This is quite literally the MOST helpful garden video I have ever seen. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this for all of us greenhorn gardeners.
I've used concrete blocks for planting beds and one lesson I learned is that you need to paint them where the soil makes contact. This helps keep moisture from being wicked away from the plants. Use cheap white exterior latex house paint. Buy the mix mistake paint to get it cheap or buy barn paint.
One Could use 'Whitewash' lime. We used it on trees...it is non-toxic. I also used non-toxic caulk (meant for kitchens) diluted with water to Seal the bricks. I tried landscape fabric to line the bricks, but it is a little time-consuming! The Best method I found: Was the non-toxic Caulk painted on the interior of the Bricks. Adds a Waterproof barrier & is Still Viable after many Seasons.
As a gardener of more years than I would like to admit - this is the best design I have seen for a compact garden. So easy to tweak once you learn what vegetables like and have similar growing conditions! I tell everyone that 4 chickens are less work than a house cat. And I agree, trombonico squash are such a good option - I recommend the variety from Renee's Garden.
“Admittedly more logical metric system” ain’t that the truth! I laughed out loud when you said this. Makes perfect sense when compared to our imperial system. Thanks for a very helpful video. 😊
good design concept, my family eats more cucumbers than beans so for me that would be a substitute. a flaw I see many new gardeners do is grow things that are "easy" but they don't like to eat, I would always suggest growing what you like to eat and learning how to do so.
I don’t plant cucumbers and tomatoes next to each other because they’re both heavy feeders and compete for nutrients. I always interplant both with beans, as they’re great at feeding. Companion planting is so important in small spaces if you don’t intend to use chemical fertilizers (which cost money) or end up with an infestation(which is heartbreaking). Anything you don’t like you can give away for free or compost and the nutrients will get back into the garden. No harm, 4 fowl. Just food for next year.
I love this soooo much, people think they cant get big harvests out of small areas and that's just not true. I love the fact you included the varieties as well. Beginner gardening can be so overwhelming and this is a great jump off garden.
Awesome-that was my exact goal! Give people a rough framework so it’s not intimidating and then let them play with it, from there. It can be so overwhelming when we’re all starting out. ❤️
Definitely a cute little spot, something to think about is that strawberries like acidic soil as well as the blueberries too, so those would be a better mix together, my family used to grow strawberries in East Texas, and they mulched with Pineneedles and they were the crazy-biggest strawberries I’ve ever seen in my life and the biggest plants!
They do like it slightly acidic and pine needles would get you there. My blueberries were never content with just pine needles (not acidic enough) and I’ve had to add ammonium sulfate
Oh, I have a blueberry tip! I add distilled white vinegar to the watering can until it gets to 4.5 ph, and that works beautifully and is something most people have at hand. I have very happy blueberries 😂
The chickens would eat the plants, the leaves and the fruit. Young pumpkin and grapes, including the leaves. Yes, I've experienced it with raspberries, strawberries and grapes. The chickens also ate every other plant I put on the outside of the fence. My wire mesh was also very tightly woven, but they still ate it..
Having raised both chickens and gardens I have to agree with you wholeheartedly! The two do NOT mix in the same proximity. The fencing you would have to install (within the garden to keep the chickens “in”) would make harvesting a huge pain (putting it down to harvest, up to protect). For 90% of the excited newbies trying this, they will not make it Fort Knox quality and one oversight will have the chickens “dust bathing”, scratching, uprooting, and pecking half their garden. I’d completely enclose the chicken 10 short feet from this garden and not mix nitro with glycerin. …or use ducks instead.
I’ve never fully committed myself to watching a gardening video as I’ve never gardened but always think about starting. THIS transformed my mindset. Thank you for sharing your skills and knowledge with everyone.
This an amazing comment, thank you! That’s exactly the impact I’m hoping to have…to make this accessible and fun so that people can play around with it and discover whether it brings positive things into their life. I’m on I think my 7th year of gardening and am totally hooked. ❤️
Loved the space, but instead of just that squash growing over the coop area, I'd grow at least one cucumber - like salads? What's a salad without cucumber?!? Plus pickling is such an easy introduction to saving your harvest overwinter (with canning or brining of the cukes). Also, add a couple of planter bags - not big ones, but for a couple of small root crop harvests like carrots, onions and potatoes. The planter bags can be moved and that's what I love about them - fill with good potting soil, plant with potato starts or say, garlic cloves, shallot starts or other root crops and you'll have just that much more diversity in your garden!
Love this. Those crops didn’t make the list of “most expensive crops” (for this video) but I personally grow-and love-all of them. I did a whole video last season on growing potatoes in bags. It made for a MUCH easier harvest 👍
I hope your video gets the appreciation it deserves. This is such a well made and clever video for small gardeners. It’s exactly what I needed. Thanks!
Just keep in mind, they don't survive winter very well if it gets below 45F°, from unfortunate experience. They're very, very stupid, so even with a heat lamp, they'll be too close or too far & off themselves with one extreme or another, including drowning from drinking water
This is great! Something to keep in mind is the placement of structures and perennials. Generally, crop rotation is very beneficial so consider where you'll plant your annuals on a 3 or more year rotation and make sure you have the space and configuration to allow that. Once the structures and perennials are in, you'd rather not have to remove
Yup. My own beds at home are on a ten year rotation with the perennials elsewhere. That’s why I contained the berries to a single bed. You could skip the hazelnuts, here, or just rotate “around them” with different plants that like the microclimates, and rotate things between the two arched trellises.
Thank you! This video is a perfect resource, super helpful. Edit: I had to come back and add, the fact that you put in the effort to model all of this in SketchUp and walk through each part of its design makes this so easy to understand. I imagine that was no small task, so credit where it's due 👏
Awesome work! Would love to see the addition of a small pond for catfish with a rabbit hutch above it. Heard about that design from a Peace Corp worker in Peru. He said they often had Guinea pigs in the hutch instead of rabbits.
Sounds like an awesome way to stack functions! I’m probably too cold for catfish (we’re currently in negative Fahrenheit) but it would work for others.
Put your rabbit hutch over the compost bin. The manure drops down. You would need to shield the back of it so the rabbits don't spray your squash vines. Good luck!
Your awesome! That was extremely thought out and laid out in a way that I can follow easily. Thank you so much for your hard work; it is greatly appreciated. 💖
I'm so glad to hear it! That was very much the goal...everybody's yard and situation is different, but I was hoping to give my basic logic that could hold up and extend to different applications.
I am beyond thrilled ! I have an apartment and managed to get one of our limited garden spaces. My g. space is 16' x 16'. I have struggled (soil and shade issues) to get good production from it. I WILL be duplicating your garden and have the luxury of an extra bed 3' (or 4') x 13' bed with 3' for my gate. Plus I can finally find a logical reason for the expense of purchasing soil (to overcome my soil issues) for raised beds. "Thank you" is too small for how grateful I am for this video.
I’m so glad! This is a concept design as my own is much bigger than this…but I’d never recommend that somebody start out with one that big. You’d go nuts! And 16’ x 16’ is such a great, manageable size. Have fun!!!
This is quite brilliant. You should do a vlog series of actually building this thing. I'm sure after watching this people would be interested in seeing this in real life practice. Maybe you already have, this is the 1st video of your channel I've watched.
My own garden is much larger-my objective at my own place is growing as much of our food as possible, even the more affordable ones. But that’s an intriguing idea!
Personally, I love your use of clip art to get the job done. I probably would have spent 6 weeks trying to make it look “professional” in SketchUp and get no video made. Kudos for getting out such great ideas for gardening and not letting some software “areas for growth” get in the way. After all, I clicked here for tomatoes not a SketchUp tutorial.
I so enjoyed this; how thoughtfully done and shared! Also, there's absolutely NO issue with the clip-art; in fact, it adds to the fun and feels genuine.
Thanks! I live in the burbs so on the one hand I'd love to let my permaculture flag fly and let things get a bit wild...but in reality I have to keep things at least visually contained to avoid unnecessary tension with the neighbors. I wanted to show a concept design that could deliver both productivity and neat(ish) aesthetics. :)
We’ve had a 12 ft. dome for 3 years now and it’s been fantastic for tomatoes, cucumbers,peas, rosemary, oregano carrots etc. It has a 250 gallon water tank with a couple of healthy Koi fish and water plants like mint. We live at 8500 ft. elevation in sunny Colorado mountains. We’re going to try orchids too. Outside we have wild raspberries that need work and leafy greens and squash. It’s starting to get so exciting for spring!
38 cinder blocks 3 16’ cattle panels Landscape fabric (compost) 2 2x4’s T-posts for tunnel Top soil/compost to fill Dutch white clover Trellis materials: thin wood and wire Bird netting or other protection Joan thornless primocane raspberries Glencoe thornless raspberries Ozark beauty strawberries Jewel strawberries Spring: Lettuce, arugula, summer: beet greens, fall: spinach, lettuce Sun gold and super sweet cherry tomatoes Purple podded pole bean Tromboncino squash Lake Mont, lady finger, or reliance grapes 5 4x4 posts, wire for trellis Hazelnuts: must have 2 to cross pollinate; yamhill, Jefferson Peppers Chard Herbs: Mediterranean, basil, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, parsley Pollinator plants: borage, aster, beebalm Coop Bedding material Mulch/carbonaceous material for paths Bird netting or other protection from chickens and birds Door for compost bin Low fencing to keep chickens in Alt to chickens: blueberry plants
I should add materials for Chicken Control to this list since I didn’t explicitly call them out in the video. There is a ton of good content on RUclips about this, already, but you’d need overhead netting plus some buried chicken wire along the outer fence to deter digging predators. You’d also need fencing around the inner walkway (the 36 SF area) to keep chickens out of the beds. I use a 30” tall black plastic mesh fencing with 36” stakes woven through it and stuck into the holes in the concrete block.
Been gardening for years, just amazing. Love the compactability of this design. Everywhere you turn there is food and beauty. Its like a santuary that feeds you. Want to do this really bad. Thank you so very much!
I think you and I have the same definition of sanctuary. :) That said, something planted this densely needs super strong and healthy soil, hence my starting the whole thing out with "where does the compost go?"
We're going to have a much larger garden than this, but I had no idea how to go about planning it. This has helped quite a bit. Thank you for all the brilliant ideas!
Thanks-I’m glad it was helpful! My own garden is also much larger; I think I’ll do a video on that one since it’s a very different “definition of success” and hopefully shows a different set of ideas.
This is really great and I have to say I like the clip art! If you hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have even noticed. But when you did, it made me think of how well it fits. The most practical tool for a practical (and well-presented!) video on practical design.
Thanks! You would need very healthy soil to pack this much in and still get a yield-that’s why I started with the compost bin. I think it’s the most important part!
Thank you. A great simple plan. I would add wood chips inoculated with mushrooms on the foot paths and a bee hive somewhere in the garden. Both mushrooms and honey are expensive so producing your own will save you cash and they don't take up much room. The bees will also help with cross pollination of your plants. Also if you have room think about adding a water tank to catch the water run off from your house roof. This can be used to water your plants and you can grow a fruit vine (eg grape or kiwi) over it.
Love these ideas and have a mushroom bed in my own garden! Or at least a theoretical one as it’s in the early days and hasn’t produced any fruiting bodies, yet. 🤷♀️
Brilliant planning. I am in Qld Australia and wonder about the raspberries? Here, they would be popping up everywhere and the wicked thorns would make harvesting the strawberries difficult. You must have 'nicer' plants than we do 😅. I'm in the process of planning a chicken coop and this information and design is wonderful. Thank you
Greetings from Michigan, US. 🙂 I have found a couple of thornless raspberry varieties and that makes a huge difference. I’ve got ‘Joan’ growing in my own patch at home.
Do you train your cherry tomatoes up the arch? Mine tend to bush out. Also, you are a very patient person to answer all these questions and comments, especially with sooo much duplication!! People, read the comments and their responses before posting!! Yeesh!
Oh, the comments are always duplicative 😂. It’s ok; it helps me understand topics I should cover (for instance, I edited out my content specific to the chickens and CLEARLY I should’ve kept it in-so now that’s a separate video. To your question: I do train the cherry tomatoes; I prune them y 1-2 main stems and weave them in and out of the cattle panel as they grow. 🙂
Thus was awesome! I can't handle a huge garden in the heat of the Summer anymore...this is perfect...I can't have chickens but I have 2 dwarf figs for thst area.
This was actually SUPER helpful. We're in SoCal and, although it's January, our peach tree has started flowering and I'm already starting to think about Spring. The planning that went into this space for the garden is awesome. I appreciate this a ton!! Plus your experience and added knowledge. Thank you for putting this video out. The last 3 years, I've been doing trial and error gardening trying to figure out what our yard and climate will support. I love the trellis ideas. Definitely going to try some of these, plus the fact that it's so compact! This is also SUPER useful. Thank you!!!
@@WellGroundedGardens Well, I need to do something about our backyard because we have almost no shade, so the sun just bakes the entire yard most of the Summer. If it gets above 100 then that lasts most of August. I think someone told me that we have 2 growing seasons? August is like the break between them. Any Fall crops have to be seeded in late July, and if you seed them too early, they start coming up in August and burn. It's crazy trying to manage that timing, but then we can still grow stuff until about November. So, it's not terrible. I just haven't learned the timing yet, fully. Your idea of the trellises is a great one!
This is amazing! I'm going into my 3rd year of gardening and this is something I've needed! Thanks to hours and hours of RUclips I've come to a similar setup but this would have saved me so much time and headache. I will still be implementing some of these tips this season! Thanks again! New subbie!
What a great plan you've made! I shared it in hopes it will inspire friends just getting started (with a small caveat to sub blackberries in our warm climate). This is just the sort of thing that would have been helpful to me back in my beginning stages.
Thank you! I was hoping it’d be a helpful thought starter. I’m in 6A, more temperate, but the logic in the layout should hold across different types of crops. I debated talking about how you’d rotate crops around this design but felt like the video was already too long. Maybe next time!
That was so helpful. I appreciate the logic and explaining the layout and why things go where. I also appreciated the plant variety suggestions. I have been planting gardens for about 4 years now and they have been very basic. Although I have had some success. This will be the first year that I will be laying it out in a formal plan. I bought 3 birdies raised beds to see if I like them. I'm going to use them as wind break on the outside to shield the rows between them. I lost some young plants to the wind last year. You gave me many ideas that I can incorporate into my garden. Thank you so much.
I'm glad that it was helpful! Our property is surrounded by berms so I haven't had to deal with wind damage--though they do cause water issues--and I love your idea of creating a wind break. :)
This is one of the most informative, creative, and helpful gardening videos I’ve ever watched on RUclips, and I watch a lot of gardening videos! You got yourself a new subscriber with this one, and I’ve never even come across your channel before. Great job!!
Great! I was trying to work in lots of different nuggets and approaches to spark people’s imaginations. I may do a quick follow up with more chicken details because I’m getting a lot of questions about that.
Greetings! This is what I have been looking for!!! Tweaked for my needs & desires, this general layout is simply outstanding!!! Thank you for sharing!!! God bless!!! Chuck Knight from Atascocita (Houston), Texas, USA. ✝️👨🌾🙏
Awesome-that’s exactly what I was hoping to do! Give you all something with clear logic that you could adapt and play with…something to get the creative wheels turning. :)
Great plan! I've used 16 ft cattle panels for 4 arches in my small plot. However, the arches cover my pathways and are 'planted' in the soil of the beds. It does not get as cold here as some areas, but if needed, I can cover one or up to four of them and start seeds in pots on the pea gravel. Then, transplant to the beds to crawl up the panels. They work well. My climbing peas love them!! My husband, years ago, built an old fashioned walk through garden and it was the best thing we've done for our yard. I grow flowers along with the veggies and it is productive and beautiful (companion planting). And I have several bottle trees for winter color also. 😅
Thanks! I didn't get into many of the important details on the chickens in this one--like ways to secure the run and options for fencing them out of the beds--but I think the extra work is worth it for the compost (and eggs!)
Grow what you eat and do succession planting, meaning plant some greens now then wait 2-4 weeks to plant more. Make sure you pick up the chicken poop and add it to the compost so it helps breakdown faster. Always put the garden close as you can to the house and water access. You will tend the garden more if it is right out the back door and no dragging water hoses across the yard. Most of all spend 10 minutes a day checking on the progress.
One of my favorite sayings is "the best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow." Generally agreed on planting what you most want to eat; my own garden has WAY more crops then this--but this one is specifically meant to answer the question I keep getting on how to garden to specifically save grocery money. As an example I eat a lot of potatoes and grow my own, but I can't honestly claim that it saves me much money. But I'll never not grow them! So many more varieties versus what's at the store.
This is very inspiring! I am trying to grow food and flowers in the two long beds that run along our rented house’s eastern and southern walls and the one partly-shaded bed in the backyard. Last year was totally random - two yard sale butternut plants produced a good number of squash, the basil went crazy and I dried some, the two supermarket green onions I planted grew big white bulbs, and nasturtiums brightened up my salads, while other plants (flowers) that we put in to attract birds & butterflies got mildew and looked sad… This year I’m planning it a bit more with stuff we like and which we can save to cut grocery bills. Eventually, I’d like to get permission to put a few fruit trees in the side yard (even if it is a rental!) and plant some berries around them… And now I have the idea of making a little bed around them out of cinderblocks with a trellis covered with mesh to keep off birds. ❤
Your design of this garden is absolutely awesome. I have attempted to draw a design for a garden like yours but it never came together for me as yours has. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. This layout is great for small residential yards. It's beautifully spaceplaned. It personally helped clarify my own garden plan. The size is time-saving due to the brilliant inclusion of the compost pile right where you need it.👍
Thank you so much this was wonderful! I think I will do this with two next to each other. Dedicate some space specifically to my husband’s favorite foods: cucumbers, romaine, peas, and corn. Another variety of grapes, berries that fruit at different times, and more peppers/tomatoes. And definitely more herbs and maybe a rabbit hutch where the other chicken coop would go.
Nice! I've never been willing to dedicate enough space for corn--since you need so many of them to get the wind pollination---but I love the taste of it!
I am a Master Gardener and I absolutely loved how you laid this out! You thought it through so well regarding space, leaf growth, shade and sun, vertical growing, everything. I actually really liked the clip art as it helped me visualize the plants better. One thing I thought of (because I dislike hazelnuts) is that you could substitute peanut plants in place of the hazelnut bushes- they grow well in Southern states. Thank you so much for this excellent garden plan!
So well thought out. Additional inside lettuce/herb opportunities uses two 1020 trays and two LED shop lights. One 1020 tray to sprout sunflower seeds ~ every 2 weeks and one 1020 tray succession planting eight 5x5 pots with lettuce and basil. It’s enough to keep you in greens indoors all year long.
Soooo good!!! This is super helpful! I bet people would like to see more of these designs for sure! Maybe warm climates or cool climates, etc. Thanks for sharing this 😊!!!
Yeah I’ve gotten a bunch of requests and I’m writing them down-I’ll try and address them as my day job allows 😂. I realized people assumed this was my actual garden but my own is much bigger…I may share my real life garden design to clear up the confusion.
This is an amazing video! I am a beginning gardener focusing mostly on cut flowers with a couple of vegetables and herbs included. A suggestion might be a version that works in hot desert/high humidity areas such as zones nine through 11 in the US.
I absolutely came across this by accident. But o what a happy accident 😊. I am starting a 4 acre garden from scratch. Literally, mulched forest down , now must clear the debris [compost piles!!], but I was stuck on how to build the beds. Being 60 this is important AND THANK YOU MA'AM, you solved my problem. In the eastern tn area I have a 4 season zone [not used too that] and have been stimied on the right approach. I'll take this layout and expound on it.. again ANY AND ALL help is greatly appreciated..
Great book for you to rent from your library or buy online: The Backyard Homestead (Storey Publishing.) Has drawings sort of like this video but she scales them for different sized properties: 1/8 acre, 1/4 acre, 1/2 acre, 1 acre, 5 acre, etc. You can get lots of great ideas for your new property! 💝
This was really interesting and gave lots of food for thought! Thank you for your hard work! I've gardened organically since I was 19 and moved into permaculture almost 20 years ago. I find what you have done here to be fascinating and helpful for most people
Thanks! I did my PDC about 6 years ago and try and incorporate the principles here I can, but I’ll need to find a different property to do a full-on permaculture site (too many restrictions in the suburbs 😕)
Thanks! It really seemed to be useful and I’ve jotted down the other types of plans that people requested. I’ll have to slot it in around my day job, but I do love doing these!
This is a great small footprint. I’m in south so berries don’t do that great. Blueberries yes but I have not tried raspberry. Strawberry oh the woes. I try every year different places I have lived. Not much on production. I will look into that squash. I have not heard of it or seen it. I have never heard of anyone growing hazelnuts I will definitely look into it. We do have a lot of grape growers and some wild here in this area so that would work! I see a great possibility with this layout. We have too much heat in the summer so where you get shade from hazelnuts I could get a longer growing season from some of our veggies. Great video.
Even though I live in a cooler climate, I feel your pain. We go from "Will winter ever end?!" to "Is it seriously in the 80s?!" in literally a 3-week window in the spring, so anything I can do for shady microclimates is a blessing during that season.
Your plan is nicely imaginative and thoughtful. Maybe don't use expensive bricks and wood for raised beds. Instead, rake native soil into berms. You can grow just as easily on the berm as you can in the holes of concrete blocks. Cinder blocks can potentially leach toxins into the soil. Instead of a huge compost bin, place the used chicken bedding and food scraps onto the paths and cover them with mulch to utilize wasted space. Next spring, rake the paths into the beds and begin again. That frees up space for a dwarf fruit tree, grapes, more berries, or more varieties of vegetables. Red cabbage and collards also grow very well during summer. Red cabbage takes up a lot of space, but it grows all summer and acts as a cut-and-come-again green when you continually harvest the outer leaves. I'm not knocking your ideas--just sharing more options.
I like them. :) I personally have too much weed seed pressure in my native soil (I live on a former horse pasture) to rake it into berms, but others may have that as a valid option!
Very inspiring and informative, thank you! I was thinking of doing espalier grapes and figs and was debating about a third. I didn't even think of nuts and will be trying hazelnut! Nice layout.
Thanks! I was trying to show a bunch of different ways to grow things vertically and to create different microclimates, to spark ideas and give people options to adapt to their sites. :)
This is quite literally the MOST helpful garden video I have ever seen. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this for all of us greenhorn gardeners.
Thank you for the kind words! My goal with all of these is to create the content that I *wish* had existed when I was first getting going.
Yo 10 days ago? And this is exactly what I’m looking for?!? You’re sent from God! Hallelujah!
What a fantastic video. Absolute 0 fluff, just straight up information delivered in a great way!
Thanks-I try really hard to keep things concise. Your feedback means a lot to me. :)
I’m an engineer and I’ve been looking for THIS video for years! Now I’m excited to build an optimized garden
I’m glad it’s helpful-I tried to offer a range of different options and approaches so that people could adapt it to their site.
This is such a thoughtful and comprehensive design!
Thanks-I’m glad!
1 person could eat the thing in a week...
What thing?
I've used concrete blocks for planting beds and one lesson I learned is that you need to paint them where the soil makes contact. This helps keep moisture from being wicked away from the plants. Use cheap white exterior latex house paint. Buy the mix mistake paint to get it cheap or buy barn paint.
Great idea!
I would worry about the paint chemicals leaching into the soil.
One Could use 'Whitewash' lime. We used it on trees...it is non-toxic. I also used non-toxic caulk (meant for kitchens) diluted with water to Seal the bricks. I tried landscape fabric to line the bricks, but it is a little time-consuming! The Best method I found: Was the non-toxic Caulk painted on the interior of the Bricks. Adds a Waterproof barrier & is Still Viable after many Seasons.
@Fit65-10 Limewash is water permeable. If the point is to seal the blocks, limewash won't do it.
Thank you!
As a gardener of more years than I would like to admit - this is the best design I have seen for a compact garden. So easy to tweak once you learn what vegetables like and have similar growing conditions! I tell everyone that 4 chickens are less work than a house cat. And I agree, trombonico squash are such a good option - I recommend the variety from Renee's Garden.
That's where I got mine, I think! (now I just save the seeds, assuming I'm not growing anything like butternut that can cross)
Depends if chickens sleep in the house or not
l)
@@PazLeBon 😂🤣😂 Fair point!
“Admittedly more logical metric system” ain’t that the truth! I laughed out loud when you said this. Makes perfect sense when compared to our imperial system. Thanks for a very helpful video. 😊
You’re the first person that’s agreed with me 😂. People are VERY attached to imperial. Im glad that you liked the video!
good design concept, my family eats more cucumbers than beans so for me that would be a substitute. a flaw I see many new gardeners do is grow things that are "easy" but they don't like to eat, I would always suggest growing what you like to eat and learning how to do so.
I’ve got the exact opposite situation-my husband hates cucumbers and I had to stop growing then 😂
I don’t plant cucumbers and tomatoes next to each other because they’re both heavy feeders and compete for nutrients. I always interplant both with beans, as they’re great at feeding. Companion planting is so important in small spaces if you don’t intend to use chemical fertilizers (which cost money) or end up with an infestation(which is heartbreaking). Anything you don’t like you can give away for free or compost and the nutrients will get back into the garden. No harm, 4 fowl. Just food for next year.
This is the most practical, actionable, innovative garden plan I've seen. Every minute of this video is golden!
Wow, thank you! I'm glad it was helpful.
I love this soooo much, people think they cant get big harvests out of small areas and that's just not true. I love the fact you included the varieties as well. Beginner gardening can be so overwhelming and this is a great jump off garden.
Awesome-that was my exact goal! Give people a rough framework so it’s not intimidating and then let them play with it, from there. It can be so overwhelming when we’re all starting out. ❤️
First time on your channel and this was single handedly one of the most helpful garden videos I've ever watched as a beginner!
Awesome! My goal was to cover a bunch of different approaches on how to lay things out and use vertical options. Glad it’s resonating!
Definitely a cute little spot, something to think about is that strawberries like acidic soil as well as the blueberries too, so those would be a better mix together, my family used to grow strawberries in East Texas, and they mulched with Pineneedles and they were the crazy-biggest strawberries I’ve ever seen in my life and the biggest plants!
They do like it slightly acidic and pine needles would get you there. My blueberries were never content with just pine needles (not acidic enough) and I’ve had to add ammonium sulfate
Oh, I have a blueberry tip! I add distilled white vinegar to the watering can until it gets to 4.5 ph, and that works beautifully and is something most people have at hand. I have very happy blueberries 😂
Question for acidity could I use the brine from my fermented pickles it’s oh is usually In the 4 range?
The chickens would eat the plants, the leaves and the fruit. Young pumpkin and grapes, including the leaves.
Yes, I've experienced it with raspberries, strawberries and grapes. The chickens also ate every other plant I put on the outside of the fence. My wire mesh was also very tightly woven, but they still ate it..
You’d definitely have to fence them out of the beds!
@WellGroundedGardens yes of course, but they eat it through the fence. The plants were on the outside of the fence 😉
They ate all my tomatoes, red and green.
Having raised both chickens and gardens I have to agree with you wholeheartedly! The two do NOT mix in the same proximity. The fencing you would have to install (within the garden to keep the chickens “in”) would make harvesting a huge pain (putting it down to harvest, up to protect). For 90% of the excited newbies trying this, they will not make it Fort Knox quality and one oversight will have the chickens “dust bathing”, scratching, uprooting, and pecking half their garden. I’d completely enclose the chicken 10 short feet from this garden and not mix nitro with glycerin. …or use ducks instead.
@@suesmyder they eat what they can get. They even ate my flowers. So I planted herbs on the fence for them, which we don't need that much.
I’ve never fully committed myself to watching a gardening video as I’ve never gardened but always think about starting. THIS transformed my mindset. Thank you for sharing your skills and knowledge with everyone.
This an amazing comment, thank you! That’s exactly the impact I’m hoping to have…to make this accessible and fun so that people can play around with it and discover whether it brings positive things into their life. I’m on I think my 7th year of gardening and am totally hooked. ❤️
Loved the space, but instead of just that squash growing over the coop area, I'd grow at least one cucumber - like salads? What's a salad without cucumber?!? Plus pickling is such an easy introduction to saving your harvest overwinter (with canning or brining of the cukes). Also, add a couple of planter bags - not big ones, but for a couple of small root crop harvests like carrots, onions and potatoes. The planter bags can be moved and that's what I love about them - fill with good potting soil, plant with potato starts or say, garlic cloves, shallot starts or other root crops and you'll have just that much more diversity in your garden!
Love this. Those crops didn’t make the list of “most expensive crops” (for this video) but I personally grow-and love-all of them. I did a whole video last season on growing potatoes in bags. It made for a MUCH easier harvest 👍
Yes! Thank you. Yeah, they are less expensive than the ones she is growing in this hypothetical, but I would really want those in my design.
I hope your video gets the appreciation it deserves. This is such a well made and clever video for small gardeners. It’s exactly what I needed. Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words! I’m glad this is helpful.
You, madam, are my absolute HERO. SO MANY TIMES I have looked for something EXACTLY like this!! Thank you!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🥳🥳🥳
Woot!!! So glad I’m not the only person that nerds out on this stuff 😁
@@WellGroundedGardens you are creating fantastic and useful content!! Thank you so much!
Another option to chickens is quail. I live in the suburbs and I am able to have quail. They provide eggs and meat.
Yes! Others have mentioned this! Ducks would be another option.
You can even keep & raise them indoors as “pets” (u can also do meat rabbits as indoor pets)!
Guinea fowl also come to mind…
Just keep in mind, they don't survive winter very well if it gets below 45F°, from unfortunate experience. They're very, very stupid, so even with a heat lamp, they'll be too close or too far & off themselves with one extreme or another, including drowning from drinking water
This is great! Something to keep in mind is the placement of structures and perennials. Generally, crop rotation is very beneficial so consider where you'll plant your annuals on a 3 or more year rotation and make sure you have the space and configuration to allow that. Once the structures and perennials are in, you'd rather not have to remove
Yup. My own beds at home are on a ten year rotation with the perennials elsewhere. That’s why I contained the berries to a single bed. You could skip the hazelnuts, here, or just rotate “around them” with different plants that like the microclimates, and rotate things between the two arched trellises.
Thank you!!! We’ve been gardening for decades, but your plan inspired me in so many ways. Thank you for sharing your thoughtful planning
Excellent! It’s 100% meant as a thought starter and a fun design exercise. Glad it sparked some ideas!
Thank you! This video is a perfect resource, super helpful.
Edit: I had to come back and add, the fact that you put in the effort to model all of this in SketchUp and walk through each part of its design makes this so easy to understand. I imagine that was no small task, so credit where it's due 👏
I’m so glad!
The most useful Garden video on RUclips! Thank you!
Awesome work! Would love to see the addition of a small pond for catfish with a rabbit hutch above it. Heard about that design from a Peace Corp worker in Peru. He said they often had Guinea pigs in the hutch instead of rabbits.
Sounds like an awesome way to stack functions! I’m probably too cold for catfish (we’re currently in negative Fahrenheit) but it would work for others.
Put your rabbit hutch over the compost bin. The manure drops down. You would need to shield the back of it so the rabbits don't spray your squash vines. Good luck!
Your awesome! That was extremely thought out and laid out in a way that I can follow easily. Thank you so much for your hard work; it is greatly appreciated. 💖
I'm so glad to hear it! That was very much the goal...everybody's yard and situation is different, but I was hoping to give my basic logic that could hold up and extend to different applications.
I am beyond thrilled ! I have an apartment and managed to get one of our limited garden spaces. My g. space is 16' x 16'. I have struggled (soil and shade issues) to get good production from it. I WILL be duplicating your garden and have the luxury of an extra bed 3' (or 4') x 13' bed with 3' for my gate. Plus I can finally find a logical reason for the expense of purchasing soil (to overcome my soil issues) for raised beds.
"Thank you" is too small for how grateful I am for this video.
I’m so glad! This is a concept design as my own is much bigger than this…but I’d never recommend that somebody start out with one that big. You’d go nuts! And 16’ x 16’ is such a great, manageable size. Have fun!!!
This is quite brilliant. You should do a vlog series of actually building this thing. I'm sure after watching this people would be interested in seeing this in real life practice. Maybe you already have, this is the 1st video of your channel I've watched.
My own garden is much larger-my objective at my own place is growing as much of our food as possible, even the more affordable ones. But that’s an intriguing idea!
This is excellent! So many helpful ideas on how to organize the space, what to plant, and what materials to use. Thank you!
Yeah! So glad to hear it. :)
Very nice setting and explanation. I would also take the spaces inside the cinder blocks and grow herbs. thank you for the detailed explanation.
I showed them for herbs and pollinator plants in this one, but in my own garden I use them for garlic and onions
Love this! Thank you for including the varieties as well! Super helpful! I'm definitely going to look into some of them.
I’m so glad!!!
Wonderful ideas. I've been gardening for years, and I'll be using some of these! Thank you!
Awesome, thank you!
Personally, I love your use of clip art to get the job done. I probably would have spent 6 weeks trying to make it look “professional” in SketchUp and get no video made. Kudos for getting out such great ideas for gardening and not letting some software “areas for growth” get in the way. After all, I clicked here for tomatoes not a SketchUp tutorial.
I’m glad it didn’t get in the way of the content. I never know what’s going to distract people 😂
I so enjoyed this; how thoughtfully done and shared! Also, there's absolutely NO issue with the clip-art; in fact, it adds to the fun and feels genuine.
Thank goodness!
Yes it actually helped me visualize the plants better; I liked it!
Its A VICTORY GARDEN!! oh I am old.
I have a minor obsession with those plans!
That’s a great idea, thank you! Especially for the rationale so we can tweak the plants to our needs.
You're very welcome! My goal was for people to be able to adapt it; I'm glad this hit the mark.
This is an excellent design. Great use of space and it still feels neat and approachable.
Thanks! I live in the burbs so on the one hand I'd love to let my permaculture flag fly and let things get a bit wild...but in reality I have to keep things at least visually contained to avoid unnecessary tension with the neighbors. I wanted to show a concept design that could deliver both productivity and neat(ish) aesthetics. :)
This is one of the most concise and useful garden design videos I’ve ever seen!
I’m glad it resonated with you! Lots of editing but fun to do. :)
That was an awesome description and design. Also easy to modify based on needs. thanks you for this. Best i have ever seen.
Excellent! I was hoping it’d be a good thought starter for others. ❤️
We’ve had a 12 ft. dome for 3 years now and it’s been fantastic for tomatoes, cucumbers,peas, rosemary, oregano carrots etc. It has a 250 gallon water tank with a couple of healthy Koi fish and water plants like mint. We live at 8500 ft. elevation in sunny Colorado mountains. We’re going to try orchids too. Outside we have wild raspberries that need work and leafy greens and squash. It’s starting to get so exciting for spring!
I’m officially jealous of this dome! In my alternate (dream) life I have one from Arctic Acres set up with some avocado trees at the center.
38 cinder blocks
3 16’ cattle panels
Landscape fabric (compost)
2 2x4’s
T-posts for tunnel
Top soil/compost to fill
Dutch white clover
Trellis materials: thin wood and wire
Bird netting or other protection
Joan thornless primocane raspberries
Glencoe thornless raspberries
Ozark beauty strawberries
Jewel strawberries
Spring: Lettuce, arugula, summer: beet greens, fall: spinach, lettuce
Sun gold and super sweet cherry tomatoes
Purple podded pole bean
Tromboncino squash
Lake Mont, lady finger, or reliance grapes
5 4x4 posts, wire for trellis
Hazelnuts: must have 2 to cross pollinate; yamhill, Jefferson
Peppers
Chard
Herbs: Mediterranean, basil, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, parsley
Pollinator plants: borage, aster, beebalm
Coop
Bedding material
Mulch/carbonaceous material for paths
Bird netting or other protection from chickens and birds
Door for compost bin
Low fencing to keep chickens in
Alt to chickens: blueberry plants
I should add materials for Chicken Control to this list since I didn’t explicitly call them out in the video. There is a ton of good content on RUclips about this, already, but you’d need overhead netting plus some buried chicken wire along the outer fence to deter digging predators. You’d also need fencing around the inner walkway (the 36 SF area) to keep chickens out of the beds. I use a 30” tall black plastic mesh fencing with 36” stakes woven through it and stuck into the holes in the concrete block.
@ thanks! Such great tips
@flippingthescienceclassrom any time!
Been gardening for years, just amazing. Love the compactability of this design. Everywhere you turn there is food and beauty. Its like a santuary that feeds you. Want to do this really bad. Thank you so very much!
I think you and I have the same definition of sanctuary. :) That said, something planted this densely needs super strong and healthy soil, hence my starting the whole thing out with "where does the compost go?"
We're going to have a much larger garden than this, but I had no idea how to go about planning it. This has helped quite a bit. Thank you for all the brilliant ideas!
Thanks-I’m glad it was helpful! My own garden is also much larger; I think I’ll do a video on that one since it’s a very different “definition of success” and hopefully shows a different set of ideas.
Thank you for taking the time to do this. This is totally doable. 😊
You’re welcome! Lots of editing time but feels like it’s been useful. :)
This is really great and I have to say I like the clip art! If you hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have even noticed. But when you did, it made me think of how well it fits.
The most practical tool for a practical (and well-presented!) video on practical design.
Thanks! I’m glad that you enjoyed it!
It's the best made video I have watched in a while. Great information, concise, and well thought out. Very helpful! Thank you!
Thanks! Lots of editing to get this one succinct…and even with that it was longer than I wanted. I’m glad I kept the right things in it!
That was very helpful and entertaining as I sit here looking at my snowy backyard and dreaming of the possibilities. Thank you!
It’s the perfect time of year to garden in our heads. :)
Brilliant design and planting plan - I'll be adapting this to my small garden.
Thanks! My goal was to give enough of the logic that people could easily adapt it. :)
Nicely done! I really enjoy how you explained the logic in your planning, bed by bed. Thank you.😊
Great!!! Glad it’s helpful
Videos like this are my favorite! The spacial awareness of plants and a set layout is so helpful!
I’m so glad!
I think this is the best video I seen on a small garden. It gives me hope that I can do it myself.
Awesome! And: you definitely can do this. :)
Very interesting to see such a compact but high productive space!
Thanks! You would need very healthy soil to pack this much in and still get a yield-that’s why I started with the compost bin. I think it’s the most important part!
Thank you. A great simple plan. I would add wood chips inoculated with mushrooms on the foot paths and a bee hive somewhere in the garden. Both mushrooms and honey are expensive so producing your own will save you cash and they don't take up much room. The bees will also help with cross pollination of your plants. Also if you have room think about adding a water tank to catch the water run off from your house roof. This can be used to water your plants and you can grow a fruit vine (eg grape or kiwi) over it.
Love these ideas and have a mushroom bed in my own garden! Or at least a theoretical one as it’s in the early days and hasn’t produced any fruiting bodies, yet. 🤷♀️
Brilliant planning. I am in Qld Australia and wonder about the raspberries? Here, they would be popping up everywhere and the wicked thorns would make harvesting the strawberries difficult. You must have 'nicer' plants than we do 😅.
I'm in the process of planning a chicken coop and this information and design is wonderful. Thank you
Greetings from Michigan, US. 🙂 I have found a couple of thornless raspberry varieties and that makes a huge difference. I’ve got ‘Joan’ growing in my own patch at home.
This is my first time seeing your videos. Absolutely not generic! Very useful. I’m going to do this! Subscribed.
Good! I try and keep the layout logic and first principles as the focus so that people can then adapt it. Glad this one hit the mark!
Do you train your cherry tomatoes up the arch? Mine tend to bush out. Also, you are a very patient person to answer all these questions and comments, especially with sooo much duplication!! People, read the comments and their responses before posting!! Yeesh!
Oh, the comments are always duplicative 😂. It’s ok; it helps me understand topics I should cover (for instance, I edited out my content specific to the chickens and CLEARLY I should’ve kept it in-so now that’s a separate video. To your question: I do train the cherry tomatoes; I prune them y 1-2 main stems and weave them in and out of the cattle panel as they grow. 🙂
Excellent and supremely helpful video even for us seasoned gardeners who are thinking of a remake in our gardens.
I’m glad it sparked some new ideas!
Thanks so much. My son and I were looking for how to build these in each of our yards. Thanks again.
You’re very welcome-I’m glad that it sparked some ideas. ❤️
That was fantastic! Thank you for all the time you put into this 😊
You’re very welcome! I’m glad that it was useful. And yeah…a lot of editing time on this one 😁
Thus was awesome! I can't handle a huge garden in the heat of the Summer anymore...this is perfect...I can't have chickens but I have 2 dwarf figs for thst area.
I never thought of figs! Too cold in my area but they’d be lovely.
This was actually SUPER helpful. We're in SoCal and, although it's January, our peach tree has started flowering and I'm already starting to think about Spring. The planning that went into this space for the garden is awesome. I appreciate this a ton!! Plus your experience and added knowledge. Thank you for putting this video out. The last 3 years, I've been doing trial and error gardening trying to figure out what our yard and climate will support. I love the trellis ideas. Definitely going to try some of these, plus the fact that it's so compact! This is also SUPER useful. Thank you!!!
I’m now on my 7th year and it’s still trial and error. 😂 Glad you enjoyed it-and I’m jealous of your growing zone!
@@WellGroundedGardens Well, I need to do something about our backyard because we have almost no shade, so the sun just bakes the entire yard most of the Summer. If it gets above 100 then that lasts most of August. I think someone told me that we have 2 growing seasons? August is like the break between them. Any Fall crops have to be seeded in late July, and if you seed them too early, they start coming up in August and burn. It's crazy trying to manage that timing, but then we can still grow stuff until about November. So, it's not terrible. I just haven't learned the timing yet, fully. Your idea of the trellises is a great one!
@lindsayjeanae I think your August is my January
This is amazing! I'm going into my 3rd year of gardening and this is something I've needed! Thanks to hours and hours of RUclips I've come to a similar setup but this would have saved me so much time and headache. I will still be implementing some of these tips this season! Thanks again! New subbie!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! My goal behind all of these is creating the material that I wish had existed when I was first starting out.
Great video! I liked the clip art. It made a nice clean presentation and the video got right to the point. Very informative😊
I’m glad! And I’ll keep using the clip art 😁
Talk about ingenious!
Thanks!
What a great plan you've made! I shared it in hopes it will inspire friends just getting started (with a small caveat to sub blackberries in our warm climate). This is just the sort of thing that would have been helpful to me back in my beginning stages.
Thank you! I was hoping it’d be a helpful thought starter. I’m in 6A, more temperate, but the logic in the layout should hold across different types of crops. I debated talking about how you’d rotate crops around this design but felt like the video was already too long. Maybe next time!
That was so helpful. I appreciate the logic and explaining the layout and why things go where. I also appreciated the plant variety suggestions. I have been planting gardens for about 4 years now and they have been very basic. Although I have had some success. This will be the first year that I will be laying it out in a formal plan. I bought 3 birdies raised beds to see if I like them. I'm going to use them as wind break on the outside to shield the rows between them. I lost some young plants to the wind last year. You gave me many ideas that I can incorporate into my garden. Thank you so much.
I'm glad that it was helpful! Our property is surrounded by berms so I haven't had to deal with wind damage--though they do cause water issues--and I love your idea of creating a wind break. :)
This is one of the most informative, creative, and helpful gardening videos I’ve ever watched on RUclips, and I watch a lot of gardening videos!
You got yourself a new subscriber with this one, and I’ve never even come across your channel before.
Great job!!
That is such amazing feedback, thank you! I'm really glad that this is helpful. :)
That's a great compact design. You've given me heaps of ideas for chickens and those arch ways are brilliant!
Great! I was trying to work in lots of different nuggets and approaches to spark people’s imaginations. I may do a quick follow up with more chicken details because I’m getting a lot of questions about that.
@@WellGroundedGardens Yes that would be good. I'm curious as to how many chickens you would keep in this area?
Greetings! This is what I have been looking for!!! Tweaked for my needs & desires, this general layout is simply outstanding!!! Thank you for sharing!!! God bless!!! Chuck Knight from Atascocita (Houston), Texas, USA. ✝️👨🌾🙏
Awesome-that’s exactly what I was hoping to do! Give you all something with clear logic that you could adapt and play with…something to get the creative wheels turning. :)
Great plan! I've used 16 ft cattle panels for 4 arches in my small plot. However, the arches cover my pathways and are 'planted' in the soil of the beds. It does not get as cold here as some areas, but if needed, I can cover one or up to four of them and start seeds in pots on the pea gravel. Then, transplant to the beds to crawl up the panels. They work well. My climbing peas love them!! My husband, years ago, built an old fashioned walk through garden and it was the best thing we've done for our yard. I grow flowers along with the veggies and it is productive and beautiful (companion planting). And I have several bottle trees for winter color also. 😅
Nice! I had a similar design (arches spanning the walkway and planted in the beds) in my first garden
Great video, very thought out and helpful. I appreciate different design options and suggestions from other gardeners. Thank you!
Yes! That was exactly the goal. And: same. I love to see how other people lay things out.
This is such a clear design. I am trying to design on a larger scale, but am certain I do not know what I am doing. LOL!
Literally none of us do...just try something and iterate! I hope this sparks some ideas to get you started. :)
Amazing video and one of the most efficient uses of space a garden! Great work! 👍
Thanks! As you can tell, I’ve got a mild cattle panel addiction but I hope it prompted ideas for people.
New here and new to gardening. This is one of the most helpful videos that I have come across! Adding The chicken Coop is brilliant! 🎉🎉
Thanks! I didn't get into many of the important details on the chickens in this one--like ways to secure the run and options for fencing them out of the beds--but I think the extra work is worth it for the compost (and eggs!)
Excellent presentation and design!
Thank you! I’m glad that you enjoyed it :)
Grow what you eat and do succession planting, meaning plant some greens now then wait 2-4 weeks to plant more. Make sure you pick up the chicken poop and add it to the compost so it helps breakdown faster. Always put the garden close as you can to the house and water access. You will tend the garden more if it is right out the back door and no dragging water hoses across the yard. Most of all spend 10 minutes a day checking on the progress.
One of my favorite sayings is "the best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow." Generally agreed on planting what you most want to eat; my own garden has WAY more crops then this--but this one is specifically meant to answer the question I keep getting on how to garden to specifically save grocery money. As an example I eat a lot of potatoes and grow my own, but I can't honestly claim that it saves me much money. But I'll never not grow them! So many more varieties versus what's at the store.
This is very inspiring! I am trying to grow food and flowers in the two long beds that run along our rented house’s eastern and southern walls and the one partly-shaded bed in the backyard. Last year was totally random - two yard sale butternut plants produced a good number of squash, the basil went crazy and I dried some, the two supermarket green onions I planted grew big white bulbs, and nasturtiums brightened up my salads, while other plants (flowers) that we put in to attract birds & butterflies got mildew and looked sad… This year I’m planning it a bit more with stuff we like and which we can save to cut grocery bills. Eventually, I’d like to get permission to put a few fruit trees in the side yard (even if it is a rental!) and plant some berries around them… And now I have the idea of making a little bed around them out of cinderblocks with a trellis covered with mesh to keep off birds. ❤
I'm glad I had a useful nugget in there! And honestly your setup sounds inspiring, already.
Very inspiring design! I'll definitely be incorporating these ideas into an addition on my current garden.
I'm glad that it's helpful!
Your design of this garden is absolutely awesome. I have attempted to draw a design for a garden like yours but it never came together for me as yours has. Thank you so much.
You’re very welcome! I hope it sparked some thoughts and alternatives for you!
Thank you so much. This layout is great for small residential yards. It's beautifully spaceplaned.
It personally helped clarify my own garden plan. The size is time-saving due to the brilliant inclusion of the compost pile right where you need it.👍
I'm glad it was useful!
Thank you so much this was wonderful! I think I will do this with two next to each other. Dedicate some space specifically to my husband’s favorite foods: cucumbers, romaine, peas, and corn. Another variety of grapes, berries that fruit at different times, and more peppers/tomatoes. And definitely more herbs and maybe a rabbit hutch where the other chicken coop would go.
Nice! I've never been willing to dedicate enough space for corn--since you need so many of them to get the wind pollination---but I love the taste of it!
Love your design.Thank you for your sharing of knowledge and happy gardening
Thanks--I'm glad it was helpful!
I am a Master Gardener and I absolutely loved how you laid this out! You thought it through so well regarding space, leaf growth, shade and sun, vertical growing, everything. I actually really liked the clip art as it helped me visualize the plants better. One thing I thought of (because I dislike hazelnuts) is that you could substitute peanut plants in place of the hazelnut bushes- they grow well in Southern states. Thank you so much for this excellent garden plan!
Peanuts would be an awesome choice. My growing season (Michigan, 6A) doesn’t support them but it’s a great choice in other areas.
@WellGroundedGardens I am in AZ and we just went from 9b to 10a due to our extreme heat in the summer. 🤯
So well thought out. Additional inside lettuce/herb opportunities uses two 1020 trays and two LED shop lights. One 1020 tray to sprout sunflower seeds ~ every 2 weeks and one 1020 tray succession planting eight 5x5 pots with lettuce and basil. It’s enough to keep you in greens indoors all year long.
Yup! I've done that, here, in the winter. Also grow bags planted with greens that I then move into the greenhouse.
Soooo good!!! This is super helpful! I bet people would like to see more of these designs for sure! Maybe warm climates or cool climates, etc. Thanks for sharing this 😊!!!
Yeah I’ve gotten a bunch of requests and I’m writing them down-I’ll try and address them as my day job allows 😂. I realized people assumed this was my actual garden but my own is much bigger…I may share my real life garden design to clear up the confusion.
@WellGroundedGardens that would be fantastic! Thank you!
Love the concept! It’s got the gears in my head turning. 😄 Thanks for the great idea!
Awesome! That was exactly the goal!
This is an amazing video! I am a beginning gardener focusing mostly on cut flowers with a couple of vegetables and herbs included. A suggestion might be a version that works in hot desert/high humidity areas such as zones nine through 11 in the US.
I’m glad you enjoyed this! And I’ll add that idea to the list. 👍
I absolutely came across this by accident. But o what a happy accident 😊. I am starting a 4 acre garden from scratch. Literally, mulched forest down , now must clear the debris [compost piles!!], but I was stuck on how to build the beds. Being 60 this is important AND THANK YOU MA'AM, you solved my problem. In the eastern tn area I have a 4 season zone [not used too that] and have been stimied on the right approach.
I'll take this layout and expound on it.. again ANY AND ALL help is greatly appreciated..
Great book for you to rent from your library or buy online: The Backyard Homestead (Storey Publishing.) Has drawings sort of like this video but she scales them for different sized properties: 1/8 acre, 1/4 acre, 1/2 acre, 1 acre, 5 acre, etc. You can get lots of great ideas for your new property! 💝
Wow!!! I’m officially jealous of your site and your ambition; we’re on 2 acres and I can barely keep up with it.
This was really interesting and gave lots of food for thought! Thank you for your hard work!
I've gardened organically since I was 19 and moved into permaculture almost 20 years ago. I find what you have done here to be fascinating and helpful for most people
Thanks! I did my PDC about 6 years ago and try and incorporate the principles here I can, but I’ll need to find a different property to do a full-on permaculture site (too many restrictions in the suburbs 😕)
This video is excellent. I appreciate the sketch, and the plant suggestions. Very well done. I would love to see more like this.
Thanks! It really seemed to be useful and I’ve jotted down the other types of plans that people requested. I’ll have to slot it in around my day job, but I do love doing these!
Very nice. Looks so good. I cant wait for Spring !
Same! As you can tell, I'm itching to get going. :)
Incredibly fantastic video, simple, well designed and explained for the beginning gardener - me!
Thanks, I'm glad that it's helpful!
Very well thought-out design, great work!
Thanks!
This is super helpful - and ambitious, considering most of my crops failed last year!, but thank you for talking through your process
Yeah it’s VERY much meant as a thought starter and sharing of underlying logic…my own first garden was much smaller than this. Baby steps. :)
This is a great small footprint. I’m in south so berries don’t do that great. Blueberries yes but I have not tried raspberry. Strawberry oh the woes. I try every year different places I have lived. Not much on production. I will look into that squash. I have not heard of it or seen it. I have never heard of anyone growing hazelnuts I will definitely look into it. We do have a lot of grape growers and some wild here in this area so that would work! I see a great possibility with this layout. We have too much heat in the summer so where you get shade from hazelnuts I could get a longer growing season from some of our veggies. Great video.
Even though I live in a cooler climate, I feel your pain. We go from "Will winter ever end?!" to "Is it seriously in the 80s?!" in literally a 3-week window in the spring, so anything I can do for shady microclimates is a blessing during that season.
Your plan is nicely imaginative and thoughtful. Maybe don't use expensive bricks and wood for raised beds. Instead, rake native soil into berms. You can grow just as easily on the berm as you can in the holes of concrete blocks. Cinder blocks can potentially leach toxins into the soil. Instead of a huge compost bin, place the used chicken bedding and food scraps onto the paths and cover them with mulch to utilize wasted space. Next spring, rake the paths into the beds and begin again. That frees up space for a dwarf fruit tree, grapes, more berries, or more varieties of vegetables. Red cabbage and collards also grow very well during summer. Red cabbage takes up a lot of space, but it grows all summer and acts as a cut-and-come-again green when you continually harvest the outer leaves. I'm not knocking your ideas--just sharing more options.
I like them. :) I personally have too much weed seed pressure in my native soil (I live on a former horse pasture) to rake it into berms, but others may have that as a valid option!
Very inspiring and informative, thank you! I was thinking of doing espalier grapes and figs and was debating about a third. I didn't even think of nuts and will be trying hazelnut! Nice layout.
Thanks! Glad it’s triggering creative ideas in people. I love seeing some of the ideas that are coming back. :)
I love the thought you put in this clever design.
Thanks! Very much a thought exercise that I hope gives people what they’d need to adapt it.
This is such an informative video and a helpful plan/guide!
Thanks! I'm so glad that you found it helpful!
Truly the best garden advice I've ever seen
Thanks! I was trying to show a bunch of different ways to grow things vertically and to create different microclimates, to spark ideas and give people options to adapt to their sites. :)
Love this~ I think my county has requirement that are larger, for the birds, but this gave me some good ideas.
I’m glad! And yes, check your zoning. I’ve been very surprised at some of ours
fantastic design, great work.
Thank you!