Welcome to the Liberty Homestead and a step-by-step guide on how you make your own huge no-till garden, for free. #backtoeden #organicgardening #notillgardening
You've done research alright! I'm close to retirement & my father used newspaper & cardboard to suppress weeds, along with leaves from several blocks around for mulch. This was applied every year that made the night crawlers ( worms) happy. In five years the soil got black & very rich. Fireplace ash was sprinkled around every time it got cleaned. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one to benefit from the old ways. Happy Green Thumb 👍!!!
I used to get 200 90gal garbage bags full of oak leaves from one house down the block where I used to live every fall. Great for creating dirt in a short amount of time.
Wait… you had legs and feet this whole time??? Mind blown. You’ll do great with this new channel! We’ve been doing this for 13 years now, and you probably already know more about it all than we do. (We may or may not have a Pampers box or three in our gardens, so I won’t tell on you.)
Ok, I gotta admit. I learned a LOT from this vid. NEVER would have thought to use cardboard. I've always used that damn weed barrier crap that causes more trouble than it helps.
Oh, Liberty Toddler will become your biggest taste tester, too. My youngest daughter is eight. We had a food plot when she was a toddler, and we had a tough time restraining her from eating all the tomatoes. Harvest was always a race to get hold of as many as possible, before she went through and demolished them. On the plus side, she made sure we always had volunteer tomato plants popping up throughout the yard. 😁🤣 She loved her "meetoes".
@@libertyhomestead I had a feeling. When littles grow up eating raw fruits and veggies as a big part of their diet, they won't like the other stuff later on. The only downside is keeping them from being the only ones who get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. 🤣
You can always get free seeds from a local library that works with a local planting hobby group. The one that I go to has the free seeds. The only issue is that you're kind of at the mercy of whatever type of seed they have there.
They have a seed library here that rotates between locations, but i had already gotten my seeds for the season when it opened. Then I completely forgot. I'll have to mention it in another video!
I have a similar setup, with one important difference that you might want to try. Right in the middle, I dug a circular pit, got a metal trash can from HD, the kind that has the enamel coating so it doesn't rust out. Then I sawed the bottom off of the can and buried it about 4-6". All the food waste, pulled weeds, spent soil from repotting houseplants, grass clippings, basically all the biotrash that can fit in there goes in there. Handful of dolomitic lime pellets and perlite every now and then, like once a month, then keep the lid on. Planted a horseshoe of hardy hibiscus around it, keep a big potted confederate jasmine on top of the lid during the summer for looks, and my food crops all around the inner perimeter of the enclosure. So the compost pit is constantly leeching nutrients into the soil around it, and every spring and fall I have a trash can full of compost to use wherever I want. It gets amended with neem cake if the compost goes in a houseplant pot, to kill off pest larvae and give the plant a pest shield from the inside. Keeping my food crops healthy and producing was a lot harder before I started doing this. It feeds blueberries, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, cantaloupe, squash, carrots, and herbs like basil and thyme for a groundcover between the bigger plants.
I love your Liberty Doll channel, I'm sure this will be a success for you as well. Smart and pretty. Gardening in the south is a lot different than the north. Weed pressure is CRAZY in the south and you are off to a good start with your cardboard barrier.
Looks like you’ve been holding out on us, Girl. Huge news! Looks like Liberty Toddler been taking the 5th on this all year as well. YT algorithm finally got off its duff and pushed the news to me today. What zone you in? Here’s some other homestead/gardening sites I follow. They may help. It’s not that they are better, or compete. I find it fun to see the similarities I have, and note the differences. Plus, I compare my gardens to theirs. Other organic sites: Charles Dowding - expert on mulches Lazy Dog Farm - I learned so much from him this year Growfully with Jenna - Locally by me. That 1870’s Homestead - Locally, by me You’ll do well on this channel. There’s an enormous gardening community out there. 🧑🌾👨🌾👩🌾
THAT was precious! The only time I tried a garden in my failed attempt to go 'off the grid' ... the only things that produced were cucumbers, ochre, basil and dill. Your pickle making vid would have been helpful back then. You did say roving herds of deer. Hmmm, waiting on that venison spaghetti making lesson. Hint, hint. 🤠
The boss says you must bounce? I think she wants a fun piggyback ride. 🙂 In my woods I use cardboard and ashes to keep the path clear, until this year. I blame my grandson for keeping me too busy, he's 2 1/2. This looks like a good channel. Keep up the good work. Everyone have a wonderful day.
Great way to start a garden. I did a small raised bed last year and quadrupled it's size this year. What I love about composting is the surprise plants that grow up on their own. A week after harvesting my potatoes I had a pumpkin plant shoot up and now I have about a dozen pumpkins growing in my potato bed. Perfect timing Lol
Your teddy is adoraball! 🤗 Been living off-grid in Alaska for over 6 years now. Haven’t quite gotten around to a garden yet. That comes next summer when we plow a hill to mount solar panels on. But the nice thing about gardening here is an abundance of edible food grows wild here and even though there's no growth for half the year, the half that we do get growth in is like the jurassic era. And it's room temperature outdoors generally, making it easy to manage things. Anyway, what you are doing is somewhat common here. Subsistence gardening is very popular here and people have a tendency to do it hobbit style, with minimal environmental impact. One of the unsung perks of home gardening is you aren't getting the crap they put in produce. That and it tends to taste better and fresher.
That excellent and I’m excited for this new channel. My wife has started gardening on out 10th of an acre in the city. With the yard measured we can fit 7, maybe 8, 4’x12’ garden beds out front and an 8’x8’ in back. For fertilizer the cheap option for us are the rabbits my daughter raises. Get some meat rabbits and their manure is a cold manure that won’t burn roots so it can go straight into a garden.
Well, well, well! The first video on this channel. I’ve got to say I love getting in on the ground floor,so to speak. Really looking forward to this channel growing and expanding. Thank you for what you do!!❤
I started Building my garden around March. I'm using old military crates (I got them from work) and filled them with the soil. I've sectioned out areas of my back yard, layed down weed barrier and mulch. Then placed my crates. I now have strawberries growing and Anaheim Peppers. I've also place paving stones as walk ways, just to be a little pleasing to the eye. Also for the strawberries, I've made a lid of chicken wire to keep critters out. My future plans include watermelons, various herbs, raspberries, and maybe a grape vine.
@@libertyhomestead as is everything in life. I just never devoted enough time to research what not to do. Weed management has been my main issue, we had heard about the cardboard and mulch but thought that some 3 year composted manure would not have living seeds in it and boy were we wrong. That mixed with what was living underneath it killed our last attempt. Now we know better though!
Thank you for the information on "Chip Drop". We use multiple truck loads a year and they are harder to find in recent years. I like your new channel. You offer good guidelines for gardening.
For vegetable matter, I use a lot of grass clippings and pulverized leaves (my mower can bag). I dig shallow pits and mix leaves, grass and dirt in them.
Talking from personal experience...the packing tape you left on the boxes will never degrade. You'll find it years later still in the ground. Not a big issue. You just get rid of it when you dig it up.
I’m glad to see you expanding into prep! I don’t have much of an online presence but I’ve been seriously gardening in a “let’s see if THIS will work” sort of way for about 10 years. My first location was in an area that was originally a soda lake and the soil was alkaline and could not be used. I used scrap wood from the shot up target backers on our gun range to build raised beds…. Failed! The delivered soil could not be laid on the alkaline soil even with cardboard under it. One step at a time I kept adding protective measures until we got to completely raised scrap wood container boxes the size of my picnic table with soil made from Starbucks used coffee grounds and wood chips, 50/50 mix. It took me about 6 years to master gardening over awful ground and by the time I moved from there I had managed to have enough wood chips groomed by several dozen free range chickens to start growing crops on the ground.
From what I gather, gardening is all trial and error, lol. In the future I want to do a video on how to test your soil. It was a little too much for me to try out this year
I love that you are starting this channel! Homesteading and 2a certainly go hand in hand. We moved to NC a year and a half ago and sadly we found out the DuPont company contaminated our well with PFAS chemicals. We are starting with raised beds just in case it's in the soils as well. It's all new to us, so we are learning right along with you!
A great and easy way to deter deer beyond fencing is to get pantyhose and put a bar of Irish spring soap in them. Deer dislike the smell of the soap and a bar will typically last all through the growing season. Just make sure to tie them at each corner and in the middle along the sides for good coverage.
Thanks for inviting me to your new channel. I FINALLY got back into home gardening, after a long break. Started last year actually (it was disappointing). No tillage is important on 100+F days. Don't work hard for your garden, make your garden work hard for you!
Yes! My neighbors till and their stuff has been drooping a lot faster than mine in this heat. Finally going out to water today after about maybe 5 or 6 days, even though it's supposed to rain the rest of the week. Just going to give them a sprinkle to hold them over
I’ve been on my three acres for about 12 years now in northeast MS and have tried several methods of gardening. I am settling in on creating a food forest, which does incorporate the back to Eden thing of sorts as well as hugelkultur. The garden channel with James Prigioni is my main source of inspiration. Where he only has a back yard to cover in wood chips and stuff, I’ve got a full acre, but little by little, I’m getting there. And talk about doing things on a budget, I’m 67 years old living off social security and military retirement. It’s taking me well over a year to build a greenhouse, which is still only about 1/3 complete. Anyway, gongrats on the new channel and I’ll be watching.
Check with your local power company for wood chips. Ours (Arizona Public Service) has a program, but you are not guaranteed what kind or how much (or when) you will get. It depends on their trimming ops around the power lines.
Oh dear! I did not know you did this! I started researching homesteading on quarter acre plots a year ago. Thanks for spreading this to the 2Acommunity
some towns also have mulch/chip piles that the local residents can use what they need. its form all the leaf and tree debris and xmas trees they pick up and shred
Might I suggest looking into incorporating some permaculture onto your land? I'm just starting to learn more about it myself. Also, I don't know what kind of beans you're growing, but so far this year I've grown a twenty-one and a half inch long snake bean! Also known as yard long beans, Asian beans, Chinese beans, Japanese beans etc... They require a trellis, but are very light. I have mine growing along the same four foot tall fencing you have around your garden. If you do get some, go with the red ones, they are much easier to see when surrounded by tons of green leaves.
Great job, I’ve loved your other channel, and I watch numerous “homestead” and garden channels. I like this. My wife was enamored by your “apron” good reuse of stuff
Great video. I've always had mixed feeling on the "survival garden" concept. Pro and cons, I guess. I've gone more with fruit trees and bushed, a bit lower maintenance. A few years back got a couple of Goji berry bushes, deer got one and other finally really took off this year. I love your tool apron. That one had not occurred to me. Isn't it great to have been born with the "MacGyver" gene. 😃😃😃 Looking forward to more video. Be well.
@@libertyhomestead Thought you were just running late and forgot to put your shorts on. Then they were backwards when you ran the belt through. Though I might just try that... That does look extremely comfortable. 🧐
yes! I laid my cardboard and compost in October or November, didn't add my wood chip until I think February or March, planted in late May. It's nice you can start whenever and do it in chunks.
Ha! I started watching and right away thought "She looks a lot like Liberty Doll?!?!" As someone with prepper tendencies I have substantial interests in both guns and gardens, lol. Judging by the solid substance in your Liberty Doll videos I'm looking forward to some GREAT content on this topic!
I've always heard that deer won't eat stuff grown in horse manure. One technique I like is the three sisters plant corn when it gets so big you plant climbing beans and squash to cover the ground if you plant family garlic it looks like green onions around your garden it will help keep the critters away
A tip. Local county fairgrounds are usually a good source of manure, straw bedding mixed with droppings (carbon + nitrogen) and it is free all you have to do is load it, transport it, and spread it.
My 1st year of learning to garden I read a book by Ruth Stout & used her method with wonderful results. The only thing I didn't do that she did was to garden nude...LOL
Also check with your local city and county maintainance department, as well as local utility companies. They all are removing problem trees all year round and would probably be glad to have somebody take some off their hands. There may also be a local municipal compost site making compost for the local community.
Really happy to see this channel. I have been really saddened by some of the other channels like Doug and Stacy and patriot Nurse has moved far away from the prepping, homesteading that they founded their channel on and are now gone totally crack pot conspiracy theory, especially Doug. Just stick to your original thought and you'll do really well. edit: make sure when you lay cardboard you are removing all packing tape on the cardboard as it does not decompose and will make a root barrier in your soil. Also, yeah avoid the glossy cardboard boxes as it doesn't decompose well either. Good thought on how to get the brown boxes, look online in FB or other list sites for people who just moved, or contact a moving company to see if they have boxes that were used and are now going to be discarded.
Hey Doll, fancy meeting you in SC ( Upstate here ) on a Homestead channel - watched you before the move on your Patriot channel - like your style - your babes beautifull - welcome to the land of red clay, ya'll and centipede grass - take care - ketch ya later 😊
Another possible source of chips is your utility company. A lot of them chip limbs they cut to clear lines and they'll drop a load when they are cutting in your area.
Great video! I've learned so many things the hard way, LOL! I blame you mostly for not having this channel up five or so years ago. Now I'm going from an Indiana growing climate to a central Tennessee climate. So much to learn all over again.
Well you mentioned this channel in your latest Liberty Doll video and guess what came up in my feed next to the LD video, this of course, well done YT.
Chip Drop is great. I got a call and they let me show them where I wanted it all. I paid $20 to offset their fees and couldn't be happier. Took about 2 weeks and I had my shipment.
@@libertyhomestead I tended to use local tree services a made sure I had six packs of the drivers favorite well chilled soda on hand. They always seemed very willing to place the chips where it worked best for me 👍
Delighted to see you have a variety of interests! As a kid we hijacked part of a farmer's windrow to make a large garden. The experience was extremely positive for us kids. You're a lot more willing to try new foods when you've watched it grow. Even with that experience, I have found Backwoods Home (magazine) to be a useful resource.
Good job, I was born in may way back in 1965, Mom took me outside and worked her kitchen garden that spring so I guess I've been learning how to do this since I was born, LOL. If you can find some organic Poop, chicken cow ect NOT PIG!!!! get that composting it's wonderful. And trellis your tomato's
Sources to consider: Cardboard: Pallet "slip sheets." Buy if you can't mooch from a local business. Wood chips: I use pine pellets for cat litter. Need I say more? Looks like you could rename your garden a "health club" and get folks to pay for the privilege to help out :)
Just watched from hub’s computer while I sit on this iPad. I’ve watched you for a few years on your other Chanel which the hubs subscribes too. We are both retired and have a garden every year ( wasn’t sure I’d have one this year cuz I had knee replacement mid April). Hubs tilled up the garden KNOWING if I had to look at that tilled patch of dirt, I’d have to put the garden in. We had such drought here in east central Iowa this year I only pick 1 gallon of black raspberries, fortunately I picked about 5 gallons of mulberries. Canned up21 qts of tomatoes, frozen up packages of green peppers, and last week dehydrated 16 qts of puffball mushrooms. Canning is great but consider a dehydrator and a vacuum seal machine. Those two have really helped up preserve things. O, I’ve also vacuum sealed canning jars too. Love to see you out there with your little supervisor, maybe next year she can help you weed. Sending hugs to you and yours from east central Iowa. .
We have a vacuum sealer and use it for meat all the time. A dehydrator is definitely on my list! Sorry to hear about the rough garden season out there this year
Wow, I didn't know you had a homesteading channel until now! My mom just started the no-ti8ll thing this year and it's been great! Now I don't have to do all the tilling for her. lol
I was watching an aussies channel called self sufficient me and he was suggesting planting table food scraps around the boarders of the garden. May want to give it a try.
I ended my 3 yr experiment with no till garden last week end when I tilled the whole Garden. Weeds and packed soil are the result of a no Till garden. It took hours to get the soil tilled up and loosened up. It was like tilling Concrete. Don't waste your time on this No Till crap. Buy or make good compost and till it in every Fall. Till it in the Spring before planting and Till it in the Fall with Compost.
Love seeing others get into this hobby. I did ChipDrop myself last fall, in 9B, and also ended up with a 12t pile of chips in my driveway. Took me almost 2 weeks to move it all, one wheelbarrow load at a time, to the back because of my day job and the fact that Phoenix is still triple digits in September. If you don't already have one, pick up a good broadfork tool. They break up compacted soil better than high powered gas tillers, making them great for no-till setups.
@@libertyhomestead I purchased mine from a small family business in Wisconsin named Treadlite. They offer 20in, 24in, or 30in broadforks, with steel or ash wood handles. Heavy welded steel forks.
