G'day Everyone, I have a sneaky suspicion that most of you knew what I was using to fill that raised bed, but maybe you were intrigued to see how I would do it. Regardless, thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoyed the video! I have high expectations for those potatoes, and if they don't grow a ton, I'll be very disappointed! Cheers :)
mark you could have just put a nut on the inside aswell it would prevent it from bowing 😅 the bed can still collapse in because nothings holding the hole in the bed to the rod from the inside 😊
This was very timely for me as I'm getting ready to start a new raised bed. Saving money is so important these days. I rather suspected you'd use leaves and mulch, but wasn't sure about the compost as I do consider it soil, but you didn't have to buy it and that counts. The rock minerals are smart too! Thank you for remembering that some of us don't use the metric system, I really appreciate hearing it the imperial measures.❤ Can't wait to see the bed as everything begins to breakdown, and the potatoes grow!
Well, you didn`t use soil, you constructed (or created, grew) your own soil from the ingredients of the soil, with the help of the edafon (soil dwelling creatures) from the compost. Though some would consider compost a kind of soil. Interesting project, I`m curious of what the results will be in the future. 👍
It’s amazing how after I’ve watched you for so many years that I do the same things you do because I’ve learned so much. I’m mostly now in ground since I moved, but I’ll always have several raised beds. You make the world smile, Sir
Dear Mark, I just wanted to say Mark what a true blessing you are. I have been watching your inspirational shows for a long time now and you are a truly inspiring man. I wanted to say a huge thankyou to you Mark. I’m not sure if you realise that you have a true calling on your life to help people Mark. The impact your videos have on Australia and the world is remarkable and I need you to recognise your importance to us and that you have created a real community in all that you do. So please know Mark that we love you heaps and please keep inspiring and teaching us as you have been . We must push back against the world economic forum and tyrannical governments and elites as our very humanity is at stake here. We must band together for the good of humanity and push back and say no against this evil plot to eliminate us . I have changed my whole life because of your videos Mark I grow as much food as I can now and try and help others too as much as I can because you have been so inspiring Mark . You are truely called to do something big here Mark so don’t let this go ok . Keep teaching us as you have been and know you are loved and appreciated by so many people. We are here and with you Mark so Thankyou for all your love and care . WA Australia
Good morning, Mark!🌄 Because of your content, I hugelkulture-filled all of my raised beds AND containers. I just dug out my 20 gallon Dragon fruit nursery and checked out the 4 year breakdown... Wow! I saw with my own 2 eyes! The sponge effect! Green thumbs up!💚💚💚
He's not wrong, this works AMAZINGLY well. It's like making an in situ compost heap that rots down whilst you grow on top. It does shrink back a good bit, but you're up and growing FAST and you repeat the process yearly until its genuinely full of some of the best homemade compost. Cracking idea! 👍
I like that you use what you had to make the best planting possible. No need to go buy anything when you already had so much plant matter, straw and a bit of compost
I cut up a banana trunk and laid it on the ground, and it is starting to grow a rack on bananas out of one of the segments on its trunk. It doesn't have any leaves or anything. It's just a section of trunk with bananas growing right on the ground.
Aloha. I’ve never seen that, but once our banana tree produced, we’d lop it off to about knee high, and it would sprout just like you said and produce a new tree. Those trunks are heavy with liquid.
@@adamyoung480 I've seen that a lot, but now that you mention that I think I'm going to run an experiment. After I cut down a banana tree, I'll leave a 4 foot stump then cut a bowl into the center of the trunk so the leaves can't grow back. Then I'll see if it produces a rack of bananas out of the side of the trunk.
Mark in all my years watching you have you preached the usefulness of mulch. Never in my life would I imagine you would fall in love with it to the extent that you now plant in mulch and topdress with soil. All the best mate
Just wondered if you ever get snakes and skinks hibernating in these raised beds. Although I suppose as the winter temperature where you are is still high maybe they don’t need to. I have grass snakes here in England that seek our raised bed/ compost heaps for warmth.
I’m really eager to see how these potatoes go! Can’t wait for the follow up. And I really loved seeing you unearth the wood from the bed in the earlier video. We purchased land that we will be building our future homestead on. Our plan is to do 3 feet tall raised beds(future-proofing for twenty years from now when we are older and might not be as able to grow in lower beds) and all of them will be filled with the trees we need to remove during the building process(much of the property is forested). So I always love to see when folks dig down and show the results years later.
I'll do a follow-up video on the potatoes (good or bad). Congratulations on purchasing your new property! All the best with developing your garden. How exciting! Cheers :)
I've been watching this channel on and off for a few years now, I'm finally on the cusp of being able to have space for a garden. Needless to say I'm super excited to put to practice all that I've seen from this channel!
We love your content mate. Wifey and I watch most, if not all of your videos. They are very encouraging and very inspiring for us to get our butts into the garden. But seriously dude, that is a shifting spanner, not a hammer. Keep up the good work mate. Thumbs up
I just installed 2 massive beds. I replaced 2 wooden beds. I used the wood on the very bottom. I also know a couple horse farmers around my area. So, i went and picked up a "crap ton" of horse manure and used it. It was free, so why not. I also used a bunch of cardboard from my business. I filled the last foot with the old soil from the dismantled beds i was replacing. As i filled the bed, i supplemented the soil with organic fertilizer. My new beds are growing lile mad. It's crazy. I have so many huge worms. I've never seen it soo full of worms.
G'day Mark! watching from Gippsland Vic here. You know I watch a lot of gardening videos and horticulturists can make it over complicated at times. What I love about your videos Mark, is that although its hard work at times (mostly just moving stuff around the yard lol ) , there isn't really anything too complicated and gardening/ growing is so achievable and rewarding for everyone. Especially in the beds you use, which can be used for any sized garden. Very inspirational. Thanks! keep em coming.
G'day Sharon, and thanks for the kind feedback. Yes, you're so right about gardening not being complicated. Getting started in gardening is often the hardest thing to do and then people realise how rewarding and satisfying it can be! All the best :)
I love your videos and they are such a great relief from the other "typical" videos you normally find on TH-cam. It's almost a theurapeutic value. I don't have green thumbs but you are big inspiration to keep trying. Thanks from the opposite side of earth (Norway)
I’m anxious to see your results Mark. I placed potatoes directly on top of clay pan, then topped with six inches wood chips. Apart from putting more wood chip as potatoes grew and giving my “garden” a good soak monthly, I did nothing, but watch them grow. I had a good harvest of nice sized CLEAN potatoes. The woodchips hold the water thus saving on watering.😊
I can't wait to see the results of this planting. I love to watch your videos because I am from FL which is close to you in growing climate. Thank you for experimenting so I don't have to so much.
Yes, I love the support our channel gets from you awesome Floridians! Our climates are very close (and so are the people), plus both States are called the Sunshine State. Cheers :)
Mark, thanks for the video. I have now been working in potatoes for 50 years. This is new to me and I don't believe in it. Lots of work and often requires water.
Always a great informative show! I grew potatoes for the first time this year in Texas... did excellent.. tasted even better... your garden shows your dedication to it!
This is a good idea to try during the Northern Hemisphere winter almost like composting in place while growing a heat needing crop like potatoes. I can also imagine that the soil will not drop as much. Thanks Mark!!
Mark, you are someone I could sit and have so many wonderful conversations with. great videos. I'm still hesitate to start my garden but ill get there.
Great Mark! Please follow up on how this bed grows... can't wait to see the harvest! Off to buy some bales of straw to let sit and age before filling the new beds I'm ordering for winter garden. Thanks from Arizona 😊
Well I was wrong Mark and freely admit it, my choice was old wood chips!! Looking forward to the harvest of the spuds though to see how successful that variety is. :)
Mark, you've been doing this a while. I'd love to have you make even more start-to-finish videos showing progress and results over time when this is all done.
You're so awesome Mark! Your teaching abilities are great too. I live in the city and guessed correctly you'd be using compost! I can't wait to see the end product potatoes.
So, I moved to Oz roughly 10yrs ago now. 3yrs ago stumbled upon this wonderful guys channel. And my “gardening bug” was reignited! In the last 3yrs have grown enough Romain 🥬 lettuce,, different types of 🍅 tomatoes, red and brown potatoes, cucumbers as well as fresh herbs for my family of 4. Each year my garden is growing and I’m loving every minute of it! Thanx Mate !! From Central Coast!! 🥬🫑🌶️🥒🍋
instead of rock minerals i regularly top of my pots and beds with a bit of garden soil. i live in a river valley and the clay soil works nicely to balance out the compost.
I bought some river mud home to add to my garden once and I’ve had sweet Anne ever since. I also brought home some free strawberry plants and I’ve had purslane ever since. I’m not complaining, I like both plants.
Trace elements / rock minerals are usually a good idea to purchase and use every couple of years. They come in around two kilo packs and aren't expensive.. Many soils get leached of elements like Boron and Molybdenum and these are the trace elements found in those packs. If you grow citrus and get dry pulp in the fruits (especially lemons) that is generally an indication of Boron deficiency. A good citrus food will also help.
Started a new garden 2 years ago and got good results and it’s even better this year. Colder here as I’m half way up WA.about 50 miles from the coast.. A whole new area to grow in. So different than the Portland area.
Interested to see how this works out. I would be too worried to do this myself. Assuming the "soil" would end up getting too hot from all the composting going on. Plants might not like it is my guess. Hope it all works out though!
Glad i watched this before the end of season when ill set mine up. Think ill anchor an 8 or 10ft 4x4 in the center and double it as a future trellis support.
We have just moved into a unit with a tiny yard. My new raised bed has just so I’m keen to try this. It will be interesting to see how much I can fill my bed with just prunings and garden waste.
Those bales would be expensive here in NZ. Also, I think you can get bark chips for free in Oz, but here they cost heaps. We can't compare or compete with your resources. We're not even allowed to take seaweed off the beach here. The general attitude behind red tape is "make as much money as you can, wherever you can." Thank goodness leaves are still free! 👍
Agree with you about cost in New Zealand, have been bagging up leaves, do a layer of dried weeds/household vegetable/fruit scraps and then leaves then a layer of coffee grounds, once heap is ready add a handful of tiger worms.
An 80yr-old could never justify raised beds on economic grounds! Tall raised beds avoid bending. I fill the lower half with dead branches/logs. But first dig out a foot or so below ground level and fill that too. The gaps get filled with wood chips etc. This gives me a decent soil to mix with leaves and compost in the top half of the bed.
If you do not purchase minerals for your garden get your posthole digger out and go to work. Growing up I would use a posthole digger to expand the fence along the back of the yard, a couple of posts a year. The first dig and whatever I could get past 3' would be added to the compost pile. The first dig had the microorganisms and the rest had minerals not being reached by the roots of the lawn.
i do this exact method with excellent results, if you use weeds ensure they are the deepest stuff so they dont grow, i also add a hand full of worms which i think has made a big difference.... Weeds might be better used as compost tea if the bed is not deep enough....
I essentially did that method without even realizing it, when i dumped all my dead amaranth plants, a little bit of my old soil and some misc carbon sources into one of my small metal bins and now i have several amaranth plants that are growing out of it even though i didnt plant them 😅 after i harvested my amaranth i didnt want to grow any this season but mother nature i guess has other plans for me lol
Thanks Mark another excellent session . Looking forward to your enthusiasm in the next one. PS This was one of Peter Cundall’s preferred methods of growing “spuds” too. Cheers
@@herobrinenoch3522 “like thut “. And remember : “Old gardeners never die; they just very slowly turn into the most magnificent compost. But what a marvellous, active brew it is!”
I mentioned in your last video, it might be a good idea to get a log splitter and get those huge chunks down to firewood size. They will decompose a lot faster. Just my Australian 2¢ for what it's worth!
I have a very old stick tank that my dad bought in the 1970s. They were much heavier then than they are now. Ive planted in it for 5 years now. Even as heavy as it is, the sides have bowed out a bit. I have thot qbout putting a rod in it cross ways, but I havent. It has a solid bottom, which is probably what is holding it together.
thank you for this info. I need to redo my raised beds because I used willow branches and they all start growing 😬 I basically have a willow nursery 😑. I have to and are going to dig up and remove all willow branches and replace it with straw . That's 4 beds; 5 meter by 1,2 meter and 60 cm high. I wish you made this video 7 months ago
G day young fella, I watched 1 of yr vids about copper wire in tomato plants I couldnt find it again to comment. The copper wire needs to be uncoated and high grade, clean it with wire wool and weave it in and out of the stem, the plant will heal very quickly and absorb the copper. There are also some products like chelated copper / copper oxy chloride(spray) that are copper that has been broken down into fine water soluble particles using electrolyse. My father and I were commercial growers, the only problem with the copper sprays is the residue on fruit. Excellent for fungal diseases if used regularly as a preventive on most plants, even roses that are prone to black spot, spray the plant and the ground.
That bed will probably sink down to 1/3 in height.. and im not sure if the biodegrading material will rob nutrients.. but I'm here for it and i cant wait to see the results :) cheers
Question: which might be a suitable alternative to the sugar cane mulch that is not available in my area. Straw? I think that hay would rot very quickly.
😅…I watched this on 2x playback speed! I really enjoyed it…🤭 Dancing 🕺🏻 on the straw!! Thanx Mark…I think it will work well. Those banana scraps are very moist giving and full of juicy nutrients too! Great idea to pass on. One of my neighbours throws hers out! 🤦♀️
Maybe it's also an idea to add Stropharia rugosoannulata spawn to the mix as well. It helps to break down the organic matter, and in return rewards you with delicious mushrooms!
Building beds is best with rocks and build bed with mix of stro,sand,water,clay to let stick rocks together,never anymore problems and stays cool inside for worms,roots,stays longer hydrated in hot days❤❤❤❤
@Selfsufficientme thank you for all your videos and hard work doing them for years!!! I've only found you around a year ago and love watching your work, as a newbie to vege gardening, I'm grateful for this help. Love and blessings from New Zealand. Good on you mate! 👍
I'm gunna try potatoes one more time. I love the no soil. Geez, just getting top soil is so expensive. Appreciate your channel and explanations. Thank you.
G'day Mark, only 5 mins into your video but regarding ur "support beam" i thought it would be a great benefit to add a beam or brick underneath the vertical board as it could, and probably will sink into the ground faster "due to a small surface area" with the weight of the filling bowing the bed faster
Oh yeah all my taller beds/planters are/were full of all kinds of crap... this year I actually dug out one of the tall pea planters I had filled 1/2 with various logs, garden waste etc before piling compost on top. Even in the cold, wet Scottish climate it had all rotted away into soil within 3 years. I would guess in warm climates it could be a lot faster, you could definitely use them as a sort of lazy composter. I'll try your method one day!
Mark, G’day from Illinois! Do you ever add compost low in the bed to get the benefits of the decomposition going faster in the lower layers. I can’t grow what you can, but I enjoy seeing Your tropical plants grow. Thanks for the interesting videos.
Thank you very much for the Super Thanks! Yes, I will be giving an update no matter how the potato crop turns out (but I hope it will be good). Cheers :)
I love your channel so much, easily one of (if not my absolute) favourite channel on YT. You’re such a nice, positive and cheerful person who creates amazing content. Since following you I’ve always been living in rental places, so I can’t really do a whole lot - but when I get my own place I am going to be going full steam ahead on my raised beds. Keep up the amazing work and I look forward to watching every one of your up coming videos.
Hey, first off I love your videos even though I just recently found you. Keep the good content coming, I really appreciate it. Now I have a question. I once learned that you should keep decomposing material like manure or mulch away from sprouts and young plants because the process of decomposing would damage the plant. Is this not true or are some plants like potatoes just more resilient than others? Thanks in advance:)
Thank you for sharing this. Watching this from all the way in Milwaukee, WI USA where it’s summertime. That’s one very nice looking bed you put together! That potato harvest should be a bountiful one.😊
Hey SSM, I have been watching you channel for a while and love what you are doing. It brings me so much joy to be able to see your positive videos and enthusiastic attitude. I do have a question which I have always wondered. If burying rotten fruit which has seeds or old branches or weed matter, what stops the seeds from germinating and contaminating the soil? What stops your rotten pumpkins from sprouting and turning your bed meant for other veggies into a pumpkin patch? Cheers, keep up the good work!
G'day Everyone, I have a sneaky suspicion that most of you knew what I was using to fill that raised bed, but maybe you were intrigued to see how I would do it. Regardless, thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoyed the video! I have high expectations for those potatoes, and if they don't grow a ton, I'll be very disappointed! Cheers :)
Won’t the decking decompose and eventually have the same problem?
mark you could have just put a nut on the inside aswell it would prevent it from bowing 😅 the bed can still collapse in because nothings holding the hole in the bed to the rod from the inside 😊
I’m not sure how the CEO feels about you “Jammin” bales in the beds Mark. 😂
This was very timely for me as I'm getting ready to start a new raised bed. Saving money is so important these days. I rather suspected you'd use leaves and mulch, but wasn't sure about the compost as I do consider it soil, but you didn't have to buy it and that counts. The rock minerals are smart too! Thank you for remembering that some of us don't use the metric system, I really appreciate hearing it the imperial measures.❤ Can't wait to see the bed as everything begins to breakdown, and the potatoes grow!
Well, you didn`t use soil, you constructed (or created, grew) your own soil from the ingredients of the soil, with the help of the edafon (soil dwelling creatures) from the compost. Though some would consider compost a kind of soil.
Interesting project, I`m curious of what the results will be in the future. 👍
Love that your raised beds are so tall! Most people's idea of a raised bed is 20cm (8 ")- no help to an old person.
I love looking right at the soil without bending. It does make for some reaching to pick the overhead cukes, though. 😁
It’s amazing how after I’ve watched you for so many years that I do the same things you do because I’ve learned so much. I’m mostly now in ground since I moved, but I’ll always have several raised beds. You make the world smile, Sir
Dear Mark, I just wanted to say Mark what a true blessing you are. I have been watching your inspirational shows for a long time now and you are a truly inspiring man.
I wanted to say a huge thankyou to you Mark. I’m not sure if you realise that you have a true calling on your life to help people Mark. The impact your videos have on Australia and the world is remarkable and I need you to recognise your importance to us and that you have created a real community in all that you do. So please know Mark that we love you heaps and please keep inspiring and teaching us as you have been . We must push back against the world economic forum and tyrannical governments and elites as our very humanity is at stake here. We must band together for the good of humanity and push back and say no against this evil plot to eliminate us . I have changed my whole life because of your videos Mark I grow as much food as I can now and try and help others too as much as I can because you have been so inspiring Mark . You are truely called to do something big here Mark so don’t let this go ok . Keep teaching us as you have been and know you are loved and appreciated by so many people. We are here and with you Mark so Thankyou for all your love and care . WA Australia
Good morning, Mark!🌄 Because of your content, I hugelkulture-filled all of my raised beds AND containers. I just dug out my 20 gallon Dragon fruit nursery and checked out the 4 year breakdown... Wow! I saw with my own 2 eyes! The sponge effect! Green thumbs up!💚💚💚
He's not wrong, this works AMAZINGLY well. It's like making an in situ compost heap that rots down whilst you grow on top. It does shrink back a good bit, but you're up and growing FAST and you repeat the process yearly until its genuinely full of some of the best homemade compost. Cracking idea! 👍
It's your gig Mark you keep on keeping on. You produce an amazing amount of food and I appreciate watching how you enjoy your garden.
I like that you use what you had to make the best planting possible. No need to go buy anything when you already had so much plant matter, straw and a bit of compost
Wouldn't he have bought the straw bales?
HEY TO ALL WATCHING. LOVE SEEING YOUR PROGRESS MARK. THANKS FOR SHARING
I cut up a banana trunk and laid it on the ground, and it is starting to grow a rack on bananas out of one of the segments on its trunk. It doesn't have any leaves or anything. It's just a section of trunk with bananas growing right on the ground.
That's amazing!!
Never heard of that but I’m in a temperate climate. Must of had plenty of energy stored
@@TaxEvasion777 looks weird.. ive never seen this either...
Aloha. I’ve never seen that, but once our banana tree produced, we’d lop it off to about knee high, and it would sprout just like you said and produce a new tree. Those trunks are heavy with liquid.
@@adamyoung480 I've seen that a lot, but now that you mention that I think I'm going to run an experiment. After I cut down a banana tree, I'll leave a 4 foot stump then cut a bowl into the center of the trunk so the leaves can't grow back. Then I'll see if it produces a rack of bananas out of the side of the trunk.
My garden is about 10,000 mi away from yours our weather is nowhere near the same but I enjoy your knowledge and your videos please keep them coming
You are the daily dose of an inspiration to work in the bavk yard.
Mark in all my years watching you have you preached the usefulness of mulch. Never in my life would I imagine you would fall in love with it to the extent that you now plant in mulch and topdress with soil. All the best mate
Just wondered if you ever get snakes and skinks hibernating in these raised beds. Although I suppose as the winter temperature where you are is still high maybe they don’t need to. I have grass snakes here in England that seek our raised bed/ compost heaps for warmth.
@@sallynolan5928there's banana hibernating in my bed
@@sallynolan5928 Grass snakes, that's cute. Midwest US venomous snakes say hi LOL. I guess Mark has dogs to keep away Down Under's murder snakes.
LOL... Yes, I do love mulch but I didn't think about how upside down this latest example is until you pointed it out! Cheers :)
@@TheGuruStud Yes - we do have Adders that are venomous. Your various rattlesnakes are fabulous though. Very interesting.
Wow 😳, that's incredibly efficient organic gardening, hardly any compost and I think the plants will be productive, 👍
Good solid fix on that bent bed, too!! 👍👍
I’m really eager to see how these potatoes go! Can’t wait for the follow up. And I really loved seeing you unearth the wood from the bed in the earlier video. We purchased land that we will be building our future homestead on. Our plan is to do 3 feet tall raised beds(future-proofing for twenty years from now when we are older and might not be as able to grow in lower beds) and all of them will be filled with the trees we need to remove during the building process(much of the property is forested). So I always love to see when folks dig down and show the results years later.
I'll do a follow-up video on the potatoes (good or bad). Congratulations on purchasing your new property! All the best with developing your garden. How exciting! Cheers :)
I've been watching this channel on and off for a few years now, I'm finally on the cusp of being able to have space for a garden. Needless to say I'm super excited to put to practice all that I've seen from this channel!
I love how passionate you are about these projects, always fun to watch
I grew up watching garden show's with mum and preparing garden beds and so forth you are inspiring
Only personality that knows how to fill a bed proper, Overfill to account for sinkage 💚
The joy you put into your videos makes my day (or night) better. Thank you!
Thank you Dennis! All the best mate :)
I love your direct approach to growing and living. Thanks!
We love your content mate. Wifey and I watch most, if not all of your videos. They are very encouraging and very inspiring for us to get our butts into the garden. But seriously dude, that is a shifting spanner, not a hammer. Keep up the good work mate. Thumbs up
I love how passionate you are about these projects
I just installed 2 massive beds. I replaced 2 wooden beds. I used the wood on the very bottom. I also know a couple horse farmers around my area. So, i went and picked up a "crap ton" of horse manure and used it. It was free, so why not. I also used a bunch of cardboard from my business. I filled the last foot with the old soil from the dismantled beds i was replacing. As i filled the bed, i supplemented the soil with organic fertilizer. My new beds are growing lile mad. It's crazy. I have so many huge worms. I've never seen it soo full of worms.
Mark would be impressed with that pun 😂
Horse shit 😂❤
😂@@Officialbailaz
G'day Mark! watching from Gippsland Vic here. You know I watch a lot of gardening videos and horticulturists can make it over complicated at times. What I love about your videos Mark, is that although its hard work at times (mostly just moving stuff around the yard lol ) , there isn't really anything too complicated and gardening/ growing is so achievable and rewarding for everyone. Especially in the beds you use, which can be used for any sized garden. Very inspirational. Thanks! keep em coming.
G'day Sharon, and thanks for the kind feedback. Yes, you're so right about gardening not being complicated. Getting started in gardening is often the hardest thing to do and then people realise how rewarding and satisfying it can be! All the best :)
Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
I love your videos and they are such a great relief from the other "typical" videos you normally find on TH-cam. It's almost a theurapeutic value. I don't have green thumbs but you are big inspiration to keep trying. Thanks from the opposite side of earth (Norway)
I’m anxious to see your results Mark. I placed potatoes directly on top of clay pan, then topped with six inches wood chips. Apart from putting more wood chip as potatoes grew and giving my “garden” a good soak monthly, I did nothing, but watch them grow. I had a good harvest of nice sized CLEAN potatoes. The woodchips hold the water thus saving on watering.😊
That sounds like a great and successful experiment. Well done! Cheers :)
I can't wait to see the results of this planting. I love to watch your videos because I am from FL which is close to you in growing climate. Thank you for experimenting so I don't have to so much.
Yes, I love the support our channel gets from you awesome Floridians! Our climates are very close (and so are the people), plus both States are called the Sunshine State. Cheers :)
@@Selfsufficientme Cheers & appreciation from another Floridian. You have taught me lots! 🇺🇲💙🇺🇲
Mark, thanks for the video. I have now been working in potatoes for 50 years. This is new to me and I don't believe in it. Lots of work and often requires water.
a pumpkin might produce some volunteer plants.
this year i got some cucurbita (unidentified as of now) next to my tomatoes that came from the compost.
Always a great informative show! I grew potatoes for the first time this year in Texas... did excellent.. tasted even better... your garden shows your dedication to it!
This is a good idea to try during the Northern Hemisphere winter almost like composting in place while growing a heat needing crop like potatoes. I can also imagine that the soil will not drop as much. Thanks Mark!!
Thank you Cherrie! All the best :)
I grew Nicolas a couple of years ago, and found them to be a really nice variety!!! 😀
Thank you for this video. I had a plan to do similar with my raised beds, and now I know I was on the right track 😊❤
That was therapeutic watching you. Not sure how long it took, but take a break you deserve it! I look forward to seeing the results
Mark, you are someone I could sit and have so many wonderful conversations with. great videos. I'm still hesitate to start my garden but ill get there.
Great Mark! Please follow up on how this bed grows... can't wait to see the harvest! Off to buy some bales of straw to let sit and age before filling the new beds I'm ordering for winter garden. Thanks from Arizona 😊
If you can, find out if any hay or straw you buy has been sprayed with glyphosate or other herbicide. If so, leave it behind.
Well I was wrong Mark and freely admit it, my choice was old wood chips!!
Looking forward to the harvest of the spuds though to see how successful that variety is. :)
I’ve got 2 wooden crates i filled up with leaves in the fall and was thinking about topping it with some soil/compost and planting pumpkins.
Wow bạn có những chiếc thùng đựng đất trồng rau rất tốt ,cảm ơn bạn thân mến đã chia sẻ kinh nghiệm làm đất trồng trọt với mọi người 👍.
Cảm ơn rất nhiều! Và, tôi đánh giá cao việc bạn dành thời gian để bình luận... Chúc mọi điều tốt đẹp nhất :)
Mark, you've been doing this a while. I'd love to have you make even more start-to-finish videos showing progress and results over time when this is all done.
You're so awesome Mark! Your teaching abilities are great too. I live in the city and guessed correctly you'd be using compost! I can't wait to see the end product potatoes.
So, I moved to Oz roughly 10yrs ago now. 3yrs ago stumbled upon this wonderful guys channel.
And my “gardening bug” was reignited!
In the last 3yrs have grown enough Romain 🥬 lettuce,, different types of 🍅 tomatoes, red and brown potatoes, cucumbers as well as fresh herbs for my family of 4. Each year my garden is growing and I’m loving every minute of it! Thanx Mate !!
From Central Coast!! 🥬🫑🌶️🥒🍋
Excited to see how this works out. Great example of using what's available around you and not letting things go to waste. 👍🏻
instead of rock minerals i regularly top of my pots and beds with a bit of garden soil.
i live in a river valley and the clay soil works nicely to balance out the compost.
I bought some river mud home to add to my garden once and I’ve had sweet Anne ever since. I also brought home some free strawberry plants and I’ve had purslane ever since. I’m not complaining, I like both plants.
Trace elements / rock minerals are usually a good idea to purchase and use every couple of years. They come in around two kilo packs and aren't expensive.. Many soils get leached of elements like Boron and Molybdenum and these are the trace elements found in those packs. If you grow citrus and get dry pulp in the fruits (especially lemons) that is generally an indication of Boron deficiency. A good citrus food will also help.
needed this video 2years ago mark! lol cheers! keep it. coming
Started a new garden 2 years ago and got good results and it’s even better this year. Colder here as I’m half way up WA.about 50 miles from the coast.. A whole new area to grow in. So different than the Portland area.
The Russel Crowe of Gardening is back. 👍
Absolutely!
😂 you're spot on!
I love the resorption process of composting waste
Learning so much from you
Love my raised bed. North east Colorado USA
Interested to see how this works out. I would be too worried to do this myself. Assuming the "soil" would end up getting too hot from all the composting going on. Plants might not like it is my guess. Hope it all works out though!
Glad i watched this before the end of season when ill set mine up. Think ill anchor an 8 or 10ft 4x4 in the center and double it as a future trellis support.
We have just moved into a unit with a tiny yard. My new raised bed has just so I’m keen to try this. It will be interesting to see how much I can fill my bed with just prunings and garden waste.
I am looking forward to seeing how they do in that bed. Thanks for sharing.
Those bales would be expensive here in NZ. Also, I think you can get bark chips for free in Oz, but here they cost heaps.
We can't compare or compete with your resources. We're not even allowed to take seaweed off the beach here.
The general attitude behind red tape is "make as much money as you can, wherever you can."
Thank goodness leaves are still free! 👍
Agree with you about cost in New Zealand, have been bagging up leaves, do a layer of dried weeds/household vegetable/fruit scraps and then leaves then a layer of coffee grounds, once heap is ready add a handful of tiger worms.
An 80yr-old could never justify raised beds on economic grounds! Tall raised beds avoid bending. I fill the lower half with dead branches/logs. But first dig out a foot or so below ground level and fill that too. The gaps get filled with wood chips etc. This gives me a decent soil to mix with leaves and compost in the top half of the bed.
If you do not purchase minerals for your garden get your posthole digger out and go to work. Growing up I would use a posthole digger to expand the fence along the back of the yard, a couple of posts a year. The first dig and whatever I could get past 3' would be added to the compost pile. The first dig had the microorganisms and the rest had minerals not being reached by the roots of the lawn.
i do this exact method with excellent results, if you use weeds ensure they are the deepest stuff so they dont grow, i also add a hand full of worms which i think has made a big difference.... Weeds might be better used as compost tea if the bed is not deep enough....
Mate, I think you just love composting. Any excuse, and I love it. Composting is mainly what I want to see. Love it.
I essentially did that method without even realizing it, when i dumped all my dead amaranth plants, a little bit of my old soil and some misc carbon sources into one of my small metal bins and now i have several amaranth plants that are growing out of it even though i didnt plant them 😅 after i harvested my amaranth i didnt want to grow any this season but mother nature i guess has other plans for me lol
Thanks Mark another excellent session . Looking forward to your enthusiasm in the next one. PS This was one of Peter Cundall’s preferred methods of growing “spuds” too. Cheers
But Peter always added blood & bone!
@@herobrinenoch3522 “like thut “.
And remember :
“Old gardeners never die; they just very slowly turn into the most magnificent compost. But what a marvellous, active brew it is!”
Ahhh... The GREAT Peter Cundall! What a legend... Cheers mate :)
Looking good Mark , interested to see how well the potatoes grow in mulch
You truly are doing an outstanding job! Keep up the awesome work!
I tried it with leaf mold and potatoes last year but I didn’t fertilize or water enough. I got ok leaves but only a couple tiny potatoes.
I’ll have to give this a try. I’ve planted potatoes in soil for years and get low of plants and very few small spuds
I mentioned in your last video, it might be a good idea to get a log splitter and get those huge chunks down to firewood size.
They will decompose a lot faster. Just my Australian 2¢ for what it's worth!
Good idea, regardless, because I have a big fallen tree that I need to cut up, so a log splitter would come in handy. Cheers :)
Thank you, this is inspiring. Looking forward to another vid on the yield from this planting.
Can't wait to see the harvest :) Great bed, and amazing to use the composting heat to keep it warm. Thank you for sharing!
Brethren, great videos. It’s our summer now here in southern New England (60-90 F).
God Bless.
All the way from Rhode Island!
I have a very old stick tank that my dad bought in the 1970s. They were much heavier then than they are now. Ive planted in it for 5 years now. Even as heavy as it is, the sides have bowed out a bit. I have thot qbout putting a rod in it cross ways, but I havent. It has a solid bottom, which is probably what is holding it together.
Thanks for this! Just ran out to bunnings and planted 3 pots of potatoes this arvo. Not a raised bed but hoping it will produce. Let’s… get into it!
thank you for this info. I need to redo my raised beds because I used willow branches and they all start growing 😬 I basically have a willow nursery 😑. I have to and are going to dig up and remove all willow branches and replace it with straw . That's 4 beds; 5 meter by 1,2 meter and 60 cm high. I wish you made this video 7 months ago
Looking forward to seeing this bed progress, excellent as always Mark 👍👍🇦🇺🇬🇧🇦🇺🇬🇧
G day young fella, I watched 1 of yr vids about copper wire in tomato plants I couldnt find it again to comment. The copper wire needs to be uncoated and high grade, clean it with wire wool and weave it in and out of the stem, the plant will heal very quickly and absorb the copper. There are also some products like chelated copper / copper oxy chloride(spray) that are copper that has been broken down into fine water soluble particles using electrolyse. My father and I were commercial growers, the only problem with the copper sprays is the residue on fruit. Excellent for fungal diseases if used regularly as a preventive on most plants, even roses that are prone to black spot, spray the plant and the ground.
Mark, this helps a lot for me right now, as I just purchased my first 4 of these Birdie's beds!
Another great video, mark. God bless you and your family!
That bed will probably sink down to 1/3 in height.. and im not sure if the biodegrading material will rob nutrients.. but I'm here for it and i cant wait to see the results :) cheers
Question: which might be a suitable alternative to the sugar cane mulch that is not available in my area. Straw? I think that hay would rot very quickly.
I love how little dirt you are using. I will say you are braver than me I would have still put 6 in of dirt in the top
I like your potato method. I'm a new gardener and I tried using my used up feed bags. It didn't work very well. I'm going to try your method.
😅…I watched this on 2x playback speed!
I really enjoyed it…🤭 Dancing 🕺🏻 on the straw!!
Thanx Mark…I think it will work well. Those banana scraps are very moist giving and full of juicy nutrients too! Great idea to pass on. One of my neighbours throws hers out! 🤦♀️
Good morning Mark. Another great video! Thank you!!
Maybe it's also an idea to add Stropharia rugosoannulata spawn to the mix as well. It helps to break down the organic matter, and in return rewards you with delicious mushrooms!
Building beds is best with rocks and build bed with mix of stro,sand,water,clay to let stick rocks together,never anymore problems and stays cool inside for worms,roots,stays longer hydrated in hot days❤❤❤❤
That is great when you have a lot of good sized rocks…I garden in pure sand, so not much rock available. 😉😊
So are you saying to make raised beds from rocks instead of the metal ones that can be purchased?
@@rebeccasnell2953 the best for long term yes,no pollution by metal,and cool for roots and microbes,worms,most natural
@Selfsufficientme thank you for all your videos and hard work doing them for years!!! I've only found you around a year ago and love watching your work, as a newbie to vege gardening, I'm grateful for this help.
Love and blessings from New Zealand. Good on you mate! 👍
Thanks for your kind feedback! All the best with your garden and getting into it... Cheers :)
I'm gunna try potatoes one more time. I love the no soil. Geez, just getting top soil is so expensive. Appreciate your channel and explanations. Thank you.
G'day Mark, only 5 mins into your video but regarding ur "support beam" i thought it would be a great benefit to add a beam or brick underneath the vertical board as it could, and probably will sink into the ground faster "due to a small surface area" with the weight of the filling bowing the bed faster
Oh yeah all my taller beds/planters are/were full of all kinds of crap... this year I actually dug out one of the tall pea planters I had filled 1/2 with various logs, garden waste etc before piling compost on top. Even in the cold, wet Scottish climate it had all rotted away into soil within 3 years. I would guess in warm climates it could be a lot faster, you could definitely use them as a sort of lazy composter.
I'll try your method one day!
Mark, G’day from Illinois! Do you ever add compost low in the bed to get the benefits of the decomposition going faster in the lower layers. I can’t grow what you can, but I enjoy seeing Your tropical plants grow. Thanks for the interesting videos.
Thanks! I love this garden bed / potato experiment - Can't wait to see how it goes! Thanks keeping it going!
Thank you very much for the Super Thanks! Yes, I will be giving an update no matter how the potato crop turns out (but I hope it will be good). Cheers :)
I love your channel so much, easily one of (if not my absolute) favourite channel on YT. You’re such a nice, positive and cheerful person who creates amazing content. Since following you I’ve always been living in rental places, so I can’t really do a whole lot - but when I get my own place I am going to be going full steam ahead on my raised beds.
Keep up the amazing work and I look forward to watching every one of your up coming videos.
Thank you for also staying positive, and all the best when you get your own raised beds! Cheers :)
Perfect way to start my monday!
Hey, first off I love your videos even though I just recently found you. Keep the good content coming, I really appreciate it. Now I have a question. I once learned that you should keep decomposing material like manure or mulch away from sprouts and young plants because the process of decomposing would damage the plant. Is this not true or are some plants like potatoes just more resilient than others?
Thanks in advance:)
Thank you for sharing this. Watching this from all the way in Milwaukee, WI USA where it’s summertime. That’s one very nice looking bed you put together! That potato harvest should be a bountiful one.😊
Great work big fella; truly inspirational
Hey SSM,
I have been watching you channel for a while and love what you are doing. It brings me so much joy to be able to see your positive videos and enthusiastic attitude. I do have a question which I have always wondered. If burying rotten fruit which has seeds or old branches or weed matter, what stops the seeds from germinating and contaminating the soil? What stops your rotten pumpkins from sprouting and turning your bed meant for other veggies into a pumpkin patch?
Cheers, keep up the good work!
You and your family will be enjoying those potatoes later this year! Great video, Mark, showing us you don't need soil to start growing your own food.
It will be interesting to see the harvest in a few months and how much the level drops.
Great job indeed and enjoying.i hope it will give good results