Was taught by my Gram to always put water in the trench or hole with the plant root before back covering with soil. She would say that soaking the roots with the water helps the plant through the high stress of the transplant
❤Just 2 yrs ago my mom was 95 planting in a raised bed...loved getting her hands in the dirt...I loved my mom❤shes in heaven with Jesus ❤hey everybody please ask Jesus into your heart today while you still have time ❤
Raised beds were a game changer for me. Im pretty sure without them I wouldnt be able to garden at all. I have mine set up that I can just drive up to them in my golf cart and work in them while sitting in my cart. Love it so much.
We grow a variety of mustard. You need a lot of plants as most recipes to make mustard requires a cup or so of seeds. All our mustard beds are heavily planted and what we don't pick for greens the rest will go to seed. Mustard in our north NJ area volunteers every year for me as well as the red variety I have winters over most years. I soak my seeds in pickle brine or even cowboy candy liquid then blend it into mustard . My son likes to add a piece of horseradish and a few cranberries to the mustard for a nice spicy kick.
Kevin may be jealous, but I've already got my tiny garden going, and it includes a handful of tomato plants. Suburban gardening, so I have only two raised beds, cinder blocks. I rotate each year and add lots of compost, but one each year is dedicated to potatoes, and the other hosts the tomatoes and a single yellow squash plant. I have three strawberry plants in a 7-gallon grow bag on the patio. Never tried them before, and I hope it works out. Oh, and one of the reasons I like a cinder block raised bed is that I get radishes, carrots, and onions planted around the edge in the holes. Enough about me, I watch every video y'all produce, and it makes me want to grow stuff! Thanks!
Everyone asks me how I garden and raise animals with my nails and not wearing gloves. I find my hands and nails get almost as dirty even when wearing gloves.
I love all that you have planted in your raised beds. About 3 years ago I was so frustrated because I did not have a spot for an in ground garden. I now have 9 3x8 raised beds and 25 grow bags on a long pallet platform in my backyard. I am very happy with all of it. It was a 3 year process, but has been very rewarding. The strawberry bed came about as an accident. I had a strawberry plant in a hanging basket that I forgot to water because it was hanging on the far side of my yard. I took what looked like a dead dried up plant and just set the whole basket down into an empty raised bed. I would water it when I watered my other beds. By late summer it had put out runners, and I had to dig the pot out of the bed which had five beautiful plants inside. I planted those in the far areas of the bed and had a beautiful bed of strawberry plants, lol. The mustard sounds like a great project, I do love a good stone ground mustard! So excited for your garden this year, I have learned so much about gardening and preserving from your channel. God Bless!
We are also in the ozarks and have many rocks/gravel in our dirt. We had a hard time putting in posts for fencing so we knew a garden in the ground was a no go. Our garden wouldn’t exist without raised beds. Your area with the raised beds looks great!
My asparagus rarely makes it into the house! I enjoy it straight out of the ground 😊 it's so nice to plant it and you can harvest it for years. I had problems with frogs getting my strawberries. I moved them to a container and they didn't survive. Be sure to try some leaves as tea. It's a light flavor and supposed to have medicinal properties that you can look up. I've used ground mustard as a poultice before it works fairly well if you get a splinter. I've not tried to make yellow mustard though so I'm looking forward to checking out your videos. I usually buy my mustard but I'm always looking for something 'new' to try. I'm pretty sure I had chipmunks get into my onion bed last year. They dug up the bulbs and tasted them and left them laying on top! I think I'll put hardware cloth over the top this year because I'd like to eat my onions. I don't mind sharing a little with the critters but they were just being destructive. It's still too early to plant here we've been getting rain the past 2 days. We need the moisture since we didn't get our normal snowfall.
Love seeing ya'll get to start your planting. What's going on in the greenhouse? My concerns are: 1. Over the course of the summer heat, those thin irrigation tubes coming up & over the sides of your beds will heat up too (esp being black--absorbing heat.) The lines could flatten out where they meet the top edge of the bed wall thereby decreasing water flow--probably significantly. Wouldn't it be wise to support the integrity of the line at that point with something??--possibly just a couple of wraps of electricians tape?--or something more firm like drinking straws sliced down a side to permit slipping over the line? 2. Those black tubes on black weed fabric will absorb a lot of heat--making the water in them super-heated. Ware that ya'll don't scald your plants with that hot water when the system starts flowing. 3. Onions are SO great for discouraging insects that may want to feed on other plants. Using "companion planting", onions can be interspersed among ALL your beds with deeper rooted plants as they typically occupy only the uppermost soil areas. This would free up your THREE! FULL BEDS! for other plants!--thereby allowing three beds more of growing space for other crops. So whadduya think of my critiques?
I have learned so many valuable tips from watching you folks! I absolutely love the watering system for all the raised beds and plan to replicate it...on a much smaller scale. LOL...I'm 63 and live alone so...
We are getting closer to retiring on our property in Mo every day. I am so thankful that you have shared your journey over the past several years. I feel like I’m going to be cheating applying all of your methods. But so thrilled to do so. Thank you for all your hard work.
I'm excited to see how your garden looks in a couple months! Wouldn't hurt to wear knee pads when you are going to be on your knees. Protect your knees. Very important over the years.😊
I was thinking the same thing! My knees hurt watching you guys! 😊 I'm in my fifties and from years of being on my knees in the garden have taken a toll, so I have a pair of knee pads just for the garden! Love your videos and look forward to seeing your garden in a couple months!! Blessings!
Seeing you actually doing the planting is invaluable, no book,no speech can replace your filming the actual task. I appreciate your efforts in teaching us. Thanks to the both of you.
I have those planting beds too , but I planted all my strawberries in my green stalks. It’s really the best for me. I also trimmed my strawberry roots too when I got them. Don’t forget to cover the top of the beds with shavings or straw to help keep the moisture in. It really helps
As a raised bed gardener I appreciate the benefit on the body from gardening this way but I also have had amazing outcomes (not without failures too) that actually surprised me. I’m very happy for you and excited to see how your garden produces this year!
I love how clean your garden area looks. Also I thought I bet your knees didn’t hurt from being stuck by a rock. Then to have the water ran to each bed. Although I can’t run out and buy this complete setup, I’m going to start moving this way. I have two of these beds and as we extend our garden out into pasture this is how I’m going. It was a journey watching you get to planting part, thank you for going step-by-step.
I remember as a little girl my grandma would take leftover plants and not so good looking plants out to the edge of the woods and plants them for the animals and she would also use them to reseed her garden for years to come she never bought seeds
I make spicy brown mustard from a giant curled mustard every year. I simmer the seed in vinegar till the seeds are soft, add salt, avocado oil and a bit of honey, the blend till they get to the texture I like. You could throw a few of those extra seeds in a fence row, then you'll never have to plant them again.
I can’t believe the temperature you are experiencing in April. 😅 the raised beds are fantastic and I’m sure you’re going to have a bumper crop. Get those mason jars ready. Love your vlog, I always smile when you have posted a new video. ❤
This is my favorite Fermented Mustard Recipe that I found on the website: Insane in the Brine. Ingredients: 2.5 cups mustard seeds (I typically use 1.25 cups yellow & 1.25 brown; using a 50/50 ratio is popular but more brown will make a hotter mustard) 4 cups filtered or distilled water 2 TBSP additive-free salt 150g pineapple (fresh, canned or frozen) 10-15 cloves garlic (or a full head) (~40g), quartered ~40g ginger, thin-sliced 1/2 large yellow bell pepper, seeded & cored Hot peppers as desired (I added a couple orange habaneros and a bit of ghost pepper; if you want a very spicy mustard I recommend more) After the ferment: Up to 2 cups white wine vinegar at blending, or to desired taste & consistency (may substitute fully or partly with white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or other clear/light-colored vinegar). 1 tsp salt per each cup of vinegar To increase mustard heat: 1-2 TBSP of pure ground mustard powder, yellow or brown, at the final blending. (I have also used 100% pure wasabi powder) For a true spicy mustard: add 1-2 TBSP cayenne powder at the final blending, to taste. Optional: consider adding other fermented items at blending; for example, 1/2 cup fermented horseradish or honey fermented garlic Optional: instead of adding those fermented items, for a sweet or honey mustard, you can add sugar or honey (blend in a TBSP at a time to taste). Honey fermented garlic is not very sweet after it has aged but you could also consider mixing it together with fresh honey or other sweetener. Directions: 1.) Add all the mustard seeds and prepared produce to the jar, placing the seeds in first. Add increasingly larger components, ending with the pepper half. Use the pepper half as a covering so as to prevent any floaters. 2.) Prepare the brine by mixing the water and salt in a sealed container and shaking it vigorously. (Or combine warm water with salt and allow to cool.) 3.) Once the pepper half is securely holding everything down (and/or using a fermentation weight), gently pour the brine over to prevent dislodging the mustard seeds & pausing periodically to allow time for the water to seep down. Use all the brine and be aware that over the next few days, the mustard seeds will absorb much of the brine and they will swell quite a bit. (The recipe includes enough brine to account for this and still allow for all veggies to be submerged.) 4.) All veggies including the pepper should be submerged. As an added precaution, adding a fermentation weight on top of the pepper is advised. Then apply the fermentation airlock (or use the burp method) and allow at least one month at room temperature to ferment (longer is fine). 5.) At the end of the allotted time, strain out any excess brine (if present) and blend all solids until you reach the desired consistency. 6.) Add up to two cups of white wine vinegar and other additions for the final blending (this will also make the mustard suitable for a squeeze bottle). Notes: For this mustard, I add around 1.75 cups white wine vinegar but it can also be a mix of vinegar and any reserved ferment brine, and blend for 5-10 minutes on high, to achieve the desired consistency. For each cup of liquid added, you can add up to 1 tsp of salt if you want to maintain the level of saltiness. See the ingredients list above for ideas of what to add at blending. You’re recommended to place and keep the jar in a larger bowl, as the seeds will roughly double in size. Although they’re absorbing brine, you may find that everything in the jar gets pushed upwards, so a glass weight is a good addition if you can fit it. Otherwise, the yellow pepper should be cut large enough to remain firmly in place. For the batch of mustard featured in this post, I made half with added fermented horseradish (about 1/4 cup), and one with added honey fermented garlic (1/3 cup). Note that these quantities were for half the mustard; you could double the amount (to a 1/2 cup) if it’s to blend into the entire batch of mustard. Alternately, you could consider dividing into several small variations from your main batch as well. FYI, the featured photo of this post is the horseradish mustard. I always add the cayenne or other dried hot pepper at the final blending (mentioned in the ingredients section) to round out the flavor. Enjoy!!
Mound/Hill up the rows a few extra inches before planting strawberries. Helps prevent crown rotting, but also easier to see/pick berries and bad insects off plants. Keep up the awesome work! 👍🏽
I have a greenstalk on my back patio with 36 everbearing strawberries from Stark. I get 2-6 small berries per day June through November! For my snacking purposes that's perfect, but I totally get wanting a single big harvest for easy preservation.
For three jars Senf you need: 200 g Mustardseed 275 ml white Balsamico 100 ml Water 50 80 g Sugar 40 3 TL Salt etwas Kurkuma for color 1. Grind the mustard seeds as finely as possible. The best way to do this is with a coffee grinder, or alternatively with a mortar. The finer you grind the grains, the finer the mustard will be. Tip: 2. Heat the water with the balsamic vinegar in a pot. 3. Remove the pot from the heat and let the liquid cool to a lukewarm temperature. This step is particularly important so that the mustard does not become bitter. 4. Mix all dry ingredients together. 5. Pour the liquid over the mustard flour and mix everything with a mixer for at least five minutes. 6. Fill the mustard into sterilized, tightly sealable jars. 7. Let the mustard stand for three days, then it will lose its initial spiciness.
You will need a lot more than just a few plants. I spread 10 square meters of mustard over the surface and tightly on the field and got a few jars of mustard from that
So excited to see you planting strawberries!! June bearing strawberries are great for preserving and is used at U Pick farms!! Personally I prefer the everbearing and day neutral types just because I love getting fresh eating strawberries throughout the season and it's less runners that I have to deal with!! I can't wait to see how the homemade mustard turns out!! Great video as always!!
i'm loving your raised beds. But when I saw you on your knees , I said ouch. I guess we all have our aches and pains. But still, I can't wait to see everything grow !!
Very exciting times on Living traditions homestead 😁 I cannot wait to see all of your wonderful harvest coming in and watching you preserve them ❤️ God bless
Thank you love your video. I tried to grow strawberries. Bought clay planters special for the fruit. Had one strawberry and was keeping an eye waiting for it to get bigger. Suddenly one day it disappeared. Thought bird had eaten it. Told my mom that a bird must had eaten the one lone strawberry. Mom laughed and responded with,😅 I ate it, it was good. Didn’t try again the clay pots are somewhere.
i watched your video on the irrigation set-up. the water just sitting in those lines in the sun and on the black material will cook your plants until the cool water gets there.
I was surprised to see you planting asparagus in a raised bed. While I have a raised bed garden with 13 beds, I have a 4x 12 in ground asparagus bed that I dug and planted 34 yrs ago! With proper care it continues to WOW us! I live in the very NorthWest corner of NJ and we have started cutting asparagus this week already. At the end of this bed I have a 4x4 area with Rhubarb that is also 34 yrs old , it produced last yr right up to Thanksgiving! Love your show, I envoy you with all your land and animals.
For the past few years I’ve been buying my onion and strawberry starts from Hoss tools. In the South Texas area I plant in the November - December timeframe and overwinter these, and the strawberries start bearing in about late March, peaking in about the May - June timeframe. My onions are nearly ready for harvest in early May. I’m using all raised beds due to terrible soil conditions in the ground here. It’s interesting to see what you are growing in your new raised beds!
It looks like you vacuum and damp mop your weed fabric, not a speck of dirt on it!!!! AMAZING, You both are amazing and have such a wonderful teaching to all of us want to bees. So excited to watch everything grow
I am so impressed with your garden. I envy you. Thank you for recommending Starks Bros. As a result of your recommendation, I've just ordered strawberries, one blackberry, and one fig from them. I've planted all these before without success. I am also impressed with your watering system. I think that's why I've failed so much is lack of water.
We bought all our fruit trees from stark bros and they were so big and healthy. We also got a mixed pack of strawberry varieties and they did so well we ended up freezing 20 lbs of berries after making two canners full of jam
Im still learning the different herbs im liking in mine but something i have learnt is the hotter your water is the spicer the mustered will be while preparing it
I grew mustard for the seeds to make mustard last year. The plants were great and I got plenty of seed. BUT, I couldn't get the seed clean enough to make mustard. There was lots of debris amongst the seeds. I still have the seed but never made mustard. I am looking forward to seeing how you make out with that.
Kevin, fermented February collaboration 2024 has a delightful mustard. I enjoy it very much. I used it today in my pickled Eggs. The Happy Homestead has a Guinness beer mustard recipe 😋 also Anna with Fermented Homestead recently had a mustard recipe. I believe She is from your area❤ actually I think it was Anna's for sister Tiffany who had the recipe 😊 thanks for sharing this video. I am also planting strawberries in my first time raised beds. I am learning a lot from both of you. 😊
Happy Days are here again, First Planting in the new above ground outside garden. Thanks for sharing with us Sarah and Kevin. Looks great, stay safe. Fred.
"The New Homemade Kitchen" cookbook by Joseph Shuldiner (2020) has a section on making mustard with lots of info about inventing your own unique kind--mixing and matching booze, vinegars and fruits/herbs and seed colors that pair well together. I recommend it highly! That said, my favorite homemade mustard is Raspberry Mustard which I messed up somehow but it was still extraordinary! And by messed up, it was just too fluid so I had to 'unfluid" it a bit. Here's the recipe. 2/3 Cup yellow mustard seeds 1 Cup Chambord (raspberry liqueur) 1 Cup water Mix the above and let stand overnight, then pulverize some or none, to your taste 2 3/4 Cups raspberries 3/4 Cup sugar (or to taste) 1/4 C mustard powder Pulse these three ingredients and then simmer till thick. Combine with above ingredients Making mustard is highly creative. Next time I try this one I plan to use 1/2 Cup of balsamic vinegar in place of the cup of water.
Blessings to you both for all your hard work, research, and knowledge you share with us ! You are a blessing to me and a joy to watch your videos. Thank you and Hugs to you both!
Five years ago we spent thousands of dollars building raised beds and filling them with good soil. At the time we added peat moss to our soil. We've had great success with our harvests. However last year we had a terrible problem with mushrooms.. They're a little white clump of mushrooms that pushed up my plantings and were everywhere. Not dure how to get rid of them. Of course they couldn't be morrells ! They have a rust color web like root system that is impossible to remove.
I love my raised beds. I never have weeds, as I get older it makes it easier on my old body, I do better with raised beds rather than planting in the ground. Where I am we have moles and they wreck havoc on my veggies when in ground. With raised beds I can line bottom with wire to keep them out. Rabbits can't get into my raised beds. You've made a good choice in doing this!
I watched a video of someone making home-grown, homemade mustard the other day. I can't remember who it was! I just remember that he said you could make either smooth, yellow mustard, or dark, crushed seed mustard the same, basic way. Oh, I think it was Pro Home Cooks( ?), the young guy who cooks, now in his Long Island house and garden, but used to cook in NYC with his brother. He's likeable, but he cusses *a lot.* Pro Home Cooks:: Mike Greenfield "5 things (items?) I will never buy in the store again"
Awesome raised beds !! Are they Vego beds ??, I never hear of Vegago, is that the same company as Vego beds ?? Most people are switching to garden beds for easier access and monitoring of the crop ...I bet your channel will grow more than ever now. I have strawberries in a green-stock and they are coloring up. Fun and exciting video. Good job and happy growing .
I spent thousands of dollars hiring a company to install drip irrigation for my raised beds and landscaping etc. thank you for this video tutorial. So informative & straight forward. Im hoping I can tie my new beds into my current system using your technique.
I would do one bed of ever bearing strawberries that way you can have fresh berries up to even after fall frost. We are same zone as FLW, MO in Indiana. We had fresh berries in Nov. Grandkids loved it too.
Regarding strawberries- I have been taught to put a mound in the dug hole and spread the roots over that mount like a cap, putting water in and then back filling. What do you think of this? Pros/cons?
Wow those beds are expensive. Not attainable for most folks now a days. Ill stick with making mine out of heat treated skids and salvaged metal sidding we took off our mobile home. Works great and there approximately 4' tall do no need to kneel. Ours are going on three years. Ill be happy with five and we can rebuild and reuse the metal and soil. Because they are wood they also keep moisture in.
I make mustard! It's very flexible as far as making it to your taste. I soak the seeds overnight in an equal amount of white wine or beer with some salt to aid in the seeds better taking up the liquid. Then I go by "ear' as far as how much vinegar, sweetener, spices I feel like. Then use my immersion blender. One note, it's bitter at first but that fades in a day or two. It also gets thicker, and as I said it's very flexible as far as additions. I think you will have a blast experimenting! Please post YOUR favorites too!
Enjoy your videos you guys make gardening fun for all. I was wondering if you still planned to grow sweet corn? Just a small FYI watch closely for sun scorch to your plants. I've notice for some reason or another plants in raised beds tend to need some shade. I lost a lot of my plants before I erected 40% shade cloth over everyone. I was lucky enough to have replacements available to make a full harvest.
Kevin and Sarah, it’s so exciting to see you plant your beds. Can’t wait to see the harvest come in. I have a high unelected from Growers Solution and already have it planted, also planting in protein tubs.
I never can have strawberries because of all the critters, but one day I may try in raised bed and netting! Can’t without netting! Birds would love them though!
I discovered two things with raised beds: (1) requires a LOT of water, so a drip irrigation is a must; (2) plants do better with contact to the ground. Love your channel. Greetings from Georgia.
If they last 25 yrs they'll have made plenty more money because they won't be going to the store. Also as they get older raised beds will be so much easier than planting into the ground
I made a fermented whole grain mustard last year. I can’t remember who’s recipe but it was from TH-cam. It tastes fantastic and lasts for a long time, luckily because I made a 1/2 gallon jar full.
The raised beds look wonderful but buying that many must have been incredibly expensive! Most would have to get 1 or 2 a year to afford them. You guys are lucky ducks!! 😁
Stark Bros is is great! We put in 50 asparagus crowns last year, mostly jersey knight but some purple and millennial as well. We went with he trench method but directly in the ground (a pro from living in Iowa). So far we've already harvested couple family meals worth, pick 1-2 spears per plant this year (year 2), and next year we should get a bountiful harvest. You should have no issue, your asparagus is the luckiest alive with that good compost, they grow in sub par soil conditions in the wild.
I have some mild regrets not harvesting my seed-sown asparagus this year. I was leaving them for one more year to mature but now have learned that you can harvest anything larger than a pencil in thickness. When they stop producing anything thicker than a pencil it's time to let them mature for next year. I had some fat ones I let mature! Well, next year we feast 💚
Did you know mustard is a very good soil cleanser. it will absorb any toxic stuff in the soil. The plants are discarded and you cleaned bed is ready to use.
Was taught by my Gram to always put water in the trench or hole with the plant root before back covering with soil. She would say that soaking the roots with the water helps the plant through the high stress of the transplant
I heard that bare roots need to be soaked in water for a couple of hours before planting them in order to get them more hydrated!!
❤Just 2 yrs ago my mom was 95 planting in a raised bed...loved getting her hands in the dirt...I loved my mom❤shes in heaven with Jesus ❤hey everybody please ask Jesus into your heart today while you still have time ❤
Raised beds were a game changer for me. Im pretty sure without them I wouldnt be able to garden at all. I have mine set up that I can just drive up to them in my golf cart and work in them while sitting in my cart. Love it so much.
We grow a variety of mustard. You need a lot of plants as most recipes to make mustard requires a cup or so of seeds. All our mustard beds are heavily planted and what we don't pick for greens the rest will go to seed. Mustard in our north NJ area volunteers every year for me as well as the red variety I have winters over most years. I soak my seeds in pickle brine or even cowboy candy liquid then blend it into mustard . My son likes to add a piece of horseradish and a few cranberries to the mustard for a nice spicy kick.
Kevin may be jealous, but I've already got my tiny garden going, and it includes a handful of tomato plants. Suburban gardening, so I have only two raised beds, cinder blocks. I rotate each year and add lots of compost, but one each year is dedicated to potatoes, and the other hosts the tomatoes and a single yellow squash plant. I have three strawberry plants in a 7-gallon grow bag on the patio. Never tried them before, and I hope it works out. Oh, and one of the reasons I like a cinder block raised bed is that I get radishes, carrots, and onions planted around the edge in the holes.
Enough about me, I watch every video y'all produce, and it makes me want to grow stuff! Thanks!
My kind of woman. Playing in the dirt without gloves, me too! Can’t wait to see your entire garden planted.
Everyone asks me how I garden and raise animals with my nails and not wearing gloves. I find my hands and nails get almost as dirty even when wearing gloves.
I love all that you have planted in your raised beds. About 3 years ago I was so frustrated because I did not have a spot for an in ground garden. I now have 9 3x8 raised beds and 25 grow bags on a long pallet platform in my backyard. I am very happy with all of it. It was a 3 year process, but has been very rewarding. The strawberry bed came about as an accident. I had a strawberry plant in a hanging basket that I forgot to water because it was hanging on the far side of my yard. I took what looked like a dead dried up plant and just set the whole basket down into an empty raised bed. I would water it when I watered my other beds. By late summer it had put out runners, and I had to dig the pot out of the bed which had five beautiful plants inside. I planted those in the far areas of the bed and had a beautiful bed of strawberry plants, lol. The mustard sounds like a great project, I do love a good stone ground mustard! So excited for your garden this year, I have learned so much about gardening and preserving from your channel. God Bless!
We are also in the ozarks and have many rocks/gravel in our dirt. We had a hard time putting in posts for fencing so we knew a garden in the ground was a no go. Our garden wouldn’t exist without raised beds. Your area with the raised beds looks great!
My asparagus rarely makes it into the house! I enjoy it straight out of the ground 😊 it's so nice to plant it and you can harvest it for years.
I had problems with frogs getting my strawberries. I moved them to a container and they didn't survive. Be sure to try some leaves as tea. It's a light flavor and supposed to have medicinal properties that you can look up.
I've used ground mustard as a poultice before it works fairly well if you get a splinter. I've not tried to make yellow mustard though so I'm looking forward to checking out your videos. I usually buy my mustard but I'm always looking for something 'new' to try.
I'm pretty sure I had chipmunks get into my onion bed last year. They dug up the bulbs and tasted them and left them laying on top! I think I'll put hardware cloth over the top this year because I'd like to eat my onions. I don't mind sharing a little with the critters but they were just being destructive.
It's still too early to plant here we've been getting rain the past 2 days. We need the moisture since we didn't get our normal snowfall.
Love seeing ya'll get to start your planting. What's going on in the greenhouse?
My concerns are:
1. Over the course of the summer heat, those thin irrigation tubes coming up & over the sides of your beds will heat up too (esp being black--absorbing heat.) The lines could flatten out where they meet the top edge of the bed wall thereby decreasing water flow--probably significantly.
Wouldn't it be wise to support the integrity of the line at that point with something??--possibly just a couple of wraps of electricians tape?--or something more firm like drinking straws sliced down a side to permit slipping over the line?
2. Those black tubes on black weed fabric will absorb a lot of heat--making the water in them super-heated. Ware that ya'll don't scald your plants with that hot water when the system starts flowing.
3. Onions are SO great for discouraging insects that may want to feed on other plants. Using "companion planting", onions can be interspersed among ALL your beds with deeper rooted plants as they typically occupy only the uppermost soil areas. This would free up your THREE! FULL BEDS! for other plants!--thereby allowing three beds more of growing space for other crops.
So whadduya think of my critiques?
I have learned so many valuable tips from watching you folks! I absolutely love the watering system for all the raised beds and plan to replicate it...on a much smaller scale. LOL...I'm 63 and live alone so...
Great planting tips & wonderful looking gardens! Thanks for sharing! Blessings to all 🤗🇨🇦
We are getting closer to retiring on our property in Mo every day. I am so thankful that you have shared your journey over the past several years. I feel like I’m going to be cheating applying all of your methods. But so thrilled to do so. Thank you for all your hard work.
I'm excited to see how your garden looks in a couple months! Wouldn't hurt to wear knee pads when you are going to be on your knees. Protect your knees. Very important over the years.😊
I was thinking the same thing! My knees hurt watching you guys! 😊 I'm in my fifties and from years of being on my knees in the garden have taken a toll, so I have a pair of knee pads just for the garden! Love your videos and look forward to seeing your garden in a couple months!! Blessings!
Seeing you actually doing the planting is invaluable, no book,no speech can replace your filming the actual task. I appreciate your efforts in teaching us. Thanks to the both of you.
Most garden seats/kneelers are the perfect height to use with these 17" beds, if you get tired of kneeling.
I have those planting beds too , but I planted all my strawberries in my green stalks. It’s really the best for me. I also trimmed my strawberry roots too when I got them. Don’t forget to cover the top of the beds with shavings or straw to help keep the moisture in. It really helps
As a raised bed gardener I appreciate the benefit on the body from gardening this way but I also have had amazing outcomes (not without failures too) that actually surprised me. I’m very happy for you and excited to see how your garden produces this year!
I love how clean your garden area looks. Also I thought I bet your knees didn’t hurt from being stuck by a rock. Then to have the water ran to each bed. Although I can’t run out and buy this complete setup, I’m going to start moving this way. I have two of these beds and as we extend our garden out into pasture this is how I’m going. It was a journey watching you get to planting part, thank you for going step-by-step.
I love my raised beds too. Saves my back from hurting!
I remember as a little girl my grandma would take leftover plants and not so good looking plants out to the edge of the woods and plants them for the animals and she would also use them to reseed her garden for years to come she never bought seeds
I make spicy brown mustard from a giant curled mustard every year. I simmer the seed in vinegar till the seeds are soft, add salt, avocado oil and a bit of honey, the blend till they get to the texture I like. You could throw a few of those extra seeds in a fence row, then you'll never have to plant them again.
Can't wait for all the mustard videos!! I have been wanting to do that! God Bless y'all!!!
I can’t believe the temperature you are experiencing in April. 😅 the raised beds are fantastic and I’m sure you’re going to have a bumper crop. Get those mason jars ready. Love your vlog, I always smile when you have posted a new video. ❤
I can't wait to see how much food you produce. Great to see a wednesday video again 🎉🎉🎉
This is my favorite Fermented Mustard Recipe that I found on the website: Insane in the Brine.
Ingredients:
2.5 cups mustard seeds (I typically use 1.25 cups yellow & 1.25 brown; using a 50/50 ratio is popular but more brown will make a hotter mustard)
4 cups filtered or distilled water
2 TBSP additive-free salt
150g pineapple (fresh, canned or frozen)
10-15 cloves garlic (or a full head) (~40g), quartered
~40g ginger, thin-sliced
1/2 large yellow bell pepper, seeded & cored
Hot peppers as desired (I added a couple orange habaneros and a bit of ghost pepper; if you want a very spicy mustard I recommend more)
After the ferment:
Up to 2 cups white wine vinegar at blending, or to desired taste & consistency (may substitute fully or partly with white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or other clear/light-colored vinegar).
1 tsp salt per each cup of vinegar
To increase mustard heat: 1-2 TBSP of pure ground mustard powder, yellow or brown, at the final blending. (I have also used 100% pure wasabi powder)
For a true spicy mustard: add 1-2 TBSP cayenne powder at the final blending, to taste.
Optional: consider adding other fermented items at blending; for example, 1/2 cup fermented horseradish or honey fermented garlic
Optional: instead of adding those fermented items, for a sweet or honey mustard, you can add sugar or honey (blend in a TBSP at a time to taste). Honey fermented garlic is not very sweet after it has aged but you could also consider mixing it together with fresh honey or other sweetener.
Directions:
1.) Add all the mustard seeds and prepared produce to the jar, placing the seeds in first. Add increasingly larger components, ending with the pepper half. Use the pepper half as a covering so as to prevent any floaters.
2.) Prepare the brine by mixing the water and salt in a sealed container and shaking it vigorously. (Or combine warm water with salt and allow to cool.)
3.) Once the pepper half is securely holding everything down (and/or using a fermentation weight), gently pour the brine over to prevent dislodging the mustard seeds & pausing periodically to allow time for the water to seep down. Use all the brine and be aware that over the next few days, the mustard seeds will absorb much of the brine and they will swell quite a bit. (The recipe includes enough brine to account for this and still allow for all veggies to be submerged.)
4.) All veggies including the pepper should be submerged. As an added precaution, adding a fermentation weight on top of the pepper is advised. Then apply the fermentation airlock (or use the burp method) and allow at least one month at room temperature to ferment (longer is fine).
5.) At the end of the allotted time, strain out any excess brine (if present) and blend all solids until you reach the desired consistency.
6.) Add up to two cups of white wine vinegar and other additions for the final blending (this will also make the mustard suitable for a squeeze bottle).
Notes:
For this mustard, I add around 1.75 cups white wine vinegar but it can also be a mix of vinegar and any reserved ferment brine, and blend for 5-10 minutes on high, to achieve the desired consistency. For each cup of liquid added, you can add up to 1 tsp of salt if you want to maintain the level of saltiness. See the ingredients list above for ideas of what to add at blending.
You’re recommended to place and keep the jar in a larger bowl, as the seeds will roughly double in size. Although they’re absorbing brine, you may find that everything in the jar gets pushed upwards, so a glass weight is a good addition if you can fit it. Otherwise, the yellow pepper should be cut large enough to remain firmly in place.
For the batch of mustard featured in this post, I made half with added fermented horseradish (about 1/4 cup), and one with added honey fermented garlic (1/3 cup). Note that these quantities were for half the mustard; you could double the amount (to a 1/2 cup) if it’s to blend into the entire batch of mustard.
Alternately, you could consider dividing into several small variations from your main batch as well. FYI, the featured photo of this post is the horseradish mustard.
I always add the cayenne or other dried hot pepper at the final blending (mentioned in the ingredients section) to round out the flavor.
Enjoy!!
Mound/Hill up the rows a few extra inches before planting strawberries. Helps prevent crown rotting, but also easier to see/pick berries and bad insects off plants. Keep up the awesome work! 👍🏽
I have a greenstalk on my back patio with 36 everbearing strawberries from Stark. I get 2-6 small berries per day June through November! For my snacking purposes that's perfect, but I totally get wanting a single big harvest for easy preservation.
I have been looking forward to this day.... Happy Day everyone 🌸🐨🌸
Beautiful setup! I always love the start of the gardening season 🌻
For three jars Senf you need:
200 g Mustardseed
275 ml white Balsamico
100 ml Water 50
80 g Sugar 40
3 TL Salt
etwas Kurkuma for color
1. Grind the mustard seeds as finely as possible. The best way to do this is with a coffee grinder, or alternatively with a mortar. The finer you grind the grains, the finer the mustard will be. Tip:
2. Heat the water with the balsamic vinegar in a pot.
3. Remove the pot from the heat and let the liquid cool to a lukewarm temperature. This step is particularly important so that the mustard does not become bitter.
4. Mix all dry ingredients together.
5. Pour the liquid over the mustard flour and mix everything with a mixer for at least five minutes.
6. Fill the mustard into sterilized, tightly sealable jars.
7. Let the mustard stand for three days, then it will lose its initial spiciness.
You will need a lot more than just a few plants. I spread 10 square meters of mustard over the surface and tightly on the field and got a few jars of mustard from that
So excited to see you planting strawberries!! June bearing strawberries are great for preserving and is used at U Pick farms!! Personally I prefer the everbearing and day neutral types just because I love getting fresh eating strawberries throughout the season and it's less runners that I have to deal with!! I can't wait to see how the homemade mustard turns out!! Great video as always!!
Good morning everyone! I have been a subscriber for going on 8 years this by far is a very functional gardening space congratulations. God bless
i'm loving your raised beds. But when I saw you on your knees , I said ouch. I guess we all have our aches and pains. But still, I can't wait to see everything grow !!
Very exciting times on Living traditions homestead 😁 I cannot wait to see all of your wonderful harvest coming in and watching you preserve them ❤️
God bless
Loved the high speed chicken in the background 😅
In the beginning of the video, I thought it was a vehicle going down the road and I don’t remember ever seeing a busy road next to this property! 😂
So exciting can't wait to see the harvest. Great job
It's good to see you guys getting the garden in. God bless you guys.
I love my raised beds, I have birdies beds they’re about ten years and going strong!
1870 homestead has made the mustard and it look really good 1870 homestead youtube.
Thank you love your video. I tried to grow strawberries. Bought clay planters special for the fruit. Had one strawberry and was keeping an eye waiting for it to get bigger. Suddenly one day it disappeared. Thought bird had eaten it. Told my mom that a bird must had eaten the one lone strawberry. Mom laughed and responded with,😅 I ate it, it was good. Didn’t try again the clay pots are somewhere.
I am using raised beds this year for the first time! I like the sprinkler system that you use and I plan on getting those. Thanks for sharing!
i watched your video on the irrigation set-up. the water just sitting in those lines in the sun and on the black material will cook your plants until the cool water gets there.
I was surprised to see you planting asparagus in a raised bed. While I have a raised bed garden with 13 beds, I have a 4x 12 in ground asparagus bed that I dug and planted 34 yrs ago! With proper care it continues to WOW us! I live in the very NorthWest corner of NJ and we have started cutting asparagus this week already. At the end of this bed I have a 4x4 area with Rhubarb that is also 34 yrs old , it produced last yr right up to Thanksgiving! Love your show, I envoy you with all your land and animals.
For the past few years I’ve been buying my onion and strawberry starts from Hoss tools. In the South Texas area I plant in the November - December timeframe and overwinter these, and the strawberries start bearing in about late March, peaking in about the May - June timeframe. My onions are nearly ready for harvest in early May. I’m using all raised beds due to terrible soil conditions in the ground here. It’s interesting to see what you are growing in your new raised beds!
It looks like you vacuum and damp mop your weed fabric, not a speck of dirt on it!!!! AMAZING, You both are amazing and have such a wonderful teaching to all of us want to bees. So excited to watch everything grow
I am so impressed with your garden. I envy you. Thank you for recommending Starks Bros. As a result of your recommendation, I've just ordered strawberries, one blackberry, and one fig from them. I've planted all these before without success. I am also impressed with your watering system. I think that's why I've failed so much is lack of water.
We bought all our fruit trees from stark bros and they were so big and healthy. We also got a mixed pack of strawberry varieties and they did so well we ended up freezing 20 lbs of berries after making two canners full of jam
Good ☕️☕️ Morning Kevin & Sarah,so excited to see your garden grow.Your tomatoes just make me happy when you harvest.Have an AWESOME week!❤
Im still learning the different herbs im liking in mine but something i have learnt is the hotter your water is the spicer the mustered will be while preparing it
I grew mustard for the seeds to make mustard last year. The plants were great and I got plenty of seed. BUT, I couldn't get the seed clean enough to make mustard. There was lots of debris amongst the seeds. I still have the seed but never made mustard. I am looking forward to seeing how you make out with that.
Heads up when you start getting Aspergrass crowns, they grow fast and the chayotes and foxes like to eat the tender tips off the plants.
SO GLAD YOU GUYS HAVE RAISED BEDS, SINCE I'M OLDER IT SURE MAKES GARDENING EASIER. ❤ THANKS FOR SHARING.
Kevin, fermented February collaboration 2024 has a delightful mustard. I enjoy it very much. I used it today in my pickled Eggs.
The Happy Homestead has a Guinness beer mustard recipe 😋
also Anna with Fermented Homestead recently had a mustard recipe. I believe She is from your area❤ actually I think it was Anna's for sister Tiffany who had the recipe 😊
thanks for sharing this video. I am also planting strawberries in my first time raised beds. I am learning a lot from both of you. 😊
Happy Days are here again, First Planting in the new above ground outside garden. Thanks for sharing with us Sarah and Kevin. Looks great, stay safe. Fred.
Good Morning.
I follow you because you're Christians.Love you both
❤Sarah you're looking slimmer❤we're on keto losing also❤love you guys❤Lord Jesus come quickly ❤
Your raised garden bed is perfect and beautiful. What a nice surprise to get a Wednesday video.
"The New Homemade Kitchen" cookbook by Joseph Shuldiner (2020) has a section on making mustard with lots of info about inventing your own unique kind--mixing and matching booze, vinegars and fruits/herbs and seed colors that pair well together. I recommend it highly! That said, my favorite homemade mustard is Raspberry Mustard which I messed up somehow but it was still extraordinary! And by messed up, it was just too fluid so I had to 'unfluid" it a bit. Here's the recipe.
2/3 Cup yellow mustard seeds
1 Cup Chambord (raspberry liqueur)
1 Cup water
Mix the above and let stand overnight, then pulverize some or none, to your taste
2 3/4 Cups raspberries
3/4 Cup sugar (or to taste)
1/4 C mustard powder
Pulse these three ingredients and then simmer till thick. Combine with above ingredients
Making mustard is highly creative. Next time I try this one I plan to use 1/2 Cup of balsamic vinegar in place of the cup of water.
Over on Whippoorwill Holler, she has a video of her making and canning ground mustard.
Love the raised bed garden! Looks great! What is your reasoning to have such wide spaces between them?
Blessings to you both for all your hard work, research, and knowledge you share with us ! You are a blessing to me and a joy to watch your videos. Thank you and Hugs to you both!
Five years ago we spent thousands of dollars building raised beds and filling them with good soil. At the time we added peat moss to our soil. We've had great success with our harvests. However last year we had a terrible problem with mushrooms.. They're a little white clump of mushrooms that pushed up my plantings and were everywhere. Not dure how to get rid of them. Of course they couldn't be morrells ! They have a rust color web like root system that is impossible to remove.
I love my raised beds. I never have weeds, as I get older it makes it easier on my old body, I do better with raised beds rather than planting in the ground. Where I am we have moles and they wreck havoc on my veggies when in ground. With raised beds I can line bottom with wire to keep them out. Rabbits can't get into my raised beds. You've made a good choice in doing this!
I absolutely love the spring planting videos. ❤
I miss seeing all the animals. Hope all are OK especially your new little chicks
I watched a video of someone making home-grown, homemade mustard the other day. I can't remember who it was! I just remember that he said you could make either smooth, yellow mustard, or dark, crushed seed mustard the same, basic way.
Oh, I think it was Pro Home Cooks( ?), the young guy who cooks, now in his Long Island house and garden, but used to cook in NYC with his brother. He's likeable, but he cusses *a lot.*
Pro Home Cooks:: Mike Greenfield
"5 things (items?) I will never buy in the store again"
I'd love an orchard update!!! Lets start preserving those!
Becky at Acre homestead, made mustard from seeds. I love mustard too. It is exciting to start planting.
Thanks again for taking us along in your raised bed garden. I enjoy every video you make. Blessings.
I love the gardening part. Enjoy your gardening in the months to come.
Awesome raised beds !! Are they Vego beds ??, I never hear of Vegago, is that the same company as Vego beds ?? Most people are switching to garden beds for easier access and monitoring of the crop ...I bet your channel will grow more than ever now. I have strawberries in a green-stock and they are coloring up. Fun and exciting video. Good job and happy growing .
I spent thousands of dollars hiring a company to install drip irrigation for my raised beds and landscaping etc. thank you for this video tutorial. So informative & straight forward. Im hoping I can tie my new beds into my current system using your technique.
Great to see you two back in the garden. Can you show us the orchard now?
Love your peaceful music working with nature. You two work so harmoniously together, I love every video, brings me back to my younger years.
I would do one bed of ever bearing strawberries that way you can have fresh berries up to even after fall frost. We are same zone as FLW, MO in Indiana. We had fresh berries in Nov. Grandkids loved it too.
Looking forward to seeing the harvest from all the raised beds. I’m so anxious to plant my tubs this year.
Regarding strawberries- I have been taught to put a mound in the dug hole and spread the roots over that mount like a cap, putting water in and then back filling. What do you think of this? Pros/cons?
Love your channel. The raised beds look amazing. Wish I could afford them.
Wow those beds are expensive. Not attainable for most folks now a days. Ill stick with making mine out of heat treated skids and salvaged metal sidding we took off our mobile home. Works great and there approximately 4' tall do no need to kneel. Ours are going on three years. Ill be happy with five and we can rebuild and reuse the metal and soil. Because they are wood they also keep moisture in.
Looking great! Y’all are impressive and enjoy sharing your knowledge.
"Kevin really enjoys mustard." - Something I never thought I'd hear. :)
Good evening! I like stark brothers as well!! There stuff is great!!
I make mustard! It's very flexible as far as making it to your taste. I soak the seeds overnight in an equal amount of white wine or beer with some salt to aid in the seeds better taking up the liquid. Then I go by "ear' as far as how much vinegar, sweetener, spices I feel like. Then use my immersion blender. One note, it's bitter at first but that fades in a day or two. It also gets thicker, and as I said it's very flexible as far as additions. I think you will have a blast experimenting! Please post YOUR favorites too!
Enjoy your videos you guys make gardening fun for all. I was wondering if you still planned to grow sweet corn?
Just a small FYI watch closely for sun scorch to your plants. I've notice for some reason or another plants in raised beds tend to need some shade. I lost a lot of my plants before I erected 40% shade cloth over everyone. I was lucky enough to have replacements available to make a full harvest.
Kevin and Sarah, it’s so exciting to see you plant your beds. Can’t wait to see the harvest come in. I have a high unelected from Growers Solution and already have it planted, also planting in protein tubs.
I never can have strawberries because of all the critters, but one day I may try in raised bed and netting! Can’t without netting! Birds would love them though!
Look forward to seeing your videos
I bought some of those beds last year. I can't wait until I can get them put together 😊
I discovered two things with raised beds: (1) requires a LOT of water, so a drip irrigation is a must; (2) plants do better with contact to the ground. Love your channel. Greetings from Georgia.
Also take a ton of money to have that many raised beds
If they last 25 yrs they'll have made plenty more money because they won't be going to the store. Also as they get older raised beds will be so much easier than planting into the ground
Why do you think plants do better with contact to the ground?
3. The neighbor's cats will use them as their litter boxes.😭
@@fianaitThat’s why you need netting. Or a good pellet gun.
Don't forget prepared mustard gets it's color from turmeric root!
I made a fermented whole grain mustard last year. I can’t remember who’s recipe but it was from TH-cam. It tastes fantastic and lasts for a long time, luckily because I made a 1/2 gallon jar full.
The raised beds look wonderful but buying that many must have been incredibly expensive! Most would have to get 1 or 2 a year to afford them. You guys are lucky ducks!! 😁
Luck has nothing to do with it, they have worked their tails off for the success they have had.
Love watching you plant your first crops! Blessed growing!❤❤
Kevin, After your mustard harvest try mustard on french fries. I don't like Ketchup that much. Mustard pretty much works on everything for me.
🙂Thank you Kevin & Sarah. God Bless you all in Love. Maranatha ! ( shared to f/b )
Stark Bros is is great! We put in 50 asparagus crowns last year, mostly jersey knight but some purple and millennial as well. We went with he trench method but directly in the ground (a pro from living in Iowa). So far we've already harvested couple family meals worth, pick 1-2 spears per plant this year (year 2), and next year we should get a bountiful harvest. You should have no issue, your asparagus is the luckiest alive with that good compost, they grow in sub par soil conditions in the wild.
mustard is easy easy easy to make you will make it often. i love candy onions they taste really good and are sweet
I have some mild regrets not harvesting my seed-sown asparagus this year. I was leaving them for one more year to mature but now have learned that you can harvest anything larger than a pencil in thickness. When they stop producing anything thicker than a pencil it's time to let them mature for next year. I had some fat ones I let mature! Well, next year we feast 💚
Did you know mustard is a very good soil cleanser. it will absorb any toxic stuff in the soil. The plants are discarded and you cleaned bed is ready to use.
Please keep us posted to the asparagus. I have been thinking about growing my own.