What happens when the gardener leaves! 

Let's start Monday off with a grand 'ol garden tour. I hope you enjoy (and learn lots from my mistakes!).

I love how your daughter is munching on peppers while you're packing them in jars. When my kids were little they'd follow me around the back yard, foraging & stuffing their little faces the whole time. I didn't even care that they were eating half of my garden before it was ready to harvest. 🤣

We pulled green tomatoes attached to the vines last year in October, when frost was forecast. We hung the vines in our mudroom on pegs, and all the tomatoes slowly ripened. We had tomatoes through thanksgiving! It was a great new solution for us

Pick some of your sweet potatoes leaves. The younger ones are the best, stem also. We cook them in butter with sliced onions and fresh garlic, salt and pepper them, so yummy!!!! They taste like spinach. It's a staple dish for us. Been eating them my whole life. You can also stem them and use them in different dishes. We also add them to our smoothies. Remember, it's only the new leaves and their stems that we use. My great grandmother used the tougher leaves and the stems, sautéed in tallow with spices and then puree them to add to soups as a base, meat loafs, artisans breads and homemade green crackers. My favorite! Thank you for sharing your gardens with us. GOD bless you all.

You can use the bigger cucumbers for cucumber salad. And you can actually cut them down into spears and pickle them. Neem oil is wonderful to get rid of beetles.

My husband swears by dawn dish soap when it comes to poison ivy. He recommends that you take it in the shower and wash all of your skin with it if you think you have touched poison ivy. Since it's a degreaser, it should take those oils right off.

Guinea fowl were the only solution that worked for our squash beetles. They are hilarious to watch and they don’t touch my garden veggies. Beautiful no dig!

Not sure if anyone mentioned, let the large okra dry, it splits beautifully exposing the seed. Makes an awesome ornament!

We harvested our corn this week and now we feed the stalks to the goats until our first frost.

Watching your channel is like a mini vacation. Lol. You guys are awesome. God bless y'all.

The cow was beautiful. Loved the 4 -legged gardeners too although the miniature 2-legged ones were also cute!!

Hehehe, just like my tomatoes. I always seem to never get round to staking them and every year I say I'll keep on top of it...and never do LOL

Your okra pods that are too big you could pull off and if they’re heirloom you could save them inside until they dry out and the seeds will be viable to plant next season! :)

Truly...after watching you...I will never, ever take for granted where my food comes from. 🤗❤

I like watching your disappointments as much as I like watching your wins. Because in gardening there are always fails and successes and that’s what keeps your videos natural. Thank you for that. Someone suggested wood ash over your squash, I will try that this year and see if it keeps the squash bugs at bay.

As you know fall hasn't arrived in the south. I am envious of your fall weather. The light has changed and looks so golden and pretty in your video. Your garden is so big and lush. Appreciate you taking us al9ng.

I am on Vancouver Island. Today I dug up potatoes that I had planted in the summer. You can actually leave you potatoes in the ground and they fair very well and avoids you having to store them in a cool dark place

This is so discouraging and encouraging in regards to my own garden - I've had so much trouble with grass growing in our no dig beds, but I think my weeding expectations were severely off because no one talks about just how much weeding they actually do. It it ridiculously helpful to hear you say you spent 3-4 hours a week, which is probably at least 30 min a day which is way more than I thought I'd need to commit to. But I'm going to try to commit to that next year and see if the method works better for us. (LORD WILLING WITH A BABY COMING IN FEB AND A 1 YR OLD ALREADY) Thank you. What beautiful gardens you have created.

Hey Shaye and Stue, I'm so pleased your Vacation was enjoyable 🐦. Nice save on the Okra👍. I had Potato Bugs this year for the first time 😝. I did get a few to Enjoy! You should see my Butternuts they are peeuny they were on a roll then they stopped with the cool nights, I really thought I figured it out 😢. Yours are beautiful 😘. Thanks for sharing your Garden. I think it's gorgeous for the first Year 🙌💥. JO JO IN VT 💕😄

Hello from Sweden.....🇸🇪💖 Shaye, looking at you, digging potatoes, with your bare hands made only one thought come to my mind... "Does she not have a really great potato hoe"?... I know you are trying out the "no dig garden" which is a wonderful method. But with potatoes I think this method is maybe not the best if you don't have a thicker layer of sand filled dirt. At least you do have to have a thicker layer dirt to get a bigger potato size and a bigger amount of potatoes.... But back to the potato hoe. I use a potato hoe that has been used for many generations in my family, and it still works very well. It's a wonderful tool!💖💖🇸🇪 Anyways, love watching all your beautiful videoes and I am learning a lot from them ..... And you have a gorgeous garden.... Everything looks very beautiful planned .... The design, the patterns, both the beds, but also the leaves patterns, works so well together.... And then there is all the colors..... They totally make their way into my heart.... I so love what you and your family are doing with the garden and I can hardly wait until next spring to watch it come to live again!!! 💖💖💖🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪

Beautiful garden! Looks like you need to buy a potato fork. It would make harvesting those many different potatoes sooo much easier. And you won’t miss as many🐝🤗❤️

Beautiful garden filled with bounty and nutrition! Imagine how much more had you been home!

If your plants thrive in the way you want them to grow, you are a good gardener. It doesn't have to look a "magazine worthy" garden.

Our quail go absolutely nuts for an over grown cucumber. It's the most prized snack. I like to tell them the big ones are simply too special for us to eat...

I learn a lot just by watching other people talk about their gardens informally - sharing failures & successes. Thanks for taking the time to make this video because it helps to see things in actual practice vs. just reading about them.

Love the kitty helpers.

As they only produce tubers at or above the level of the seed potato, you need at least 4 inches of mulch on top of the soil in your no dig patch. It's best to mulch them with straw or other material lightly when planting , then more heavily after the plants come up. Hope that helps next summer.

It would be really interesting to know how you meal plan! Future video please!!! Love your Channel! You inspire me!!!🥰🥰🥰

Congrats on your sweet potatoes!! I’m getting ready to try out a recipe for sweet potato dinner rolls . 🍞 🧡🍠

Don’t be disappointed with your potatoes. I piled my beds about 12” above the cardboard. I made this bed in the spring-about a month after I made the bed. I had the biggest harvest I’ve ever had. The plants were past my waist. I harvested when they fell over.

Goats can eat poison ivy, so maybe borrow one to eat it and then tackle what’s beneath the ground. Our neighbor has goats and got rid of all the poison by in our adjoining wooded area. 😊

Elliott,,thanku for Sharing I Could see the excitement on Your face,,getting back into the Field of your back yard. Yea Things look amazing,,peppers Sweet potatoes,,Butter Squash Also,,like the jars with peppers Inside....Look nice...Is It Cider Juice you use to Fermetize things Great to See your kids,,how big They grown....Do threwout this Spring-,,grow More Flowersss O.k...Many blessings

Thank you for sharing both the downs and the ups!

Such an abundance of fresh vegetables and canned goods. Great job!

There is plenty of use for such big cucumber. Perfectly fine for fermenting.

As my garden is in sweltering heat, this feeds my soul!!

Your videos are always so beautiful, even when you're talking about losing crops to disgusting bugs ;) Thank you for sharing the good, bad, and ugly; it's easy to just show a highlight reel without admitting that sometimes, things just don't go as we'd hoped.

Compost must be much thicker for no dig potatoes. I always plant my potatoes in ground because I don't like the no dig method for potatoes. I go down 4 to 6 inches and plant, then once they come up I keep covering them repeatedly until I get to sometimes 3 feet of cover over the potatoes, then I leave them to finish. I got 35 - 50 pounds on each of the 3 or 5 pound bags of seed potatoes I planted.

Sweet potato leaves sauteed with sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper and sesame seeds is delicious.

So happy to start my day with your inspiring content! Thanks for showing us a look into your life!

How fun too see your harvest! In the midwest we had extreme heat and drought so my harvest was very poor. Next year will be better!

Love watching your harvest! Please tell me you have lots of help...if you do, it would be nice to acknowledge that so we all don't feel like slugs!

Thanks for the tour! I always learn something from you and appreciate you sharing!

I have a neuro muscular condition that has made me rethink how to garden. Re: Growing potatoes: to follow no dig method, place seed potatoes on the prepared ground( compost added). Cover with straw, at least 6 inches. Then go back time and time again, covering with more straw. In fall, rake straw away, and pick up potatoes. No real digging at all required. Worked WONDERFULLY this year. All straw will be covered with decaying leaves and left to compost over the winter

I saw this method in Farmers almanac how to remove poison ivy oil. Since then I never had a problem after catching some poison ivy. You need a washcloth with a soap, I like to use dish soap, and just rub the affected area as if you trying to remove mechanic oil from your skin. And repeat that each time it starts itching. In my case the each went away and irritation dried up very very quick. The most important thing is washcloth.

This was my first year with sweet potatoes too and it was so rewarding. We have lots of moles and they aparently love them but yes, the sweet potatoes blanketed everything

Lovely video as always! I absolutely adore the style of your videos, they are so enjoyable to watch.

Count yourself lucky!! My friend was also stung in the eye and lost her sight in that eyeball

Omg, what a beautiful garden and harvest!

Beautiful garden Shaye, and what a harvest. So looking forward to autumn this year.

Love your harvesting basket! I have had one for years, and bought my daughter and daughter-in-laws each on last year.. they love them also! Garden is looking great!

Stormy morning an what a great treat 💜God Bless you an your whole families hard work 🇺🇸

The potato desapointment in the nodig area is likely due to the excess of nitrogen. The tomato patches also gives it away.

How much fun was this....Thank you ♥

August into September I feel like I have feet in both worlds. One in the garden bringing in and preserving the last of the harvest and prepping the farm for winter and the second homeschooling our children. This balancing act happens again in April/May when it's time to plant yet school is in its final days. It is so crazy busy right now U can barely keep it all together.

So excited for you and the sweet potatoes! I can’t wait to try growing them

Best way I have found to pickle peppers is to bring the ac vinegar to a boil.. pour over packed peppers to cover and seal lid. So simple and peppers stay crisp.

Love all of your videos and I adore your books, I have read them multiple times. Your garden looks great, mine is mostly dead at this point. Thanks for sharing.

Shaye, you are an excellent teacher!💖💖💖 Thank you for sharing your knowledge and beautiful life with us! We appreciate you so much!

Amazing! I got a bit anxious when you showed everything and I thought, “this girl is a far better woman than me”. Everyone gets a piece of that labor…… family and the animals and I’m sure, friends. The production at the end was so impressive. The colors of the peppers in the jar were popping. As always, a great video and love to see the kids partaking! You all got some nice color on your vacation. Well deserved. XO

I'm envious of your many days of warm weather! Here in coastal (400 feet from the ocean) WA, I'm still figuring out what will grow to maturity in our long cool summer days and short growing season.

Another RU-vidr I watch grew potatoes in a no-dig bed. She used straw to mulch over the starts and then continued to mulch as the plants grew. This may have given the plants more space to "root".

I enjoyed this more in-depth video sprinkled with insight on harvesting, pests, storage, etc. Thank you! P.S. I was so excited for you when you pulled out the sweet potatoes!🤗

Poison ivy naturally grows with trees. The reason you have a problem with it is because there was seed in your mulch. When you get bulk mulch it usually will have poison ivy in it. So that’s why the cardboard didn’t help because the seed was on top of the cardboard, in the mulch. I suggest spraying with a 30% vinegar solution while the plants are still leafy and then burning them with a torch after they die back.

Hey BeautyFull! Thank you so much for taking us along on this end of summer garden treasure hunt and sharing so many valuable details! I deeply enjoyed the ride and learned something! Blessings

🍅😁😁😂😂 tomato 'patch" 🤣👌🏻

The bugs aren't disgusting, they are wonderful...

That was SUCH a delight to watch! Thanks for sharing!

I loved watching you pickle! I’m over here measuring all my ingredients like a newbie.

Love your living totem poles!

I have seen farmers put tarps over their onions in the winter and just pick them as they need them through the winter.

GREAT garden tour. What a great place younhave created. September weather is definitely nicer and I'm so impressed with the weed control. The tomatoes are incredible!! Love your sweet potatoes blanket! Just really impressive garden space.

What a delightful video! Thank you, Elliotts! :)

I just love your video's! We have so much in common, we homeschool too, used to be homesteaders (my husband and I were raised that way), I do home cooking from scratch, veggie ferments, tinctures, homemade pasta, the works, and I used to grow large gardens like you, at least a couple acres. Now we live in town and I only have a backyard one so I'm learning urban homesteading which is interesting! Our backyard garden doesn't get a ton of sunlight so it's been interesting to figure out what will do well. I learned this year cabbage does great in it. BTW, if you get into poison ivy again a mix of clay (Redmond or bentonite) mixed with water and some oils like tea tree help so much to draw it out.

Here in South I would leave the potatoes in until the plants are dead or for me until the flooding begins. We plant in February and March and harvest in May or June. I use no dig methods. They don't like the mulch pieces though so they go in raised compost and sand with mulch foot paths. Had a great season this year before it began flooding. I love your content btw! Thank you. I mention you often on our stuff! BTW love SC!! Great state!

Oh we use those big cukes for six day day and mustard pickles. And when the go yellow, i make relish...easy with with a food processor 🥰

Beautiful video…. I love, love parsley too… I chop it and store it in the freezer… I will have it green and fresh all the time..🥰

How fun! I grow sweet potatoes too down in our valley and am amazed they do decently here! Hooray of you Shaye! Cheers!

Potatoes grow above the seed potato you planted. If you haven't placed that deep enough, you won't get any potatoes from the plant, no matter how lush the green side was. You can try adding a ton of mulch or straw on top of the seed potato. Also, your soil seem to have a lot of Nitrogen (which promotes the growth of leaves) and far too little Potassium (which promotes the growth of tubers and roots in root vegetables).

with the no dig, the potatoes did really well in our garden.

You can take the okra slice across,dry the little stars for Christmas decorations 🤶🏻

Guessing you must have gone to Gulf Shores, AL !!! I used to live in Daphne, AL. I hear you mention Fairhope now and then. Again, I enjoy your videos. So relaxing--almost like a trip to the shore.

That's hilarious the cats on the post!,

Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite, most satisfying things to grow!

Thank you for all the helpful tips and a look at some successes and failures!

Loved seeing post vaca garden. Had same experience in August. Corn was a loss. Smiled to see you pulling up stalks to be repurposed for fall decor. Mine are setting beside the pile of rotting pumpkins that i planted too early and were overrun with squash bug while we were away for a week. Guess no more summer vacations for us now that we are fully committed to grow-your-own. Thanks for sharing failures as well as successes; wasn't sure why my peas all burnt to bits in April until I watched your spring video on hot compost. we eventually got things growing. Love no dig. Have 5 different beds...some with zero weeds and some where we pull grass all summer. Always experimenting. Would love to see video of your composting system sometime. Like you, we trucked in compost, but can't be doing that forever. $$$! Used fluffy compost from chicken run to hill our potatoes for nice harvest. Next year...sweet potatoes. As always, so inspired! Thanks!

Sweet potatoes grow like crazy here in the desert. My favorite!

I live in the city, my harvest consisted of 4 tomatoes and one pepper that I had to leave in the window to ripen. 🤣🤣 First time ever and I sucked it up!!

We only cut back and dispose of poison ivy in the winter...still have to take precautions but its less of a spread if its dormant. And we also just bring a bottle of dawn in the shower and wash up with the soap 3-4 times!! 😂😂😂I seriously am probably overprecautious but I refuse to get that nasty oil on me ever again😂😂😂👍🏼

Love your gardening style, a lot like me. To be honest, I just like to grow things and even if garden is a bit messy, I get wonderful soups out of. Add homemade bread and I am happy!

Trying to listen to what you have to say but youre just so mindblowingly beautiful every f'n second... stop that haha :). I think you struck magic here by just walking around, with music set at a minimum, you just speaking your mind stream of consciousness - not orchestrated in any way, and 0 pretentiousness whatsoever (and I'm a pretentious person sometimes, and I like that as it shows you have vision etc). Just love it...

I reckon folks shouldn't vacation during garden season. Yikes. Your gardens still look amazing !!! Loved your excitement over the sweet potatoes. 💖 Meanwhile, we've had a solid month of rain. I don't enjoy digging potatoes out of soggy soil.

You inspired me to ferment pickles for the first time. Then I happened to pick some plums and decided to make plum syrup with cinnamon and orange zest. I am going to preserve some green beans today. I'll store the tomatoes in oil I stead of letting them rot on my counter. Usually we grow things every year but then I dont know what to do with it and I hate canning in a water bath. I would not have done these things without your inspiration. Thank you.

You can preserve the butternut squash that needs to be preserved quickly by pressure canning them in jars for long term storage

You can leave your sweet potatoes until the 1st frost & harvest just after. You can get 10lbs of sweet potatoes per plant. At least in the great lakes region. Also curing is not as picky as everyone says. Because of our weather & storing conditions we simply leave potatoes to store in our 70 degree house year round. 90% will stay good. Any going bad, wrinkle & give off an alcohol smell, but do not get messy. I have kept good "seed" potatoes for 2 years kept in 70° storage. We have been doing sweet potatoes this way for 15 years on our farm & learned from a seasoned 70 year of local farm market owner.

This is so inspiring. I have been following along for a while and I always feel this nudge to change the way we live but always been to scared. I just found that I might loose my job due to vaxx mandates so we might actually be forced to do this.

Glad you got to get away for some rest and renewal time! Bindweed would have come up anyway, sadly. It’s tenacious! I understand you not wanting to deal with the squash bugs. The problem with leaving them is they will keep multiplying over the years. Ugh! I hate them! I have had success(the only success) with spraying them with Neem oil mixed with Azamax. Excited for your sweet potato harvest! Someday I will.

Your kitties are beautiful. Lol their fun 😉

I love watching your videos they are so beautifully done and inspiring. I’m going to make the rosemary infused olive oil that I watched you do

You have a beautiful garden 🤗🍃