when i first started gardening 2 years ago i was trying to do all the "things" growing in containers filled with store bought soil mixes and compost, which is great if you have the funds to do so, the last year i have grown in small rows directly in my ocala florida sandy back yard, using lentils as a cheap covercrop in between plantings. to slow water movement in between my rows i have mulched with spanish moss to keep moisture as well as loading a big cattle feed bucket with spaniah moss and water then letting it ferment and feeding my plants daily. its working great so far, best cherry tomato crop ive had this pass fall and my radishes and beets are currently doing great!
Also Ocala here. Could you talk more about your moss mulch? I've been trying to find a use for the stuff but it doesn't compost quickly and becomes a big tangly mess when I want to spread the stuff that did actually break down. Do you just lay it out between rows? Does it actually help retain water?
@@ross5066 hey there and sure I find that when you ferment the moss first in water for a few days changing the water daily and using that water to fertilize with then using the moss as a mulch between rows it does help moisture to stay in the dirt, and the moss will turn light gray then to black, in my experience so far it doesn’t break down completely but that’s ok for me as I pile it up around the base of my fruit trees as a more slow release mulch.
@@FloridamanForager Thanks for the reply! I guess I know what I'm doing this afternoon. Nice to know there's other folks nearby who are the same type of crazy as I am! Moved out here from Jacksonville about a year ago and am trying to figure out what works now that I have the space to actually plant in the dirt (sand).
I lost my Papaw 2 days after Thanksgiving... he was 80 years old and raised on a farm in Arkansas. He would till every spring (red clay soil), made his own compost, and grew in rows. He had a wonderful garden and taught me to love growing things 🥰
@@donteatthefoxgloves377 absolutely 🥰 I had a yellow rose bloom in my garden the day he was buried. He loved yellow roses and grew them for a long time.
Awww. DTG made me cry today. Mom would have been 80 today but she passed on February 28th. Mom loved peonies, hellebores, calla lilies and hydrangeas. I’m digging them all up and replanting them at my grandparents house where she grew up. ❤️
Man, I am so glad you made this vlog. I'm in my 60's and have been gardening, well, most of my life. Grew up helping my mom in the garden. I garden just like she did. Which is exactly the way you are explaining today with minimal tilling. All I ever hear, in most vlogs, is DO NOT TILL, and I get it, but how I've been doing it with amending my beds with old leaves and manure and never ever any chemicals. All organic. And my gardens are very abundant. I love my row garden. I love being old fashion on purpose. peace
I've been doing David's Grocery Row Gardening Concept for about 7 years and it works really well, however, David brings up an excellent point. All systems have pros and cons. Using wood mulch and leaves, I find it almost impossible to do direct seeding (which is why I only plant perennials). If I had less clay and more time for bigger gardens, I would definetly do single row. Find the system that matches your time, knowledge and interest and try it out! The worst thing that can happen is you learn some things and pass that knowledge on to others in your area. We learn more from our failures than our successes. We grow through trying.
The moral of the story… there is no wrong way to garden, and failures and successes both teach the gardener what works best for them. I love watching your videos Mr. The Good. You are a gift to humanity. Your thoughts and ideas might just be part of the tapestry of people driven solutions that save the world.
We moved to a large property a couple years ago. We have been experimenting with different methods in our garden. Cardboard with wood chips over it for path ways is a great success for us (we are older) Raised beds, permaculture areas, and row gardening. This year we are going to add a high tunnel and see how that goes.
I did a big no-till garden one time. After the first season, the neighbors trees had sent their roots into the beds and filled them so tightly that I couldn't grow anything in them. Since then, I've done the old wide rows and containers. Plus, I just love the look of the single rows.
I use single row gardens and I put grass clippings from my lawn on the bare ground to keep the weeds out and the moisture in. It breaks down and feed the plants too.
Man I wish I had that much space man I love your gardens , and I agree Failure is the best teacher, you can watch all the videos on yt you want about “fail safe “ gardening and “back to eden” gardening but until you figure out what microclimates you have in your grow space and kill some plants because of “human error” due to figuring out what plants like to be where your gonna have a tough time , it took me years to figure out my space and that’s after I went through a aminopyralids contamination and had to wait til I saw tomatoes growing healthy in the soil , it’s been a journey for me but it’s so worth, thanks DTG 🙏
The idea of it being a toolkit, is really an important point. It's great to learn all the different methods and see what works and what doesn't for you and your area. My father did and till, single row garden, but at the end of the season in upstate NY, he'd throw mulched leaves (free local resource) over his entire garden area. Come spring, it would be completely broken down and he had the darkest, super nutrient rich soil I've ever saw. Then he'd till his rows and plant transplants and seed. It's basically a mix and match of different concepts. It's great to know them all if your growing for survival, and practice makes perfect!
I ordered your book yesterday My grandparents had a garden in Texas, out in the country. I remembered it as you spoke. Their garden was two long rows but wide apart. They grew everything. Thank you
I have been enjoying your channel for a few years now. I even just bought one of your good books, "Push the Zone," so I have been following your lead in the no till/less till gardening approach. About a year ago I started wathcing Travis from Lazy dog Farms, he follows a single row, old school gardening practice, so I too started some single row garden beds. Very fun. Funny thing is Travis started a "no till" plot last Spring. Love watching both these channel.
Oh my goodness, thankyou for posting this. I've been doing this forever and started feeling like I was doing something wrong because it wasn't raised beds or "back to eden" or raised rows with tons of mulch, etc. We plant cover crops and do lots of compost, aged manure, leaves, straw, etc. My plants get huge and produce tons of food. I saw that square foot gardening recommends 9 bush beans to a single square foot? There's no way. My bush beans get almost a whole square foot big each! And yield tons of beans! Yet I started feeling like I knew nothing about gardening because of all the "newer" methods and thinking that my garden needed a complete overhaul. Not knocking other gardening methods, I love learning everything and maybe incorporating some, but really appreciated this video confirming that sometimes the simplest, old time methods are still great too and I shouldn't feel like my method is bad!! Thankyou!! ❤
I've experimented with just about every fancy method of gardening, old fashion traditional single row has become my favorite, mainly because it's easily scalable whether you use a hoe or mechanized equipment.
I am SO glad to hear you promote this method! I had been wondering - did the good Lord get it wrong?? Is no til the only way it's supposed to work?? No! The Lord tells us to til the soil and add manure to stunted trees- yep - it's been around for a loooong time😅thank You!
I think that all the "this is THE way," it is harder to learn that there are better ways, different ways, and ways to do things for this time and place. Thank you for showing that flexibility is probably THE way and allows you to do all the ways! Tried Fava beans as a cover crop/stir-fry greens for the first time this year, in part thanks to you!
Very timely. I'm establishing a "farmland" on my hilly rock terrain so I can plant in rows; pumpkins, watermelon etc which don't need raised beds. I have no soil, so making soil from leaves. LOT s and lots of leaves. Lots!
I started single row gardening when I moved to TN. Soil tests showed just slightly on the acid side, which was fine with me. But it was hard packed clay. So I watered heavily the night before, then next day tilled down until I hit dry clay again (about 2/in) and did the same thing next few days, until I got down to 1/ft. Then added a HUGE bag of Vermiculite, which was what the Farmer's co-op recommended. Now I dig down a foot, drop in a fish, cover it with a handful of lime to keep out the vermin, cover it, Then plant right on top, whatever I'm transplanting from the mudroom seedlings. But! I DO have a row or 2 of 5/gal buckets full of potatoes, a few 14/ft cattle panels bent over for string beans, just to get the boring out!
I've done a row gardens since 2019 and have been vilified for it on the internet. It's insane. Even though I don't use synthetic ferts I only use fish emulsion I make and composted wood chips. Still apparently i am the bad guy for using a small John Deere tractor to make row crops haha. People are nuts
At this point, is there a wrong way to grow food? (Other than Bill Hates fake, food like products) My old skool gardeners thought my crazy looking garden was a waste of time. However, my crazy garden out performed MOST in my area. My family and neighbors are several generations deep here. They all felt free to "help" with advice . They also felt free to brag on me when they saw the results. Just grow food, folks. Bless you all!
What also works to super size what you have growing is to mix up the "tea" mixtures. Make your own tea with dried comfrey leaves and roots from a health food store (if you don't have them growing fresh), worm castings, sea vegetables (from an Asian market or health food store such as kelp) other medicinal herbs like dried Nettles, etc I add in Wheat grass powder, coffee grounds added to mushrooom compost and your own compost made from plant based food scraps. Put a couple cups of the solid ingredients in a stocking or sock tied shut and put in a 5 gallon bucket covered with rain water. Keep a bubbler running while it steeps in the sun for at least 48 hours and mix the tea with rain water before giving it to your plants. I dilute it 1 part tea to 7 parts water.
I don’t think that row gardening ever went out of fashion here in Lower Alabama. My Grandma’s had them and I still see them all around in the area of the old farm! I’m glad that you recognize the value of both the old and the new! How is Rachel?
Wow, so much info in one video. So glad I found you I am recently new to your channel and Central Alabama, clay Rock and flooding rains trying to figure out what will work here. Thank you for all the help.
Just finished your book grow or die and started compost everything. I love your humor and I’ve gotten some ideas for my gardens and orchard thanks to you. Thank you.
Very smart David to not put all your eggs in one basket but have many different things going. If 1 fails you have more options. God has given you so much wisdom and thank you for blessing us with your knowledge.
I really appreciate your attitude of experimentation. I’m planning on a combination of Ruth Stout/Charles Dowding type garden this year. We have lots and lots of weeds, and hours of weeding is just not something that I love. I’ve grown gardens in rows before, successfully too. But, I’m gonna experiment this year. Thank you for the video.
Yes, moisture makes a BIG difference. I'm in Southern New Mexico. We had a wonderful summer rainy season this year- truly a drought breaker- but overall, it is still dry. Still appreciate all your teachings and can and have adapted them to my area.
It seems the less I mess with the garden the better. I couldn't grow turnips for anything. This year I got a bunch of seed for a ground cover and threw it out there. I will say, I'm getting some nice looking turnips, lol! Letting God take care of the important stuff works for me.
When I started gardening, I kind of thought it couldn't be true that rows were so awful. But everybody said they were. Now I remember a few years ago a popular English gardener did a video from a professional farm and he said every professional farmer he knew relied on rows and there was a reason for this. The higher yield of rows.
Thanks, David! We stopped tilling our garden five or six years ago and I cannot hardly grow anything in it. In the spring it has the most beautiful thick carpet of native weeds/edibles growing before we plant in it. So it's very fertile. But like the beets growing in there now from seed.... some of the beets are ready to harvest and some of them are nothing but 2" seedlings still. So now we'll till that garden! Thank you so much.
I like your way of trying different ways of gardening. Thank you for the knowledge you give. I got a wheel hoe being thrown out the other year. And plan on using it this year because of the fast simple way of weeding
the dust bowl happened because of certain practices in a certain region. the prairie flora was holding the dirt there and allowing water to seep into the ground. we removed that and then the strong plains wind + drought made a mess. they still grow tons of cotton on the high plains of texas and lubbock still gets dust storms. the only difference is that now roundup cost 4 1/2 times more than it used to.
Way cool accidental special effects !!!. I loved the way the gray tabby cat went pure Ghosty phasing in and out of reality on it's journey to visit the black cat.
I warn every new gardener, that almost everything you plant will get eaten to the ground unless you start with a fence, or outside dog. Super frustrating to get all your hard work destroyed by deer, rabbits, and such.
I'm with you on this one...my garden is 40 by 60 .. some is no till and some is square foot gardening some is row garden... this year I'm planting clover grass between the rows and just mow
I'm not sure I can handle this amount of excitement in the gardening space! First yam digging and now this!? I dislike square foot gardening. It was the first book I read as a kid on gardening (think you said that too? Maybe another RUclipsr). So I did plenty of it and it's just a slight notch above container gardening which also sucks for the most part imo. Pfft, Justin got his ideas from Joel Salatin, the true GOAT 😉
Yes, and they both are now learning together and expounding on that shared knowledge. The beauty is trying different and using what works for you! I have my tall Roots and Refuge style beds and I am putting in wide leaf compost filled beds in rows for my tomatoes, beans, and okra. My smaller 3' x 12' x 27" hugelkulture beds gave me over 40# of peppers per bed and a massive amount of personal melons grown over a trellis. My chickens live on a deep bed of wood chips they turn into compost over the year which will feed my new rows. It all works together! We all learn from each other.
I started with sq ft because I started gardening on rocks. Then I tried tilling small spots in the lawn. Last year I had a large space so I did row gardening. Overall I didn't like row gardens but I found some crops I liked it for. This coming year I'm mixing it all together and trying out a high tunnel. Whatever works and gets food to the table imo
If you have the room...experiment with every hardening style! Smart to talk to the locals about what they've tried. Grandma 👵 and Grandma 👴knew a few tricks!
Cool tool! I love how you have multiple diverse systems. It just seems like it would be so much fun! Really looking forward to getting started next year after I clear some trees and applying all the stuff you’ve shared with us! Keep up the great content David! Thank you!
I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your insightfullness. I actually started watching youtube because of you many years ago and I have used the ideas you have taught through the years in every garden I have ever had. I am a FL native now living in a far colder place and gardening primarily in containers and yet I still use many ideas you have shared especially your willingness to try new things and to experiment-in fact, that is what the "Q" in my channel name stands for - QUESTION and I just want to let you know that.
Thanks. I single row, short rows in my green houses organically & out in the property & my stuff comes up fantastically better than most farmers around. I love the wheeled hour and going to see if my hubby will build me one. Just discovered you, thanks again
Growing up, we gardened in rows. When I had my own garden as an adult, I'd been reading all the 'garden in beds' stuff, and that's what we did, for the most part. It's fine for small spaces, but if you have a large garden and need to produce a lot of food, beds are a lot of extra work. They have to be weeded by hand because the plants are too close together to weed with a hoe, or with a wheel-hoe. They take extra water and extra fertilizer, because, as you keep saying, the plants are too close together. I'll still use beds if I only have a small garden, but if I'm trying to produce a large percentage of our diet? Plus possibly growing some feed for our chickens and goats (and feeding the livestock guardian dog)? It's going to be mostly row gardening.
Ive always tried multiple kinds of gardening and went with whatever worked the best for me, not whatever the most people online recommend. I'm 100% organic and I mulch with a variety of straw, grass clippings, leaves, weeds and plants from the woods, compost, wood ashes, wood chips, kelp meal, azomite and rock dust, manures and guanos, etc. I've been gardening for 40 years and this is the best years crops I've ever had. I moved a dead zucchini leaf yesterday and there were an abundance of earthworms under it! I must be doing something right.
😂 symbiotic planting is the way we do it, like literally 2 rows back to back path on one side not the middle 🤷 if that makes sense. But when I got that book carrots love tomatoes, it just made so much sense and it's made our plot crazy predictive
Great video, David! I love how you encourage us to branch out, try new things, experiment…to not be so stodgy and narrow minded in the garden. I think your book on single row gardening should have a title like “Be a Gardening Liberal” 😊…it’s how middle aged conservatives become rebels ..
I live 6000’ elevation NW New Mexico. I have gardened and canned my entire life (I’m 57) and I still love to learn about it. I row garden, some beds and some no till (mostly strawberries and asparagus). I have found that growing in the furrow is best for our arid climate. We get 8” of moisture a year, but we are blessed with irrigation water. We also have a huge delta in our day time temps and night time temps - so gardening can be tricky. I just found you thru Ice Age Farmer and I cannot wait to learn more from you!!!
I do single till for bed prep and mulch my paths between the rows with wood chips. I run the chickens through in the winter and hard rake everything back to shape in spring. I do that with 8, 30' beds and it works out ok. 2 of the beds have voles because I did the buried logs thing that I wouldn't do again.
Very nice video. The old doesn’t always need to be thrown out, keep it if it works. Make it a part of your system. Our grandparents had some great ideas.
All my garden pathways are covered with wood-chips and when weeds finally start to grow back after a year or 2 I use the pathway mulch as soil amendment and but down new wood chips on my paths. I basically use the pathway to turn the chips into mulch.
I've been single row for gardening for 35 years. I learned from my dad. My dad was old fashion. All our neighbors had tractors. My dad plowed with a mule.
I love this video! I agree ...use all the methods if you want and find the one you like best or if you are like me, do all of them and enjoy! My dad has grown in rows and tills his garden every year. His garden is beautiful and he feeds the entire neighborhood! 😊☀️
There are so many great gardening channels that I enjoy and get a lot from, but I feel like I learn more from your channel than anyone else’s. Thank you.
Love it David. I've been learning every way to garden for 10 years. I knew there had to be a better way than planting in dust, filled with triple 13. :) My daddy grew a ton of food that way. However, I use what I can from every method I've learned. 95% of my 3500 square foot growing space is 100% organic. One 20x20 spot was hard clay. I tilled as deep as I could (6-8inches) and covered it with cardboard and deep hay. I thought we needed to wait for next year to plant. My daughter dug holes, added triple 13, covered that with dirt, planted melon seeds and covered it with hay. The rest of the season we watered with water from the creek, mixed with chicken and duck poop. My 4 grandsons ate watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe for weeks. The ground has improved amazingly. It is a dark color and I can dig down a few inches with my finger. Gonna cover the hay with poop and grow all organic this spring. Thanks for sharing all your hard work!
I didn't know there was a dogma about row gardening I'm only 39 but that's the way I've always done it. When I was growing up my God parents lived right next door and they where retired farmers wich there really is no such thing they just weren't farming professionally anymore but every thing that we planted in the garden we started from seed in the green house
Mr David, I was one of those edgelords that thought the straight line garden beds was outdated and in need of a 'better and more natural' method. So I tilled a little 30x40ft plot of land and used one of those 'fertilizer/salt spreaders' to mix together about 20 different species of plants. I did this pretty late into August so that is a massive factor. By late October I had decent sized turnips in patchy sections, about 20 cherry tree saplings spread evenly throughout the plot of land, 1 or 2 pumpkin patches that never got to fruit and thats about it. I couldn't tell what was weeds, or what was vegetable/fruit and I stepped on a few turnips without noticing they were even there(meaning I prolly stepped all over other plants). Now that its December everything is 'mostly dead'(like Wesley from Princess Bride...) except the turnips keep truckin. Im sure the result would be different if I did the same in April but just the not knowing what plant is which, and the absence of any ways to walk thru the plot of land without damaging what was growing makes me want to go back to the straight line garden beds. I shall stop lording over my edge and listen to Mr David.
The permaculture forest involves trial and error… also, the soil may take some time to get to the point where it can play it’s full part in the process. Don’t throw out the permaculture methodology either.
@@OfftoShambala Yea Im still big permaculture guy, just need a little more order in my ordered chaos. The soil is forest soil, it can't get much better.
@@OfftoShambala Well said. Each to is own. I’ve started a food forest and do have a row garden. Overall the Permaculture method is my preferred gardening style. I use my weeds to make fertiliser. But my weeds are plantain, curlydock and Dandelions. Having 3 ponies and chickens is an added bonus.
Kinda looks like you might be growing cats! We have owned our 13 acre property and been working on it for only two ~ three years. We are just now looking to try this type gardening in a plot about the same size as the raised row permaculture type garden. I am always working in our permaculture orchard, tweaking the plantings of understory shrubs and stuff. All sorts of gardens scattered all over the place! I love it!
I totally agree mate...single row till for bulk production to put food on the table and excess to sell or barter. Natural fertiliser for sure...it’s easy 👍
I ve been learning gardening and permaculture for quite a few years now. I ve noticed there are different things i like to grow different ways 😋 potatoes are a main crop, they grow in an old field (with very rocky soil) and it works fantastically. Squash gets some weedie spot in a veggie garden (it doesnt mind the weeds really), and i always build a little hill for it with lots of random organic matter. Some small things, mainly greens like wild rocket, i only grow in containers. I ve learned a lot.. but there s still so much more to be figured out 😃
No Sale. I've been gardening for 50+ years and although Gandpa gardened in single rows with 3' pathways he tilled, I migrated to 3-4' wide beds years ago...and now with living pathways. I use a string trimmer mower attachment to keep the pathways neat. I still till in fall/spring but it's shallow 1-2" tilling so as not to disturb the soil food web much. It works for me.
Someone may have compared you to Justin, but now I have to say you're going the Farmer Jesse route from No Till Growers and doing living pathways...... something I've been fascinated about...... but UP A NOTCH WATCHOUT! You're going to Chicken Tractor them.... YESSS! I love it. So eager to see videos about how that works out . I just moved to Houston, don't have property yet... but with the extra rain I think I could pull off living pathways especially if I'm gravity irrigating wobblers with rain water for dug beds
Got your channel from Doug and Stacy. I am in Oregon and just watching your video 3 months old. I will be watching all I can for you have been on RUclips 6 years. So I will learn your teaching. Plan I'm 60 and am planning a COBB House this year. Still looking for the right amount of acre or more to survive growing, eating and preserving for me and have a vegetable stand for whatever I will not use. The biggest thing is if I didn't grow it, catch it, and no chemicals. You have some great information. Thank you
Hey Dave and family. We really appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I have all of your books, execpt the one or two about Florida growing. We're in Tn. Great stuff.
I have little garden patches all around the edges of my slightly larger than average yard because my grandparents who were the original owners planted lovely huge shade trees. They also had the most beautiful Kentucky Blue grass. (no small feat here in Nebraska). I really have no space for that type of growing but if I could still squat😂 and I had an open acre or more, that would be great!
Found you a couple of weeks ago and catching up on your videos. I appreciate all the encouragement you give. My gardening has been hit and miss for years. I'm encouraged this year if the rain would ever stop! I'm in Central Illinois and our weather has been so awful this spring. Hot them cold then wet. I joined your channel in hopes of learning more. Thank you David. I won't post much never do but I'm here! 😁
I love your videos and I know your speaking English but for some reason I'm not understanding the lingo lol. "Run the chickens through" is one example. I've only been gardening for about 4 months now and have learned a lot thanks to you and Self Sufficient Me. We do have chickens but we let them go wherever they want. Bumper crop and cover crop are things I just learned about. The swamp water did Outstanding. 2 days after putting it on my plants they were up by 4 inches.
Just while im thinking of it, im going to be rolling with the idea of bean trenches as a way of pruning roots from inconveniently close by trees ^^ just dig down one row until all the roots are chopped back lotta work, throw some stuff in there, beans. I think of it as a shield protecting my other gardens from being leeched out by the roots. Ohh I did this next to a ligustrum hedge as a test and it worked nicely got a big harvest this year *
This is how I have always guarded I do grow some wide rolls 16 inches wide but they were lol I feel them with onions I can plant a lot more this way there are some things I grow like that but mostly just a straight of peas beans okra corn squash whatever but this year first time I’ve ever planted Milo. I’m not sure I will be able to get annual ryegrass or oats or wheat for my goats this winterTo plant a cover crop best luck to you my friend
Single row is the way that my parents taught me ; and I have mainly used it every year - I'm now 78. I have grown a lot of food during my life.
when i first started gardening 2 years ago i was trying to do all the "things" growing in containers filled with store bought soil mixes and compost, which is great if you have the funds to do so, the last year i have grown in small rows directly in my ocala florida sandy back yard, using lentils as a cheap covercrop in between plantings. to slow water movement in between my rows i have mulched with spanish moss to keep moisture as well as loading a big cattle feed bucket with spaniah moss and water then letting it ferment and feeding my plants daily. its working great so far, best cherry tomato crop ive had this pass fall and my radishes and beets are currently doing great!
hey neighbor, new to the area and just starting.
Also Ocala here. Could you talk more about your moss mulch? I've been trying to find a use for the stuff but it doesn't compost quickly and becomes a big tangly mess when I want to spread the stuff that did actually break down.
Do you just lay it out between rows? Does it actually help retain water?
@@ross5066 hey there and sure I find that when you ferment the moss first in water for a few days changing the water daily and using that water to fertilize with then using the moss as a mulch between rows it does help moisture to stay in the dirt, and the moss will turn light gray then to black, in my experience so far it doesn’t break down completely but that’s ok for me as I pile it up around the base of my fruit trees as a more slow release mulch.
@@FloridamanForager Thanks for the reply! I guess I know what I'm doing this afternoon. Nice to know there's other folks nearby who are the same type of crazy as I am! Moved out here from Jacksonville about a year ago and am trying to figure out what works now that I have the space to actually plant in the dirt (sand).
Great job!!! You are making it happen!
I lost my Papaw 2 days after Thanksgiving... he was 80 years old and raised on a farm in Arkansas. He would till every spring (red clay soil), made his own compost, and grew in rows. He had a wonderful garden and taught me to love growing things 🥰
Such a blessing to have the memory of your Papaw following you through your garden forever ❤️
@@donteatthefoxgloves377 absolutely 🥰 I had a yellow rose bloom in my garden the day he was buried. He loved yellow roses and grew them for a long time.
Thank you Papaw 😊
I'm very sorry for your loss! But how wonderful that he taught you such good things!
Awww. DTG made me cry today. Mom would have been 80 today but she passed on February 28th. Mom loved peonies, hellebores, calla lilies and hydrangeas. I’m digging them all up and replanting them at my grandparents house where she grew up. ❤️
Man, I am so glad you made this vlog. I'm in my 60's and have been gardening, well, most of my life. Grew up helping my mom in the garden. I garden just like she did. Which is exactly the way you are explaining today with minimal tilling. All I ever hear, in most vlogs, is DO NOT TILL, and I get it, but how I've been doing it with amending my beds with old leaves and manure and never ever any chemicals. All organic. And my gardens are very abundant. I love my row garden. I love being old fashion on purpose. peace
I've been doing David's Grocery Row Gardening Concept for about 7 years and it works really well, however, David brings up an excellent point. All systems have pros and cons. Using wood mulch and leaves, I find it almost impossible to do direct seeding (which is why I only plant perennials). If I had less clay and more time for bigger gardens, I would definetly do single row. Find the system that matches your time, knowledge and interest and try it out! The worst thing that can happen is you learn some things and pass that knowledge on to others in your area. We learn more from our failures than our successes. We grow through trying.
The moral of the story… there is no wrong way to garden, and failures and successes both teach the gardener what works best for them. I love watching your videos Mr. The Good. You are a gift to humanity. Your thoughts and ideas might just be part of the tapestry of people driven solutions that save the world.
Thank you very much - that is kind of you.
We moved to a large property a couple years ago. We have been experimenting with different methods in our garden. Cardboard with wood chips over it for path ways is a great success for us (we are older) Raised beds, permaculture areas, and row gardening. This year we are going to add a high tunnel and see how that goes.
Love the approach! Multiple fishing lines catch more fish...
I did a big no-till garden one time. After the first season, the neighbors trees had sent their roots into the beds and filled them so tightly that I couldn't grow anything in them. Since then, I've done the old wide rows and containers. Plus, I just love the look of the single rows.
I use single row gardens and I put grass clippings from my lawn on the bare ground to keep the weeds out and the moisture in. It breaks down and feed the plants too.
Man I wish I had that much space man I love your gardens , and I agree Failure is the best teacher, you can watch all the videos on yt you want about “fail safe “ gardening and “back to eden” gardening but until you figure out what microclimates you have in your grow space and kill some plants because of “human error” due to figuring out what plants like to be where your gonna have a tough time , it took me years to figure out my space and that’s after I went through a aminopyralids contamination and had to wait til I saw tomatoes growing healthy in the soil , it’s been a journey for me but it’s so worth, thanks DTG 🙏
The idea of it being a toolkit, is really an important point. It's great to learn all the different methods and see what works and what doesn't for you and your area. My father did and till, single row garden, but at the end of the season in upstate NY, he'd throw mulched leaves (free local resource) over his entire garden area. Come spring, it would be completely broken down and he had the darkest, super nutrient rich soil I've ever saw. Then he'd till his rows and plant transplants and seed. It's basically a mix and match of different concepts. It's great to know them all if your growing for survival, and practice makes perfect!
That is a great story. Your dad was paying attention!
Well if the kittens approve it must be good. You are a superstar David but those kittens are starting to steal the show.
This is more exciting than a space x count down 😆
Years ago our neighbor sowed legumes over large acreage and when it was 3-4 " high they tilled them under for green manure.
I ordered your book yesterday
My grandparents had a garden in Texas, out in the country. I remembered it as you spoke. Their garden was two long rows but wide apart. They grew everything. Thank you
Thank you, Carol.
I have been enjoying your channel for a few years now. I even just bought one of your good books, "Push the Zone," so I have been following your lead in the no till/less till gardening approach. About a year ago I started wathcing Travis from Lazy dog Farms, he follows a single row, old school gardening practice, so I too started some single row garden beds. Very fun. Funny thing is Travis started a "no till" plot last Spring. Love watching both these channel.
Oh my goodness, thankyou for posting this. I've been doing this forever and started feeling like I was doing something wrong because it wasn't raised beds or "back to eden" or raised rows with tons of mulch, etc. We plant cover crops and do lots of compost, aged manure, leaves, straw, etc. My plants get huge and produce tons of food. I saw that square foot gardening recommends 9 bush beans to a single square foot? There's no way. My bush beans get almost a whole square foot big each! And yield tons of beans! Yet I started feeling like I knew nothing about gardening because of all the "newer" methods and thinking that my garden needed a complete overhaul. Not knocking other gardening methods, I love learning everything and maybe incorporating some, but really appreciated this video confirming that sometimes the simplest, old time methods are still great too and I shouldn't feel like my method is bad!! Thankyou!! ❤
I've experimented with just about every fancy method of gardening, old fashion traditional single row has become my favorite, mainly because it's easily scalable whether you use a hoe or mechanized equipment.
Yes, we do a little bit of everything, e.g. "what works" for the land we have.
I am SO glad to hear you promote this method! I had been wondering - did the good Lord get it wrong?? Is no til the only way it's supposed to work?? No! The Lord tells us to til the soil and add manure to stunted trees- yep - it's been around for a loooong time😅thank You!
I think that all the "this is THE way," it is harder to learn that there are better ways, different ways, and ways to do things for this time and place. Thank you for showing that flexibility is probably THE way and allows you to do all the ways! Tried Fava beans as a cover crop/stir-fry greens for the first time this year, in part thanks to you!
Favas are really cool.
Very timely. I'm establishing a "farmland" on my hilly rock terrain so I can plant in rows; pumpkins, watermelon etc which don't need raised beds. I have no soil, so making soil from leaves. LOT s and lots of leaves. Lots!
I started single row gardening when I moved to TN. Soil tests showed just slightly on the acid side, which was fine with me. But it was hard packed clay. So I watered heavily the night before, then next day tilled down until I hit dry clay again (about 2/in) and did the same thing next few days, until I got down to 1/ft. Then added a HUGE bag of Vermiculite, which was what the Farmer's co-op recommended. Now I dig down a foot, drop in a fish, cover it with a handful of lime to keep out the vermin, cover it, Then plant right on top, whatever I'm transplanting from the mudroom seedlings. But! I DO have a row or 2 of 5/gal buckets full of potatoes, a few 14/ft cattle panels bent over for string beans, just to get the boring out!
I've done a row gardens since 2019 and have been vilified for it on the internet. It's insane. Even though I don't use synthetic ferts I only use fish emulsion I make and composted wood chips. Still apparently i am the bad guy for using a small John Deere tractor to make row crops haha. People are nuts
Food is the important thing!
does it really matter what ppl think if you're the one with the desired results?
At this point, is there a wrong way to grow food? (Other than Bill Hates fake, food like products) My old skool gardeners thought my crazy looking garden was a waste of time. However, my crazy garden out performed MOST in my area. My family and neighbors are several generations deep here. They all felt free to "help" with advice . They also felt free to brag on me when they saw the results. Just grow food, folks. Bless you all!
What also works to super size what you have growing is to mix up the "tea" mixtures. Make your own tea with dried comfrey leaves and roots from a health food store (if you don't have them growing fresh), worm castings, sea vegetables (from an Asian market or health food store such as kelp) other medicinal herbs like dried Nettles, etc I add in Wheat grass powder, coffee grounds added to mushrooom compost and your own compost made from plant based food scraps. Put a couple cups of the solid ingredients in a stocking or sock tied shut and put in a 5 gallon bucket covered with rain water. Keep a bubbler running while it steeps in the sun for at least 48 hours and mix the tea with rain water before giving it to your plants. I dilute it 1 part tea to 7 parts water.
Can you, or do you, have a gardening style pluses and minuses for what style might be best in which scenario we are faced with
I don’t think that row gardening ever went out of fashion here in Lower Alabama. My Grandma’s had them and I still see them all around in the area of the old farm! I’m glad that you recognize the value of both the old and the new! How is Rachel?
Wow, so much info in one video. So glad I found you I am recently new to your channel and Central Alabama, clay Rock and flooding rains trying to figure out what will work here. Thank you for all the help.
Just finished your book grow or die and started compost everything. I love your humor and I’ve gotten some ideas for my gardens and orchard thanks to you. Thank you.
Those books changed my life. I especially love that David gives permission to adapt his advice as necessary.
@@tanarehbein7768 yeah and I’m loving them so much now I’ve already finished compost everything and now started push the zone.
Very smart David to not put all your eggs in one basket but have many different things going. If 1 fails you have more options. God has given you so much wisdom and thank you for blessing us with your knowledge.
Thank you, Shane.
I really appreciate your attitude of experimentation. I’m planning on a combination of Ruth Stout/Charles Dowding type garden this year. We have lots and lots of weeds, and hours of weeding is just not something that I love. I’ve grown gardens in rows before, successfully too. But, I’m gonna experiment this year. Thank you for the video.
Yes, moisture makes a BIG difference. I'm in Southern New Mexico. We had a wonderful summer rainy season this year- truly a drought breaker- but overall, it is still dry.
Still appreciate all your teachings and can and have adapted them to my area.
It seems the less I mess with the garden the better. I couldn't grow turnips for anything. This year I got a bunch of seed for a ground cover and threw it out there. I will say, I'm getting some nice looking turnips, lol! Letting God take care of the important stuff works for me.
When I started gardening, I kind of thought it couldn't be true that rows were so awful. But everybody said they were. Now I remember a few years ago a popular English gardener did a video from a professional farm and he said every professional farmer he knew relied on rows and there was a reason for this. The higher yield of rows.
That's the best way to garden
Thanks, David! We stopped tilling our garden five or six years ago and I cannot hardly grow anything in it. In the spring it has the most beautiful thick carpet of native weeds/edibles growing before we plant in it. So it's very fertile. But like the beets growing in there now from seed.... some of the beets are ready to harvest and some of them are nothing but 2" seedlings still. So now we'll till that garden! Thank you so much.
I like your way of trying different ways of gardening. Thank you for the knowledge you give. I got a wheel hoe being thrown out the other year. And plan on using it this year because of the fast simple way of weeding
I like the old fashioned way of single row and have learned a lot from watching yours and others channels, especially folks that garden in Florida. 😊
Thanks for the wise counsel- try everything.
the dust bowl happened because of certain practices in a certain region. the prairie flora was holding the dirt there and allowing water to seep into the ground. we removed that and then the strong plains wind + drought made a mess. they still grow tons of cotton on the high plains of texas and lubbock still gets dust storms. the only difference is that now roundup cost 4 1/2 times more than it used to.
For sure. You till under the wrong conditions, you lose everything.
Way cool accidental special effects !!!. I loved the way the gray tabby cat went pure Ghosty phasing in and out of reality on it's journey to visit the black cat.
As a grandmother of two I would say I was very very proud of the way you and your wife Rachel raise the children and good Christian Home a man
Thank you, Teresa.
more on this please! I'm a begginer and i want to do it like this.
I warn every new gardener, that almost everything you plant will get eaten to the ground unless you start with a fence, or outside dog. Super frustrating to get all your hard work destroyed by deer, rabbits, and such.
I'm with you on this one...my garden is 40 by 60 .. some is no till and some is square foot gardening some is row garden... this year I'm planting clover grass between the rows and just mow
I'm not sure I can handle this amount of excitement in the gardening space! First yam digging and now this!?
I dislike square foot gardening. It was the first book I read as a kid on gardening (think you said that too? Maybe another RUclipsr). So I did plenty of it and it's just a slight notch above container gardening which also sucks for the most part imo.
Pfft, Justin got his ideas from Joel Salatin, the true GOAT 😉
Yes, and they both are now learning together and expounding on that shared knowledge. The beauty is trying different and using what works for you! I have my tall Roots and Refuge style beds and I am putting in wide leaf compost filled beds in rows for my tomatoes, beans, and okra. My smaller 3' x 12' x 27" hugelkulture beds gave me over 40# of peppers per bed and a massive amount of personal melons grown over a trellis. My chickens live on a deep bed of wood chips they turn into compost over the year which will feed my new rows. It all works together! We all learn from each other.
If boring means growing lots of food, then I tip my hat to "boring"!
I started with sq ft because I started gardening on rocks. Then I tried tilling small spots in the lawn. Last year I had a large space so I did row gardening. Overall I didn't like row gardens but I found some crops I liked it for. This coming year I'm mixing it all together and trying out a high tunnel. Whatever works and gets food to the table imo
“Don’t throw out anything that might be useful to you.” When it comes to growing food, that is a great principle. I’m thoroughly enjoying your videos.
If you have the room...experiment with every hardening style!
Smart to talk to the locals about what they've tried. Grandma 👵 and Grandma 👴knew a few tricks!
The farmer physique is looking good man! 💪Keep up the great work all around! Love the steady stream of funny, interesting, fact packed content! 🙏🙏
Cool tool! I love how you have multiple diverse systems. It just seems like it would be so much fun! Really looking forward to getting started next year after I clear some trees and applying all the stuff you’ve shared with us! Keep up the great content David! Thank you!
Awesome - thank you.
I do a lot of single rows too and surface tilling... Because like you food was more important than the method and this works.
I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your insightfullness. I actually started watching youtube because of you many years ago and I have used the ideas you have taught through the years in every garden I have ever had. I am a FL native now living in a far colder place and gardening primarily in containers and yet I still use many ideas you have shared especially your willingness to try new things and to experiment-in fact, that is what the "Q" in my channel name stands for - QUESTION and I just want to let you know that.
Thank you very much. Glad you are here.
I like your wheel how and it's new handle.
Thanks. I single row, short rows in my green houses organically & out in the property & my stuff comes up fantastically better than most farmers around. I love the wheeled hour and going to see if my hubby will build me one. Just discovered you, thanks again
Growing up, we gardened in rows. When I had my own garden as an adult, I'd been reading all the 'garden in beds' stuff, and that's what we did, for the most part. It's fine for small spaces, but if you have a large garden and need to produce a lot of food, beds are a lot of extra work. They have to be weeded by hand because the plants are too close together to weed with a hoe, or with a wheel-hoe. They take extra water and extra fertilizer, because, as you keep saying, the plants are too close together. I'll still use beds if I only have a small garden, but if I'm trying to produce a large percentage of our diet? Plus possibly growing some feed for our chickens and goats (and feeding the livestock guardian dog)? It's going to be mostly row gardening.
Ive always tried multiple kinds of gardening and went with whatever worked the best for me, not whatever the most people online recommend. I'm 100% organic and I mulch with a variety of straw, grass clippings, leaves, weeds and plants from the woods, compost, wood ashes, wood chips, kelp meal, azomite and rock dust, manures and guanos, etc. I've been gardening for 40 years and this is the best years crops I've ever had. I moved a dead zucchini leaf yesterday and there were an abundance of earthworms under it! I must be doing something right.
This is how ive always gardened i pile all manner of organic material in untill i turn bright red dirt to an almost black
😂 symbiotic planting is the way we do it, like literally 2 rows back to back path on one side not the middle 🤷 if that makes sense.
But when I got that book carrots love tomatoes, it just made so much sense and it's made our plot crazy predictive
I do both tilled and no till, myself.......depends on what and where I'm planting......
Great video, David! I love how you encourage us to branch out, try new things, experiment…to not be so stodgy and narrow minded in the garden. I think your book on single row gardening should have a title like “Be a Gardening Liberal” 😊…it’s how middle aged conservatives become rebels ..
Unfortunately I can't do row gardening and I see you have a new Kitty
I live 6000’ elevation NW New Mexico. I have gardened and canned my entire life (I’m 57) and I still love to learn about it. I row garden, some beds and some no till (mostly strawberries and asparagus). I have found that growing in the furrow is best for our arid climate. We get 8” of moisture a year, but we are blessed with irrigation water. We also have a huge delta in our day time temps and night time temps - so gardening can be tricky. I just found you thru Ice Age Farmer and I cannot wait to learn more from you!!!
Welcome, DeAnne. That is a tough climate. Definitely sunken beds were smart!
I LOVE old fashioned. I love your style. Please please please write a book on single row gardening!
I do single till for bed prep and mulch my paths between the rows with wood chips. I run the chickens through in the winter and hard rake everything back to shape in spring. I do that with 8, 30' beds and it works out ok. 2 of the beds have voles because I did the buried logs thing that I wouldn't do again.
Very nice video. The old doesn’t always need to be thrown out, keep it if it works. Make it a part of your system. Our grandparents had some great ideas.
All my garden pathways are covered with wood-chips and when weeds finally start to grow back after a year or 2 I use the pathway mulch as soil amendment and but down new wood chips on my paths. I basically use the pathway to turn the chips into mulch.
I've been single row for gardening for 35 years. I learned from my dad. My dad was old fashion. All our neighbors had tractors. My dad plowed with a mule.
I love this video! I agree ...use all the methods if you want and find the one you like best or if you are like me, do all of them and enjoy!
My dad has grown in rows and tills his garden every year. His garden is beautiful and he feeds the entire neighborhood! 😊☀️
There are so many great gardening channels that I enjoy and get a lot from, but I feel like I learn more from your channel than anyone else’s. Thank you.
Thank you.
i don't have enough room for single rows but I do have raised beds, rectangular and circles and squares, anything that will fit.
Love it David. I've been learning every way to garden for 10 years. I knew there had to be a better way than planting in dust, filled with triple 13. :) My daddy grew a ton of food that way. However, I use what I can from every method I've learned. 95% of my 3500 square foot growing space is 100% organic. One 20x20 spot was hard clay. I tilled as deep as I could (6-8inches) and covered it with cardboard and deep hay. I thought we needed to wait for next year to plant. My daughter dug holes, added triple 13, covered that with dirt, planted melon seeds and covered it with hay. The rest of the season we watered with water from the creek, mixed with chicken and duck poop. My 4 grandsons ate watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe for weeks. The ground has improved amazingly. It is a dark color and I can dig down a few inches with my finger. Gonna cover the hay with poop and grow all organic this spring. Thanks for sharing all your hard work!
Great work.
I didn't know there was a dogma about row gardening I'm only 39 but that's the way I've always done it. When I was growing up my God parents lived right next door and they where retired farmers wich there really is no such thing they just weren't farming professionally anymore but every thing that we planted in the garden we started from seed in the green house
😀🌱🐢
Showing some love, I hope y'all are doing well. Bless DTG and the clan.
Great video
I've got seaweed fermenting atm. Gonna experiment on some lucky or possibly unlucky plants in the spring
Cheers
Mr David, I was one of those edgelords that thought the straight line garden beds was outdated and in need of a 'better and more natural' method. So I tilled a little 30x40ft plot of land and used one of those 'fertilizer/salt spreaders' to mix together about 20 different species of plants. I did this pretty late into August so that is a massive factor. By late October I had decent sized turnips in patchy sections, about 20 cherry tree saplings spread evenly throughout the plot of land, 1 or 2 pumpkin patches that never got to fruit and thats about it. I couldn't tell what was weeds, or what was vegetable/fruit and I stepped on a few turnips without noticing they were even there(meaning I prolly stepped all over other plants). Now that its December everything is 'mostly dead'(like Wesley from Princess Bride...) except the turnips keep truckin. Im sure the result would be different if I did the same in April but just the not knowing what plant is which, and the absence of any ways to walk thru the plot of land without damaging what was growing makes me want to go back to the straight line garden beds. I shall stop lording over my edge and listen to Mr David.
If anyone asks, you can tell'em it's a cover crop.
The permaculture forest involves trial and error… also, the soil may take some time to get to the point where it can play it’s full part in the process. Don’t throw out the permaculture methodology either.
@@OfftoShambala Yea Im still big permaculture guy, just need a little more order in my ordered chaos. The soil is forest soil, it can't get much better.
@@OfftoShambala Well said. Each to is own. I’ve started a food forest and do have a row garden. Overall the Permaculture method is my preferred gardening style. I use my weeds to make fertiliser. But my weeds are plantain, curlydock and Dandelions. Having 3 ponies and chickens is an added bonus.
Kinda looks like you might be growing cats!
We have owned our 13 acre property and been working on it for only two ~ three years. We are just now looking to try this type gardening in a plot about the same size as the raised row permaculture type garden. I am always working in our permaculture orchard, tweaking the plantings of understory shrubs and stuff. All sorts of gardens scattered all over the place! I love it!
I totally agree mate...single row till for bulk production to put food on the table and excess to sell or barter. Natural fertiliser for sure...it’s easy 👍
I ve been learning gardening and permaculture for quite a few years now. I ve noticed there are different things i like to grow different ways 😋 potatoes are a main crop, they grow in an old field (with very rocky soil) and it works fantastically. Squash gets some weedie spot in a veggie garden (it doesnt mind the weeds really), and i always build a little hill for it with lots of random organic matter. Some small things, mainly greens like wild rocket, i only grow in containers. I ve learned a lot.. but there s still so much more to be figured out 😃
Those cats are living the Good life!
No Sale. I've been gardening for 50+ years and although Gandpa gardened in single rows with 3' pathways he tilled, I migrated to 3-4' wide beds years ago...and now with living pathways. I use a string trimmer mower attachment to keep the pathways neat. I still till in fall/spring but it's shallow 1-2" tilling so as not to disturb the soil food web much. It works for me.
Someone may have compared you to Justin, but now I have to say you're going the Farmer Jesse route from No Till Growers and doing living pathways...... something I've been fascinated about...... but UP A NOTCH WATCHOUT! You're going to Chicken Tractor them.... YESSS! I love it. So eager to see videos about how that works out . I just moved to Houston, don't have property yet... but with the extra rain I think I could pull off living pathways especially if I'm gravity irrigating wobblers with rain water for dug beds
Got your channel from Doug and Stacy. I am in Oregon and just watching your video 3 months old. I will be watching all I can for you have been on RUclips 6 years. So I will learn your teaching. Plan I'm 60 and am planning a COBB House this year. Still looking for the right amount of acre or more to survive growing, eating and preserving for me and have a vegetable stand for whatever I will not use. The biggest thing is if I didn't grow it, catch it, and no chemicals. You have some great information. Thank you
Thank you - I appreciate it.
With a little PVC piping you could make a manifold that would directly fill your jugs with that worm tea.
Thanks for saving me a lot of money. I will not do my 4 4 by 2 by 12 foot beds. I’ll just up my game on single rows.
Hey Dave and family. We really appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I have all of your books, execpt the one or two about Florida growing. We're in Tn. Great stuff.
Thank you, Dave.
Yes, you and me my brother we see things the same way.
Enjoyed all the inspiring wisdom and getting a kick out of your garden kitties too!😻😊
I bought 2 of your books. Keep up the good job and inspiring us.👍
For my canolpe I will get back to Grandpa Jude's rows and one more try with string system and then decide my future method.
Thanks David
I live on a hillside of clay. Single rows work here and there but mostly I have to use raised beds
I have little garden patches all around the edges of my slightly larger than average yard because my grandparents who were the original owners planted lovely huge shade trees. They also had the most beautiful Kentucky Blue grass. (no small feat here in Nebraska). I really have no space for that type of growing but if I could still squat😂 and I had an open acre or more, that would be great!
Found you a couple of weeks ago and catching up on your videos. I appreciate all the encouragement you give. My gardening has been hit and miss for years. I'm encouraged this year if the rain would ever stop! I'm in Central Illinois and our weather has been so awful this spring. Hot them cold then wet.
I joined your channel in hopes of learning more. Thank you David. I won't post much never do but I'm here! 😁
Welcome - thank you. I hope the weather gets better.
You've inspired me to try this on my new property. (whenever I get a place to live on it). I don't feel so guilty now tilling, if I have too.
I love your videos and I know your speaking English but for some reason I'm not understanding the lingo lol. "Run the chickens through" is one example. I've only been gardening for about 4 months now and have learned a lot thanks to you and Self Sufficient Me. We do have chickens but we let them go wherever they want. Bumper crop and cover crop are things I just learned about. The swamp water did Outstanding. 2 days after putting it on my plants they were up by 4 inches.
This looks good for doing organic corn.
I am thinking of putting sedum between my tomato plants as a living mulch... I love experimenting
Just while im thinking of it, im going to be rolling with the idea of bean trenches as a way of pruning roots from inconveniently close by trees ^^ just dig down one row until all the roots are chopped back lotta work, throw some stuff in there, beans. I think of it as a shield protecting my other gardens from being leeched out by the roots. Ohh I did this next to a ligustrum hedge as a test and it worked nicely got a big harvest this year *
This is how I have always guarded I do grow some wide rolls 16 inches wide but they were lol I feel them with onions I can plant a lot more this way there are some things I grow like that but mostly just a straight of peas beans okra corn squash whatever but this year first time I’ve ever planted Milo. I’m not sure I will be able to get annual ryegrass or oats or wheat for my goats this winterTo plant a cover crop best luck to you my friend