9 Beginner Raised Bed Garden Mistakes to Avoid
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
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Order Birdies raised beds: growepic.co/3gJ2vrH Raised garden beds are the #1 method I currently use to grow a ton of healthy, epic produce in my garden. But I made A TON of mistakes when I started my raised bed garden, so I figured I'd share them with you so you can hopefully learn from my mistakes instead of making them yourself.
A few good soil mixes:
- 1/3 perlite, 1/3 coco coir, 1/3 compost
- 1/2 topsoil, 1/4 compost, 1/4 grass clippings, straw, leaves, etc.
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I hope sharing these mistakes helps you avoid them! If you like my raised beds, you can join the email list for upcoming pre-orders here: shop.epicgardening.com/
Do the beds just go right down on grass, with no bottom?? Nice video, thanks for the tips.
epic, legend, lots and lots of words.
Z qi+up 76pp
It's a little different in Florida, where the heat is truly crazy (most years) from May to September. We have our garden on the North side of our yard; most of the plants will get partial shade partial sun; things like okra, sweet potatoes and collards do OK through the summer in full sun, but most things don't.
@@MartinLegris o
Po
I am 12 and I started gardening this year! I only did 2 dwarf tomato plants and 2 bell peppers plants. Your videos has helped me a lot and I am going to be doing my first harvest in about 2 weeks (I started late but I know I can move them indoors because I have a room that gets ton of sun) Thank you for all of your help!
That’s amazing ahha I’m 16 and I started a few months ago, keep it up
I'm 22. Simple life skills like cooking, gardening, etc will be more beneficial than whatever you'll learn in school.
Hope this year goes well for you. Great hobby to get into at your age. Good luck!
Way to go!
Congratulations Brennan. Be diligent and keep up the good work. You will become a master gardener.
It is better to have a small, well cared for garden than a huge one that becomes overwhelming to you. Start small and you can always add more!
😄
Last season I followed some bad advice and seeded way to much.plus lots of rain and everything area was over grown and ,wasnt fun so as previous comment small is betterment of the best of the best
I agree. My first yard garden was huge. Too much work after the 5th year. I ended up giving up on it. Next time, I will do small, raised beds. And I will make sure there is some kind of watering system. Having good intentions of sipping coffee while hand watering didn't work either... too much to water! ;)
Oh my, that's where I'm at today.. So lost and confused and have lost so much 😔 I thought, "dirt, water, plant... Got it let's do it!" ... So naive.
I'm 18 and I started gardening as a healing journey and it has thought me patience and resilience so far, I am excited to see what more I may learn. These videos make it so much easier.
Awesome! It’s the best to relieve stress and good exercise. Wish you the best 😊
Good for you and good luck on your journey
1. And 2. Are Bed Placement for sunshine
3. Plan for irrigation
4. Invest in good raised bed soil mixed with compost
Research good mixed soil.. and compost blends
5. Use Mulch (composted)
6. Make space for pathways - minimum 24”
7. Planting space…and placement. Plants that grow taller in a place that won’t shade other plants
8. Take care of your bed soil over time… during fall and winter… make use of a cover crop
9. Label, track and record your plants, date of planting, expected harvest date, etc
Thank you!!! My ADD is like just get to it 😅
Im 13 and just got my wood for building my planters this year, thanks for the advice! I found where my great-grandpa had his garden and apparently has good soil and sun, im doing half in ground patch - half raised beds. I really hope I can get all my perennials started like any berry bushes, rhubarb and asparagus so I can have some self-sustainability by the time im 15
Oh my gosh thats amazing! Best of luck!🥹🫶🏼
wow amazing!
The wisdom of young people today is amazing!
That's incredible! I think you'll do great. Teenagers just don't care about things like this anymore and it's really nice seeing someone so young be so interested in gardening and being self sustainable
That's awesome! Go show them how it's done!
A mistake I made early on was relying too heavily on interventions like soap spray and copper fungicide. Eventually, I realized that when shield bugs and cabbage moths and aphids got too numerous, they just naturally attracted their own predators. The key was creating an appealing environment for them to hunt in-one that mimicked a more wild or natural landscape.
Every year now I find frogs in my garden. I hatch mantises. Ladybugs descend in huge numbers and breed in my garden. I plant a wide variety of native flowers around the edges of my garden and let some areas get weedy. I don’t spray anything anymore, because what kills the bad bugs always kills the good bugs.
This year, juncos are nesting in the tall grass along my fence. They eat bugs when they’re raising chicks, so when I pull weeds I don’t want, they follow along and pick up all kinds of goodies in the exposed soil.
It’s important to remember that your raised beds are as much a part of the landscape as a park or a vacant lot. Creating balance in your garden isn’t just good for you, it’s good for everything around you.
Very well said! Taking a holistic approach is always going to be the best route! This is the veganic approach.
Totally agree 😊👍🏽.
Cola Johnson Thank you, we have a large all organic flower garden (25 years plus, no sprays or anything) and have started vegetables this year. Everything is being eaten up! We have tons of butterflies and bees and i dont want to risk hurting them but the veggie plants are getting gobbled up! Plus its so shady all around our garden, so just not much room for error. Ive been reading up to see if there are any organic sprays I should be using but I do like your approach as Im afraid of just what you mentioned !. Any links, books or websites where could learn more?
@@Beth-77
-you might want to go on reddit and make a post asking the gardening subreddit for advice.
-If it's earwigs that are eating your plants, I recently heard that you can make traps for them. You can put out old tuna cans filled with oil + a little soy sauce (for an attractive smell), and they'll get stuck.
-I've also heard that neem oil is good?
-If you're in California the UC Cooperative Extension (ucanr.edu) has a lot of resources/ tips for gardening based on your county. If you live elsewhere I'm sure there's a local university that has something similar
yo, that’s beautiful
I have been gardening with my dad since I was about 7 or 8, helping with the strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, etc. I started to upgrade and had about 10 plants that I crammed in my room. There is a huge window in my room so they all did pretty well. Now I’m starting to grow my own fruits and vegetables in my own garden! My goal is to study botany in college and to become a botanist ! You videos have helped a lot. Keep doing what you do Kevin
Horticulture is a wide open field right now. May you become the Botanist you want to be. Botany was kind of a first love to me. I wish I’d not got distracted with other paths sometimes but everything I have learned is very valuable. Understanding plants gives you a big advantage in life. Feeding yourself w food you have grown, is such an accomplishment. Best wishes.
I am reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer. It has given me a new point of view about growing and foraging .
Just wanna say what a grateful fan I am of this channel!
I started gardening to give myself a healthier habit than smoking to deal with my anxiety and depression.
I knew pretty much nothing but have successfully raised some crops in raised beds and containers, have some plants that have survived into their second year, and improved my health (through diet of increased veggies, and better mental health)
All thanks to your videos!
Thank you for the videos and tips they have improved my garden and my health.
Well done!! I’m still struggling quite a lot!
Dude, me too. I'd be lost without my garden distractions. I just took a break from my computer. I was feeling "down and burnt out" so went outside and did some pruning and breathing. I feel better. I live in the burbs and have a small yard, we can all do something with the space we have to connect with nature and feel better.
Hi! I am a nurse/researcher. Recent studies have shown that gardening for one hour at least 3 days per week works BETTER than our top 2 antidepressants!!! Who knew? Great job!!!!
He starts straight away. No waffle. A lovely chap!
Tips: Regarding watering consider making your raised beds wicking beds. The other idea to consider is using the German Hügel Kultur method and filling the bottom of the beds with logs, branches etc. This saves on soil and as it breaks down, adds nutrients, will retain water and provide a home for many organisms that will improve the quality of your soil.
i call it the *Soil Creating* Hugelkultur method: because that's pretty much what it does. I waited a few months for the organic material to settle lower in the box (as it is chewed up by microorganisms, and gets rained on etc it naturally drops to a certain level). Now it seems stable, i lifted the newspaper lid that i have on it to see what it looks like after all these months - it is halfway to soil already! magic to see....now all i have to do is add the last ten inches of dirt/clay/sand mix and put my plants in. Way to go
if you have young kids or grandchildren, a really fun thing could be to get them in the garden helping you to break up twigs etc to put in the box. A few months later, they can come outside with a magnifying glass and see the astonishing little *worker troops* all shapes and sizes, all doing different tasks. I wish i could make a movie that would magnify all that so its easy to see! a little city of living things doing their thing down there....
(don't forget to put a cardboard lid, or thick newspapers on top if you are leaving sit for a few months) this will protect the little microbes from sunlight (they don't like it)..
would you recommend trying this method for raised beds that have to be unfortunately situated near my neighbor's redwood trees? I'm having the worst time digging out the redwood roots each season, and am not sure what to do about it.
@@gardengrrlWendy Absolutely, A raise bed would defiantly help in this situation.
Plant things you like to eat! Plant for flavor and your garden will bring you joy.
Heard you say plant with a Southern orientation for the best sun . . . . . as a resident of middle TN, I'm here to tell you that there IS such a thing as too much sun. Even my tomatoes need shielding.
Awesome video!
Kevin's List of 9 Mistakes in Order of Severity/Permanence
1:21 #1 Not putting your garden in the right place
3:03 #2 Not planning for irrigation
3:44 #3 Not investing in good soil
5:03 #4 Not choosing the proper soil mix
6:04 #5 Not mulching
7:42 #6 Not initially making enough space for pathways
8:44 #7 Not thinking about what the plants will look like when fully grown
9:55 #8 Not preparing your beds throughout the seasons
11:25 #9 Not labeling/tracking what you planted & when you planted it
Winner winner
Not all heroes wear capes 🦸♀️
Electric fence.
Pest control.
And...for...this...I...THANK.YOU!!!
God, thank you so much! I love him so much but he can be a bit verbose...
Loved this video! The only extra tip I’d offer to the community is to make sure we are planting the “right” companion plants together and not plants that harm one another if in the same bed. Also, plant flowers (particularly nasturtiums) to bring about the bees. :)
Hi! I am new here! I am going to start my first raised bed! I have Water melon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, carrots, zuccini , radishes and green onions. I have 2 4ft x4ft beds. I had this very concern that you brought up lol. Should I just keep one bed for my melons and maybe my zuccini? And then the other veggies in another bed? Are any of those not compatible with each other? Thank you!
And Nasturtiums are trap plants. They will attract all the aphids and whatnot away from yor veggies. As well as being edible!
@@lacycastaneda4128how are your watermelons and cantaloupes coming along? I’m also new to gardening and I planted the same stuff last week, it just now started to sprout!
@@lacycastaneda4128I also heard that it’s best to plant melons directly in the ground instead of in a bed because of how big and heavy they get and because they need 4-6 ft of space (at least the ones I purchased). I know you weren’t replying to me but I hope this helps!
One thing in raised gardens is remembering that the soil level is going to drop as it settles. Also how much root space is taken up. e.g. the depth of your root crop (carrots, parsnips, potatoes) compared to the top croppers (peas, beans and brassica) are vital things to look at when planting and sowing. Love the video, very informative
In spring I use a short shovel and fluff the soil.
Plus pulling up old plants. You just fill with compost at the beginning of the season.
so true
Also, if you live in an area where you have lots of leaves falling in the Autumn season DON'T rake them all up!! MULCH them with a mower and use them in your garden. They provide lots of nitrogen for your soil ALSO rotate your crops!! don't always be planting the same things in the same raised bed since different plants use different nutrients from the soil
Unless they are from walnut trees
Don't use magnolia tree leaves- they kill some garden plants.check which tree leaves will fertilize and not kill plants.
I’ve been following a 4 bed rotation-#1, peas, beans & potatoes, followed by #2, greens & brassicas, next #3, fruiting plants (tomatoes, squash, peppers, eggplant, & cucumbers), and finally #4, root crops (beets, carrots, onions, turnips, garlic, etc.). This next summer will be year three of this system, and year 2 was even better than year 1.
Great idea!! I bought a mulcher to do just that but haven't learn to use it yet
Compost oak leaves first, and add limestone powder to it to raise the ph to 7.
I started gardening when I was a kid and making mistakes was how I learned! One of my rules is to just try something and it's always ok if you have to compost the plant. The more you try, the more you learn!
Two years into a massive garden and I can 100% confirm that this is all good advice, whether you're planting in raised beds or not!
Everything that was covered in this video were great tips for the beginning gardener. A few more tips that I was taught, and have been very successful with, is to select the right seed - lets use sun flower seeds as an example (type doesn't matter in this example) In a packet of seeds, not all seed look the same: some are flat, others are thick, an others are somewhere in between. Select the thickest seed (ovary) because it has a greater probability to start to produce a healthy plant. Then double up the thick seeds (with some separation) - if they both grow, you could either separate/transplant them when they get big enough or cut the weakest one to the ground.
I'm 8 years old and been gardening now for over a decade. All these tips have helped so much.
So you were gardening before you were conceived? Interesting! 😂
@@MsOscara Interesting garden activity for his parents! LOL
Didn't you mean 18, 28, or even 80???? If you meant you are 8, then your poor mom's tummy must have been a wreck!!!! I'm sure you made a typo. More power to you regardless of your age. Keep on gardening. Good for you!
Along with your last tip: take pictures of everything along the way! I have lots of pics w/ the seed packs laid out where I planted my seeds, which helps me remember what is where before they start fruiting, but I also just love the reminder of how much the garden changes! (And I can see “oops. Those peppers aren’t doing so hot there, next year they’ll need to find a new home!”
Cool ideA about pics with seed PKG./plant stakes. I left mine but the all disappeared very shortly from wind or disintegrated
people were masters of gardening long before cameras. don't take photo's, teach your brain to function.
@@phillipoliverholtz9226 Do both, and tack on being less overbearing lol
You can also get your phone out and make a quick video of you showing where things are and what type, and then it also has the date on it!
Excellent tip! Thank you.
Mulch is like a blanket for your " bed ". 😊
Love that
Here where I live, when I mention mulch, people only think of polyethylene coverings like they put on mass produced strawberries and such. They think it's just to smother some of the weeds.
I have ducks and geese that free-range and get into everything. Last year I had a lot of success using recycled wood palates flat on ground then kiddie pools placed on top! The kids stabbed a hundred or more holes in them before we filled all of them with dirt, duck compost, shredded straw, worms, and tiny bits of decayed wood. Excellent way if your on a tight budget. We had everything laying around. And we used dollar store seeds. Didnt want to waste my good seeds yet just in case it didn't work well... It works great to keep my birds and animals out. Also great for bug control. Creatures have a hard time getting up the sides of the slick plastic pool. Next season I want to upgrade to the kind of raised beds you have. The pools still work great for the kids garden! Thank you for all the wounderful tips. Love from a fellow Cali Skatergirl. 💕 ( Now transplanted in Washington state. So glad we moved here for the better climate & water 💧 supply).
Thanks for all the helpful tips. I live in Oregon and have been gardening for over a decade. One mistake I learned is that you need to know what wildlife you have around and what they can potentially do to your garden. We live next to a creek with tall trees and have tons of squirrels in our yard. While they don't eat my veggies, they do mess with everything and love to dig holes to bury their seeds in fresh soil. So now when I plant my spring garden I have to cover each bed with chicken wire which works great to keep the critters out. Just takes a little extra time and planning. Gardening is my happy place and I'm glad I found this channel.
I would like to say that this channel got me in trouble with my wife. Ever since I found it I have been expanding my garden more and more with the advice here and my wife rolls her eyes every time I go to the store.
LOL I love this
She will thank you when she tastes all the garden fresh produce you grow! Lol
Nathan Radke she will love you if these food shortage predictions come about.
@@sunnyskies4628 Amen!
My husband is a chef, so I didn't have to do much convincing to put in raised garden beds for herbs. He says it pays off when you taste fresh in your food! So I recommend cooking for the Mrs, what you're growing, and I'm sure she'll become a convert. ;)
When I start a new raised bed I put cardboard on the ground build the raised
Bed then I gather logs sticks enough to get me a little under half way then add the triple mix and compost. The logs and sticks will retain water as well as break down and give more soil to the raised bed
Hugalculture love it works great. You use less water.
Earth worms LOVE to eat cardboard too! I feed them generously and they in turn feed my soil!
what is a triple mix for you?
@@Goindownaroad it comes from the garden Center it has manure n all the other wonderful things plants need to survive
This is a favorite method I have heard about called hugelkultur
Tweak to placement advice for harsh-summer gardening (I'm up in northern Utah where the winters are icy and the summers are dry and scorching, and this year in particular the heat wave and drought was absolutely brutal): Give your bolt-prone or otherwise more heat-sensitive plants more shade than typically suggested for them. I had FANTASTIC success this year with a bushy indeterminate tomato closer to the sunny side and kale behind it, the kale has lasted all season without any significant wilt issues and produced SO well, possibly the best out of anything in the garden this year with the possible exception of the amaranth (which has also been protecting my chard and spinach from the full force of a particularly hot and dry alpine-desert summer by being tall and shady).
More generally, if you're dealing with difficult conditions for something you want to grow (in my case, leafy greens in a scorching desert without a drip irrigation system or very much free time to spend hand-watering, but this is the abstraction level that's applicable in a lot of directions), consider microclimates. A little extra shade can mitigate heat, a thermal mass like a large rock or a wall can mitigate cold weather and extend a short growing season, a slope or hill can mitigate slow-draining soil while a sunken area can gather more moisture -- I've seen plants grown so far out of their hardiness zone, in terrible soil conditions for their native preferences that it almost looks like magic, with a good understanding and application of microclimates.
I’m in the SL Valley-have you had success with brassicas? I have trouble timing them but we might eat more of these than any other group so I keep trying. I’d love any tips you might have.
Awesome advice! Thank you!!
I'm not even a gardener yet, but this was a super fun watch-Your enthusiasm for gardening is uplifting!
Must Do List:
#1 Need PH tester to test the soil. Check PH around certain plants due to needs are different. One size does not fit all.
#2 Amend your soil during the growing season.
#3 Don't forget flowers to deter pests like marigolds stuck in between plants.
#4 Compost Thermometer to check activity and finishing. If you are composting.
#5 Prune plants during the season as needed when they grow in for air flow and proper care.
#6 Don't water too late in the evening - plant does not get a chance to dry - encourage plant fungus problems, mildew and mold.
buy a timer and set it for early morning so the water can permeate the soil and not evaporate in the heat of the day. #3, #5 great tips!
And research companion vegetables...
Don’t follow if u live in the SW. I don’t think I’ve ever overwater. In fact, in June , I might do a second evening mist.
something lots of people don't realise, your side and back fences if they are tall and solid, will block out sunlight during winter in quite a bit of your yard. So before you plant, look at your yard and picture the where the lower arc of the winter sun will be. Best of all, watch the sun edge on the ground during winter, then you know for sure to plant outside the suns edge (not inside, where its in shadow every day in winter!) simple stuff, but newbies often dont think of it. A gardeners life involves becoming aware of things like seasonal angles of the sun and prevailing winds.
mmm i see what i wrote is a bit confusing. What i meant was, plant where there will be year round sunshine.
I’m 57 I’ve had a garden every year since I was 27. Over the last for five years I’ve made the transition to a raised bed style it’s so much nicer. Much easier to manage. I very much enjoy your videos you’re very informative I’ve learned from you. Salute from zone 6B in the middle of Kansas.
Salute!
Yes! I am 50 now and am starting to raise some beds 'cause my knees and back are starting to protest way too much the next 3 days! :-) Wave from Ontario Canada!
Here in Boise, Idaho, I have to shade my plants all afternoon during the hottest part of the day from 1 o'clock on because for three weeks out of the year, it gets 100° plus and it will kill anything that has afternoon sun. So tarps and sheets are laid across my plants every day and then I remove them around 6 o'clock in the evening. Kind of makes it so I can't go on vacation in the summer but I get great yields.
I've been binging your videos the last couple of weeks. My teenage son & I got a small grant from a state run program Farm to School. The objective of the grants is to teach children about food gardening. So we have ordered a couple of small raised beds, soil, tools, and seeds. It's an unfortunate time of the year for the program to be starting, but we got some seeds suited for fall. We should get our beds put together this weekend. We're excited about it and your tips have been very helpful.
How did it go?
@@KoriC4077 It was a fun experiment! The snow peas and radishes were great--the beets and cabbage, not so great. In the spring, we turned the raised beds into an herb garden which has been thriving since. :)
Absolutely miss having my grandmother to go to for info. She used to keep a 1 acre vegetable garden. Never doing raised beds.
Fast forward, I've spent years trying to do a raised bed garden with pretty poor results. So glad I found this channel.
Thanks for the tips, please keep them coming.
Grandmothers ALWAYS know best.
Jishy Kitty
My grandma tended about a half acre garden in her 80s. Huge!
My grandmother was a citrus farmer in Florida. Grew the best organic oranges, grapefruit, and tangerines I have ever tasted. She also had a vegetable garden that always flourished. Not easy in Florida's sandy soul. I believe she could have planted a broomstick and it would have sprouted into a gorgeous plant. The last time I saw her alive was when we walked through her vibrant garden together. She broke off an ear of sweet corn and I ate it right there. The taste and life of that ear of corn is something I'll never forget. The memory of that day in her garden is golden. How I miss her.
I miss my grandmother as well. She grew everything. Like yours on an acre or more.
@@epicgardening right... she grew everything... it took all day to work in her garden... my best memories are picking strawberries and corn for supper. she lived in Neptune NJ. She grew in the basement during winter to transplant in spring. She composted and had a hot compost as well.... sure wish I would have spent more time with her when I was a kid. Never to late though. My garden is doing well. I have modulated the watering. I do have a question .. what are your thought on a moisture/ph meter. my husband bought me one. From what that says. it seems like I was definitely. over watering.
im 13 now and planning to do a raised bed for my succulents, thanks for the tips♥️
I am on the near side of 80 and my poor old knees feel the years, so I have been strongly thinking of putting in some raised beds so that I can still enjoy the growing season. Thank you for your tips and sharing your experience. Much appreciated. Wish me luck
Cover crops are not just for covering the soil. Cover crops are actually used to inject nitrogen back into the soil through the nodules that are grown by the roots that store the nitrogen. You must cut in or mulch in the cover crop before it uses the nitrogen nodules to create flowers and seeds. Cover crops is a whole other video and super fun and important for gardening! :)
Unless your cover crop is Buckwheat... then you should learn how to harvest and use that.
I have difficulty finding cover crop seeds.
@@p.maryyayabear7078 buckwheat or red clover....
Only legumes do this
@@p.maryyayabear7078 Try Baker Creek Seeds, they usually have cover crop seeds
You’re such an inspiration! I started my own TH-cam channel specifically about gardening in Canada and colder climates. I have a degree in soil science and am SO EXCITED to share my knowledge.
NICE!!!
What is your channel i am in the north as well..
Right now my garden beds are covered in snow..
They came with the house..
I am finally excited to use them..yeahh!!
Thank You both for assisting this newbie😁🥰
Do you know anyone who has a similar degree/knowledge of soul that also has a channel? Maybe somewhere further south like zone 7 or 8?
Soil Science? Damn...when the SHTF I want you on my team! 👍👍👍👍
@@patriotgirl1american854 they called that Agronomy when I got my degree 😂🙈
I had good luck burying kitchen scraps in my raised beds for in-bed composting. For mulch, lawn clippings work great (non chemical lawn!).
I've found a 10th mistake is trying too hard to stick to a predetermined plan. I'm just starting raised gardening (in berms, not planters) and I spent an inordinate amount of time over this past winter deciding what crops to plant in which order and which location. Fast forward to "it's time to build these garden berms", and I've come to the realization that I was overcomplicating things. I adjusted my build plan to take on a simpler, but what I believe to be more-effective, construction. Had I insisted on "I don't want my plans to be for naught!" then I'd probably end up doing much more work than is necessary, and the results would likely have been less successful.
It's a bit like what Eisenhower said: "Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." I still had a good basis of research under my belt thanks to my original plan, and with some recent new information I was able to adapt my original plan and (hopefully) make it even more successful.
I'm an experienced gardner and still found this helpful. Great project while we're staying at home.
"What we measure we manage" my new gardening motto! 💜🌱💜🌿
What is measured improves 👍
Florida gardening is so much different than the rest of the country. Also, this is my 3rd time watching this vid. So much info.
A tip that works for me - I use an upside down flat soaker hose snaked through the raised bed to provide watering resources until I can install a more permanent system
A couple weeks ago when the news showed farmers bulldozing entire tomato crops, we dusted off the planters and got as much as possible into trays in the window right away. We spent the past two weeks getting all the planters ready, and lots of things are sprouting in all the places. There can only be two gardening mistakes as far as I'm concerned, not starting a garden, and the above mentioned plowing under of perfectly good food!
Soo true!!
Truly moving.
When the supply chain breaks, it is better to remove plants, than it is to abandon them. Neglected and dying plants become infected and inoculate the soil with disease that will ruin crops for many years to come.
Putting plants back into the soil for their mineral content is important, if nothing else can be done with them. Of course the efficiencies of different food systems, and their resilience, both are broken to start with in the "standard" model.
I’m guilty of not starting a garden
I know this video is almost a year old, but it's very timely for me. I've recently moved and I have most of an acre to plant and my property is south-facing. :-) I'm super excited to get dug in this spring.
I'm as excited to begin gardening as you are. I have a small yard adjacent to a large city park - I like to think that it's ALL my yard and I am only responsible for the area right outside my patio doors! It's a fabulous southern exposure in Southern California and I want to create an environment that's good for bees and butterflies. Going with the Epic Gardening raised beds using planter wall blocks, the perfect doofus-proof DIY project.
@@meggarstang6761 that’s awesome! I’m in SoCal as well- Huntington beach. Sounds like you’ve got an awesome yard space!
Two other mistakes to avoid. First, don't plant food that someone in your household doesn't eat, especiallyif they do more cooking than you. An exception would be a trial quantity so they get the chance to try it fresh. Second don't grow plants in the same bed if they have radically different needs for fertilizer or water.
Something where planting large plants in front of small ones actually can work is with some herbs and leafy greens if you live far to the north. We're a high enough latitude that it's very difficult to grow lettuces, arugula, and herbs like basil for a lot of the summer, because the daylight is so extended that they bolt. I built squash trellises for butternuts a few years ago that were just two wire panels framed with stakes and leaned against each other like a tent. I don't remember why, but I put several lettuce and herb plants between the trellises. Lo and behold, the lettuce and herbs continued to grow all summer, in spite of the heat, because they were under shade a significant part of the day. When the plants out in the sun were bolting, the ones under the trellises were not. There are definitely situations where it can be beneficial to plant short plants behind or under taller ones.
Great idea. Where I live in Australia, the sun is too strong in summer to grow plants without some kind of shade, especially from the hot afternoon sun. I've been thinking about putting in screens to protect from the west, but trellises might work well with the right kind of plants (and give bonus productivity!)
Thought of the day! "What you measure, you manage" Thank you for that!
R4rrrr4r
Just a quick comment on using wood chips as mulch. They're a great thing to use, they let air & water through, and keep the soil nice and moist. One thing they DON'T do is take away nitrogen from your plants, unless you dig them into the soil where plant roots are growing. Lying on the soil surface, woos chips only use nitrogen in a thin layer where they touch the soil. So there's no worry about them taking nitrogen away from your established plants. For young transplants or direct sowing seeds, on the other hand, pull the wood chips back a few inches from the transplants and seedlings. Young plants and seedlings have really shallow roots, so in that case, the wood chips might be using nitrogen in the soil surface where those young roots are growing. Once the plants have grown in a bit, you can replace the wood chips aroung them. Happy gardening!
Amazingly enough I’ve done every one of those things this my first year. I have been reading and watching videos for two years before I built my raised beds this year. Additionally I bought red wiggler worms to put in the beds. I only have space for 3 3’x8’ beds and a 150 gal tank that I’ve used for tomatoes the past 15 years. So I purchased 4000 worms to split between the beds. Last year I did put a few in the tank and when I took the soil out this year to move the tank there were still worms in that soil. I put the fresh scraps from salads and such in the soil to give worms food to break down into worm castings. It really doesn’t take long for the worms to break down the kitchen scraps either.
I'm gonna quote you "you dont feed the plants you feed the soil." Epic Gardening July 2020
Cut banana skins n add to the soil they have potassium
Natural human hair have nitrogen - plants love it.
The WATER you use to rinse rice- save it to water plants
All very good tips. I would also add to the last tip how important it is to rotate your crops from one to the next, and marking what you planted in each bed facilitates that. Plants have nutritional needs specific to that species, along with diseases that can persist through the year, especially in warmer climates.
A couple of examples: corn or potatoes use a lot of nitrogen compared to other crops, while legumes put nitrogen back into the ground, so rotating these into the same bed will help balance the nutritional quality of the soil.
As for diseases, tomatoes can contract viruses from a variety of external sources, and those viruses may persist in the soil for more than one season, which could infect your newly planted tomatoes as soon as you put them into the ground. Rotation will greatly decrease this potential threat to a new crop.
I am going to do 2 medium sized raised garden beds this year. Never tried but I’m very interested in finding new hobbies and I love plants anyway..
There’s one thing I can say that has helped me immensely with my garden. Remember to fertilize weekly during the growing season. I did my first fertilization this season with a handful of steer manure in a bucket filled with about a gallon of water. I watered my crops once a week with tea to help them grow better. The next week I used a handful of my organic compost made from green and brown waste as well as earth worms in a compost pile... so a handful of black gold in a one gallon tub with a gallon of water, mixed in, to fertilize my garden once a week. The week after I used water from my tubs that I’ve been catching rain water in. The low ph is good for some crops like blueberries, strawberries, and spinach. After that it was waste water from my organic aquariums, high in nitrates, that I used to fertilize the garden. But every week during the growing season you should fertilize with a diluted fertilizer solution. I even cut up weeds from my garden, steep them overnight, and then use the tea to water my garden as a form of fertilizer before adding the solids to the compost bin. It’s been really good for my raised beds and container garden. I mulch with leaves and twigs from the trees in my garden, and I highly recommend you guys start doing that as well.
Is there nothing u don’t use? LOL. Starbucks gives out big bags of coffee grinds to gardeners. i scoop out the grinds from my keurig cups and recycle the tiny cups. Live in the desert Rocky mtns. Fertilizer is not easy to fine....except cow poop...will try that out.
@@13klecan ha! You have a point there, it’s probably extremely difficult to find things to use as fertilizer in your area. However, if you eat fruits & vegetables you can compost those to make fertilizer. If you have an old blender you can throw your scraps in there & blend them up with a cup or two of water. Run it through a mesh filter or an old stalking to separate the liquid from the solids. Water your plants with the liquid, bury the solids or compost them. You can do a quick search to find a list of green waste items for compost & use any of those in the blender mix. Cow poop works great too though.
Excellent.
Two points - when the bed has no plants in remember the earth worms, don't let the soil dry out and the worms die, they are part of having a successful crop in future.
Think about what you will need to do to protect your vegetables against birds if you garden where that could be a problem. I had a whole bed of spinach wiped out in one day and can only grow them in a caged situation where I live. The birds leave the celery alone so that is okay in the open but tomatoes are vulnerable.
Well said!
Great points, Ron B. In my case, we have invasive worms that destroy topsoil, so I have to compensate for that. What on earth can make up for these damned Asian jumping worms? Hugelkultur. I bury half-rotten logs beneath the topsoil and opt as much as possible for deeper-rooting plants. The worms go to town breaking down the nutrients in the soil far too fast, but the rotten logs are a long-term replenishment of the carbon base.
Wild finches wiped out my lettuce starts and decimated all the sunflowers, I have a neighbor feeding them, then they come by my place for their greens. I don’t know how I can protect my peas this winter. The low crops I can cover but climbers, I don’t know what I will do.
@@claudiahowell9508 Try pulling plastic snakes on the plants. Sometimes that helps. Hanging old CDs that move in the wind over the plants I've heard has some success. Good luck, I hope you find something that works.
The intensity of Florida sun is something completely different! Summer sun here cooks everything!
I use our compost, potting soil, coffeeground, ashes, fresh green material, wood and sand for pots and raised beds
Good mix!
Okay, thanks. I wasn't going to go work in my garden ... now I am. Had no motivation ... now I do. Doesn't matter what happens with it, I'll have good success when I just get going!
Here's a plan / tip for people who have a larger growing space, and less control over the type of weeds and volume of weeds that come our way during the year. Obviously, the first and most important way to control weeds is "mulch, mulch, mulch!" makes a huge difference. This tip is one I've never seen anyone share before, though:
CHOOSE YOUR WEEDS. Over the past four years in my garden plot, in a Midwestern climate where a weed will pop up every single hour on a warm July day, I've come to favor Oxalis, a low-growing weed that is easy to remove and can occupy a lot of sun-space that other weeds would like to get their hands on. Grass weeds? Out they come. Milkweed? Leave three, pull the rest. Dandelions? Out with their cores! Oxalis? Hang out a while, go to seed, pardon my trimming of your edges. Smartweed is also no big deal, but it's taller, so when it comes up in a corner, "Hello!" I won't get too aggressive until it gets on top of something else.
The idea of cultivating least-harm weeds is not too different from cultivating a cover crop, except that weeds have one excellent quality that not all cover crops have; they're WEEDY. They fight to be there and they thrive under all local conditions. So while I have to nip them out of my crops' way, they're also covering the soil and leaving their roots to dissolve in the ground every year, without my having to worry about caring for them.
So I get sick in July, and don't go see my garden for three weeks. What happens? I come back to a sea of oxalis, and my crops. It's a very short sea of oxalis, and within an hour, three weeks worth of weeds are out of my well-mulched way, and I'm back to checking trellising and adjusting mulch levels.
Thanks for the info!
Can’t take oxalis, it’s too invasive, I find it in my flower pots as well as beds and have to really dig to get the roots. If you don’ t get to it it takes over, no thanks.
I don’t have advise for anyone since this will be my first year planting outside as I usually grow my food inside (half of my dinning room is dedicated to food plants and underwater plants lol). I am just excited to get started outside as it took a few years after we bought out house to control the complete over growth (the house was abandoned before) so now I’m ready and no one in my family gardens or has a knack for it. So I’m just hear to tell anyone who will read this that I am planting corn, Tomatoes, jalapeños, Pablanos, pumpkins, watermelons, cucumber, zucchini, kale, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, elderberries, and lettuce. I know some of these will take years to start producing. I also have chickens this year so this will be great to let them fertilize the souls before I start planting outdoors. One thing I have a lot of is raccoons, bunnies and squirrels. Any advise on how to protect the plants from these animals would be great.
HI from South Africa. I watch many gardening channels but just Love your channel.
We need to plant South when you plant North, so please remember us in the Southern Hemisphere.!
thanks
Heather
This was FABULOUS! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for sharing your hard-earned knowledge. Now I'm ready for round two of planting my raised bed!
I am so thankful for your channel and migardener and self-sufficient me. I was able to avoid so many mishaps and also do it (so far) pretty well. Especially as a first time gardener. So thank you!! You are all so amazing! I wish I could post a picture of all my things I have going thanks to you all.
Glad to hear this!
They are a great gardening trip!
Trio*
My 3 favorite channels as well. Would be cool if they did some videos together someday after this pandemic:)
Add the TH-cam videos by Charles Dowding on No Dig Gardening- wonderful useful advice.
I've watched 4 of your videos so far and I'm learning so much. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
"What we measure we manage". I LOVE THAT THANK YOU
Thank you so much I searched all day yesterday for a video like this!! Your tips are simple, easy to follow and so so helpful 🌱
I have a bunch of leaky livestock tanks around my place and they are what I’m going to use as raised beds so again your video was perfect. Thank you!
I just take a picture on my phone...when i plant, germination, transplant, harvest etc. Then i can look back. What worked last year, what didn't.
Taking pictures on my phone is a life-saver! Every time I plant anything I take a picture I can go back and see exactly what I did and when. I also keep a garden journal but it definitely takes a back seat to the pictures.
I do this too. It helps a lot
Perfect! Tx!
This is great I’m so happy I found you! I just got a new space to diy make my space better, your very smart thinking approach is compatible with my approach. I am a renter so I will do more cheaper fit for my area and also xeriscape parts of my back area! I love the lavender idea!
This was so very helpful. First time raised bed gardening and I feel so much more ready than I did before. Thank you!
Greetings from Copenhagen, Denmark :) enjoying your videos a lot and getting inspiration for my balcony. Waiting for the weather to get warm enough for moving my plants outside. Stay safe. Karina
Thank you for this video. I like your approach to grow wherever you can, because we don't always have the choices we want, but we still have choices. These tips have super payback potential. I do get lazy, or absent minded about mulching and it really takes a toll mid season. I also like the tip is planning based on sunlight path.
Really good help! Sometimes difficult to remember tips, but this puts it all into common sense perspective with stuff I never knew. You're a great teacher! It's spring. I'm on it!
Hi! I just started following you and am so thankful for all the valuable information you share. I too live in San Diego and am about to try my hand for the first time on raised bed gardening. I look forward to catching up on the rest of your videos.
I realized this was a new video when I saw a guy walking in the back ground with a mask on 4:25
YEP, same here...LOL ! I immediately looked at the date the video was posted, and it was today.
Good eye, catching that date indicator. You’re probably good in the garden too, being that observant. Hope some won’t mind some words on that observation, and on growing in raised beds out here. When living there San Diego seemed more sensible, it has more soul, but it is still California. When I was in Tokyo people did wear something out of politeness if they had some sniffles. In the US they threaten healthy people with unlawful thousand dollar fines, in some places there might even be people silly enough to wear useless masks outside. At least more people are seeing how ignorant the politicians and their newsreaders are.
Who still gets all their info from the “news”? We’d do well to listen to the real experts, top scientists, such as the most cited scientist in German history when he said the measures imposed by politicians were “grotesque, absurd, and very dangerous”. Sweden and some other countries fared as well or better taking no measures different from regular flu season, it might be easier to stay home there sometimes and get a decent check, but media especially in US has people hypnotized so they perceive the opposite of reality, fewer now might still believe these dangerous measures imposed by officials and politicians are effective, when they were proven useless for such situations as now. Some articles people are reading to know something about this are “12 Experts Questioning the Coronavirus Panic” and the more recent “10 MORE Experts Criticizing the Coronavirus Panic”. If you’re here though you’re probably already well informed, and not affected by media fear mongering and the contagion of panic. We can be supportive of people who know fear and panic is not helpful.
Individuals can do what helps them to feel better. Stay home if they don’t feel good and healthy people can get out in the garden, like grow stuff in raised beds. We do slightly raised beds here, not as deep, except we dig down a bit, put hardware cloth down and around to keep out gophers, rabbits, and such (a benefit of more raised beds too) enrich the soil and do pretty well. Soil here is closer to neutral so we grow most things, adjusting pH when we need to, lot of sand here, called Padina fine sand, so, mixed in beds we don’t have drainage problems, unless you mix in any clay. Then you get sandstone. Good luck gardening, do what you feel is reasonable without feeling we have to be compelled. Heard they tried to ban gardening in some places lately, Michigan governor tried maybe? If they tried what kind of person would believe the governor was right? Would you or anybody? Good that most of us can or will still do it. Gardening, no stress, better for your health.
Had to go back and look....oh yeah!
Lol! Fast fwd just to see it! Good eye!👀
Yeah! Had to pause and check the date.
Your advice is EXCELLENT! If I had your videos back in the day when I started I can't tell you how much time and error you would have saved me! LOL!
Your gardening videos are so crucial for helping develop our Wormhole Garden!
Thanks for the great tips. I just bought 6 beds of 4 X 4 to start gardening. You helped me alot and I appreciate it.
This is the first year we planted winter rye as a cover crop. I turned it in today. I'm looking forward to seeing how the garden does this year!
Winter is coming and I'm really glad I watched this or I'd never think to put mulch down to protect the soil. This was our first year doing a few felt planters and my kids absolutely loved it, so glad we took the steps to do it. We had to share a lot of our cucumbers and kale with the wildlife, but I think it's okay since they can't go to the grocery store and the caterpillars that ate our kale and grew to moths would fly and land on us all summer. It was really special 💕
Just wanted to say, thank you. For the video, and the good will and knowledge you’re trying to spread to people. I try to do similar things and agriculture/gardening are one of the new things for this year. Keep it up and thanks for the tips!
I can’t wait to start gardening and getting my son involved! I look forward to canning them too. I am a first timer with zero experience! I appreciate you sharing your advice!
Very great! Thank you for sharing your experiences to us youngster gardeners like me. Although I am in my very first season, I avoided a lot of mistakes (I made a lot else) listening to pro‘s like you. Thank you!
Totally made the soil mistake. I put too much faith in the quality of my local gardener's store "raised bed mix." My plants were all super nitrogen deficient!!! They were very yellow and stunted, but I noticed in time so I was able to amend it by adding dilute urine a few times. This fall I plan to add some high quality compost and mulch to help improve the soil quality for next year. A disappointing mistake, to be sure, but glad it was something I could correct in time to still have a productive garden this year!
I can't wait to build my raised garden! Thank you for the tips.
BTW if you are going for horse manure for your soil... make sure it is "rested" for at least a year.
I have my own horses, so I have a lot of manure. However, I make 2-3 muck heaps. One in a corner of the main grazing field where I put the manure taken out of the field and off the track I run during the summer. It also gets all the grass cuttings from the garden, because it gets hot and helps rot the muck down. It gets big.
Then I have one near the stable in winter. If that gets too big, I make another nearby while the previous one rests. Why? Because my lovely earth worms travel to the new muckheap when they are done with the old one. The chickens do their bit as well, scratching and hunting those worms where they can get to them. Those worms make really nice soil out of all that poop.
Whenever I have more muck than I need, I put it up for grabs to my local FB groups, IF the people who regularly come to get soil aren't taking all of it -- which generally they do, because it's just good stuff. I have 2-3 gardeners who will turn up in spring to grab whatever they can, because it's not fresh stuff, but properly rotted down and full of nutrients.
So. Don't go for the stuff that just came out of a horse.
Go for the stuff that's been sitting a year.
Another great video Kevin. My tip would be to plan your bed layout for the mature plant size. Good plant spacing improves the air flow around your plants. That minimizes diseases, allows you to find pests and gives the plant the space and nutrients for optimal growth. A good resource for figuring out that spacing plan is Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening books. Ps: can’t wait to try out my two new Birdies beds this spring.
I agree SFG is awesome and so productive!
One Kevin didn't mention: Don't put your beds too near a tree. I have concluded that the reason four of my bed don't get enough moisture is that the tree roots suck it all up.
He briefly mentioned trees, regarding shade caused by them but not the problem with roots being everywhere in the way.
Fantastic thanks. Just created our raised beds & excited to get started!
I plan to build some raised beds for my garden this year and this has been extremely helpful. Thank you!
As you are talking about directionality, I just realized that my porch faces directly south. We have a terrible yard filled with rocks, and old concrete so I was thinking about starting some planters this spring and this is so great to know that I’m already in a good spot.
I've built a couple of different types of raised beds which I still use, but just ordered my first Birdies 6-in-1's from you and am looking forward to setting them up! One thing I do a bit differently from you is allowing more space between beds as I always want to be able to get a garden cart or wheelbarrow (or even a camp chair) between the beds and on my garden paths :)
I'm happy that I found your channel. I started my own garden for the first time this year. It's good to know that some things I have done are good for someone who is a beginner but I'm also happy to learn new things too
Good concise and interesting reminders of the basics of gardening. This is stuff you can’t ignore!
My mistake was in year two: not adding a soil amendment. Things grew, but not as well. Adding an amendment helped so much. I'll never forget that lesson.
These are great tips, thanks for sharing. One of my biggest problems, early on was special awareness...not knowing how far a plant will travel on it's growth to maturity. Butternut squash for example should never be planted by the gate to enter your fenced in garden. In the same respect knowing cukes like to climb and giving them the room and support to do so will give you amazing yields!
I plan to plant my tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, egg plants, and squash in buckets this year to give them room to grow.
Omg, just subscribed because it amazes me that as I just started trying to care more for my little garden and recently found Garden Answer who has probably 10+ acres with one million subscribers and then I accidently stumbled on your channel. You have a tiny little garden but have over a million subscribers as well 😱. I am totally impressed and plus I learned a whole lot from this second video of yours. Can't wait to see the rest.
My stepdaughter wanted to start raised gardening on a budget. So glad I found your videos to help her. Thank you so much.
Thanks for the great tips! It reminds me that gardening is like any relationship you want to nurture it in every season!
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A special thanks on the SunCalc website. The funny thing I find about common sense tips, it’s the fundamental things that always work the best.
Thank you! Some really good points to consider when planning my raised bed garden.