Today I share three easy ways you can use your lawn to feed your garden. If you have to cut the grass, recycle those clippings into high-quality food for the soil, which in turn will grow you some great food! You can learn more about producing lots of compost from a wide range of materials in Compost Everything: amzn.to/3DH1Z5M As a side note, this video was filmed on a vintage Russian Helios 44-2 lens, adapted to the Canon R6. Canon R6: amzn.to/3Or7BpM Helios 44-2 lens: amzn.to/43N7vOR Thank you for watching.
I thought my step dad was a little touched in the head. He had the best tomatoes and a happy garden. He talked to the veggies. Now I'm talking to my veggie plants.
A few weeks ago on the side of the road, someone had stacked twenty large, empty Tidy Cat litter buckets, complete with handles and lids, with a sign that said "free". Of course we swerved quickly and got 'em all! Then, I checked the number on the bottom of the buckets on the internet, and turns out they're food grade. So now, we're gonna mix up Dave's swamp water liquid fertilizer in a few of them. I'm telling you, this free fertilizer thing is AWESOME!
Dave's method is good . However, the Jadam method is superior. And Dave's swampwater is only missing one step. Go out and find leaf mold under an old healthy tree the woods. The microbe quality will be very diverse and plentiful. The microbes from the leaf mold will help break down the material in the buckets.
You know what I really like about David and his family!? He shows you don’t have to be all extra to do this bullshit. You literally can live in a townhouse with a tiny piece a grass in the front and small patch of vegetable garden in the back. I call it mullet gardening. Clean in the front party in the back baby. Anyway he shows it’s genuinely not rocket science and after a few years of failing you’ll finally get it half right and that’s a success. Dude is in love with the process. And makes videos and books because he cares about us like we’re part of his family too. It’s crazy
You guys, I made a massive tote of compost water and dumped in all my failed mushroom grains and lots of pineapple and coffee...i didn't realize the ferment (plus all green cuttings n chx poop) was so good bcz everything was at the bottom of the tub and mellow...i think my entire yard is drunk right now, it's going off like i can't believe. Gallons of yard beer, smells like a factory out here🤣😂❤ its werkin!
Your song at the beginning just brought on a flashback from around 5 yrs old playing alone outside pondering if the word was aminal or animal and getting myself all confused. I really spent some time on it. Thanks for everything you do!
You showed me how to make green tea. Nice. Thank you. I've used grass clippings that have started to rot to top dress veggie when they need a boost before flowering. 2 Compost piles gets no sun and water if it rains. Compost is hot. Leaf mold is ready to sprinkle some on compost kitchen scraps, brown bags from grocer, paper towels. I crush rinsed/air dried eggshells for the wild birds. They need calcium for nesting. I don't have the green thumb but I know stuff. lol I don't use my city water for the garden. It kills bacteria. Everyone should be allowed to have an artesian well.
It is hot here in East Texas. 105 degrees out on the deck. Been running some of my drip irrigation 24 hours at a time every other day. Black water from the bottom of the lake. I had to get high volume self clearing line for pond water applications. The normal stuff plugs up even with filters. I am finding small wormlike creatures in my filters but the plants love it, no droopy squash leaves even in this heat. A lot of aphids on my cow peas though. Grass works quite well to kill grass around fruit trees. Thank you David for all you have taught me through your books and videos. I’m still waiting for another Jack Broccoli book though!😂❤
Thank you again for the great information. I am learning so much and I am learning how to grow things I never thought I could in this South Carolina oven. 🥵God bless you and you family.
David, I missed the 3 o'clock bell today. I was out preparing a new garden bed. AND, you were there 😆 Water that layer, water that layer, soak that layer.. 🤣🤣Thanks for the help.
We’ve been throwing our grass clippings in the chicken run. Whatever they don’t eat breaks down. Once it’s not 1 million degrees out in the fall I plan to scoop some of that black gold and top dress the beds. Let it mella out over winter and hope for the best in spring.
It hasn't rained much here recently. All I got is carbon material, other than my garden. We got a tiny bit of rain yesterday, but not enough to soak in. I need to get the solar pump going and get some of this river water working for me.
Thanks, yal!! Little attitude, hahahahhaa awsumm I made a little ring of wire mesh and mix the scraps with the grass. The worms love it. I just started putting cardboard under it to keep the grass and tree roots out. Muey bueno!!
Got your book yesterday. Hoa requires my front yard to be a lawn... but or up a solid 6ft fence and now working on my tiny food forest. Front lawn will now be useful. 😂
DTG's Ode to Grass (Shshhh, not THAT grass)! So Cool! So, people lucky enough to attend your plant sales also get a container with some Good Compost, with all the contributions from your hardworking animals and possible enemies. Awesome! I could make the real David's Fetid Swamp Water starting with a bit of that potting soil.
Out here in the plains of Colorado I don't have much 'grass' grass. Just loads of weeds and wildflowers. Everything is always in seed. But I decided I'm gonna load up these pallets with it anyway! If there are gonna be weeds anyway, I might as well get some compost along with it. So I just stopped worrying about it! ( I do shovel out the prickly pear and thistles when I see them out in the yard though.) Thanks for encouraging us to be simple and get er done. :)
You mentioned layering grass and leaves or other carbon-rich materials. Can you please elaborate on the specifics of that layering, such as how thick each layer should be, the amount of grass vs leaves in each layer, etc.?
If you are commenting to me..I just mow the yard and toss it in the pallet. Usually it already has green and browns but if not, I toss in eggshells, some straw, coffee grounds, paper, filters etc. in that compost I do not worry about it. I have another wire bin that I layer browns like leaves, straw, and dead stuff then green clippings of plants whenever I have it. I have another experiment bin made of bales...it has the clean out from the chicken coop only...which is straw and chicken poop. That one gets hot and breaks down fast since the chickens already mixed it in the deep litter of the coop through the winter. Seems best though to not have anyone layer too thick if you don't plan to stir it much. Even one stirring does make a difference though. This year I mowed my weedy yard often so it wouldn't go to seed as fast..I put those clippings directly iny garden as mulch to keep the soil softer and moister. It is what I had, so I used it.
@@bradbiesecker162 I mow my yard which is colorado plains stuff...lots of weeds. I try to mow before it goes to seed and keeep mowing every so often to harvest it in my bagger. I toss a bag of it on the compost or on top of my garden for mulch! I can also toss in any garden clippings, kitchen scraps, or coffee grounds, etc for other green materials. I mow dead stuff to get a brown layer. Sometimes I'll add straw. I have one pallet bin where I used tumbleweeds, haha. don't know the results of that yet. Layers are probably a couple inches each. The easiest compost I've found so far is scooping out the chicken coop twice a year which has straw and chicken poop and any other clippings I put in. It is already chopped and mixed via the chickens. I made a square hole with straw bales and filled it from the coop in spring and fall. I put a bit in and water and keep adding more and watering. If it needs more straw, I do that too. That pile heats up fast to about 120-140 F. When it cools down it is low enough that I can easily mix it up and pile it again to get it heating again. Works great. The easiest is the "grass" clippings directly on my garden. I also have a box on one garden where I added red wigglers and toss in scraps to get worm castings next year. hope that helps.
I put all my green grass clippings into my garden or around my fruit trees immediately. I also receive a lot of cardboard boxes so those are used too along with pine straw and leaves and anything else in the forest. I`ve discovered that beans/peas and cucumbers will grow amazingly in half finished compost.
Very tropical, humid over summer here in Taranaki New Zealand. So hopefully this would rot down fast here? And very keen to try this method. I have severe chronic pain, and this method makes this achievable. And the cost of food is absolutely crazy, growing food is absolutely essential at this point 👍👍 So gonna try start now in preparation for spring coming end of September 😊😊
Haha! If you’re not careful you might become a better comedian instead of a wicked gardener. I’m going to try this I need to mulch my orchard trees! Wohoo!🎉❤
Question, according to Elaine Inghram (soil food web lady) the green grass when left to dry will still be considered a "green" in the compost as it retains nitrogen. But you mentioned the nitrogen evaporating as ammonia. Am I then right to assume the evaporation happens during composting but not during the drying process?
Our grass has a lot of weeds that quickly go to seed so I’m afraid to use grass clippings because they’ll be loaded with weed seeds. Can’t mow 15 acres frequently enough to keep them from going to seed. I suppose we need cows. 🤔
My mower is electric but it has a bag. I put the grass clippings down green very thickly around my fruit trees and in my garden. I start with cardboard when I want to expand, cover it with about a foot deep layer of green grass clippings, add wrist size pieces of rotting branches, and water daily in summer for a week or so, then start dumping forest soil and leaves/pine straw with a few handfuls of the richest soil from my garden. When the dirt on top is just a few inches deep I plant Southern Cow Peas, maybe some basil, a few mustard seeds, and cuttings from a tomato and any mature cucumbers I find hidden in my patch get stuck in the dirt after I crack them. Then I transplant any cucumbers that grow and a few mustard plants. The rotting grass underneath makes the stuff grow like crazy in summer. I add another layer of cardboard around the edge to hold moisture and water a little each morning and evening. By late summer when the peas are almost done it`s ready for fall/winter greens & tubers.
Hey everyone, new gardener here and want to start a raised garden bed soon. 2 questions. 1 - can I throw my old grass clippings onto my lawn and problem areas to help the lawn? And if there are some weeds in my clippings is it still ok to compost and use in the garden? Don’t see why not but just wanted to get some knowledge. Thanks
Built 5 new 54 cu ft raised beds this year. Filling w/~80% grass clippings....remainder is kitchen scraps & a little leaf compost from last year....and let the whole thing compost in place. I'll throw some cow manure & clover on them after they go through the heat & plant in them in April. Phoey on all that turning crap. Nature. Doesn't. Turn. Anything. 💯
I've heard through the years that "weed tea" or whatever type of discarded garden materials tea is not really any better then maybe chopping and dropping or just mulching with organic materials. Have you seen these studies? Love your channel!
Ok the Russian lens made the video. 😂😂😂. We use our grass for all 3 of those uses. Just the swamp water makes me want to🤮 every time I open it up. Thank y'all and have a blessed day.
I get my cardboard layers (for FREE) at COSTCO - the cardboard that is between the layers of most food packaged items is IDEAL - it's about 4'x4' square, typically no ink or printing - and does not need to be cut or folded. Look between the pallets also for a vertical stack of cardboard - the story is people use this for school projects, or painting.
You mentioned layering grass and leaves or other carbon-rich materials. Can you please elaborate on the specifics of that layering, such as how thick each layer should be, the amount of grass vs leaves in each layer, etc.?
I wish but I have Bermuda grass and I have worked hard to pull it up from my garden beds and the areas up to the beds. Using any part of Bermuda could create new areas in no time in the fertile soil. I chop and drop my cold hardy banana leaves (Musa Bajoo) instead.
To the commenter who said Dave reminded him of STP, that'd be incorrect. Obviously David is lead singer of Spin Doctors. 👍 OH, and Scag mower police say put your roll bar back on. 😂
Love your videos...but your water intensity is large. Can you come up with ways to do this without so much input...we collect water in barrels off the barn. Field layout and electrical supply make it prohibitive to run water lines so we carry water anywhere we need..can use tractor but then there is the foot print issue. Would love to see how you would think about it. Perhaps a tarp to prevent evaporation during the day??? Not sure but love your ideas.
I've got extremely sandy soil with practically zero organic matter. Is there any reason not to till fresh grass clippings with no seed heads into the soil as I revamp for fall?
If you leave grass clippings to dry out, do they lose their nitrogen? I like using dry grass for mulch, but it kinda sucks if it's losing that fertility.
The most common chemical compound in plants is cellulose which is carbon and oxygen and sometimes some hydrogen. Nitrogen is not even in that part. Nitrogen as an element is a gas and the simple forms are soluble in water so yes it is easily lost from plants when they dry out. Nitrogen fixing plants are the best thing you can do, grow them and chop down. I'd recommend sunn hemp and clover instead of grass lawns, you can mow them the same.
Make hay for bunnies (meat rabbits) which might be easier for a small two person family to manage than a whole cow when they can just hunt moose (Alaska homestead)
Dave I read you could put a oz of olive oil on the swamp water to keep tge mosquitos out. Do you know if the oil would affect the verm tea or compost tea?
