Lasagna gardening is fast and easy - and it's simple to find all you need to get started! Plus, it builds your soil as you grow. Learn more in Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting: amzn.to/3MS0VhI More Resources: CJ's Hand-Forged Sickles: www.thesurvivalgardener.com/hand-forged-gardening-tools-cj/ Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza: amzn.to/3MQ68ql Gardening Without Work by Ruth Stout: amzn.to/38RDx5b Back to Eden Film with Paul Gautschi: www.backtoedenfilm.com/#/ Subscribe to the newsletter: thesurvivalgardener.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=d1c57e318ab24156698c41249&id=1f74a21dc8 David's Other Gardening Books: amzn.to/2pVbyro Compost Your Enemies t-shirts: www.aardvarktees.com/products/compost-your-enemies David's gardening blog: www.thesurvivalgardener.com Thank you for watching! Get out there and get growing!
Just wanted to say, "Thanks," for the idea of composting my enemies! I took an old plastic toy bucket stuffed it with every weed in the entire property and added water and waited. When fully rotted, took that water and poured it on my teeny corn sprouts...Boy are they ever green and healthy!--but they are planted pretty much like this video describes.(!) here is a blurry blip: th-cam.com/users/shorts_0Y5MQvNtt0?feature=share
Then I’ve arrived! 2nd year gardener here and I “cooked” my own compost my first year. Started my 3rd batch a couple of weeks ago. Compost is life, y’all! 😆
@@Simply_Eden the best part for me is how that soil holds moisture so one doesn’t need to water it all the time, or even at all according to some gardeners.
@baphithi because I live in a very arid place, and I’m a container gardener, I still have to water regularly. Some pots I have to water daily. But when used atop a thin layer of compost, a covering of finely shredded wood chips (not saw dust) will make it so that I don’t have to water as often. Well, so far. But it hasn’t gotten up to 90 to 100°.
I figured out how to make soil on accident. Previous owner let his dog dig a few big holes in the yard and never filled them. When I moved in, I started taking the grass clippings and just stuffing them in the holes every time I mowed. With the normal rain, and continual added grass, it just naturally composted into beautiful, soft and fluffy soil! Perfect holes for new trees!. Thanks for all you're doing to help people grow...I mean that in more ways than one.
I did the same at my place. During the rainy season, I let the grasses and weeds grow, then I would periodically cut them and bury them in small shallow graves all over the yard. Each rainy season more grasses and weeds grew stronger and thicker than the previous year. Took 3-4 years. Now I have fertile soil and I use the grasses as mulch for my garden plants. Grass rots quite quickly, returning nutrients to the soil and feeding soil microbes. This year, I started making goat manure compost tea, and the plants are thriving from the fertility provided. Next I will use the green grasses to make nitrogen rich tea for my plants. I am now composting layers of the grasses, goat manure, kitchen scraps etc in big bin bags. I started last week. I hope to have great manure in a few months. All is free. Next up is to get free chicken manure by the truckload and it will be make into tea and also added to the compost big bags.
@@tamararobinson2069 I believe it was only 6-7 months, but I packed it pretty good everytime I mowed and let the rain do the watering. Mowing through summer, then over winter. By spring it was pretty soft.
EDUTAINMENT at its finest!!! What I particularly like is the care of the baby all the while powering through another fun filled tutorial, all in stride, and 😃par excellence. Know what? When I grow up, I want to be just like you!
Yes, that child looks so comfortable close to Dad and listening to the vibrations of his voice through her body. I am love making compost and am about to spread this year's load onto my allotment this morning, before planting the garlic. Happy gardening.
At the end you got into fire ants. When one of my daughters was a toddler in diapers she fell onto an ant bed. My neighbor ran and got some Preparation H and slathered it all over her legs. She had so many bites I thought I might have to take her to the hospital. That night she slept straight through. In the morning the bites had scabbed over. The only one that made a pustule was on the sole of her foot- where he didn't put any H. You have to put it on right away or it doesn't work. We have been using it for years. I hope this gives back something for all of the help you give. Thanks!
We have found Bio-Freeze to work miraculously well on fire ant bites. Instantaneous relief! I suppose it is appropriate that Bio-FREEZE would be the antidote to FIRE ants. It is amazing!
You’re fantastic at making me feel less anxious about doing things perfectly in the garden. You show a way to do things, and you pepper in comforting messages of alternatives and “it doesn’t have to be perfect” messaging. I appreciate that and can get into the garden content easily without feeling intimidated. Thanks for your efforts.
That's what I did to my whole front yard. I made an organic, no dig cottage garden. Love watching your videos especially with your wife and children in them🥰🌹🌿🌹 We need more people in the world like you all. Ms Pat from southern Indiana
@@lilawiese2460 I covered everything with cardboard I got from dumpsters, grocery stores etc. Then piled on compost, cow manure, leaves, mowed grass, kitchen scrapes etc. Made paths with pine bark mulch. Added more perennial flowers each year. Planted peach tree, raspberries, blueberries, roses, kiwi, etc. Filled in with annuals and lots of big pots and hanging baskets. Wish I could post pictures. Have fun. Go wild😅 Ms Pat from southern Indiana
We did this to turn our lawn into a garden in 2020. The transformation is astounding. We wanted a garden and now have a habitat. Deep dark soil and the only weeds that grow through are edible. Glad to see you make a video on it.✌️
I live in a mobile home park and everything has to be above ground. This is perfect for where I live. My corn, sunflowers, beans peas and squash are doing great. I doubled my garden space this year and am very happy with it!
I essentially had sticky mud in the spring and solid rock in the summer. Clay is a nightmare. Adding compost over the past couple years has done wonders for balancing it out :)
Absolutely love this. I understand it! I get it! This makes so much sense to me!! Happy I found this channel. I'm a beginner gardener and I knew deep down gardening was meant to be simple
David is amazing. His gardening style perfectly embraces the world wide save soil movement. I have followed him for over a year. I'm still constantly learning something from him. You came to the right place.
David is a wealth of practical keep it simple knowledge. I make the fetid swamp water fertilizer all summer long.You can just soak in his info, mix it around in your head and whatever comes out will get great results . Definitely get into making biochar, I swear by it and it's like permanent compost.
An important detail about the no dig advice from Paul and Ruth: they both tilled and improved their garden soil for years before they started the no dig methods. They consistently add organic matter, but the clay was already broken up.
This still works without working the native soil...ahem...dirt. Though working the underlying DIRT can't hurt. I just think of my ground level as the bottom of a really big container....with no sides....just keep adding good stuff in no particular order. Just as it comes to me.
@@meanqkie2240 I can confidently say, after 23 years in my Michigan garden, the clay needs help. I’ve grown comfrey and large radishes specifically to break up the clay. If there’s no digging, the humus does not penetrate into the clay.
@@SusanBaileyAmazingEstate hence the continuing addition of materials to the surface. You can start soil building on top of parking lot. Paul had rock. And you are correct that humus doesn’t penetrate the hard barrier within 20ish years. Roots can, earthworms till it and mix the clay minerals into the new topsoil layer you are building with your additions to make more nutrients available to plants above. Chop n drop helps somewhat. The whole point is covering the soil with material that can decompose to form new topsoil. Like in the forest. Yearly off-season additions of twigs, branches, leaves, animal poo.
That leaves you with a very very thin topsoil layer where you can hardly cultivate anything into. To give you a time frame: my property has been abandoned for 50+ years and reversed back to woodland. I'm cleaning it now and I found a maximum of 4 inches of topsoil before I hit hard clay. The undiggable one. I can't even imagine the sheer amount of stuff you have to pile on top of that type of clay to cultivate. Tillage is, unfortunately, necessary in clay especially if you cultivate roots. It just has to be the least destructive possible but I can assure you that if you till the hard clay in my garden you are not destroying any mycelium or any life at all. It's like cultivating on Mars 😢
David, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you. I am now the proud steward of 3 pear trees. I grew them from seeds from a couple of pears from last fall. Put them in pots and put them on my back porch for the winter. It got down to -20F here in Central New York this winter, so I had little hope for them. In the past few days, all 3 of them pushed up above the soil! I'd never have thought to do it without your inspiration.I'm very grateful I found your channel. PS I can still probably get you a deal on some Grazon... :P
Thank you for this video. This is especially useful because people think they have to spend a bunch of money on compost to "grow now," and they don't. I have a small yard and very little green matter, but across the street there is a giant ravine with tons of woods. I am going to be the crazy garden lady and start grabbing organic material from this area. Nobody lives there and it's all just going to rot anyway!
Reminds me of a friend who brings sheets and goes to down to the river and grabs large rocks for her garden landscaping and drags them up in her sheet. This is a women probably in her late 60s 😂. Crazy garden ladies are the best.
I live in TN. Did not want to mow my front yard. WE NEVER MOW THERE! Let the leaves fall! I planted Periwinkle starts here and there, and Ajuga. It spread and I have this glorious groundcover that is about 10" tall and it just reaches up and blooms! It turned into a mat of reaching roots that reached out everywhere and in the Spring: Purple/blue flowers everywhere! I just planted it and forgot it completely! The rest of the yard is a flower garden. I bought perrennials and as they grew I got new starts out of them and put them here and there. Some reseeded of course. Now I have this garden that people gasp at! Gorgeous. Add winter daffodils! Daylilies, Lilies, Phlox, Geranium, Buttercups, Iris, Butterfly weed, butterfly bush, Lenten rose, lily of the valley, bleeding heart, creeping phlox, foxglove, canna, rudebeckia, corral belles, anything you want! add annuals here and there. Easy peasy.
I’ve been doing this in my garden bed for the last few yrs, cheapest & best way to have high quality soil plus your produce will be the best in the neighborhood
Haha... I laughed when you made the hoarding comment. I've been saving all of my newspapers, then I use them in the garden in spring. I'm able to put them out in a thick layer, along with a layer of mulch, and it helps to smother the bindweed. If I were to recycle all of these newspapers, I would lose out on that valuable resource.
@@pegsol3834 There's a fine line between hoarding and prepping and homesteading and ... I've been counseled by many family members and friends who then find something they can use or have been needing, or an acceptable substitute in the "stash". It's not hoarding if your stuff is cool and useful!
Expanding my beds to double the size of my garden this year. I've dug trenches and loaded them with half rotten wood (Lots of fungal activity). + 2 small trees I had to take down recently. Layered plenty of alfalfa and home made/activated biochar around the wood and in the dirt on top of it. Last step is to dig out my pathways and mound up over the trenches. (DiggyDiggyDiggyDiggy...) Planted 110 strawberries and 9 raspberries last week in some established beds. Mmm I can taste the jam now.
That’s exactly how I returned to long wide raised rows! Dug paths down and put that dirt on top of the lasagna. Filled the paths deep with bark. Now in a few years I can shift the rows and all that bark will be there for nutrients and moisture in my sand.
Wood chips and a bit of compost tea helped to transform my soil. Had a hard clay all around my yard. Soil was too dry and hard for any worms. After about a year, my soil got much better and now I have worms adding free fertilizer all over my yard. Just an inch or two or wood chips and a very thin layer of weeds helped to change my soil and now it keeps getting better.
I live in an HOA (I know, I know... we're working on getting out...) but I've been building lasagna compost in a barrel next to my trash can. Didn't know til today there was a name for it.
Same. I don't do it in a barrel (but that's actually brilliant), I have a 3'x3' "cedar planter box" that I "accidentally" broke the bottom out of and somehow the feet got buried in the soil after a heavy rain so the bottom of the box is resting... perfectly level... on the ground. Nature is so weird sometimes. Lol
I am new to your channel, but an old gardener. I have unknowingly been building soil this way since I started growing in pots, using what I had instead of buying more. Now I have a name for my method. Thank you.
I hope your channel is monitized because IMO, you deserve it! I feel like I've hit the jackpot in finding your straightforward food-growing information. Thank you, and thank you for the free composting book. I started reading it last night. Now, time to finish reading it!
I accidentally made a lasagna patch. I kept pilings garden waste in an area of our garden. Before I knew it I had a rich patch of soil where I now planted two squash plants and some herbs. This area retains water like no other in my garden. Thank you for this great and very detailed video.
More than 90% of all the home composting bins I see are "lasagna" patches like what you describe, unintentional failures to do composting right. No criticism, but unless a compost pile is built correctly, the stuff won't guaranteed to be completely composted into "black soil" in 90 days, instead the soil is still brown with plenty of undecomposed leaves, twigs, maybe some fibrous remains of kitchen scraps... All the kinds of easily identifiable things that wouldn't be identifiable if a hot compost pile is done correctly. For anyone who isn't in a hurry and don't mind if the decomposition is slow and might take a year, this is no big deal. But for those who want to build the very best kind of soil, black gold compost is the only way to go.
@@tonysu8860 Most housing estates have tiny blocks so not much room for a compost pile. Our local government are trialling a new system of collecting household food scraps and composting them at a big facility. I look forward to buying that when they start selling it.
Lasagna gardening is awesome. Thank you for teaching us how! This year a local deli has been giving me bagels that were headed for the dumpster. They're at the bottom of every new raised bed and my garden has never been happier 🤷♀️
Today my husband and I were talking about how to build up some low spots in our garden without resorting to getting some fill dirt (you can't tell what you'll get in with it). Now I see that the best way to do that is to try some lasagna beds! We can plant in them this year, and they will build up the low spots and improve out decent soil in the process! Thank you so much! Also, I'm really glad that we don't have fire ant where I live (southeast Ky)!! ;)
Yeah, fill dirt, Pftt! We had what was suppose to be topsoil delivered and it was rocks and clay-Ugh! It was ok to cover an area of stumps after tree removal, but I did use in 2 beds and made it friable with chopped leaves. Still picking stones. I went to lasagna in long wide rows this fall. Much cheaper, easier and better moisture.
I think in the low desert I would dig out a few inches of soil before starting the lasagne bed. It would be easier to control the moisture, and would result in a sunken bed, which is better for our hot, arid climate
Fantastic content, DTG! I love how your YT videos are chock full of grace! ( If you can't do it just like so, get as close to it as you can with what you got...). Love the passion, love your fatherhood on display. Well done!
This is a much more cost effective method than we have used in the previous years. We just bring in compost and add it to the top of our soil each year, but we've been buying the compost. I'll definitely be trying this in the future with materials that we have on hand like rabbit manure and straw.
You can go to a local newspaper publisher and buy end rolls of paper. When a roll gets to a certain point, they replace it. There's still a lot on it and is great for laying down or shredding for compost.
Excellent video. I've used this method and have an abundance of growth. Took part of my yard, and now I have a food forest. 🤗🌱 Elderberry, fig, blueberry bushes, comfrey, cabbage, tomatoes, kale, potatoes etc. IT WORKS ON ANY SOIL!!! 👏👍👍
Awesome video. The fact that a lawn mower is your third recommendation for cutting the grass was the best. Your surroundings are so green and lush-I can’t imagine you don’t have amazing soil there. I’ve been afraid to buy cow manure fertilizer on to my backyard garden because of the issue you pointed out. I don’t have animals so I stick with plant based nutrients for the garden. Thinking about trying fish meal this year. Thanks for all the insight.
LOVE that wagon!!!! I have had the same one for probably 10 yrs and it's hauled everything from garden compost, to harvested whitetail deer and feral hogs!!! Great content new sub here!
I just used a huge pile of palm fronds yesterday for weed block, my neighbors think I’m extra weird now. I’m fairly certain my dirt here in Pensacola is quite similar too your dirt. Got that exact cart as well, keep an eye on the bottom of the handle where it bends towards the cart, mine is just about rusted through and I expect it to snap off any day now.
@@pamwilliams6630 Agriculture is destroying the planet. It is very frustrating how much misinformation there is on this topic. Grazing can actually sequester far more carbon than forests at a much, much faster rate. If we grazed animals on a large enough scale, we could actually mitigate all human emissions. Growing plants can not do this. Plant agriculture uses massive amounts of fossil fuels and unlike grazing cattle, it doesn't mitigate its own emissions. The soil microbiome is killed with chemicals and that dead soil is lost rapidly, causing complete land infertility and desertification. Grazing animals is the fastest way to replenish these lands, bring the microbes back, give nutrients back, rehydrate, break up impaction, and build soil faster than any other process. It would take nature decades to build the amount of soil made in a couple of yrs of Grazing.
Awesome!!! I did some “lasagna gardening” this year to start my grocery row gardens. I brought in some local compost, lots of chop and drop from other areas, and I actually mulched with coconut coir to try to hold moisture here in FL during this dry season. I also decided to put in a calorie patch and just put in 30 cassava plants today which I underplanted with black eyed peas (thank you publix😉). Putting in some “melon pits” tomorrow to run Seminole pumpkins through there as well. Contemplating sticking some sweet potatoes in too🤔. Hopefully that will get us and some friends/family through if we need some starchy things that might be tougher to find in the next year. Thanks for your fantastic content and inspiration!
Didn't really know where this comment should go, but how about taro root for emergency calories? (Poi & taro chips, anyhow.) Elephant ears grow well here in our zone 8b/9a here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I have been buying my bulbs from Lee Market in Biloxi to make sure I got the edible kind. (Oriental market in Biloxi.) Also trying my hand at ube and other root crops for stealth calories. Also hunting for canna edulis and tasty varieties of hosta to plant in shady spots.
@@goldengryphon look for it by the pound at Oriental markets. Sometimes big supermarkets have it, but I find that it's fresher at smaller markets. If you are on the Gulf Coast (Mobile through Louisiana), Rouse's sometimes has different offerings than WM. It is rather expensive, but they have horseradish root ($9.99/# and you can eat the greens), and sunchokes fairly regularly. If you're anywhere near Biloxi, MS, Lee Market sometimes has live plants, too. I got a pandanaus last fall, and a kaffir lime last month.
@@marahdolores8930 I also put in taro and malanga for the first time this season. I have had canna edulis for a few years now and it’s so easy to grow, spreads prolifically, and tastes very good. Sort of like a nutty potato. Very easy to divide and propagate as well. Beautiful ornamental. I’m spreading it around everywhere.
South Florida tip. If you have dollarweed (pennywort) in the area you want to lasagna garden, or sheet mulch in general, I would suggest hand pulling them out first. They are an aquatic plant that thrive on the added moisture and can pop up from deep roots. I have had to redo several beds in the past thinking I stuffed them out. They are relentless plants...
@@goldengryphon SC tip. Pull it, set it on a man-made pad (driveway, sidewalk, whatever) in the baking sun and then use it as green matter the next day.
@@MrLibertyFiend No worries with wind. By the time u pile all the compost and dirt on top of the cardboard it holds it all down. Best practice is to throughly water/drench the cardboard before applying the compost.
Love it! This is quite similar to the "waffle" garden my sister has been creating this spring. She has a 'grid' pattern of clay built up in 3' x 3' shallow bowls which she has layered and built soil. The effect is a raised bed made of clay with a permeable bottom for drainage, which still retains plenty of precious water. SO important, here in California during this extended period of drought, (20+ years) ✌️
Hey! The beginning made me laugh! I like when you said you have dirt not soil 😀! I use to say I have pottery material not gardening soil 😄! Before starting to watch soil amendments and composting videos I was pretty sure I would start a pottery factory not a garden 😀
I read the Ruth Stout book years ago and have used it for many years. We have hard red clay soil here. My neighbors can’t grow carrots I grow the most beautiful carrot you ever saw. It works it’s easy take his advice and go do it.
Thank you very much sir for your explanations about lasagna gardening. They will be very usefull for me since i have clay soil that is very difficult to cultivate.🙏
I’ve started doing this and love the amazing results yes I have several avocado trees thanks to the compost pile as well as winter squashes ...it’s a very happy spot ,Amen...thank you for sharing!
This is one of your usual greats, David. I really have been contemplating this method for my rocky areas, because I don't feel like building my gardens where the soil is good (500meters away). Thanks :)
David, you're books have changed my life. My Florida food Forrest is well underway after reading your book. I now have figs , blueberries, blackberries , peaches, limes and more and I owe it to you for the inspiration. May God's abundance bless you.
I really appreciate this input because I had a man come in with some claw machine and lift out a huge bed of ivy... Visually clean but we know there's a gazillion Roots underneath the surface... So this cardboard layering brown green lasagna is going to be my plan B... Cuz all I have now is landscape fabric over that cleaned area and the most beautiful little baby ivy is coming up underneath it...5 weeks later...yesterday... I'm 74 and I have to get this right the first time... Because I must have an area going forward that is lawnless (mowing) and ivyless (tree smotherer) so at my age I can maintain it 👍GA USA 8-12-22 APPRECIATE YOU 🙋🌹
I think we all can use more use more slo-mo manure spraying with musical accompaniment. Also more fine baby hair wafting in the breeze. I do use (my) cow manure, and my youngest grands do have baby hair (until they turn two this summer and are likely to get a haircut) so obviously I'm living a great life. :)
Awesome stuff... back to Eden was a mindset shift for sure....the dramatic pause 120frames was hilarious... the tips for the lasagna garden... limitless... thank you!
I am so close to giving up on my garden. My yard is infested with bindweed and invasive rosy sandcrocus that comes up through just about everything (even Back to Eden style deep mulching). The only success I’ve had is crowding it out with something even MORE invasive (like mint) that is actually useful. But I only have so many uses for mint. I will have to give this method a try and see if I can crowd them out with something I actually want to eat!
Bindweed is awful. We pull it every day. It's been five years... maybe in another forty or so, we'll get on top of it! BUT--it is a constant source of biomass for the compost. It does get better, if you treat pulling it like a religious obsession.
If your not opposed to using a paint on brush killer that may fix the problem. I use it to keep neighbors buckthorn in check. After I cut I paint cut and it’s done. Use very little and no broadcasting.
The great thing about this method is you create the growing medium first, so you get growing first, and then you have the option to add sides whether its rocks logs pallets metal etc.!
I did this with my sandy dead Los Angeles Valley desert dirt. Everyone, including me, thought I was a little crazy. Now I have loamy light soil with a layer of black humus just below the latest layer and wild mushrooms popping up. Cutest baby in the world obviously inspecting the quality of your soil. Loved the slow mo cow poo watering ! you make me laugh while I'm learning. 💚
@@tesha199 It's a private property with multiple houses on it and a landlord who (to put it nicely) doesn't like us Westerners. I have to tread lightly.
I started gardening on the worst cracked dry wash land you can imagine after I found you and frugal off grid. You guys made me realize I don’t need to be a perfectionist. I should just start. I did. Thanks.
Great video David.. Are you still doing the biochar thing as well? Ive had some amazing results with my biochar amended beds this year.. The plant growth and health is undeniable, only time will tell regarding the semi permanent improvement aspect. So far Ive run a winter crop of broccoli raab through it, and now my spring plants are in full swing and insanely healthy and big, with no additional fertilization. I began with an amended and unamended bed, and the amended bed yielded plants 3 times larger when planted at the same time. Especially apparent with my leafy plant such as Chard. I finally added char to the unamended bed, as i couldnt stand watching it struggle.. lol. Keep up the great videos..
Glad you mentioned the persistent herbicide! I always cringe when someone says “go get some cow/horse manure” because the herbicide, aminopyralid, is bad news and it is very common in manures. It is also common on those perfect, beautiful, wheat straw bales found at your local hardware or big box home stores.
Yes I have done this for Years and I make great Soil. I use barrels, kids Swimming pools, and Buckets. I have topped It with soil and next fall I have soil.. the card board Layer is great-- I am a compost Nut and I clean neighbors yard Up for them to get their stuff--- But I dont use scraps because It attracts rats and mice----which Happened---coffie ground, tea bags, egg shells , greens, and small sticks, Toilet paper centets.---anything leftover with sugar in it-- And a handful of granual fertilizer On top helps it work---
Yes to lasagna gardening!!! I have that book & have been using this method for several years. Always have the best results!! Thank you for bringing this method to your channel for the world to see how awesome it is!
This sort of thing is dangerous. Every time I see one of these presentations I'm tempted to quit my job and spend all day piling things up on the ground. My wife is going to come looking for you.
Central FL between st johns river and lake konomac and thought the black dirt area of my back yard would be great then found out after I planted that the soil is pH of 4.5 and floods sometimes.
I would be thrilled to be able to grow a ton of blueberries or other acid lovers in that! I would probably use Oyster Shell + Dolomite Lime to raise the pH in areas for other crops, then build up a thick layer of branches - depending on how much it floods could be several feet high, then build the lasagna on top of that, so if it floods it's like a wick system. If planting acid lovers then mix some native soil in the planting hole, if not use regular compost and not worry about the pH of the native soil for non-acid lovers. I think that's within a pH range that the established microlife will balance it out to support other pH preferences - by the time the roots dig down to that native soil.
@@TheRealHonestInquiry We're renting so don't know how much hugelkulture etc I can get away with. I do plan on liming and tilling the area that's so acidic because landlord already said I can plant a garden. I will make raised mounds w the limed soil and compost to try and get above potential soggy ground level. Mostly planted 20 varieties of hot peppers and some tomatoes. The tomatoes died and I'm digging up the peppers as I can and transplanting into 5 gallon grow bags or around the edges of the yard at the tree line where the more sandy soil pH is 6.5. I've started trench composting there and have squash, melons, and watermelon planted in hills above compost pits in case we get another deluge hopefully roots won't drown.. I've also planted cowpeas to try and build soil. Thanks much for helpful advice.
I started the huggle culture bed under two oak trees four years ago I planted hostas sedum‘s numerous amount of shade loving perennials it’s been the best producing bed I have!
I clicked this video to ask you: what is good/bad dirt? In my non-professional albeit Novice opinion, dirt itself is good while Soil is better. Dirt is often dead soil and can be invigorated via worm tea. 👍🏼 🥰😂 adorable daughter, “where are we?” Priceless
Hi, I live in a real red clay and sandy part of Georgia. I’ve always seen gardening as captivating but was too scared to try. This year we’re getting serious and started a cold crop. I was getting discouraged cause of how much soul I was about to buy but I just watched your video and just thank you so much. I feel very hopeful for the future My dreams are to feed my family and friends from my work and by Gods grace I’ll get there. Once again thank you
Mixed up a batch of my own swamp water with a base of liquid fish fertilizer, cut grasses, molding leaves, and rain water. Added to some lettuce grown from seed and it seemed to do wonders- more lush and darker green foliage. Fast forward a week or two. Added the same tea to other seedlings and store bought starters and noticing yellowing of the foliage. Can the swamp water adversely affect young plants? Maybe this is an unrelated problem?
![ลองสุ่มไอโฟน 990 โกงมั้ย? [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.101 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfsWe0j492k/mqdefault.jpg)
Lasagna gardening is fast and easy - and it's simple to find all you need to get started! Plus, it builds your soil as you grow.
Learn more in Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting: amzn.to/3MS0VhI
More Resources:
CJ's Hand-Forged Sickles: www.thesurvivalgardener.com/hand-forged-gardening-tools-cj/
Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza: amzn.to/3MQ68ql
Gardening Without Work by Ruth Stout: amzn.to/38RDx5b
Back to Eden Film with Paul Gautschi: www.backtoedenfilm.com/#/
Subscribe to the newsletter: thesurvivalgardener.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=d1c57e318ab24156698c41249&id=1f74a21dc8
David's Other Gardening Books: amzn.to/2pVbyro
Compost Your Enemies t-shirts: www.aardvarktees.com/products/compost-your-enemies
David's gardening blog: www.thesurvivalgardener.com
Thank you for watching! Get out there and get growing!
Just wanted to say, "Thanks," for the idea of composting my enemies! I took an old plastic toy bucket stuffed it with every weed in the entire property and added water and waited. When fully rotted, took that water and poured it on my teeny corn sprouts...Boy are they ever green and healthy!--but they are planted pretty much like this video describes.(!)
here is a blurry blip: th-cam.com/users/shorts_0Y5MQvNtt0?feature=share
I ordered the sickle but pay pal hadn’t updated my address. I hope I get it
@@iwenive3390 Please email me your proper address, if it's not in the order. david@floridafoodforests.com
If you aren't covered in fire ant bites then you aren't doing it right.
@@davidthegood sent you the address, thank you!
You know you're a true gardener when you think making compost is fun. Excellent content.
Then I’ve arrived! 2nd year gardener here and I “cooked” my own compost my first year. Started my 3rd batch a couple of weeks ago. Compost is life, y’all! 😆
@@Simply_Eden the best part for me is how that soil holds moisture so one doesn’t need to water it all the time, or even at all according to some gardeners.
@baphithi because I live in a very arid place, and I’m a container gardener, I still have to water regularly. Some pots I have to water daily. But when used atop a thin layer of compost, a covering of finely shredded wood chips (not saw dust) will make it so that I don’t have to water as often. Well, so far. But it hasn’t gotten up to 90 to 100°.
@@Simply_Eden 💚
@@baphithi that's the only way I can afford to water my garden, here in California! Compost and mulch keeps my clay soil cool and moist! 💚💧 😎
I figured out how to make soil on accident. Previous owner let his dog dig a few big holes in the yard and never filled them. When I moved in, I started taking the grass clippings and just stuffing them in the holes every time I mowed. With the normal rain, and continual added grass, it just naturally composted into beautiful, soft and fluffy soil! Perfect holes for new trees!. Thanks for all you're doing to help people grow...I mean that in more ways than one.
That is perfect.
So cool! How long did it take to be soft fluffy soil?
I did the same at my place. During the rainy season, I let the grasses and weeds grow, then I would periodically cut them and bury them in small shallow graves all over the yard. Each rainy season more grasses and weeds grew stronger and thicker than the previous year. Took 3-4 years. Now I have fertile soil and I use the grasses as mulch for my garden plants. Grass rots quite quickly, returning nutrients to the soil and feeding soil microbes.
This year, I started making goat manure compost tea, and the plants are thriving from the fertility provided. Next I will use the green grasses to make nitrogen rich tea for my plants.
I am now composting layers of the grasses, goat manure, kitchen scraps etc in big bin bags. I started last week. I hope to have great manure in a few months. All is free. Next up is to get free chicken manure by the truckload and it will be make into tea and also added to the compost big bags.
@@tamararobinson2069 I believe it was only 6-7 months, but I packed it pretty good everytime I mowed and let the rain do the watering. Mowing through summer, then over winter. By spring it was pretty soft.
Thank you!
EDUTAINMENT at its finest!!! What I particularly like is the care of the baby all the while powering through another fun filled tutorial, all in stride, and 😃par excellence. Know what? When I grow up, I want to be just like you!
Thank you - that is very kind of you.
Yeah, way to use your child as a prop.
I just hope when he gets old and senile he doesn't plant his newest baby
Yes, that child looks so comfortable close to Dad and listening to the vibrations of his voice through her body. I am love making compost and am about to spread this year's load onto my allotment this morning, before planting the garlic. Happy gardening.
At the end you got into fire ants. When one of my daughters was a toddler in diapers she fell onto an ant bed. My neighbor ran and got some Preparation H and slathered it all over her legs. She had so many bites I thought I might have to take her to the hospital. That night she slept straight through. In the morning the bites had scabbed over. The only one that made a pustule was on the sole of her foot- where he didn't put any H. You have to put it on right away or it doesn't work. We have been using it for years. I hope this gives back something for all of the help you give. Thanks!
We have found Bio-Freeze to work miraculously well on fire ant bites. Instantaneous relief! I suppose it is appropriate that Bio-FREEZE would be the antidote to FIRE ants. It is amazing!
You’re fantastic at making me feel less anxious about doing things perfectly in the garden. You show a way to do things, and you pepper in comforting messages of alternatives and “it doesn’t have to be perfect” messaging. I appreciate that and can get into the garden content easily without feeling intimidated. Thanks for your efforts.
That's what I did to my whole front yard. I made an organic, no dig cottage garden.
Love watching your videos especially with your wife and children in them🥰🌹🌿🌹
We need more people in the world like you all.
Ms Pat from southern Indiana
Oh that sounds lovely!
Great work, Patricia!
@Patricia Nunez, can you post pictures of your garden? I'm in the midst of creating one of my from yard and would love the inspiration!
@@lilawiese2460 I don't think I can post photos on TH-cam.
@@lilawiese2460 I covered everything with cardboard I got from dumpsters, grocery stores etc. Then piled on compost, cow manure, leaves, mowed grass, kitchen scrapes etc. Made paths with pine bark mulch. Added more perennial flowers each year. Planted peach tree, raspberries, blueberries, roses, kiwi, etc. Filled in with annuals and lots of big pots and hanging baskets. Wish I could post pictures.
Have fun. Go wild😅
Ms Pat from southern Indiana
We did this to turn our lawn into a garden in 2020. The transformation is astounding. We wanted a garden and now have a habitat. Deep dark soil and the only weeds that grow through are edible.
Glad to see you make a video on it.✌️
I live in a mobile home park and everything has to be above ground. This is perfect for where I live. My corn, sunflowers, beans peas and squash are doing great. I doubled my garden space this year and am very happy with it!
❤
I essentially had sticky mud in the spring and solid rock in the summer. Clay is a nightmare. Adding compost over the past couple years has done wonders for balancing it out :)
If you have a neighbor with a lot of sand you can also add some sand to your mix to help break up the clay. It will help with drainage.
We have clay, too!
add chickens.
@@TeaTephiTrumpet777 not legal within city limits here
Good to know!!! Our clay is like cement in the summer. We are adding so much compost into and on it....
Absolutely love this. I understand it! I get it! This makes so much sense to me!! Happy I found this channel. I'm a beginner gardener and I knew deep down gardening was meant to be simple
David is amazing. His gardening style perfectly embraces the world wide save soil movement. I have followed him for over a year. I'm still constantly learning something from him. You came to the right place.
David is a wealth of practical keep it simple knowledge. I make the fetid swamp water fertilizer all summer long.You can just soak in his info, mix it around in your head and whatever comes out will get great results . Definitely get into making biochar, I swear by it and it's like permanent compost.
An important detail about the no dig advice from Paul and Ruth: they both tilled and improved their garden soil for years before they started the no dig methods. They consistently add organic matter, but the clay was already broken up.
This still works without working the native soil...ahem...dirt. Though working the underlying DIRT can't hurt. I just think of my ground level as the bottom of a really big container....with no sides....just keep adding good stuff in no particular order. Just as it comes to me.
When Paul first started the method, maybe. But not for subsequent expansions. No digging/turning necessary.
@@meanqkie2240
I can confidently say, after 23 years in my Michigan garden, the clay needs help. I’ve grown comfrey and large radishes specifically to break up the clay. If there’s no digging, the humus does not penetrate into the clay.
@@SusanBaileyAmazingEstate hence the continuing addition of materials to the surface. You can start soil building on top of parking lot. Paul had rock. And you are correct that humus doesn’t penetrate the hard barrier within 20ish years. Roots can, earthworms till it and mix the clay minerals into the new topsoil layer you are building with your additions to make more nutrients available to plants above. Chop n drop helps somewhat. The whole point is covering the soil with material that can decompose to form new topsoil. Like in the forest. Yearly off-season additions of twigs, branches, leaves, animal poo.
That leaves you with a very very thin topsoil layer where you can hardly cultivate anything into. To give you a time frame: my property has been abandoned for 50+ years and reversed back to woodland. I'm cleaning it now and I found a maximum of 4 inches of topsoil before I hit hard clay. The undiggable one. I can't even imagine the sheer amount of stuff you have to pile on top of that type of clay to cultivate. Tillage is, unfortunately, necessary in clay especially if you cultivate roots. It just has to be the least destructive possible but I can assure you that if you till the hard clay in my garden you are not destroying any mycelium or any life at all. It's like cultivating on Mars 😢
David, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you.
I am now the proud steward of 3 pear trees.
I grew them from seeds from a couple of pears from last fall. Put them in pots and put them on my back porch for the winter. It got down to -20F here in Central New York this winter, so I had little hope for them. In the past few days, all 3 of them pushed up above the soil!
I'd never have thought to do it without your inspiration.I'm very grateful I found your channel.
PS
I can still probably get you a deal on some Grazon...
:P
Great work! No thank you on the Grazon... it's expensive even when free.
Good luck with your trio of pears. 🍐
you are genuinely hilarious. Thank you for... back to earth sanity and the best Idea I've heard to help my compact, lifeless areas.
Such a pretty baby! If you soak the cardboard first (especially since it has to be soaked anyway), the tape and plastic come off SO much more easily.
Thank you for this video. This is especially useful because people think they have to spend a bunch of money on compost to "grow now," and they don't. I have a small yard and very little green matter, but across the street there is a giant ravine with tons of woods. I am going to be the crazy garden lady and start grabbing organic material from this area. Nobody lives there and it's all just going to rot anyway!
I have done just that!
Do it!
Crazy garden lady! Lol😆😆😆😆
That’s being frugal. The idea of spending hundreds on amendments is counterproductive.
Reminds me of a friend who brings sheets and goes to down to the river and grabs large rocks for her garden landscaping and drags them up in her sheet. This is a women probably in her late 60s 😂. Crazy garden ladies are the best.
Your fantastical baby has a crest like an exotic bird. I am enthralled. Yes, the gardening method is good.
I live in TN. Did not want to mow my front yard. WE NEVER MOW THERE! Let the leaves fall! I planted Periwinkle starts here and there, and Ajuga. It spread and I have this glorious groundcover that is about 10" tall and it just reaches up and blooms! It turned into a mat of reaching roots that reached out everywhere and in the Spring: Purple/blue flowers everywhere! I just planted it and forgot it completely! The rest of the yard is a flower garden. I bought perrennials and as they grew I got new starts out of them and put them here and there. Some reseeded of course. Now I have this garden that people gasp at! Gorgeous. Add winter daffodils! Daylilies, Lilies, Phlox, Geranium, Buttercups, Iris, Butterfly weed, butterfly bush, Lenten rose, lily of the valley, bleeding heart, creeping phlox, foxglove, canna, rudebeckia, corral belles, anything you want! add annuals here and there. Easy peasy.
I’ve been doing this in my garden bed for the last few yrs, cheapest & best way to have high quality soil plus your produce will be the best in the neighborhood
Haha... I laughed when you made the hoarding comment. I've been saving all of my newspapers, then I use them in the garden in spring. I'm able to put them out in a thick layer, along with a layer of mulch, and it helps to smother the bindweed. If I were to recycle all of these newspapers, I would lose out on that valuable resource.
I've been a prepper for many years. Various papers have always been something to stockpile. Hoarders humph!
@@pegsol3834 There's a fine line between hoarding and prepping and homesteading and ... I've been counseled by many family members and friends who then find something they can use or have been needing, or an acceptable substitute in the "stash".
It's not hoarding if your stuff is cool and useful!
@@goldengryphon Amen! Always trying to convince my wife that not all junk is trash. She's learning
Whoever thought we'd see a day without newspapers...lost my best weed suppressant.
Expanding my beds to double the size of my garden this year. I've dug trenches and loaded them with half rotten wood (Lots of fungal activity). + 2 small trees I had to take down recently. Layered plenty of alfalfa and home made/activated biochar around the wood and in the dirt on top of it. Last step is to dig out my pathways and mound up over the trenches. (DiggyDiggyDiggyDiggy...)
Planted 110 strawberries and 9 raspberries last week in some established beds. Mmm I can taste the jam now.
That’s exactly how I returned to long wide raised rows! Dug paths down and put that dirt on top of the lasagna. Filled the paths deep with bark. Now in a few years I can shift the rows and all that bark will be there for nutrients and moisture in my sand.
That manure clip is absolutely gorgeous and beautiful 😢brought a tear to my eye
Wood chips and a bit of compost tea helped to transform my soil. Had a hard clay all around my yard. Soil was too dry and hard for any worms. After about a year, my soil got much better and now I have worms adding free fertilizer all over my yard. Just an inch or two or wood chips and a very thin layer of weeds helped to change my soil and now it keeps getting better.
A timely topic for the day before I fill yet another bed on some seriously deficient property.
I live in an HOA (I know, I know... we're working on getting out...) but I've been building lasagna compost in a barrel next to my trash can. Didn't know til today there was a name for it.
Same. I don't do it in a barrel (but that's actually brilliant), I have a 3'x3' "cedar planter box" that I "accidentally" broke the bottom out of and somehow the feet got buried in the soil after a heavy rain so the bottom of the box is resting... perfectly level... on the ground. Nature is so weird sometimes. Lol
How do you get out of HOA?
Truly amazing high tech cinematography. The subject matter deserves no less than 120FPS, truly.
Epic, no doubt...
I'd love to see that in 10k fps
@@tesha199 just imagine the FPS if he had soil, not dirt.
I felt that scene in my soul. Should be up for awards!
I can now take slow mo manure soaking off the bucket list.
🤣
Most work I have put into my garden is building the soil, Thanks for the video
Good for you - I think you've got it right!
I am new to your channel, but an old gardener. I have unknowingly been building soil this way since I started growing in pots, using what I had instead of buying more. Now I have a name for my method. Thank you.
“No! Don’t call it dirt. Call it soil!!!” 😂 I love the babies. Thanks for sharing them with us while sharing your garden knowledge. 🥰
I hope your channel is monitized because IMO, you deserve it! I feel like I've hit the jackpot in finding your straightforward food-growing information. Thank you, and thank you for the free composting book. I started reading it last night. Now, time to finish reading it!
Welcome - thank you.
I accidentally made a lasagna patch. I kept pilings garden waste in an area of our garden. Before I knew it I had a rich patch of soil where I now planted two squash plants and some herbs. This area retains water like no other in my garden. Thank you for this great and very detailed video.
More than 90% of all the home composting bins I see are "lasagna" patches like what you describe, unintentional failures to do composting right. No criticism, but unless a compost pile is built correctly, the stuff won't guaranteed to be completely composted into "black soil" in 90 days, instead the soil is still brown with plenty of undecomposed leaves, twigs, maybe some fibrous remains of kitchen scraps... All the kinds of easily identifiable things that wouldn't be identifiable if a hot compost pile is done correctly. For anyone who isn't in a hurry and don't mind if the decomposition is slow and might take a year, this is no big deal. But for those who want to build the very best kind of soil, black gold compost is the only way to go.
@@tonysu8860 Most housing estates have tiny blocks so not much room for a compost pile. Our local government are trialling a new system of collecting household food scraps and composting them at a big facility. I look forward to buying that when they start selling it.
I read about Lasagna gardening where you dig trenches and fill with kitchen scraps in the garden.
Lasagna gardening is awesome. Thank you for teaching us how! This year a local deli has been giving me bagels that were headed for the dumpster. They're at the bottom of every new raised bed and my garden has never been happier 🤷♀️
Wow, even bagels? That's just too cool! Good luck to you.
@@nedcramdon1306 even bagels! lol there's also coffee grounds, eggshells and stuff. Lots more than I would make on my own
So now we're feeding our gardens bagels along with other breakfast foods, coffee grounds, egg shells, banana peels. Sounds funny, but fun!
Hey, what about flour that got infested with weevils!😂
Today my husband and I were talking about how to build up some low spots in our garden without resorting to getting some fill dirt (you can't tell what you'll get in with it). Now I see that the best way to do that is to try some lasagna beds! We can plant in them this year, and they will build up the low spots and improve out decent soil in the process! Thank you so much! Also, I'm really glad that we don't have fire ant where I live (southeast Ky)!! ;)
Yeah, fill dirt, Pftt! We had what was suppose to be topsoil delivered and it was rocks and clay-Ugh! It was ok to cover an area of stumps after tree removal, but I did use in 2 beds and made it friable with chopped leaves. Still picking stones. I went to lasagna in long wide rows this fall. Much cheaper, easier and better moisture.
I think in the low desert I would dig out a few inches of soil before starting the lasagne bed. It would be easier to control the moisture, and would result in a sunken bed, which is better for our hot, arid climate
We did this in our garden, and our Small Chillies (Capsicum frutescens ) grow 2-3 times bigger. It works well.
I did this last year and planted some asparagus into it. I planted more into it this year. It is amazing how much better the soil in that area looks.
Great video,I believe back to Eden gardening was a God given wisdom provided for Paul!
Fantastic content, DTG! I love how your YT videos are chock full of grace! ( If you can't do it just like so, get as close to it as you can with what you got...). Love the passion, love your fatherhood on display. Well done!
Inspiring 🌿. I made a lasagna flower bed this spring. The plants seem very happy indeed.
Okay, I lost track of your tutorials because I was distracted from your adorable baby and his fluffy hairstyle!😂❤
Aaaaaaaamazing 120 frames per second of Pure.. Water & Poop action - Thank You David!!!
This is a much more cost effective method than we have used in the previous years. We just bring in compost and add it to the top of our soil each year, but we've been buying the compost. I'll definitely be trying this in the future with materials that we have on hand like rabbit manure and straw.
I have you to credit for how good i am at gardening now. I love composting and never thought i'd say that.
Thank you
I too love composting, It’s fun turning food scraps into soil, and watching the worms thrive.
I have really found it to be true, that the ground underneath improves too. Thank you.
You can go to a local newspaper publisher and buy end rolls of paper. When a roll gets to a certain point, they replace it. There's still a lot on it and is great for laying down or shredding for compost.
Excellent video. I've used this method and have an abundance of growth. Took part of my yard, and now I have a food forest. 🤗🌱 Elderberry, fig, blueberry bushes, comfrey, cabbage, tomatoes, kale, potatoes etc. IT WORKS ON ANY SOIL!!! 👏👍👍
Awesome video. The fact that a lawn mower is your third recommendation for cutting the grass was the best. Your surroundings are so green and lush-I can’t imagine you don’t have amazing soil there.
I’ve been afraid to buy cow manure fertilizer on to my backyard garden because of the issue you pointed out. I don’t have animals so I stick with plant based nutrients for the garden. Thinking about trying fish meal this year.
Thanks for all the insight.
I thought about using fish in the garden, like bottom feeders, but there can be issues with that now days. We use to do this at home as a kid.
LOVE that wagon!!!! I have had the same one for probably 10 yrs and it's hauled everything from garden compost, to harvested whitetail deer and feral hogs!!! Great content new sub here!
Welcome, Richard.
Baby is do happy in daddy's arms 😍 thanks for the tips
She is my little garden buddy.
I just used a huge pile of palm fronds yesterday for weed block, my neighbors think I’m extra weird now. I’m fairly certain my dirt here in Pensacola is quite similar too your dirt. Got that exact cart as well, keep an eye on the bottom of the handle where it bends towards the cart, mine is just about rusted through and I expect it to snap off any day now.
I also have the same cart:0) I used to live in Milton, FL, not too far from P'cola. Miss FL!!!
@@pamwilliams6630 Agriculture is destroying the planet. It is very frustrating how much misinformation there is on this topic. Grazing can actually sequester far more carbon than forests at a much, much faster rate. If we grazed animals on a large enough scale, we could actually mitigate all human emissions. Growing plants can not do this. Plant agriculture uses massive amounts of fossil fuels and unlike grazing cattle, it doesn't mitigate its own emissions. The soil microbiome is killed with chemicals and that dead soil is lost rapidly, causing complete land infertility and desertification. Grazing animals is the fastest way to replenish these lands, bring the microbes back, give nutrients back, rehydrate, break up impaction, and build soil faster than any other process. It would take nature decades to build the amount of soil made in a couple of yrs of Grazing.
That manure slow motion spraying. Man I tell ya, that was something else. Well done, Well done.
Awesome!!! I did some “lasagna gardening” this year to start my grocery row gardens. I brought in some local compost, lots of chop and drop from other areas, and I actually mulched with coconut coir to try to hold moisture here in FL during this dry season.
I also decided to put in a calorie patch and just put in 30 cassava plants today which I underplanted with black eyed peas (thank you publix😉). Putting in some “melon pits” tomorrow to run Seminole pumpkins through there as well. Contemplating sticking some sweet potatoes in too🤔. Hopefully that will get us and some friends/family through if we need some starchy things that might be tougher to find in the next year.
Thanks for your fantastic content and inspiration!
Very good work, Brianne. Cassava is a good insurance crop.
Where did you find your cassava? I'm having trouble with that, but have been lazy and am watching more internet than searching it.
Didn't really know where this comment should go, but how about taro root for emergency calories? (Poi & taro chips, anyhow.)
Elephant ears grow well here in our zone 8b/9a here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I have been buying my bulbs from Lee Market in Biloxi to make sure I got the edible kind. (Oriental market in Biloxi.) Also trying my hand at ube and other root crops for stealth calories. Also hunting for canna edulis and tasty varieties of hosta to plant in shady spots.
@@goldengryphon look for it by the pound at Oriental markets. Sometimes big supermarkets have it, but I find that it's fresher at smaller markets. If you are on the Gulf Coast (Mobile through Louisiana), Rouse's sometimes has different offerings than WM. It is rather expensive, but they have horseradish root ($9.99/# and you can eat the greens), and sunchokes fairly regularly. If you're anywhere near Biloxi, MS, Lee Market sometimes has live plants, too. I got a pandanaus last fall, and a kaffir lime last month.
@@marahdolores8930 I also put in taro and malanga for the first time this season. I have had canna edulis for a few years now and it’s so easy to grow, spreads prolifically, and tastes very good. Sort of like a nutty potato. Very easy to divide and propagate as well. Beautiful ornamental. I’m spreading it around everywhere.
South Florida tip. If you have dollarweed (pennywort) in the area you want to lasagna garden, or sheet mulch in general, I would suggest hand pulling them out first. They are an aquatic plant that thrive on the added moisture and can pop up from deep roots. I have had to redo several beds in the past thinking I stuffed them out. They are relentless plants...
Can they make a good "green" mulch? I remember living in Pensacola and the dollarweed there. It was a problem for my parents, but fun for us kids.
@@goldengryphon SC tip. Pull it, set it on a man-made pad (driveway, sidewalk, whatever) in the baking sun and then use it as green matter the next day.
In South Florida, I worry about winds blowing the lasagna pile everywhere. Do you have experience with that?
@@MrLibertyFiend No worries with wind. By the time u pile all the compost and dirt on top of the cardboard it holds it all down. Best practice is to throughly water/drench the cardboard before applying the compost.
Love it! This is quite similar to the "waffle" garden my sister has been creating this spring. She has a 'grid' pattern of clay built up in 3' x 3' shallow bowls which she has layered and built soil. The effect is a raised bed made of clay with a permeable bottom for drainage, which still retains plenty of precious water. SO important, here in California during this extended period of drought, (20+ years) ✌️
Very good idea.
😮
Loving it and loving that swirly vintage glass. Good to see you guys still composting your enemies.
Thank you!im in Live Oak, FL with horrible soil.
I'm in lake City closer to Fort White I needed to see this have a blessed day Jackie
I am SO happy I found your channel! Now I want to begin my new life
Hey! The beginning made me laugh! I like when you said you have dirt not soil 😀! I use to say I have pottery material not gardening soil 😄! Before starting to watch soil amendments and composting videos I was pretty sure I would start a pottery factory not a garden 😀
I feel your pain my house sits on top of a Chert Pit. Rocks,red clay,more rocks! The things we have to do to get a garden is crazy.
My "yard" was just gravel when I moved in 😅.
Taken years but starting to get some great areas of soil !
I read the Ruth Stout book years ago and have used it for many years. We have hard red clay soil here. My neighbors can’t grow carrots I grow the most beautiful carrot you ever saw. It works it’s easy take his advice and go do it.
Thank you very much sir for your explanations about lasagna gardening. They will be very usefull for me since i have clay soil that is very difficult to cultivate.🙏
Ohhhhh boy… I can’t TELL you how much I’ve learned from YOU every time I watch you… you’re a GIFT to the world ❤❤!!
Thank you very much.
Please keep your videos coming. I love your energy/style of gardening.
I’ve used natural fiber, unlined rugs as weed block and it does a great job and rots into the dirt.
I’ve started doing this and love the amazing results yes I have several avocado trees thanks to the compost pile as well as winter squashes ...it’s a very happy spot ,Amen...thank you for sharing!
Your sense of humor is the BEST. You need to make one of those 8 hour videos of water hitting manure at 120fps. :)
I apply this concept to my raised beds and containers. Helps a lot!
Love the mention of Ruth Stout. Her books are treasures.
This is one of your usual greats, David. I really have been contemplating this method for my rocky areas, because I don't feel like building my gardens where the soil is good (500meters away). Thanks :)
David, you're books have changed my life. My Florida food Forrest is well underway after reading your book. I now have figs , blueberries, blackberries , peaches, limes and more and I owe it to you for the inspiration. May God's abundance bless you.
Thank you, James. You too.
Well I'm the hoarder with newspapers dating back to the 80s
Put em to good use, make us proud! 😉
I really appreciate this input because I had a man come in with some claw machine and lift out a huge bed of ivy... Visually clean but we know there's a gazillion Roots underneath the surface... So this cardboard layering brown green lasagna is going to be my plan B... Cuz all I have now is landscape fabric over that cleaned area and the most beautiful little baby ivy is coming up underneath it...5 weeks later...yesterday... I'm 74 and I have to get this right the first time... Because I must have an area going forward that is lawnless (mowing) and ivyless (tree smotherer) so at my age I can maintain it 👍GA USA 8-12-22 APPRECIATE YOU 🙋🌹
Hello Sarah how are you feeling today
I think we all can use more use more slo-mo manure spraying with musical accompaniment.
Also more fine baby hair wafting in the breeze.
I do use (my) cow manure, and my youngest grands do have baby hair (until they turn two this summer and are likely to get a haircut) so obviously I'm living a great life.
:)
Awesome stuff... back to Eden was a mindset shift for sure....the dramatic pause 120frames was hilarious... the tips for the lasagna garden... limitless... thank you!
I am so close to giving up on my garden. My yard is infested with bindweed and invasive rosy sandcrocus that comes up through just about everything (even Back to Eden style deep mulching). The only success I’ve had is crowding it out with something even MORE invasive (like mint) that is actually useful. But I only have so many uses for mint. I will have to give this method a try and see if I can crowd them out with something I actually want to eat!
Bindweed is awful. We pull it every day. It's been five years... maybe in another forty or so, we'll get on top of it! BUT--it is a constant source of biomass for the compost. It does get better, if you treat pulling it like a religious obsession.
If your not opposed to using a paint on brush killer that may fix the problem. I use it to keep neighbors buckthorn in check. After I cut I paint cut and it’s done. Use very little and no broadcasting.
Yay!! All of the boxes that come via u p s, I can use them as a blocking device for my weeds. Brilliant!!
Brilliant! This method increases biodiversity and creates such a great environment for plants to thrive.
Oh what a good Dad !
Mary here I'm getting ready to do a corrugated metal raised bed and I'm going to do this
The great thing about this method is you create the growing medium first, so you get growing first, and then you have the option to add sides whether its rocks logs pallets metal etc.!
I did this with my sandy dead Los Angeles Valley desert dirt. Everyone, including me, thought I was a little crazy. Now I have loamy light soil with a layer of black humus just below the latest layer and wild mushrooms popping up. Cutest baby in the world obviously inspecting the quality of your soil. Loved the slow mo cow poo watering ! you make me laugh while I'm learning. 💚
So wish I could do this here on my property in Northern Thailand. Awesome as always David! :D
What's preventing you?
@@tesha199 It's a private property with multiple houses on it and a landlord who (to put it nicely) doesn't like us Westerners. I have to tread lightly.
@@NorthernThaiGardenGuy seems like you need to move or suffer inside 😔
@@tesha199 Suffer? Nah - blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken. :)
@@NorthernThaiGardenGuy Grass before the wind? Great philosophy! Best thoughts!
I started gardening on the worst cracked dry wash land you can imagine after I found you and frugal off grid. You guys made me realize I don’t need to be a perfectionist. I should just start. I did. Thanks.
PS IT’S UGLY AF which is great because then if the ess hits the fan, the little scavengers won’t think it’s anything special. I love ugly
Great video David.. Are you still doing the biochar thing as well? Ive had some amazing results with my biochar amended beds this year.. The plant growth and health is undeniable, only time will tell regarding the semi permanent improvement aspect. So far Ive run a winter crop of broccoli raab through it, and now my spring plants are in full swing and insanely healthy and big, with no additional fertilization. I began with an amended and unamended bed, and the amended bed yielded plants 3 times larger when planted at the same time. Especially apparent with my leafy plant such as Chard. I finally added char to the unamended bed, as i couldnt stand watching it struggle.. lol. Keep up the great videos..
Yes - we are still making biochar. I just didn't remember to add any to this bed.
Glad you mentioned the persistent herbicide! I always cringe when someone says “go get some cow/horse manure” because the herbicide, aminopyralid, is bad news and it is very common in manures. It is also common on those perfect, beautiful, wheat straw bales found at your local hardware or big box home stores.
Yes - it's a terrible problem!
Hello Heidi
Yes I have done this for
Years and I make great
Soil. I use barrels, kids
Swimming pools, and
Buckets. I have topped
It with soil and next fall
I have soil.. the card board
Layer is great-- I am a compost
Nut and I clean neighbors yard
Up for them to get their stuff---
But I dont use scraps because
It attracts rats and mice----which
Happened---coffie ground, tea bags, egg shells , greens, and small sticks,
Toilet paper centets.---anything leftover with sugar in it--
And a handful of granual fertilizer
On top helps it work---
Yes to lasagna gardening!!! I have that book & have been using this method for several years. Always have the best results!! Thank you for bringing this method to your channel for the world to see how awesome it is!
This sort of thing is dangerous. Every time I see one of these presentations I'm tempted to quit my job and spend all day piling things up on the ground. My wife is going to come looking for you.
Lol, funny!!!
You've got a beautiful place 👍 (despite the "dirt", lol ) and beautiful family there sir! 😍 👌
Livin' the dream!!
Central FL between st johns river and lake konomac and thought the black dirt area of my back yard would be great then found out after I planted that the soil is pH of 4.5 and floods sometimes.
Wow - acid bog-type soil!
I would be thrilled to be able to grow a ton of blueberries or other acid lovers in that! I would probably use Oyster Shell + Dolomite Lime to raise the pH in areas for other crops, then build up a thick layer of branches - depending on how much it floods could be several feet high, then build the lasagna on top of that, so if it floods it's like a wick system. If planting acid lovers then mix some native soil in the planting hole, if not use regular compost and not worry about the pH of the native soil for non-acid lovers. I think that's within a pH range that the established microlife will balance it out to support other pH preferences - by the time the roots dig down to that native soil.
@@TheRealHonestInquiry We're renting so don't know how much hugelkulture etc I can get away with. I do plan on liming and tilling the area that's so acidic because landlord already said I can plant a garden. I will make raised mounds w the limed soil and compost to try and get above potential soggy ground level. Mostly planted 20 varieties of hot peppers and some tomatoes. The tomatoes died and I'm digging up the peppers as I can and transplanting into 5 gallon grow bags or around the edges of the yard at the tree line where the more sandy soil pH is 6.5. I've started trench composting there and have squash, melons, and watermelon planted in hills above compost pits in case we get another deluge hopefully roots won't drown.. I've also planted cowpeas to try and build soil.
Thanks much for helpful advice.
Those fireants get you every time! Great video! Thanks!
Thank you , you give me great motivation 🙌
I started the huggle culture bed under two oak trees four years ago I planted hostas sedum‘s numerous amount of shade loving perennials it’s been the best producing bed I have!
I clicked this video to ask you: what is good/bad dirt? In my non-professional albeit Novice opinion, dirt itself is good while Soil is better. Dirt is often dead soil and can be invigorated via worm tea. 👍🏼
🥰😂 adorable daughter, “where are we?” Priceless
Your baby is so cute! You and your family are blessed.
Hi, I live in a real red clay and sandy part of Georgia. I’ve always seen gardening as captivating but was too scared to try. This year we’re getting serious and started a cold crop. I was getting discouraged cause of how much soul I was about to buy but I just watched your video and just thank you so much. I feel very hopeful for the future My dreams are to feed my family and friends from my work and by Gods grace I’ll get there. Once again thank you
You can do it.
I love how mellow the baby is......happy to be outdoors I think.
Mixed up a batch of my own swamp water with a base of liquid fish fertilizer, cut grasses, molding leaves, and rain water. Added to some lettuce grown from seed and it seemed to do wonders- more lush and darker green foliage.
Fast forward a week or two. Added the same tea to other seedlings and store bought starters and noticing yellowing of the foliage. Can the swamp water adversely affect young plants? Maybe this is an unrelated problem?
If it's too strong it can burn the little babies. Try diluting it more next time !
I love the beautiful music you chose while you sprayed the manure at 120 fps. Very mooooving.