5 TIPS For BEGINNER Food Gardeners to Grow Veggies at Home 

G'day Everyone, sorry about the audio in this video I had lawn mowers and blow vacs on all 3 sides during filming. It felt like a stitch-up! I later found out my on-person mic failed... So, I had to do a LOT of work in post-editing to get the audio half decent. Anyway, thanks for your ongoing support regardless! Cheers :) Edit: We reached 10k thumbs up! Thank you!

Just want to let you know that because of you I’ve started two vegetable & herb gardens. I’ve never grown a thing in my life, and just today we started to see them sprouting. Excited to get better at this. Thanks for the inspiration.

I love it when I can wake up in the morning and enjoy my coffee with a gardening video with Mark. Keep up the good work.

I live in Florida and recently retired and have been bored to death. I stumbled across one of your videos and boy did you reel me in. You helped me find a new passion and for that I say thank you. Love your videos and look forward to seeing more.

Great video! All helpful tips. 1. 0:54 Understand what good soil is. 2. 4:53 Grow what you like to eat. 3. 6:36 Grow at the right time. 4. 9:04 Don't over fertilize. 5. 11:12 Grow organically.

Love the Goldilocks analogy Mark. Fantastic tips about soil and growing conditions. Fab video mate

Mark you're one of my absolute favorite gardening channels even though we're on opposite sides of the world!!

Thank you so much mark. You have inspired my family, we have turned our small backyard into a very productive garden in under a year on a very small budget. Being outdoors with my family is reward enough, the fresh veggies are a great bonus though 🙂

Jesus playing full back for Jerusalem is probably one of the funniest mental images I've had in a long time, thanks mate! hahaha

Mark, my wife and I live in South Dakota. Couldn’t be more excited to become more self sufficient. You have really made it easy to learn the basics and the advanced strategies for a successful raised garden. Thanks for all you do!

Thanks so much for doing these videos. Getting into gardening has helped me so much with my depression and PTSD. And your jokes always put a smile on mine and my kids faces. You have done so much more then just teaching us how to grow by bringing some brightness into our lives.

Watched this 2 years ago, just watched it again....legendary! Helped me heaps ❤

Greetings from Maryland in the US! Love your videos! As a new raised bed beginner gardener, thank you for your detailed, educational and fun videos! Let's hope I can make my new garden 1/4 as gorgeous as yours!

Perfect starting video to un-complicate gardening! Those pigs are awesome! Your chickens would love those pumpkins, if you're tired of them. It is soil prepping time here, so thanks for the motivation.

Mark, I think you've surpassed 10,000 beginners thumbs up. Congratulations!

I haven't even reached beginner level yet. Still watching videos ♥️💕♥️💕I totally agree with self sufficient

Perfect timing, just had 4.5 cubic yards of planting soil delivered today and filing up some new raised beds! Can't wait to start expanding my veggie garden.

2022 is my third year growing a food garden. Your videos have been so helpful. I still watch stuff like this because the basics are important. Cheers from Georgia USA! This my first year doing berry plants let's see how they do.

Thank you for sharing. I am by no means a gardener but have recently acquired a 4'x4' little gardening patch at a local church. I accidentally poured a whole packet of Endivi lettuce seeds in a straight line in it and I marvel at the miracle of growing your own vegies. I am unable to get any big lettuce heads but instead, enjoy eating my own little salad plants. Great hobby.

Your videos are such a breath of fresh air with the way the world is nowadays

I have started to germinate my seeds inside of a grow tent with those little peat discs that plump up with water and I'm having massive success compared to any other method. Around 90% success rate compared to just planting them/leaving the peat discs on a window sill where I was getting way less sproutlings, and they don't string up due to low light. Was going to move them outside after they established but think I will just keep them indoors now. The tomatoes are absolutely powering. I am trying spring onion for the first time too, seem to be loving it as well.

Hey Mark. I live in Brisbane’s bayside and have had great success with fairy egplant this summer. Maybe a variant you can try as they can be harvested small and sweet. I love them roasted with Japanese sesame dressing or soy and miso dressing.

GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS. THANK YOU EAST TENNESSEE 🇺🇸 SEE YOU NEXT TIME

Watching from over in the UK and I have to admit, i love watching these videos. The quirky and nerdy delivery of the information with funny metaphors makes it golden. Real down to earth lad.

Hi Mark! Thank you so much for your videos! We watch it religiously over here in Yeppoon as you have a similar climate to us (CQ). You've inspired us to grow our own food too, my husband has recently let me take over our entire backyard for growing! We have now 15 fruit trees in various stages and are starting up our veggie beds! Thanks again for being an inspiration to look after our mental health through gardening! It's certainly helped me through some tough times!

Thanks for all the tips! I'll also be stealing the phrase "it's not rocket surgery", that's excellent. It's my first year growing veggies and I was really intimidated to start - it really helped when a gardener friend reminded me that plants want to grow! Now I've got a good bunch of seedlings started in the greenhouse and it's such a thrill whenever a new shoot pops up :D

Hello from British Columbia, Canada! I'm not a beginner gardener, but love to watch your videos and see the different things you grow that I can't grow here (Sugarcane! Bananas! Citrus!). Excellent advice for new gardeners!

Came for the gardening tips. Stayed for the Thumbs Up instruction.

I've learnt so much from you over the past 18 months through the pandemic. I recently planted a veggie patch from seed and I haven't bought any veggies for nearly 6 months. Thank you!

Love your videos. One vegetable I would add would be the trombone squash. It is an Italian zucchini and resistant to squash bugs. Several vines would feed the whole community. The neck of the squash has no seeds and can be used just as any zucchini...... Breads, air fried, grilled, cooked with onions, etc. The bulb bottom of the squash has the seeds. I Reem out the seed and stuff it with a mixture of ground beef, onions, uncooked rice, and tomato sauce. I put 4 or 5 in a pot, cover with a large can of tomatoes and simmer for an hour or 2 on low heat until tender. You can even mix sweet potato leaves in with the mixture. (they are like Spinish) Wonderful meal! And you have enough to share.

I love: it's not rocket surgery. This is, without a doubt, the best gardening series in any format. I always learn something new, even on return viewing of a program. Thank you, Mark.

When I mix my own soil, I like to use equal parts peat moss or coconut core, perlite, and manure. Seems to hold and drain well.

Thanks mark! I found you a couple years ago. Tried my first garden in 2020, felt discouraged from my failures but I'm motivated to try again!!

I just love him 😆 Seriously wholesome and amazing. Can never get enough and I love his jokes. I can't help it. Also, the content is perfect and so informative!

I for one LOVE your Aussie background noises, thanks Mark!!

Timely, because i will retire next year😊, i have to start now, when i get home on a vacation.. Thank you, Sir.. God bless you more 😇🙏❤️

I'm in England and a lot of gardens all over the country have evergreen trees, most evergreen trees make the soil acidic over time, especially pine and leylandii, so if you have this kind of tree on your property you may want to check the PH, definitely if they are large old trees that have been chucking out leaf needles for 20 years. Also a lot of commercial woodchip is made from pine trees and so again can break down into a more acidic soil.

Perfect timing for this as I’m having my home built up here in Gladstone, should be ready to move in 5th May. I can’t wait to start gardening, I’ve watched nearly all your videos I think, (some a few times over).

I am a beginner gardener. My husband and I currently live in a small flat in San Francisco. We have had limited success with container veggie gardening. Mostly potatoes and cucumbers. We've failed with tomatoes and pretty much everything else. San Francisco has very unpredictable weather. But we are moving to my inherited childhood home in northern Florida in 2 months. There is a nice backyard and we are already planning our garden. We want to get raised beds like yours. Since we will arrive there in early August we will miss the growing season I think. But that gives us time to educate ourselves and prepare for next year. So excited. As a child growing up there I remember we had datyl peppers, guavas, kumquats, persimmons, figs, and chayote in our back yard. I want those again as well as the usual suspects like tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, etc. Your channel is my favorite gardening channel and I will look to you for guidance. Thank you for entertaining and informing us.❤

Grow with "no dig" directly on the grass. Cardboard , compost and mulch. Use 1 part pee mixed with 10 part water as fertilizer 🙂

You're awesome mate. I love your positivity and the way you teach. Thank you!

Mark I’ve got to ask… what is your workout routine? Your forearms are legendary! I’ve been telling myself that it’s all the garden work you are permanently active in. Love your content and especially your delivery, you’ve helped inspire me to get out and try! This is something I’ve been curious about since I first started watching.

Thank you Mark, you are an inspiration. I can’t wait for new videos from from you. I even have my husband looking at compost and insects in a different light now and also flowers…now they are great in the garden. It used to be it you can’t eat it don’t grow it but my garden is now made up of color and beautiful herbs like never before, thank you so much.

Yay for natural pest management! My guava got sooty mould last week so I started spraying it with seasol & neem but couldn't keep it up as a storm blew in. When I went back to check it a couple of days later I found lady birds had moved in & were eating the nasty pasties causing the sooty mould. Happy me :O)

Good morning Mark! Giving you a growing thumbs up on your tips for animal control in your garden! I installed some plastic type netting around my raised bed,and planted a rosemary plant ( iguanas don't seem to bother rosemary) in with my tomatoes and cilantro. Harvested my first tomatoes yesterday and some coriander seeds-yeah!!👍

Seeing the zucchini plants brought back wonderful memories for me. My family all worked together to grow them in the early 80's in North Georgia. They were very healthy plants and produced so much squash! 😄

You’re such a friend to the community. Thanks Mark

Love it !!!! “Nothing’s changed “ so true and proves the importance of trying to be self sufficient as much as possible

Great video Mark this is gold for new gardeners, wish I had gotten on to your channel when I was starting out! Really enjoy this sort of content.

Good morning, Mark! Just want to send you a big thank you from Virginia, USA. I discovered your channel about 5 years ago, and have been gardening with trial and error for the last few years, slowly making progress in our Virginia Red Clay. There are many farms here, cabbages, root vegetables, and in the last decade hundreds of vineyards/ wineries have opened aswell. I suppose I could still be called a beginner, still tryung to peice thru many of the exact issues you mentioned you had at the beginning, minus the pesticide! Life is good here in VA, but God is even better! We are living to follow Him, and in our wake leave only the best behind. Making the world (and our yard) a better place. Thank you Jesus, for the heart of teacher Mark has. My wife and I love your channel and it's always a blessing to watch. We have an American doppelganger of you at our church... and it's just awesome. Take care and God Bless you guys in the midst of the craziness ( Cvd, and weather? ) in Australia! 🌻🌾🇺🇸 ❤️ 🇦🇺 🌱 🍊

You're like a second dad teaching us how to grow our veggies, i'm here for it

I'm so glad i found your channel. I'm restarting in Alaska and really getting into it. Your video are really easy to understand and you explain things very well. Currently we're waiting for last Frost date, and waiting for the ground to be malliable... half the bed is still frozen, lol.

as always some amazing tips, I've lost count of the amount of tricks I have applied to my allotment over the last couple of years from the lessons you teach on this channel

When I first got married, I wanted to make a flower bed along our backyard driveway that my husband just put in. I had a stretch of about 20 feet long, and wanted the bed to be about 3 1/2 feet wide. So I started digging through the lawn, and encountered clay all through the stretch of lawn. I wore simple "Candies" white leather sneakers as I shoveled and dug. I had a wheelbarrow to throw the big clumps of clay in, (& we dumped that along the other side of the driveway, where we needed fill. There was good soil too along the area I was digging, so it wasn't all bad soil. It took me a couple of days to dig the clay out, and on the fourth day I was walking like a duck, lol. My feet were so sore from not wearing a good solid work boot or shoe to do the shoveling. But I eventually recovered. I got a bag of gypsum to add and work through the whole area I dug, figuring there'd be clay deeper under, further depth than I had dug. Then I got a couple bags of compacted peat moss, and pre-wet it a bit at a time before adding it. (my sister's mother-in-law said to soak the peat moss first before adding). I added some bags of manure too, than with my tiny rototiller, I tilled everything in together (& never tilled it after that). I leave dead stalks of the flowers and plants I grow there, so that the roots remain in the soil (good for microbial activity). The addition of the peat moss I think is what really made this section of garden bed thrive over these last 28 years. I chop and drop now after learning about this technique. And last year started adding and working in spent coffee grounds. I always dump out the soil from my hanging baskets and big planters (just the top 5+ inches of soil from the big pots) and add it to areas of the long flower bed along the driveway where needed. A couple of years ago, a section on the end of the bed got overgrown with yarrow and grass. I've been sick with fibromyalgia and couldn't get to weeding everything like I used to. One day my husband was cutting grass in the back yard, and I took over the lawnmower and plowed that weedy section down. It was deep rooted crabgrass growing there, hard as heck to pull out. I dumped the bag catcher of grass clippings over the mowed down section, and used the grass like a deep mulch. In just a few days, I went out and with one of those pronged garden hand tillers, was able to get all of the weeds and crabgrass uprooted and out with the simplest ease! Couldn't believe how easy it was. That layer of mulched grass just loosened up the soil. I left it on the soil for another week (it was a hot week in August), and the soil underneath the grass clippings was just beautiful! Loamy and moist, like I had rototilled everything. And my little pronged hand tiller didn't do all of that. It was the grass clippings used as a mulch. So if you ever have an area that's thick with weeds and crabgrass, save yourself some time and labor, and mow it over, and dump grass clippings on top thickly. And sot back and let it do it's magic! Enjoyed your video here, good common sense and honest advice. Especially the advice on fertilizer, the "when to" and "when not to". Thanks for sharing this info! 👍😊

Its in our new years resolution to start a garden. I have no detached garage in my back yard like many American houses in my neighborhood. Im about a few that didn't have a garage built. Ive lived with my vehicle out in the weather all my young life. So i think to utilize my small backyard about 2000sq ft would be a great option. Im so glad i came across your video.

In the US if you want to get your soil tested google your state's soil test extension. Every state has a resource for this offering soil testing for a small fee.

Thank you so much Mark! For all of the effort you put into your videos for us! I’ve never commented on a RU-vid video before but I just have to give you my THANKS because as someone who has never had a green thumb, I now have a WHOLE VEGGIE PATCH! Thanks to watching your videos ❤️ You make everything super simple and give people the confidence to just try! THANK YOU 😊😊

I love your videos! I’m hoping to plant my first garden beds this spring/summer. 👏🏼 Thank you for the information.

🌱Thanks so much for doing these videos. Getting into gardening has helped me so much with my depression and PTSD. And your jokes always put a smile on mine and my kids faces. You have done so much more then just teaching us how to grow by bringing some brightness into our lives. 🌱💚

I've been watching you for a few years now, great stuff. Your channel/knowledge in the modern world may actually end up saving lives or taking the edge off what is clearly going to be a hard time for folks living on the edge in the near future.

ooo haha you popped on a vid while I wasn't watching! A Kiwi here - HEY! Thanks for making your carrot sowing video - you made it look so easy that I stopped procrastinating last week and just went and DID IT! they came up in a lovely spiral 2 days ago! Thanks so much. Now shall watch this one...

I've been really enjoying your videos Mark, and I'm juuuust beginning my gardening journey now. (Giant ullswatee pansies, and alpine regina strawberries.) These are in a seed tray, but the strawberries are JUST now starting to grow their true leaves. It feels so good to see them doing okay! I'd like to propose that you do a step-by-step from start to finish of BASIC gardening for beginners. What should we go to the store and get? Once we have seedlings, what next? How should we start our gardening - making compost before anything else? Or planting something and seeing how it goes? Share with us your savvy ways mate! Thanks so much for all that you do, From Dave in the UK!

Thank you. Great intro to new gardening techniques. Growing mostly in pots, some success and some failures, but getting there. Learning something new all the time.😊

I'm from New Jersey USA actually Hammonton and we are the blueberry capital of the world but always want to share that you have helped me so much I could never tell you enough 🙏 thank you for everything and as always stay safe but healthy 🌻

Great video and tips thanks Mark!

Great tips, thank you for sharing them with us! I'm starting my veggie garden for the second year. Last year it wasn't really successful, better said: I barely managed to get anything from it. This year I'm changing some things, and I'll be using your tips as well and hopefully it will give me better results 😁 Have fun!

I once heard that you don't want too much organic matter in your soil so I sifted all of my soil until it was incredibly fine. I couldn't even grow oregano in it, everything suffocated. Little did I know that the plants needed to breathe! Honestly it was a great learning experience because I can get the soil as fine or coarse as I want to now without it being too rough on the plants.

Your videos are awesome honestly you need your own TV show I could watch you for hours. You have an awesome sense of humor and your very knowledgeable. Thanks for all you do!

It has been an absolute pleasure following you through the past few years. I appreciate all the positives and negatives that you've endured and shared with all of us! In fact, this year you've inspired me to try to grow aubergines. Other gardeners where I live (southern Alberta, Can) say they don't get great results...but I 'd like to try anyway. Thank you Mark, and "good growing"!!!

I don't know if you know how inspiring you are, I've been a professional gardener for over 30 years now, but never really looked at growing my own vegetables as even in Brisbane we get a few hot days in summer & all my herbs commit ritual suicide so I tend to give up a lot. But I watch a few of your videos & think, no, I can bloody do this, so as soon as this damn rain stops, again, I'll dig out my planting chart, go through my heirloom seeds & see what's good to plant, so thanks. Just out of curiosity, you were killing of ladybugs, I thought they were a carnivore , & a help for your plants, what have I missed ?, cheers.

In the last few weeks I have planted 7 fig trees, 3 apple trees (1 double variety), 1 orange tree, 4 mandarin trees, pomegranate, 2 lemon meyer, 1 lime, 6 feijoa (different varieties), 1 pear (dual variety), herbs - multiple of: rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano. Now working on the veges and potatoes - starting with perpetual spinach, thai basil, and pak choi. I have had potatoes growing from a few I planted years ago and they grow by themselves all the time but never really dug them up - planning on getting them going so I can get a nice harvest sometime. Inspired by your channel, plus a few others on figs. Thanks for all the tips.

Thanks Mark this was great! I would even had a no. 6 - grow something you can't buy from the store; like a variety that differs from the usual - I like growing purple beans and yellow tomatoes etc.

Your clay soil looks a lot like mine when I first started here. It's taken me a number of years to get it to the beautiful loose soil it is now and just when it's exactly how I want it I'm moving. Despite that I'm looking forward to moving because it'll be a much bigger property where I can grow a lot more and the soil at the new property at the other end of the state where I'm moving to is beautiful. The first thing I looked at when I looked at the property was was the space and what sort of soil was there for growing.

Great beginners tips on this one... God bless.

Awesome as usual Mark! I love benefiting from what you do - I listen while making the family dinner at night. I love my vege gardening too.

Very sensible advice, thanks Mark. I nearly spat out my coffee when you said "it's not rocket surgery" 😂😂 warms the cockles on this cold day.

Awesome Mark, as always. Thank you! Having failures, but learning from your advice. 1.5 years in...have a long way to go, but loving my time learning. Best wishes you're a legend :)

Tip one. Live in a tropical climate.

Been going through a lot of your videos for the past two weeks. Just wanted to say, I love the wholesomeness, humor, and your positive attitude in general. Feels like I am watching an old PBS kids show from my childhood, but for gardening. 🙂

Hi Mark, just to expand on your comment about what grows well in your area. Where I am, potatoes grow well but they can be bought cheap. I tend to grow unusual varieties in my garden that cannot be easily bought. I would love to plant some of the fruits you have, but the climate is way too cold. Really enjoy the channel.

"since Jesus played fullback for Jerusalem." Video was worth it just for this line. Nearly sprayed my coffee over my phone.😎

These are my all time favorite videos on RU-vid. Love your content, Mark! You are a total natural behind the camera. Could you make a video on which vegetables grow well together (e.g. chives help prevent aphid infestations on tomato plants)?

In Pacific North West America, my first garden will be this year. Just listening to this Master Gardner makes me believe I can! 🙏

You crack me up! My husband and I enjoy watching your videos and listening to your humor. You're great! Keep it up!! We have a 3200 sq ft garden. This year however we are using 2 10x20ft greenhouses. I'm done with fighting with all the cotton wood seeds that let loose from the next door property as they tower over our property. It will look like it snowed in our yard for a couple weeks. All those seeds stick to our dirt and my garden is now growing those darn seeds. So redoing our garden this year. Excited to see how this will all work out. All my veggies will grown in garden pots. Mostly about 4 or 5 gallon sizes. Some bigger. I have about 5 lemon plants that I started from seed from a store bought lemon. No fruit yet as I've still got them in pots that are too small. They are about 3 years old now. They will go out in garden area this year. Also was successful starting an Apricot tree. It's only a year old in a small pot. Will be doing many more fruit trees. We have 2.3 acres here in WA state in the good old USA. During these troubled times right now and God is helping us get the truths out there of our corrupted government. The entire world are working on their corrupted governments. My garden will keep me busy and get through these days. Thanks be to God. You put out wonderful video's!! Thank you so much and keep going! God Bless you!!

I have to disagree slightly with tip #2... while we would all love to grow what we like to eat, many years of logistical improvements have enabled us to like food’s that won’t grow locally. So I focus on growing what grows best in my environment and adapted my eating style to suit my produce. Living in the tropics gardening can be very tricky, too much rain really limits what you can grow and when. Where I live we pretty mush have to go all out over winter, because there’s only a small handful of productive vegetables that will grow in summer, unless you grow indoors... so my advice is, grow what your environment can support... Thats all, thanks Mark.

7:23 I thought Ladybug is beneficial bug and you don't have to kill it?

Thank you so much for the video Mark! You have helped me so much over the years with your tips for being more self sufficient!

Thank you Mark! I discovered your videos a couple weeks ago. It's my first year growing my own veggies for myself and my family and your videos have already helped me SOOOOOO much!

About tip number 5. Plants grown organically are healthier and tastier because they are getting minerals like zinc, iron and copper that fertilizers don't provide. Fertilizers which just contain NPK are like junk food to them.

Thank you and cute thumbs up for Jesus!☺👍💜✝️

Absolutely love your videos! Been watching for a month or two now when I was wondering about keeping a garden in my tiny backyard and thought it was very overwhelming to be able to do. The way that you break things down, give tips, and show how to handle everything has been such a tremendous help! I just got my first raised garden bed and will be putting it together this weekend. I can't even explain how much I appreciate you and your videos! Keep doing what you're doing!

Thank you so much for your videos. I'm recovering from a spinal infection which makes mobility hard but starting a garden has been something I use to help my recovery and it gives me something to look forward to. It's been one of those things I have been doing as large as I can which isn't very large but I'm learning. Thank you Mark.

Wait wait…. Ladybugs are GOOD for the garden. People in northern climates BUY ladybugs to eat the aphids and other leaf eaters.

Good video, the best decision I made as a gardener was to create a side hustle for extra income streams. There's so much dignity and respect to be an independent woman. I spent my 30s working and investing. I'm now 41. It has really helped me and my family financially stable. Saving doesn't bring financial freedom, the right investment does.

Thank you Mark I've learned so much from you over the past few years. Please keep the videos coming

Thanks for the encouragement. I didn't even notice the lawn mowers. Your mic works well to filter out the background sounds.

Thank you, your blasphemy just made me unsubscribe.

Just recently came across your videos a few days ago and I've already learned so much! Really excited to put all this knowledge to work. Thank you for taking the time to do this!

Hi Mark. Love your channel and enjoy all your tips about gardening . I have resently since covid started a veg garden with deep raised bed. You are so right . I got fantastic new soul mix for them and I too up each year with manure when not being used and soil improver . Everyone can’t believe the success I’ve had these past 2 years . Im a common sense gardener. And this year having tried growing most things I’ve selected what I want and enjoy cropping though out the season. Learnt so much from you thank you !

Great video! Don’t stress about the background noise, I hardly noticed.