I like the no till approach. I’ve gardened traditionally with mechanized equipment all my life. I wish I knew about this years ago have been working on the transfer for about six months a two year head start on retirement at 62 for home base income, exercise and mental well being. Also I’m in zone 7b as well so your videos translate very good. Thanks for your info and great videos 👍👍🥕🥕🥬🥬🥦🥦
Amazing to see mulching work for you! I am also a market gardener and struggled a lot with weeds this year. My no-dig system was established in the Spring. My strategy was to cardboard mulch the existing vegetation, apply 3-4 inches of compost, then 3-4 inches of sifted, arborist woodchips on top. The plants grew to only poor-medium quality. HOWEVER, the weed pressure was astonishing. Here in Colorado, field bindweed is so vigorous that it choked out most of my full-season crops even after growing through the 8 inches of mulch! My strategy for next year is to reapply mulch after each weeding in order to require the bindweed to exert more energy to regrow, thus draining the parent rhizome's stores. My only takeaway is this: Don't give up on weeding! Even when the perennial weeds grow back, they have still been weakened.
Nice to watch this video again Moreno. It's wonderful to see such an immaculate farm too. I'm really sick of seeing weedy, messy gardens some other youtubers think we will be inspired by. Your garden is the best!
Great video Moreno!! After talking with you, we are in the process of converting to no dig no till. A few months ago we prepared 7 beds, 30 inch X 30 feet long, with 18” walkways. Covered beds with approx. 4 inches of compost, then covered the whole thing with a huge silage tarp. The tarp covered the new beds plus area for 2 more plots that we will hopefully have time and money to also compost in the spring. We had been tilling this area for the last several years and weeds pretty much always won that battle. Can’t wait to pull that silage tarp off in the spring and start this new approach. My only trepidation,,,,the compost. I bought it in bulk from a local garden center. They say it is weed and chemical free so I have to trust them. But I would love to make my own compost, it seems quite easy. I’m just not sure it is feasible to produce the amount of compost needed for our farm. Thanks for the video, keep them coming!
Hey Nick! Thank you! I'm really looking forward to the progress and development of your farm. You can definitely make your own compost, which is something we do as well on a small scale. All the organic matter and green wastes of the farm is piled up and we let the chickens run through it and several times per month we redo the piles until we have a pretty nice finished product. This on the other hand is not enough for out total compost needs. Besides, if you calculate the time spent on making the compost versus buying it in, it is much more cost effective to buy compost in bulk locally (at least for us). If you're on a budget and have more time available (like in the winter months), you could potentially make quite some compost in a short time frame (roughly 18 days) using the 'Berkeley compost method'. Keep in mind, it's one hell of a workout! I'll be posting a video on how to do this exactly step-by-step somewhere in the upcoming months!
I'm trying the no dig approach in my garden this year. I'm trying to make hot compost at the moment. I've seen a few of your videos now and I'm really enjoying them, I think they're going to be very helpful for me. Thank you.
Exactly what I am converting to because I have mature Oak trees that provide to much shade to grow peppers, tomatoes etc. THANK YOU and Happy Gardening.
I discovered that channel from a video on Facebook and oh Lord I'm so glad ! I love your approach, the fact that you always give examples to support your point of view and the numerous tips to start a new business. I look forward to seeing your new content and learn. Have a nice day +1subs
I think a no-dig no till garden is great. You're definitely right about the birds and their droppings I tried to keep all garden areas away from the trees as much as
Hoi Moreno! Really love your farm, it's stunning! Think you've heard about Richard Perkins already? He will start an European tour during which he will visit farms and give some conferences. He's looking for interesting farms to visit and I think yours could be one of them ;). Great to see how your veggies are thriving under the shade of the trees! What variety of bunching onions are you growing? They are amazing! Here on my farm (in the Charente, France, about the same size and working with horses) we struggle a lot with bouton d'or/ boterbloem. They come creeping in from every side. I should make it a priority to create a barrier with woodchips or by keeping the ground around the beds tilled, but there's so many other thing to do, that I haven't done that until now...
Hey Anneke, thank you for the kind words :) I haven't actually heard of his trip, but thanks for pointing that out. The variety of bunching onions we grow is called "Parade". It's a great variety! Yes, we've made sure to create a barrier around each of the growing plots so that nothing can come creeping in. We also smothered out everything else with compost and wood chips. There's always many tasks on the farm. Keep your head up, keep smiling, and keep working - that's what I do :) Eventually the tasks will become less;) Good luck!
I recently purchased 5 acres that I want to farm and a large part of it is covered in horsetail. From what I understand, this is very difficult to get rid of. If you have any recommendations I’d love to hear them. I absolutely do not want to use any chemicals on the land. I’ve also read that horsetail can be toxic for many animals too. I was hoping that goats could get rid of it but now I’m not sure🤔 . Thank you for all of the wonderful information that you share!
Hey Charlene, 5 acres is a lot of land for a market garden. If you want to do market gardening, I recommend you start with a quarter / max half an acre (1000 / 2000 square meters) and gain experience. Horsetail is indeed very difficult to get rid of. I highly recommend you smother them out entirely with a thick layer of carton and about 15 centimeters of compost. This should do the trick. Any signs of new growth has to be taken care of immediately to weaken the main root system.
Hi Moreno, this is Kiran from India. I am in process of starting an half acre No dig Market garden. I am so glad to have found your channel. You are full of energy and practical solutions. I wanted to ask you, do you use the same approach for carrot beds? Would they grow long in a 6 inch mulch bed? Or do they need any special arrangement, thank a ton for your time.
Love these videos. I'm not doing a business, but I want to gain knowledge of the no-till gardens. I downloaded the e-book, but I don't see the spreadsheets and checklists. Well, mainly I want to know the size of the beds. I cannot find that anywhere in the videos or the e-book. If anyone knows, please share. Thanks!
I'm lucky because our town composts all the leaves from the city and then you can get it for free, of course since it's free you are not allowed to fill a truck with it. Just buckets full. It's not very far from my house, so I can just drive there on a regular basis and fill the buckets I have been collecting. The bags of leaves have to be open, when they collect them, in case people want to add things that are not leaves (like weeds). In which case they will reject them. My paths are a lot wider, since I am old and my balance is not that great. I can see why the beautiful looking bed attract customers.
@@TheDutchFarmer I'm going to see if I can ask the people who come every year from the city to cut tree branches, that are to close to the power lines, to see if they can leave the wood chips in back of my property. Also, to the city recycling facility to see if they have old windows to make a green house. Right now I start my seedling in my walk-out basement since we have extreme weather. You have given me ideas that I'm going to put to use, this year. Thanks
Great and inspiring video. Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us! One question though: do you have problems with slugs? In particular on the wood chip paths? My experience is that slugs tend to proliferate quite good (and run for cover) in that kind of moist environment during the day and attack the vegetables during the night. We're planing to convert a big part of our plot into vegetables and flower beds and the wood chip path would come perfect, but the slugs here are just terrible and I'm afraid of giving them the perfect nursery...
Another great video.. I also live in Europe, actually we are neighbors as i lived in north Spain :), so i wanted to ask you where do you buy the tools, material and seeds, included for microgreens. Thanks again
Thank you! A lot of the tools were actually imported from the US. Seeds for microgreens I've been able to source from companies in France, Italy and the UK. (Germline in France / Geo in Italy / CNSeeds in UK) Hope that helps!
So impressed with your videos. I've been trying to do no dig but didn't know about it until after my husband made raised beds. I tried putting in cardboard and wood chips in pathways but didn't have enough and dandelion clover and others tightly growing weeds did take over. Your farm is phenomenal. Did you study with Richard Perkins or Charles Dowding? I have recently found them as well. I am toying with plowing it over To make it one level. ... but my husband isn't keen to do this. Any suggestions? What is the mix in the pathways? It looks like wood chips leaf litter etc. Thanks. I love your videos and your farm. Well done!!
2:18 would love if you could elaborate a little on what are the systems u have in place? Wood chips are expensive where I am... What are the alternatives that I can use?
Thanks for the video and insight. How many beds of what size do you have? Did you have weed issues only putting down a couple of inches of compost instead of the 4-6 inches? We only top dress with 1 in or so and I keep think that if we were to make that initial 4-6 in investment we'd have much less weed pressure.
Hey Steve! We've got roughly 100 beds of 10 m (30 ft.). Yes we did have quite some weeds coming through the initial layer we put down. We only put like 2 to 3 inches and quickly realized we should have just gone for the full initial coverage. With constant weed management we'd been able to control the weeds, but several months later in that first season we straight away invested in the remaining layer of compost. The weeding is now pretty much down to nothing. I can't recommend it enough!
@@TheDutchFarmer Great, thanks for the response.That is a similar amount to what we had in production this year. I am curious, when putting on 6 inches of compost, is it hard to keep it from falling into the pathways? Or does stay firm long enough until you mulch the pathways? Thanks again, we will be opening up more land next year and I'm considering trying this out.
@@stevelarson4925 Sure, some of it will fall in the pathways, but we're pretty careful when we put it down and try to mulch the pathways as soon as possible with wood chips to equal the height of the compost beds. We also use a tool called a bed roller to firm the beds a little. I cover it briefly in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yUFr0C1FJjE.html Hope that helps! Thanks for watching!
Recently discovered your videos! 😊 So if you had to do thus from scratch again, you would mow all the waist high grass and then directly put 4-6 inches of compost on top? Will this really prevent weeds from popping up without having to pull up all the weeds? I have grass that have already gone to seed from last year and are cut already. I saw in your video that you were shoveling them into your wheelbarrow. Did you throw all that away? I’m wondering if I should spread the seeded cut grass as mulch and then put 6 inches of compost on top, or remove all this seeded cut grass and then put 6 inches of compost. Thanks!!
Welcome to the channel :) Yes, I would mow the area and apply directly a 6 inch layer on top of the existing vegetation. As long as it's in autumn it'll be alright. Sure there will probably be a couple of stubborn weeds here and there that pop up, but they can easily be taken out. The organic matter that I was putting in my wheelbarrow I've actually kept. I've put everything onto piles, mixed it with organic matter coming from the farm and let the chickens run through it. This has been reintroduced onto the beds. As for your final question, as long as the cut grass is laying on the surface of the soil, you can safely put a thick layer of compost on top of it to create your beds. The cut grass will simply become a food source for the soil biology and quickly decompose. Since the seeds are smothered out by the compost, they won't form a problem for your production. Hope that helps!
Dutch Farmer Moreno thanks for the detailed explanation! 🤩 I appreciate it a lot. It’s pretty much spring in the part of California I live (such a warm winter!) so would you recommend putting fb 6 inches of compost now? You mentioned that I should do this in autumn.
@@S2sparkleS2The recommended and preferred time is in autumn because the growth of everything slows down. In spring time everything bursts with energy. You can definitely still do it though. I personally would feel more confident with a layer of cardboard under the 6-inch layer at this stage. As long as everything is smothered out it should be fine 👍
Dutch Farmer Moreno Oh I see. I thought about cardboard too but sometimes I’m afraid to use it because I wonder if there are any chemicals that are in it.
Hi. Just saw your video now. Subscribed! I wish you luck and success in all. Just hope you'll manage to stay a farmer . About the preparation of the land, I understood that you should only cover the whole area with a thick layer of compost? Without cutting the weeds first? I thought they will thrive under these conditions.
Crongrats for your work, it looks beautiful! What about slugs? Has it been a concern to you? When I see the big layers of wood chips between the row, I can't help myself to say" What a great shelter for slugs" :)
Hey there, thank you! :) Slugs haven't been a problem for us. Quite surprisingly because we had a lot before we converted this land. On the other hand, the pathways are pretty compacted so it doesn't give much of a place for them. We also try to keep the surrounding area weed free. We also have a very active hedgehog living on the property ;)
Hey Geewhitaker, I'm working on a video series here on RU-vid that will include all of this. I do this work together with my wife and 2-year old. The establishment and starting of the farm is a lot of work. Spent 12+ hours per day getting everything setup for months. After that it's just the management and becomes much easier! It takes a lot of hard work and grit, but in the end, it's all worth it! :)
Hi Moreno, great channel! I was wondering if buying mushroom compost is good enough for the first application of compost? I can get a truckload of it for 250 euro ( 40 tons ) Niels from Holland😉
This is the type of setup I'm going to get established at my home. My biggest weed problem is bermuda grass. It spread through seed and rhizome. It's frustrating
Hey Shane! Bermuda grass can be definitely difficult to handle. I'd recommend to convert your land in early autumn when growth starts to slow down. Lay down a layer of cardboard and 4 to 6 inch layer of compost on top of the cardboard. In the pathways I'd lay down wood chips. Chances are there'll be some rhizomes coming through here and there. By staying on top of them and not giving them any chance of spreading out, within a season (max 2) you'll have a clean growing area;) Good luck!
What would you do if you had to contend with roaming deer? I want to farm my front yard. But, in my area we have tons of deer roaming everywhere-yes, even in a city neighborhood! Do I need to fence it? Or create a fruit cage system in order to grow anything?
Yes, but you might want to consider using a layer of cardboard below the compost. And depending on your climate, also a layer of organic matter on top of the compost 👍
interesting how people praise no dig methods all over the world. maybe i've done it wrong in my poly tunnel but the bind weed definitely found its way up the cardboard and (maybe too thin) layer of compost, i would say 5 cm at least and at the end i didnt manage to stay on top of it. so in my experience it was totally not worth it. I've done it just in small scale it the garden as a test on a part of land where there was hard soil and no tunnel at all before. (i am not in production as a farmer yet) maybe the biggest mistake was completely digging the ground before laying the cardboard and new soil. going to plant using the row covers and not direct seed this season there.
@@amberking7459 Hey Amber, no worries! I just had a look at the plant and it seems that it's an annual/biennial. Funnily enough I just realized that I saw a couple of these on the edge of our property yesterday. They've got pretty thorny seeds! Anyways, what I would do is as follows: I would mow it completely down and smother it out with a thick layer of cardboard and then a thick layer of mulch. In our case the mulch would be compost and wood chips. This should take care of the problem. Since it's reseeding itself easily year after year, I would make sure to stay on top of the newly introduced germinating seeds from neighboring properties, which will inevitably happen. Good luck!
@@TheDutchFarmer If I am planting into my garden beds with the cardboard under the compost do I need to place a hole in the cardboard for the seedling.
I've been reading The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution by Andrew Mefferd and nerding out on no-till videos. I love how organized and clean your farm looks! Thanks for the content.
Hey! Beds are design in relation to aspect of slope, lay of the land, and the constraints of the overal size, dimensions and tree layout. Beds are 10M (33ft.) long by 0.75 cm (30 inch) wide. The width is a widely adopted way of growing crops in a market garden system with a large amount of tools created for this set up. The length of the beds is less important, but this layout functioned best on our land. Hope that helps!
I farm in North America where weeds are a major problem. We use Permaculture design principles and no dig or minimal disturbance if we have to. Your work is some of the best I've seen. Much success!
Hi Moreno. Got inspired by watching your videos to do a garden. My question is. Is there mulch also under the compost? How much? Hopefully I can have a green thumb, I have 2.5 acres untouched maybe I can also start a business here in Florida. Thanks!
It doesn't appear that the shade from your trees impacts the growth of the garden much. I have a large tree that puts out a lot of shade on a spot I'm planning on putting a number of rows and I'm concerned that it'll affect the growth of the plants.
Hey Joseph, in most of the places we grow our crops, they're minimally affected. There's one location where the shade is quite a lot and the place only gets about 2 hours of direct sunlight. Here the crops take a couple of weeks longer to reach maturity. Fortunately for us this is only a small section of our garden. This month I'll be posting a couple of videos related to farming under trees. Here is the first one about the benefits: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-F7ff__KVAnY.html
Hello! I just discovered your lovely farm, and I'm feeling so inspired to implement this asap! Do you have any further advice if i have to start this now, in winter and spring, vs autumn? Thank you!
If you don't have snow right now and the ground is not frozen, you can start by applying compost and start creating some beds and wood chips in the pathways. No further advice than the one in the video. In this video I also cover how we converted our land: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fRlUhUWS0Hk.html Hope that helps!
@@TheDutchFarmer Thanks! The ground has been freezing on and off this winter. The ground temperature is currently 33 degrees F. If I wait until the ground isn't at/near freezing to cover it, will i be alright to plant right into the compost? Thanks again!
@@healwithketo6821 Yes you can plant directly in the compost. The benefit of compost in colder temperatures is the darkness of it. It will increase the speed of warming the soil up once the sun hits it;)
hola muy lindo tu trabajo ordenado limpio y la cosecha buenisima soy peruana vivo en Argentina Buenos Aires te felicito desde ahora voy a ser tu mas fiel admiradora de tu trabajo
Hi Moreno, thanks for this channel! It seems you are established not far away from where I grew up;) I would be interested to know what is the surface you are cultivating. You said you are renting the farm: what costs does it create for you per month? Thanks
Hey Philippe! We're on a third of an acre. Rent is €600 per month. On top of that comes electricity, water, and a bunch of other costs like taxes. I'll probably make a video on this topic with full exposure of costs, profits etc.
Great video thankyou I'm looking at a patch of grass and I'm hoping the method would work .I can't imagine potatoes could break through the old surface.Thanks to your video my research begins👍
Hello my Dutch friend, fantastic stuff, just got a couple of acres of land to rent, and like yours, no one as been on it for 10-15 at least, got No money but I'm starting my thing that's been a dream for over 10 years, The Passchendaele Trust, to get homeless Veterans off the streets off Colchester, Essex, lot of Dutch connections that part of England. We got to Dig for Victory. Its All about getting them off Drink and Drugs, back into the system and back to their family's, so the only thing we got is elbow grease and lots of it, going Colchester tomorrow to see if I can get one or two off the streets, got 3 tents and camping gear at the mo, I live on a boat, it's by the river where I am, planning on building some 12×8 ft sheds for the troops, woodburner in each, solar panel on top for charging phone so they can get in touch with family and back online, Water from roofs etc, no water supply hear or electricity, spring water not far for drinking, would the soil be ok if it was just deweeded properly, like I say, no money for compost at the mo but these men Got to burn Energy, I've gone 8 nights without sleep when I've Sobered up, so it's dig dig dig for these boys to get them though the first week or two. Worked in Holland 25 years ago, Skippol Airport, stayed in a place on the coast called Zanvolt or something. Absolutely beautiful country and people, was more at home in your country than I get treated in many parts of my own, Special Memories. Any advice will be welcome cause your channel is the first I've seen that is what I'm up against, got gopro for my own RU-vid channel, " Watch This Space ". God Bless and hope to here from you soon, RU-vid channel will be called " Sawbowhill Fields " forever. 🏴🇬🇧🇳🇱👍
Hey Moreno, your videos are great and filled with useful advice! I'm curious about your compost: do you produce a part of it inside the farm? Or does it come from elsewhere? Thanks!
