Thanks for watching! If you've enjoyed this video, please share it with your friends and on social media and to let TH-cam know that you are enjoying our channel, please watch another video - here's one about how much to grow for self-sufficiency in vegetables. th-cam.com/video/t6NuOCUmV14/w-d-xo.html
I mulched my ground with grass clippings mixed with chicken bedding by an inch. That was about a week ago and the soil that was dust is now moist! Mulching is magic!!
I now am pretty obsessed with compost and mulch. Having just lifted three potato plants to see what's happening I was astonished to find how moist the soil was. Nice meal from really early potatoes too. Mulch is magic.
It has been so dry here in North Yorshire for weeks that even under inches of mulch the ground is drying out, but it still has some moisture to it, I agree mulching and no dig is the way to go!
Looks like we're getting some well needed rain in North Yorks over the next week or two. I've been watching out the window all evening in anticipation!
Hi Liz! I've kept plenty of leaves from last year and ran them over with the lawnmower. I'm so happy with how it's working out as a mulsh and I only water half as much as the bare areas in other beds as you've also noticed :)
Hi Liz, do you have a problem with slugs in the mulch? Charles Dowding recommends only using compost as a mulch because he has found other things (wood chips, grass clippings, hay) to encourage slugs to use it as a habitat. I'd like another point of view before i chose what to use. Also, have you had any problems with the grass mulch spreading moss? I have a lot of it in my grass and i don't know if that'd be detrimental if there was moss growing in my veg plot. Thanks
I've decided to use grass clippings to mulch my spuds this year! I've just started my own video diary of our new place. I'm starting from scratch with a bare piece of grass and hoping to transform it into a veggie garden, wildlife garden and orchard! Your videos have given me hope that we will be able to achieve some level of self sufficiency! 🙂
Hi Liz the best thing to do with chicken poo or bedding is to compost it for 6 to 8 weeks and then put it on your garden beds that will take the sting out of it cheers
Mike, clean the chicken coop in the fall and put it down in tje garden in the fall. By spring, you gave the soil and organisms time to work and the rain and snow to do it job. WhatI do that might make your life easy is to get your bed ready in fall 1.compost 2. rotten fruit/veggie 3. one 16 oz of coffee grounds and potash 4 . 4 sheet thick newspaper 5. rotten hey or dry grass cliipings or leaves Let this rot all fall and winter. In the spring, poke the newspaper and plant in the compost beneath. You can also add sand and eggshells if your soil is all clay. Woodchips will allow you to clean your coop once a year. Make sure they are arborist wood chips or adda little grass clippings to make them brake down faster. Greetings from the Balkans
Oh that's great news! I've added some pond weed and duck bedding to my grass clipping potato bed - mainly because I was too tired to lug them to the other end of the garden, so on to the spuds they went!
Good video, totally agree about mulches. I use alot of grass cuttings as mulches and I've noticed an additional benefit. When the conditions are right to get dew the multitude of grass stems and blades of the grass clippings gives a massive amount of surface for the dew to condense on and then trickle down through the mulch to the bed. I notice that early in the morning the mulch can be quite wet and although the mulch dries off during the day the soil underneath gets to hold the moisture. I've used clover in the past as a living mulch - just used shears on it when it got too tall and then pull it up and compost it. It did grow back however and who needs a weed that locks in atmospheric nitrogen and composts quickly.
Our neighbour has usually let it rest for a couple of days before we get it. It comes from a huge pond with lots of koi carp in it, so I'm not sure how much other wildlife they leave on the pond weed.
@@LizZorab I can't wait to see that video too!!! I have comfrey planted for chop and drop, and I am waiting on red clover seeds for ground cover over the winter.
I love the chop and drop that's all I do it looks a bit messy to the dry out and die back but but here in Spain it doesn't take very long with the heat
I find a tremendous improvement with using mulch, my most handy is grass clippings but I'm careful not to use them if the grass has seed heads! I would love to know what kind of small edible plants you'll grow from these seeds in the brassica cage? And good tip to know about the chicken and duck manure, I didn't know you could use duck manure and bedding right away. Another good video Liz!
Hi there Liz. Here in the subtropics of Australia mulch is essential in our summer to keep the moisture up to everything. Like your hair longer, looks nice xx
One thing we're lacking here in Cumbria is moisture from above - no rain to speak of since March 14th. Surprised me today when driving the post hole bar for putting in a new raised bed to hear a "schlup" noise when extracting the bar - yep; got yellow clay 60cm down & ground water coming UP, so a layer of compost on top & I shouldn't have any watering issues.
This is really surprising. Cumbria/Lakeland is notorious for its 'moisture'. Been there -got wet! - but loved it. If YOU are dry, spare a thought for my part of the Trent valley which seems to avoid every drop of passing showers. Hope that you are getting more rain recently or soon. good wishes form the Midlands - Paul
Great topic Liz,mulch is very much on my mind this growing season. I have been using some straw and around my blueberries I have put down stump grindings from my neighbour.
Hi Bettina, I've just seen online that our water companies are asking people to conserve water where they can, so I'm pleased that I published this video today! Ooh stump grindings sound good, I bet they will stop a few weeds coming through!
Liz Zorab - Byther Farm the arborist was mentioning the fact that stump grindings would have lots of Mycorrhizal. So I am hoping for a double benefit. I have a garden at my home but also at my mums house. She still lives where I grew up on 2 acres.Last year she over did it trying to help keep the veg garden watered.she ended up in hospital. She is 86 and was just in hospital a day last week as she has fluid around her heart. :( So I want to make sure she stays away from trying to water!
Another great video, thank you. Was just wondering what mix of seed you were going to use for the living mulch? I love the idea and am interested to see how it goes.
I will film when I make up the seed mixture and get it into the brassica cage and then follow it over the coming weeks. First step is to let it rain on the ground tomorrow and hopefully that will make it easier to scratch the surface a little for the seeds to settle into it.
Oh yes, it's been very dry, we are due some rain tomorrow, but that's the first for 11 days and it was a couple of weeks before that since we had any more. It's been unusually dry for May in Wales.
Hi Liz., do you ever change the place where the pathways go? It seems like the soil under the path, after a few years, would be rampantly fertile, but if it always remains a path, it's a loss.
Hi John, in the market garden they are being moved each year. I'm currently growing brassicas in last year's path as it is very firm ground (which they like). In the raised bed garden, the paths remain in place as I'd have to move the raised beds etc. but I am growing pollinators along the edges of the paths.
Thanks for your very useful gardening tips. I see lots of organic gardener using comfrey but I can't find any in garden centers. Do you happen to know any supplier in London who sells them please? Thanks!
Hi Julia, there is a variety of comfrey called Bocking 14 which is the one I'd recommend as its seeds are sterile so it does invade your garden. I bought mine by post from Ragman's Lane Farm in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. www.ragmans.co.uk/shop/comfrey/ You'll need to buy root cuttings or young plants because it can't be grown from seed.
When using grass clippings do you put it straight down after cutting? Hi do you make sure it doesn't go slimy and attract slugs? Thanks, love your videos 😁
if you put it down fresh and only an inch or two thick then it shouldn't heat up or go slimy but dry out in the warm and slowly breakdown when wet. The slugs will come, but so will the centipedes, black beetles and other predators. You'll have blackbirds and robins rooting through it and keeping it aired as they look for creepy crawlies.
I spread the cuttings out a little, leave to dry off for a day or too until the are almost fluffy, thenplace them around as my mulch. Don't seem to get many slugs that way.
@@LizZorab ok thank you Liz!!! I really want to work on the health of my soil seeing as it's raised beds filled with bagged soil, peat moss and compost... I want to start adding my own home made compost in about a year as mulch...but in the meantime the one thing I have an abundance of is grass clippings. 👍
Charles Dowding is using compost and this is the best mulch if you don't want slugs infestation, but from the other hand Patrick from OYR frugal is using woodchips and leaves, and had slug problems at first but then centipedes and beetles arrived and balanced the ecosystem.
The habitat that the slugs like is the same sort of habitat that their predators like so it may take a little while but the centipedes, rove beetles and nematodes will all catch up.
@@jasons-jungle that's right. But there will always be some slugs and snails, because in balanced ecosystem there is always prey and predator. There is always birth, life and death. This is the thruth that people need to accept.
Hi Diane, what a great community this is! You have some great ideas offered in response to your question. I agree that homemade compost is the best mulch.
Sherri Jackson I don't get any choice as we have huge pine trees behind us and my back garden gets it whether it likes it or not. It seems to work fine.
HELLO. my last years spinach plant is growing 7 ft toll n 8 ft wide, is it rare , my family n friends says its a XMAS TREE, please tell me ,if there is record, what is record growing spinach plant in UK, it is producing many seeds, ...........please
One of my garden boxes had a slug infestation too. I pulled off all the mulch and spent 3 nights with a flashlight and a knife killing the little slimys.
Hi. Greetings from the Balkans. Here everyone waters, hoes, tills, digs and sweats bullets every season. I dont thanks to chenals like yours. And most of all... since I have no water other than rain, i had to be more open minded to other gardening techniques. Thanks. Besides, it is much more fun and a lot less work
Thanks for watching! If you've enjoyed this video, please share it with your friends and on social media and to let TH-cam know that you are enjoying our channel, please watch another video - here's one about how much to grow for self-sufficiency in vegetables. th-cam.com/video/t6NuOCUmV14/w-d-xo.html
I mulched my ground with grass clippings mixed with chicken bedding by an inch. That was about a week ago and the soil that was dust is now moist! Mulching is magic!!
Mulch is indeed like magic!
I now am pretty obsessed with compost and mulch. Having just lifted three potato plants to see what's happening I was astonished to find how moist the soil was. Nice meal from really early potatoes too. Mulch is magic.
It has been so dry here in North Yorshire for weeks that even under inches of mulch the ground is drying out, but it still has some moisture to it, I agree mulching and no dig is the way to go!
Looks like we're getting some well needed rain in North Yorks over the next week or two. I've been watching out the window all evening in anticipation!
@@nenemaria-cornfieldsgarden horray! it has been pouring down for the past 3 hours or so !
Great hints and tips for a new gardener like me👍 also got my first allotment last week🤯. Will be watching for more help and info. Thanks💯
Congratulations for getting a plot - the skies the limit for your growing now! 🌱
You have wonderful neighbors that pass you all that nice mulch. However I suspect they get well thanked for it with delicious veggies! 😊
This method really helps me keep water usage to a minumum..especially helpful when you are on a water meter.👍😊🌷🌷
Yes it's amazing how well it holds in the water!
Interesting the difference between chicken bedding and duck bedding, I didn't know that
Hi Liz! I've kept plenty of leaves from last year and ran them over with the lawnmower. I'm so happy with how it's working out as a mulsh and I only water half as much as the bare areas in other beds as you've also noticed :)
That is awesome!
Curled dock makes an awesome substitute for spinach… It’s similar in taste to collard greens. The leaves are very thick and meaty
cracking video i mulched for years always had plenty of grass cuttings to use
A good video Liz. Mulch is very important for the gardener.
Hi Liz, do you have a problem with slugs in the mulch? Charles Dowding recommends only using compost as a mulch because he has found other things (wood chips, grass clippings, hay) to encourage slugs to use it as a habitat. I'd like another point of view before i chose what to use. Also, have you had any problems with the grass mulch spreading moss? I have a lot of it in my grass and i don't know if that'd be detrimental if there was moss growing in my veg plot. Thanks
I love the idea of a living mulch. I look forward to seeing it as it grows. Take care.
What a beautiful garden you have
Thank you - we love it!
I've decided to use grass clippings to mulch my spuds this year! I've just started my own video diary of our new place. I'm starting from scratch with a bare piece of grass and hoping to transform it into a veggie garden, wildlife garden and orchard! Your videos have given me hope that we will be able to achieve some level of self sufficiency! 🙂
Hi Liz the best thing to do with chicken poo or bedding is to compost it for 6 to 8 weeks and then put it on your garden beds that will take the sting out of it cheers
Chicken manure needs 12 to 18 months of composting to reduce the alkalinity enough for use as a mulch.
Mike, clean the chicken coop in the fall and put it down in tje garden in the fall. By spring, you gave the soil and organisms time to work and the rain and snow to do it job. WhatI do that might make your life easy is to get your bed ready in fall
1.compost
2. rotten fruit/veggie
3. one 16 oz of coffee grounds and potash
4 . 4 sheet thick newspaper
5. rotten hey or dry grass cliipings or leaves
Let this rot all fall and winter. In the spring, poke the newspaper and plant in the compost beneath.
You can also add sand and eggshells if your soil is all clay.
Woodchips will allow you to clean your coop once a year. Make sure they are arborist wood chips or adda little grass clippings to make them brake down faster. Greetings from the Balkans
Lovely, thank you
I have tried your idea of planting potatoes in grass clippings and they are poking through already, it's a great no dig way to plant spuds 👍
Oh that's great news! I've added some pond weed and duck bedding to my grass clipping potato bed - mainly because I was too tired to lug them to the other end of the garden, so on to the spuds they went!
Good video, totally agree about mulches. I use alot of grass cuttings as mulches and I've noticed an additional benefit.
When the conditions are right to get dew the multitude of grass stems and blades of the grass clippings gives a massive amount of surface for the dew to condense on and then trickle down through the mulch to the bed.
I notice that early in the morning the mulch can be quite wet and although the mulch dries off during the day the soil underneath gets to hold the moisture.
I've used clover in the past as a living mulch - just used shears on it when it got too tall and then pull it up and compost it. It did grow back however and who needs a weed that locks in atmospheric nitrogen and composts quickly.
I use pond weed but leave it for a day or two by the side of the pond so the creatures can crawl back into the pond.
Our neighbour has usually let it rest for a couple of days before we get it. It comes from a huge pond with lots of koi carp in it, so I'm not sure how much other wildlife they leave on the pond weed.
Great video, lots of information, Thanks Liz!
You're very welcome, I really enjoyed making this video and I'm excited about starting the living mulch.
@@LizZorab I can't wait to see that video too!!! I have comfrey planted for chop and drop, and I am waiting on red clover seeds for ground cover over the winter.
Thanks Liz. Fun video
Glad you enjoyed it!
Can’t wait to see your living mulch!
Hi Claire, I'll make a video showing the mix of seeds and what I do and then we'll follow its progress over the next few weeks and months.
I love the chop and drop that's all I do it looks a bit messy to the dry out and die back but but here in Spain it doesn't take very long with the heat
Hi! My whole garden is on the scale of 'a bit messy' to 'very badly messy' so some chop and drop debris just fits in with the general scheme!
I'm the same my theory is its growing and I can eat it what it looks like round it dont matter 😄😄😄
I find a tremendous improvement with using mulch, my most handy is grass clippings but I'm careful not to use them if the grass has seed heads! I would love to know what kind of small edible plants you'll grow from these seeds in the brassica cage? And good tip to know about the chicken and duck manure, I didn't know you could use duck manure and bedding right away. Another good video Liz!
Hi there Liz. Here in the subtropics of Australia mulch is essential in our summer to keep the moisture up to everything. Like your hair longer, looks nice xx
I started using mulch a couple of years ago, it helps so much!
Really excited by the idea of living mulch, what seeds should be used?
Thank you for this video very helpful tips. Will wood chip make weeding difficult?
Not at all - the wood chips make it harder for weeds to get through so you should have fewer weeds.
One thing we're lacking here in Cumbria is moisture from above - no rain to speak of since March 14th. Surprised me today when driving the post hole bar for putting in a new raised bed to hear a "schlup" noise when extracting the bar - yep; got yellow clay 60cm down & ground water coming UP, so a layer of compost on top & I shouldn't have any watering issues.
This is really surprising. Cumbria/Lakeland is notorious for its 'moisture'. Been there -got wet! - but loved it. If YOU are dry, spare a thought for my part of the Trent valley which seems to avoid every drop of passing showers. Hope that you are getting more rain recently or soon. good wishes form the Midlands - Paul
Great video and good to get so many options for mulches. I love your practical pragmatic approach to things.
Very good Liz.
Great topic Liz,mulch is very much on my mind this growing season. I have been using some straw and around my blueberries I have put down stump grindings from my neighbour.
Hi Bettina, I've just seen online that our water companies are asking people to conserve water where they can, so I'm pleased that I published this video today! Ooh stump grindings sound good, I bet they will stop a few weeds coming through!
Liz Zorab - Byther Farm the arborist was mentioning the fact that stump grindings would have lots of Mycorrhizal. So I am hoping for a double benefit. I have a garden at my home but also at my mums house. She still lives where I grew up on 2 acres.Last year she over did it trying to help keep the veg garden watered.she ended up in hospital. She is 86 and was just in hospital a day last week as she has fluid around her heart. :( So I want to make sure she stays away from trying to water!
Looking good Liz. We are still shielding but hoping to have an allotment by Xmas then the fun begins lol
hello,Fresh vegetables eat for good health great video thank you for sharing like big
Good vid Liz 👍🏻
Another great video, thank you. Was just wondering what mix of seed you were going to use for the living mulch? I love the idea and am interested to see how it goes.
I will film when I make up the seed mixture and get it into the brassica cage and then follow it over the coming weeks. First step is to let it rain on the ground tomorrow and hopefully that will make it easier to scratch the surface a little for the seeds to settle into it.
@@LizZorab Amazing. Cheers Liz. I'm looking forward to it. Have a great day :)
According to the look of that grass mulch, you've had a lot of dry weather lately!
Oh yes, it's been very dry, we are due some rain tomorrow, but that's the first for 11 days and it was a couple of weeks before that since we had any more. It's been unusually dry for May in Wales.
As always informative and great to watch
Liz thanks for sharing your insight
You are so welcome! Thank you for watching 😃
Great video Liz. What seeds are you using for the living mulch?
Loving The lockdown hair😀
I feel like a wildebeest with my hair flicking around my face! LOL I think I'm going to have to take the scissors to it sooner or later. 😂
@@LizZorab 🇬🇧 Two of my shopping nieces are both hairdressers but won't cut my hair yet.
I'm getting desperate.
It looks good
@@LizZorab it looks lovely. Just pin it back a little when your working 😁
Good advice about the mulch
Glad it was helpful!
Super video Liz, thanks for sharing.
Thank you Kate, thank you for dropping by and hugs to you and David x
Someone got a new hairstyle! Great vid, Liz!
Hi Liz., do you ever change the place where the pathways go? It seems like the soil under the path, after a few years, would be rampantly fertile, but if it always remains a path, it's a loss.
Hi John, in the market garden they are being moved each year. I'm currently growing brassicas in last year's path as it is very firm ground (which they like). In the raised bed garden, the paths remain in place as I'd have to move the raised beds etc. but I am growing pollinators along the edges of the paths.
Do you ever use leaf mould as a mulch? Would it be a good? I live near forests and it is in plentiful supply.
I do use the leaf mould that I make as a mulch, but wouldn't take it from the forest or local woods.
Thanks for your very useful gardening tips. I see lots of organic gardener using comfrey but I can't find any in garden centers. Do you happen to know any supplier in London who sells them please? Thanks!
Hi Julia, there is a variety of comfrey called Bocking 14 which is the one I'd recommend as its seeds are sterile so it does invade your garden. I bought mine by post from Ragman's Lane Farm in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. www.ragmans.co.uk/shop/comfrey/ You'll need to buy root cuttings or young plants because it can't be grown from seed.
Come to my garden. I've lots of big big trees and masses of comfrey under them. The bees love it.
Thank you so much Liz, very useful information. I will try to get some. Keep up with your amazing work. Thanks xx
🇬🇧 What kind of seeds do you use to mulch your brassicas please. I've a pkt of bee friendly but can't sow them in a cage.
Video coming showing exactly what I'm doing 😀
When using grass clippings do you put it straight down after cutting? Hi do you make sure it doesn't go slimy and attract slugs? Thanks, love your videos 😁
if you put it down fresh and only an inch or two thick then it shouldn't heat up or go slimy but dry out in the warm and slowly breakdown when wet.
The slugs will come, but so will the centipedes, black beetles and other predators. You'll have blackbirds and robins rooting through it and keeping it aired as they look for creepy crawlies.
I spread the cuttings out a little, leave to dry off for a day or too until the are almost fluffy, thenplace them around as my mulch. Don't seem to get many slugs that way.
Do you put the grass mulch on green? Or do you let it dry and yellow before adding it?
Hi Jessica, as a mulch I put it on green, although it can't be too thick a layer or it will go slimy in the centre.
@@LizZorab ok thank you Liz!!! I really want to work on the health of my soil seeing as it's raised beds filled with bagged soil, peat moss and compost... I want to start adding my own home made compost in about a year as mulch...but in the meantime the one thing I have an abundance of is grass clippings. 👍
Lots of good ideas here :) What kind of seeds are you going to plant as the living mulch? And is that going to be planted at what time this year?
Hi, there will be an update video very soon, showing how I prepared that area and what seed mix I sowed
We have lots of slugs in our area. What do you do so the mulch doesn’t become a great slug habitat?
Charles Dowding is using compost and this is the best mulch if you don't want slugs infestation, but from the other hand Patrick from OYR frugal is using woodchips and leaves, and had slug problems at first but then centipedes and beetles arrived and balanced the ecosystem.
The habitat that the slugs like is the same sort of habitat that their predators like so it may take a little while but the centipedes, rove beetles and nematodes will all catch up.
@@jasons-jungle that's right. But there will always be some slugs and snails, because in balanced ecosystem there is always prey and predator. There is always birth, life and death. This is the thruth that people need to accept.
Hi Diane, what a great community this is! You have some great ideas offered in response to your question. I agree that homemade compost is the best mulch.
Hi Liz where do you get the paper sacks from ? Thanks
They are brown paper sacks that the chicken and duck food comes in.
Have you ever used pine needles as mulch? Do you think it would be ok?
It will be as good as any organic matter. Use resources that you have in abundance.
Sherri Jackson I don't get any choice as we have huge pine trees behind us and my back garden gets it whether it likes it or not. It seems to work fine.
HELLO. my last years spinach plant is growing 7 ft toll n 8 ft wide, is it rare , my family n friends says its a XMAS TREE, please tell me ,if there is record, what is record growing spinach plant in UK, it is producing many seeds, ...........please
No idea what the record is, but chard and spinach do get enormous when going to seed.
Slugs just nest in my mulch
One of my garden boxes had a slug infestation too. I pulled off all the mulch and spent 3 nights with a flashlight and a knife killing the little slimys.
Hi. Greetings from the Balkans. Here everyone waters, hoes, tills, digs and sweats bullets every season. I dont thanks to chenals like yours. And most of all... since I have no water other than rain, i had to be more open minded to other gardening techniques. Thanks. Besides, it is much more fun and a lot less work
👍