A few notes here - first, yes there are some plants you don't want to scatter around the garden! Use your own discretion. But more importantly, we are not "garden gatekeepers" here at Epic. I've personally seen a lot of hate for this method from other garden creators around the internet and honestly I find it kind of sad. We exist to help you grow. Whatever gets you motivated and encouraged to start gardening, we're here for. - Kevin
As the old saying goes: there's more than 1 way to skin a cat. Geeze why do people have to be so rigid? Anyhow, I loved this idea as I'm sure so many others will. It makes gardening seem more approachable, especially for a newbie like me. Thank you all for sharing your ideas, knowledge & love for gardening. PS: if you ever get anyone in the Houston, TX area (9b?) on your team would love to hear from them. I'm finding it hard to get good info. Stay blessed & much success!💜
I saw Luke from MI gardener do the multiseed sowing after putting carrots, beets, and others in a shaker, and it was a great result…the beets and carrots did great. I might do this next year…
My preschooler was helping in the garden and when I went to get compost from a different part of the yard she had opened all the seed packets. We just kinda kicked them around, dumped the compost, and called it a day. Pretty much everything she put in the ground is sprouting and I now get surprises everywhere I look!
Love this!! My kids are 12 and 14 now and still help a little, but cherish these memories! Time goes so quickly. Make lots of pictures of the two of you 'discovering' what you planted!
I had my 3yo help my 1yo plant one of my beds. I gave them a packet of radishes and some peas and everything came up. Now I just gotta keep tiny from yanking on the pea plants ...
@@SamLab420 me too!! i was wondering what i wasnt planting! i had never heard of chaymamylee before! well, it's an honest mistake, if you never heard it pronounced......it's a lovely try!
@@chelseajordan5752 inside joke. They all say it incorrectly, but differently from each other. Like the "chicken sounds" bit from Arrested Development
@@chelseajordan5752 It's started as a joke, but I'm hearing it from others where I KNOW it's not a joke they really are mispronouncing. So with its widespread use now, the jokes over, I just assume people are dumb.
Chaos Gardner here!! As a mother of 7 in a 3 floor walk up, I only have a community garden plot. And chaos gardening is the best way for me to garden because I don’t have much time. Only things I “plan” is corn, tomatoes, and potatoes. Everything else is survival of the fittest! ❤ from HI!
Pam here…..LOVE THIS!! I am legally blind and so hard for me to be out in FULL sun to plan or garden so I so out late in evening or on cloudy days when ‘looks like rain’ to plant…works fabulous to let my seeds all get a soaking rain after I am done!! I have 20 plus raised beds and I am going to toss in some stuff random now…my hubby was saying you’re planting too close and I was like NO it helps keep weeds down, keeps soil cool and hold the moisture!! Thx for validating me!!!
Wow never knew about toxic squash syndrome but just looked it up. Thanks so much for helping spread awareness. I'm in a huge agriculture area and from a farming family and have never heard of this. Just goes to show how I'm never done learning. I garden like a polish immigrant farmer (organized rows) but I sow flowers like a European with a cottage lol. Love chaos gardening when I can get away with it
@@meggrowsplants Unfortunately far more common when you have invasive man root growing because it's a toxic wild "squash" that easily crosses with any winter/summer squash.
Volunteers are a blessing. It’s nature’s way of picking out the strongest. Not all seeds are gonna do good so might as well spread them all. Save seeds from the most vigorous and it’ll pay you back 10x with seeds.
I was so annoyed when my mom dead-headed the hostas the former owners of my house had planted. Yes, those hostas needed to be cut down because they were in full sun and not doing well at all there, but I was counting on them going to seed so I could grab their babies and plant them in a more appropriate place. Instead, I had to buy new ones.
@@littlebacchus216 that’s where a majority of my volunteers came from. Also from seeds dropping the year before. Kill whatever doesn’t grow fast, shows nutrient problems first and what the bad bugs like
I just went out armed with this video and my copy of “Carrots Love Tomatoes” and did a version of this in two of my beds before a thunderstorm rolled in and put a stop to my gardening revelry. I’m seven weeks postpartum and getting a really late start on my garden, so this video was very timely!
Congratulations to you both on your babies!!! You were literally growing your most sacred of fruits. Health, happiness, strength, and many blessings to you and your families. ❤
I harvested my first potatoes yesterday. I got 5 good size whites of some kind a a couple of little reds. Its not a huge harvest but I'm still very happy with it.
Mine are not ready but insane. I planted 5 seed reds and 3 seed Yukon golds in a 4'x2' bed. They completely choked out the cucumber and pea seedlings I put in there (thankfully they survived being moved to another bed) and are bursting through the bird netting I have over my beds and the Yukons are now probably a foot taller than the netting. Just starting to flower, so maybe three more weeks before I can harvest? This is my first year growing more than just a few herbs in a planter a former resident left on my past rental condo stairwell so I'm not getting everything right, but I am already eating homegrown kale every day and am probably going to have more radishes and potatoes than I can handle. Next year I'm getting a tiered 4'x4' bed to match with my 8'x2' bisected one. Potatoes will be going in the new bed with MUCH taller bird netting.
Can't possibly convey how much I love you guys for all the help you've given me, and completely and utterly digging the new additions to the team (Meg in this particular case). Thank you so much for everything you all do, it's made my life better, and undoubtedly many other folks lives, as well. APPRECIATE YA!!!
My grandmother and I always called it Forest Floor Gardening. My newest flower plot was just me tossing seeds in it, my planters start orderly and get chaotic pretty quick
Love that you mentioned Toxic Squash Syndrome, as my aunt, mother and I had a bitter squash some years ago, and had a hellacious night as a result of that... we were on the phone with poison control, who'd never heard of it, so I ended up sending them an article about a German couple who's neighbor had baked them a zucchini pie, and the man ate all of his despite the bitter taste - the wife didn't. She survived, he didn't. So yeah, it's important stuff, and I tell people about it all the time, as I run in chaos gardening, seed freedom loving circles.
@@alejandrogarcia3986 i certainly would never get upset!! however, i did feel that it was rude to 'pretend' you didnt know how to pronounce....you had an opportunity to make a sweet joke, but just ended up sounding dumb and sad. you made me feel dumb too.
I love Meg and her Chaos Gardening methods! When I found her on IG I was struggling to start my garden wanting perfection. Meg really helped in giving me permission just get out there. Thank you for having her as part of the team, she is wonderful!
I’ve let the chaos happen in my garden by letting most of the volunteers grow wherever they grow and I think it’s a fun way to let nature take the wheel, and see what happens. On a side note, please include more of Meg she’s not only stunningly beautiful but a great speaker!
I let a lot of volunteers grow as well, unless they are in my mowed path. This year I have potatoes growing in my onion bed as well as another spot I had two years ago lol.
I remember watching Meg and learning about chaos gardening I thought it was genius I went outside and threw some old carrots seeds in my raised bed. Many months later I’m finally seeing a carrot. 🥕 i found some clearance asparagus crowns , shallots and onions 🧅 at Lowes I went ahead and planted them although it’s mid June. What’s the worst that can happen. Chaos gardening 🧑🌾 is a great concept!
I love that Meg's featured on this channel, too. I remember finding her last year and being so excited that I finally found a gardener that's also in North Carolina in the same zone. I learned choas gardening from her earlier this year, and that's what I did with my spring Harvest💚
This only issue I personally have an issue with is if you don’t know what the seedlings look like that you want versus a weed. It’s why I start seeds indoors so I know my plants versus weeds.
You guys at Epic helped me feel more free in what and how I plant. I don’t follow rules as much and it has helped me learn on my own… one big experiment. I definitely embrace chaos in the garden.
I love this! I’ve actually had the same idea. I have been also throwing seed around town in places that are not mowed/ pesticides or natural spaces (guerrilla gardening) I check back to see their progress. Some actually came up, and are growing on their own. They might not make it but it rains lightly almost every other day where I live. Nature knows best. Thank you for the video!
Love this video! In 2022, I over bought seeds and still had a bunch hanging around. This year, I made a few chaos mixes and spread them in different parts around my garden, sowing densely to account for germination rate decreases due to age. In my one planned bed, I got my tomatoes, peppers, and okra in, then “chaos planted” companion plants. For tomatoes, I scattered marigolds and basil; for okra, calendula, cosmos, and zinnias; for peppers, onion and nasturtiums. Can’t wait for everything to fill in!
I always thought I would have neat rows and formal gardens, but chaos gardening just happened organically and I would never change it now. I call it "shoehorn gardening" because I just shoehorn things into gaps. I will literally walk around with a tray of seedlings and scout for places to squeeze plants in. I do have some exceptions - one dedicated tomato bed (but lots of chaos tomatoes, which I share with the birds), dedicated dahlia beds, and I have colour zones where it's all different reds, all different blues etc. But the food garden is a big free for all. I love chaos gardening. The diversity brings me joy and it helps to lessen the impact of pests and disease. It saves water as the plants act as each other's cover crop/living mulch, which also means it requires less weeding. Conventional thinking is to give plants space or they'll compete for resources... that hasn't been my experience at all - I cram them in and they thrive. I've got lettuces the size of car tyres and they're being elbowed by spinach, borage, mustard, all jostling with each other, but all super healthy. My asparagus gardens look similar to the video - they're full of lettuce and strawberries, self seeded silverbeet, nasturtiums. I walk around pulling seed heads off flowers and just flinging the seeds around. Marigolds are fantastic for this. I had cosmos pop up in my tomato bed and I went with it... turns out it was the best thing for the tomatoes because the foliage hid the tomatoes from the birds - I didn't have to net them at all, and I barely lost any fruit, unlike the previous year which was a disaster for losing tomatoes to the birds. Plus the light foliage kept a bit of sun off so they didn't scorch. They also brought in extra pollinators and beneficial insects. This year I'll be planting cosmos as a very deliberate tomato companion plant. The main downside with my chaos gardening is that it's hard to send someone else out into the garden to fetch XYZ for dinner because I know where you can find everything, but nobody else does 😆
My version of chaos gardening is "oh snap, I started way too many seedlings and don't have enough spaces for them...guess it's time to break all the spacing rules and toss a ton of pansies in the same container as my blueberry bush and they'll act as a natural mulch and I'll toss the rest of the peas in where the tomatoes are going to go but they'll be established and will get some shade from the tomato and maybe I'll get some extra peas out of the season..." lol I do prefer to start my seeds but I'm just too good and they all grow and I CANNOT cull them or give them away, I find a tight spot somewhere and make it work. LOL
Loved this video. ❤ Some very useful tips. Who doesn’t need a bit of chaos? My garden is always chaotic but in the “all of my gardening supplies are everywhere”. I’m tempted to seed one of my raised beds with some chaos.
Been working at it for three years, first year most of my things died, second year the garden went insane with tons of rain and all my tomatoes got so out of control and tons of pest issues... This year is going well! The tomatoes from last year re seeded everywhere and I have enough little seedlings to share with friends. Im keeping up with weeding and letting alot of things be a little bit wild but paying more attention. I plant seeds in the rain all the time its great fun!
That's exactly what I am doing with some of my flower beds and the side beds of mixed veg- every time I see seed pods from a plant I nab them and plant them beside another smaller plant so they can grow together. The flowers are great for this as I did this for the pink cosmo flowers and now I have them everywhere as well as the marigolds great beneficial plants.
Yessssss, I'm so happy to hear that I'm not the only one that does this. I figure if birds poop out seeds or the wind carries them through the air then wherever they land it's just survival of the fittest! 🌱
This is definitely how I manage my flower garden and there is definitely something to it, because I had a great experience with the radish/carrot trick.
Chamomyleeeeeee!!! 😂😂😂😂 That's what I am calling it from now on! My inner garden gremlin came out the other day(right before it rained for 2 minutes) and scattered some seeds where I had no plants already growing. I can't wait to see what comes up over here in the Piedmont! Meg, stay awesome!
I LOVE this!! I have three under three so I've been starting small with just a few plants this year, but I'm going to go fill ALL those gaps with lettuce and herbs 😍
This is my kind of gardening 🥰 it reminds me of a cottage garden, planned but not planned. It is so sad that some folks think their way is the only way - not true. It should be fun not something you have to force yourself to do. I love this video, glad I found it.
I totally did some of this this year after a very disappointing garden last year and it just felt free! My husband likes rows but he’s happy because I’m happy with the growth!
The people said we want Meg and you delivered! I love implementing chaos gardening. I will sow my bigger crops first and then once the seedlings are somewhat established, I’ll go in with all my smaller seeds over the entire bed. This keeps me from having to mulch to since I then have living mulch. Big bonus too- once you harvest from that bed and you disturb the soil- a lot of times for me I’ll have a new crop pop up from seeds that were still in the soil. The gift that keeps on giving and uses little mental energy! 💕
Absolutely loved this video! Gardening can be overwhelming, sometimes its fun to intuitive garden, experiment and take the pressure off. I am going to grab my extra lettuce and spinach seeds today and fill in the gaps between my tomatoes and peppers. Great job!
I did this today! I forgot the notebook I had planned to use to map out where I planted everything and ended up just saying ‘F it’ and throwing the seeds haphazardly. I’ll figure out what’s what later on 🤷🏼♀️😂 plus it was raining! Glad there are experts backing me up!
Going through seeds when I saw this! I've only heard the first sentence, "overwhelmed" and i know i need to keep listening. I've had 36 years of gardens.I traveled a lot this year; Sweden, México...not a seed or plant in the ground yet. I have 300 varieties among my viable seeds. Since my last garden I've gained a puppy who is a year old now, major complications! So, I'm gonna hear you out!
THIS IS SO COOL! I always feel like I have so much unused space when I'm doing square foot gardening. It does fill in over time but I like how your beds utilize ALL the space.
Our chaos flower garden is THRIVING. We have poppies, zinnia, dwarf teddy bear sunflowers, alyssum, oregano, basil, and lavender so far. I threw some chamomalay out there the other day to fill in any bare spot. Oh, and we have a trellis in the middle with morning glories trailing up!
That’s what I do😂 surprises at every turn and always get good results. I tend to get overwhelmed with “the order of things” and will spend more time preparing or setting up and when things do not work out, I get frustrated and feel like a failure. Just planting without all the rules and shiny new things, produces results that almost always leads to success and a bountiful harvest for me - which helps me to feel like I’ve accomplished something. Not sure this would work on a very large scale but for those with a small yard garden, I think it’s worth a try. David the good has a similar style with his grocery row / food forest gardening style and has inspired me as well.
Kudos for mentioning toxic squash syndrome. Most people I know have never heard of this and grow thier cucs, squashes... near each other and have started saving seeds. I'm planting them close this year but not saving or using any of the plant seeds.
Oh my- I’m a chaos gardener and didn’t even know it! I’ve been randomly sprinkling seeds for years just to “see what happens”. There is definitely an art to it and some combos work better than others. For me, the experiment is half the fun. Great video.
Jumping in to comment based just off the thumbnail. Gotta be a chaos garden, and I tell ya those are GREAT! You grow whatever, transplant what you can and whatever doesn't breaks down as nutrients for the next ones! Mine is an old storage tub that's too degraded/cracked to use. I drop seeds, cuttings, ends etc in it and its yielded plenty of longevity spinach, a few celery and even a few citrus in the past 2-3 weeks alone.
I've truly chaos-gardened an area of my yard I call Where the Moss Grows, because, well, that area is covered in moss. I have a bird bath over there and had planted a bunch of hyacinth and daffodils that bloomed in early spring, but then took a few packets of seeds, shook them together, and just tossed and watered. So far I know there's a bunch of cosmos coming up in one clump and some random ones that might be weeds or might be other flowers. I don't even remember what all I put in there! Similar approach accidentally with my front yard (No Bottoms, named for how bare it looked after I had all the overgrown and dying evergreen shrubs ripped out). I've mostly been putting bulbs in there. I just buy whatever I run into that's marked perennial, and plant it somewhere in there. Immediately forget what exactly I put where. It's kind of fun and then I look up whatever has grown and I'd like to have more of.
So that is what its called, I have been doing it for years. Lots of Volunteer plants growing, some I have no idea what they are now how they arrived. Love it when pumpkins grow, they shade my soil in summer. Birds love the fruit trees (maybe one day I will actually harvest a fig) - thankfully they have not discovered the pomegranate nor lemon). Nasturtiums vines take over the summer pumpkin vines, Zinna battle the herbs. Its fun. Love it
I’m so happy to see this video! It’s making me feel so much less stress about not planning my raised bed well. I have so little space and I feel restricted following space requirements! I wanna ask though.. if I have wood mulch chips on the ground, can I still sprinkle seeds or do I need to push away the mulch before I sprinkle?
I am an absolute newbie when it comes to gardening; in fact, I have never gardened before in my life but want to start a garden so badly. I have watched so many RUclips videos over the past few months and have been collecting seeds from veggies that I've bought from the farmers market. However, I am overwhelmed with where to start. This video has definitely eased some of my anxious paralysis and I will be going to the garden supply store tomorrow. I am looking forward to trying this method and allowing the good Lord and nature do their work.
Back when I lived in a house and had no idea what I was doing, one of my garden experiments involved manually pollinating some kale and radish plants and letting them go to seed. (The flowers are surprisingly pretty.) They'll probably be almost a decade old by the time I plant them next, but it'll be fun to see what I get out of them!
Watching this I feel so much better about my style. I find orderly gardening so boring and my crazy busy brain cannot fathom planting in rows. Now I can name my style “I am a chaos gardener!” Thank you Meg and team Epic
I do believe that this is the best way to make use of space. I tried to organize my garden, but it doesn't really work for me. I don't have raised beds, which I should get because of my back issues. However, I don't, but no matter how I organized my garden, I tend to plant random things in all my open spaces!
I have learned that this works really well in dry climates. Plant spacing means very little, and you can do whatever you want. But in intense humidity, spacing plants is SUPER important for good air-flow bc you just battle fungus, fungus, fungus! So some of this is based on where you live.
I just moved into a new house and didn't have time to prep or make a real garden. So I just quickly cleared a spot, threw down some compost, got seeds, mixed them up and threw them down. Few weeks later it's thriving. I've done nothing to it except turned the sprinkler on a few times.
I totally love gardens that are a bit more spontaneous - no year is the same and if some plant doesn’t come up, it’s great if there are some beet root seeds waiting in the soil because I dropped them all over the place. The garden next to me has 1cm lawn with ceramic dwarfs on it - everyone has different styles and that is also beautiful
Meg is really sweet. As a Type A I think I can get on board with Chaos gardening as it’s really getting tiresome planning and planting. “Cam-o-mile”. Blessings Meg!
My chay-mo-Miley is popping off this year. Usually we harvest them so frequently that they don’t reseed much but last year things got out of hand and now I have a 4x4 patch of it with probably 200 plants packed in 😆
Chaymo-mai-lee 😂 I love this running bit on the Epic Gardening channel lol Loved the video! Meg is very calm and informative as always. Sometimes I get decision paralysis about what to do in the garden so at a certain just saying 'duck it' and throwing some seeds around is a great way to get at least something growing 🌱🖤
I think it was 1968 when Masano u Fukuoka did an interview with East-West Journal about his planting techniques. His book The One Straw Revolution definitely took the organic agriculture movement to a new level . He was a man who reali,ed hiw nayure works and createdan underdtsnding so peopkecould grow with the fliw of how deep ecologt works with food production. Highly recommend this book. It's a great read, i.e. fascinating true story and highly educational.
I am a huge chaos gardener when it comes to carrots! It works well enough and considering how many seeds you get in a packet it's the easiest way to go through a packet before they 'expire'!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I work full time with a 40 minute commute on each end, so I can totally relate. I was starting to feel stressed about not being abe to follow all the advice and recommendation that I hear form people (including Kevin) the I admire and respect. However, my schedule (I also work on weekends) makes it very difficult to follow all the advice and start to get a little stressed out when I can't follow the "rules." O absolutely love the concept of "chaos gardening." I just came in form scattering some lettuce, parsley and dill seeds and the weather forecast is for rain this evening. THAK YOU! This is a real game changer for me in terms of my approach going forward.
Charming and sweet. This channel definitely needs more chaos and definitely needs more Meg. Better yet, does Meg have her own channel that I can subscribe to? Liking the idea of randomly sprinkling a bit of this and that and see what thrives.
We have volunteer carrots coming up all over our community garden plot this year, which is ironic since I have tried planting them on purpose so many times without success. It's been a wet spring here in Texas! It might also be because the cow pen daisies had taken over the plot and shaded out the ground until we had a hard frost in January, which might have given what they needed to start in the winter. On the other hand, hardly any of the usual volunteer poppies, which need sunshine on the ground in late fall.
I'm just doing this too, I've a few beds with everything in them, from carrots, to kale chamomile and borage, with garlic etc there is food and herbs everywhere, everything I can utilise is in there.
One caveat I would like to mention about chaos gardening is to make sure you familiarize yourself with how seedlings look when they are growing! I made the epic mistake of planting a rainbow carrot mix in a random pot with random soil under a tree with random dry leaves as mulch. I knew what traditional carrot seedlings looked like but the other varieties I accidentally pulled because I thought they were weeds! 😢
Wanting to encourage some volunteers and restrict others, I’ve finally learned to wait until seedlings are a bit bigger before plucking them, at least in certain areas. Nothing worse than realizing you have no carrots because you pulled them.
Fully agree on soil. My first year gardening I used near by clay soil to cut down on raised bed costs 😂 funny now. I actually got some decent crops but they would have been SO MUCH BETTER had I focused on soil over tons of seed varieties. Lesson learned and now amending soil is my GAME ❤
Thirty years ago I did a few rainforest gardens, we just randomly thrown a couple of buckets of potatoes around and you plant a tree wherever a potato is.
I am gettin ready to do the same thing but with flowers. Some of them are years old so I will mix them all and throw them out on the front garden beds.
A few notes here - first, yes there are some plants you don't want to scatter around the garden! Use your own discretion. But more importantly, we are not "garden gatekeepers" here at Epic. I've personally seen a lot of hate for this method from other garden creators
around the internet and honestly I find it kind of sad. We exist to help you grow. Whatever gets you motivated and encouraged to start gardening, we're here for. - Kevin
Thank you so much!
The world needs more Chaotic Neutral Gardening.
YAASSSSSSSSS!!!!!! Hell yeah, Eric!!! 🙌 ❤
As the old saying goes: there's more than 1 way to skin a cat. Geeze why do people have to be so rigid? Anyhow, I loved this idea as I'm sure so many others will. It makes gardening seem more approachable, especially for a newbie like me. Thank you all for sharing your ideas, knowledge & love for gardening. PS: if you ever get anyone in the Houston, TX area (9b?) on your team would love to hear from them. I'm finding it hard to get good info. Stay blessed & much success!💜
I saw Luke from MI gardener do the multiseed sowing after putting carrots, beets, and others in a shaker, and it was a great result…the beets and carrots did great. I might do this next year…
My preschooler was helping in the garden and when I went to get compost from a different part of the yard she had opened all the seed packets. We just kinda kicked them around, dumped the compost, and called it a day. Pretty much everything she put in the ground is sprouting and I now get surprises everywhere I look!
Love this!! My kids are 12 and 14 now and still help a little, but cherish these memories! Time goes so quickly. Make lots of pictures of the two of you 'discovering' what you planted!
This is awesome!! I'm going to let my 2-year-old do this lol
Fun! What a fun learning experience for her. Toddlers always bring the chaos! Haha
I had my 3yo help my 1yo plant one of my beds. I gave them a packet of radishes and some peas and everything came up. Now I just gotta keep tiny from yanking on the pea plants ...
you don't get more chaotic than calling them flowers chaymohmylee lmao
I had to come to the comments and make sure I’m not tripping. 😂 tf she say
@@SamLab420 me too!! i was wondering what i wasnt planting! i had never heard of chaymamylee before! well, it's an honest mistake, if you never heard it pronounced......it's a lovely try!
The way she said it was really cute 😹
Lol I think it's because kevin said it like that in a video a couple weeks ago
Bruh, I ain't never heard nobody say that mess. And I'm born and raised in NC.
LOL Chamomyliee patch. 😂 I don’t know how you guys keep a straight face.
Heeheeheee
it clicked when she said it the 2nd time, & i cracked up!! y'all get so creative with it!
Is that really how it's said? Or an inside joke? lol
@@chelseajordan5752 inside joke. They all say it incorrectly, but differently from each other. Like the "chicken sounds" bit from Arrested Development
@@chelseajordan5752 It's started as a joke, but I'm hearing it from others where I KNOW it's not a joke they really are mispronouncing. So with its widespread use now, the jokes over, I just assume people are dumb.
Chaos Gardner here!! As a mother of 7 in a 3 floor walk up, I only have a community garden plot. And chaos gardening is the best way for me to garden because I don’t have much time. Only things I “plan” is corn, tomatoes, and potatoes. Everything else is survival of the fittest! ❤ from HI!
Meg is such a great addition to the team!
Thank you for the kind words! ❤
YES!!! Totally agree!❤
I second that opinion! Love Meg!
You did great! Almost every question I had was answered within the video. Also, shout out to a fellow North Carolinian (8a!)
I agree, she has such a calming relaxed voice!
Pam here…..LOVE THIS!! I am legally blind and so hard for me to be out in FULL sun to plan or garden so I so out late in evening or on cloudy days when ‘looks like rain’ to plant…works fabulous to let my seeds all get a soaking rain after I am done!! I have 20 plus raised beds and I am going to toss in some stuff random now…my hubby was saying you’re planting too close and I was like NO it helps keep weeds down, keeps soil cool and hold the moisture!! Thx for validating me!!!
20 is a lot to build and work better they don't wash out like ground rows do.
Wow never knew about toxic squash syndrome but just looked it up. Thanks so much for helping spread awareness. I'm in a huge agriculture area and from a farming family and have never heard of this. Just goes to show how I'm never done learning. I garden like a polish immigrant farmer (organized rows) but I sow flowers like a European with a cottage lol. Love chaos gardening when I can get away with it
It’s pretty rare and you may never come across it- but always good to know when you’re letting things freely hybridize in your garden! Happy growing 🌱
@@meggrowsplants Unfortunately far more common when you have invasive man root growing because it's a toxic wild "squash" that easily crosses with any winter/summer squash.
Same. Thank you
Volunteers are a blessing. It’s nature’s way of picking out the strongest. Not all seeds are gonna do good so might as well spread them all. Save seeds from the most vigorous and it’ll pay you back 10x with seeds.
Couldn’t agree more!
I was so annoyed when my mom dead-headed the hostas the former owners of my house had planted. Yes, those hostas needed to be cut down because they were in full sun and not doing well at all there, but I was counting on them going to seed so I could grab their babies and plant them in a more appropriate place. Instead, I had to buy new ones.
I love my desert natives! Some beauties grow around here. The PictureThis app helps with figuring out what is what. 😊
This right here is so true!
@@littlebacchus216 that’s where a majority of my volunteers came from. Also from seeds dropping the year before. Kill whatever doesn’t grow fast, shows nutrient problems first and what the bad bugs like
I just went out armed with this video and my copy of “Carrots Love Tomatoes” and did a version of this in two of my beds before a thunderstorm rolled in and put a stop to my gardening revelry. I’m seven weeks postpartum and getting a really late start on my garden, so this video was very timely!
I totally feel you on that. Our baby is 10 months and I'm SO BEHIND in the garden. Thankfully plants are super forgiving.
Congratulations to you both on your babies!!! You were literally growing your most sacred of fruits. Health, happiness, strength, and many blessings to you and your families. ❤
I harvested my first potatoes yesterday. I got 5 good size whites of some kind a a couple of little reds. Its not a huge harvest but I'm still very happy with it.
Be proud, that's awesome - Kevin
Mine are not ready but insane. I planted 5 seed reds and 3 seed Yukon golds in a 4'x2' bed. They completely choked out the cucumber and pea seedlings I put in there (thankfully they survived being moved to another bed) and are bursting through the bird netting I have over my beds and the Yukons are now probably a foot taller than the netting. Just starting to flower, so maybe three more weeks before I can harvest?
This is my first year growing more than just a few herbs in a planter a former resident left on my past rental condo stairwell so I'm not getting everything right, but I am already eating homegrown kale every day and am probably going to have more radishes and potatoes than I can handle. Next year I'm getting a tiered 4'x4' bed to match with my 8'x2' bisected one. Potatoes will be going in the new bed with MUCH taller bird netting.
@@epicgardeningI’ve seen a lot of people say baby formula is good for the garden, is this true?
Can't possibly convey how much I love you guys for all the help you've given me, and completely and utterly digging the new additions to the team (Meg in this particular case). Thank you so much for everything you all do, it's made my life better, and undoubtedly many other folks lives, as well. APPRECIATE YA!!!
My grandmother and I always called it Forest Floor Gardening. My newest flower plot was just me tossing seeds in it, my planters start orderly and get chaotic pretty quick
Love that term ❤
Love this
Also called throwing your food scraps with tomato, squash etc. on the ground... Midden heap volunteer gardening
Love that you mentioned Toxic Squash Syndrome, as my aunt, mother and I had a bitter squash some years ago, and had a hellacious night as a result of that... we were on the phone with poison control, who'd never heard of it, so I ended up sending them an article about a German couple who's neighbor had baked them a zucchini pie, and the man ate all of his despite the bitter taste - the wife didn't. She survived, he didn't. So yeah, it's important stuff, and I tell people about it all the time, as I run in chaos gardening, seed freedom loving circles.
Y'all are trolling us with that chamomilee 😂❤
Yup the best is when new viewers come on here and get all mad trying to correct it 😂😂😂
@@alejandrogarcia3986 i certainly would never get upset!! however, i did feel that it was rude to 'pretend' you didnt know how to pronounce....you had an opportunity to make a sweet joke, but just ended up sounding dumb and sad. you made me feel dumb too.
@@MomIrregardless Soooo .. you did get upset? Comment doesnt make too much sense
No kidding I was just listening passively and heard that pronunciation 🤣🤣 I'm dying laughing
@@alejandrogarcia3986what's the backstory? 😅 I'm new to this channel and I'd love to know.
Meg has a gorgeous big yard. Love her way of gardening! Excellent video, hope to see more of Meg!
Thank you for the kind words!! ❤
She’s great! And has her own channel too 😉
I love Meg and her Chaos Gardening methods! When I found her on IG I was struggling to start my garden wanting perfection.
Meg really helped in giving me permission just get out there. Thank you for having her as part of the team, she is wonderful!
I’ve let the chaos happen in my garden by letting most of the volunteers grow wherever they grow and I think it’s a fun way to let nature take the wheel, and see what happens. On a side note, please include more of Meg she’s not only stunningly beautiful but a great speaker!
I let a lot of volunteers grow as well, unless they are in my mowed path. This year I have potatoes growing in my onion bed as well as another spot I had two years ago lol.
I remember watching Meg and learning about chaos gardening I thought it was genius I went outside and threw some old carrots seeds in my raised bed. Many months later I’m finally seeing a carrot. 🥕 i found some clearance asparagus crowns , shallots and onions 🧅 at Lowes I went ahead and planted them although it’s mid June. What’s the worst that can happen. Chaos gardening 🧑🌾 is a great concept!
I love that Meg's featured on this channel, too. I remember finding her last year and being so excited that I finally found a gardener that's also in North Carolina in the same zone. I learned choas gardening from her earlier this year, and that's what I did with my spring Harvest💚
This only issue I personally have an issue with is if you don’t know what the seedlings look like that you want versus a weed. It’s why I start seeds indoors so I know my plants versus weeds.
I LOVED this video-it’s made me feel that even I can plant a garden. Thank you SO MUCH!!!🌸🌸🌸
I love this. I just started gardening and did not space anything out. Everything seems to be doing just fine!
You guys at Epic helped me feel more free in what and how I plant. I don’t follow rules as much and it has helped me learn on my own… one big experiment. I definitely embrace chaos in the garden.
I love this! I’ve actually had the same idea. I have been also throwing seed around town in places that are not mowed/ pesticides or natural spaces (guerrilla gardening) I check back to see their progress. Some actually came up, and are growing on their own. They might not make it but it rains lightly almost every other day where I live. Nature knows best. Thank you for the video!
Love this video! In 2022, I over bought seeds and still had a bunch hanging around. This year, I made a few chaos mixes and spread them in different parts around my garden, sowing densely to account for germination rate decreases due to age. In my one planned bed, I got my tomatoes, peppers, and okra in, then “chaos planted” companion plants. For tomatoes, I scattered marigolds and basil; for okra, calendula, cosmos, and zinnias; for peppers, onion and nasturtiums. Can’t wait for everything to fill in!
Great move!
I always thought I would have neat rows and formal gardens, but chaos gardening just happened organically and I would never change it now. I call it "shoehorn gardening" because I just shoehorn things into gaps. I will literally walk around with a tray of seedlings and scout for places to squeeze plants in. I do have some exceptions - one dedicated tomato bed (but lots of chaos tomatoes, which I share with the birds), dedicated dahlia beds, and I have colour zones where it's all different reds, all different blues etc. But the food garden is a big free for all. I love chaos gardening.
The diversity brings me joy and it helps to lessen the impact of pests and disease. It saves water as the plants act as each other's cover crop/living mulch, which also means it requires less weeding. Conventional thinking is to give plants space or they'll compete for resources... that hasn't been my experience at all - I cram them in and they thrive. I've got lettuces the size of car tyres and they're being elbowed by spinach, borage, mustard, all jostling with each other, but all super healthy. My asparagus gardens look similar to the video - they're full of lettuce and strawberries, self seeded silverbeet, nasturtiums.
I walk around pulling seed heads off flowers and just flinging the seeds around. Marigolds are fantastic for this.
I had cosmos pop up in my tomato bed and I went with it... turns out it was the best thing for the tomatoes because the foliage hid the tomatoes from the birds - I didn't have to net them at all, and I barely lost any fruit, unlike the previous year which was a disaster for losing tomatoes to the birds. Plus the light foliage kept a bit of sun off so they didn't scorch. They also brought in extra pollinators and beneficial insects. This year I'll be planting cosmos as a very deliberate tomato companion plant.
The main downside with my chaos gardening is that it's hard to send someone else out into the garden to fetch XYZ for dinner because I know where you can find everything, but nobody else does 😆
Oh! A hummingbird moth! I used to have those all the time in my prior garden, but haven't seen them were I live now. I love them!
Meg way of explaining things is very detail , clear and informative. Somehow she also answers common questions that we have in our minds.
My version of chaos gardening is "oh snap, I started way too many seedlings and don't have enough spaces for them...guess it's time to break all the spacing rules and toss a ton of pansies in the same container as my blueberry bush and they'll act as a natural mulch and I'll toss the rest of the peas in where the tomatoes are going to go but they'll be established and will get some shade from the tomato and maybe I'll get some extra peas out of the season..." lol I do prefer to start my seeds but I'm just too good and they all grow and I CANNOT cull them or give them away, I find a tight spot somewhere and make it work. LOL
Similar!
throw in that I don't always mark my seeds.....which is why I ended up with 8 zucchini plants last summer..
"No rules. Only Vibes." I love it.
Putting this in my garden planner ❤ That's the kind of energy I need
Loved this video. ❤ Some very useful tips. Who doesn’t need a bit of chaos? My garden is always chaotic but in the “all of my gardening supplies are everywhere”. I’m tempted to seed one of my raised beds with some chaos.
Been working at it for three years, first year most of my things died, second year the garden went insane with tons of rain and all my tomatoes got so out of control and tons of pest issues... This year is going well! The tomatoes from last year re seeded everywhere and I have enough little seedlings to share with friends. Im keeping up with weeding and letting alot of things be a little bit wild but paying more attention.
I plant seeds in the rain all the time its great fun!
That's exactly what I am doing with some of my flower beds and the side beds of mixed veg- every time I see seed pods from a plant I nab them and plant them beside another smaller plant so they can grow together. The flowers are great for this as I did this for the pink cosmo flowers and now I have them everywhere as well as the marigolds great beneficial plants.
Yessssss, I'm so happy to hear that I'm not the only one that does this. I figure if birds poop out seeds or the wind carries them through the air then wherever they land it's just survival of the fittest! 🌱
I love that there is a name for this, haha. I've been a garden gremlin this entire time without knowing it. Chaos gardening ftw❤
A more accurate title should be the ADHD method of gardening.
This is definitely how I manage my flower garden and there is definitely something to it, because I had a great experience with the radish/carrot trick.
Wonderful!
I swear by it! 🥕
Thank you for this! It gave me the permission I didn't know I needed. I was in a writer's block, but for plants.
Wonderful!
Same. I felt that way about flowers and looking at all the comments, I'm like... "Oh... I can just throw flower seeds around? Sweet!"
Chamomyleeeeeee!!! 😂😂😂😂 That's what I am calling it from now on! My inner garden gremlin came out the other day(right before it rained for 2 minutes) and scattered some seeds where I had no plants already growing. I can't wait to see what comes up over here in the Piedmont! Meg, stay awesome!
I actually do this and this is one of my favorites ways to garden!
I LOVE this!! I have three under three so I've been starting small with just a few plants this year, but I'm going to go fill ALL those gaps with lettuce and herbs 😍
This is my kind of gardening 🥰 it reminds me of a cottage garden, planned but not planned. It is so sad that some folks think their way is the only way - not true. It should be fun not something you have to force yourself to do. I love this video, glad I found it.
I’m trying this today ❤ the weather is finally cooperating so I will be scathing seeds this evening.
I totally did some of this this year after a very disappointing garden last year and it just felt free! My husband likes rows but he’s happy because I’m happy with the growth!
The people said we want Meg and you delivered!
I love implementing chaos gardening. I will sow my bigger crops first and then once the seedlings are somewhat established, I’ll go in with all my smaller seeds over the entire bed. This keeps me from having to mulch to since I then have living mulch. Big bonus too- once you harvest from that bed and you disturb the soil- a lot of times for me I’ll have a new crop pop up from seeds that were still in the soil. The gift that keeps on giving and uses little mental energy! 💕
Absolutely loved this video! Gardening can be overwhelming, sometimes its fun to intuitive garden, experiment and take the pressure off. I am going to grab my extra lettuce and spinach seeds today and fill in the gaps between my tomatoes and peppers. Great job!
Thank you Meg❤❤❤❤ I always have atleast 3 chaos gardening bed in my garden but you do it with more style and I love it❤
Thank you ❤
I did this today! I forgot the notebook I had planned to use to map out where I planted everything and ended up just saying ‘F it’ and throwing the seeds haphazardly. I’ll figure out what’s what later on 🤷🏼♀️😂 plus it was raining! Glad there are experts backing me up!
Meg is awesome! First video I watched with her mostly in it and I loved it! You guys rock.
Going through seeds when I saw this! I've only heard the first sentence, "overwhelmed" and i know i need to keep listening. I've had 36 years of gardens.I traveled a lot this year; Sweden, México...not a seed or plant in the ground yet. I have 300 varieties among my viable seeds. Since my last garden I've gained a puppy who is a year old now, major complications! So, I'm gonna hear you out!
THIS IS SO COOL! I always feel like I have so much unused space when I'm doing square foot gardening. It does fill in over time but I like how your beds utilize ALL the space.
I'm in MN, planted my carrots between two strips of to in December. They are popping up like crazy, first year of success!
I love her vibe and the vibe of her garden :)
Our chaos flower garden is THRIVING. We have poppies, zinnia, dwarf teddy bear sunflowers, alyssum, oregano, basil, and lavender so far. I threw some chamomalay out there the other day to fill in any bare spot. Oh, and we have a trellis in the middle with morning glories trailing up!
Just ordered 3 of your 8x4x17” grow beds! Looking for to setting them up for Fall planting!
My dad did this- he’d dump all the seeds in a jar and go out and spread it around.
Love that ❤
And I'm assuming it worked well luv?
I love this!
That’s what I do😂 surprises at every turn and always get good results.
I tend to get overwhelmed with “the order of things” and will spend more time preparing or setting up and when things do not work out, I get frustrated and feel like a failure. Just planting without all the rules and shiny new things, produces results that almost always leads to success and a bountiful harvest for me - which helps me to feel like I’ve accomplished something.
Not sure this would work on a very large scale but for those with a small yard garden, I think it’s worth a try. David the good has a similar style with his grocery row / food forest gardening style and has inspired me as well.
Are we talking flowers or veggies?
Kudos for mentioning toxic squash syndrome. Most people I know have never heard of this and grow thier cucs, squashes... near each other and have started saving seeds. I'm planting them close this year but not saving or using any of the plant seeds.
Oh my- I’m a chaos gardener and didn’t even know it! I’ve been randomly sprinkling seeds for years just to “see what happens”. There is definitely an art to it and some combos work better than others. For me, the experiment is half the fun. Great video.
Jumping in to comment based just off the thumbnail. Gotta be a chaos garden, and I tell ya those are GREAT! You grow whatever, transplant what you can and whatever doesn't breaks down as nutrients for the next ones! Mine is an old storage tub that's too degraded/cracked to use. I drop seeds, cuttings, ends etc in it and its yielded plenty of longevity spinach, a few celery and even a few citrus in the past 2-3 weeks alone.
I didn't know I was a chaos gardener already. Love your herb shaker gonna do that. Phonetically kam o mile is the pronunciation for chamomile.
The chamomile pronunciation has to be a channel thing now right??? Like they’ve all collectively agreed to never pronounce it correctly again??
Lol literally just randomly threw a bunch of carrot seeds into my garden bed and then lightly mulched. Loved this video !
I've truly chaos-gardened an area of my yard I call Where the Moss Grows, because, well, that area is covered in moss. I have a bird bath over there and had planted a bunch of hyacinth and daffodils that bloomed in early spring, but then took a few packets of seeds, shook them together, and just tossed and watered. So far I know there's a bunch of cosmos coming up in one clump and some random ones that might be weeds or might be other flowers. I don't even remember what all I put in there!
Similar approach accidentally with my front yard (No Bottoms, named for how bare it looked after I had all the overgrown and dying evergreen shrubs ripped out). I've mostly been putting bulbs in there. I just buy whatever I run into that's marked perennial, and plant it somewhere in there. Immediately forget what exactly I put where. It's kind of fun and then I look up whatever has grown and I'd like to have more of.
So that is what its called, I have been doing it for years. Lots of Volunteer plants growing, some I have no idea what they are now how they arrived. Love it when pumpkins grow, they shade my soil in summer. Birds love the fruit trees (maybe one day I will actually harvest a fig) - thankfully they have not discovered the pomegranate nor lemon). Nasturtiums vines take over the summer pumpkin vines, Zinna battle the herbs. Its fun. Love it
I’m so happy to see this video! It’s making me feel so much less stress about not planning my raised bed well. I have so little space and I feel restricted following space requirements! I wanna ask though.. if I have wood mulch chips on the ground, can I still sprinkle seeds or do I need to push away the mulch before I sprinkle?
I am an absolute newbie when it comes to gardening; in fact, I have never gardened before in my life but want to start a garden so badly. I have watched so many RUclips videos over the past few months and have been collecting seeds from veggies that I've bought from the farmers market. However, I am overwhelmed with where to start. This video has definitely eased some of my anxious paralysis and I will be going to the garden supply store tomorrow. I am looking forward to trying this method and allowing the good Lord and nature do their work.
Back when I lived in a house and had no idea what I was doing, one of my garden experiments involved manually pollinating some kale and radish plants and letting them go to seed. (The flowers are surprisingly pretty.) They'll probably be almost a decade old by the time I plant them next, but it'll be fun to see what I get out of them!
Watching this I feel so much better about my style. I find orderly gardening so boring and my crazy busy brain cannot fathom planting in rows. Now I can name my style “I am a chaos gardener!” Thank you Meg and team Epic
I do believe that this is the best way to make use of space. I tried to organize my garden, but it doesn't really work for me. I don't have raised beds, which I should get because of my back issues. However, I don't, but no matter how I organized my garden, I tend to plant random things in all my open spaces!
I really should try this. My beds are always just 25% filled with single plants and I so envy these beds that are just full of everything.
I have learned that this works really well in dry climates. Plant spacing means very little, and you can do whatever you want. But in intense humidity, spacing plants is SUPER important for good air-flow bc you just battle fungus, fungus, fungus! So some of this is based on where you live.
I do both - chaos & organized. They both produce amazing. Chaos is actually visually more appealing, a beautiful canvas!
I have been doing a bit of chaos gardening, and it takes a lot of the stress out!
I must mix up some random wildflower seeds & just be a little "chaos fairy" tomorrow. Great video
I love this so, so much. My way of gardening, confirmed!
I just moved into a new house and didn't have time to prep or make a real garden. So I just quickly cleared a spot, threw down some compost, got seeds, mixed them up and threw them down. Few weeks later it's thriving. I've done nothing to it except turned the sprinkler on a few times.
I totally love gardens that are a bit more spontaneous - no year is the same and if some plant doesn’t come up, it’s great if there are some beet root seeds waiting in the soil because I dropped them all over the place. The garden next to me has 1cm lawn with ceramic dwarfs on it - everyone has different styles and that is also beautiful
It did this one year. It was awesome. I then used what did well where to plant intentionally the next year.
Meg is really sweet. As a Type A I think I can get on board with Chaos gardening as it’s really getting tiresome planning and planting. “Cam-o-mile”. Blessings Meg!
My chay-mo-Miley is popping off this year. Usually we harvest them so frequently that they don’t reseed much but last year things got out of hand and now I have a 4x4 patch of it with probably 200 plants packed in 😆
I like Meg! I’m in NC too. Just got my first bees this spring! Glad to finally have a name for my gardening style 😂
Chaymo-mai-lee 😂 I love this running bit on the Epic Gardening channel lol
Loved the video! Meg is very calm and informative as always. Sometimes I get decision paralysis about what to do in the garden so at a certain just saying 'duck it' and throwing some seeds around is a great way to get at least something growing 🌱🖤
I think it was 1968 when Masano u Fukuoka did an interview with East-West Journal about his planting techniques. His book The One Straw Revolution definitely took the organic agriculture movement to a new level . He was a man who reali,ed hiw nayure works and createdan underdtsnding so peopkecould grow with the fliw of how deep ecologt works with food production. Highly recommend this book. It's a great read, i.e. fascinating true story and highly educational.
I am a huge chaos gardener when it comes to carrots! It works well enough and considering how many seeds you get in a packet it's the easiest way to go through a packet before they 'expire'!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I work full time with a 40 minute commute on each end, so I can totally relate. I was starting to feel stressed about not being abe to follow all the advice and recommendation that I hear form people (including Kevin) the I admire and respect. However, my schedule (I also work on weekends) makes it very difficult to follow all the advice and start to get a little stressed out when I can't follow the "rules." O absolutely love the concept of "chaos gardening." I just came in form scattering some lettuce, parsley and dill seeds and the weather forecast is for rain this evening.
THAK YOU! This is a real game changer for me in terms of my approach going forward.
Looove chaos gardening! What a lush, beautiful garden 💚
Charming and sweet. This channel definitely needs more chaos and definitely needs more Meg. Better yet, does Meg have her own channel that I can subscribe to? Liking the idea of randomly sprinkling a bit of this and that and see what thrives.
She does, I think it's called Meg Grows Plants
Yes, I do! ❤
I love it! I was doing this in the rain as I was listening to this video lol 👊🏻🌻👊🏻
We have volunteer carrots coming up all over our community garden plot this year, which is ironic since I have tried planting them on purpose so many times without success. It's been a wet spring here in Texas! It might also be because the cow pen daisies had taken over the plot and shaded out the ground until we had a hard frost in January, which might have given what they needed to start in the winter. On the other hand, hardly any of the usual volunteer poppies, which need sunshine on the ground in late fall.
Isn't that the best, try to do all the things to get a plant to survive, and it dies. Ignore it and it thrives. 😂
Carrots be like that sometimes!
I started this type of gardening this year . Its coming along and interesting to see nature do her thing .
I'm just doing this too, I've a few beds with everything in them, from carrots, to kale chamomile and borage, with garlic etc there is food and herbs everywhere, everything I can utilise is in there.
These beds are beautiful. Thanks for showing this technique. Definitely going to try it when I refresh my beds this summer.
That’s how our garden is set out. Flowers and food side by side, mostly in ground odd shaped beds. Love it❤
One caveat I would like to mention about chaos gardening is to make sure you familiarize yourself with how seedlings look when they are growing! I made the epic mistake of planting a rainbow carrot mix in a random pot with random soil under a tree with random dry leaves as mulch. I knew what traditional carrot seedlings looked like but the other varieties I accidentally pulled because I thought they were weeds! 😢
Very true!
Wanting to encourage some volunteers and restrict others, I’ve finally learned to wait until seedlings are a bit bigger before plucking them, at least in certain areas. Nothing worse than realizing you have no carrots because you pulled them.
Chaos Gardener gal, you've got a very lovely personality!!!
Thank you so much! ❤
@@meggrowsplants Oh, very welcome👍😻
Fully agree on soil. My first year gardening I used near by clay soil to cut down on raised bed costs 😂 funny now. I actually got some decent crops but they would have been SO MUCH BETTER had I focused on soil over tons of seed varieties. Lesson learned and now amending soil is my GAME ❤
im trying to chaos and get rid of my old school row garden brain set.. nice info thx
Thirty years ago I did a few rainforest gardens, we just randomly thrown a couple of buckets of potatoes around and you plant a tree wherever a potato is.
I am gettin ready to do the same thing but with flowers. Some of them are years old so I will mix them all and throw them out on the front garden beds.