I am Dutch and now live in Spain. I remember that in our garden, empty bottles were buried at an angle. Then the wind would get into them and cause a sound that the moles didn't like.
I hope these tips help you successfully grow no-dig vegetables in a Mediterranean climate. If you have any questions or want to share your own experiences, write a comment below! Read the full article here: www.rootsreconnected.com/articles/growing-no-dig-vegetables-in-mediterranean
I advise those who do gardening in Portugal to read "Borda D'água", which is a Portuguese almanac published annually (since 1929) that helps Portuguese farmers know what to plant at each season. It costs 3 euros and is sold at newsstands.
This video was great! I love to hear all the experiences in the hot climate and see all the challenges you are facing, and the solutions you have found. More of this please!
I also enjoy such videos and started with a north facing mini balcony. Now I improved to a west facing one and who knows where it will end someday 😊 I mulch my pots with hay for small pets.
Hello I experienced exactly the same with compost in my homestead near Madrid. It quickly became hydrophobic and was impossible to get the water further than surface level. About the moles, the ones that eat the plants are called topillos in Spanish and they're a kind of mouse. Real moles are carnivorous as far as I remember... My cat huns many topillos and keeps them in check. 😻
I know I am quite late to comment but anfew thoughts: - Moles: you already have dogs, what my family did was collecting dog hair and placing a bit in the reachable tunnels, it seemed to work quite good Cat(s) should help - Shade & Biomass: have you considered setting up a tiny area as a bamboo farm? Bamboo Roots are known to increase water retention and you could use the bamboo „stems“ as a very cheap cross beam to shade certain areas until your trees come of age in a few years. - Bonus: Kids love to play with Bamboo sticks. I DO speak from experience. It was both mine and my sisters favourite plant in the garden. Would also love to hear your thoughts if this is NOT a good idea and why. Always love to learn.
I find thick layers of compost and wood chips create an ideal environment for earthworms and in turn moles which feed on them. I once saw that something was moving under the mulch and earthworms were trying to scatter in different directions. I thought I was filming the whole thing not realizing I had forgotten to hit record! Thanks for sharing your experience with others. All the best to you. Happy growing.
Here in Cape Town, South Africa, we are also in a Mediterranean climate. Exactly the same problem with sandy soil, I call it minimal dig. My veggie patches in my back yard are much smaller and due to walls around the property I have micro climates and I intend to use shade cloth as well.
In SE Texas I also use straw on top of the annual top dressing of compost. What a difference it makes. No weeds for one and my shallow raised beds remain, I'll say, damp for longer than without. Only problem is some small snakes love living under the straw and can give me a surprise when I disturb them. But they eat bugs! I have seen snakes, toads and worms living together in the same bed. 😊 I wood chips garden paths and the perennial gardens. With no-dig the mycorrhizal fungi eventually spreads throughout the veg garden bed. I use shade cloth but think I might need to put in at least one fruit tree. I also use overhead watering for cooling. Seems we use a lot of similar techniques. Nice to hear your success.
Hello there from Huelva, hot dry mediterranean zone, we just change the irrigation system to exudation, is even better, becouse of the hard soild that u mentioned that become hidrophobic it take like 4-8 hours to fullfill the garden we do it at night and it water all the soil, is amazing. We cant use watering above the leafs becouse sun can burn the leafs becouse of the water drops work as a glass.
@@AllGrowing Hey hello, just know how to explain it in spanish hahaha, if u put exudation irrigation in google u will find a better english explanation.
@@thez5997 its a little bit more efficient in irrigation becouse its need more time to exude the water and is better for well water that is more hard than normal waters.
I have free water ... it's gravity fed off the creek high up through a accumulating pond so no electric pumping and the pressure is high so I can run more than one hose. Sprinkler hose seems to be excellent but I need more hose so I'm not moving them. Thank you for the very informative video!!!
I love what you’re doing. I tried this in Adelaide South Australia 25 years ago. It has a very similar climate to you I think. After about five years my water usage was way too much due to all the deciduous trees that I planted. I literally could not afford to water as much as I needed to keep everything growing well. So I pulled out a lot of trees. Very sad! Now I do the same as you but use white 50% shade cloth to protect the veggies from summer heat. This works very well, but I may actually have to resort to additional mid day watering on the leaves like you as even with shade cloth the heat is still too intense. Keep up the great work.
have you tried drip irrigation?, Im trying to get into farming and I keep seeing drip irrigation being the most suggested for hot dry climates but a lot of people dont seem to use it and im trying to understand if the other types work better or is it simply more costly
@@jonarnold7689 I see, so it seems drip irrigation is the way to go in hotter climate, someone spoke about exudation but I cant find much info on that.The climate I will be trying to farm in would be similar to northern cape South Africa so finding videos or documentation about that specific climate is proving challenging, I guess its best to learn as its done
@@thez5997 I have tried many different versions of drippers to get adequate water to the root zones. For larger fruiting trees I’ve found a minimum of two adjustable ones under the drip line work adequately. They shoot out eight separate streams and are on a little stake, however I invariably step on them or break them off so now don’t use the stake variety. I will water once a week for three hours from late spring to late autumn. I only average about 350mm of rain and this is mostly winter so I need lost of water to keep things alive. For vegetables as my climate has got dryer I now water with 4l/h drippers daily or every second day at the base of the plant for between 30-45minutes. Everything is on an automated irrigation system. I mulch these with pea straw to a depth of about 75-100mm. I also cover with 50% knitted shadecloth and put this on late spring and take off in autumn. This has resulted in excellent production but my water usage is very significant.
@@jonarnold7689 that is really fascinating, I always like seeing how everybody come- up with their own methods and techniques and depending on climate people have to do drastically different things. And that is just for watering needs, there is also so much documentation and difference of opinions in terms of what type of bedding is correct like raised bedding, no dig etc and I see all these in small farms but then every commercial farm video I've seen they have normal in ground rows so the choices are really hard to decide. I'm just rambling at this point thank you for sharing
even in mild climate(netherlands) the drip-irrigation works miracles in the garden. Have it from 2 years now and it rocks hard, garden loves it, Thriving soil and stable water are only things i take care of, rest is easy (healthy crops, bugs, worms, birds, moles, and hardly "pests/diseases": stabiel als dikke stront).
I am Dutch and live on a 'hill' near a river. When in the winter the river overflows we also have issues with moles moving to higher dryer areas completly plowing several acres of farmland. We tried serveral different things but good old clamps work the best in our instance.
Geweldig mooie uitleg. Vooral tip nr 1.Ook hier in Nederland is het HEET. Houtsnippers is een must. Vocht blijft langer in de grond. Compost is zo waardevol daar wil je ook het vocht in houden voor een beter bodem leven. Succes daar. Petje af. Jullie zijn echt doorzetters en bouwen daar een paradijs. Groet van Chris.
Hallo Nederlandse tuinder :-) Over de mollen.... Ik woon ook in Portugal en vorig jaar heb ik mijn eerste poging gedaan om een groentetuin aan te leggen. Nu heb ik ook mollen op mijn land, maar er zijn ook woelmuizen, en deze laaste zijn vooral heel vervelend omdat deze aan de plantwortels knagen. Mollen doen dat niet, maar de gangen van mollen kunnen wel de planten laten uitdrogen omdat er alleen lucht is. Om ze te vangen (nee niet diervriendelijk) kun je van die metalen kokers met trechter vorm kopen en deze zet je in de gang. Deze val is dicht aan 1 kant en heeft een éénrichting klepje aan de andere kant. Ik heb ook geexperimenteerd met drip irrigatie (met kleine sproeiers op de buis, en gewoon dripbuis) maar ik vind het veel te veel gedoe met buizen overal, en ik heb ook heel sterk het idee dat de wortelkluit zich niet goed ontwikkeld omdat het water zo lokaal gegeven word. Nu heb ik overhead sproeiers, geen enkele buis meer in de tuin, vind het veel fijner. Staan jullie ook open voor bezoekers? Ik zou het best leuk vinden om eens bij jullie te komen kijken hoe het er allemaal uit ziet en dan kunnen we ook ideen uitwisselen. Hartelijke groet, Robert
Buenas. Te escribo desde el norte de Cáceres, Extremadura, España. Tengo una huerta comercial con bancales tipo nodig sin acolchar y me parece súper interesante tu video. Una cuestión: cada año aportas nuevas capas de compost y corteza de pino sobre la ya existente?? Lograste eliminar adventicias como la correhuela o la grama con el acolchado? qué cantidad de acolchado aldea cada año? Muchas gracias!!
Great videos! Thanks for well educative content bringing value from your experiance out to us! I like your mulch efforts. The garden looks very healthy!
This is what I'm doing, near Alicante. You seems to be in west Spain. Take care with the Eucalyptus trees, they suck so much water, avoid them closed to your garden. What is the kind of mulch you used ? From eucalyptus ? This material take a very long time to decompound, so long time to nourrish your soil. I don't invest so much money, as you do, to fertilize the soil, I used another technics, seen in my videos. So in 2000m2 I had 200 fruits trees and 80 beds for vegetable. Long time to regenerate this destroy clay soil with tilling, a managing of 5 years, with plants, waste of pruning trees, their leaves in automn, horse manure and chicken manure, and a little part from kitchen waste turned to compost. Yes, the trees are very important in our climat, they provide shadow and much more. The mycorhize is the main key of my system. I've got video for you, as you understand french.
Agree about eucalypts. They also contain allelopaths in bark and leaves, inhibiting germination and stunting growth of surrounding plants to reduce competition.
@@westaussieeggs8867 Are you talking of my mulch ? Yes, I use pin needles for muclhing, and if I remember, Charlie use bark, and it looks like from eucaliptus.
Hi Moreno, regarding moles, Richard Perkins had a interesting ( and entertaining to watch) way of getting rid of them: gas cannon where you basically blow gas and then you ignite the whole tunnel. Very efficient but maybe not that youtube friendly :D
Great video, really informative! Your garden has come such a long way... truly stunning. I've dealt with hydrophobic soil on my property, and I agree adding compost and mulch is a game changer for fixing the problem.
How wonderful your garden looks. Are you sure it’s „moles“ you have and not voles = Woelmuis ? The whole you showed in the ground looks exactly like my vole holes, moles tend to make a mound of dirt they push up. I only have a small garden, but the voles were a major headache, I seem to have mostly gotten rid of them by pushing folded up stems of euphorbia lathyris into the holes, they apparently don‘t like the smell of them. Lots of info online about them.
I use fruit trees as natural shade in my garden zone. I also have 30 beehives on the other side of the property so once they bloom my bees hit them instantly.
Love the Mulch. Do you just clear it off for replant then put it back? Bark/wood chips would rob some Nitrogen from top soil?? Straw would be great if you can get it! Classic trio of maize, pumpkin and beans work well for shade? Does your damp atmosphere attract Mosquitos?? Do you put the green netting over your greenhouse in summer?? You are doing a great job there and communicating the good and bad!!
As he explained if mulch on to and not dug in it doesn not rob the nitrogen from soil and I guess he would rake it awat from cleared beds, put more compost, replant and put the mulch back. Straw is not of great use in hot windy conditions, it gets blown away. your idea of maize, beans, pumpkin is good it is just that at times the sun is so hot that it scortches leaves and you have no shade. Trees are much better even when they loose some leaves in summer. it looks like he does with the shade cloth, the only thing I would suggest is cream coloured, with about 50% protection. You can get several grades up to 90%. Hope this answers all your questions. Cheers from Down Under.
encore bravo pour le travail magnifique que vous réalisez et merci pour les précieux conseils qui me serviront beaucoup à ( essayer de ) réussir un jardin potager sur l'ile de Djerba ou je réside et ou les températures avoisinent facilement les 45 degrès en saison chaude . bonne continuation et beaucoup de joie à toute votre famille
Ducks are apparently useful in managing slugs and snails in regions of the world such as the UK. I recall the popularity of a trickle irrigation method that would irrigate different sides of a plant. Early data suggested it was even better than standard trickle irrigation methods. I have no idea as to what further trials delivered but it was an interesting idea predominantly utilised by grape farmers.
moles don't like the ultrasonic sounds. They sell silly electronic devices, but where i live (in southern italy) everyone just uses metal rods with little plastic bottles on the top. the wind and air move the bottles and they send vibrations that tend to keep the moles annoyed and keeps them away a bit. All the posts around my garden have these bottles.
I watch your video up to the end and I do have a garden but I really need to go into deed vegetable gardening in the near future . But I need your help and supper. I am from West Africa, Ghana the Northern part. Thank you.
Hi there, daphne gnidium and similiar plants ( troviscos in portuguese ) are often used for the moles. Supposedely they used to be used to keep moles away! I have some literature with some information (Manual de Agricultura Biológica, being the main one) regarding that, but I never tried it myself. Troviscos are not something you normally find for sale, at least where I am, but you can find them in the wild and make some cuttings :)
We used stakes that you bury into the ground, with a small solar panel that powered the stake. The stake emits into the ground a high-decibel tweet every few minutes, making it uncomfortable for underground dwellers. People have mixed results. They worked really well for us. We used them right from the start, though, which maybe discouraged below ground dwellers from building their tunnels. It may be that once the tunnels are in place, the sound doesn't travel well through the empty space of the tunnels. Perhaps more emitters would solve that hiccup.
Could i use the leaves that fall from my trees as mulch? And would the layer of mulch prevent weeds from springing up? Thank you this is fascinating and amazing!
I like to use grass clippings for all of our annual mulch instead of compost because it doesn’t get hydrophobic. But I also have great soil starting off with, so I didn’t need any amendments
How do you manage the beds for a second use after harvesting a plant completely for a season as there has a possibiility to get you mulch mixed with bed soil??
I had some hosta plants that were getting ravaged by slugs and my grandmother told me to leave out saucers of beer overnight. I thought she was joking, but I did it and the next morning, the saucers were completely full of dead slugs. I did it again the next night and only got a few survivors but they did not come back for the entire summer
Using the pine woodchips is the best resource you have available now and a lot better than using no mulch. However, two concerns: 1. decomposing pine wood chips lead to acidification of soils over time and 2. it does use up the nitrogen in the top layer of soil as it decomposes no matter how you turn it. you might be able to find some local material with a narrower C/N-ratio than wood chip. that would be ideal.
Great videos. I farm in Greece that also gets hot in the summer (35-40C) and have problems with making my own compost as water is a scarce resource, made worse by the fact that the dry & hot weather, coupled with 5-6 beaufort winds dries out the compost pile super fast. How have you been able to make such fantstic looking compost? What type of mulch do you use to protect your soil? Finally, trees along your vegetable plot could make it harder to grow winter vegetables - what's your plan for the winter?
Great tipps! I'm on the way there currently establishing a small 8*8m food forest plot, first year I have automatic irrigation and its a huge difference! May I ask what tubing and drippers you use? Thanks
I lived in Brasil for three years and had a garden, but it was near Eucalyptus trees. I was told by a local Brasilian I would need to add lots of fertilizer to the garden as the Eucalyptus deplete the nutrients from the soil.
I live in a very similar climate just "upside down". We are in the mid winter now with some rain, not much but at least it started to rain after 8 months of no rain. My problem is getting enough water to the plants, not just for the veggies but to all plants, trees are stressed and many are dieing. My question is what is your water supply? Do you rely only on rain? I do not think so as I have noticed drip irrigation everywhere. We, in the city are only allowed to water our gardens twice a week for 10 minutes, regardless whether it is city water or ground water from a bore.
Great video ! Woodchips don't provide nutrients in the soil the amount is negligible, but they are a great carbon source for the soil.I tried the woodchip method but its unhandy for planting, I tried grass from my garden than I grow grass still searching for the best mulch. My composts are mostly fungal dominant due to a lot of woodchip my garden produces, you are right veggies grow great even with fungal mulches. I tried to find pests in the video but your canopy looks great🤣. How do you do that you don't have challenges with pests? My biggest weakness is water schedule optimization,we use pots, and they dry super fast then you get water stress and pests attack.
hey, have you thought about getting some beehives as you have this beautiful garden and it's something about being able to get honey on tap so you can pick up honey whenever you want. I love your goals and the way you make it all look so amazing. but I think you have to find out how it is best, I would say flow hive is a good way and watch videos and study it. all the best from Denmark
In some part of Portugal we use fresh parts of a common plant called Trovisco, or Trovisqueira to get rats and other similar animals out of the garden. Stick some sticks of it inside their holes and usualy they move away..
Heb je al eens overwogen om Sorghum te verbouwen? In jullie klimaat ongetwijfeld eenvoudig te verbouwen en een mooie bron van graan voor eigen consumptie of voor kippen. kan los van je moestuin aangezien het amper extra water nodig heeft.
What about growing some Orchard Trees which would thrie in the intense heat ( lemons ? you decide what you like to eat) and their leaf canopy would provide some shade and when the leaves fall they will break down and contribute to the soil composition. Regarding the Moles or Voles - Thank God ofr their help and Read the Book : The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy. ( I recommend the paperback version with Horizontal Blue Jean blue wave lines on the books cover design. ) Drip irragation that they use in the Middle East is helpful and what about creating a Rain Harvesting system when the Rains do fall. Rainwater storage collection is something to investigate. I am so impressed with your beautiful garden. Turkey has fabulous agriculture to look into. Again consider growing Lemon trees and maybe sweet Olive trees ! I love Butternut squash and Watermelons ! Gerogia USA is a harsh climate and they somehow produce juicy peaches and Watermelon so much so they practically have to give them away for very low price so that they don't go to waste. Look at all the trees surrounding your garden! Thos gree trees are accessing underground water. Are you allowed to dig for well water ? Reason for reading this book above recommended is you Must never misuse your God -given Imagination to imagine your worries or fears coming true - Instead imagine how grateful your are your Moles and Voles are working to improve that hard soil. Realistically you need then to hang around for a decade. Because without them it would take you too long to recondition your soild. To prove my point is look up teh Life cycle of a mole ( or Vole ?) and you will see they have a very short lifespan ! So you need them to be perpetual for years. And Imagine that they keep their population at the present numbers. I grew up in Jerusalem back in the 1970's and we used Brown course Berlap sewn together to create a Shade cloth draped over Metal Cables stretched over our very large out door Cafe Courtyard. It Blew up and down in the wind but it provided Sun protection from both wind and noon day sun. we sewed them together and sewed them around the cable wires above. Have you explorde Electro culture using Copper wire wrapped in a coil and stuck in the ground to encourage growth year round. It is a facinating subject. I love No Till Gardeing ! You are do ing a terrific job ! Thank you for sharing your journey !
Separate and use your urine, since you are off grid, to water your woodchip pile. It adds the nitrogen and will break down the woodchips (carbon) faster. Urine can also be used to break down old tree stumps faster if those are on your land.
About the moles. My grandpa had the same problem in a property my grandparents had in Soria, in the centre-north of Spain. He brought in snakes: non venomous and native to the Iberian peninsula, natural prefators of the moles. the guys were EXTREMELY effective. I dont know the details of the story because, sadly, my grandpa is dead and I never got arround to ask more about it.
What a difference you have made, taking your barren block of land to a thriving garden and ecosystem 🌱 wonderful 💚
It's a wonderfully inspiring education, isn't it? I absolutely love this channel.
I am Dutch and now live in Spain. I remember that in our garden, empty bottles were buried at an angle. Then the wind would get into them and cause a sound that the moles didn't like.
Well, AFAIK the moles aren’t really annoyed by the sound but by the high frequency vibration that is created and transmitted that way…
@@agn855 What else sound is if not mechanical vibration?
Plant does not grow well under or near eucalyptus trees.
@@Kwazulujabul
I have to disagree. Look for agroforestry... 😊
I hope these tips help you successfully grow no-dig vegetables in a Mediterranean climate. If you have any questions or want to share your own experiences, write a comment below!
Read the full article here: www.rootsreconnected.com/articles/growing-no-dig-vegetables-in-mediterranean
I advise those who do gardening in Portugal to read "Borda D'água", which is a Portuguese almanac published annually (since 1929) that helps Portuguese farmers know what to plant at each season. It costs 3 euros and is sold at newsstands.
This video was great! I love to hear all the experiences in the hot climate and see all the challenges you are facing, and the solutions you have found. More of this please!
I watch your video up to the end. I don't have a garden, I only have pots at the balcony, facing north😂
I also enjoy such videos and started with a north facing mini balcony. Now I improved to a west facing one and who knows where it will end someday 😊 I mulch my pots with hay for small pets.
My Chilis like my NNW facing balkony.😊
Hello I experienced exactly the same with compost in my homestead near Madrid. It quickly became hydrophobic and was impossible to get the water further than surface level. About the moles, the ones that eat the plants are called topillos in Spanish and they're a kind of mouse. Real moles are carnivorous as far as I remember... My cat huns many topillos and keeps them in check. 😻
I know I am quite late to comment but anfew thoughts:
- Moles: you already have dogs, what my family did was collecting dog hair and placing a bit in the reachable tunnels, it seemed to work quite good
Cat(s) should help
- Shade & Biomass: have you considered setting up a tiny area as a bamboo farm? Bamboo Roots are known to increase water retention and you could use the bamboo „stems“ as a very cheap cross beam to shade certain areas until your trees come of age in a few years.
- Bonus: Kids love to play with Bamboo sticks. I DO speak from experience. It was both mine and my sisters favourite plant in the garden.
Would also love to hear your thoughts if this is NOT a good idea and why.
Always love to learn.
Addition:
I am not aware of how many water bamboo uses itself, but I assume it will be not a problem.
You can eat that green almonds as a fruit before it dry out into a nut,it's so sweet,I'm a mediterranean and we love it
I find thick layers of compost and wood chips create an ideal environment for earthworms and in turn moles which feed on them. I once saw that something was moving under the mulch and earthworms were trying to scatter in different directions. I thought I was filming the whole thing not realizing I had forgotten to hit record! Thanks for sharing your experience with others. All the best to you. Happy growing.
wow those big rocks in he background are magical
Moreno, as always another great video with helpful tips for all of us. It's great to see you surrounded by lush foliage and growing produce!
Here in Cape Town, South Africa, we are also in a Mediterranean climate. Exactly the same problem with sandy soil, I call it minimal dig. My veggie patches in my back yard are much smaller and due to walls around the property I have micro climates and I intend to use shade cloth as well.
In SE Texas I also use straw on top of the annual top dressing of compost. What a difference it makes. No weeds for one and my shallow raised beds remain, I'll say, damp for longer than without. Only problem is some small snakes love living under the straw and can give me a surprise when I disturb them. But they eat bugs! I have seen snakes, toads and worms living together in the same bed. 😊 I wood chips garden paths and the perennial gardens. With no-dig the mycorrhizal fungi eventually spreads throughout the veg garden bed. I use shade cloth but think I might need to put in at least one fruit tree. I also use overhead watering for cooling. Seems we use a lot of similar techniques. Nice to hear your success.
I absolutely love your homestead. I watch and read everything on your channel. ❤🇨🇦
dude what a space, cool channel
Hello there from Huelva, hot dry mediterranean zone, we just change the irrigation system to exudation, is even better, becouse of the hard soild that u mentioned that become hidrophobic it take like 4-8 hours to fullfill the garden we do it at night and it water all the soil, is amazing. We cant use watering above the leafs becouse sun can burn the leafs becouse of the water drops work as a glass.
Hi! What is exudation system?
@@AllGrowing Hey hello, just know how to explain it in spanish hahaha, if u put exudation irrigation in google u will find a better english explanation.
@@equilibriorural Ok, no problem!
Hello, I want to get into farming, could I ask why you dont use drip irrigation rather than exudation? genuinely curious
@@thez5997 its a little bit more efficient in irrigation becouse its need more time to exude the water and is better for well water that is more hard than normal waters.
Thank you for making this wealth of knowledge available to all!!!
So interesting . Thank you . Your veg garden looks great . 🌎🌸
Thanks! I'm glad you found it interesting. We're really happy with how the garden is coming along.
@@TheDutchFarmer - please check my comments above (especially the linked video(s) i.e. regarding the Paulownia trees). Thx for listening & good luck 👍
It is amazing to see what you have done. Bravo!
I have free water ... it's gravity fed off the creek high up through a accumulating pond so no electric pumping and the pressure is high so I can run more than one hose. Sprinkler hose seems to be excellent but I need more hose so I'm not moving them.
Thank you for the very informative video!!!
I love your teaching; I will be starting my garden very soon.
I love what you’re doing. I tried this in Adelaide South Australia 25 years ago. It has a very similar climate to you I think. After about five years my water usage was way too much due to all the deciduous trees that I planted. I literally could not afford to water as much as I needed to keep everything growing well. So I pulled out a lot of trees. Very sad! Now I do the same as you but use white 50% shade cloth to protect the veggies from summer heat. This works very well, but I may actually have to resort to additional mid day watering on the leaves like you as even with shade cloth the heat is still too intense. Keep up the great work.
have you tried drip irrigation?, Im trying to get into farming and I keep seeing drip irrigation being the most suggested for hot dry climates but a lot of people dont seem to use it and im trying to understand if the other types work better or is it simply more costly
@@thez5997 Everything has been fully drip irrigation for 25 years. I also use heaps of organic mulch.
@@jonarnold7689 I see, so it seems drip irrigation is the way to go in hotter climate, someone spoke about exudation but I cant find much info on that.The climate I will be trying to farm in would be similar to northern cape South Africa so finding videos or documentation about that specific climate is proving challenging, I guess its best to learn as its done
@@thez5997 I have tried many different versions of drippers to get adequate water to the root zones. For larger fruiting trees I’ve found a minimum of two adjustable ones under the drip line work adequately. They shoot out eight separate streams and are on a little stake, however I invariably step on them or break them off so now don’t use the stake variety. I will water once a week for three hours from late spring to late autumn. I only average about 350mm of rain and this is mostly winter so I need lost of water to keep things alive. For vegetables as my climate has got dryer I now water with 4l/h drippers daily or every second day at the base of the plant for between 30-45minutes. Everything is on an automated irrigation system. I mulch these with pea straw to a depth of about 75-100mm. I also cover with 50% knitted shadecloth and put this on late spring and take off in autumn. This has resulted in excellent production but my water usage is very significant.
@@jonarnold7689 that is really fascinating, I always like seeing how everybody come- up with their own methods and techniques and depending on climate people have to do drastically different things. And that is just for watering needs, there is also so much documentation and difference of opinions in terms of what type of bedding is correct like raised bedding, no dig etc and I see all these in small farms but then every commercial farm video I've seen they have normal in ground rows so the choices are really hard to decide. I'm just rambling at this point thank you for sharing
even in mild climate(netherlands) the drip-irrigation works miracles in the garden. Have it from 2 years now and it rocks hard, garden loves it, Thriving soil and stable water are only things i take care of, rest is easy (healthy crops, bugs, worms, birds, moles, and hardly "pests/diseases": stabiel als dikke stront).
I am Dutch and live on a 'hill' near a river. When in the winter the river overflows we also have issues with moles moving to higher dryer areas completly plowing several acres of farmland. We tried serveral different things but good old clamps work the best in our instance.
Geweldig mooie uitleg. Vooral tip nr 1.Ook hier in Nederland is het HEET. Houtsnippers is een must. Vocht blijft langer in de grond. Compost is zo waardevol daar wil je ook het vocht in houden voor een beter bodem leven. Succes daar. Petje af. Jullie zijn echt doorzetters en bouwen daar een paradijs. Groet van Chris.
Hallo Nederlandse tuinder :-) Over de mollen.... Ik woon ook in Portugal en vorig jaar heb ik mijn eerste poging gedaan om een groentetuin aan te leggen. Nu heb ik ook mollen op mijn land, maar er zijn ook woelmuizen, en deze laaste zijn vooral heel vervelend omdat deze aan de plantwortels knagen. Mollen doen dat niet, maar de gangen van mollen kunnen wel de planten laten uitdrogen omdat er alleen lucht is. Om ze te vangen (nee niet diervriendelijk) kun je van die metalen kokers met trechter vorm kopen en deze zet je in de gang. Deze val is dicht aan 1 kant en heeft een éénrichting klepje aan de andere kant.
Ik heb ook geexperimenteerd met drip irrigatie (met kleine sproeiers op de buis, en gewoon dripbuis) maar ik vind het veel te veel gedoe met buizen overal, en ik heb ook heel sterk het idee dat de wortelkluit zich niet goed ontwikkeld omdat het water zo lokaal gegeven word. Nu heb ik overhead sproeiers, geen enkele buis meer in de tuin, vind het veel fijner. Staan jullie ook open voor bezoekers? Ik zou het best leuk vinden om eens bij jullie te komen kijken hoe het er allemaal uit ziet en dan kunnen we ook ideen uitwisselen. Hartelijke groet, Robert
Insiggewend. Dankie Robert.
Zeker als jij jouw tuintje ook wilt laten zien, emigreren is top 1 prio voor mij nu hahahha
Buenas. Te escribo desde el norte de Cáceres, Extremadura, España. Tengo una huerta comercial con bancales tipo nodig sin acolchar y me parece súper interesante tu video. Una cuestión: cada año aportas nuevas capas de compost y corteza de pino sobre la ya existente?? Lograste eliminar adventicias como la correhuela o la grama con el acolchado? qué cantidad de acolchado aldea cada año? Muchas gracias!!
hi ! im french so i'd like to know where was your previous farm ? if im not faraway i might take a look there!
Great videos! Thanks for well educative content bringing value from your experiance out to us! I like your mulch efforts. The garden looks very healthy!
Your videos are so interesting and informativ - really inspiring !💚
This information is very valuable!! Thank you :)
You did a great job with your land n this video is very informative ❤
You are very well spoken. Great job.
This is a great inspiration, I'm doing multistorey gardening, and organic farming and this is a good motivation.
Very informative.
Thanks
This is what I'm doing, near Alicante. You seems to be in west Spain. Take care with the Eucalyptus trees, they suck so much water, avoid them closed to your garden. What is the kind of mulch you used ? From eucalyptus ? This material take a very long time to decompound, so long time to nourrish your soil. I don't invest so much money, as you do, to fertilize the soil, I used another technics, seen in my videos. So in 2000m2 I had 200 fruits trees and 80 beds for vegetable. Long time to regenerate this destroy clay soil with tilling, a managing of 5 years, with plants, waste of pruning trees, their leaves in automn, horse manure and chicken manure, and a little part from kitchen waste turned to compost. Yes, the trees are very important in our climat, they provide shadow and much more. The mycorhize is the main key of my system. I've got video for you, as you understand french.
Agree about eucalypts. They also contain allelopaths in bark and leaves, inhibiting germination and stunting growth of surrounding plants to reduce competition.
he uses untreated pine mulch from Spain.
@@westaussieeggs8867 Are you talking of my mulch ? Yes, I use pin needles for muclhing, and if I remember, Charlie use bark, and it looks like from eucaliptus.
@@victoremman4639 The guy from the video says he uses untreated pine bark from Spain 😊
amazing! where do you source your organic bark from Spain? I'm also in Portugal and I would love to get my hands on some!
Hi Moreno, regarding moles, Richard Perkins had a interesting ( and entertaining to watch) way of getting rid of them: gas cannon where you basically blow gas and then you ignite the whole tunnel. Very efficient but maybe not that youtube friendly :D
If you put in owl habitat it will take care of tunneling creatures naturally
Ferrets?
Great explanations. I can relate to all the points you mention in my garden!
I like your method, it is very efficient. Best model garden in my opinion. I will do something like this in my country 🇵🇭
Great video, really informative! Your garden has come such a long way... truly stunning. I've dealt with hydrophobic soil on my property, and I agree adding compost and mulch is a game changer for fixing the problem.
Wonderful inputs about gardening 😊❤
Fantastic work!! Enjoy all the wonderful food coming from such a challenging situation. Impressive👏🏼
Greece here! Inspiring, bravo 👏
How wonderful your garden looks. Are you sure it’s „moles“ you have and not voles = Woelmuis ? The whole you showed in the ground looks exactly like my vole holes, moles tend to make a mound of dirt they push up. I only have a small garden, but the voles were a major headache, I seem to have mostly gotten rid of them by pushing folded up stems of euphorbia lathyris into the holes, they apparently don‘t like the smell of them. Lots of info online about them.
I use fruit trees as natural shade in my garden zone. I also have 30 beehives on the other side of the property so once they bloom my bees hit them instantly.
Love the Mulch. Do you just clear it off for replant then put it back? Bark/wood chips would rob some Nitrogen from top soil?? Straw would be great if you can get it! Classic trio of maize, pumpkin and beans work well for shade? Does your damp atmosphere attract Mosquitos?? Do you put the green netting over your greenhouse in summer?? You are doing a great job there and communicating the good and bad!!
As he explained if mulch on to and not dug in it doesn not rob the nitrogen from soil and I guess he would rake it awat from cleared beds, put more compost, replant and put the mulch back.
Straw is not of great use in hot windy conditions, it gets blown away.
your idea of maize, beans, pumpkin is good it is just that at times the sun is so hot that it scortches leaves and you have no shade. Trees are much better even when they loose some leaves in summer.
it looks like he does with the shade cloth, the only thing I would suggest is cream coloured, with about 50% protection. You can get several grades up to 90%.
Hope this answers all your questions. Cheers from Down Under.
You have done such a great job! Thank you for sharing your successful tips. I will try them out in my garden.
Moreno...just checking in with you. It's been a while since your last video. Hope all is well for you and your family. Happy Holidays!
encore bravo pour le travail magnifique que vous réalisez et merci pour les précieux conseils qui me serviront beaucoup à ( essayer de ) réussir un jardin potager sur l'ile de Djerba ou je réside et ou les températures avoisinent facilement les 45 degrès en saison chaude . bonne continuation et beaucoup de joie à toute votre famille
I always mulch over compost and I am bordering subtropical/temperate
I agree,…otherwise all the little critters dry out and die out!…(same type of climate)…☺️
Great video! How do you so much tree bark for the mulch?
Ducks are apparently useful in managing slugs and snails in regions of the world such as the UK.
I recall the popularity of a trickle irrigation method that would irrigate different sides of a plant. Early data suggested it was even better than standard trickle irrigation methods. I have no idea as to what further trials delivered but it was an interesting idea predominantly utilised by grape farmers.
moles don't like the ultrasonic sounds. They sell silly electronic devices, but where i live (in southern italy) everyone just uses metal rods with little plastic bottles on the top. the wind and air move the bottles and they send vibrations that tend to keep the moles annoyed and keeps them away a bit. All the posts around my garden have these bottles.
¡ Moreno becoming much morenito ! take care 🙂
I watch your video up to the end and I do have a garden but I really need to go into deed vegetable gardening in the near future . But I need your help and supper. I am from West Africa, Ghana the Northern part. Thank you.
Hi! Looks like a wonderful project! Can you give an extimate about how much compost is needed per bed at the start?
Hi there, daphne gnidium and similiar plants ( troviscos in portuguese ) are often used for the moles. Supposedely they used to be used to keep moles away! I have some literature with some information (Manual de Agricultura Biológica, being the main one) regarding that, but I never tried it myself. Troviscos are not something you normally find for sale, at least where I am, but you can find them in the wild and make some cuttings :)
thanks for your tips! it's very details any helps. Await your next video
Love from Kerala (INDIA)
Eagerly waiting for more videos
We used stakes that you bury into the ground, with a small solar panel that powered the stake. The stake emits into the ground a high-decibel tweet every few minutes, making it uncomfortable for underground dwellers. People have mixed results. They worked really well for us. We used them right from the start, though, which maybe discouraged below ground dwellers from building their tunnels. It may be that once the tunnels are in place, the sound doesn't travel well through the empty space of the tunnels. Perhaps more emitters would solve that hiccup.
Could i use the leaves that fall from my trees as mulch? And would the layer of mulch prevent weeds from springing up? Thank you this is fascinating and amazing!
I like to use grass clippings for all of our annual mulch instead of compost because it doesn’t get hydrophobic. But I also have great soil starting off with, so I didn’t need any amendments
very informative tips..
How do you manage the beds for a second use after harvesting a plant completely for a season as there has a possibiility to get you mulch mixed with bed soil??
Regarding tip #5: how long do you turn on overhead water irrigation for cooling in mid day?
Greenhouse is the key to protect plants from heat and increase production in hot climates.👍🙂
Out of curiosity, have you considered agrivoltaic for your market garden to provide shade for the beds? If so, what was you conclusion?
I had some hosta plants that were getting ravaged by slugs and my grandmother told me to leave out saucers of beer overnight. I thought she was joking, but I did it and the next morning, the saucers were completely full of dead slugs. I did it again the next night and only got a few survivors but they did not come back for the entire summer
The deer eat my hosta. i wonder if the beer would work on them?
@@scottweisel3640 Hehe. I'm sure they wouldn't mind
so helpful and informative to me. Thank you so much!
Using the pine woodchips is the best resource you have available now and a lot better than using no mulch. However, two concerns: 1. decomposing pine wood chips lead to acidification of soils over time and 2. it does use up the nitrogen in the top layer of soil as it decomposes no matter how you turn it.
you might be able to find some local material with a narrower C/N-ratio than wood chip. that would be ideal.
What materials can he find in the Mediterranean village
Great videos. I farm in Greece that also gets hot in the summer (35-40C) and have problems with making my own compost as water is a scarce resource, made worse by the fact that the dry & hot weather, coupled with 5-6 beaufort winds dries out the compost pile super fast. How have you been able to make such fantstic looking compost? What type of mulch do you use to protect your soil? Finally, trees along your vegetable plot could make it harder to grow winter vegetables - what's your plan for the winter?
Well you can make a ditch or an enclosing space to protect your compost
I love your veggie patch fence
Thanks for your work! What was your approximate budget for starting your homestead?
finally dude, an update !
Great tipps!
I'm on the way there currently establishing a small 8*8m food forest plot, first year I have automatic irrigation and its a huge difference!
May I ask what tubing and drippers you use?
Thanks
Beautiful. Have you considered Moringa Olifeja tree? Its fast growing and beneficial
Sorry if this was answered before but, why Portugal with the intense heat and dry conditions?
Great update. What are your thoughts on Eukalyptus? Are those the short term biomass species? I remember them invasive and fire hazard in Pt.
I lived in Brasil for three years and had a garden, but it was near Eucalyptus trees. I was told by a local Brasilian I would need to add lots of fertilizer to the garden as the Eucalyptus deplete the nutrients from the soil.
I live in a very similar climate just "upside down". We are in the mid winter now with some rain, not much but at least it started to rain after 8 months of no rain. My problem is getting enough water to the plants, not just for the veggies but to all plants, trees are stressed and many are dieing. My question is what is your water supply? Do you rely only on rain? I do not think so as I have noticed drip irrigation everywhere. We, in the city are only allowed to water our gardens twice a week for 10 minutes, regardless whether it is city water or ground water from a bore.
Very nice and beautiful ❤️ 😍 🤩 👌 Thank you ❤️ 😍 🤩 Subscribed
So, are you going to remove the mulch before adding more compost for fertilizing or are you going to use some kind of liquid ferilizer?
Where do u get your water supply from and how reliable is it?
We need more videos! ❤
So much quality information!
ik ben echt benieuwd hoe het met je project gaat. hoop dat alles goed gaat. want zie geen nieuwe uploads meer. groetjes een stille kijker.
Great video ! Woodchips don't provide nutrients in the soil the amount is negligible, but they are a great carbon source for the soil.I tried the woodchip method but its unhandy for planting, I tried grass from my garden than I grow grass still searching for the best mulch.
My composts are mostly fungal dominant due to a lot of woodchip my garden produces, you are right veggies grow great even with fungal mulches.
I tried to find pests in the video but your canopy looks great🤣. How do you do that you don't have challenges with pests? My biggest weakness is water schedule optimization,we use pots, and they dry super fast then you get water stress and pests attack.
hey, have you thought about getting some beehives as you have this beautiful garden and it's something about being able to get honey on tap so you can pick up honey whenever you want. I love your goals and the way you make it all look so amazing. but I think you have to find out how it is best, I would say flow hive is a good way and watch videos and study it. all the best from Denmark
In some part of Portugal we use fresh parts of a common plant called Trovisco, or Trovisqueira to get rats and other similar animals out of the garden. Stick some sticks of it inside their holes and usualy they move away..
This year I'm trying to drive the voles away with balsa wood sticks soaked in castor oil, which I place strategically in the soil next to my plants
Please try Tetragonia tetragonioides. Great
« mediteranean spinach » delicious and pest free !!
Great video !!
Heb je al eens overwogen om Sorghum te verbouwen? In jullie klimaat ongetwijfeld eenvoudig te verbouwen en een mooie bron van graan voor eigen consumptie of voor kippen. kan los van je moestuin aangezien het amper extra water nodig heeft.
good work. Can you do full video of your farm showing everything done so far
Would love another update.
What about growing some Orchard Trees which would thrie in the intense heat ( lemons ? you decide what you like to eat) and their leaf canopy would provide some shade and when the leaves fall they will break down and contribute to the soil composition. Regarding the Moles or Voles - Thank God ofr their help and Read the Book : The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy. ( I recommend the paperback version with Horizontal Blue Jean blue wave lines on the books cover design. ) Drip irragation that they use in the Middle East is helpful and what about creating a Rain Harvesting system when the Rains do fall. Rainwater storage collection is something to investigate. I am so impressed with your beautiful garden. Turkey has fabulous agriculture to look into. Again consider growing Lemon trees and maybe sweet Olive trees !
I love Butternut squash and Watermelons ! Gerogia USA is a harsh climate and they somehow produce juicy peaches and Watermelon so much so they practically have to give them away for very low price so that they don't go to waste. Look at all the trees surrounding your garden! Thos gree trees are accessing underground water. Are you allowed to dig for well water ?
Reason for reading this book above recommended is you Must never misuse your God -given Imagination to imagine your worries or fears coming true - Instead imagine how grateful your are your Moles and Voles are working to improve that hard soil. Realistically you need then to hang around for a decade. Because without them it would take you too long to recondition your soild. To prove my point is look up teh Life cycle of a mole ( or Vole ?) and you will see they have a very short lifespan !
So you need them to be perpetual for years. And Imagine that they keep their population at the present numbers. I grew up in Jerusalem back in the 1970's and we used Brown course Berlap sewn together to create a Shade cloth draped over Metal Cables stretched over our very large out door Cafe Courtyard. It Blew up and down in the wind but it provided Sun protection from both wind and noon day sun. we sewed them together and sewed them around the cable wires above. Have you explorde Electro culture using Copper wire wrapped in a coil and stuck in the ground to encourage growth year round. It is a facinating subject. I love No Till Gardeing ! You are do ing a terrific job ! Thank you for sharing your journey !
Separate and use your urine, since you are off grid, to water your woodchip pile. It adds the nitrogen and will break down the woodchips (carbon) faster. Urine can also be used to break down old tree stumps faster if those are on your land.
i missed your vids. Are you all ok ? any problem with the fires last week? pls let us know if its alrigth
About the moles. My grandpa had the same problem in a property my grandparents had in Soria, in the centre-north of Spain. He brought in snakes: non venomous and native to the Iberian peninsula, natural prefators of the moles. the guys were EXTREMELY effective. I dont know the details of the story because, sadly, my grandpa is dead and I never got arround to ask more about it.
In South Africa we dig in smalll hole chicken wire around vegetable gardens .to stop moles coming in .