I dig holes about a foot deep in my flowerbeds/vegetable beds and dump all my kitchen compost (crushed up eggshells, coffee and tea grounds, vegetable peels, overripe bananas, fruits and vegetables from our refrigerator that have spoiled), toilet paper rolls, paper from the shredder, and leaves. I once had hard red clay soil and now I have rich dark soil with earthworms. No turning compost in bins, no worries about my greens and browns, and no expense. Anyone can do what I do. I will turn 67 in a few months.
@JRNurse2013 Do you dig one or several foot-deep holes in each bed? How wide are the holes, approximately? And, lastly, how full do you fill the holes? I would think you’d need to cover them with garden soil to keep the critters away. Thanks for your help!
I’m telling you, I keep it simple! About every 2-3 days, I start digging holes about a foot deep and bury whatever scraps I have collected. I cover the soil back over the area, water and let it go. Because I do it so often, I remember where to go next. I wish we had trees so I could collect leaves and shred them as well. Our trees are very small. Also, we have to have our grass sprayed 😢so I never use grass clippings. Bermuda grass and Ok winds blow in so many weeds! I will never do that again! We’re moving back to FL next year.
Literally NOTHING is wasted here! If we don’t eat it, chickens will, or worms will or it goes in the garden composting. I’d rather hang out with my chickens and my worms than most people❤️❤️❤️❤️
Literally same over here! 🙋♀️ U sound exactly like me... brings so much happiness , joy, peace, and at the end of the day for some reason I actually feel way more appreciated by nature and my animals.(it's an unspoken like knowing that is felt) ya know what I'm saying!? 😍🐥🦋🪱🌸🦟💮🌼🪰🌱🏵🌾🌻🪴🐔🐕🐈⬛🐈🐦
I can't believe I've been gardening for59 years and can't do what you have done. Not dead yet, I'll keep learning, ...maybe next year I'll get there. Thank you for helping and growing. John rabeler
This is such an amazing video. Thanks. I've been gardening like this since the 1960s, I was in grade school. I'm 73 years old now. Your work should be continuously aired on tv to reach as many people as possible to educate as many people as possible to the benefits of what they can do. God bless you. You are my hero.
Stunning visuals. For the uneducated in ag like myself I find the science of composting a bit daunting. How do you apply all of that black gold? Have you considered year around growing with hoop houses? Do you sell any of your produce? Thank you for such an informative podcast. My wish is for this type of study to be required at every elementary school.
@@thomasg.hallal8950 Hey, thanks, and since I'm only running a bit over 2000 sq feet of beds, I do everything by hand. But at scale these practices are again starting to be used in regenerative ag farms. They typically spread compost extract from wheeled sprayer. As for what we do with the produce, we generate between 1200 to 1500 pounds of organic food every season and it all stays here. processed, preserved, dried, canned, etc.. Cheers. Tom
Can you imagine how healthy the world would be if everyone followed these methods? From garden to small and larger farms... Just think of the World of wonderful food that would create!💖🌱🌼
I’m think of the disease and despair cld be prevented just by diverting all the fresh water instead of letting it flow into sea…. Channel California insider so frustrating
@@Think-dont-believe Water is allowed to flow into the sea to accommodate the salmon population, their natural upstream spawning journey which by the way helped the bears thrive
@@Think-dont-believe Sweetheart, don't worry about fresh water 💦 supplies. Rain 🌧️ comes back on the clouds to deliver the water we need. If it doesn't, figure what you can do to work with nature and our Creator to rectify desertification. Shalom.
What a remarkably well made 'story' about soil science! I learned a lot of this, to successfully grow (and teach/demonstrate) pretty food gardens in Arizona. Then I used some of these methods in inner-city community gardens, in Oklahoma. Now, I'm replacing a steep 'lawn' with annual crops and berry bushes, in Northern Minnesota. Edible landscapes are the only practical way to use a property. Tom Bartels... You are such a gift!
I knew commercial fertilizer for our plant food contributes mostly to our illnesses. I was a farmer’s daughter. My father refused to use fertilizer that the government demanded him to use in our farm. My father use the old way of fertilizing our farm. I knew this is, because my grandfather died at the age of 104 and never saw a doctor. Now a days they have plants especially fruits, GMO. My father said if you find worm it means it safe to eat. No pesticides.
@@ellenorbjornsdottir1166yes, the government forces farmers to use horrible chemicals or they won't subsidize the farmer, most farmers cannot stay afloat without government subsidy. That's why organic food is more expensive because they do not get subsidized.
I've been over my father's everyday and noted his soil was just like dust. No organic matter added. My dad is a neat freak and leaves and mulch bother him. He can no longer work in his yard so I've been adding all foliage and petals back to the flowerbeds. I bury it so dad isn't disturbed by an untidy appearance. Now there are lots of worms and casting piles all over the garden. I even started a worm bin in his backyard. Free range worms under his avocado tree. The change has been amazing! The neighbors are now giving me dropped fruit to add to the yard. It's had a great ripple effect.
Thank you so much. I have taken college level classes on soils and I just learned more useful information from you in this video than I did in an entire semester.
My college professor was kick ass and went over all of this stuff and then some. We did our own rapid compost lab. We tested soil for microbial life. We tested purity of drinking water. We used microbes to ferment tea to make kombucha. Even went onto OEM's, oil eating microbes. The course was called Applied Microbiology and it was taught at U Albany by Professor Denise McKeon. She is great. You will learn about all this stuff if you take the correct microbiology course and/or lab.
@@ingridkneer8246no plants need a certain amount of light and to grow. Doesn’t matter how good your soil is. Think about it this way. Some of the best soil are in old growth forests with decades of leaf mold compost, it goes down like 1-2 feet. Why do we see nothing on the ground level of old growth forests? Because it’s not getting enough light. Most vegetables are full sun and would need 6-8 hours of direct sun to grow properly. You could grow them in shade but they might not produce fruit or grow so slow you won’t get a harvest or a very minimal one.
Today I spent my better day mentally thinking about how I can engage in agriculture, especially in food growing without introducing my plants and farm to external factors such as pesticides or external manure. Then this evening as I returned from work I found this exact video teaching about natural fertilizers and compost manure. Today I begin my lessons by following and practicing what I shall learn from your educational videos. Thank you for reaching out to the world. Our governments have a long way to go.
I am the crazy lady who is seen dragging leaves from the curb to my back yard. 😂 I’ve been using leaves as garden bed mulch for a few years now. I have an abundance of wormies!
With this knowledge there should be no need for anyone on the planet to go hungry! Exceptional simplified explanation of the earth, (and why we mistreat it!). I will be 80 come January, and started all these processes just a year or two ago. This is a great example of the KISS method of teaching, it stands for KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! Well done that man!!
Hello Tom. I have just found you. What an outstanding tutorial., many thanks. You are now my gardening Guru. Although I am 74 I’m looking forward to going through your channel and learning more.
I've picked up a lot of this information here and there over time, but for some reason it never really clicked for me until I watched this video. It's a bit like studying history, it's all a bunch of names and dates until you build a framework to reference new information with. Thanks for this video, I'm going to go start a worm garden and learn how to compost properly.
In my worm bins I add wine bottles particularly filled with water and corked. If cools the wrigglers in the summer and warms them in the winter (if water starts to freeze it gives off heat).
I live in Sacramento so the summers bake my potted plants:/. The wine bottles at the bottom of the pots give relief to the roots snd micro biome. Best gardening wishes:)
A perfect balance of who, what, when and why in less than 40min. I love composting and this video has inspired me to take it to another level. I also live in Southwest Colorado a little over 6500ft. Thanks again and maybe I'll see ya around. Haha!
Thank you for telling us where you are gardening. I’ve been looking for someone gardening here. I’m from Alaska and this is all different. I’m in Montrose. Thanks.
I’ve never added worms to a compost bin. Get the material in and they just arrive. Also I use those plastic bins you don’t like and never had a problem. I don’t turn it either. I have back issues so don’t do any heavy work I don’t need to. I do however add rain water and I drive a metal pole in to keep it aerated. If I’m emptying a pile I will add any woody materials that aren’t fully composted into the new pile and a spade full of the newly finished compost.
Adding red wigglers, which are a different type of worm than US earthworms, speeds up the decomp of compost by orders of magnitude. All worms are not the same. Worms prefer to inhabit different layers & will not perform for you the way you think they should because they are "worms." Don't expect US earthworms (which vary) to perform like red wigglers who will happily inhabit a pile of compost many inches above the soil or in a closed container/bin.
Absolutely the best video on TH-cam.🎉I’m actually in hospital with destroyed microbiome and a gardener…your video is a plan for both. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. I’m in Colorado and would love to attend workshop to see your space. 😊
Thanks for this vid! There are a lot of videos on this topic that just don't dive into the specifics. I showed this to my room mate who is helping to start a back yard market garden that doesn't have much of a bio-chem background, and they weren't lost in a morass of terminology. That is a fine line to follow! Accessible information is the best information! 😍
I’m in a suburban neighborhood but I have a compost box for my plants and I’ll often add my dogs fur to my box or around and on my plants. I have Alaskan malamutes and when their fur breaks down the oil gets nitrogen from it but in the meantime the odor from the fur will help keep little critters away 😉
I learned a lot from this video even though our climate is very different. Thanks for the effort. Also very well and eloquently presented, no filler words either. AND - the warning about broadleaf herbicides. Gardeners are almost certain to import them into their soil sooner or later (certainly in the U.S., and it looks like they are also used a lot in the U.K.) If one gets manure, compost, straw, hay from outside sources it is only a question of time. It only hits people that try to grow following natural principles. They have no chemical fix for the fertility demands so organic growers have always been on the lookout for manure and the like, regional (free) resources. Some do not have space or time to make as much compost as they need, or they want to avoid costs. Charles Dowding in England produces for the farmer's market, his property in urban area is not _that_ big. So he would like to get manure and he bought compost in the past - but it got so bad that he did not use ANY outside material before testing it with seedlings. He has had the habit to store compost or manure for some time after he got them, but that does not help with aminopyralides. So many gardeners, homesteaders, market farmers, organic farms have been burned, and that seems to be an international problem for smaller growers. I am binge watching gardening videos, and know of several Canadian Permaculture Legacy, Growfully Jenna (I think she is in Texas), another person in a Southern state (forgot the name), Charles Dowding UK, and a smaller channel in Germany ..... Aminopyralides are the new & international herbicide from hell.
Thanks to this video, I think I now see what I was doing wrong with my first composting endeavors. Recovering from that fail, I now have the beginnings of a worm colony and am inspired to know, with this, at least, I'm more likely on the right track. I had no idea gardening could be so much fun until recently. Just getting into it. Thank you for this post.
@@soniahofmann4969 I think my main mistake was not adding enough water. But, another reason I'm switching to worm composting is that it's easier for an old lady like me to manage. I was periodically taking a pitch fork to my two 3'x3'x3' bins & it was too much for me. I found a very busy Chick Filet (sp?) in my city that has enough leftover buckets by mid-day on Saturdays to give me a few each week. They usually aren't able to hold on to the lids, tho, for some reason. Using a method I've seen many TH-camrs post about, I cut a huge hole in the bucket bottom and drill and smooth many 1/2" random holes up and down the sides. I then bury 2 each in every garden bed so that only a few inches sticks up above soil level & I add the lid with a stone on top to weigh it down. I wasn't sure what worms would be best, but I bought European Reds f/Uncle Jim instead of Red Wrigglers cuz I want my worms to burrow deep & wide and aerate my whole bed. I keep adding layers of kitchen scraps and brown matter to one bucket until I see signs that usable compost has formed. Then, I start feeding the second bucket so that the worms will leave the first one & I can harvest the compost they made.
@@libbyholt3863 Hi Libby,this sounds like a amazing idea! I haven't seen this method but will search for it now. So you created a underground hotel for the worms and the bi products of the bin leech in the surrounding soil? Can you tell me what exactly you started with in your bin and what you add as you go? And i assume the level keeps depleting /lowering allowing more room for new products? Thank you for sharing and yes i need a easier method as well! The in-ground method keeps a temperature i assume to house the worms/matter to allow for effective breakdown? And how often do you water this little ecosystem? Zone 6 here so gets pretty chili .
@@libbyholt3863 I am old too and just starting. I have a chick felix but not familiar with their buckets...are they five gallon buckets? Also I am in 7b zone of Oklahoma. Gets really hot up to 100's in summer and often gets a bit below freezing in winter. I was just in process to collect some pallets to begin composing. Now that you do these worm hotels in each garden will you utilize the compost pile at all? And what is good food for the worms? One person in comments said they blend the house left overs with some white paper. Is that good? Also if white paper is good is it ok to toss in the white coffee filter with the coffee grounds? I can get coffee from nearby convenient store but the grounds are encased in a filter. Is it necessary to peal off the filters or good to leave in?
This was such a comprehensive video and I learned so much I can implement in my backyard garden. I have a compost pile and have been researching vermiposting and love how you show that these go beautifully hand in hand. I am gardening in New Mexico which is quite a different ball game than Eastern Washington State where the soil was black! I appreciate this video and your sharing so much with us free of charge!
Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you found it useful. That is my main intention. The more people that grow food at home, the better off everyone is. Period,
@@jobejarano1559 you could try "hugelkulture" combined with heavy mulching with compost. If it were me. I think I would focus on building *living soil*. Once that is a regular practice you should be able to grow, just about anything you want.
Great video. I really like the part about seeding the pile of shredded leaves with redworms! I'm leaning towards 'No Dig'. There is a school of thought that double digging upsets the soil food web and a fair amount of time is required to restore. Nature doesn't till. Many years ago in the fall I placed a 12' round of snow fence filled with leaves in my 'hard parking lot' garden soil. In the spring tilling was tough going until I got to the spot where the leaves had been all winter. Then the tiller sank effortlessly to it's maximum depth. Nature did the tilling!!! So I'm convinced that deep mulch can be the answer to natural soil tilth and fertility.🙂
I used double-dig methods to grow our food, when I lived in Tucson. The soils in the desert are a real serious challenge. My laying hens shared a fence-line with my veggie and produce. In the middle of the afternoon, a tall wire fence shaded the garden. The wire fence supported cherry tomatoes, climbing beans, and melons. We bought meat for a couple of meals per week, and I baked our bread, early in the morning, before leaving for work.
The hens were slightly uphill from the double-dig veggie gardens. And the neighbors fed and watered them, in exchange for a few fresh eggs for breakfast.
Thank you so much, Tom. I have learned more from just a few of your videos than from hundreds of other videos. I've signed up for your class and am looking forward to learning more from you. Right now, I'm anxious to get an old freezer for a worm bin. Do you have to remove the bottom of it? Can you tell us what that entails? Is it something that a handy man could do or does it require any special tools? Thanks a lot!
Thanks for all the well-proven tips. Applying your thorough explanations really encourages each part of my garden to robust growth. Peace and health from the soil.
This is definitely the best composting video and organic growing guide I have seen out there too! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Will start doing this to prepare for winter!
My mulch tower has more veggies groing in it than my garden, at the moment 🤦🏼♀️ Potatoes love it! Also just moved a huge compst pile and underneath was rich beautiful soil and lots of worms!! Started a mounded garden with the debris i moved 🤷🏼♀️ hopefully im doing something right
Gotta tell ya man. I watched this video (thanks, by the way!), and got multiple piles and bins now.....AMAZING! Got a burlap vermi bin, a wood pile, chipped green waste, and a brown paper, brown card, and leaf litter bin. I brought a kilo of tiger worms, who are in the bin in the polytunnel...they LOVE IT!!!!! Also, the best thing about kitchen waste, is the more good food you eat ...the quicker your compost piles up! Big love from England!
Great video!. Thanks Sir for sharing these valuable information about making healthy soi and how to grow healthy food. Very helpful for me as a beginner organic farmer. Kudos!
I started a vermi heap last year, and without a bin, I’m able to generate a lot of compost for my 150 sqft garden. I also have a proper vermi bin as well to supplement. I didn’t realize this is something others did as well! Work smarter, not harder.
This video is a fantastic guide for home gardeners! The tips on creating living soil and making compost are simple yet effective, promoting sustainable gardening. I love how it encourages intensive plant growth with minimal effort. Thanks for sharing such valuable insights!
I love your jungle! I'm also in Colorado at 8500 feet. For the last three years I've been growing soil on our new property. This year I'm ready to plant and I hope to have as luscious garden as yours.
I have been composting my kitchen scraps for years. I have the compost added to my raised garden beds. I collect worms when it rains and now have a ton of worms living in my simple compost box. I do not use weed and feed on my lawn as this cut grass is added to compost. Lawn fertilizers sometimes have pre-emergent in them and it will blow into my garden area. A few years ago, my lawn guy was spreading lawn fertilizer and it destroyed my ground crops. I learned after that.
Thank you for this video, very helpful, interesting and practical. I especially enjoyed the emphasis on reducing labor. I’ll be changing my whole approach to getting my new property into shape for growing good good!
Wow, this is so great! What a wonderful teacher you are! I’ve been gardening for a long time, and even the stuff that I already knew, I thought it was very interesting to hear you talk about it, and I did learn new things and ideas. I’ve never wormed composted, but I’m going to keep my eyes open for an old chest freezer. What a great idea to use worms to break down your winter compost piles! I started composting a couple years ago, but I use chicken wire circles and then just take the chicken wire off when I’m ready to stir the pile. I use my tiny little Troy built Tiller and I get in there after it with the tiller. Makes it such fluffy wonderful compost but now I wonder if I’m doing harm to it by stirring the pile that hard. Last fall I was reading up on the stages of composting and learned there’s a hot stage and a cool stage and times when you want the compost more moist and times when you want it less moist. I think I was doing harm to my compost organisms by maybe having a little too wet and not stirring the pile enough. Learning there’s a lot of science behind it. This yr I’m planning on putting in some raised beds. This will be a great source for inspiring me and making sure I’ve started off correctly. Thanks for sharing in this excellent video.
Must things for before starting an orchard! I've been for one year hard working and building composter bins, vermicompost and a system that nurture the soil with more than 1000 liters of hummus per year, just then started to grow veggies and the outcome is really impressing, after the first harvests I'm really looking forward for what it is to come since naturally with this system the soil is gonna to give more and more
I have several (3) old bathtubs that I want to start worm farming in, but I wasn't sure how to keep the worms alive in the winter here in Southcentral Wisconsin (zone 5b). This hot compost + worms idea is fantastic! I'm going to need to work on this idea... I just moved back to Janesville, WI after living out in Castle Rock, CO - I do miss the high desert! ❤
Over in Cape Town, South Africa I started a veggie patch in August 2021. It was tough as there is Kikuya grass in my back yard, this grass does not die so I had to dig it out and even so it burrowed through under the barriers I put in it's way. I now have 6 patches and still killing this grass, eventually it will be gone. The house I bought also has a lot of builders junk just below the grass so I have had to get rid of that as well and that removal goes down 2 foot. there were not even a single earth worm fond as I dug the soil, now they are back with me just composting.
That absolutely correct, you put compose to your plants in three days look 👀 like they saying Thank You 🙏!! However, not everyone can have so much leaves to make the quantity of compose you have! I have 13 beds, my compose pail doesn’t produce twice a year neither. But I pick a lot of food from my garden. Another important thing to consider is zones! If you leave in Fl, you put your winter crop pretty much late October, but if you are in NJ, you do it pretty much in spring! Beans in Fl are done around March. Good luck 🍀 everyone with your garden, and don’t ever give up, it’s really the best fountain of health!!
at 6:43 I would consider adding in the sunshine factor, too. The plants photosynthesis is, or is part of, what creates those sugars etc. being released in the 1st place. Properly managing our land, keeping it covered with plants as much as possible and managing those plants well, such as with holistically planned grazing - see Alan Savory's presentations on this, in particular the one at Harvard U ( has a couple supporting points not always covered in others). Where grazing isn't possible ( and I'd encourage geese, ducks, rabbits etc. in suburban yards though ! ), mowing - which, as Jim Kovaleski demonstrates, can be done w a scythe & not on a tiny scale, by one, not young, man even ! - can be managed similarly. The main understanding of this HPG is to wait to graze or cut again until the plant has recovered sufficiently, learning to give the herd the right amount of space per the variables, for the day and then move again, to prevent them over-grazing the individual plants ( the tastiest ones) as they're trying to regrow. If they're nipped again and again as they're trying to regrow, they run out of reserves and start to weaken. Resulting in slower, shorter growth, thinning stands and so on. As Alan learned himself the hard way, the old idea of not grazing at all/less herbivores, does NOT help either though, esp. or at least in arid areas, where the grass dries up but doesn't break down into mulch/soil, on it's own, when it dies. Needs to be eaten and/or trampled. So, anyways, plant coverage absorbing sunshine and inclusion & management of animals are big parts of things on the total scale both of human food production and of land stewardship. Obviously not the main points of this vlog, I'm not picking on this vlogger !!! Just sharing info :) !
Yes I saw he had some chickens in the background . I was hoping he'd put some words in about chicken manure , also horse , cow ,goat, rabbit etc. Or maybe just manure use in general ... I use horse manure on the bottom of my beds , seems to do very well 😉👍 also love your points on grazing .
So happy to find another Alan Savory fan. I think you absolutely make excellent points. I also would like to say this is a very comprehensive video for small scale gardeners as opposed to a farmer. Not to mention this video is an introduction and entices one to take the paid workshop. I was so surprised how much great information he brought in a free format! Wonderful! Do you farm? I would love to hear what your experience has been in implementing Alan Savory's methods. I am a small backyard gardener and have dreamt of having something larger scale with livestock to put this information to meaningful use!
I tell people in a question " Do you like and need to eat ?". Then I say, " So do your plants". When asked how do I feed them ? I tell them imagine you are a tree or plant in the forest. It's fed by organics and rain and sunlight.
This is Excellent in every way! What an amazing job! I salute you sir, garden pro, presentation pro, biosphere ninja! So excited to learn more from this channel, thank you so much for your out standing work, I love it! Bravo!
Wow fantastic information in your video post! Thanks. I’m in Middle TN zone 7a. My daughter is in Boulder & has a garden plot in a huge garden co-op. I go in Spring to assist with planting & teaching her my 62 years of garden management skills. I truly need to learn more about the chemical biological processes within soil and how plants can optimize my efforts. Blessings, Allison 🎄
hello GrowFoodWell! I am new to gardening and living on the soil. But my mother-in-law has got herself a garden and I try to utilize my analytical skills to make her garden to blossom and to give better harvest (we are in Eastern Europe and elder generation of people don't utilize any science or project thinking but just go with tradition of how their grand-grand-parents have been living in the villages and farms of old times). So, any sentiments aside, here's my question: can you "overfill" your worm-bin with worms? How can I calculate the density of worm population in such bins? P. S.: I am now soaking gardening information like a sponge and yours is one of the best and most educating for me. Thank you very much for your efforts
Thank you for the “rich” compost information, I’ll start your method for the spring planting preparation. I’m still a learner & so glad your video came across & caught my attention !
My whole garden is a compost pile. I mulch the whole thing every year, and in the spring I just move the mulch aside a little where I’m going to plant.
Thank you for making this video I think I picked up on a few tips or more that can benefit my home garden very much I didn't realize it was that much of a big deal and could make that much of a difference in my food crops. I hope to use your ideas so I can produce more food for home and maybe that'll help me be able to preserve more food. Thank you
Just found your channel and very happy. I’m in north Denver metro and bought my home a year ago. Soil is hydrophobic and sad but I’m working on it. Have three hugelkiulture beds, working on a couple of tree guilds and some flower beds. I failed badly at vermiculture though…need guidance as I don’t know what I did wrong. Bought some BAD soil this time last year…sob. Looking for good resources for compost and manure. Building my own yes…need more. Thank you…
Grow wild lettuce species, lactuca virosa etc they dont care if your soil is hard and lifeless and they produce an abundace of leaves worms lovvve any where you put them, plus stalks. I leave 1' of the stalks till the end of the year, as bees like them, then compost/hugel those too they help a lot with fungi eapcially wirh cocoa pot liner on top, plus they trap aphids and if you prune off the top and or upper leaves, it will produce more flowers and SOO many seeds. Might want to try a bit of acticated biochar in your compost/hugel and used coffee has been amazing and is easy to source from coffee places/my kitchen.
Thanks for your in depth tutorial. I've subscribed, clicked notification and looking forward to watching all your segments on gardening. I have a few neighbours that I will be recommending this segment to be watched. Happy gardening.😊
I believe God has shown me this method over the past few years and I’m getting great results like you. It’s interesting to see a video showing this kind of gardening. It really does work and gets better and easier each year.
Just discovered your channel. I’ve been binge watching your tutorials from making my own compost to what to do with the harvest. SO enjoying it. Wish I had the space you do. I’m surprised with how lush your garden is considering where you live. My daughter lives in The Springs and she struggles with the dry desert like conditions. 😊 forwarding your channel to her. We live in Northern Illinois. I have no excuse. 😊 Would LOVE to take your classes. I’ve decided I’m cutting out lawn and planting more gardens. 😊Finding the info you’ve shared very informative! Thank you!! BTW What type of boards are you using for the raised beds?
Hi Tom, great video and I like your theory of incorporating the exotic worms into the compost bins and heap. Have thought about it myself but was concerned about the exotic worms not getting along with the native worms in the gardens, what are your thoughts regarding this.
A knowledgeable friend of mine said the benefits of exotic worm in a garden outweigh the risks to nature because they don't really go out into the forest. They happily stay in the garden.
I just found someone that's throwing out an old freezer like the one in this video. How do you set it up from the beginning? Please tell me about do you ventilate it? I looked through your videos but I didn't see anything about that. But I'm ready to get started with it.
Hello Durango from Farmington!! Love your information. So glad I found your channel on TH-cam. I think your ideas might work better than many others , especially since we have very close growing zones. Thank You for sharing your knowledge ❤
I've just found your channel and really appreciate your content. I am in Australia and just beginning with our worm bin but I am wondering if you have a video of harvesting your work castings please.
Cleaning out the worm bin and getting your worms back out is a project in itself, with a full time job, I have a hard time doing things like that. I am in top part of Arkansas and winter sometimes can get in the teens for a month.
I like to go out to public forestry property and grab a little topsoil with alot of leaves to throw in planter box to give them a good start. Seems to help
Thanks for sharing your beautiful garden with us. I really appreciate your showing me how outdoor vermicomposting can work in a cold environment. I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for the right old freezer or cooler. Query- Did you drill holes in the bottom first? One of my "beds" is a soaking type bathtub we salvaged from an alley -- we called it the "tater tub" the first year -- so the right item will present itself at the right time. 😊
I dig holes about a foot deep in my flowerbeds/vegetable beds and dump all my kitchen compost (crushed up eggshells, coffee and tea grounds, vegetable peels, overripe bananas, fruits and vegetables from our refrigerator that have spoiled), toilet paper rolls, paper from the shredder, and leaves. I once had hard red clay soil and now I have rich dark soil with earthworms. No turning compost in bins, no worries about my greens and browns, and no expense. Anyone can do what I do. I will turn 67 in a few months.
That's what my mom always did as well and her gardens were always a huge success and I loved walking barefoot in the freshly plowed soil.
Awesome JRNurse!
@JRNurse2013 Do you dig one or several foot-deep holes in each bed? How wide are the holes, approximately? And, lastly, how full do you fill the holes? I would think you’d need to cover them with garden soil to keep the critters away. Thanks for your help!
If we are just starting a new bed, please share which soils to blend and quanities needed and any extras!?
Tyvm
I’m telling you, I keep it simple! About every 2-3 days, I start digging holes about a foot deep and bury whatever scraps I have collected. I cover the soil back over the area, water and let it go. Because I do it so often, I remember where to go next. I wish we had trees so I could collect leaves and shred them as well. Our trees are very small. Also, we have to have our grass sprayed 😢so I never use grass clippings. Bermuda grass and Ok winds blow in so many weeds! I will never do that again! We’re moving back to FL next year.
Literally NOTHING is wasted here! If we don’t eat it, chickens will, or worms will or it goes in the garden composting. I’d rather hang out with my chickens and my worms than most people❤️❤️❤️❤️
Ha ha
Haha, same here!
Same. We have people, dogs, cats and chickens here. If one of the above won't eat any given thing, the compost will love it
Literally same over here! 🙋♀️ U sound exactly like me... brings so much happiness , joy, peace, and at the end of the day for some reason I actually feel way more appreciated by nature and my animals.(it's an unspoken like knowing that is felt) ya know what I'm saying!? 😍🐥🦋🪱🌸🦟💮🌼🪰🌱🏵🌾🌻🪴🐔🐕🐈⬛🐈🐦
Sameeeee
I can't believe I've been gardening for59 years and can't do what you have done. Not dead yet, I'll keep learning, ...maybe next year I'll get there. Thank you for helping and growing. John rabeler
Some people are just a gift to us.
@@winniethuo9736 or, some spend more time on youtube than actually getting up and making it happen! lol
@@DayTrader__ Are you including yourself? Lol
@@donnabashline4933aye aye aye no more fighting, just gardening.
@@DayTrader__Hey! I feel attacked 😂 In my defence I don't have the space and resources so I'm living vicariously through the TH-camrs 🥴
This is such an amazing video. Thanks. I've been gardening like this since the 1960s, I was in grade school. I'm 73 years old now. Your work should be continuously aired on tv to reach as many people as possible to educate as many people as possible to the benefits of what they can do. God bless you. You are my hero.
aww shucks. Thanks for your kind review. I'm inspired by your gardening longevity! Cheers.
Stunning visuals. For the uneducated in ag like myself I find the science of composting a bit daunting. How do you apply all of that black gold?
Have you considered year around growing with hoop houses? Do you sell any of your produce? Thank you for such an informative podcast. My wish is for this type of study to be required at every elementary school.
Thank you 4sharing, so much knowledge, and awesome information 😀 😊
@@thomasg.hallal8950 Hey, thanks, and since I'm only running a bit over 2000 sq feet of beds, I do everything by hand. But at scale these practices are again starting to be used in regenerative ag farms. They typically spread compost extract from wheeled sprayer. As for what we do with the produce, we generate between 1200 to 1500 pounds of organic food every season and it all stays here. processed, preserved, dried, canned, etc.. Cheers. Tom
Can you imagine how healthy the world would be if everyone followed these methods?
From garden to small and larger farms... Just think of the World of wonderful food that would create!💖🌱🌼
I’m think of the disease and despair cld be prevented just by diverting all the fresh water instead of letting it flow into sea…. Channel California insider so frustrating
@@Think-dont-believe Water is allowed to flow into the sea to accommodate the salmon population, their natural upstream spawning journey which by the way helped the bears thrive
@@Think-dont-believe
Sweetheart, don't worry about fresh water 💦 supplies. Rain 🌧️ comes back on the clouds to deliver the water we need. If it doesn't, figure what you can do to work with nature and our Creator to rectify desertification. Shalom.
@@Think-dont-believethen you’d be disrupting the natural flow of the water cycle
What a remarkably well made 'story' about soil science! I learned a lot of this, to successfully grow (and teach/demonstrate) pretty food gardens in Arizona. Then I used some of these methods in inner-city community gardens, in Oklahoma. Now, I'm replacing a steep 'lawn' with annual crops and berry bushes, in Northern Minnesota. Edible landscapes are the only practical way to use a property. Tom Bartels... You are such a gift!
Thanks for your kind words. I enjoy sharing this amazing process with whoever is interested. Cheers.
Shalom! Where in Oklahoma? I live in the Tulsa area & would LOVE to do that here! Ty!❤
I knew commercial fertilizer for our plant food contributes mostly to our illnesses. I was a farmer’s daughter. My father refused to use fertilizer that the government demanded him to use in our farm. My father use the old way of fertilizing our farm. I knew this is, because my grandfather died at the age of 104 and never saw a doctor. Now a days they have plants especially fruits, GMO. My father said if you find worm it means it safe to eat. No pesticides.
The government demanded he use a fertilizer? Explain? Not doubting, but confused.
@@ellenorbjornsdottir1166yes, the government forces farmers to use horrible chemicals or they won't subsidize the farmer, most farmers cannot stay afloat without government subsidy. That's why organic food is more expensive because they do not get subsidized.
I've been over my father's everyday and noted his soil was just like dust. No organic matter added. My dad is a neat freak and leaves and mulch bother him. He can no longer work in his yard so I've been adding all foliage and petals back to the flowerbeds. I bury it so dad isn't disturbed by an untidy appearance. Now there are lots of worms and casting piles all over the garden. I even started a worm bin in his backyard. Free range worms under his avocado tree. The change has been amazing! The neighbors are now giving me dropped fruit to add to the yard. It's had a great ripple effect.
Thank you so much. I have taken college level classes on soils and I just learned more useful information from you in this video than I did in an entire semester.
Does this work in a rather shady garden?
@@ingridkneer8246 yes!
My college professor was kick ass and went over all of this stuff and then some. We did our own rapid compost lab. We tested soil for microbial life. We tested purity of drinking water. We used microbes to ferment tea to make kombucha. Even went onto OEM's, oil eating microbes. The course was called Applied Microbiology and it was taught at U Albany by Professor Denise McKeon. She is great. You will learn about all this stuff if you take the correct microbiology course and/or lab.
@@ingridkneer8246no plants need a certain amount of light and to grow. Doesn’t matter how good your soil is. Think about it this way. Some of the best soil are in old growth forests with decades of leaf mold compost, it goes down like 1-2 feet. Why do we see nothing on the ground level of old growth forests? Because it’s not getting enough light. Most vegetables are full sun and would need 6-8 hours of direct sun to grow properly. You could grow them in shade but they might not produce fruit or grow so slow you won’t get a harvest or a very minimal one.
@@pewpewkachew4735 thanks, makes sense
You just warmed the heart of an old vegetarian... Very inspiring and "simple is beautiful".
Today I spent my better day mentally thinking about how I can engage in agriculture, especially in food growing without introducing my plants and farm to external factors such as pesticides or external manure. Then this evening as I returned from work I found this exact video teaching about natural fertilizers and compost manure. Today I begin my lessons by following and practicing what I shall learn from your educational videos. Thank you for reaching out to the world. Our governments have a long way to go.
Governments who do nothing about plastic pollution and consider leafs as waste..
I bought a leaf shredder. I use every leaf even neighbors
@@Misterdandamanify plastic death of OUR planet
I never use chemical fertilizer mainly use cotton seed meal sparingly will try alfalfa meal this spring
Govts are humans just like you. Learn this and take thr awareness out there. Join the government
I am the crazy lady who is seen dragging leaves from the curb to my back yard. 😂
I’ve been using leaves as garden bed mulch for a few years now. I have an abundance of wormies!
You should have TH-cam channel on your garden and do more videos …..really enjoyed this😍
With this knowledge there should be no need for anyone on the planet to go hungry! Exceptional simplified explanation of the earth, (and why we mistreat it!). I will be 80 come January, and started all these processes just a year or two ago. This is a great example of the KISS method of teaching, it stands for KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! Well done that man!!
Amazing video, everyone should watch this. Not many people remember to treat the microbacteria inside their own bodies well, same with their soil.
Even our plants show intelligent design.
Amen!
Amen
Nature is the creator. Not a magical man in the sky.
@@Wolframandheart Where's your evidence sir?
You sound hypothetical.
Hello Tom. I have just found you. What an outstanding tutorial., many thanks. You are now my gardening Guru. Although I am 74 I’m looking forward to going through your channel and learning more.
I've picked up a lot of this information here and there over time, but for some reason it never really clicked for me until I watched this video. It's a bit like studying history, it's all a bunch of names and dates until you build a framework to reference new information with. Thanks for this video, I'm going to go start a worm garden and learn how to compost properly.
I’ve never seen a presentation like this. It’s so informative thank you
Thanks for your kind words Sara. You're welcome. Get out there and grow some food!
This is impressive. Currently our startup company is producing tons of compost to help small holder farmers. Thank you!
Best of luck!
@@GrowFoodWell Thank you
You are a wonderful presenter!
Thank you for sharing so many details in such a helpful way!
In my worm bins I add wine bottles particularly filled with water and corked. If cools the wrigglers in the summer and warms them in the winter (if water starts to freeze it gives off heat).
We put them in our hugelculture beds too:)
Wow! Such great idea! I may have to do this in my zone 7b. But I'll have to improvise the wine bottle and cork.
That's interesting. I have hundreds of wine bottles that I've collected for art projects. I'm in zone 9b so so the cooling part is intriguing.
I live in Sacramento so the summers bake my potted plants:/. The wine bottles at the bottom of the pots give relief to the roots snd micro biome. Best gardening wishes:)
A perfect balance of who, what, when and why in less than 40min. I love composting and this video has inspired me to take it to another level. I also live in Southwest Colorado a little over 6500ft. Thanks again and maybe I'll see ya around. Haha!
when you brought out the leaf mold pile, i started salivating! i can't believe some people through this out!
Yup. Only those who have had a lobotony understand the value of compost.
I have a hard time making compost, but you have made it clear how 🤔 to do it. I think I'll try it again.
Thank you for telling us where you are gardening. I’ve been looking for someone gardening here. I’m from Alaska and this is all different.
I’m in Montrose. Thanks.
I’ve never added worms to a compost bin. Get the material in and they just arrive. Also I use those plastic bins you don’t like and never had a problem. I don’t turn it either. I have back issues so don’t do any heavy work I don’t need to. I do however add rain water and I drive a metal pole in to keep it aerated. If I’m emptying a pile I will add any woody materials that aren’t fully composted into the new pile and a spade full of the newly finished compost.
Adding red wigglers, which are a different type of worm than US earthworms, speeds up the decomp of compost by orders of magnitude. All worms are not the same. Worms prefer to inhabit different layers & will not perform for you the way you think they should because they are "worms." Don't expect US earthworms (which vary) to perform like red wigglers who will happily inhabit a pile of compost many inches above the soil or in a closed container/bin.
Absolutely the best video on TH-cam.🎉I’m actually in hospital with destroyed microbiome and a gardener…your video is a plan for both. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. I’m in Colorado and would love to attend workshop to see your space. 😊
I am just starting vermiculture and composting this year for my flower farm. This information is exactly what I need. Thank you.
Thanks for this vid! There are a lot of videos on this topic that just don't dive into the specifics. I showed this to my room mate who is helping to start a back yard market garden that doesn't have much of a bio-chem background, and they weren't lost in a morass of terminology. That is a fine line to follow! Accessible information is the best information! 😍
I’m in a suburban neighborhood but I have a compost box for my plants and I’ll often add my dogs fur to my box or around and on my plants. I have Alaskan malamutes and when their fur breaks down the oil gets nitrogen from it but in the meantime the odor from the fur will help keep little critters away 😉
Oh my goodness, what a great idea.
I learned a lot from this video even though our climate is very different. Thanks for the effort. Also very well and eloquently presented, no filler words either. AND - the warning about broadleaf herbicides. Gardeners are almost certain to import them into their soil sooner or later (certainly in the U.S., and it looks like they are also used a lot in the U.K.) If one gets manure, compost, straw, hay from outside sources it is only a question of time.
It only hits people that try to grow following natural principles. They have no chemical fix for the fertility demands so organic growers have always been on the lookout for manure and the like, regional (free) resources. Some do not have space or time to make as much compost as they need, or they want to avoid costs. Charles Dowding in England produces for the farmer's market, his property in urban area is not _that_ big. So he would like to get manure and he bought compost in the past - but it got so bad that he did not use ANY outside material before testing it with seedlings. He has had the habit to store compost or manure for some time after he got them, but that does not help with aminopyralides.
So many gardeners, homesteaders, market farmers, organic farms have been burned, and that seems to be an international problem for smaller growers.
I am binge watching gardening videos, and know of several Canadian Permaculture Legacy, Growfully Jenna (I think she is in Texas), another person in a Southern state (forgot the name), Charles Dowding UK, and a smaller channel in Germany ..... Aminopyralides are the new & international herbicide from hell.
I need help with winter composting
Check out Edible Acres from NYState. Amazing person.
ThankYou for taking the time to post this! #OurStoneyAcres YT
Wonderful information. Thank you.
That was a great hands on lesson proff. I am very enlighten on composting and rhizosphere development in gardening. Keep it up.
Thanks to this video, I think I now see what I was doing wrong with my first composting endeavors. Recovering from that fail, I now have the beginnings of a worm colony and am inspired to know, with this, at least, I'm more likely on the right track. I had no idea gardening could be so much fun until recently. Just getting into it. Thank you for this post.
May I ask you what you think you were doing wrong I would like to learn more about this and have better results with my gardening thank you
@@soniahofmann4969 I think my main mistake was not adding enough water. But, another reason I'm switching to worm composting is that it's easier for an old lady like me to manage. I was periodically taking a pitch fork to my two 3'x3'x3' bins & it was too much for me. I found a very busy Chick Filet (sp?) in my city that has enough leftover buckets by mid-day on Saturdays to give me a few each week. They usually aren't able to hold on to the lids, tho, for some reason. Using a method I've seen many TH-camrs post about, I cut a huge hole in the bucket bottom and drill and smooth many 1/2" random holes up and down the sides. I then bury 2 each in every garden bed so that only a few inches sticks up above soil level & I add the lid with a stone on top to weigh it down. I wasn't sure what worms would be best, but I bought European Reds f/Uncle Jim instead of Red Wrigglers cuz I want my worms to burrow deep & wide and aerate my whole bed. I keep adding layers of kitchen scraps and brown matter to one bucket until I see signs that usable compost has formed. Then, I start feeding the second bucket so that the worms will leave the first one & I can harvest the compost they made.
@@libbyholt3863 Hi Libby,this sounds like a amazing idea! I haven't seen this method but will search for it now. So you created a underground hotel for the worms and the bi products of the bin leech in the surrounding soil? Can you tell me what exactly you started with in your bin and what you add as you go? And i assume the level keeps depleting /lowering allowing more room for new products? Thank you for sharing and yes i need a easier method as well! The in-ground method keeps a temperature i assume to house the worms/matter to allow for effective breakdown? And how often do you water this little ecosystem? Zone 6 here so gets pretty chili .
@@libbyholt3863 I am old too and just starting. I have a chick felix but not familiar with their buckets...are they five gallon buckets? Also I am in 7b zone of Oklahoma. Gets really hot up to 100's in summer and often gets a bit below freezing in winter. I was just in process to collect some pallets to begin composing. Now that you do these worm hotels in each garden will you utilize the compost pile at all? And what is good food for the worms? One person in comments said they blend the house left overs with some white paper. Is that good? Also if white paper is good is it ok to toss in the white coffee filter with the coffee grounds? I can get coffee from nearby convenient store but the grounds are encased in a filter. Is it necessary to peal off the filters or good to leave in?
@@skybox-101 If you could, peel the paper, but if not leave it. I also do that with the tea bags. Good luck 🍀😊👍🦋🌻
This was such a comprehensive video and I learned so much I can implement in my backyard garden. I have a compost pile and have been researching vermiposting and love how you show that these go beautifully hand in hand. I am gardening in New Mexico which is quite a different ball game than Eastern Washington State where the soil was black! I appreciate this video and your sharing so much with us free of charge!
Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you found it useful. That is my main intention. The more people that grow food at home, the better off everyone is. Period,
Any tips on growing in the desert with poor/barely growable soil and little natural moisture?
Any advice will be MUCH appreciated!
I have no experience growing in a desert but I would use compost. A lot of compost in your soil.
@@jobejarano1559I am in the high desert of northern Arizona. I use a system combining hugelkulture, KNF and a lot of mulch.
@@jobejarano1559 you could try "hugelkulture" combined with heavy mulching with compost. If it were me. I think I would focus on building *living soil*. Once that is a regular practice you should be able to grow, just about anything you want.
This is the best block of gardening instruction I have ever received.❤❤ thank you!
Just starting to make compost and this video is the best that I have found. Simply wonderful 🙂
Great video. I really like the part about seeding the pile of shredded leaves with redworms! I'm leaning towards 'No Dig'. There is a school of thought that double digging upsets the soil food web and a fair amount of time is required to restore. Nature doesn't till. Many years ago in the fall I placed a 12' round of snow fence filled with leaves in my 'hard parking lot' garden soil. In the spring tilling was tough going until I got to the spot where the leaves had been all winter. Then the tiller sank effortlessly to it's maximum depth. Nature did the tilling!!! So I'm convinced that deep mulch can be the answer to natural soil tilth and fertility.🙂
I used double-dig methods to grow our food, when I lived in Tucson. The soils in the desert are a real serious challenge. My laying hens shared a fence-line with my veggie and produce. In the middle of the afternoon, a tall wire fence shaded the garden. The wire fence supported cherry tomatoes, climbing beans, and melons. We bought meat for a couple of meals per week, and I baked our bread, early in the morning, before leaving for work.
The hens were slightly uphill from the double-dig veggie gardens. And the neighbors fed and watered them, in exchange for a few fresh eggs for breakfast.
Thank you for being this generous with the information
Thank you so much, Tom. I have learned more from just a few of your videos than from hundreds of other videos. I've signed up for your class and am looking forward to learning more from you. Right now, I'm anxious to get an old freezer for a worm bin. Do you have to remove the bottom of it? Can you tell us what that entails? Is it something that a handy man could do or does it require any special tools? Thanks a lot!
Thanks for all the well-proven tips. Applying your thorough explanations really encourages each part of my garden to robust growth. Peace and health from the soil.
Thank you, most informative.
This is definitely the best composting video and organic growing guide I have seen out there too! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Will start doing this to prepare for winter!
My mulch tower has more veggies groing in it than my garden, at the moment 🤦🏼♀️ Potatoes love it!
Also just moved a huge compst pile and underneath was rich beautiful soil and lots of worms!! Started a mounded garden with the debris i moved 🤷🏼♀️ hopefully im doing something right
Outstanding presentation and content to bring soil to full life.
Gotta tell ya man. I watched this video (thanks, by the way!), and got multiple piles and bins now.....AMAZING!
Got a burlap vermi bin, a wood pile, chipped green waste, and a brown paper, brown card, and leaf litter bin.
I brought a kilo of tiger worms, who are in the bin in the polytunnel...they LOVE IT!!!!!
Also, the best thing about kitchen waste, is the more good food you eat
...the quicker your compost piles up!
Big love from England!
Nice!
Great video!. Thanks Sir for sharing these valuable information about making healthy soi and how to grow healthy food. Very helpful for me as a beginner organic farmer. Kudos!
This is amazing. I've seen videos of our bodies with all these. Thank you for all the information needed to grow a great garden. Sharing. ❤
Creating living soil is SOOO IMPORTANT. ❤️👍✅
I started a vermi heap last year, and without a bin, I’m able to generate a lot of compost for my 150 sqft garden. I also have a proper vermi bin as well to supplement. I didn’t realize this is something others did as well! Work smarter, not harder.
Lots of great info on composting. Can you do a video for tropical climates?
If you haven’t found him already David the Good is a great resource for tropical and subtropical climates
Please help us that live in subtropical climates sandy soil hot summers even near salt air
Am amazed at how easy it is to make compost. Am going to try this method definitely. Thank you soo much.
This video is a fantastic guide for home gardeners! The tips on creating living soil and making compost are simple yet effective, promoting sustainable gardening. I love how it encourages intensive plant growth with minimal effort. Thanks for sharing such valuable insights!
I love your jungle! I'm also in Colorado at 8500 feet. For the last three years I've been growing soil on our new property. This year I'm ready to plant and I hope to have as luscious garden as yours.
wow I'm a plant lover, this is a very useful and helpful to me , thank you for sharing us a very informative method😍
I love this info. Have to scale it down quite a bit because of space and lack of sunny spots in my yard. But every little bit counts!
I have been composting my kitchen scraps for years. I have the compost added to my raised garden beds. I collect worms when it rains and now have a ton of worms living in my simple compost box. I do not use weed and feed on my lawn as this cut grass is added to compost. Lawn fertilizers sometimes have pre-emergent in them and it will blow into my garden area. A few years ago, my lawn guy was spreading lawn fertilizer and it destroyed my ground crops. I learned after that.
Thank you for this video, very helpful, interesting and practical. I especially enjoyed the emphasis on reducing labor. I’ll be changing my whole approach to getting my new property into shape for growing good good!
I'm pretty much doing everything you're doing but I've just started, so next year I will see the benefits.👍
My soil is much better now I've added 3 tonnes of compost, and mulch.👍🤠
Wow, this is so great! What a wonderful teacher you are! I’ve been gardening for a long time, and even the stuff that I already knew, I thought it was very interesting to hear you talk about it, and I did learn new things and ideas. I’ve never wormed composted, but I’m going to keep my eyes open for an old chest freezer. What a great idea to use worms to break down your winter compost piles!
I started composting a couple years ago, but I use chicken wire circles and then just take the chicken wire off when I’m ready to stir the pile. I use my tiny little Troy built Tiller and I get in there after it with the tiller. Makes it such fluffy wonderful compost but now I wonder if I’m doing harm to it by stirring the pile that hard. Last fall I was reading up on the stages of composting and learned there’s a hot stage and a cool stage and times when you want the compost more moist and times when you want it less moist. I think I was doing harm to my compost organisms by maybe having a little too wet and not stirring the pile enough. Learning there’s a lot of science behind it. This yr I’m planning on putting in some raised beds. This will be a great source for inspiring me and making sure I’ve started off correctly. Thanks for sharing in this excellent video.
With all the websites that are just selling filler thank you very much for providing real and accurate information
You are very welcome. Real people growing real food is what we’re about.
Must things for before starting an orchard! I've been for one year hard working and building composter bins, vermicompost and a system that nurture the soil with more than 1000 liters of hummus per year, just then started to grow veggies and the outcome is really impressing, after the first harvests I'm really looking forward for what it is to come since naturally with this system the soil is gonna to give more and more
I have several (3) old bathtubs that I want to start worm farming in, but I wasn't sure how to keep the worms alive in the winter here in Southcentral Wisconsin (zone 5b). This hot compost + worms idea is fantastic! I'm going to need to work on this idea... I just moved back to Janesville, WI after living out in Castle Rock, CO - I do miss the high desert! ❤
Over in Cape Town, South Africa I started a veggie patch in August 2021. It was tough as there is Kikuya grass in my back yard, this grass does not die so I had to dig it out and even so it burrowed through under the barriers I put in it's way. I now have 6 patches and still killing this grass, eventually it will be gone. The house I bought also has a lot of builders junk just below the grass so I have had to get rid of that as well and that removal goes down 2 foot. there were not even a single earth worm fond as I dug the soil, now they are back with me just composting.
That absolutely correct, you put compose to your plants in three days look 👀 like they saying Thank You 🙏!! However, not everyone can have so much leaves to make the quantity of compose you have! I have 13 beds, my compose pail doesn’t produce twice a year neither. But I pick a lot of food from my garden. Another important thing to consider is zones! If you leave in Fl, you put your winter crop pretty much late October, but if you are in NJ, you do it pretty much in spring! Beans in Fl are done around March. Good luck 🍀 everyone with your garden, and don’t ever give up, it’s really the best fountain of health!!
at 6:43 I would consider adding in the sunshine factor, too. The plants photosynthesis is, or is part of, what creates those sugars etc. being released in the 1st place. Properly managing our land, keeping it covered with plants as much as possible and managing those plants well, such as with holistically planned grazing - see Alan Savory's presentations on this, in particular the one at Harvard U ( has a couple supporting points not always covered in others). Where grazing isn't possible ( and I'd encourage geese, ducks, rabbits etc. in suburban yards though ! ), mowing - which, as Jim Kovaleski demonstrates, can be done w a scythe & not on a tiny scale, by one, not young, man even ! - can be managed similarly. The main understanding of this HPG is to wait to graze or cut again until the plant has recovered sufficiently, learning to give the herd the right amount of space per the variables, for the day and then move again, to prevent them over-grazing the individual plants ( the tastiest ones) as they're trying to regrow. If they're nipped again and again as they're trying to regrow, they run out of reserves and start to weaken. Resulting in slower, shorter growth, thinning stands and so on. As Alan learned himself the hard way, the old idea of not grazing at all/less herbivores, does NOT help either though, esp. or at least in arid areas, where the grass dries up but doesn't break down into mulch/soil, on it's own, when it dies. Needs to be eaten and/or trampled. So, anyways, plant coverage absorbing sunshine and inclusion & management of animals are big parts of things on the total scale both of human food production and of land stewardship.
Obviously not the main points of this vlog, I'm not picking on this vlogger !!! Just sharing info :) !
Yes I saw he had some chickens in the background . I was hoping he'd put some words in about chicken manure , also horse , cow ,goat, rabbit etc. Or maybe just manure use in general ... I use horse manure on the bottom of my beds , seems to do very well 😉👍 also love your points on grazing .
So happy to find another Alan Savory fan. I think you absolutely make excellent points. I also would like to say this is a very comprehensive video for small scale gardeners as opposed to a farmer. Not to mention this video is an introduction and entices one to take the paid workshop. I was so surprised how much great information he brought in a free format! Wonderful!
Do you farm? I would love to hear what your experience has been in implementing Alan Savory's methods. I am a small backyard gardener and have dreamt of having something larger scale with livestock to put this information to meaningful use!
I tell people in a question " Do you like and need to eat ?". Then I say, " So do your plants". When asked how do I feed them ? I tell them imagine you are a tree or plant in the forest. It's fed by organics and rain and sunlight.
This is Excellent in every way! What an amazing job! I salute you sir, garden pro, presentation pro, biosphere ninja! So excited to learn more from this channel, thank you so much for your out standing work, I love it! Bravo!
Wow fantastic information in your video post! Thanks. I’m in Middle TN zone 7a. My daughter is in Boulder & has a garden plot in a huge garden co-op. I go in Spring to assist with planting & teaching her my 62 years of garden management skills. I truly need to learn more about the chemical biological processes within soil and how plants can optimize my efforts.
Blessings,
Allison 🎄
hello GrowFoodWell!
I am new to gardening and living on the soil. But my mother-in-law has got herself a garden and I try to utilize my analytical skills to make her garden to blossom and to give better harvest (we are in Eastern Europe and elder generation of people don't utilize any science or project thinking but just go with tradition of how their grand-grand-parents have been living in the villages and farms of old times).
So, any sentiments aside, here's my question: can you "overfill" your worm-bin with worms? How can I calculate the density of worm population in such bins?
P. S.: I am now soaking gardening information like a sponge and yours is one of the best and most educating for me. Thank you very much for your efforts
Thanks very much i grow my own fòod but this way help me more i all so do my own composting as well thank again watching from Jamaica
Tom, we like your video , greeting from malaysia
Thank you for sharing this video Tom. I found this very educational and helpful. Best wishes Jason from Melbourne Australia.
Thank you for the “rich” compost information,
I’ll start your method for the spring planting preparation. I’m still a learner & so glad your video came across & caught my attention !
Damn. Found my new hobby. Thankyou so much for what you have done for all of us.
My whole garden is a compost pile. I mulch the whole thing every year, and in the spring I just move the mulch aside a little where I’m going to plant.
Thank you..this is very helpful for us who are not good at growing food..
My soil is vertically completely dead.. so l will be doing these to help it
I am new to gardening, and at 50 cannot believe I have waited, love it. Love the freezer worm bed. Do you drill holes for oxygen?
Thank you for making this video I think I picked up on a few tips or more that can benefit my home garden very much I didn't realize it was that much of a big deal and could make that much of a difference in my food crops. I hope to use your ideas so I can produce more food for home and maybe that'll help me be able to preserve more food. Thank you
Just found your channel and very happy. I’m in north Denver metro and bought my home a year ago. Soil is hydrophobic and sad but I’m working on it. Have three hugelkiulture beds, working on a couple of tree guilds and some flower beds. I failed badly at vermiculture though…need guidance as I don’t know what I did wrong. Bought some BAD soil this time last year…sob. Looking for good resources for compost and manure. Building my own yes…need more. Thank you…
Grow wild lettuce species, lactuca virosa etc they dont care if your soil is hard and lifeless and they produce an abundace of leaves worms lovvve any where you put them, plus stalks. I leave 1' of the stalks till the end of the year, as bees like them, then compost/hugel those too they help a lot with fungi eapcially wirh cocoa pot liner on top, plus they trap aphids and if you prune off the top and or upper leaves, it will produce more flowers and SOO many seeds. Might want to try a bit of acticated biochar in your compost/hugel and used coffee has been amazing and is easy to source from coffee places/my kitchen.
Learned alot from your detailed video. Thank you for the honest and generous sharing.
Love, love to have seen your garden. I wished I could do the same in my yard!
Thanks for your in depth tutorial. I've subscribed, clicked notification and looking forward to watching all your segments on gardening. I have a few neighbours that I will be recommending this segment to be watched. Happy gardening.😊
I believe God has shown me this method over the past few years and I’m getting great results like you. It’s interesting to see a video showing this kind of gardening. It really does work and gets better and easier each year.
Just discovered your channel. I’ve been binge watching your tutorials from making my own compost to what to do with the harvest. SO enjoying it. Wish I had the space you do. I’m surprised with how lush your garden is considering where you live. My daughter lives in The Springs and she struggles with the dry desert like conditions. 😊 forwarding your channel to her. We live in Northern Illinois. I have no excuse. 😊 Would LOVE to take your classes. I’ve decided I’m cutting out lawn and planting more gardens. 😊Finding the info you’ve shared very informative!
Thank you!!
BTW What type of boards are you using for the raised beds?
Thank you for taking the time to prepare and film this. I will use it for my small garden. 😊Dielika from DR
This is great now I'll look for garden design video hopefully he tells us the best companion plants and such 🤩🤩🤩
This is fantastic and so inspiring! Your garden looks lush!
Simply Superb practical approach
Thank you very much sir
Hi Tom, great video and I like your theory of incorporating the exotic worms into the compost bins and heap. Have thought about it myself but was concerned about the exotic worms not getting along with the native worms in the gardens, what are your thoughts regarding this.
Very informative thnx
A knowledgeable friend of mine said the benefits of exotic worm in a garden outweigh the risks to nature because they don't really go out into the forest. They happily stay in the garden.
I just found someone that's throwing out an old freezer like the one in this video. How do you set it up from the beginning? Please tell me about do you ventilate it? I looked through your videos but I didn't see anything about that. But I'm ready to get started with it.
Addicted to the content. Thank you for all the education you provide
Hello Durango from Farmington!! Love your information. So glad I found your channel on TH-cam. I think your ideas might work better than many others , especially since we have very close growing zones. Thank You for sharing your knowledge ❤
I've just found your channel and really appreciate your content. I am in Australia and just beginning with our worm bin but I am wondering if you have a video of harvesting your work castings please.
This is a fantastic explanation of how it all works.
i got into worm casting teas and the whole soil food web concept a few years back. it truely is the answer.
Cleaning out the worm bin and getting your worms back out is a project in itself, with a full time job, I have a hard time doing things like that. I am in top part of Arkansas and winter sometimes can get in the teens for a month.
I like to go out to public forestry property and grab a little topsoil with alot of leaves to throw in planter box to give them a good start. Seems to help
You guys are amazing!!!!! Learning alot here want to start a community organic garden! Thank you!!!
Thanks for sharing your beautiful garden with us.
I really appreciate your showing me how outdoor vermicomposting can work in a cold environment. I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for the right old freezer or cooler. Query- Did you drill holes in the bottom first?
One of my "beds" is a soaking type bathtub we salvaged from an alley -- we called it the "tater tub" the first year -- so the right item will present itself at the right time. 😊
Yes, the bottom is mostly cut out, except for rimmed shelf that holds a course metal screen to allow for ventilation from below.