Creating Soil in the Arizona Desert |  

Hey there James, glad you enjoyed this one. It's funny because most people in the US think it's odd to live in a desert, but 25% of the world's population does!

We’re out here!!

@@GrowingwithAnastasiaI need help lol

Thanks Mark!

Yeah, it's hard not to go to that, especially around the house. It's why we're keeping in mind mower space so we can try to keep from turning to it.

I use diatomaceous earth food grade and I only put it on the dirt around the bottom so that the bugs won't even come near my plants LOL I've had great success and it gets rid of fruit flies and rolly polleys very well

The caps would definitely be a nice touch!

Hey there Jenna. Congrats on that new property. With a little bit of time (and water!) to let things break down a bit, you should be just fine!

Woohoo! Pretty much everything you see here translates to your place as well, so shoot over any questions as you go!

Hey Richard! We did consider that and would probably have been a great addition. We still have more beds to go, so that may need to be part of the process. Thank you for the suggestion!

Cardboard are free mulch! Worms love em too!!!

@@RELOADINGandSHOOTING You are right about that. My wormbin worms love cardboard, they like to lay their eggs in the corrugated hollows.

Well, we brought these from the old farm and it took a year or so before we started seeing them over there. These followed over with the potted plant starts we had over there. As you pick out more potted plants you should bring a few in with them! Fingers crossed for you.

Homesteadwitchery, There are a couple experiments you can try... If you have a couple tires. Stack them on top of each other and fill the center with any kind of dirt. If you have compost, or a few food scraps, you can layer that in there as well. Then water the whole thing down and keep it moist frequently. Even plant some flowers or something tall in there so it has more function. If you have worms in the area, they will show up in 2-4 weeks. Just dig around and find them. That's usually how I start a worm bucket if mine gets dried out (happens more than I like in SE AZ) The next is take a scrap plywood or any kind of large solid panel...wet the ground thoroughly....then place the panel on top. Same thing, 2-4 weeks. Lift it up and there should be all manner of crawlies in there...worms among them! Good luck! 👍

Start putting all food scraps in designated area, add some/ little shredded newspaper or brown paper scraps keep covering it with some soil and keep it wet. Cover everything with whatever is available, I get enough worms after few months.

@@Leena-zh4lj I actually dug up a worm in the garden last week! It took a year but we're getting there :)

Add wood chips or straw to your bed. The worms love to eat that stuff. They'll come.

Glad you found us! Our soil is a bit different (hard clay), but I imagine there are a few things we do here that would be similar. Shoot over any questions as they come up and we'll do our best to answer them.

Hey Eddie, thanks. We're getting some great suggestions here on some additional things to add, so we're going to expand on this with the raised garden beds.

Hey Jen!!! Thanks and we're looking forward to that also. One of these days on one of your trips down South you'll have to stop by.

Hey Sol, glad you enjoyed this one!

Thanks CrankyBubuskha.

Hey Slam Boy. What herbs are you growing? We're trying to decide on herbs to place at the front of the raised garden beds (besides Rosemary which is a slam dunk). Preferably perennials if we can swing it.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Dill, Garlic, Lavender, Cilantro,

@@slamboy66 which lavender are you growing? We've tried it before and haven't had much luck with it.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Not sure but lady I trade with she said the shrub types do better(Southern Nevada).

Hey Tania. Lots of work for sure and man, that ant was sure determined!

Hey Pachara. You're welcome to stop by next time you're in town to see your friend in Tucson. We're about 4 hours north of Tucson.

These beds have really performed well. You can see a shot of them a few years later in our vlog from this past weekend that I'll link for you here; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Lh0mHaOcv84.html

We are really enjoying the cooler weather as well! We do have 3 pomegranate trees and our plan is to put in a few artichokes at the end of a few of our garden beds hopefully in the spring.

Hey Big Lou, thanks. We're hoping it does the job!

Daniel, that's a great suggestion on the cardboard and we really should have included it here. Definitely going to be part of the raised garden beds we're going to be working on over the next few weeks. Never been to the AZ worm farm. Do they sell bulk soil?

Edge of Nowhere Farm definitely do the cardboard sheet mulching and yes they sell bulk soil but I’m not a big fan since I make my own soil, the price is a little high in my opinion and you have better options.

You got it Khia. If you're interested in an update on this area, we just posted one last weekend. I'll link that for you here; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AI-BO7wCR8Q.html

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thanks so much for replying & for providing the link! I've recently become interested in this topic, so I greatly appreciate it! :D

Sounds like it is similar. This side of our property in particular has some very dense clay soil, so building that organic matter on top really makes all the difference.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm definitely! My main garden bed has between 8”-12” of manure, straw, tons of leaves and some wood chips stacked in layers. It’s already different soil underneath all that mulch. I’m spraying lactobacillus, worm tea, urine all over the place to assist decomposition. But I did a check both in my beds and under the mulch in the walkways. There are earthworms everywhere and they’re all volunteers from somewhere under the desert dirt! I’m not gonna argue!

@@dr.froghopper6711 that's awesome man. You got it goin on!

Hey Bin! Yeah, we're keeping water on it almost daily for now and probably will all summer. Really want to see how quickly we can get this to break down with minimal inputs.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I see.

Boy was that ever the case! All of the rain came in the spring and we just roasted the rest of the way through the year and into this one!!

Exactly the same just happened with me

@@patrickotte5982 hopefully things will be different this year, but so far it's more of the same....dry!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm GeoEngineering.

Glad you guys are seeing those results. I know a lot of it depends on the type of material and the amount of moisture. The last couple of years have been great in terms of rain during the winter which is really helping.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I do water a bit to much sometimes!

I think you mean saprophytic fungi.. not all fungi are mycorrhizal fungi.

Mycorrhizae and biochar!

Great suggestions here John. We gave an update on these beds last weekend that I think you'll appreciate; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Di-EvZ0vjdM.html

It’s nice to see someone mention bio-char (terra preta) with perma culture.

That would be a solid addition as well. We didn't have any available to us, so we went this route.

Wow, Noah that is TOUGH DIRT! One thing we've found that helps with extremely hard soil is to cover with 6-8 inches of woody mulch (we use wood chips) and water this daily for a few months. This helps soften the soil underneath and actually starts to build beneficial, fungal growth at the same time. Then again, building a raised bed works as well.

Yeah, it does seem like a wasteland until you give it a little TLC!

Hey Scott. That is a great suggestion and we do mow when we have the chance....which is whenever we get enough rainfall to allow things to grow around here!

Glad you enjoyed this one and found it useful!

Thanks guys!

Hey Freddy. We actually planted the berries in October (5 months later). We weren't able to film the planting as we were in a bit of a rush to plant during the week. We covered it briefly in one of our Vlogs that I'll link for you here; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_bQvUXRl4NA.html So far they're doing really well and had a little growth before the winter set in. We'll see how they do this spring once we get through our colder weather. However, the sweet potato we had growing in these beds that we planted in August did AMAZING, so I think we'll be in good shape.

Ha! That was totally unplanned. Funny how that happens from time to time. That or the mic picked up more than we realize!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm You've seen tremmors right? Isn't that in Arizona?

@@gm2407 Ha! I think that was in Arizona....in the middle of nowhere!

Hey Amy! We use Chip Drop, but it's a challenge getting anyone out here. We also chase down chipper trucks in town and try to encourage deliveries. That's only worked a couple of times, but it's worth the hassle!

Edge of Nowhere Farm Thank you!

Hey there Ar. We've tried multiple times to get cover crops (cereal grasses, perennial grasses, daikon, etc) started without tilling and it just does not seem to work well for us. A little light tilling and the whole thing gets going and we can lay off destroying fertility from there. I think one of the biggest differences we face here on virgin desert soil is there has never been any disturbance to the ground, unlike most of the country where we have turned fertile land into a desert. Here we're not actually regenerating soil, in so much as starting it for the first time....at least that's my theory.

Cover Crops can do amazing things in 'Soil', and that is the 'Caveat'! 'Soil' must have at least a minimum threshold of 'Life' and the 'Building Blocks' of life in it, or otherwise it is just 'Dirt'! The Weeds there have adapted to a little bit of Water, miniscule amount of Carbon, and the tiniest trace of Nitrogen (probably pulling it out of the air) to just hang on at the surface. Proper Cover Crops need more in the Soil just to take hold, let alone to prosper. What they are doing at the Farm is necessary to get life established 'First', making it Soil and no longer just Dirt, so that whatever is planted now can have a fighting chance to get established, and continue improving with time...

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I've had a lot of success with planting cereal rye in the winter in my beds. Keeps the soil covered, supplies the microbiome with plant exudates and keeps things moist, and then before it goes to seed or I'm a month or so out from planting I cut and flip the sod over, letting the green part get digested by the soil. Helps replenish your SOM for basically no effort. As for the perception of the desert not being fertile, it's quite the opposite. It simply has other systems of nutrient cycling and nitrogen fixation, primarily nitrogen fixation from cryptobiotic soils, legumes (mesquite and locust trees), and prairie grasses that are indigenous provide organic matter. Fluffgrass comes to mind and is a C4 metabolic pathway grass, meaning it's capable of forming associations with arbuscular mycorrhizae etc. Use that knowledge in your designs, and work with the desert, not against it.

@@HocusPocusist solid suggestions here Chris. Thank you!

My goodness, I can't imagine ants that big! No thanks! We usually see red wigglers in the compost, but we also have some night crawlers which I had not seen in AZ prior to this property. Shocked to see them actually.

Hey Peter. So true, with the craziness going on everywhere it would NOT be a good addition to the body right now! That and mold is a real problem for me (Duane) and woodchips go hand in hand with that.

Hey Eleni. Those are great suggestions. Once we have the outbuilding to store one we'll have a tractor on the property for just what you're describing. We need a box scraper for the road and I've seen people use the tines for ripping soil, so I'm hoping we can do the same with this insanely hard dirt.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Keyline rippers normally go further into soil then tine rippers. My soil seems (from your videos) more resistant then yours. Your auger would not work on my soil, I tried. Tree holes were done by skid steer with auger attachment and gardens were ripped with a single keyline ripper (several passes).

It's really hit or miss for us as well. We have used Chip Drop with varying success in the past, but with the price of fuel these days it just isn't really worth it for them to drive out here.

Woohoo! It's always good to have your own food growing right at home. There really is nothing quite like it!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I myself have owned a Farm and Homesteaded since 1982 and Gardened for the past 70 years. My younger Sister Never liked playing in Dirt or owned any Farm Animals.😍 Just getting her started with Prepping and growing. My last couple Videos were when I was out there for the last 2 weeks. I have since Retired and moved into theCity in CT 6B and have a Community Garden. 💜💜💜 Having Fun, and Loving it. Miss having my Chickens, Sucks, Goats abs other animals though. 🤟🏽Hugs, AuntieEllen 💕

@@GQUATTRADITIONZS oh wow, you have a LOT more experience than we do at this. I can imagine you miss your farm animals. It's amazing how much they can teach you about nature and the cycle of life. Here's to your new adventure!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I will enjoy watching your progress. 💜💜💜 AuntieEllen

Glad you found us and wow, Wyoming must be beautiful this time of year! We do have swales designed into several areas on the current working area of the farm (about 2.5 of our 6 acres). We use them for passive catchment from the 2 buildings on the farm where the water is directed into small swales in front of our berry and grapevine areas. We're only 2 years into this project, so we have plans for the back half of the property (Zones 3 and 4) where we will incorporate them more heavily along with additional "pond catchments" as well. The goal this first 2 years has been getting our cash crops/livestock up and running to fund the rest of the project, so there is much more of that to come.

Hey Carlos! Happy late Birthday, great day for a video :)

Ah yes, we do have an update from this video. We included a harvest from one of these beds in a vlog a while back that I'll link for you here; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Di-EvZ0vjdM.html

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thank you!

Yes, it does. It's pretty much devoid of life, so it needs everything it can get!

Hey Astra. That's a good question and you should be fine. One thing about soil is it takes time and each year it can become more and more healthy. We always try to either keep something growing in them or something breaking down with mulch. This way we're always feeding the life that's developing in them.

Hey there David. Our wood chips come via arborists much like what you are doing. We use Chip Drop for most of ours as we're closer to the city. As for Eucalyptus, that will only be an issue for a short period of time while the leaves are "green". Once they've started to break down they turn into very useful compost.

Hey Dan. Oh man, that is NOT good. I read somewhere that some of the ants we have here have a sting as strong as a wasp, so any allergic response and you're toast.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Yes some ant bites are worse I think. I have been stung buy hornets or wasps and that ant bite was worse made my whole leg tingle. I immediately went inside and took antihistamine.

@@desertdanblacksmith1394 my goodness. That is just flat scary. Especially for those of us living more remote.

Great point. We keep our chickens confined to either pasture areas or some type of coop/tractor. We learned that the hard way with our first run of egg layers and letting them roam free. Just destroyed all of the woodchip mulch around our trees.

Another great question. Not sure on that one yet. We will run irrigation to this and we also need to install a way to keep bunnies and birds from "harvesting" our blackberry harvest. So the holes may be in use for fencing, etc. Also not too sure on how we would irrigate plants in the holes. It's a possibility though.

That is a solid way to increase worm activity and we've used that in the past before we had livestock. These days the kitchen scraps go to the chickens and pigs.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm i wasnt keeping live stock,, just 2 gardens and 3 little dogs

Hey Tricia. Congrats on that new property. Ours looked much like that when we first arrived. The wood chips have been through arborists we've found either in town (chasing them down asking for them to dump on the property) or through Chip Drop. If you're too far away from civilization though, that will be a tough one.

They would definitely be a good addition. We use daikon in our raised beds, but the soil is more pliable there. Sorghum has done a great job of that in Summer months, but radish would be good during the winter months.

Hey Kenn. First off, congrats on your upcoming move to AZ. Quite a difference from the currently frozen lands of Idaho to the wilds of Arizona! Our well here in Wittmann is drilled to 600' with a static water level right around 420'. Our pump allows a flow of 13 gpm. There are some unique challenges here in AZ, but the wide array of foods we can grow is truly amazing.

We're probably an hour away from Tonopah. That is SW of Phoenix and we're NW of Phoenix.

Great question Hank and we actually did wind up planting sweet potato in one of the beds and it did a quite well through the fall. Our challenge in AZ is the lack of cover crop options that will survive our summer months. None of the standard serial grasses can survive the dry heat and the grasses that do are deep rooted varieties that are hard to get rid of. We need to get an update video on this one as they are now planted with blackberries for spring.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Would alfafa be a good cover crop option? Has tons of nitrogen, and I see it everywhere in the valley (west side)

@@elOratorio Alfalfa is an excellent addition to pasture for us here in AZ as it's perennial. We us it for Summer pasture and it muscles through our Winters as well. For cover crops we prefer something that either Summer or Winter kills to make it easier to incorporate into the soil. Cowpeas for example are fantastic for nitrogen fixing and they Winter kill.

@edge of nowhere farm thank you for always taking the time to answer the questions, it is deeply appreciated

@@elOratorio we're all learning from each other, so it's the least we can do!😉

Hey Kylan! We have used cardboard at the bottom of some of our garden beds, it takes a long time to break down. We have had great success with doing a cover crop of Daikon Radish to build soil in the beds. The blackberries are doing fantastic!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I figured it would take a while to break down. Lol!! Man, blackberries... In full az sun! Lol I grew a blackberry vine a while back in part shade, from seed. The second year it finally started to bloom then my dog ate it 😭😭😭 i tried a bush variety once but the sun cooked it.

@@kylanve they key to blackberries is variety. We have had VERY good success with the Prime Ark and Triple Crown varieties. The Prime Ark grows more like a bush, while the Triple Crown is a combination of bush and vine. Both will send out runners, but the Triple Crown is much more aggressive that way.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm awesome! Thanks! I need to order some! Lol

Getting ready to retire to Arizona from Oregon. Nice to know about growing black berries. Here we have the Himalayan Blacck Berry. They're considered an invasive species and grow like weeds.

So true Isaac. I (Duane) used to travel to El Paso regularly for work and remember it feeling a lot like home! A little cooler in the winter there from what I remember.

You'll be happy you invited those worms in! I'm not a fan of spiders, but they help take care of some of the other bugs. I try to remind myself of that when I see one and it makes my skin crawl!

Hey Russ. We get our wood chips primarily from Chip Drop and there is not an organic option. You pretty much get whatever the arborists are chipping that day. I'm not aware of a certified organic option for wood chips in Arizona.

We're about an hour NW of downtown Phoenix.

We don't do anything for those with the berry bushes. Once they start producing berries we'll have bird netting set up to keep birds away, but we have not had issues with mice and gophers on the blackberries. We do protect from both in the garden beds though.

Glad you enjoyed this one and yes we do have a consistent source of water form our well. It was one of many reasons we chose this area when we started looking for land around the Phoenix area. It sounds like you're in a similar situation with rainfall (or lack thereof). So far we have received a total of just over 4 inches year to date. What are some practices you've found that work with such little rainfall?

​@@EdgeofNowhereFarm One Crucial practice is to NOT Believe Moon Valley Nursery. (I'm about 20 miles straight south of downtown Phoenix.) I emphatically told them I needed trees that would survive entirely on normal rainfall. I'd water them a year, maybe two, to get them established. I spent $14,000 at that place for trees. Letting them do the digging is horrible idea because they make the smallest hole possible instead of break up a large area. Then When they all eventually died, I'd pull the trees out and found they were hideously rootbound--a tight spiral knot. When I complained after five months that almost all trees had Shrunk instead of grow, the guy simply started writing up my order for a pallet of "Moon Juice," their brand-name fertilizer. I said something like "?" and he said "Well, you HAVE TO Have Moon Juice if you waant them to grow." I them learned they "mean" for me to buy $9,000 of their stuff every year. I watered them for Four years, had to quit due to cost and 99% of them died. SO My recommendation is DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK. Also, learning about "Permaculture" is mandatory for my situation.

@@bigsmiler5101 ah, yes. We have a similar (although far less costly) story from them as well with our first few fruit trees. I'd like to think that at some point they will run out of people to mess over, but with all of the folks moving to AZ each year I'm not sure I'll see that in my lifetime. I'm sorry to hear it cost you so much. That is just criminal.

Hey there neighbor! Rabbits and prairie dogs will always be an issue with your crops and we have the same problem here (along with javelina which are even worse). If you watch our series on building our garden beds you'll get an idea of what we do to keep these out. I'll link our gardening series for you here; ru-vid.com/group/PLnT_wyDSIC9j6988GpwO1C8PlSbQ3kQcc Also take a look at our vlog from last week about Javelina and the additional protection we give these beds to combat them; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gshta9Rj2os.html Hopefully this helps get those piggies some fresh veggies!

For us that would be difficult due to our hard caliche layer about 1' down, but yes you can definitely sink the bed if you have the means to do it!

We're about 15 minutes outside of the Phoenix area, so we have access to free (or very low cost) wood chips from arborists through Chip Drop. Straw we buy from feed stores.

Hey guys! First off, congrats on getting that property ready to produce for you. We know just how you feel! As for answering your questions that's hard to do in a comment here on YT, but everything that we're doing here applies to your little slice of heaven. We have hundreds of videos showing you exactly what we've been doing. There are several playlists we have set up, so you can narrow down your search. I'll link to the irrigation playlist for you here as that questions always comes up; ru-vid.com/group/PLnT_wyDSIC9jOwEr_CetZQY-R6RQT_uIJ We also offer consultations if you're wanting some one on one advice. You can find our rates on our website and as side note, the pricing for anyone here in Wittmann would be on our digital fee schedule, so we would come to you for that pricing. I'll link to that for you here; www.edgeofnowherefarm.com/consulting

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I have been watching for a couple of years... you and another Arizona garden/homestead you tuber were my evidence to my mom that this is even possible. Being a single disabled mom I'm working against the odds already. But my daughter and I and our animals survived the first year! I think my biggest issue is not knowing when to plant what... And watering stuff... I always seem to kill it lol either to much or not enough water.... A series on what to do each month of the year... Like in June you do XYZ, in July you prepare XYZ, ect... When I can afford to have a consult I'll definantly connect with you that way.... On disability I'm just sadly not sure when that will be

@@Mysfit_Oasis If you get a chance, shoot us over an email, so I can forward you a planting calendar that's a good guide for us here in AZ. Our email is on the About tab here on YT and you can also find it via Google and Facebook.

Fall is the best time to plant them that's for sure.

The only time we've taken a PH reading was before any planting was done and we were typical for anywhere in this area at 8.4. I really wouldn't know since then, but I imagine it's a bit different in most of the soil since this time. As for the actual plant, we purchased it from Stark Brother's nursery online and it was an 8" stick. Not much over winter and then it came back strong in the Spring. We really haven't done much else besides regular fertilizing in Feb/May/Sept.

Great we will surely use your wisdom . Seems much is flourishing for you and with us (we r new to all of this) not so With the vines did you do about the same process . What breed is the best for the deserts?

@@messiahmindset2964 I assume you're talking about our grapevines? If so, I'll link to our planting videos for those here; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MZN_V4iQKGw.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nn2bNpabrrE.html The varieties we have had the most success with are; Seedless/Table Grapes - Flame and Thompson Wine Grapes - Cabernet and Zinfandel

Thank you will surely watch it . I have just another question. What else did you do to this soil to complete it ?

@@messiahmindset2964 nothing. We fertilize with composted manure 3x/year, but even that is not as consistent as our fruit trees as it's much harder to get in and fertilize.

No, modern concrete blocks are made from cement and unless you have a VERY low PH environment they don't do anything to the soil.

Couldn't agree more on this one!

Definitely true on that. My thought was to save the time trying to re-position and level the bricks after the fact, but it would have made the lines a bit easier!

Ah yes, very familiar with those Danny. They are an excellent choice for young, desert adapted trees. Especially when getting them established!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Great. I saw them in action on a Video about the Greening of Israel featuring the work of a Christian organization in Judah and Samaria. One of the guys featured now runs a site entitled The Israel Guys.....2 American guys do some very interesting Videos about a lot of things that are happening in Israel.

Great choices! They have done a great job for us as well!

For these beds we tilled, covered with straw, added a small amount of compost, filled with woodchips and then kept it watered daily over the Summer months. Today it has mass quantities of blackberries being harvested from it!

Those are some great insights here. We've really only touched the surface when it comes to livestock here on the farm. We do have plans to bring ruminants onto the farm, but with our limited acreage I'm not sure cattle will be the focus. So far we've only raised pigs and poultry, but we're branching out further this Fall, so we shall see.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm So until you get the other livestock you may be stuck with throwing a shovel full of chicken wast here and their as time permits? Hopefully you can find some kind of workable livestock. I don't know how sheep or goats would work. But I do hope you can find something that helps you.

@@tritchie6272 that's exactly what we're doing for now. Between the composted pig manure and the chicken manure we have a pretty good handle on the fertility for the trees. Finding it for the rest of the acreage is what we're tackling next.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Sounds like your gonna be busy for awhile. Hopefully Y'All will have enough time and enough help. I also hope that someday I can get out of this apt and start a small farm of my own.

@@tritchie6272 That's my hope for you as well. Just a few years ago we were in a small home in the city without enough space. We did everything we could, including working 3 jobs, to save enough to do this. If it's your goal and you work towards it, you can make it happen.

All of our Jujube trees were purchased as bare root trees shipped during the dormant season. Usually that's during the Winter or very early Spring months. If you're getting one in a pot you can plant at any time during the Fall through Spring.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm o.k…so winter should not hurt potted plants. Early spring would be March for us. May I ask where you ordered your trees from?

@@gordybishop2375 We purchased most of them from Planting Justice and groworganic.com.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm thank you kind sir for your replies

Great question! Those were transported from our old farm in the potted trees we brought with us. We had a very strong colony of worms on that farm, so it was nice to see them making a home in the compost here on this one!

I have so many questions and this is often asked of us during consultations, but what and how much are you looking to grow? Also, are you in AZ?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm yes, around the St Johns area…. Shoot me your info… I’ll need a consultation from someone knowledgeable of AZ eventually

@@sirj820 I'll link to our website consulting page for you here and you can get in touch with us; www.edgeofnowherefarm.com/consulting There is a lot to consider before putting plans together centered as we have some very unique challenges here in AZ. A little different up that way, but similar.

Couldn't agree with you more on this. We have many reasons we do this, but one of them is the health aspect of farming in this way. The physical benefits to growing food are disregarded by far too many.

Hmm, that's a great suggestion. We're not much on tilling, but it sure makes sense to get the ground wet beforehand if you can!

Hey Ivy. This particular area also grows a few other crops now including Loofa, as well as rooting out small tree starts. The soil this has created is now quite fertile for many different crops.

Great suggestions Andrew.

I have never heard of a jumping worm before. Over to Google I go....

Thanks for the biblical schooling on this one Joe. I need to spend more time in the OT prophets, because I don't remember reading these. How fitting it is here!

That would be a great addition.

I get these from my work and we don't sell to the public (industrial supply company). I did find a near identical one on Amazon though; amzn.to/3L04AK9

RAINING here -- we are watching your video planting a lime tree.

@@mtnn4459 jealous of the rain!

Great suggestion Riana. We did just that in our raised garden beds and they did a great job of helping with that worm activity!

We didn't put carboard down here and it created fantastic soil for our blackberries by Fall.

Hey Patricia. We have raised veggie beds as well and they are 2 blocks high. These here are simply to create a designated edge for the woodchips and soil to form. It was also so we would be able to install structures for bird netting to protect the blackberries, but we've found the bird damage is not very extensive with blackberries, so it hasn't been necessary. To be honest, we may eventually go back and add a third row of bricks in the veggie beds to bring them higher up off the ground for ease of planting, harvesting, etc.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm thank you so much. We are enjoying your videos. I love what you have done with your piece of desert earth. Our plan is to create an orchard in the fall. We were wondering if we plant similar trees across from each other or behind one another. (Now that question sounds silly.) Similar trees need to be by each other even if they don’t need to cross pollinate, true?

@@patriciarobson8437 most of the fruit trees we grow here don't need pollinators, but if you find one that does you just want them to be within a couple hundred feet of each other. If you can keep them close you get a better chance of cross pollination.

Thanks!!! Planting our trees this fall.

Oh my goodness, I wasn't ready for that last bit! Are you talking a key ingredient in salsa, or the organizations that drive companies into bankruptcy? :)

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm .. just my soil lol needs lots of help ... But pinto beans grows good .. my little short videos shows what didn't work

@@Jesusiscoming24 we know just how you feel. We have a few videos on what has not worked and so many more beyond that!

It's a specialty around here. People come from all over to sample it! 😉

A little digging in the dirt is what we all need from time to time.

I'm sure that's probably the case. We try to take the path of least resistance, but it doesn't always turn out that way.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Keep up the good workk and great videos 🙂

Very true Krista. We take it a bit easy with the manure and mix it with plenty of wood chips. So far the worms are multiplying and having a blast in these beds. We're even finding them wandering up onto our outbuilding patio and into our tree rings that are over 100' away.

Hmm, we haven't seen that to be the case. I wonder if it depends on the type of worm? Maybe the type of citrus or how much it's degraded?

Maybe i live in sweden so it may depend on worms

@@1975CEES ah, ok. That may be the case. Wow Sweden, I imagine it looks much different around you than it does here!

Baked to perfection in the oven we call AZ!

Hahahah 🥴

We grow both quite well in the Fall and the tomatoes do great in the Spring. You just need to time your planting, which is critical no matter where you live.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I tried tomatoes in Kingman and by July they were all dead.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm wphave you tried watermelons?

@@timthompson8297 tomatoes need to be in the ground by February and then out by June or so. After that it's just too hot.

@@timthompson8297 yes, we've had decent success with watermelons. That's another one that needs to go in the ground in February (at or around your last frost date) and out by June or so depending on the weather.

Ok, thanks for the lesson on proper terminology.

You are wrong.