I just retired & am starting an organic container vegetable garden on my porch & sidewalk utilizing companion planting methods. I’ve been composting for many years. You reinforced why this is such a great idea. Garden the way God does naturally. Thank-you!
We started our garden in the Autumn of 2021. We created three compost bins in our green house, and grew plants in trays on top of the bins. This Spring 2024 there was enough black gold in those bins to fill all our garden beds. This was in just 2 1/2 years. Thank The Lord! Now we are seeing the worms come in and we are focusing on building good soil. Thank you for your videos. I am loving how you present your content and thank you for sharing your knowledge. God bless you.
One thing I’ve been conflicted about, that you have straightened out for me, is what to do with compost. I used to mix it into the soil every spring but then I learned about no-till gardening, which is more like how nature does it. But then I didn’t know what to do with the compost. I realize that in nature, the compost is always added to the top. This makes lots of sense, as the water runs through it, and as it breaks down, the good stuff runs down into the soil and roots. I can’t believe I was so resistant to top dressing with compost but so happy I’ve overcome!
I'm from India, thank you so much. Love your video. I stopped buying fertilizer and soil!! I grow everything in homemade compost from kitchen scraps and leaves. It works excellently. I don't spray any pesticides and do lose some strawberries, beans, tomatoes, green chillies, grapes squash,muskmelon,watermelon, malabar spinach, (moringa) drum stick, passion fruit, herbs, phalsa, guava, blackberries, karvanda and flowers, roses, to pests.😊 It's not too bad at all. I'm OK with some pests too. It's a well balanced garden with the good and bad of everything.I don't stress at all. I'm hoping to grow bananas😁 Enjoying every minute!!
Put birdhouses on either side of your garden. They will eat the pests. Plant dill and carrots and let them bloom. They will attract good insects such as lady bugs which will eat the bad bugs.
@@xaviercruz4763I want to know what those are used for too. I grow mulberries though instead of blackberries, less seeds and no thorns. Everbearing dwarf gives me like two gallons every year for fresh eating, and freezing for recipes, great for jams and jellies too.
To be honest I didn’t want to listen to this video because it was just after fertilizing all of my fruit trees. I’m glad that I did and will reconsider my methods
I have been successfully growing my comphery in felt grow bags for several years. I'm in zone 5. I do nothing to keep it safe over winter. I harvest all summer long.
I was fortunate enough to have CZcams gardeners at teachers when I started gardening during COVID. Every day is a learning day and I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks Teach! 👍🏾
I stay away from that stuff and my garden is doing great! I could not figure out why soil for planters had a child warning on it- kids love digging playing with dirt - but that soil came with a warning- people please ask questions. Thanking you sharing your knowledge.
@@Trakehner20 Building soil takes time and patience something commercial growers don't have hence the use of fertilizers. How to build? Nature does it in many ways. You start by adding organic material - anything that you can find for free. Woodchips, cardboard, leaves, veg matter etc. Layer by layer and in a year, you are ready to plant your first tomatoes.
@@Trakehner20 use lots of natural mulch…. Wood chips/leaves/grass clippings/other plant material let it break down on top of your soil. (Don’t dig it in.) The mulch helps retain moisture, and protect the soil life. As it breaks down, it feeds all the micro-life in the soil, and your soil gets better and better every year.
Biggest thing I learned over the years: A-C-Y-S -> Always Cover Your Soil. Second biggest thing is the permaculture layering where you focus on canopy trees small trees then bushes/flowers and groundcovers.
Thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us! After gardening for 7 years mostly in pots, i have learned to stop buying anything with chemical fertilizers! i am now learning to grow from seed, and wow it is teaching patience! Gardening saved my life so now its up to us to care for mother nature the right way!!! You rock girl!!!!
I agree you need to feed the soil. Organic compost is an essential ingredient for most gardens. Also try cut grass, straw, alfalfa pellets, bone meal, and blood meal.
All of my grass clippings go around my fruit trees and in my vegetable garden and I add weeds, pine straw and chopped mowed leaves. I burned some straw, leaves and twigs in a few places before planting and this seemed to help too. I`m having to build soil here though because my yard was once a hill that got flattened and there`s hard red dirt mixed with gravel a couple of inches under the grass. I`ve been hauling in forest soil and leaf mold to build up layers of soil. I dump my garden wagon loads of soil on top of leaves, straw and grass clippings. It`s working though. I`m adding some lime pellets and bone meal so tubers grow better.
I've been hearing more about alfalfa meal lately. Great source of nitrogen, which most soil needs. Look for organic non GMO. Because otherwise it may have been sprayed with persistent herbicides during growing.
I love Big Bend. Have been there 3 times. On my 1st trip I too was amazed at the variety of plant life. The desert is truly beautiful. While I make compost and have a worm bin, my perennial beds live under a bed of leaves. Due to limitations in my yard, I have been using sunflowers, short and tall, to provide summer shade. ☺️
You are a very good teacher, focused, organized, emphasizing important points through careful repetition. Very effective. Skilled marketer, too.Thank you!
You are so brilliant. I am so glad that I found you. Will totally subscribe. I value intelligent and amazing people like you who are kind enough and generous enough to share your knowledge with the world. Thank you.
Hi! New subscriber here. I loved this video. Thank you for teaching, and sharing your knowledge! I began an organic garden 2 years ago. I always wanted a garden. I didn't know if I could make it work. My mom always had a garden and worked extremely hard, but didn't believe in organic gardening. Her life would have been so much easier if only she had known! I am on a learning journey, and I am loving it!
You are SO right about the natural strategy to backyard gardening! I'm doing patio gardening, and some box planters due to years of pesticides being sprayed on my lawn prior to moving here. I'm pretty sure I've killed many plants from over-fertilizing, and over-crowding containers with the same plants instead of diversified plants in same area/container. Thanks so much for the wake-up!!
I started my garden this year and I have just been winging it. I figured with companion plants and flowers that help with pest I was sold. Now I watch all these videos and find out I’m on the right track. Thanks for the video ❤
👍 We've put synthetics aside several years ago. Focused on creating a living soil with organic fertilizers & companion plantings, interspaced with ornamentals.
Always hated miracle grow, and I do have a composting bin and use that soil as an additive in my garden. Love that you made this podcast. It was very imformative.
Blue comes from copper sulfate. Some plants want it and it inhibits some soil pests. Copper and sulfur are both micronutrients provided here beyond the npk. I like natural approach more as well but these synthetic ones have a place too. I can allow nature to let my kale plant die or I can give it an immediate boost and keep it for the whole season. If I'm late a slower fertilizer applied at that time may be too late to save it. More natural slow fertilizers are better. They leech into the water table too though, even compost. So I'm in the camp of using a moderate amount of compost and then only using a fertilizer when the plants clearly need nutrition, and they'll show you. You could test the soil too. Using these in excess is still bad for the environment, and your wallet if your buying it :P I find composting food scraps, yardwork, and garden scraps to be enough to fertilize. You don't need to top your garden with 6 inches of compost. Important note about nitrogen fixing plants. That doesn't even start to become available until that plant dies, goes dry, and the roots rot. So your peas are fertilizing next year's crop and that's fine as long as you just keep doing it. Farmers will grow beans with corn and then cultivate the soil to speed up that whole process. It's not the best for soil health but it is a proven strategy. Still better for the environment than dumping loads of liquid fertilizer. I started my garden in straight up dirt. It was hard to even keep it wet. But I persisted and I fertilized my plants when they turned yellow and sad a couple times. By late summer I mulched everything with my own compost coming from yardwork and the garden that season. By the next spring that patch is doing beautifully. I don't need to do anything to get started with it. Liquid, highly plant-available fertilizers like miracle grow aren't the most desired but they definitely have their place in the toolbox. Apart from that gardeners should be responsible and not pollute with fertilizers. Whether its a box of blue or a truckload of compost that won't be used or will be over-applied. Through experience you'll learn how much slow-release organic stuff you actually need to add, and then unless you are hit with a surprise monsoon you probably won't need any additional boosts :) Sorry that's a wall. I think we let nature lead the way and help her when she needs it. Sometimes we see the bumps far out in the road and sometimes we first trip over them. Either way we use the appropriate tools that exist and work.
It is scientifically proven that synthetic fertilizer ruins soil. If immediate results is what you're after then by all means but if a plant is struggling you need to look deeper than the symptom which is what you see with your eye and look at what might be wrong with the soil. Nature does not and has not ever needed our "help" with making things bigger and better. To each their own if they choose fertilizer or not but your advice is awful for a new beginner just starting out. You would be doing yourself a favor by researching what synthetic fertilizer actually does before singing it's praises. Compost is EVERYTHING to a living and active soil and it is very much needed in the garden!
@@stephaniemckown7489 Yes nature doesn't need help to do nature things. But for me to fully benefit in my relationship with nature, I do need to give a steering hand from time to time. Compost is fantastic, ideal even. You need a few cycles to build a healthy soil unless you bring in a bunch of new soil to grow in. I believe establishing your own compost source is the #1 thing even if you're not going to garden. People all over are robbing the soil of their homes by doing yardwork, throwing it in a bin, and giving it away. And then when things die they fertilize that with synthetics they pay for. Big yikes. It doesn't even make economical sense. I had dead, hard dirt. There was a 3 inch mat of grass and moss and I wasted gallons of water just to get it wettable. I added an organic fertilizer based on chicken poo to that dirt after removing the grass and moss. It wasn't cutting it come late spring. Had good results at first. Better than the previous year where I added only seeds to that dirt (smaller experimental patch). But then everything turned yellow. I followed with 2 applications of the blue stuff like 2 months apart and had a great result. At the end of the year I had compost to cover everything with, and the next year I had a very healthy base to plant in with more compost on the way. It's visibly healthier in the yard even in spring when everything is at an early peak, its fantastic. I spent maybe $30 between seeds and fertilizer. I got dozens of salads and planned my expansion. I cleared a property taken over by trees and vines. I established an income of compost. I lost 40lbs too. So for me it was a tool and a stepping stone and I think that's perfectly fine. Tools are not evil, its how you use them. If I could deep mulch 9 months ahead of time or afford to bring in a bunch of soil and compost I'd do that. Its a better but more expensive process. I'm always going to point people in the more economical way to start, especially since there are so many scams and most people think its expensive to get started or be successful.
@@Nocare89I’m glad to hear based on your experience you’d do deep mulch; that is the route I’m heading. My husband got arborist wood chips free by stopping and talking with a crew that was doing work around power lines near us. If you have space to drop chips, they’d rather drop locally for free than drive somewhere and pay…
@@delyco1 Services like chipdrop also exist. I don't have the space for it right. I do have enough biomass around to both compost and mulch so that's worked out pretty well. Plus I have small trees I cut down I'm still working on breaking down for compost. We have a cherry tree that spreads like bamboo and was ignored for years.. it's been interesting.
WOW, I have never heard this explained the way you did, that is just an amazing light bulb moment, and very smart! I love people who think! I have always been more natural minded anyway, and don't like using chemicals, so this is right down my alley. It makes perfect sense, because like you said, in nature, there isn't store bought fertilizers being put on all the plants, and they grow just fine, the way they are supposed to! The plants in nature that grow around and next to each other, have a symbiotic relationship, they all help each other out in different ways....they way people should be too...but aren't. I always say "people could learn so much from animals and nature, but just refuse to".
I just came across your video and I totally agree! I after 50+ years living in The states have come to my little island. I am so excited because I live in an urbanized neighborhood but treat it like the country. Most people just have grass in the yard. I, on the other hand, started to throw seeds of fruits and anything I can get my hands on and everything grows. I have no training and I didn’t even think about it. I have trees and flowers and Herbs growing all around each other. I always get the skins of the fruits or veggies that I don’t eat or anything that is raw and throw it in the garden under the trees or in the dirt as compost. Another thing I started doing was playing classical music, and I swear the fruit on the trees is growing much larger. There is definitely a connection with just letting things grow naturally and having a good vibration in the air. I just recently acquired four miniature chickens, they’re more like my pets and three baby chicks. Their poop is definitely being used on the ground and I am so excited that everything works together. ❤️💯 I am a tropical country girl for sure!
Nicole, I have the same experience you have. I live in low mountains in an Italian national park. I don't use fertilizers. When the cows of my neighbour farmer are roaming near my place, I give them my water. He gives me mature manure. My small veg garden is in total disorder. No clean rows. The parsley has moved with the salad, the onions and salad with the tomatoes etc. With my preserves, I have enough tomatoes for the whole year. Everything tastes different. When I mow the lawn, trying not to mow the natural orchids as well, I leave the clippings on the spot to feed it.
I have a lot of trees, large trees and I let their leaves fall. We rake them down to a lower bark area, which is no longer bark and it’s beautiful because it’s all the leaves just end up turning into soil overtime when I go out and dig that and put that in my pots. I’m never been a big fertilizer person. I’ve used it, but I’ve used it very sparingly, I don’t spray plants. I have fruit trees don’t spray them. I have a few fruit trees, 3 lemon and a lime tree in greenhouse.. a lot of different types of trees and plants but I just think it’s best to use what we have and what we have is a lot of leaves turn them over sometimes put them at the bottom of the pots and they’re full of worms and dried leaves. Add them in pots again in summer. We use what we have. No waste.
I’m lucky to have a large garden and compost in multiple ways- tumbler compost, pallet compost bins, sheet compost leaf mould, chicken run compost. It’s satisfying. I grow in pots, raised beds and in the ground beds. I’d rather have a lower yield from a home produced and free growing medium than a higher yield from expensively purchased products as it just makes economic sense to me. But of course I have the luxury of space and abundant naturally available resources to do this and it would be harder for some folks to do.
Very inspiring. I'm an indoor, apartment gardener and always try to grow everything from seeds (preferably seed saved from last season as they are adapted to the micro-climate of my pots) and with natural fertilizers like wormcast compost. Never thought about the distribution of plants though. I will surely try it this season !
Thank you for the advice for a better gardening. I will fallow all your recommendations. I am very sure that all natural is best for the plants and people.
Yes, a layer of an inch does miracles. It also works as mulch in summer. It contains a lot of magnesium and calcium. Avoid it for plants that prefer acid compost.
I've stopped using mushroom compost because I don't know what the mushroom industry has used in their growing process (for those who don't know, mushroom compost is the used up growing material after a batch of commercial mushrooms has grown). I've never seen organic mushroom compost available, but I would consider that if it were sold. If you do choose mushroom compost, don't use it exclusively. Also use other types of compost or organic amendments like alfalfa meal. Using a single amendment risks overloading your soil with certain components e.g. mushroom compost contains gypsum and is high in salts and is high alkaline. You need balance.
I have plant pot vegetables and feed with himalayan salt in the water for the minerals..i have vompost worms in every pot too and i plant plants together and try and put the dead leaves back into the same pot to put back in what the plant took out the compost..great video, thanks..
We also have the Spanish olive several ornamental trees, a fig, an Italian, prune and many different berries and everything‘s doing well. I just got lazy and I said I’m using what we have. We have tons of leaves breakdown and it has been the best thing, and I never take all the leaves out of my flowering trees and, pretty areas around the yard where ornamental bushes. I let them sit because I’ve heard that that’s a good place. We’re a little frogs and things live throughout the cold months and we have tons of frogs a lot of different bugs that come around sometimes big bugs but everything seems to be doing well. And I just think it really goes back to using what you have and learning about, saving leaves and when you squished down leaves, you can just put it out in your garden beds are in your yard because it’s dark. It’s pretty it looks from a distance like bark or something but it’s much more natural and it’s what grows in your area. I’m sorry I’m rambling on, but it’s, just discovery that comes overtime of being a gardener not necessarily reading but just learning as you go.
Compost (self-made knowing what's in it)and good soil....and flowers and plants to assist in pest control!😊 It makes me feel so good and blessed to growing successfully without taking in harmful chemicals for my family and myself. Thank you, for this post of truth. (Only occasion of coffee ground water or banana peel water...only here and there, but not dependent.)
Agreed on compost. Manure is also a great way to get high levels of nitrogen into your soil. But what you're doing is fertilization, you're just accomplishing it organically. You can, absolutely, 100% garden using only synthetic fertilization. I don't necessarily buy that organic is better for the environment. You can also do a mix if you know what you're trying to accomplish. You can start your seedlings with a dilute fertilizer and then transplant them outside into an organic garden.
I try to spot feed various plants what they seem to need but I do a little of everything right now because I`m having to build a garden on top of a yard stripped of its topsoil decades ago by a bulldozer by hauling in forest soil in a wagon. But my test plantings in the new soil are doing 10 times better than before and I add all my grass clippings, chopped leaves, pine straw, leaf mold, weeds and whatever easy-to-get soil I can locate in the woods nearby. That has turned out to be a large pile of sandy muddy soil in a wash nearby. I tried to just collect leaf mold and richer soil but it would take too long. Anything is better than the hard packed red dirt with gravel in it that`s here that`s so hard you need a pick axe to plant a fruit tree. I can turn the sandy soil into good dirt after a couple of years.
About 2 days ago I bought a small 4x4x10" box of Miracle Grow to use once every week or 2 weeks on my plants. Now I watch this podcast of you aying NOT to buy Miracle Grow, darn! Only 5 minutes in so back to watching/listening and learning. Thank YOU!
I’ve gardened with the same philosophy for several years now. The only thing i disagree with from this video is that the animals eat lower leaves. That is partially true, deer, rabbits, etc love the fresh new growth the best - they eat the tops right off of lots of veggies. This is why I will often harvest the tops off of these types of veggies esp in early summer - 1) I get to eat it instead of the creatures eating it 2) It encourages the plant to bush out and produce even more.
4;25 minute mark...made me happy that I'm doing the square foot gardening method this year. The plants are absolutely packed in, shading the soil and each other and they are all companions. Natural soil food I use in containers etc is Gaia 4-4-4.
I liked your way of gardening. I am choosing to run with people who I feel can help me to shift in thinking and that I do not feel worried about. A lot of people's media team use me. I am worried about going through that again. I apologize that not following might look ridiculously mean; your info is amazing but I need to make sure I protect myself. I cannot solve how this country interacts with me. I just choose to avoid the same cycle again.
Yes , i dont use quimical fertilizer anymore !! i have start to learn jadam natural fertilizer and how to integrated in the gardem and its working great 👍 Greetings from Portugal and keep the good work
I began raising compost worms , and their castings are called ' black gold'[ for very good reason ... ALL plants LOVE the castings and the liquid ' worm juice' made from the compost process and /or soaking the castings. Nothing beats it as goodness for the plants and for the soils. My yard was barren when I arrived, and nothing grew beneath certain trees also. Now it's a lush jungle witha huge variety of veges and other plants . In 18 months .
I spent years in the Caribbean, we had so much trees growing healthy around us with little to no effort. My mom would just throw seeds out the window and stuff grew lol she did intentionally plant a few different plants, but many of the fruits and vegetables plants were neglected yet grew very well lol the soil in a low populated, less polluted area makes gardening easy. I bought property in Florida a few weeks ago and the weather is great for gardening so I’m going to start a kitchen garden and see how it goes. I hope the natural soil is as good as the Caribbean 😆
Very true doing the right thing for our garden soil to have natural normal vegetables and not huge over grown vegtables. The thing is growing food not how big I can grow my plants.
Greetings Nicole. My first time on your channel. God bless you for your great information. I've never used fertiliser in all my life of planting. I always go natural without any regrets. You're doing a great job. Keep it up and God bless you.
Thank you for the great information. You know another reason why plants of the same species grow better in close proximity? It is because they communicate with each other through their roots. Family matters. Same goes for plants.
Thank you for this Nicole. I have been moving more and more to the methods you promote because I am getting older and I want to garden but more efficiently with less work and heavy lifting, y'know what I mean? I want to pare down the "stuff" I use in the garden and the stuff I do in the garden, and less watering (mygod the watering the last few years has me really not looking forward to this garden season) and your way embraces that idea very well. In the past I had a whole laundry list of soil amendments I thought I had to use - not commercial fertilizers, but natural/organic soil amendments like kelp, rock dust, different kinds of composted materials, biochar, dried manures, worm castings, fish emulsion, mycorrhizal fungi, compost teas, Korean magic liquids :), bone meal, blood meal, etc....... I am almost out of some of these amendments and I think I'm going to go with just compost and worm castings and see how it goes. Thank you so much, it's actually quite liberating :)
I think natural soil amendments are just fine-hopefully that was clear in the video-basically just think about the way nature works and only add things that would naturally occur in the wild. You've got this!
Good for you, I hope ppl will listen to what you have to say, very good information. I make my own compost and liquid fertiliser from weed's and bit's of plants. I believe comvrey is great for liquid fertiliser. Awhile ago I was walking around to my daughter's house and this guy from the council was spraying roundwood onto weeds at the side of the road and kerb 🙈🙈🙈 O' my goodness that damage that can do to our land and as you said water's too. Thank you. 👍😉🇨🇮☘️Eire
I started my first vegetable garden ever, last month. 3.5' x 6.5' raised bed filled with organic raised bed mix (branches, sticks, leaves, grass the bottom 5" and the ORBM the remaining 12"). I already planned "no fertilizer" before I watched this because I want to see if I can grow these vegetables instead of Miracle grow growing these vegetables. I planted in 1' squares, but I am intrigued by your technique. Your method seems similar to the way I planted my perennial flower beds years ago. I'm curious how you mix these different plants if they require different amounts of water. ie. tomatoes next to basil. I'm going to have to search your video library for answers. Thank you for this video!!
This makes so much sense to me, the Creator put us humans in a garden to observe, learn, train and benefit from the perfect balance and self-replenishing/cycle of life, gift.
I would be cautious about saying "never ever" needing fertilizer. I do compost and manure and have for years. I grow mostly organic (I can't say organic because I outsource my compost) but I have had the occasional plant the just simply required a dose of fertilizer here and there. The neighboring plants were completely fine. I do agree that this process will work to eliminate wide spread consisten use of fertilizer, spot use may still be necessary
I just retired & am starting an organic container vegetable garden on my porch & sidewalk utilizing companion planting methods. I’ve been composting for many years. You reinforced why this is such a great idea. Garden the way God does naturally. Thank-you!
AMEN!!!
We started our garden in the Autumn of 2021. We created three compost bins in our green house, and grew plants in trays on top of the bins. This Spring 2024 there was enough black gold in those bins to fill all our garden beds. This was in just 2 1/2 years. Thank The Lord! Now we are seeing the worms come in and we are focusing on building good soil. Thank you for your videos. I am loving how you present your content and thank you for sharing your knowledge. God bless you.
One thing I’ve been conflicted about, that you have straightened out for me, is what to do with compost. I used to mix it into the soil every spring but then I learned about no-till gardening, which is more like how nature does it. But then I didn’t know what to do with the compost. I realize that in nature, the compost is always added to the top. This makes lots of sense, as the water runs through it, and as it breaks down, the good stuff runs down into the soil and roots. I can’t believe I was so resistant to top dressing with compost but so happy I’ve overcome!
"Trust nature," and that is the miracle. I love it
I'm from India, thank you so much. Love your video. I stopped buying fertilizer and soil!! I grow everything in homemade compost from kitchen scraps and leaves. It works excellently. I don't spray any pesticides and do lose some strawberries, beans, tomatoes, green chillies, grapes squash,muskmelon,watermelon, malabar spinach, (moringa) drum stick, passion fruit, herbs, phalsa, guava, blackberries, karvanda and flowers, roses, to pests.😊 It's not too bad at all. I'm OK with some pests too.
It's a well balanced garden with the good and bad of everything.I don't stress at all. I'm hoping to grow bananas😁
Enjoying every minute!!
Put birdhouses on either side of your garden. They will eat the pests. Plant dill and carrots and let them bloom. They will attract good insects such as lady bugs which will eat the bad bugs.
❤@@deborahpacheco2799
That's one reason I plant sunflowers! Places for birds 🐦 to watch for bugs 🐛 to dine on.
What’s karvanda and phalsa?
@@xaviercruz4763I want to know what those are used for too. I grow mulberries though instead of blackberries, less seeds and no thorns. Everbearing dwarf gives me like two gallons every year for fresh eating, and freezing for recipes, great for jams and jellies too.
To be honest I didn’t want to listen to this video because it was just after fertilizing all of my fruit trees. I’m glad that I did and will reconsider my methods
Comfrey is a plant growth stimulator. It grows abundantly if you have the space. Also great for healing broken bones.
I used comfrey to make my compost juice 👍
@@LashusJourneyplease can you advise how you do this? And how to care for comfrey? Thank you 😊
I have comfrey in my garden and it’s definitely a game changer 💛
@@denisecovelle938where does one get comphrey seeds?
I have been successfully growing my comphery in felt grow bags for several years. I'm in zone 5. I do nothing to keep it safe over winter. I harvest all summer long.
I make compost tea with the leaves of various plants and even broadleaf weeds as well as comfrey. It’s stinky, but it works well.
This is how I garden. It is nice to be validated!❤
I use Alaska fish fertilizer and I feel pretty good about it
Organic fertilizer!
You can also bury fish deep like near or under your plants too.
Its expensive, use the carcass of leftover fish parts you dont eat.
I was fortunate enough to have CZcams gardeners at teachers when I started gardening during COVID. Every day is a learning day and I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks Teach! 👍🏾
I stay away from that stuff and my garden is doing great! I could not figure out why soil for planters had a child warning on it- kids love digging playing with dirt - but that soil came with a warning- people please ask questions. Thanking you sharing your knowledge.
I never fertilize anything in my garden, no one is running around fertilizing things in nature.
What a scam.
I do focus on soil building.
You unlocked the key! Keep it up!
How o you build the soil? I'm interested in this method. Im tooo cheap tones t to buy all that fertilizer haha.
@@Trakehner20 Building soil takes time and patience something commercial growers don't have hence the use of fertilizers. How to build? Nature does it in many ways. You start by adding organic material - anything that you can find for free. Woodchips, cardboard, leaves, veg matter etc. Layer by layer and in a year, you are ready to plant your first tomatoes.
@@Trakehner20 use lots of natural mulch…. Wood chips/leaves/grass clippings/other plant material let it break down on top of your soil. (Don’t dig it in.)
The mulch helps retain moisture, and protect the soil life. As it breaks down, it feeds all the micro-life in the soil, and your soil gets better and better every year.
Topped off my raised bed with fresh homemade compost. It was truly beautiful. Im also trying to remove plastics from the garden.
Me too. You might be interested in Regenerative Gardening with Blossom and Branch. That's her mission.
@@MyFocusVaries thanks!
Biggest thing I learned over the years: A-C-Y-S -> Always Cover Your Soil.
Second biggest thing is the permaculture layering where you focus on canopy trees small trees then bushes/flowers and groundcovers.
Thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us! After gardening for 7 years mostly in pots, i have learned to stop buying anything with chemical fertilizers! i am now learning to grow from seed, and wow it is teaching patience! Gardening saved my life so now its up to us to care for mother nature the right way!!! You rock girl!!!!
I agree you need to feed the soil. Organic compost is an essential ingredient for most gardens. Also try cut grass, straw, alfalfa pellets, bone meal, and blood meal.
All of my grass clippings go around my fruit trees and in my vegetable garden and I add weeds, pine straw and chopped mowed leaves. I burned some straw, leaves and twigs in a few places before planting and this seemed to help too. I`m having to build soil here though because my yard was once a hill that got flattened and there`s hard red dirt mixed with gravel a couple of inches under the grass. I`ve been hauling in forest soil and leaf mold to build up layers of soil. I dump my garden wagon loads of soil on top of leaves, straw and grass clippings. It`s working though. I`m adding some lime pellets and bone meal so tubers grow better.
I've been hearing more about alfalfa meal lately. Great source of nitrogen, which most soil needs. Look for organic non GMO. Because otherwise it may have been sprayed with persistent herbicides during growing.
I love Big Bend. Have been there 3 times. On my 1st trip I too was amazed at the variety of plant life. The desert is truly beautiful. While I make compost and have a worm bin, my perennial beds live under a bed of leaves. Due to limitations in my yard, I have been using sunflowers, short and tall, to provide summer shade. ☺️
This was great information! The way that God created nature to work and function is always the best way to garden.
Praise The Living God!
You are a very good teacher, focused, organized, emphasizing important points through careful repetition. Very effective. Skilled marketer, too.Thank you!
You are so brilliant. I am so glad that I found you. Will totally subscribe. I value intelligent and amazing people like you who are kind enough and generous enough to share your knowledge with the world. Thank you.
I loved this so much I had to pause and take notes. I will be following your direction for my spring / summer garden.
I'm so glad it was helpful! Thanks for being here!
"Why is it blue? I don't get it", earned you a 👍🏼😂
Hi! New subscriber here. I loved this video. Thank you for teaching, and sharing your knowledge! I began an organic garden 2 years ago. I always wanted a garden. I didn't know if I could make it work. My mom always had a garden and worked extremely hard, but didn't believe in organic gardening. Her life would have been so much easier if only she had known! I am on a learning journey, and I am loving it!
You are SO right about the natural strategy to backyard gardening! I'm doing patio gardening, and some box planters due to years of pesticides being sprayed on my lawn prior to moving here. I'm pretty sure I've killed many plants from over-fertilizing, and over-crowding containers with the same plants instead of diversified plants in same area/container. Thanks so much for the wake-up!!
I started my garden this year and I have just been winging it. I figured with companion plants and flowers that help with pest I was sold. Now I watch all these videos and find out I’m on the right track. Thanks for the video ❤
👍 We've put synthetics aside several years ago. Focused on creating a living soil with organic fertilizers & companion plantings, interspaced with ornamentals.
Always hated miracle grow, and I do have a composting bin and use that soil as an additive in my garden. Love that you made this podcast. It was very imformative.
thanks so much for watching!
Blue comes from copper sulfate. Some plants want it and it inhibits some soil pests. Copper and sulfur are both micronutrients provided here beyond the npk. I like natural approach more as well but these synthetic ones have a place too. I can allow nature to let my kale plant die or I can give it an immediate boost and keep it for the whole season. If I'm late a slower fertilizer applied at that time may be too late to save it.
More natural slow fertilizers are better. They leech into the water table too though, even compost. So I'm in the camp of using a moderate amount of compost and then only using a fertilizer when the plants clearly need nutrition, and they'll show you. You could test the soil too. Using these in excess is still bad for the environment, and your wallet if your buying it :P
I find composting food scraps, yardwork, and garden scraps to be enough to fertilize. You don't need to top your garden with 6 inches of compost.
Important note about nitrogen fixing plants. That doesn't even start to become available until that plant dies, goes dry, and the roots rot. So your peas are fertilizing next year's crop and that's fine as long as you just keep doing it. Farmers will grow beans with corn and then cultivate the soil to speed up that whole process. It's not the best for soil health but it is a proven strategy. Still better for the environment than dumping loads of liquid fertilizer.
I started my garden in straight up dirt. It was hard to even keep it wet. But I persisted and I fertilized my plants when they turned yellow and sad a couple times. By late summer I mulched everything with my own compost coming from yardwork and the garden that season. By the next spring that patch is doing beautifully. I don't need to do anything to get started with it.
Liquid, highly plant-available fertilizers like miracle grow aren't the most desired but they definitely have their place in the toolbox. Apart from that gardeners should be responsible and not pollute with fertilizers. Whether its a box of blue or a truckload of compost that won't be used or will be over-applied. Through experience you'll learn how much slow-release organic stuff you actually need to add, and then unless you are hit with a surprise monsoon you probably won't need any additional boosts :)
Sorry that's a wall. I think we let nature lead the way and help her when she needs it. Sometimes we see the bumps far out in the road and sometimes we first trip over them. Either way we use the appropriate tools that exist and work.
It is scientifically proven that synthetic fertilizer ruins soil. If immediate results is what you're after then by all means but if a plant is struggling you need to look deeper than the symptom which is what you see with your eye and look at what might be wrong with the soil. Nature does not and has not ever needed our "help" with making things bigger and better. To each their own if they choose fertilizer or not but your advice is awful for a new beginner just starting out. You would be doing yourself a favor by researching what synthetic fertilizer actually does before singing it's praises. Compost is EVERYTHING to a living and active soil and it is very much needed in the garden!
@@stephaniemckown7489 Yes nature doesn't need help to do nature things. But for me to fully benefit in my relationship with nature, I do need to give a steering hand from time to time. Compost is fantastic, ideal even. You need a few cycles to build a healthy soil unless you bring in a bunch of new soil to grow in. I believe establishing your own compost source is the #1 thing even if you're not going to garden. People all over are robbing the soil of their homes by doing yardwork, throwing it in a bin, and giving it away. And then when things die they fertilize that with synthetics they pay for. Big yikes. It doesn't even make economical sense.
I had dead, hard dirt. There was a 3 inch mat of grass and moss and I wasted gallons of water just to get it wettable. I added an organic fertilizer based on chicken poo to that dirt after removing the grass and moss. It wasn't cutting it come late spring. Had good results at first. Better than the previous year where I added only seeds to that dirt (smaller experimental patch). But then everything turned yellow. I followed with 2 applications of the blue stuff like 2 months apart and had a great result. At the end of the year I had compost to cover everything with, and the next year I had a very healthy base to plant in with more compost on the way. It's visibly healthier in the yard even in spring when everything is at an early peak, its fantastic.
I spent maybe $30 between seeds and fertilizer. I got dozens of salads and planned my expansion. I cleared a property taken over by trees and vines. I established an income of compost. I lost 40lbs too. So for me it was a tool and a stepping stone and I think that's perfectly fine. Tools are not evil, its how you use them.
If I could deep mulch 9 months ahead of time or afford to bring in a bunch of soil and compost I'd do that. Its a better but more expensive process. I'm always going to point people in the more economical way to start, especially since there are so many scams and most people think its expensive to get started or be successful.
@@Nocare89I’m glad to hear based on your experience you’d do deep mulch; that is the route I’m heading. My husband got arborist wood chips free by stopping and talking with a crew that was doing work around power lines near us. If you have space to drop chips, they’d rather drop locally for free than drive somewhere and pay…
@@delyco1 Services like chipdrop also exist. I don't have the space for it right. I do have enough biomass around to both compost and mulch so that's worked out pretty well. Plus I have small trees I cut down I'm still working on breaking down for compost. We have a cherry tree that spreads like bamboo and was ignored for years.. it's been interesting.
@@Nocare89I had zero luck in a year with Chipdrop. I think it hasn’t taken off in my area…
This video made me cry tears of Joy 😊 Thank you so much!
God bless your wisdom and sincerity Ma'm.
WOW, I have never heard this explained the way you did, that is just an amazing light bulb moment, and very smart! I love people who think! I have always been more natural minded anyway, and don't like using chemicals, so this is right down my alley. It makes perfect sense, because like you said, in nature, there isn't store bought fertilizers being put on all the plants, and they grow just fine, the way they are supposed to! The plants in nature that grow around and next to each other, have a symbiotic relationship, they all help each other out in different ways....they way people should be too...but aren't. I always say "people could learn so much from animals and nature, but just refuse to".
I just came across your video and I totally agree! I after 50+ years living in The states have come to my little island. I am so excited because I live in an urbanized neighborhood but treat it like the country. Most people just have grass in the yard. I, on the other hand, started to throw seeds of fruits and anything I can get my hands on and everything grows. I have no training and I didn’t even think about it. I have trees and flowers and Herbs growing all around each other. I always get the skins of the fruits or veggies that I don’t eat or anything that is raw and throw it in the garden under the trees or in the dirt as compost. Another thing I started doing was playing classical music, and I swear the fruit on the trees is growing much larger. There is definitely a connection with just letting things grow naturally and having a good vibration in the air. I just recently acquired four miniature chickens, they’re more like my pets and three baby chicks. Their poop is definitely being used on the ground and I am so excited that everything works together. ❤️💯 I am a tropical country girl for sure!
Nicole, I have the same experience you have. I live in low mountains in an Italian national park. I don't use fertilizers. When the cows of my neighbour farmer are roaming near my place, I give them my water. He gives me mature manure. My small veg garden is in total disorder. No clean rows. The parsley has moved with the salad, the onions and salad with the tomatoes etc. With my preserves, I have enough tomatoes for the whole year. Everything tastes different. When I mow the lawn, trying not to mow the natural orchids as well, I leave the clippings on the spot to feed it.
You truly are amazing!! I’m going to follow your advice!! Blessings from Kentucky 🙌🏻🙌🏻🤗🙏🏻
I have a lot of trees, large trees and I let their leaves fall. We rake them down to a lower bark area, which is no longer bark and it’s beautiful because it’s all the leaves just end up turning into soil overtime when I go out and dig that and put that in my pots. I’m never been a big fertilizer person. I’ve used it, but I’ve used it very sparingly, I don’t spray plants. I have fruit trees don’t spray them. I have a few fruit trees, 3 lemon and a lime tree in greenhouse.. a lot of different types of trees and plants but I just think it’s best to use what we have and what we have is a lot of leaves turn them over sometimes put them at the bottom of the pots and they’re full of worms and dried leaves. Add them in pots again in summer. We use what we have. No waste.
Glad this information is being put out there. Loyal to the soil!
I’m lucky to have a large garden and compost in multiple ways- tumbler compost, pallet compost bins, sheet compost leaf mould, chicken run compost. It’s satisfying. I grow in pots, raised beds and in the ground beds. I’d rather have a lower yield from a home produced and free growing medium than a higher yield from expensively purchased products as it just makes economic sense to me. But of course I have the luxury of space and abundant naturally available resources to do this and it would be harder for some folks to do.
Fantastic show today, love the miracle of nature.
Very inspiring. I'm an indoor, apartment gardener and always try to grow everything from seeds (preferably seed saved from last season as they are adapted to the micro-climate of my pots) and with natural fertilizers like wormcast compost. Never thought about the distribution of plants though. I will surely try it this season !
Thank you for the advice for a better gardening. I will fallow all your recommendations. I am very sure that all natural is best for the plants and people.
Mushroom compost is the best
love it!
I was just wondering about mushroom compost. Can it be used on both vegetables and flowers?
Yes, a layer of an inch does miracles. It also works as mulch in summer. It contains a lot of magnesium and calcium. Avoid it for plants that prefer acid compost.
Is that mushrooms that you just throw in a compost bin by themselves, or do you mix it with something?
I've stopped using mushroom compost because I don't know what the mushroom industry has used in their growing process (for those who don't know, mushroom compost is the used up growing material after a batch of commercial mushrooms has grown). I've never seen organic mushroom compost available, but I would consider that if it were sold. If you do choose mushroom compost, don't use it exclusively. Also use other types of compost or organic amendments like alfalfa meal. Using a single amendment risks overloading your soil with certain components e.g. mushroom compost contains gypsum and is high in salts and is high alkaline. You need balance.
Adding compost in the garden is giving back what nature has given you.....a symbiotic relationship.
Best explanation I've heard. Thank you!
Thank you for the wise input. Gonna get rid of my garden rows and do more companion and “no empty spaces” gardening 👍 blessings!
Thank you so much. This was very encouraging and inspiring. First time watching and I love it.
Superb!!! That's how I do it my friend.❤❤❤❤
Wonderful information. Love it ❤
I have plant pot vegetables and feed with himalayan salt in the water for the minerals..i have vompost worms in every pot too and i plant plants together and try and put the dead leaves back into the same pot to put back in what the plant took out the compost..great video, thanks..
We also have the Spanish olive several ornamental trees, a fig, an Italian, prune and many different berries and everything‘s doing well. I just got lazy and I said I’m using what we have. We have tons of leaves breakdown and it has been the best thing, and I never take all the leaves out of my flowering trees and, pretty areas around the yard where ornamental bushes. I let them sit because I’ve heard that that’s a good place. We’re a little frogs and things live throughout the cold months and we have tons of frogs a lot of different bugs that come around sometimes big bugs but everything seems to be doing well. And I just think it really goes back to using what you have and learning about, saving leaves and when you squished down leaves, you can just put it out in your garden beds are in your yard because it’s dark. It’s pretty it looks from a distance like bark or something but it’s much more natural and it’s what grows in your area. I’m sorry I’m rambling on, but it’s, just discovery that comes overtime of being a gardener not necessarily reading but just learning as you go.
Thank you for encouraging us to get back to nature
Excellent and helpful input.Thank you!
I use this method and love this video and the way you explain I have shared it with all my friends thank you ❤
Thanks for sharing!
So informative. Thank you, Nicole.
thanks so much for watching!
Excellent video. Thank you!❤
Compost (self-made knowing what's in it)and good soil....and flowers and plants to assist in pest control!😊 It makes me feel so good and blessed to growing successfully without taking in harmful chemicals for my family and myself. Thank you, for this post of truth. (Only occasion of coffee ground water or banana peel water...only here and there, but not dependent.)
Agreed on compost. Manure is also a great way to get high levels of nitrogen into your soil. But what you're doing is fertilization, you're just accomplishing it organically. You can, absolutely, 100% garden using only synthetic fertilization. I don't necessarily buy that organic is better for the environment. You can also do a mix if you know what you're trying to accomplish. You can start your seedlings with a dilute fertilizer and then transplant them outside into an organic garden.
I try to spot feed various plants what they seem to need but I do a little of everything right now because I`m having to build a garden on top of a yard stripped of its topsoil decades ago by a bulldozer by hauling in forest soil in a wagon. But my test plantings in the new soil are doing 10 times better than before and I add all my grass clippings, chopped leaves, pine straw, leaf mold, weeds and whatever easy-to-get soil I can locate in the woods nearby. That has turned out to be a large pile of sandy muddy soil in a wash nearby. I tried to just collect leaf mold and richer soil but it would take too long. Anything is better than the hard packed red dirt with gravel in it that`s here that`s so hard you need a pick axe to plant a fruit tree. I can turn the sandy soil into good dirt after a couple of years.
Not convinced but confirmed that I'm on the right path.Thank you
Good idea, and thanks for share it 👍🏻
About 2 days ago I bought a small 4x4x10" box of Miracle Grow to use once every week or 2 weeks on my plants. Now I watch this podcast of you aying NOT to buy Miracle Grow, darn! Only 5 minutes in so back to watching/listening and learning. Thank YOU!
You are absolutely fantastic. Thank you for sharing all this with people
My best Garden was when I had chickens and used chicken manure in my garden
Thank you for making this video ❤❤❤❤❤
I ❤ this, Nicole. Brilliant! I've shared with my people.
Tammy, thank you for being part of Gardenary for all these years!
@Gardenary thank you for sharing so much knowledge and training and coaching us along the way ❤️
Great video!! Nature knows best!
I’ve gardened with the same philosophy for several years now. The only thing i disagree with from this video is that the animals eat lower leaves. That is partially true, deer, rabbits, etc love the fresh new growth the best - they eat the tops right off of lots of veggies. This is why I will often harvest the tops off of these types of veggies esp in early summer - 1) I get to eat it instead of the creatures eating it 2) It encourages the plant to bush out and produce even more.
I learned a lot of value in this video. Subscribed. 🎉👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽💣💯⚘ I plan to use your tips. The content makes sense. Thank you.
4;25 minute mark...made me happy that I'm doing the square foot gardening method this year. The plants are absolutely packed in, shading the soil and each other and they are all companions. Natural soil food I use in containers etc is Gaia 4-4-4.
Fantastic ,, Much Gratitude . I am still learning to get out of the matrix
I agree ...no fertilizer it hasn't worked for me......love your information about nature....you've given me a push to start a garden.....thank you
Awesome informative video thank you
I liked your way of gardening. I am choosing to run with people who I feel can help me to shift in thinking and that I do not feel worried about. A lot of people's media team use me. I am worried about going through that again. I apologize that not following might look ridiculously mean; your info is amazing but I need to make sure I protect myself. I cannot solve how this country interacts with me. I just choose to avoid the same cycle again.
Great video, thank you!
I've been looking to do this for years. I'm mostly there but still working on it.
I subbed within the first three minutes. Thank you for making this video!
Thanks for subscribing!
You convinced me... thanks so much!
Yes , i dont use quimical fertilizer anymore !! i have start to learn jadam natural fertilizer and how to integrated in the gardem and its working great 👍 Greetings from Portugal and keep the good work
JADAM works for me in Hawaii. Good luck.
Me too, from Germany.
@@realchrisma yes its make a big diffrence besides the food taste better in my opinion , take care
@@monicali2608 its a learning curve but its working great
@@MarretaGamingmy papaya is at least 3x bigger, but I can’t comment on taste because it hasn’t ripened yet.
Beautiful ❤
I began raising compost worms , and their castings are called ' black gold'[ for very good reason ... ALL plants LOVE the castings and the liquid ' worm juice' made from the compost process and /or soaking the castings. Nothing beats it as goodness for the plants and for the soils. My yard was barren when I arrived, and nothing grew beneath certain trees also. Now it's a lush jungle witha huge variety of veges and other plants . In 18 months .
I spent years in the Caribbean, we had so much trees growing healthy around us with little to no effort. My mom would just throw seeds out the window and stuff grew lol she did intentionally plant a few different plants, but many of the fruits and vegetables plants were neglected yet grew very well lol the soil in a low populated, less polluted area makes gardening easy. I bought property in Florida a few weeks ago and the weather is great for gardening so I’m going to start a kitchen garden and see how it goes. I hope the natural soil is as good as the Caribbean 😆
Good job, thanks😊
Same exact thing happened to me& the first time it didn’t, it was PERFECT!! Not even 1 bug bug!!❤
You are so right about miracle grow.
thanks for watching!
Very true doing the right thing for our garden soil to have natural normal vegetables and not huge over grown vegtables. The thing is growing food not how big I can grow my plants.
Yes you have my wife has a goal of organic gardening and I am working on the plan, lol
Greetings Nicole. My first time on your channel. God bless you for your great information. I've never used fertiliser in all my life of planting. I always go natural without any regrets. You're doing a great job. Keep it up and God bless you.
Welcome to the Gardenary community!
Good stuff.
Thank you for the great information. You know another reason why plants of the same species grow better in close proximity? It is because they communicate with each other through their roots. Family matters. Same goes for plants.
Thank you for this Nicole. I have been moving more and more to the methods you promote because I am getting older and I want to garden but more efficiently with less work and heavy lifting, y'know what I mean? I want to pare down the "stuff" I use in the garden and the stuff I do in the garden, and less watering (mygod the watering the last few years has me really not looking forward to this garden season) and your way embraces that idea very well. In the past I had a whole laundry list of soil amendments I thought I had to use - not commercial fertilizers, but natural/organic soil amendments like kelp, rock dust, different kinds of composted materials, biochar, dried manures, worm castings, fish emulsion, mycorrhizal fungi, compost teas, Korean magic liquids :), bone meal, blood meal, etc....... I am almost out of some of these amendments and I think I'm going to go with just compost and worm castings and see how it goes. Thank you so much, it's actually quite liberating :)
I think natural soil amendments are just fine-hopefully that was clear in the video-basically just think about the way nature works and only add things that would naturally occur in the wild. You've got this!
I learned the hard way. No mas Miracle Grow! No mas colored mulch.
Good for you, I hope ppl will listen to what you have to say, very good information.
I make my own compost and liquid fertiliser from weed's and bit's of plants.
I believe comvrey is great for liquid fertiliser.
Awhile ago I was walking around to my daughter's house and this guy from the council was spraying roundwood onto weeds at the side of the road and kerb 🙈🙈🙈
O' my goodness that damage that can do to our land and as you said water's too. Thank you. 👍😉🇨🇮☘️Eire
Thank you!
Love the video
Compost, worm casting and pond water is all I’ve ever felt comfortable using. Oh and compost tea!!😬
I started my first vegetable garden ever, last month. 3.5' x 6.5' raised bed filled with organic raised bed mix (branches, sticks, leaves, grass the bottom 5" and the ORBM the remaining 12"). I already planned "no fertilizer" before I watched this because I want to see if I can grow these vegetables instead of Miracle grow growing these vegetables. I planted in 1' squares, but I am intrigued by your technique. Your method seems similar to the way I planted my perennial flower beds years ago. I'm curious how you mix these different plants if they require different amounts of water. ie. tomatoes next to basil. I'm going to have to search your video library for answers. Thank you for this video!!
very well explain
I really love your video. I will try to remember pruning poop and water and light😊
Getting back to nature! I like it! Thanks for your podcast. Will be following your lessons. PERSONALLY I don’t think your title is misleading……
Thank you Joseph for watching!
This makes so much sense to me, the Creator put us humans in a garden to observe, learn, train and benefit from the perfect balance and self-replenishing/cycle of life, gift.
My vegetablevgarden is new (2021), and it has never had fertilizer on it. I use compost and it is very productive!
I would be cautious about saying "never ever" needing fertilizer. I do compost and manure and have for years. I grow mostly organic (I can't say organic because I outsource my compost) but I have had the occasional plant the just simply required a dose of fertilizer here and there. The neighboring plants were completely fine. I do agree that this process will work to eliminate wide spread consisten use of fertilizer, spot use may still be necessary