you should make a video about complimentary plants like corn, tomatoes, and beans. its very economical. you can plant 3 different crops all within the same space. the corn will give the beans something to grab onto and the roots of the tomatoes and corn will actually trade and share nutrients, allowing for the beans to syphon nutrients from that as well as the soil. plants that are beneficial for eahother are so cool.
This is called the three sisters method, and if the beans have access to the right bacteria then they can make nitrogen available for theo there two, too! :)
"I plant a lettuce, 60 days later i have a lettuce" get out of my brain man lol. You make killer content my man, I've learned more from you then I have from college courses ! I finally have a prospering garden lol.(edit for my poor grammer haha)
Succession planting!! I just spent 4 hours last weekend planning my beds to make sure that we have a consistent crop all year long! I didn’t know this was a thing until I started planning what I was going to plant, saying to myself “I definitely don’t need that many radishes all at once...” thank you for answering my one question about replanting a square once I’ve harvested it!! I’m very excited...
I'm realizing its important now after ending up with that many radishes all at once 🤣. In our defense, we managed to eat quite a bit of it and gave away some more, but some still did go to waste (into our sorta compost pile)
@@julienorban7781 I see you sent that question a year ago with no response. The answer is no. The acidity will be lost in the decomposition. Nothing to worry about.
About tip 7: Plant crops together, that need about the same water intake. If not one looses out, if it can't take too much/ too little water. I did this with tomatoes and lettuce. While I want to water the tomatoes only a little bit every few days, the lettuce needs water more often, like daily or every two days.
I really want to thank you for having this channel. New gardener here and these video's are really, really helpful! If nobody else today tells you, you are APPRECIATED! Also, you seem like a really nice person. Please have a wonderful day!
I found using really large wood chips to fill the bottom of my large raised bed really helped and then I had mulch that was used from almond trees and then I put a high grade soil on top my strawberries and carrots are beautiful
I did a similar approach to my21 raised beds. The only two complains I have is that the water blows through the bed and that I have to keep adding soil at least 3 times a year even though I chose tough degrading wood: juniper.
Those Aussie Birdie raised beds are great! I've had some of mine for 6 or 7 years and had to remove the soil from one due to tree root invasion and I found the inside of the bed in as close to pristine condition as I could possibly hope. Based on that I'd give it another ten years of life span without a problem.
I like hugelmounds in my raised beds because the materials eventually compost then my beds are full of natural microbes. All I do is add soil on top of the bed when it settles. I also shred my monthy bills then use the paper shreds in my beds and chicken coop and beds. The chickens seem to enjoy scratching through the shreds too.
I burn the shredded bills, then add to compost. You never know what's in the ink dye. Apparently, the only newspaper with non toxic ink in the UK is The Guardian.
I just preordered 2 birdies raised beds from you a few nights ago and I’m suuuuuuper excited! I’m replacing my warped wood beds and expanding the garden! You and Mark are so inspiring.
On succession planting - even if you aren’t especially organized you can do a couple of things: on the day I plant out my starts I always plant the same seeds - first succession done! Also when I was a grower we planted every Friday - I’m retired now but I’m still in the habit of putting in a few seeds every Friday. It means I don’t have to do a lot of planning but it still gets the job done. Except for zucchini and tomatoes 😮
This is some really good info. I'm right at the beginning of my gardening life, so I can appreciate not only the Square Foot Gardening book, but these very helpful videos. Thanks brother!
1st year with an actual garden. I made the mistake of filling my beds with a dump truck load of "garden soil" from a local supply house which was supposed to be 1/2 compost and 1/2 topsoil. I did amend the soil with some peat and coco coir, added some slow release fertilizer and worm castings in the holes when I planted. I have had quite a few problems with what I believe are nutrient problems. The pH is too high- around 7. I have a tomato plant that grew massive, but the top leaves are always droopy and kind of curly-still no tomatoes or buds, my squash female flowers die before ever blooming, pepper plant with curling leaves-and now yellowing veins. Lettuce did fabulous. My question is-should I dig it up after the season and start over or is there a way to fix the issues? I have been fertilizing and trying to add compost.
@@epicgardening Should I do a more detailed test or just nutrients and pH? Our county doesn't do them for free and the cost goes up the more things tested
I've got soaker hoses, they're cheap and works fine. I can really recommend a water computer, I've got a Gardena select which waters automatically when I'm away.
I’ve had short beds, about a timber high, and double one high, I preferred the taller one, and that’s why we’ve ordered a bunch of taller beds this time around. As someone who has on and off lower back pain, I wanted to ensure I got the beds that will grow with us. The smaller ones are better for the kids, but as long as they have a step, then they can still help.
I have some shallow beds set on native soil. Growth is excellent in them, but the challenge this year has been the puppy getting into them and digging up the soil. Had to add barriers after sowing until plants were big enough that he wouldn't be tempted by bare soil.
Would you consider doing an "over wintering" video? I'm a new gardener in zone 6A and I'm feeling really attached to all of my vegetable plants, herbs, and even bulbs that are not for my zone. Any tips on what does really well inside over the winter (and if they need grow lights) vs. what doesn't do well inside over the winter that I need to let go of? Thanks, I love your channel!!! :)
I've been gardening since 1966, and I can still learn new things. I'm trying to switch to raised beds and RGGS because of my body not liking things like bending and weeding. Thank you for your videos.
this method of dividing video clips by subject is genius! less boring... and i love it! i am one who needs to review clips more than once to really make sure i did not miss anything :) i love those bibb lettuces and i really want to try growing those! can you tell me where i can get those exact kind? pretty please ..... God bless... stay safe and be well... keep those gardening tips coming!!
Great video! I have been gardening for almost 5 years now but continually learning. I always wondered how long I could cut and come again on most lettuces and never realized it was around 5 times. :)
I was chuckling over the discussion of zones and frost dates. I live in central OR at 4200 feet vertical. We are zone 3-4. We can freeze any night of the year. And lots of people garden. It's a matter of understanding what, when and how.
I remember I was so excited because all my tomato seedlings sprouted and planted them all so I'm now left with tons of mother plants with huge amounts of tomatoes. Succession planting would be a good thing
Hi I’m 85 years old and developing a hobby growing vegetables (thanks to you and the pandemic)! I bought cattle troughs for metal planters. No drainage. Will drill holes. Bed is 18” tall and 8’ long. Doing what you said about thrifty filling the bed. Planting easy fall vegetables. Can you advise? If not I understand.Please know that I am really enjoying all of this process and all of the things that I’m learning. Thank you very much
Great tips today! Have you considered doing a video for people that live in zones 8 to 13 as to what we should consider planting for our fall garden? 😊
Excellent! You're such a great teacher! Thank you for compiling the responses to all of these questions. Love the no dog method explanation about leaving in the roots
I am really enjoying binge watching your videos! I've learned so much. I really appreciate the production quality and your pleasant voice and diction. Thank you for all the hard work and high quality production and information. Thanks for helping me grow my 🟩👍🏼. 🙂
We bought 4 cubic yard of potting soil + 1 cubic yard of compost from a local supplier, and it was relatively cheap Vs buying bags of potting mix/compost from Home Depot. We were able to fill six 6 ft x 3ft x 24” planters
Just planted my first raised garden. Wish I saw this before I did, lol. I finally understand succession planting. That was very helpful. I will use it in the future. I also now understand cut & come again, that will be helpful with all the greens I have planted. I can't wait until I can use this method. Thanks again for all the tips & tricks.
You have now saved me so much on dirt I'm never going to buy so much again genius idea I'm so sad I haven't thought of anything like this yet! Thank you sir. I feel so stupid, the feet upon feet upon too much dirt I have spent money on. My little pots I have started using rocks and water for to save on dirt and now I have a way to save on my bins buckets and trash cans full of plants! Ur the best!
Awesome video!! Extremely informative and inspiring. I am starting my first ever gardening project right now and your videos have been beyond helpful! Thanks for all the great work!!!
I'm in Zone 2b, the last freeze is around mid-june and first freeze just happened this morning (mid-sept).. Raisedbed are good for leafy greens and underground crops, but a greenhouse is a must overhere if you want red tomatoes!
Hey in a big bed like that the untreated lumber is an option and that rots down to make crazy fertile soil....being on a shoestring budget I am using materials I got super cheap or free....natural stone or concrete block. My biggest bed is a square one 4 feet wide by 10 feet long...that one is 20 inches tall...2 layers of 8 by 8 by 16 with a 4 inch solid cap block....bingo instant garden seat if you get tired. No problem getting the soil cause I've raised rabbits for over 30 years and have had a pony for 7 years My soil mix is one third sand one third compost and one third rabbit manure that is like 12 years old and turned to black crumbly dirt. I throw in a bit of peat moss and a cup of wood ash and mix that all up in a garden size bathtub a senior citizen the it to me to haul it away....im 5 foot 10 myself so I want to use economy of motion and keep bending to a minimum.....im in zone 7 and I already have potatoes up and will have to cover them again as soon as the rain stops....
I love your videos! I wasn't into gardening I've started this year did some mistakes but learn a lot from you! Your videos are as zen as gardening. You're doing a great job with the editing and I love that new feature from youtube that cuts the lenght bar time into parts. Keep it up you're EPIC! :D
First off, thank you Kevin for all of your insightful gardening and homesteading tips. They've taught me a lot over the years. I have a question about raised bed gardening, using the layering methods you have talked about. I filled my 12" tall beds with about 5" of organic material, wood, for branhes, weeds and leaves, some pine straw and old potting mix, then about 5" of raised bed mix with some room for mulch on top, however after watching some of your videos on the topic, I realized that I may have screamed myself because I planted onions, carrots and leeks and worry that they won't do well because they are root crops and the organic materials at the bottom are so coarse. Any suggestions or insight that you can share would be helpful. Thank you for your time.
when you brought up succession planting i almost clicked off, i dont like crop rotation, but this will save me SO MUCH HARVEST and will really help me go self sustainable. amazing video, thank you
Your discussion of interplanting really calls to mind the Three Sisters method that Indigenous people have used in the Americas for millenia. Corn grows tall and stiff, plant it with climbing Beans and let them climb up the corn as a trellis (and fix nitrogen), and plant it with Squash to grow low and cover and protect the soil. Those crops were bred for centuries to work well together, and have complimentary nutrients. Some tribes also interplanted with bee-attracting flowers to help with pollination. If you want to be real traditional, you might bury a fish first, and then plant in the soil above, to have a slow-release fertilizer throughout the year (Self Sufficient Me did a video about experimenting with burying a fish head, and found that the decomposition may have caused the plants to grow a little slower than his controls, but also greener, and they stayed productive much longer into the season). I believe the Indigenous method is to bury a fish in a hole, and then allow several inches of soil on top, rather than planting directly on top of a decomposing mass. In any case, good advice for anyone, if you're growing Indigenous crops, learn from how Indigenous people grow them (every plant comes from somewhere, so pay attention to how the people there grow it).
You have been such a ray light for my go to videos for anything that I have tried to grow for the past 2 years. All of your videos are WONDERFUL! I found you at the beginning of our covid lockdown in 2020. I live in San Diego and I have a restricted garden format because I rent my cabana, so growing what I eat has to be done in either garden pots or a raised bed. Thank you so much for all of your incredible education!
Do you have videos about accessible gardening? I’d love to learn what your mom does to make gardening work for her. I haven’t found good resources on gardening with disability, either on RU-vid or elsewhere, and would love to be able to garden again.
I know it will be different for individual disabilities (and gardens!) but from my personal experience, the easiest thing has been tall raised beds and learning about the no dig method. I've got a small in ground garden, some low raised beds and recently had built some waist high raised beds (that are on legs so I can sit at them). They've been great, It's so much easier than having to get down on the ground. They're 6ft long by 2ft wide so I don't have to lean too far over them and my in ground beds are also quite shallow so I don't have to lean far either but it's much harder to get down to the ground (and back up again!) so I've had to have help planting those. The no dig method is the only way I can garden as I don't have the strength to dig into the soil. I know Kevin talks about no dig but look up Charles Dowding on youtube, he really goes in depth about the no dig method. It's been a game changer! I also start all my seedlings indoors which just makes it easier to care for them while they're small plus it means I don't have to be out every day watering and checking on them as they're more established when I plant them out and need less maintenance. Even just starting small, some containers on a table raised up or if you have a bit of money to spare there are things like a vegepod (I think that's what it's called) that is raised up to waist height and can come with an irrigation feature so there's no carrying about a heavy watering can to water it in. Hope that helps a bit. I spent the majority of my day stuck in bed with pain, mobility and orthostatic issues so it's been difficult to find a way to garden but it's been so worth experimenting to find something that works!
Great video, I’m currently preparing for my birdies raised bed that I pre ordered through your site. Can’t wait! Thanks for all the tips and tricks. I’m gonna go and order that seeding square now, that thing is pretty neat.
Say what?! A SEEDING SQUARE 😵🤩😍 My Holiday list is going to be Epic Gardening themed for sure 😆 If you sold it as an affiliate, I would surely buy via your link to support (just an idea 😇). Thanks Kevin for yet another gardening ”aha”! 👌🏾😎
Epic Gardening: Very true; I was hoping it was hardened silicone or repurposed plastic. Agree about wood as a better alternative; hopefully someone out there will create it (or already did!).
Except a 1,4×1,4×0,15 metres bed that I made last year, I'm going this year with inflatable pools that are 1,68 in diameter and 0,38 m in height. Very, very very hot roof in Central Athens. I need to cool my home, too and 3×12,000 btus aircon aren't cheap, let alone green. We used it only when it goes over 40 degrees Celsius. I invested a bit in plastic pots, but the rule of the thumb is improvise or diy.
I used straw as mulch but got the wrong kind. It grew straw n I was picking little grass out all summer. Be sure to get the right kind of straw. Tip from a Michigan gardner.
Kevin, I love your work and have learned so much from you. My enthusiasm for gardening has increased by orders of magnitude through the wealth of information you have given me. Thank you. I'm planning on buying Birdies for next year and wanted to know what all I should add into the raised bed organic soil that I'll use. Do you recommend buying earth worms to add in? What else?
4:25 that's what I do with hand watering with garden hose. 2 minutes = 4 gallons. so I water each bed for two minutes. that gives 1/4 of an inch of water.
I planted Romaine lettuce for the first time last summer! It was wonderful to cut and come again! My dog Jackson loved it also! Each plant got to about 4' tall before the leaves started tasting a bit bitter, but Jackson ate them anyway! Was funny to see 4' Romaine stalks in the yard!! 😳🤣
I just use a knife and whack off the lettuce plant about 3/4 inch above the ground. It has always worked for me. Maybe cutting the individual leaves and leaving a few smaller ones in the center would be better, though. It would leave more leaves to power the plant, and they would last longer. I never thought about that before so thanks for the tip!
Greetings from Albania 🇦🇱 Your video have been very helpful for me and I want to thank you very much. Since I have learn a lot from you can you make a video of you top books about growing methodology and strategy. And at the same time I notice that you have kind of tool a box for putting the seeds in a calculated manner. Can you show us more about some of the tools for beginners. Hope your garden grows faster in your new home. Can't wait to see a lot of new videos. Hugs 🤗
Excellent information Thank you. I have wooden raised beds (about 4 feet high due to rabbits on Pictou Island ,Nova Scotia. Wood is rotting in places. Shore up or find new containers. All things have to be ferry transported so anything lighter helps, ie liquid fertilizers, soils, etc.
I have that same sprinkler can... but you’re using the sprinkler side upside down. Give it a twist, there’s at click on both the pour and sprinkler side so that it’s more like a light shower good for delicate seedlings. 😃 And thx for ALL your awesome tips! New to your channel and just love it!, 😁🐓🐶🌱
I’ve been reading up a little on the benefits of clover as ground cover (typically beneficial for lawns) and was wondering if you had any insight into whether it would/could work as ground cover in raised garden beds? I read it also attracts bees and butterflies and does well in partial shade.
This week I’m actually re-planting my saved clover tubers from last year that I forgot about (I’m zone 7b). Give it a try, I think clover makes a great companion ground cover!
Bunkiebe I unfortunately don’t have a yard. Just a couple of raised beds we built. We’re renting and the owner has a grass allergy so the whole backyard is cemented. I’d love to be able to let it grow wild like that!
2 in bed allowing roots to enter the ground works also just mulch and top dress with organic material to enrich your ground and make sure its earth worm friendly to make sure its nice and mulched so worms can tunnel thru the dirt. I beleive native weeds invasive weeds all weeds are best for mulch they just need to be dried and chopped up the put back on the same ground. ❤
Just filling my 1st raised bed (6'x4'x2' in 6"x1.5" treated timber) so this great video is very timely. I am already planning another. I have previously done inter-planting at ground level (lettuce between potato rows, etc.) but having an abundance of tomato plants (dwarf Tumbling Toms, Roma and Ailsa Greig) from the greenhouse, about 50-60, I have planted most outside so can also use the space between as you suggest. I never expected such success in germination so some given away to friends/family/neighbours. Filled it with farm meadow soil got yesterday and will enrich it as you suggested - but I think I will be wearing gloves with the waste matter! Lol. Being so close to a public road, you must be in an honest community! Many thanks from the UK.
@@epicgardening Thanks for the reply. I have dabbled with growing my own produce over the past few years, mainly potatoes which can be stored/used perhaps to year end, but I don't think there has been more incentive to do so now since WW2. I was born in '46 but we still had ration books well into the 50's I remember. Food was scarce in those war years and there was a U.K. "Dig for Victory" campaign where every spare square foot needed to be utilized for producing food. As well as all the undesirable "additives" now put into our food and drink, the lost taste/freshness/ripeness caused by the 1000's of miles food often travels and the new concerns about food supplies and distribution, also the inevitable rising costs, it makes perfect sense. Being so rewarding and mentally therapeutic (for me), it has certainly helped me through the dark times I have experienced with this lockdown, bringing me back in touch with nature's/God's wonders. Many thanks again for some very useful tips gained from your extensive experience. Now, I'm about to choose myself a good soil tester so I must be getting serious....
My soil here is sandy loam so I can get away with having a short bed of 4 inches, i know the plants are ok because they won't get waterlogged. Also there's a ton of earthworms around (castings everywhere in the yard every morning) so they like to migrate up into the bed and keep my plants healthy and fertilized.
Do the raised beds EVER go on sale? My 86 year old dad and I have been doing raised bed, square foot gardening for many years, but our wooden 4x4 beds (all 6 of them) are about shot and need to be replaced. Both of us are retired and on fixed incomes, so buying about 4 of your amazing beds is cost prohibitive. I'm trying to do something; we both love gardening and Dad says it's his therapy...especially since losing Mom in March, 2022...his bride of over 64 years. Thank you for such a wealth of knowledge! I grew up watching Mel, bought his book and use his methods. You have carried it to the next level, teaching millions how to grow through both your successes and mistakes! May God continue to bless you!
