This is the best way to transform a patch of bad soil without hauling in compost or spending $$$ on amendments. Get COMPOST EVERYTHING: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting here: amzn.to/3aSXObR Subscribe to the newsletter: thesurvivalgardener.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=d1c57e318ab24156698c41249&id=1f74a21dc8 Thanks for watching!
Ok you answered my question at 10:15 ...😂😂😂 I should learn not to jump in with questions before the end of a video shouldn't I 😂😂😂❤️✌️ Your advise is both welcoming and educational Thank you
It literally depends on the "weed". Dandelions indicate two things, the soil is highly compacted (think hard pan clay) or is lacking calcium. The deep tap roots can begin to break up the soil, cutting the leaves off before flowers appear, can add calcium, which the dandelions bring up from deeper layers of the ground. Some weeds are worth getting rid of, IF you understand why they're growing in the soils. Poison ivy, for example.
All my kids stop whatever they're doing to come watch your videos when I put them on. You're not only teaching adults how to think like a successful gardener, you're teaching the next generation as well. Thank you for making my homeschool life just a little bit easier! ❤️
@@davidthegood please explain why that corn 🌽 was very malnourished.. you were talking about filtelizer all the time.. but why the hell on earth those corn of yours was so malnourished..i feel sad and disappointed.
@@mrdeepwebinsider2197 It's landrace corn. We barely fed it on purpose in order to select for survival genes. Modern corn is hungrier than older types, and we are working on building tougher strains. We could make it deep green in days if we liked, but the ones that produce under stress may lead us to more robust genetics after a few generations of seed saving. See: Joseph Lofthouse
My husband didn't believe me when I planted a cover crop (green manure). Now, you have shown him (in a guy way) what I have tried to prove to him. And I mean it with a smile. Thanks.
I always wondered why cane sugar was one of the magic ingredients to get tomato plants to grow. I never knew it was to feed the soil. Magic recipe (tablespoon of each : sugar, powdered milk & epsom salt ) Thanks for solving the mystery.
I love your videos. You have taught me how to transform my Sandpit of Death and Despair, into a tiny little ecosystem that has grown from literally nothing. It has NOT been easy but it has been worthwhile and we are seeing actual changes in the color and consistency of our sand. The pests came first and I lost everything to them last year, but it didn't take long for the predators to show up and now everything is balanced and the new species list increases year after year. I did take this summer off from growing so I could focusing on continuing to add biomass, charged Biochar etc., in preparation for next year. It's so amazing seeing Bees, butterflies, Dragonflies, Lightning Bugs, Hummingbirds etc., in a place where there were none before. I've learned that all I have to do is take care of Mother Nature and She will take care of the rest.
@@greenteafinch9833 LMAO! I managed to breed a crop of Giant Bantam Corn that don't produce well. I'm going to try back breeding them for better production
I worked a sandy allotment plot for a couple of seasons. I used buckwheat as the cover crop and fertilised with stinging nettle tea. At the end of the second season, I dug up a bit of ground and was shocked to see the sand had started to turn black after I got a few inches down. Buckwheat puts down a big, saturated root mass and can work itself down pretty deep.
Pull up mint and you will find worms wrapped around the roots, and 3 - 6" of crumbly, black worm compost soil. Mint takes over the garden, but you can pull it up in 1 second. But leave some to keep those wonderful worms.
That fit you were having on the ground is so me recently as I watch all my tomatoes bite the dust one after another from southern wilt….thank God for dogs and comedic relief! Word of the day : exudate
I use dried green peas and great northern beans from the supermarket (They grow just fine), and some old Kale seeds I hade in a drawer, and chicken scratch that has unbroken barley and cracked corn or what ever... I am in upstate NY and I do this after potatoes. All of this stuff grows in the fall even if its cool, and then winter kills under a meter of snow...The trick is I want anything that grow in the cold fall and then will die in the winter. He is right about the compost, even with 5 chickens, it hard to make enough to cover my potatoe patch unless you spend a small fortune at some garden center.
Yup 👍 .. Geoff Lawton says the soil is an animal that is all mouth. Once we start seeing things that way, the task at hand becomes so much clearer. Gotta keep 'em fed!
lol David the Good, thanks for the giggles today! One giggle after the next... lol Your videos always make me smile and that is priceless in itself. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us along with your humor!
Now I understand what my Dad was doing in the Wisconsin fall when he would plant rye grass in the garden. I was too young, 5-9 years old, to understand, but I remember him doing that for years to the sandy-loam soil in the garden. In a way he was doing the compost in place for years along with spreading kitchen scraps all over the garden while it was producing. I remember in particular one night when he threw out a watermelon rind and as he released it high into the air he caught a glimpse of something moving around where the rind would land. Dad made it back to the house in 2 steps and had the door shut just before the aroma of skunk arrived to the house! When we could finally stand to go to that part of the garden, about three days later, we discover Dad's target had landed right in the middle of the radish and turnip bed and the skunk had made the vegetables unusable. In the fall, Dad simply plowed them under and sowed rye seeds on it. During the winter he put wood ash over the garden also. The next year, we had to lime the garden because the wood ash had changed the pH too much. Such is life of a gardener. By the way, the garden produced abundantly, the fruit and nut trees never did, but we think we know why now. By-the-by, my Dad, who is 84, has since moved to AZ and is attempting to raise tomato plants there. It's a far cry from the acre+ garden he use to grow, but his three plants are keeping him happy, along with his cactus garden.
I use the deer plot cover crop seeds because it’s usually the cheapest although going to the grocery store (as David mentions) might be a little cheaper. I use the perennial mixes of chicory, alfalfa and red clover as they are perennial and produce lots of edible leaves, rabbit food and flowers for the bees.
David, I have learned so much from you! I've added so much to my soil and it shows through my plants! People wanna know how to get plants looking good and making food...i tell them the methods I've learned from you but unfortunately most people are just too lazy to even try. They just throw down 13-13-13 and walk away..thanks for keeping it real!
I couldn’t sleep last night and I think I watched your video in the wee hours of the morning. Can’t thank you enough for keeping me awake, seriously. When you were raking your potatoes, I was thinking, “that’s our side yard.” By the time you got to the explanation of the cover crop, I was wide awake and mentally planning how to fix the long stretches of sand/dirt along my side yard. I was getting tired of mulch and searching for a better way. A thousand thanks to you for your advice. It was worth losing sleep over! :)
The crying or getting mad segment made me laugh, between the plants I've grown or the animals I keep, that part was very relatable. I work long hours during the week so I'm not able to keep a watch all the time. I ended up having to replant all of my corn and almost all of my cucumbers on account of wild geese that were on my pond. But anyways I loved this video! I was planning on planting shell peas in the bare patch a have but now I'm wondering if there's an ideal way to plant both those and the sunflower seeds I have in the same bare patch.
Another Good video David. I finished reading Grocery Row Gardening for the second time, and Compost Everything arrived, I just finished chapter 3. I thoroughly enjoy your writing. I’ve been growing food for 50 years and like you I’m an avid reader so I can’t say I’m learning much that’s new, but your approach to food gardening is so refreshing. I highly recommend your books! One of these days when my grocery row garden fills out a little more I’ll post some pictures on your blog site. Thanks
You're so funny! 🤣 That saved my day before it started . Good morning from Portual. 🌷 Absolut beginner with terrible bad soil here and yes I cryed and I hated it! Will try it. Thank you.
Loved hearing u mention WEEDS, I love weeds. The perfect mulching crop. Never let go to seed. Hoe them down at 4-6 inches high. Perfect. Everyone sees weeds as the enemy, I love them as they do so much for my soil.
We are close, between zone 8a and 8b. Our potatoes we planted in some grocery rows that we first planted a cover crop over and ran our sheep through did descent. When the potatoes were growing and got too close to the blueberry, blackberry, pear, persimmon, etc., we harvested some early and were very impressed. About a week and a half later we harvested more, waiting for some of the leaves to turn yellow, and the pests got a lot of them. We still had a bunch to give away and eat, but the ones we pulled early with no sign of being ready to pull seemed to be so much better looking with less of a pest problem. We took note and will pull early next year. Some of the older gardeners at church looked at us like, "yeah, you didn't know you were supposed to pull potatoes early around here"...
Thank you for taking the time to write this comment. It was an "ah-ha" moment for me after doing potatoes for the first time this year and experienced the same.
@@bonnieshelley9072 when my wife and I pulled the first few our eyes got huge. We filled a 5 gallon bucket with great looking potatoes and only took out maybe 5 to 6 plants. I was like, "wow, and they aren't even ready yet. I can't hardly wait to see how much better they'll be when they are supposed to be harvested." A few yellow and droopy leaves later a little over a week down the road and we were pretty disappointed. Loads of bug holes, empty skins, and that wonderful puddle of ooze that used to be the mother potato. Next planting we decided to harvest at the first sign of slightly sad looking leaves and experiment from there. We really did still get a great harvest though and they taste amazing. Way better than store bought and we even had some for breakfast today.
New(ish) to the channel, but I've watched almost all your videos now. I really enjoy the content and it has changed the way I look at gardening, and I'm even getting some of your Rachel mulberrys. Thank you David!
Thank you for this video it gives me hope, I am trying something I have a tomato plant growing I even got brave and decided to put a strawberry plant into my small area in a plastic tote, with all the info you and others have given out so unselfishly we have to try something. So Im going to take what I've learned and work with that. Thank you and may God continue to bless you and your family, by the way your videos are funny and serious at the same time your songs and your voice speaks volumes of who you are, a very nice voice you have. Thanks again.
Thankyou for the encouragement ... 👍🌱 I'm having a rough year in the garden. Just got home from 2wks away and the summer heat destroyed sunflowers, cucumbers, corn, squash etc. The only things thriving are the okra, many varieties of peppers, sweet potatoes and the bee balm. The birds ate my blueberries and the bugs and heat got my tomatoes. The everglades are thriving too. There are positives. Now I'm stoked to go throw out seeds tomorrow! Whoot! 💦🌱
Absolute total, total beginner here. Live in Northern Arizona and getting ready to start small 64 sqft bed for personal consumption. Lots to learn for sure, but hoping that in 2 growing seasons I can start to produce at least one crop consistently. Hey, I miss Florida, but I can't imagine how nice & drenched you must get gardening in your location! I miss the humidity!!!
Lupins grow wild where I live. They're nitrogen fixers (pea family I think) and have a nice deep tap root. There's a bunch growing in the ditch just down the road from my house, seems like a good year for "wild" seed collection
I am in North Mobile County, basically your next door neighbor... My pototes barely returned the amount of seed potatoes as I planted. Most of the potatoes were 2", at best! Reasons: 1) Fire Ants! I HATE those bas...ds!!! They eat my plants and ME! 2) sorry dirt, mostly sand. I watch your channel for help in dealing with these conditions. Thanks for the guidance.
Need to refresh the cooking spices in your cupboard or kitchen? Take all the spices you are replacing that are seeds and plant them out. I also have four pounds of supermarket black eyed peas on the grow at the moment and they are thriving in Texas, but even I have the odd patch of garden where thick dark green rows of black eyed peas will have some stunted and yellow plants in a patch and then goes back to large dark green healthy black eyed peas.
Very funny. You do however really get your points across. I have extremely poor soil of rough sand and rocks. Where I've been growing plants the soil has improve remarkably in just 6 months. I have a bag of birdseed which I will plant out tomorrow in another bad bit of soil and see what happens..😊😊
Thank you David. Something clicked in my head today. I was considering covering my massive beds with tarps to stop weeds or anything growing in them so they are plant ready, but that's a bad idea. Last year i cut the plants down to the soil and left root systems to rot. It remains to be seen how effective it is.
Just make sure the soil underneath the cardboard is moist when you put it down, and also put mulch on top of the cardboard if you want to really add to the soil
We have a part of our Land (about an acre) that we planted in sorghum to fix it. I also tossed in some beans and turnips, which we have been harvesting. We will cut the sorghum sudan for hay, let it grow out again, if there's time, and cut it again. We plan on doing that for 2 to 3 years and then plant green chili.
I'm doing this to fix the grass in my front yard. I'm doing a round of annuals that I covered with a little compost and some grass clippings. When it gets up I'll cut it and seed a diverse perennial grass mix with at least one perennial legume
Well, this plan didn't work quite like I had planned. The covercrop didn't grow as well as I had hoped in some areas. I already cut it down. But I am going to put some grass seed out and probably some clover or something.
A neighbour I have bought a machine that I find almost indispensable, a leaf shredder. If there are clippings from pruning, grass that's too long, or basically anything else, dry it out, run it through the shredder. It has to be dry, twigs etc removed, and I can almost immediately use it for a compost base or mulch.
Been binge watching your vids for the last few weeks. Love it when your vids pop in my feed. I love your relaxed view on different gardening methods. I get sucked into the dogma of the "perfect way" of doing things. Your humour is os funny. Thanks for the lol😂😂😂
Just found your channel. Have some of the worst soil on earth. New to growing vegetables, but from what I’ve seen so far, I’m in the right place. Lots to learn. Thanks for doing what you do.
I like to use sunflowers in mix warm season cover crop mixes, because they root deeply and really activate the myccorhizal community. Also, okra has been making it's way into my mixes as well. Kool Kids Kover Krop.
If you can find it, I love Eagle Pass okra - not only is it tasty but the stalks get 6 - 7 foot tall and put down massive deep roots! It’s helped break up my gumbo clay so much
Did a cover crop of buckwheat and cowpeas last year on a plot. I let them go to seed. This year I planted potatoes there. Between the rows the buckwheat came back and as I hilled the potatoes, once they grew a bit, I cultivated the buckwheat back in between the rows. So far, the potatoes are looking great. Time will tell. I'm feeling pretty optimistic at this point. I just planted mustard in one of my orchards with the plan of chopping and tilling the mustard back in as a biofumigant and green manure. It's a bit of work, but really exciting learning how these things work together.
I stopped “putting my gardens to bed” in the fall. Instead I leave the dead plants in beds I don’t have live crops. Because, even dead roots are better than no roots. Still working to find crops that survive zone 6b winters.
I hit rewind to see the beginning of the video again. Lol! I know this feeling when nothing works right no matter how hard you try Lol! Thanks for the laugh!
"i am going to take a payday loan, to fight the commies....' That is the best lyric i have heard in a while. The production value on this video, is way beyond youtube ser.
Shlum, My garden is about 25' × 40' I have not much of a way toake a compost pile. I descided to take the 2/ 35 gallon trash cans I have and make compost tea. I add food scraps of all kinds. Quite often when I pull up plants and weeds I place them in the cans which is filled with water, biochar water, fish emulsion and epsom salt have also been added along with the bugs which were on my zucchini and pumpkin plants. I like your method of composting everything. I am starting cover crop planting soon first I have to make mole proof beds without making them raised beds.
I really appreciate you sharing the good, the bad and the in between. We all go through good and bad times in the garden (like my dear chickens destroying my chioggia beets and purple broccoli bed yesterday and me thinking about turning them into broth) and awesome times harvesting woderful crops. We try, we mess up, it hails... Thank you for an honest channel.
Love your channel content and you how you tell it like it is, and have overcome adversity in so many of your homesteads, Someday hope for a small plot to grow our food and connect with the earth. You really are an inspiration. As a worm farmer I find it very fulfilling to dig in the soil and see what's there. I love my worms and know without them we would be screwed. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and experiences. I would love to have all of your books to just suck up all your knowledge. Thanks David for being so good. You are awesome. A++++++++++++
Yes I want to see the future results of those mixed seeds competing for everything. Also what do you think of leaving big rocks around the garden to serve as homes for insects and little animals?
Wonderful video full of very helpful information. This is my first year using cover crops. I've always mulched with cardboard with something on top like grass clippings or pine bark. I'm excited to learn about and use cover crops. I love your sense of humor!
Harvested our potatoes a couple days ago in a nearby state and had the exact same experience. Yeilds hovering near 100% of what was put into the ground, worms, mushy potatoes...
My Dad would always grow rye grass at the end of the summer growing season in the garden to help keep the soil vibrant. It definitely worked. I like this idea of creating an ecosystem with a mix of plants. Thanks for sharing this approach 🙏
I feel like dancing after watching this video. I will complete the project in the factory and go home the beginning of July which by this time rainy season will have already started. How can dig up my poor soul and throw in compost stuff because this process needs to be done after harvest season which had long pasted in Thailand. When watching this video, I have got the answer to my question. It will be so convenient for me to implement this method since I have saved a lot seeds and also various kinds. How can I say thank you enough!? Big heart from Thailand.
So, I've been living in Florida 20years...I started out on 15 acres, horses, growing hay... It my was all good and my awesome garden. But, 4 years ago we decided to downsize. Now we live on one acre in the middle of a tiny town. We have a mole problem and bad soil. So we started growing in containers. It's been 4 years of trial and error and we have finally figured it out. Florida sun is so hot!!! All my plants only get an hour and a half of full sun. The rest of the day they get dappled sun. Under trees or my shade cloth. And I water each a gallon water every other day. And they all are on producing like crazy!
That makes sense. I have a similar problem in SoCal. Pretty much everything is growing under shade cloth. The sun is too intense for plants to spend all day exposed. I will follow your watering schedule too. Thank you, James!
Yah I take advantage of the summer heat and grass clippings, brown matter etc and make hot compost. To prep and ammend my beds for planting around Labor Day. I do have huge eggplants, okra., peppers. A tomato plant, pole beans, Watermelon, and seminole pumpkins growing right now. I think I’ll go get some black eyed peas today and plant them in my raised beds for a cover summer crop as well. In preparation for fall planting. Thanks David! 👍
Gopher issue in east Texas here… I started the same a couple years ago and last year noticed my containers that were in afternoon shade did so much better! So this year I converted a bad patch of soil in the back corner of our yard into a container garden. I am trying one or two rows in ground and will rotate my paths and growing areas if I can get rid of the gophers. No lie I think they ate a whole row of garlic and half row of onions out of a raised bed this year 😤 So just call me the grow bag and baby pool gardener! My early girl “bush” tomato is about six or seven foot tall and is full of fruit. The area gets full sun from about 8am till noon then dappled shade through most of the afternoon. The baby pools and in some cases a rolled up trash bag act as water reservoir to keep all the water from evaporating so quickly. And I noticed that when I moved a couple grow bags that I’d had sitting on cardboard there were tons of earthworms underneath! I grabbed as many as I could and threw them into the containers. Some grow bags and pots that I overwintered had several worms in them. God made nature so amazing. I love learning what works even when it’s because of a trial like a stupid gopher sucking down my full size tomato plants!
When you pull up potatoes that are too messed up for the family to eat, can the chickens eat them or peck through them for bugs? I realize when they reach the point of being slimey they would go to the worm bin or leave in garden to feed the microbes and worms there.
Mr. DTG, so enjoy your videos. You are a true inspiration to me/mine. We are in central Alabama on a few acres with really crappy clay soil and not a lot of cabbage (extra $$$). My husband is putting in a couple of raised beds , but I always thought it would be better to plant directly in the ground if at all possible. I'm going to try and get a cover crop in for the last part of the summer if possible thanks to this video...doing something is better than doing nuthin'! God bless you and yours.
This is the best way to transform a patch of bad soil without hauling in compost or spending $$$ on amendments.
Get COMPOST EVERYTHING: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting here: amzn.to/3aSXObR
Subscribe to the newsletter: thesurvivalgardener.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=d1c57e318ab24156698c41249&id=1f74a21dc8
Thanks for watching!
Lol Breaking tools for the sake of comedy. Love it!
Are weeds a cover crop ? ...
Ok you answered my question at 10:15 ...😂😂😂
I should learn not to jump in with questions before the end of a video shouldn't I 😂😂😂❤️✌️
Your advise is both welcoming and educational
Thank you
Coggins grass used to tear my taters up. Holes in everything. The roots and shoots are like needles when they come up.
It literally depends on the "weed". Dandelions indicate two things, the soil is highly compacted (think hard pan clay) or is lacking calcium. The deep tap roots can begin to break up the soil, cutting the leaves off before flowers appear, can add calcium, which the dandelions bring up from deeper layers of the ground.
Some weeds are worth getting rid of, IF you understand why they're growing in the soils. Poison ivy, for example.
All my kids stop whatever they're doing to come watch your videos when I put them on. You're not only teaching adults how to think like a successful gardener, you're teaching the next generation as well. Thank you for making my homeschool life just a little bit easier! ❤️
Thank you. Homeschool is best school!
@@davidthegood please explain why that corn 🌽 was very malnourished.. you were talking about filtelizer all the time.. but why the hell on earth those corn of yours was so malnourished..i feel sad and disappointed.
@@mrdeepwebinsider2197 It's landrace corn. We barely fed it on purpose in order to select for survival genes. Modern corn is hungrier than older types, and we are working on building tougher strains. We could make it deep green in days if we liked, but the ones that produce under stress may lead us to more robust genetics after a few generations of seed saving. See: Joseph Lofthouse
@@davidthegood oh okay sir.. i love your response.. thats very informative thank you so much.. keep it up.
Thank you for keeping your kids in a REAL school and not an indoctrination day camp.
Academy Award for the opening act!🏆
My husband didn't believe me when I planted a cover crop (green manure). Now, you have shown him (in a guy way) what I have tried to prove to him. And I mean it with a smile. Thanks.
That’s what I have to do- pull up a TH-cam of someone with a beard saying the same thing. 😂
I always wondered why cane sugar was one of the magic ingredients to get tomato plants to grow. I never knew it was to feed the soil. Magic recipe (tablespoon of each : sugar, powdered milk & epsom salt ) Thanks for solving the mystery.
Dave that intro song was something else.
Thank you. The entire song is here: th-cam.com/video/_ndLRnSXV9o/w-d-xo.html
OMG David you are a hoot!
I loved the crying part.
I love your videos. You have taught me how to transform my Sandpit of Death and Despair, into a tiny little ecosystem that has grown from literally nothing. It has NOT been easy but it has been worthwhile and we are seeing actual changes in the color and consistency of our sand. The pests came first and I lost everything to them last year, but it didn't take long for the predators to show up and now everything is balanced and the new species list increases year after year. I did take this summer off from growing so I could focusing on continuing to add biomass, charged Biochar etc., in preparation for next year. It's so amazing seeing Bees, butterflies, Dragonflies, Lightning Bugs, Hummingbirds etc., in a place where there were none before. I've learned that all I have to do is take care of Mother Nature and She will take care of the rest.
That is awesome.
@@davidthegood Thank you! I owe it to you!
👍 yup
Do you now have P.O.U.S. s? Plants Of Unusual Size?
@@greenteafinch9833 LMAO! I managed to breed a crop of Giant Bantam Corn that don't produce well. I'm going to try back breeding them for better production
I worked a sandy allotment plot for a couple of seasons. I used buckwheat as the cover crop and fertilised with stinging nettle tea. At the end of the second season, I dug up a bit of ground and was shocked to see the sand had started to turn black after I got a few inches down. Buckwheat puts down a big, saturated root mass and can work itself down pretty deep.
:)
Interesting
That’s amazing. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve just planted a whole bunch of false stinging nettle (version without the sting). I’ll try that nettle tea trick. Thanks!
Pull up mint and you will find worms wrapped around the roots, and 3 - 6" of crumbly, black worm compost soil. Mint takes over the garden, but you can pull it up in 1 second. But leave some to keep those wonderful worms.
Absolutely! Those living roots are magical.
Thats actually brilliant
It’s so satisfying to pull up mint. It smells good too!
@@ke3347 I have a lawn customer that has some mint get into his lawn, I love mowing it, what a lawn cut in heaven must smell like...
@@davidthegood would mint work for chop and drop or is it evil like Bermuda and able to reestablish itself after it has been chopped and dropped?
That fit you were having on the ground is so me recently as I watch all my tomatoes bite the dust one after another from southern wilt….thank God for dogs and comedic relief! Word of the day : exudate
Always love coming back for my garden fix and a bonus track of great music at the end.
I use dried green peas and great northern beans from the supermarket (They grow just fine), and some old Kale seeds I hade in a drawer, and chicken scratch that has unbroken barley and cracked corn or what ever... I am in upstate NY and I do this after potatoes. All of this stuff grows in the fall even if its cool, and then winter kills under a meter of snow...The trick is I want anything that grow in the cold fall and then will die in the winter. He is right about the compost, even with 5 chickens, it hard to make enough to cover my potatoe patch unless you spend a small fortune at some garden center.
Yup 👍 .. Geoff Lawton says the soil is an animal that is all mouth. Once we start seeing things that way, the task at hand becomes so much clearer. Gotta keep 'em fed!
That is a great quote. Leave it to Geoff.
lol David the Good, thanks for the giggles today! One giggle after the next... lol Your videos always make me smile and that is priceless in itself. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us along with your humor!
FOUND IT! I've been searching your videos looking for this song. Thankfully it only took 30 or so minutes. This intro song is Amazing.
@royrodgers567 Ahh! I cannot find it. Do you have a link to the song? Is it David's?
@@mx-k Yup, David created it. Sugar Pie is the name. Spotify has it.
Great explanation. You do such an excellent job of distilling scientific information into broadly understood terms that inspires action.
I like to read all the boring stuff so normal people don't have to. Thank you.
@@davidthegood I like the boring stuff as well. Thanks for sharing.
@@davidthegood that's not boring stuff! I read a soil science book to a child starting at a week old for many months. He's 15 and loves to read!
Now I understand what my Dad was doing in the Wisconsin fall when he would plant rye grass in the garden. I was too young, 5-9 years old, to understand, but I remember him doing that for years to the sandy-loam soil in the garden. In a way he was doing the compost in place for years along with spreading kitchen scraps all over the garden while it was producing. I remember in particular one night when he threw out a watermelon rind and as he released it high into the air he caught a glimpse of something moving around where the rind would land. Dad made it back to the house in 2 steps and had the door shut just before the aroma of skunk arrived to the house! When we could finally stand to go to that part of the garden, about three days later, we discover Dad's target had landed right in the middle of the radish and turnip bed and the skunk had made the vegetables unusable. In the fall, Dad simply plowed them under and sowed rye seeds on it. During the winter he put wood ash over the garden also. The next year, we had to lime the garden because the wood ash had changed the pH too much. Such is life of a gardener. By the way, the garden produced abundantly, the fruit and nut trees never did, but we think we know why now. By-the-by, my Dad, who is 84, has since moved to AZ and is attempting to raise tomato plants there. It's a far cry from the acre+ garden he use to grow, but his three plants are keeping him happy, along with his cactus garden.
Love the music!!! Love all the knowledge we get from your videos. Thanks
That anger in the beggining, and the despair, was so INTENSE! 🔥 I nominate you for a Slapademy award!
I’ve never thought of leaves as solar panels. I like that!
Wow those were BAD potatoes ! Really wow. I like that you use ’failures’ and teach how to fix it.
Moar diversity!!!
The benefits are consistent: the more species and varieties of plants you have, the healthier they all will be.
Moar diversity!!!
....
A moment of silence for that poor rake.
I use the deer plot cover crop seeds because it’s usually the cheapest although going to the grocery store (as David mentions) might be a little cheaper. I use the perennial mixes of chicory, alfalfa and red clover as they are perennial and produce lots of edible leaves, rabbit food and flowers for the bees.
You can sometimes get the deer plot mixes on sale in TS after hunting season.
I'm surprised you can grow popcorn. Never heard of that before.
All your videos are very informative and fun filled too. A big like from India
David, I have learned so much from you! I've added so much to my soil and it shows through my plants! People wanna know how to get plants looking good and making food...i tell them the methods I've learned from you but unfortunately most people are just too lazy to even try. They just throw down 13-13-13 and walk away..thanks for keeping it real!
I threw out and raked in a bag of that 15 bean soup mix yesterday. And gonna see how that does.
I couldn’t sleep last night and I think I watched your video in the wee hours of the morning. Can’t thank you enough for keeping me awake, seriously. When you were raking your potatoes, I was thinking, “that’s our side yard.” By the time you got to the explanation of the cover crop, I was wide awake and mentally planning how to fix the long stretches of sand/dirt along my side yard. I was getting tired of mulch and searching for a better way. A thousand thanks to you for your advice. It was worth losing sleep over! :)
The crying or getting mad segment made me laugh, between the plants I've grown or the animals I keep, that part was very relatable. I work long hours during the week so I'm not able to keep a watch all the time. I ended up having to replant all of my corn and almost all of my cucumbers on account of wild geese that were on my pond. But anyways I loved this video! I was planning on planting shell peas in the bare patch a have but now I'm wondering if there's an ideal way to plant both those and the sunflower seeds I have in the same bare patch.
Very timely video for me David. Thanks for sharing.
You David, deserve 100million subscribers
Another Good video David. I finished reading Grocery Row Gardening for the second time, and Compost Everything arrived, I just finished chapter 3. I thoroughly enjoy your writing. I’ve been growing food for 50 years and like you I’m an avid reader so I can’t say I’m learning much that’s new, but your approach to food gardening is so refreshing. I highly recommend your books! One of these days when my grocery row garden fills out a little more I’ll post some pictures on your blog site. Thanks
You're so funny! 🤣 That saved my day before it started . Good morning from Portual. 🌷
Absolut beginner with terrible bad soil here and yes I cryed and I hated it!
Will try it. Thank you.
Loved hearing u mention WEEDS, I love weeds. The perfect mulching crop. Never let go to seed. Hoe them down at 4-6 inches high. Perfect. Everyone sees weeds as the enemy, I love them as they do so much for my soil.
Not something I'd ever considered ... a good lesson learned. Thanks "Good Guy".
You are one of the most important teachers I’ve found in my life recently. Thanks man. This was very enlightening and helpful
Thank you
We are close, between zone 8a and 8b. Our potatoes we planted in some grocery rows that we first planted a cover crop over and ran our sheep through did descent. When the potatoes were growing and got too close to the blueberry, blackberry, pear, persimmon, etc., we harvested some early and were very impressed. About a week and a half later we harvested more, waiting for some of the leaves to turn yellow, and the pests got a lot of them. We still had a bunch to give away and eat, but the ones we pulled early with no sign of being ready to pull seemed to be so much better looking with less of a pest problem. We took note and will pull early next year. Some of the older gardeners at church looked at us like, "yeah, you didn't know you were supposed to pull potatoes early around here"...
Thank you for taking the time to write this comment. It was an "ah-ha" moment for me after doing potatoes for the first time this year and experienced the same.
@@bonnieshelley9072 when my wife and I pulled the first few our eyes got huge. We filled a 5 gallon bucket with great looking potatoes and only took out maybe 5 to 6 plants. I was like, "wow, and they aren't even ready yet. I can't hardly wait to see how much better they'll be when they are supposed to be harvested."
A few yellow and droopy leaves later a little over a week down the road and we were pretty disappointed. Loads of bug holes, empty skins, and that wonderful puddle of ooze that used to be the mother potato. Next planting we decided to harvest at the first sign of slightly sad looking leaves and experiment from there. We really did still get a great harvest though and they taste amazing. Way better than store bought and we even had some for breakfast today.
Thank you David- this is great!
New(ish) to the channel, but I've watched almost all your videos now. I really enjoy the content and it has changed the way I look at gardening, and I'm even getting some of your Rachel mulberrys. Thank you David!
Awesome - thank you.
Thank you for this video it gives me hope, I am trying something I have a tomato plant growing I even got brave and decided to put a strawberry plant into my small area in a plastic tote, with all the info you and others have given out so unselfishly we have to try something. So Im going to take what I've learned and work with that. Thank you and may God continue to bless you and your family, by the way your videos are funny and serious at the same time your songs and your voice speaks volumes of who you are, a very nice voice you have. Thanks again.
Thank you David, you are the man!
Thankyou for the encouragement ... 👍🌱
I'm having a rough year in the garden.
Just got home from 2wks away and the summer heat destroyed sunflowers, cucumbers, corn, squash etc. The only things thriving are the okra, many varieties of peppers, sweet potatoes and the bee balm. The birds ate my blueberries and the bugs and heat got my tomatoes. The everglades are thriving too. There are positives. Now I'm stoked to go throw out seeds tomorrow! Whoot! 💦🌱
Absolute total, total beginner here. Live in Northern Arizona and getting ready to start small 64 sqft bed for personal consumption. Lots to learn for sure, but hoping that in 2 growing seasons I can start to produce at least one crop consistently. Hey, I miss Florida, but I can't imagine how nice & drenched you must get gardening in your location! I miss the humidity!!!
Lupins grow wild where I live. They're nitrogen fixers (pea family I think) and have a nice deep tap root. There's a bunch growing in the ditch just down the road from my house, seems like a good year for "wild" seed collection
Absolutely. I would love to have them all over.
what the song playing, its pretty cool! Great to see your soulsoil nurturing infos
Your a mind reader David. I have just beent thinking about cover crop
I am in North Mobile County, basically your next door neighbor... My pototes barely returned the amount of seed potatoes as I planted. Most of the potatoes were 2", at best! Reasons: 1) Fire Ants! I HATE those bas...ds!!! They eat my plants and ME! 2) sorry dirt, mostly sand.
I watch your channel for help in dealing with these conditions. Thanks for the guidance.
High neighbor! Thank you. I have noticed the best-fed potatoes in the best soil do much better.
Thanking u for the reminders absolut compost as well as saving and enriching our soil...stay blessed
Need to refresh the cooking spices in your cupboard or kitchen? Take all the spices you are replacing that are seeds and plant them out. I also have four pounds of supermarket black eyed peas on the grow at the moment and they are thriving in Texas, but even I have the odd patch of garden where thick dark green rows of black eyed peas will have some stunted and yellow plants in a patch and then goes back to large dark green healthy black eyed peas.
Very funny. You do however really get your points across.
I have extremely poor soil of rough sand and rocks. Where I've been growing plants the soil has improve remarkably in just 6 months.
I have a bag of birdseed which I will plant out tomorrow in another bad bit of soil and see what happens..😊😊
Thanks for the info-tainment. Nice editing. I watched it twice!
Thank you David. Something clicked in my head today. I was considering covering my massive beds with tarps to stop weeds or anything growing in them so they are plant ready, but that's a bad idea. Last year i cut the plants down to the soil and left root systems to rot. It remains to be seen how effective it is.
That’s how nature does it.
I use cardboard a lot for that. It keeps weeds from growing, but it also acts as mulch and helps protect the soil while it breaks down into it :)
Just make sure the soil underneath the cardboard is moist when you put it down, and also put mulch on top of the cardboard if you want to really add to the soil
We have a part of our Land (about an acre) that we planted in sorghum to fix it. I also tossed in some beans and turnips, which we have been harvesting.
We will cut the sorghum sudan for hay, let it grow out again, if there's time, and cut it again. We plan on doing that for 2 to 3 years and then plant green chili.
The power of seeds. God knew what he was doing
I'm doing this to fix the grass in my front yard. I'm doing a round of annuals that I covered with a little compost and some grass clippings. When it gets up I'll cut it and seed a diverse perennial grass mix with at least one perennial legume
Well, this plan didn't work quite like I had planned. The covercrop didn't grow as well as I had hoped in some areas. I already cut it down. But I am going to put some grass seed out and probably some clover or something.
Awesome and simple guide to a first time cover crops. Background information was rock solid. Loved all the acting you do a greatjob job. Thanks David.
A neighbour I have bought a machine that I find almost indispensable, a leaf shredder. If there are clippings from pruning, grass that's too long, or basically anything else, dry it out, run it through the shredder. It has to be dry, twigs etc removed, and I can almost immediately use it for a compost base or mulch.
I like your style. Subbed. ☺️
Welcome
When you talk about throwing seed that you have not used are you also talking about vegetable seeds?
Been binge watching your vids for the last few weeks. Love it when your vids pop in my feed. I love your relaxed view on different gardening methods. I get sucked into the dogma of the "perfect way" of doing things. Your humour is os funny. Thanks for the lol😂😂😂
Thank you Maan... That is going to be the way forward....I like your style 😎
Thank again
Just found your channel. Have some of the worst soil on earth. New to growing vegetables, but from what I’ve seen so far, I’m in the right place. Lots to learn. Thanks for doing what you do.
Thank you - we are probably neck and neck on horrid soil.
I like to use sunflowers in mix warm season cover crop mixes, because they root deeply and really activate the myccorhizal community. Also, okra has been making it's way into my mixes as well. Kool Kids Kover Krop.
If you can find it, I love Eagle Pass okra - not only is it tasty but the stalks get 6 - 7 foot tall and put down massive deep roots! It’s helped break up my gumbo clay so much
@@goosegirl941 yeh they are like tree stalks etc heck
Very good how to David, thank you.
Yes! I actually do have mung beans in my pantry right now! WinCo has them in the bulk bins and I bought a scoop to see what they taste like.
They are the "bean sprout" bean, but also do great growing in the heat.
3:11 had to replay numerous times and experience the full rage 😂😂
I've done this method just on a whim throwing a bag of old bird seed down 👍
Did a cover crop of buckwheat and cowpeas last year on a plot. I let them go to seed. This year I planted potatoes there. Between the rows the buckwheat came back and as I hilled the potatoes, once they grew a bit, I cultivated the buckwheat back in between the rows. So far, the potatoes are looking great. Time will tell. I'm feeling pretty optimistic at this point. I just planted mustard in one of my orchards with the plan of chopping and tilling the mustard back in as a biofumigant and green manure. It's a bit of work, but really exciting learning how these things work together.
I stopped “putting my gardens to bed” in the fall. Instead I leave the dead plants in beds I don’t have live crops. Because, even dead roots are better than no roots. Still working to find crops that survive zone 6b winters.
I agree. You might try Siberian kale and winter wheat.
@@davidthegood Thanks
I’ve got my side yard growing birdseed as a cover crop will be fun to see how it works I feel that it will get the job done superbly! Lol
This is what I was thinking of doing, as I was listening to him list off the different seeds he was planting. 😁
Much love and blessings to the family. Got here late..
Thank you.
I hit rewind to see the beginning of the video again. Lol! I know this feeling when nothing works right no matter how hard you try Lol! Thanks for the laugh!
God made a nifty system! I only put stuff together like the hired help. He makes amazing things grow!
Thank you for another wonderful video!
Thanks for the Great tips sir.
This was a great video. I definitely learned more from this video than I have from a lot of videos I’ve seen from other channels. Thanks!
"i am going to take a payday loan, to fight the commies....' That is the best lyric i have heard in a while. The production value on this video, is way beyond youtube ser.
WHAT IS THE SONG WHERE CAN I BUY IT
Shlum,
My garden is about 25' × 40' I have not much of a way toake a compost pile. I descided to take the 2/ 35 gallon trash cans I have and make compost tea. I add food scraps of all kinds. Quite often when I pull up plants and weeds I place them in the cans which is filled with water, biochar water, fish emulsion and epsom salt have also been added along with the bugs which were on my zucchini and pumpkin plants. I like your method of composting everything.
I am starting cover crop planting soon first I have to make mole proof beds without making them raised beds.
Dude i luv this jam!!! Where can i download... im for real dude, please and thank you
I really appreciate you sharing the good, the bad and the in between. We all go through good and bad times in the garden (like my dear chickens destroying my chioggia beets and purple broccoli bed yesterday and me thinking about turning them into broth) and awesome times harvesting woderful crops. We try, we mess up, it hails... Thank you for an honest channel.
Love your channel content and you how you tell it like it is, and have overcome adversity in so many of your homesteads, Someday hope for a small plot to grow our food and connect with the earth. You really are an inspiration. As a worm farmer I find it very fulfilling to dig in the soil and see what's there. I love my worms and know without them we would be screwed. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and experiences. I would love to have all of your books to just suck up all your knowledge. Thanks David for being so good. You are awesome. A++++++++++++
Yes I want to see the future results of those mixed seeds competing for everything. Also what do you think of leaving big rocks around the garden to serve as homes for insects and little animals?
Good idea.
bro when i saw that crying, my hand automatically hit the like button, i like a good roleplay with actual good information. thanks
laughing at "you can cry about it or get angry"..thanks for the great content
Questions: Then how do you plant after the cover crop is up? Till it in?
Very much depends on the cover crop. Chop, till, crimp, freeze, etc. Best to research terminating cover cropd as it's to big a topic for a comment.
Inspirational as always.
I’m in the UK. Mustard makes a good cover crop here. The frost doesn’t seem to kill it off.
The song in the beginning is my new favorite song! ❤❤❤
Wonderful video full of very helpful information. This is my first year using cover crops. I've always mulched with cardboard with something on top like grass clippings or pine bark. I'm excited to learn about and use cover crops. I love your sense of humor!
Omg the crying killed me David you got me there
Harvested our potatoes a couple days ago in a nearby state and had the exact same experience. Yeilds hovering near 100% of what was put into the ground, worms, mushy potatoes...
My Dad would always grow rye grass at the end of the summer growing season in the garden to help keep the soil vibrant. It definitely worked. I like this idea of creating an ecosystem with a mix of plants. Thanks for sharing this approach 🙏
Omg that bit was funny as hell
I feel like dancing after watching this video. I will complete the project in the factory and go home the beginning of July which by this time rainy season will have already started. How can dig up my poor soul and throw in compost stuff because this process needs to be done after harvest season which had long pasted in Thailand. When watching this video, I have got the answer to my question. It will be so convenient for me to implement this method since I have saved a lot seeds and also various kinds. How can I say thank you enough!? Big heart from Thailand.
Your information has been invaluable to me. God bless you and your family. I love your channel.
Thank you. Homeschool moms rock!
@@davidthegood 💃 🌻
Is clover as good as some of the stuff you used here?
So, I've been living in Florida 20years...I started out on 15 acres, horses, growing hay... It my was all good and my awesome garden. But, 4 years ago we decided to downsize. Now we live on one acre in the middle of a tiny town. We have a mole problem and bad soil. So we started growing in containers. It's been 4 years of trial and error and we have finally figured it out. Florida sun is so hot!!! All my plants only get an hour and a half of full sun. The rest of the day they get dappled sun. Under trees or my shade cloth. And I water each a gallon water every other day. And they all are on producing like crazy!
That makes sense. I have a similar problem in SoCal. Pretty much everything is growing under shade cloth. The sun is too intense for plants to spend all day exposed. I will follow your watering schedule too. Thank you, James!
I agree - full sun in Florida is way too much for most garden plants.
Yah I take advantage of the summer heat and grass clippings, brown matter etc and make hot compost. To prep and ammend my beds for planting around Labor Day. I do have huge eggplants, okra., peppers. A tomato plant, pole beans, Watermelon, and seminole pumpkins growing right now. I think I’ll go get some black eyed peas today and plant them in my raised beds for a cover summer crop as well. In preparation for fall planting. Thanks David! 👍
Gopher issue in east Texas here… I started the same a couple years ago and last year noticed my containers that were in afternoon shade did so much better! So this year I converted a bad patch of soil in the back corner of our yard into a container garden. I am trying one or two rows in ground and will rotate my paths and growing areas if I can get rid of the gophers. No lie I think they ate a whole row of garlic and half row of onions out of a raised bed this year 😤 So just call me the grow bag and baby pool gardener! My early girl “bush” tomato is about six or seven foot tall and is full of fruit. The area gets full sun from about 8am till noon then dappled shade through most of the afternoon. The baby pools and in some cases a rolled up trash bag act as water reservoir to keep all the water from evaporating so quickly. And I noticed that when I moved a couple grow bags that I’d had sitting on cardboard there were tons of earthworms underneath! I grabbed as many as I could and threw them into the containers. Some grow bags and pots that I overwintered had several worms in them. God made nature so amazing. I love learning what works even when it’s because of a trial like a stupid gopher sucking down my full size tomato plants!
When you pull up potatoes that are too messed up for the family to eat, can the chickens eat them or peck through them for bugs? I realize when they reach the point of being slimey they would go to the worm bin or leave in garden to feed the microbes and worms there.
Mr. DTG, so enjoy your videos. You are a true inspiration to me/mine. We are in central Alabama on a few acres with really crappy clay soil and not a lot of cabbage (extra $$$). My husband is putting in a couple of raised beds , but I always thought it would be better to plant directly in the ground if at all possible. I'm going to try and get a cover crop in for the last part of the summer if possible thanks to this video...doing something is better than doing nuthin'! God bless you and yours.
You too - give it a try!