Part of what makes your channel attractive, Jacques, is that you are real. You don’t try to make everything look perfect. So when you say that you’re willing to do a chop and drop for us to see later, we all say, yes! Of course! It’s really quite comforting to hear you say as you’re doing something in the garden, “this took a lot longer than I thought it was going to take.” That’s where we all live! Those are the kinds of things that help us connect to you and always want to see your videos. God bless your farm and your family! 💚💚
Last year I didn't thin my peppers, so some of them had a friend they went into the same hole with. They were as healthy and productive as the singles but also helped hold each other up. I saw no negative effect so this year I have let them keep their friend again.
Jacques my good man, what you said about the manual work, getting exercise and feeling connected to the soil really resonates with me, I feel this is an important part of this lifestyle! Definitely would be interested in a follow up on the chop and drop progress! cheers
I just don't understand the desire to take the work out of it, obviously if you aren't physically able to I get that but otherwise to me it's a pleasure and a great way to connect. 🙌
I would absolutely like to see an update!! Just wanted to add that I love the way you garden. I feel like we have a similar gardening techniques… mind you, I have nowhere near the garden you do (also I’m from Ny) … but the garden I do have I feel like I use a lot of the same techniques and I have picked up quite a few good ones from you!! One of the many reasons I love watching your videos! 🫶🏽💚
Definitely interested in an update. Including an update of the pepper planting. It's interesting that you're finding your peppers do better when closer together, and even tried putting two together.
i love your comment about why you dont use a machine.....to be more connected to the process is a major part of home gardening and i think that the people who look at what is efficient miss this point. I have heard and agree that efficiency is the bane of resilience which is again one of the big reasons for a home garden. This chop drop and cover method is similar to one i have seen by a fella who uses it to reclaim depleted gardens in his area of Japan
It's something that blew my mind! So many people commented saying I was wasting my time and that it looked like a lot of work. But I am choosing to do the work and I enjoy it so much more than listening to a lawn mower
My grandmother puts 2 peppers every 30-35cm for 50+ years. This way the support each other and you have more harvest. You should call your relatives in Bulgaria for some advices 😊
That is great to hear, I have to go back now as a gardener and see how people are doing things over there! The best produce I ever ate was produce I had whenever I visited Bulgaria.
I love that your channel is still on the smaller side; I made a comment this passed week and you actually replied. I have enjoyed watching you and your garden grow over the last two years I’ve been following you. Your garden style is a little wild while your personality is more down to earth and it makes for great viewing. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I just started my compost pile today 💪🌱 I turned over A LOT of grass to build my garden beds, and insted of leting all that grass and clover go to waste, I made a lasagna of grass, wood chips and dead leaves from last fall. I did my best to calculate de C/N ratio 🤞 let's hope for the best!
I have decided to grow as many of my peppers as I can in 5 gallon buckets. They often last more than one year here (NE FL)(esp hot ones) and the bucket is the perfect size for their roots. I have orange jalapenos that I grew from seed in buckets that have 15 peppers on them right now. I love that I can move them around as I need the space or the lighting changes, and don't have to pull them up to make space for something when they're not dead yet.
Yes, please update. Just a side note.... A lot of gardens can be quite stunning to visit, but your garden is one in which a person would like to linger.
Your flowers are absolutely beautiful!!! I'm being pretty basic with my interplanted flowers this year, just some Marigold, Zinnia, and Nasturtium. Currently my peppers are being attacked by insects, but every time they eat a couple of leaves the plants seem to push more out! I also have flowers on a couple of them as of last week!
I live in Minnesota. My version of the chop and drop is similar but it happens overwinter. I chop the garden, Mulch with straw, and let it sit over winter. When everything thaws I have a nice organic layer on my garden :D
Yes, we need an update on the bed flip...and the peppers. I am doing the same with peppers and I am curious to see how well they do. I did 3 cayenne 🌶 in a root pouch last year and they did amazingly better than the single planted one
I frequently put pepper plants that are in the same hole (usually two seeds got into the same cell and by the time I got them out, the roots had fused.) I never had a problem with it and always get good production. You should be just fine! Keep us posted on the peppers and the tomato!
Would love to see *all the updates! I actually just separated two peppers I had in a single cell. I kept them together when I planted too. They were a yellow green compared to my other peppers from the same "batch" and so I just think they needed room to grow
Thank you for the video! I have had a ton of questions about this method for a long time and I am so glad you guys put out a video explaining. Regarding the video, specifically the subtitles, I do have a complaint: I am a bit hard of hearing and often rely on subtitles to enjoy videos. However, I can't really do that when the subtitles, meant for the hard of hearing, are used as an advertising method. Please, for your videos, epic gardening videos, and the other channels the Epic Gardening company produces, please use them as originally intended to create a more inclusive gardening community. I greatly appreciate all the information y'all put out and would like to continue being a part of this awesome community! Thank you!
Thanks for the Chop and Drop/ lasagna bed refresh, yes on an update!! I'm in Coffee (and wine) country in the PNW, and great reminder on getting coffee bags! I joined an Edible Landscaping project this spring, and we have 26 beds (most big grape boxes that are 4x4', and some round metal) along A[pine Avenue, in the old granery district. I'm tending a Tea Garden, with Tea camellia and some herbs in one of the squares. We had a weeding /compost day, where each bed got several inches of rich compost from the founder, Ramsey McPhillips, which included bio-char. Several weeks later we hosted a Garden Faire on the Avenue, and gave away over 3000 seedlings - mostly edibles plus some flowers! Ramsey brought bags of his compost to give away - tucked into coffee bags! I also enjoy the physicality and connection with the natural world inherent in gardening - and miss it when my meals don't have something from my garden or locally grown! A friend gave me a start of a favorite salad herb, Nepetella, (Clinopodium nepeta) which has a 'minty/oregano' flavor, and is one of the fresh herbs I love picking just before adding. My youngest grandson loves purslane, and I was happy to show him one that came as a tag-along in some Roselle I got last weekend. Ah, gardens
Love to hear all of this and the repurposing of material around you. Nepetella is one I have been wanting to try and I actually got seeds for it, excited to try it soon!
Jacques, I love your videos because you have a lot of experience and I learn things just watching you work that you don’t even realize you are teaching.
I do recommend passing in the first year for berries. I’m on year 2 after letting the strawberry plants grow last year (and even getting some runners to replace lost bare roots) and the strawberry plants are going gangbusters this season. I noticed the plants I developed from runners last year aren’t producing flowers either but mostly runners as well. It might just be the cultivar I got but it seems that it’s just not really worth growing berries the first season. I’m also growing them in the greenstalk containers but I laid out the tiers on the ground instead lol. I prefer the greenstalks bc the berries hang over the side instead of rotting on the ground.
I'm growing those zucchini and they're amazing. I have had to do my own pollinating but it's actually fun 😊 I would reccomend soaking the chopped/dropped bed material with a soil inoculant. It helps those root nodes break down and become available 👍👍
Your garden is just like mine! I've also got fava beans all over the place and i chop and drop them too! And then my zuchini is like the same exact size as yours.
That was very helpful. While “chop and drop” probably seems self-explanatory, it really helped me to actually see someone do it, and I would love to see a follow up.
I loved it, you covered a lot, and it was great! I reeeeally liked seeing the big bank of flowers already growing next to the seedling peppers you put in. Yes, do folliw-up.
Hi Jacques, thanks for the informative video, always love your content and style. Didn’t realize I wasn’t subscribed on RU-vid but I fixed that! Happy gardening
I love your videos. Learned so much, even tough living and gardening in Switzerland, not everything applies to our climat here. Thank you for your inspiration! And updates!! Yessss please!!!!
Saw the update before this! Great method, we've not had a very good summer here in uk and I've lost a few crops I think I might use this method to refresh some beds and use the time not tending those beds to work on some restructuring of the garden.
I’m allergic to peppers but wouldn’t eat them even if I wasn’t. I’ll eat anything made with tomatoes (bbq sauce, ketchup, salsa) just not tomatoes by themselves or sliced on a sandwich or chopped on a taco, or a salad, etc. That being said, I watch your videos in their entirety even when they are primarily about tomatoes and peppers just because you share so much knowledge. And the calming tone of your voice makes for an over all pleasant experience.
Jacq you really have a talent! Your demeanor and voice are so captivating, I already know how to chop and drop but watching you work is great. Please do an update
I also grew alot of Fava, followed by corn, but i just chopped and added to my compost bin. I wasn't sure how to do the chop and drop method. Now I know for next time.
I have an entire bed full of peppers, 36 plants split evenly between california wonder and orange sunrise both from Botanical Interests. I kind of wish I tried another two varieties now that you mention it... oh well 😅It's my first year with a veggie garden so I might have gotten a wee bit excited lol & yes please, update!!
It's all about adapting every year! That is my favorite part, find new varieties and work off what you did the prior season to get closer and closer to what you want
Very nice :) Regarding the pot slap method... Pulling by the stem can be risky. Damage the stem: possibly kill the plant. If at all possible, I push up from the bottom. If the container doesn't allow this, perhaps pull from a leaf or give it a little shake on its side. Beautiful garden :)
*chants* follow up! Follow up! Im in 9b in Florida. My tomato plants are already looking sad in our heat/humidity. I may just switch to growing them exclusively in fall to winter. I forsee shutting down my containers (27 gallon half barrels) sooner than later to reset for fall and ive been wondering how long they should rest. I think one of my mistakes this spring was planting my seedlings too soon after I cut down the old (and left the roots). Whoops! Live and learn.
Take a shovel and incorporate the chopped biomass into the top layer of the soil. Learned it from very experienced gardening instructor at UC Santa Cruz
