wheelbarrow and secure a piece of galvanized hardware cloth with 1/4” or 1/2” square holes in the bottom of the frame using 1/2” staples. It’s best if the frame is at least a few inches deep. Lay the frame wire side down over your wheelbarrow and put a couple shovels worth of woodchips into the screen. Shuffle the screen back and forth over your wheelbarrow so that the woodchips smaller than the holes in the wire fall down into the wheelbarrow. Use the larger chips leftover for your pathways and the smaller chips that collect in the bottom of the wheelbarrow as your mulch on top of the garden beds.
I use mulched leaves on my beds around my plants. I mow the leaves and dump it in a location I can scoop from. The bottom is usually back to soil by the time I get to it.
@@AnneofAllTrades I am looking forward to the next video. I am working on a garden from scratch. I haven't planted one in 3 years, so I am starting over.😒
You are absolutely correct. These folks are checking their data with any number of university horticultural agricultural departments. There is tons of information, all people have to do is read and not listen to people who don’t know what they are doing. Please folks. Now where wood ash can be used in small amounts to increase calcium etc and raise alkalinity levels - do it with advice of a proper soil sample sent through your local county extension service for like $8-$12. Every county in the US has one. You get the boxes, instructions etc to collect and send off.
Truth, but if you think about the compounding nature of weeding and watering over time, one afternoon of work instead of an entire season of daily chores doesn't really seem that "hard" to me.
@@AnneofAllTrades I'm trying to apply this and see if "lazy gardening" methods work for "disabled gardening". I've got days where I have all the spoons (i.e. energy and manageable pain) in the world followed by weeks of barely making it to the office and back. I'm usually useless for the month of August due to the heat and humidity here in the Midwest. My hope is that if I put in the work now constructing my beds and mulching them before I can even put plants in the ground, it'll be able to tide me thru the rougher patches.
I love that part of it. I'm working hard right now growing soil that we didn't have from the beginning. Collecting every organic debris I can lay my hands on, building beds out of it dragging all this material around the yard that in the future I hope to call a garden without any hesitation. This year I have a large area that is ready to be planted. I'm dreading it a little bit not sure if some of the soil is really ready or it might be a big flop for this year. I know that in the following years it will get better for sure.
@@mercurybard9794As a fellow spoonie I'll say methods like what Anne uses have really helped me a lot 🖤 Some days I have more energy and focus than others and I try to really use those times to my advantage to set up systems and accomplish tasks that will help me in the future when I can physically or mentally spend little to no time/energy. I'm still (sometimes painfully slowly) setting up my garden/yard to be anything useful but I know that once it's fully established things will be way easier to deal with.
I reckon a green thumb is inherited. I’ve noticed that I don’t get well received when I give a thumb up. This lady is bonafide and true. She is an ordinate source of good produce.
I started using cardboard 3 years ago when I learned about no till gardening with Charles Dowding. Didn't realize how much tilling disturbs the microbes, worms, and critters in the soil. I'm learning more and more about fungi, mycelium. Didn't realize that the white on the mulch was actually beneficial. Thank you for all the excellent advice! Happy "lazy" gardening!😄
Same, years ago I literally used to get rid of mulch and soil that had that mysterious "white stuff" on it because I thought it was contaminated with something bad that would hurt my garden/yard ecosystem. I'm really glad I've learned better since.
... it had never occurred to me that I could rake the pathway woodchips that had been breaking down all winter onto my beds to add easy decomposed matter to my soil. I had just been dumping new wood chips on top of my paths over and over as the mulch slowing "disappeared". I'll be going out in to my garden right now, that you
I asked the old timer at the feed store what he thought about the projected last frost date and planting. He said, "End of April/early May. If you put them in before that, they'll be chibberin' in the soil and won't grow as well once it is warm. I've seen em. You can see em just chibberin'. 😂
I just dug my walkways into my rows today - it was glorious. The soil is getting more and more beautiful every year from this very same practice. :) Agreed.
We have been blessed with arborist chips beyond my imagination and now I need an end loader 😂. I garden in ground because it’s so dry here and dug the paths down initially and filled them with bark. It’s helped tremendously and now we are finally seeing worms 💃👏🏼💃👏🏼.
If you haven’t already discovered this tip: use a 16 prong hay fork instead of a shovel moving mulch. You’ll realize pretty quickly you don’t actually need an end loader (though having one would be nice)
I compost everything meat eggs feathers I mean everything over the years this has served me well plus wood chips I’m good so far I’ve gardened since I was 11 I’m 67 now I’m just saying
That is the system I use …..put free wood chips in pathways, then use it in your planting areas when the chips have broken all down. Works perfect!!!! Love your gardens!
I use old shower curtains to drag things around the property -- compost mixes, tree trimmings, etc. -- like you use that kiddy pool. (Heck, if you look up my house on Google Maps, the current satellite picture was snapped while I must have been trimming the front bushes because you can see the shower curtain I was loading branches on clear as day. 😅)
I often use tarps to do that but honestly that's a great use for old shower curtains that usually just end up in the landfill! Plus then I wouldn't risk tearing up a good tarp by dragging it around.
“Your show is fantastic! During your discussion about mycelium aiding soil aeration, it jogged my memory. After I mulched my garden with wood chips, I observed a significant increase in earthworms-a multitude of them! This spring, when I planted trees, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly my soil transformed. The earthworms turned the once compact lawn into a light, fluffy soil that I’m confident plants will thrive in.”
The holes they make and dead material they eat creates the perfect environment for plant roots to take hold. Their secretion is phenomenal for the plants too! You sir are winning.
I got the wood chips from arborists just like Anne does. I covered my lawn with them almost foot high. Warms converted it to most beautiful planting soil within months. I can now plant veggies anywhere I want. Also I found no difference between areas I used cardboard over the grass and where I put chips directly so I would skip cardboard if you have enough chips. BTW a year later the chips have settled and decomposed to only a few inches thick layer.
@@zlatanfazlagic ah perfect ok. Thats a lot of bark so i dunno if I can do that deep but i am putting down a fake lawn for my aunt so if i put bark underneath then in a few years it might be decent again. The soil went to shite when the planes above started dropping poison and my aunt isn't a gardener so she didn't know to put anything like compost. Its grey dust now. So hopefully this will work out will help the weeds as well so finger crossed. Thanks for the tip.
In Europe they now want gardeners to wear masks to protect them from the soil. I thought it was well established that children who did not play in the soil were more sickly. Just one among many things they are getting wrong lately.
Planting late is something that we're just now learning :-) We always waited for the weekend after the "last frost", but then a couple weeks later things die off from the cold! We're waiting until June to plant tomatoes this year!
The farmers almanac site will tell you the perfect days to plant everything for your zip code! Last frost dates can be deceptive because that's just less than like a 50% probability. it can still get too cold for certain plants.
The method that I use is to look at ‘marker’ plants. Wild things like dandelion and clover. If they are flowering you know that it’s warm enough to plant. It doesn’t make sense to use calendar dates, they have nothing to do with how warm (or cold) it is. The plants ‘know’, the farmers almanac is just a light hearted suggestion based on previous history. Or you could be really scientific and use a soil thermometer that’s 6” long or a compost thermometer that’s 2’ long. Possibly even average the 2 temperatures. If soil is 10C you can plant everything except the ‘tropicals’ - tomatoes, peppers, squash etc.
Thank you for confirming my practices of procrastination and Hügelkultur, which basically means I dump all the old sticks, branches, leaves, sawdust, food scraps, and flower garden trimmings into my food garden every year. Going on 3 years of yummy food~
I love the idea of mixing the seed. Going to have to try that one in at least half my garden to experiment. ;). I did plant my tomatoes early because I hate working in the heat. Oh well.
Laying down heavy mulch in the pathways, letting it break down over time, then raking it up on top of where you plant...that's a pretty good system . 14:31 I live in Tennessee, so this is pretty accurate. 16:02 Something I'm willing to live with versus hearing this in the inner city.
Anne I have watched you here and there over the years and recently found your content again. I have to say you are an amazing woman. I don't see much of your husband but I hope yall are growing well together. I watched last years live announcement recently and that is the most of seen of him. He seems like a good dude. Yall seem like great friends. Relationships are work and so is homesteading so I can imagine at times throughout it can be difficult but finding your way back to that innocent connection that was the start of it all is so important. I wish yall well.
Thanks so much for the kind words of encouragement! Though we are now working together, Adam isn't *in* many of the videos because more often than not, he is behind the camera, and he prefers it that way. Since leaving his corporate job he does have more flexibility to help with farm projects on occasion when asked, it still isn't his favorite way to spend his time or energy, so I try not to ask more often than I need to, which honestly, isn't often. While anyone who has been married would be the first to tell you marriage is hard, I think one of the secrets to a healthy relationship is learning one another's strengths and weaknesses and working together to use both in whatever ways possible to benefit the whole. It's healthy to have separate interests, up to the point that they don't create separate lives. That's probably the most difficult and valuable lesson we've learned throughout our marriage.
@@AnneofAllTrades I appreciate you taking the time out of all your chores... I kinda feel guilty for even commenting in a way that might cause you to respond. I like the viewpoint of being "equally yoked" with your core beliefs. If those are different then its a difficult road to travel. If aligned than you can get anywhere. I am looking to buy land in the next month... I can't wait to start a homestead... I have a big to do list but only way to get there is one step at a time. Again thanks for your time Anne.
Well this is my new favorite garden channel. I call myself "lazy" at work because I'll do extra effort to set me up to do less in the long run... So your method really speaks to me! Adding mushroom spores is genius. Is there a certain time of year that's best to do that step? I am somewhere between "the pollening" and "actual spring" 😂
watching you from Az and even with or without rain we get weeds. Love your garden video. Trying to find my way through grief and love your videos. Huge thank you
I love All the info as well as the simple common sense approach she shares. It works ! This is the most all around informative videos ive found. Thanks Anne !! LOVE you videos ❤ keep up the great work
I have been watching gardening videos for ages, I have never witnessed one as well explained as this, I really enjoyed it so thank you so much. Now I will go and watch the rest of your videos 😊. Saluts from Tunisia 🇹🇳
I'm just starting my own food garden this year. I'm happy to see that my very lazy sprinkling of seeds across carefully prepared garden beds is a perfectly valid technique.
They do need to be seeds that will get along. Some plants cancel out each other's growth. That isn't to say they won't grow but that they won't do as well, will be weaker and subsequently more susceptible to pests and disease. Check into companion or guild planting. Good luck 🎉
....and your are not disturbing the planting bed either, not turning it upside down is good for the soil. Just top it up each year. People think the roots go really deep but most plants are very shallow
I work on a farm and it seems like we’re always doing things the hard way. We have sandy soil, and we’re always spading or hoeing or raking or rototilling or some dumb thing while all our tilth and water are running away. We don’t use compost, and just started using grass mulch this year. Now I’m learning on my own and finding out that maybe my boss doesn’t know everything haha. This is what I want my garden to look like some day. Not lazy, it’s doing it right. Still working on him with the woodchips plan
My compost is doing great! I even do it in the Brrr cold winter in Michigan. I don't have critters like you for poop, so I use deer and wild turkey poop. It's ready to screen just in time.😀BTW, Your pond is looking great! I remember when there really wasn't a pond at all. Your piggies did a great job. 🐷🐷💚💚 What kind of fish are you putting in?
The ONLY issue with cardboard is if it has coatings on it or colored ink. Typical cardboard boxes with black ink or very little colored ink is great to use, as in it's beneficial to the garden, as in it's excellent for these walkways and it's also used for some no-dig techniques.
I think it's good to sort cardboard, discard the shiny coated layers, pull off tape and pull out staples. It may take a bit longer but it's worth it in the long run.
My cardboard hack is to leave them outside for a while especially if it’s raining. All of the tape becomes loose or dry and is easily pulled off. It also is more pliable to place in your garden bed or path
Remember, don't give up if this doesn't work yet. you'll need a year of mistake making before you find what works just right for you in your environment. I don't do everything this lady says but I have my own lazy garden. Keep going and you'll make it.
Preach! In the “start a lazy garden from scratch” video I talk about how it takes a couple years to get in the groove both habits and soil building wise. My year 5 garden in this location is much further along in that way than the year 1 garden I started this spring for that video, and as you say, persistence is key!
I am 51 and finally starting an in ground garden. I have endless motivation but my energy is not like it was 20 years ago. I'm learning so much from you. I've been fortunate to source a lot of supplies for minimal cost or free. I even got a garden fork for free (game changer!). Thank you for sharing your journey ❤
Please save yourself MORE work: drive your wheelbarrow on the bare cardboard to the end of the row, THEN dump it, so you don't have to drive in the uncompacted wood chips. Much easier!
Ive been covering my veg patch with old manky straw or hay from a local farmer for a few years so its free and the worms love it as it keeps the soil moist and i have much fewer weeds and i only water twice throughout summer. Once xhen i initially plant and again if its really been a dry summer. I always used the well water before i used this method of gardening and by the end of summer the well was almost empty. Now its practically full at the end of summer as i only use it as drinking water for my mule and Shetland pony. In summer i use the water from my washing machine to water my pot plants and its amazing how much water is saved by doing this too. I cut the lawns on a high setting to protect the earth and at the same time allowing low growing wild flowers to bloom. Work smart not hard 😊 and do your bit to help the planet .
Wood ash is not acidic. In fact, it is very alkaline, with a ph. between 10 and 12. It is absolutely the opposite of what you should put on your blueberries!
First time seeing your videos and I've learned so much. This was very informative and I look forward to see how you started the garden to get it to this kind of easy maintenance level.
I've started to using mulched up leaves from our sycamore as a soft "mulch" and as my method improves each year I get less and less leaves. Plus I love including the path mulch migrating into the beds over time!
Ty for the info. weve had a garden but were never mindful about it. Now we live in the country and we want to plan it this time❤ this and ur channel are going to be soooo helpful
❤ love this, the wood chips way of growing is not something that is widely known where I live, but it has made our berry garden soil health improve so much the past 8 months. Now the next project is our newly planned vegetable field. Our fruit trees are doing okay, properly better this year as they have been pruned for the first time in several years.
Wow - thank you for the very concise and easy demonstration of how and where to plant wine cap spawn. Mine is waiting in my fridge for our Zone 5a spring to stay, and I LOVE how you're doing that! Huzzah for "lazy" gardening! I'm also almost ready to give up my raised bed board edges in favor of your method of walkways. 🙂 I am always so encouraged by your demeanor and your content! 💗
We moved to AZ 3 years ago and I've built a raised planter that's 2'x4' and repurposed a 100 gallon metal trough that's basically a 2'x4' oval into another raised planter and just planted radishes, carrots, spinach and lettuce in them 3 weeks ago. I used old seeds, some of which came with us from Georgia that were dated 2018, and all have sprouted! I just thinned a few radish sprouts today. Brought the ones I pulled in, rinsed them off and ate them. Wow, those tiny little things were packed with flavor! Can't wait until they actually form radishes and I can harvest those.
I’ve never had success with the back to eden style garden but I didn’t know you had to do the cardboard every year. Makes sense! Thanks for this video!
The cardboard depends on where you live. I tried it in my dry Utah climate and it still hasn't broken down. But for wetter states I think it can be helpful. Now I will just use a thick layer of woodchips.
I used this method to repair garden and yard damage from neighbors spraying my place with roundup. I laid cardboard over everything 3 layers, my mulched leaves and the load of wood chip from the electric company. ( Was the best thing ever!!!) I put over 20" of stuff down. Ok maybe overkill, but...I just experimented... After a couple weeks (maybe a month.) the rain hitting it all i decided to just toss down everything, my old odds n ends. literally tossing them in a parmasagn cheese jar and sprinkled em down , everything fruit, veg, flowers... To my surprise I came back a month later and had the biggest plot of random plants growing, it was neat. I didn't expect it at all, just wanted to see if anything would grow. Now it's a bit more organized but I do it the same way!
this is such a lovely video. loved the dogs obsessed with the bunny in the background! you really explained the soil stuff so well! loved it and i’m very educated! you did a GREAT job!
Thank you for this wonderful video! I'm going to start growing on our allotment that has only 10 cm of soil and pure clay under, this will be the way I tackle that mess and build up the soil.
You are correct, I misspoke on the wood ash. It makes the soil more alkaline. But none of that really matters when you have fairly well balanced soil to start
The cardboard recycling bins for the city are my favorite place. Rollie pollies, or whatever you call the round bugs some people call them pill bugs, they actually help build soil.
Love your channel! It's a huge goal to buy a home with acreage next year, and meanwhile I'm doing my best to 'city-stead, and learn all I can about the things I plan to do once God blesses me with the homestead I'm dreaming of.
Same here, I'm also a city steader! Started 4 years ago, all organic, reusing items from the neighborhood or free site and make my own compost leaf mold seaweed and a weed liquid fertilizer(I love by the ocean so seaweed is plentiful here. Basically trying to learn and make my big mistakes now so I'm ready if/when the time comes I need to grow most of not all our veggies. Last yr I learned the power of flowers, this yr I'm planting almost as many flowers as veggies! Great video enjoyed learning some new tricks and tips
Great video! Question: Do you plant "utility" crops? I.e. ones for other than food production? Like luffa, birdhouse gourds? What crops do you plant to support pollinators? THANKS SO MUCH FOR SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE!!
I love the rounds being fired off in the background... Lol. It's difficult shooting for my TH-cam channel as well because I live on a busy street across the street from a fire department. I have two yappie Yorkies, And I'm right next door to a very busy business... But gunshots? That's a new one for me. Lol. Thank you Annie for all you do. Huge huge huge fan
So I tried the sheet mulching method on top of lawn, and it kinda worked but I still have a fair amount of turf grass. You do a fantastic job & know your stuff! Glad I did.
It takes about 2 years of cardboard and deep mulch to get rid of the grass entirely. My first year in this space I still had to use my weed eater a couple times to re-find my pathways, and then the second year there was still a small amount of grass and random weeds but by year 3 this space was pristine
Great channel. Great educational gardening videos. Lots of great advice. Thank you for spending so much time producing and sharing gardening tips with the world.
I loved this video and how you teach. I've been experimenting with this kind of gardening but the mushrooms blew my mind. I can't wait to try this. I subbed. Even turned the notifications on :)
So glad you’re here! Here’s another little teaser for you about mushrooms: One of the biggest limits to plant growth is lack of access to phosphorus, the P in the NPK you might have heard of in traditional fertilizers. One of the things that Michorrazeal fungi do best is mine phosphorus from soil and transfer it to their plant partners. If plants are provided phosphorus, they grow more. The more plants grow, the more the draw down carbon from the atmosphere. The more plants live, the more plants die, and the more carbon that is buried in soil and sediments. The more carbon that is buried, the less there is in the atmosphere.
So I’m new to gardening and never used mulch before. You said never to use mulch that’s not broken down on garden bed so as one that’s starting out would you recommend I used bagged mulch on the garden bed and then in the pathways use the mulch I can get from tree servicing co? At least to start out that way for this first year?
Start a Lazy Garden From Scratch | NEVER Weed/Water Again!
th-cam.com/video/hfBSgHgcSc4/w-d-xo.html
In case you didn’t catch the video above, the answer to your question is actually that you totally can use arborist chips the first year on top of your garden, but I recommend you screen them first so you can weed out the larger wood pieces, and mix your screened chips about 50/50 with compost.
What I mean by screening is to build a square wood frame just a little bit bigger than your wheelbarrow and secure a piece of galvanized hardware cloth with 1/4” or 1/2” square holes in the bottom of the frame using 1/2” staples. It’s best if the frame is at least a few inches deep. Lay the frame wire side down over your wheelbarrow and put a couple shovels worth of woodchips into the screen. Shuffle the screen back and forth over your wheelbarrow so that the woodchips smaller than the holes in the wire fall down into the wheelbarrow. Use the larger chips leftover for your pathways and the smaller chips that collect in the bottom of the wheelbarrow as your mulch on top of the garden beds.
I use mulched leaves on my beds around my plants. I mow the leaves and dump it in a location I can scoop from. The bottom is usually back to soil by the time I get to it.
@@AnneofAllTrades I am looking forward to the next video. I am working on a garden from scratch. I haven't planted one in 3 years, so I am starting over.😒
@@liebekatz1 we’ll get you started off right.
You are absolutely correct. These folks are checking their data with any number of university horticultural agricultural departments. There is tons of information, all people have to do is read and not listen to people who don’t know what they are doing. Please folks.
Now where wood ash can be used in small amounts to increase calcium etc and raise alkalinity levels - do it with advice of a proper soil sample sent through your local county extension service for like $8-$12. Every county in the US has one. You get the boxes, instructions etc to collect and send off.
Note to newbie gardeners: Lazy gardening only works if you do the hard work up front. Great video; great information.
Truth, but if you think about the compounding nature of weeding and watering over time, one afternoon of work instead of an entire season of daily chores doesn't really seem that "hard" to me.
It's a mind set -- think of how you can give your future self a gift ... do the preventive measures now so it's easier in the future
@@AnneofAllTrades I'm trying to apply this and see if "lazy gardening" methods work for "disabled gardening". I've got days where I have all the spoons (i.e. energy and manageable pain) in the world followed by weeks of barely making it to the office and back. I'm usually useless for the month of August due to the heat and humidity here in the Midwest. My hope is that if I put in the work now constructing my beds and mulching them before I can even put plants in the ground, it'll be able to tide me thru the rougher patches.
I love that part of it. I'm working hard right now growing soil that we didn't have from the beginning. Collecting every organic debris I can lay my hands on, building beds out of it dragging all this material around the yard that in the future I hope to call a garden without any hesitation. This year I have a large area that is ready to be planted. I'm dreading it a little bit not sure if some of the soil is really ready or it might be a big flop for this year. I know that in the following years it will get better for sure.
@@mercurybard9794As a fellow spoonie I'll say methods like what Anne uses have really helped me a lot 🖤 Some days I have more energy and focus than others and I try to really use those times to my advantage to set up systems and accomplish tasks that will help me in the future when I can physically or mentally spend little to no time/energy. I'm still (sometimes painfully slowly) setting up my garden/yard to be anything useful but I know that once it's fully established things will be way easier to deal with.
I reckon a green thumb is inherited. I’ve noticed that I don’t get well received when I give a thumb up. This lady is bonafide and true. She is an ordinate source of good produce.
You could make this video once a season every year and I would absolutely watch them all 👍
Same
Yeah lol
yuppp ~ 🌿🤍☘️🌱
I started using cardboard 3 years ago when I learned about no till gardening with Charles Dowding. Didn't realize how much tilling disturbs the microbes, worms, and critters in the soil. I'm learning more and more about fungi, mycelium. Didn't realize that the white on the mulch was actually beneficial. Thank you for all the excellent advice! Happy "lazy" gardening!😄
Same, years ago I literally used to get rid of mulch and soil that had that mysterious "white stuff" on it because I thought it was contaminated with something bad that would hurt my garden/yard ecosystem. I'm really glad I've learned better since.
I love that you promote the use of mushrooms in the garden.
I'm lazy, now I just need a garden.
😂
Start a Lazy Garden From Scratch | NEVER Weed/Water Again!
th-cam.com/video/hfBSgHgcSc4/w-d-xo.html
I found this way of gardening a couple years ago. I now grow beautiful flowers and food not lawn. Glad I found you.
Yes! Wow! She’s a great American example for everyone. Beautiful work. Labor of love.
... it had never occurred to me that I could rake the pathway woodchips that had been breaking down all winter onto my beds to add easy decomposed matter to my soil. I had just been dumping new wood chips on top of my paths over and over as the mulch slowing "disappeared". I'll be going out in to my garden right now, that you
That makes my heart sing
Poor Lucy no water in the pool. No wonder she's cranky😂
Me too! Need to get to my allotment right now to fix this. Thanks@AnneofAllTrades amazing video. I love you .. blueberries I stole from the forest 😂
I asked the old timer at the feed store what he thought about the projected last frost date and planting. He said, "End of April/early May. If you put them in before that, they'll be chibberin' in the soil and won't grow as well once it is warm. I've seen em. You can see em just chibberin'. 😂
Old timers are the best. They have wisdom and will spill it all over you any way they see fit. No cares given. 😂
I just dug my walkways into my rows today - it was glorious. The soil is getting more and more beautiful every year from this very same practice. :) Agreed.
Glorious is one of my favorite words.
I love how curious the animals get while you're filming. So much fun.
We have been blessed with arborist chips beyond my imagination and now I need an end loader 😂.
I garden in ground because it’s so dry here and dug the paths down initially and filled them with bark. It’s helped tremendously and now we are finally seeing worms 💃👏🏼💃👏🏼.
If you haven’t already discovered this tip: use a 16 prong hay fork instead of a shovel moving mulch. You’ll realize pretty quickly you don’t actually need an end loader (though having one would be nice)
This style of gardening has been a life saver for me.
I love your advice, style and energy. Thanks.
I compost everything meat eggs feathers I mean everything over the years this has served me well plus wood chips I’m good so far I’ve gardened since I was 11 I’m 67 now I’m just saying
Do you have any tips?
@@Brittanysplittanyshe gave one....compost everything
@@Brittanysplittany How to Create FAIL-PROOF Compost in 3 Easy Steps
th-cam.com/video/zm7lRB-hZ5Q/w-d-xo.html
That is the system I use …..put free wood chips in pathways, then use it in your planting areas when the chips have broken all down. Works perfect!!!!
Love your gardens!
I use old shower curtains to drag things around the property -- compost mixes, tree trimmings, etc. -- like you use that kiddy pool. (Heck, if you look up my house on Google Maps, the current satellite picture was snapped while I must have been trimming the front bushes because you can see the shower curtain I was loading branches on clear as day. 😅)
Hahaha that’s so smart. Sometimes I use tarps in a similar way
Old, small tarps work great also !
I often use tarps to do that but honestly that's a great use for old shower curtains that usually just end up in the landfill! Plus then I wouldn't risk tearing up a good tarp by dragging it around.
This is how we do it!! We hardly ever spend money on our garden. It’s the best.
I love this idea of transferring the old chips to the beds and then putting new chips in the patches!
“Your show is fantastic! During your discussion about mycelium aiding soil aeration, it jogged my memory. After I mulched my garden with wood chips, I observed a significant increase in earthworms-a multitude of them! This spring, when I planted trees, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly my soil transformed. The earthworms turned the once compact lawn into a light, fluffy soil that I’m confident plants will thrive in.”
The holes they make and dead material they eat creates the perfect environment for plant roots to take hold. Their secretion is phenomenal for the plants too! You sir are winning.
Wait did you put bark on your lawn?
@Padraigp I'm assuming he mulched his garden beds and the worms have worked their way through the grass maybe between beds or even just multiplying.
I got the wood chips from arborists just like Anne does. I covered my lawn with them almost foot high. Warms converted it to most beautiful planting soil within months. I can now plant veggies anywhere I want. Also I found no difference between areas I used cardboard over the grass and where I put chips directly so I would skip cardboard if you have enough chips. BTW a year later the chips have settled and decomposed to only a few inches thick layer.
@@zlatanfazlagic ah perfect ok. Thats a lot of bark so i dunno if I can do that deep but i am putting down a fake lawn for my aunt so if i put bark underneath then in a few years it might be decent again. The soil went to shite when the planes above started dropping poison and my aunt isn't a gardener so she didn't know to put anything like compost. Its grey dust now. So hopefully this will work out will help the weeds as well so finger crossed. Thanks for the tip.
I love watching watching your lazy gardening videos. I love the fact that you are not wearing gloves either.
You’ve gotta touch the soil with your skin to get the mental health benefits it has to offer ;)
@@AnneofAllTrades I love it.
@@AnneofAllTrades exactly! It like earthing with your hands instead of feet!!
In Europe they now want gardeners to wear masks to protect them from the soil. I thought it was well established that children who did not play in the soil were more sickly. Just one among many things they are getting wrong lately.
I try so hard but my hands need dirt😂
Fantastic guide indeed. Educational and straight to the point no BS. Thank You…✌🏽🙌
Planting late is something that we're just now learning :-) We always waited for the weekend after the "last frost", but then a couple weeks later things die off from the cold! We're waiting until June to plant tomatoes this year!
The farmers almanac site will tell you the perfect days to plant everything for your zip code! Last frost dates can be deceptive because that's just less than like a 50% probability. it can still get too cold for certain plants.
Farmes almanac for my zone said 4/7/24 is last frost date but I'm going to wait until at least 4/22/24 to start.
The method that I use is to look at ‘marker’ plants. Wild things like dandelion and clover. If they are flowering you know that it’s warm enough to plant. It doesn’t make sense to use calendar dates, they have nothing to do with how warm (or cold) it is. The plants ‘know’, the farmers almanac is just a light hearted suggestion based on previous history. Or you could be really scientific and use a soil thermometer that’s 6” long or a compost thermometer that’s 2’ long. Possibly even average the 2 temperatures. If soil is 10C you can plant everything except the ‘tropicals’ - tomatoes, peppers, squash etc.
This is one of my favorite videos of yours it has changed the way I garden and love the simplicity of it. Great job
So glad to hear it!
Thank you for confirming my practices of procrastination and Hügelkultur, which basically means I dump all the old sticks, branches, leaves, sawdust, food scraps, and flower garden trimmings into my food garden every year. Going on 3 years of yummy food~
Absolutely excellent! Your experience is appreciated.
Glad it was helpful!
I love the idea of mixing the seed. Going to have to try that one in at least half my garden to experiment. ;). I did plant my tomatoes early because I hate working in the heat. Oh well.
such great info! I will be doing woodchip paths from now on 😄
Laying down heavy mulch in the pathways, letting it break down over time, then raking it up on top of where you plant...that's a pretty good system .
14:31 I live in Tennessee, so this is pretty accurate.
16:02 Something I'm willing to live with versus hearing this in the inner city.
Anne I have watched you here and there over the years and recently found your content again. I have to say you are an amazing woman. I don't see much of your husband but I hope yall are growing well together. I watched last years live announcement recently and that is the most of seen of him. He seems like a good dude. Yall seem like great friends. Relationships are work and so is homesteading so I can imagine at times throughout it can be difficult but finding your way back to that innocent connection that was the start of it all is so important. I wish yall well.
Thanks so much for the kind words of encouragement! Though we are now working together, Adam isn't *in* many of the videos because more often than not, he is behind the camera, and he prefers it that way. Since leaving his corporate job he does have more flexibility to help with farm projects on occasion when asked, it still isn't his favorite way to spend his time or energy, so I try not to ask more often than I need to, which honestly, isn't often. While anyone who has been married would be the first to tell you marriage is hard, I think one of the secrets to a healthy relationship is learning one another's strengths and weaknesses and working together to use both in whatever ways possible to benefit the whole. It's healthy to have separate interests, up to the point that they don't create separate lives. That's probably the most difficult and valuable lesson we've learned throughout our marriage.
@@AnneofAllTrades I appreciate you taking the time out of all your chores... I kinda feel guilty for even commenting in a way that might cause you to respond. I like the viewpoint of being "equally yoked" with your core beliefs. If those are different then its a difficult road to travel. If aligned than you can get anywhere. I am looking to buy land in the next month... I can't wait to start a homestead... I have a big to do list but only way to get there is one step at a time. Again thanks for your time Anne.
Well this is my new favorite garden channel. I call myself "lazy" at work because I'll do extra effort to set me up to do less in the long run... So your method really speaks to me!
Adding mushroom spores is genius. Is there a certain time of year that's best to do that step? I am somewhere between "the pollening" and "actual spring" 😂
Thanks.
Khu vườn của bạn thật đẹp tuyệt vời ,chúng rất sạch sẽ,gọn gang ngăn lắp 👍.
I am so very happy that your channel appeared in my feed! Fantastic!
So glad you’re here!
That’s what that white gunk in the persimmon grove is!! Trippy
watching you from Az and even with or without rain we get weeds. Love your garden video. Trying to find my way through grief and love your videos. Huge thank you
Oh buddy. I’m so sorry you’re grieving. Howdy Donkey sends a big hug.
I love All the info as well as the simple common sense approach she shares. It works ! This is the most all around informative videos ive found. Thanks Anne !! LOVE you videos ❤ keep up the great work
I have been watching gardening videos for ages, I have never witnessed one as well explained as this, I really enjoyed it so thank you so much. Now I will go and watch the rest of your videos 😊. Saluts from Tunisia 🇹🇳
So glad to hear it! Thank you!
Thanks for existing! Also to the TH-cam community!
My motto in life: work smarter, not harder! Great tips :)
I'm just starting my own food garden this year. I'm happy to see that my very lazy sprinkling of seeds across carefully prepared garden beds is a perfectly valid technique.
They do need to be seeds that will get along. Some plants cancel out each other's growth. That isn't to say they won't grow but that they won't do as well, will be weaker and subsequently more susceptible to pests and disease. Check into companion or guild planting. Good luck 🎉
Love this one too!! I can't wait until I have some land and can actually take advantage of all this wisdom you share. You rock!
I love the mushroom idea. Thats a great idea for all that dead space!!
12 Seasons...! I feel you, coming from a peninsula swept by winds off the southern oceans !
Anne- ....love your videos and passion that fuels them. No doubt you are a Ruth Stout fan too.
Happy Gardening,
This was so incredibly in depth, yet concise. You're going to be my new favorite gardening channel! Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Thanks for sharing!
Love your energy!!!
🌺🌸🌺🌸
....and your are not disturbing the planting bed either, not turning it upside down is good for the soil. Just top it up each year. People think the roots go really deep but most plants are very shallow
Yeah tillage is simply not the way for longevity of soil health or nutritional availability for plants
You ROCK!! Thank you so much!
Excellent video. I love lazy 🌞🌞
I work on a farm and it seems like we’re always doing things the hard way. We have sandy soil, and we’re always spading or hoeing or raking or rototilling or some dumb thing while all our tilth and water are running away. We don’t use compost, and just started using grass mulch this year. Now I’m learning on my own and finding out that maybe my boss doesn’t know everything haha. This is what I want my garden to look like some day. Not lazy, it’s doing it right. Still working on him with the woodchips plan
My compost is doing great! I even do it in the Brrr cold winter in Michigan. I don't have critters like you for poop, so I use deer and wild turkey poop. It's ready to screen just in time.😀BTW, Your pond is looking great! I remember when there really wasn't a pond at all. Your piggies did a great job. 🐷🐷💚💚 What kind of fish are you putting in?
The ONLY issue with cardboard is if it has coatings on it or colored ink. Typical cardboard boxes with black ink or very little colored ink is great to use, as in it's beneficial to the garden, as in it's excellent for these walkways and it's also used for some no-dig techniques.
I think it's good to sort cardboard, discard the shiny coated layers, pull off tape and pull out staples. It may take a bit longer but it's worth it in the long run.
I wholeheartedly agree
My cardboard hack is to leave them outside for a while especially if it’s raining. All of the tape becomes loose or dry and is easily pulled off. It also is more pliable to place in your garden bed or path
Remember, don't give up if this doesn't work yet. you'll need a year of mistake making before you find what works just right for you in your environment. I don't do everything this lady says but I have my own lazy garden. Keep going and you'll make it.
Preach! In the “start a lazy garden from scratch” video I talk about how it takes a couple years to get in the groove both habits and soil building wise. My year 5 garden in this location is much further along in that way than the year 1 garden I started this spring for that video, and as you say, persistence is key!
@@AnneofAllTrades I haven't seen that video yet. You make great content so keep it up!!!
Not to mention the additional uptake of carbon in the air, your type of gardening is great for decarbonization and healthier air quality.
I got a truck load of mushroom spawn and spred it all over the garden,yard, and surrounding forest!
Good on ya
Our wood chips seem to be naturally seeded with Inky Cap spawn. They're dainty and beautiful - and then they're NOT! (They turn into zombie mushrooms)
Yes mushrooms compost is a great product if you can get it:)
What a relief! I've been saving the cardboard over the winter!
This idea I can learn to love .
Great stuff and easy to follow
So happy I found you, I’m also a lazy gardener. Thank you for sharing your knowledge 🌱🌱🌱
Wow. So much accurate and well researched stuff. Had never watched a presenter making so much sense.
You have a good personality. 😊
I am 51 and finally starting an in ground garden. I have endless motivation but my energy is not like it was 20 years ago. I'm learning so much from you. I've been fortunate to source a lot of supplies for minimal cost or free. I even got a garden fork for free (game changer!). Thank you for sharing your journey ❤
Please save yourself MORE work: drive your wheelbarrow on the bare cardboard to the end of the row, THEN dump it, so you don't have to drive in the uncompacted wood chips. Much easier!
Hahaha brilliant save there 😂😂 I often notice things like that when watching videos back and am like… what the heck was I doing??
@@AnneofAllTrades 😅
Ive been covering my veg patch with old manky straw or hay from a local farmer for a few years so its free and the worms love it as it keeps the soil moist and i have much fewer weeds and i only water twice throughout summer. Once xhen i initially plant and again if its really been a dry summer. I always used the well water before i used this method of gardening and by the end of summer the well was almost empty. Now its practically full at the end of summer as i only use it as drinking water for my mule and Shetland pony.
In summer i use the water from my washing machine to water my pot plants and its amazing how much water is saved by doing this too.
I cut the lawns on a high setting to protect the earth and at the same time allowing low growing wild flowers to bloom.
Work smart not hard 😊 and do your bit to help the planet .
Soon it will be no-mow May!
Never thought of roots as transports for microbes ❤that’s so cool
Wood ash is not acidic. In fact, it is very alkaline, with a ph. between 10 and 12. It is absolutely the opposite of what you should put on your blueberries!
I came here to say this. Those blueberries are gonna die. 😢
Exactly!
You are correct, I misspoke, ash makes the soil more alkaline but the blueberries are thriving.
Activated charcoal is an important way to remove poison.. like chlorine
We could all do without the exclamation point. Yes, you are knowledgeable. Is that what were supposed to say?
First time seeing your videos and I've learned so much. This was very informative and I look forward to see how you started the garden to get it to this kind of easy maintenance level.
I've started to using mulched up leaves from our sycamore as a soft "mulch" and as my method improves each year I get less and less leaves. Plus I love including the path mulch migrating into the beds over time!
Leaves and pine straw, free !!
Here i am in florida watching all my brassicas bolting from heat, and youre just getting started. I'm almost in the "too hot for most plants" season
Ty for the info. weve had a garden but were never mindful about it. Now we live in the country and we want to plan it this time❤ this and ur channel are going to be soooo helpful
❤ love this, the wood chips way of growing is not something that is widely known where I live, but it has made our berry garden soil health improve so much the past 8 months. Now the next project is our newly planned vegetable field. Our fruit trees are doing okay, properly better this year as they have been pruned for the first time in several years.
Thanks for all your explanation! I absolutely appreciate your channel! Thank you!
Wow - thank you for the very concise and easy demonstration of how and where to plant wine cap spawn. Mine is waiting in my fridge for our Zone 5a spring to stay, and I LOVE how you're doing that! Huzzah for "lazy" gardening! I'm also almost ready to give up my raised bed board edges in favor of your method of walkways. 🙂 I am always so encouraged by your demeanor and your content! 💗
Glad it was helpful!
We moved to AZ 3 years ago and I've built a raised planter that's 2'x4' and repurposed a 100 gallon metal trough that's basically a 2'x4' oval into another raised planter and just planted radishes, carrots, spinach and lettuce in them 3 weeks ago. I used old seeds, some of which came with us from Georgia that were dated 2018, and all have sprouted! I just thinned a few radish sprouts today. Brought the ones I pulled in, rinsed them off and ate them. Wow, those tiny little things were packed with flavor! Can't wait until they actually form radishes and I can harvest those.
Good on you! Keep growing!
Radish seedlings are super tasty! Call them 'Radish Microgreens' if you want to be fancy 😊
You are so inspiring and I love your content and zest for life. I just found your channel and I have already learned so much. Thank you !!!!
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you’re here!
Thanks!
Thank YOU!
I just wanted to say .. Anne.. you are a badass. Im really enjoying your videos im inspired. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Yay perfect video i need!! Im starting to move away from container gardening and raised beds and do exactly what you are doing!
I really enjoy your videos. I am slowly changing to a permaculture type garden vs my raised beds. All your info is super handy. Thank you.
I’ve never had success with the back to eden style garden but I didn’t know you had to do the cardboard every year. Makes sense! Thanks for this video!
The cardboard depends on where you live. I tried it in my dry Utah climate and it still hasn't broken down. But for wetter states I think it can be helpful. Now I will just use a thick layer of woodchips.
@@nicolewilliamson1850 I definitely live in a wetter climate.
When I lived in Washington I never even had to use cardboard, but down here the annual re-application is croosh
@@AnneofAllTrades That makes sense to me. I live in East Tennessee too.
I used this method to repair garden and yard damage from neighbors spraying my place with roundup. I laid cardboard over everything 3 layers, my mulched leaves and the load of wood chip from the electric company. ( Was the best thing ever!!!) I put over 20" of stuff down. Ok maybe overkill, but...I just experimented... After a couple weeks (maybe a month.) the rain hitting it all i decided to just toss down everything, my old odds n ends. literally tossing them in a parmasagn cheese jar and sprinkled em down , everything fruit, veg, flowers... To my surprise I came back a month later and had the biggest plot of random plants growing, it was neat. I didn't expect it at all, just wanted to see if anything would grow. Now it's a bit more organized but I do it the same way!
this is such a lovely video. loved the dogs obsessed with the bunny in the background!
you really explained the soil stuff so well! loved it and i’m very educated! you did a GREAT job!
Excellent video, Anne! Thx for sharing!!
This is my style of gardening! I call myself the haphazard gardener. I will definitely try the mushrooms!
This was a great video! Even though I live in Finland, I got something out of the 12 seasons you have in Tennessee! Good luck with your efforts!
Thank you for this wonderful video! I'm going to start growing on our allotment that has only 10 cm of soil and pure clay under, this will be the way I tackle that mess and build up the soil.
The only thing I wonder is that you say wood ash makes the soil more acidic, I thought it was the opposite that it makes it more alkaline?
@@Qotusyou’re not mistaken.
You are correct, I misspoke ;)
You are correct, I misspoke on the wood ash. It makes the soil more alkaline. But none of that really matters when you have fairly well balanced soil to start
@@AnneofAllTrades of course, just making sure! Our clay soil is acidic to begin with, so we use ash to bump the pH up.
The cardboard recycling bins for the city are my favorite place. Rollie pollies, or whatever you call the round bugs some people call them pill bugs, they actually help build soil.
Love your channel! It's a huge goal to buy a home with acreage next year, and meanwhile I'm doing my best to 'city-stead, and learn all I can about the things I plan to do once God blesses me with the homestead I'm dreaming of.
That’s what I did for 6 years before we got acreage! Good on you for starting g where you’re at, with what you e got.
Same here, I'm also a city steader! Started 4 years ago, all organic, reusing items from the neighborhood or free site and make my own compost leaf mold seaweed and a weed liquid fertilizer(I love by the ocean so seaweed is plentiful here. Basically trying to learn and make my big mistakes now so I'm ready if/when the time comes I need to grow most of not all our veggies. Last yr I learned the power of flowers, this yr I'm planting almost as many flowers as veggies! Great video enjoyed learning some new tricks and tips
Great video! Question: Do you plant "utility" crops? I.e. ones for other than food production? Like luffa, birdhouse gourds? What crops do you plant to support pollinators? THANKS SO MUCH FOR SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE!!
Thanks for txt back , wish you and ur family well. I enjoy ur channel and keep up the good work, God Bless... My wife likes ur show also.
Here for the first time. I really like your videos. Thanks (from Italy).
Awesome garden video. Thanks for sharing this video with us 👍.
I love the rounds being fired off in the background... Lol.
It's difficult shooting for my TH-cam channel as well because I live on a busy street across the street from a fire department. I have two yappie Yorkies, And I'm right next door to a very busy business... But gunshots? That's a new one for me. Lol.
Thank you Annie for all you do. Huge huge huge fan
thanks for this video, inspired and bought a bunch of seeds, going to make my whole back yard like this.
❤👋🙂🇦🇺 Thanks for sharing your experience with us ❤
You are vary engaging and full of great advice. Well done!
I appreciate that!
So I tried the sheet mulching method on top of lawn, and it kinda worked but I still have a fair amount of turf grass. You do a fantastic job & know your stuff! Glad I did.
It takes about 2 years of cardboard and deep mulch to get rid of the grass entirely. My first year in this space I still had to use my weed eater a couple times to re-find my pathways, and then the second year there was still a small amount of grass and random weeds but by year 3 this space was pristine
Good to know. Thanks @@AnneofAllTrades!
Great channel. Great educational gardening videos. Lots of great advice. Thank you for spending so much time producing and sharing gardening tips with the world.
Thank you! Absolutely my pleasure :)
I loved this video and how you teach. I've been experimenting with this kind of gardening but the mushrooms blew my mind. I can't wait to try this. I subbed. Even turned the notifications on :)
So glad you’re here! Here’s another little teaser for you about mushrooms: One of the biggest limits to plant growth is lack of access to phosphorus, the P in the NPK you might have heard of in traditional fertilizers.
One of the things that Michorrazeal fungi do best is mine phosphorus from soil and transfer it to their plant partners. If plants are provided phosphorus, they grow more. The more plants grow, the more the draw down carbon from the atmosphere. The more plants live, the more plants die, and the more carbon that is buried in soil and sediments. The more carbon that is buried, the less there is in the atmosphere.
Wood ash neutralizes soil pH by the way. It's alkaline.
You’re totally right. Misspoke in a big way on that one 😅