PLANTS instead of LANDSCAPE FABRIC: a deep mulch system to feed garden soil!
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- Опубликовано: 19 июн 2024
- When we started the farm, I thought we had to use landscape fabric. It's what almost every small market farmer and flower grower does, after all, and we had bindweed, hoary cress, dandelion, invasive grasses and more. But after learning about how much microplastic is leached from plastics in the garden, we immediately removed it and have been incorporating these regenerative practices for the last 5 seasons--and the last 3 years we've been able to skip fertilizers completely.
That being said, sometimes we need a bit of a boost with an added inoculant (use your own homemade compost if you can but if not a purchased myco/root inoculant like we use in this video will also do), organic matter for deep mulching for weed prevention and nurturing the soil food web, and cover crops whenever possible.
Want to learn more? We also have a full class, you can check it out here!
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I watched one of your videos last year and decided to forego landscape fabric and placed a very thick layer of 6" of leaves and arborist mulch and my garden looks fantastic this year. No weeds and tons of earthworms. Thank you for this information.
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Whenever I try to use leaves as mulch, the wind blows them away - how do you deal with this?
@@jez770 do it before rain or water them down
@@jez770try putting sticks and branches on top of the leaves. Also top your mulch with cut grass and then water the bed.
Chicken wire until it is “one with the soil”?
We just took out the plastic on our entire property. We discovered that there were actually MORE weeds where the plastic was. It seems to be that the weeds thrive where the soil health is low.
Another benefit o leaving the stems in place is giving some hibernating insects a home in winter. Ladybugs, for example, hibernate in hollow plant stems. Lovely video ❤
I am so grateful for the timing of this video! My husband and I just bought a home and I have my first garden space. While working to pull up the old landscaping fabric yesterday I found a layer of plastic sheeting a couple of centimeters underneath. I’ve never seen that before, and can’t imagine how inactive my soil is from that point down. I have lots of learning and work ahead of me, and I think this was a great start.
Thank you! ☺️
I've spent a season removing stone & plastic sheet. There is no life. So compacted I had trouble getting a pitchfork in the ground.
Good news though. Eventually tilled it and added 1" of top-mulch and 100+ starts. One month later I have soil life.
@@tomallison7416 I’m all ears (eyes?) if you’ve got any great tips! All of my seeds I planted before this discovery have sprouted, but seem to really be struggling. I scattered a bunch of buckwheat seed in a section of my garden to start tilling in once it does its thing and it has already greatly improved the hydrophobia of that area so I scattered more yesterday! I read that it’s a nitrogen fixer, and it adds a lot of great organic matter to the soil when you till it in. Bonus ground cover if the deer will give it a bit more of a chance to take root! 😂
Leaf mulch really is the way to go. My trees don't give me nearly enough to make all the beds I want to make, so this Autumn I will put out a call to folks and see if I can get donations! To help hold down the leaves, the best thing I've found to do is use the little twigs that fall off trees. None of the twigs are bigger round than a pencil, but they're just a little heavier than the wind can pick up, and easy enough to pick up and move out of the way when it's time to dig. I did this on an exposed slope bed that I made up this past Autumn and it's still holding leaves about 6" thick, whereas the bed I made around the oak tree that's on flat ground.... the leaves are barely more than an inch deep and weeds are everywhere! Little limbs make a big difference.
Does it matter if leaves are mulched before using them in this way?
@@chrissyblais2254 I don't think so, except that it makes more work for you. I've seen people put their leaves through a shredder to break them down a little bit so they lay flatter and pack down. That's good, imo, because it makes it harder for the wind to pick them up and blow them away. Also gives a more uniform look to the beds.
What I do is simply rake/blow the leaves on to the bed and then use twigs to hold them down since I have twigs aplenty.
If you put the leaves in a pile somewhere else to "age" a bit, you then have to move them to the bed eventually. Seems to me like that's 2 moves instead of just the one to get them on the bed as soon as they fall. If they have to compost or break down, I'd rather they do it right where they are going to spend their lives, building up the soil in the bed itself instead of in a bin off in a corner of the yard somewhere.
Where in Colorado? I'm in Windsor, SE of Fort Collins. I am so excited to find more Colorado farmers and gardeners. Thanks for using organic methods and telling everyone about how to do it!
Apparently,
Lakewood. That's more suburban than I figured. Impressive!
Mulch! We use this technique extensively in the high desert because it's essential to combat the wind and super high UV indexes. It's a bonus that it's so effective at controlling weeds. Great information in your video.
I like watching what other gardeners are doing so this was pretty entertaining.
Haha there’s something fun about just watching someone do something 😂
Thanks for showing how you kept the leave down! I always have that issue with the wind blowing them away
I may have missed it but I was eagerly waiting to hear your tip for bindweed :D :D my nemesis! Any info or tips on how to conquer this weed would be amazing - thank you for showing all the steps of the mulching rather than just talking about it! Very helpful!
I came here to ask the same. Please let us know what to do with it. 🙏 We've got so much of it in our garden!
So glad I "stumbled" upon your channel a few weeks back. Surely not a stumble so much as an algorithm, but I'm glad I found you regardless of how. I'm actually just finishing up an online lecture series at a local university all about biodiversity & regenerative agriculture. Love your channel. Nice to see someone else who gardens with her bare hands. I own more gloves than I should yet always end up carrying them in my pocket as they just get too annoying.
Bree, I appreciate you. I flat-out appreciate the way you educate me, a newbie, about growing all things. Keep posting.
Ya I am all about the most natural way of gardening… soil life is for sure first priority but also I do really enjoy a natural visual esthetic 💚
Thank you for this information. I'm very new to gardening and also have a ridiculous amount of leaves. ❤🍁🍂
Coucou
Un plaisir à regarder 😊
A bientôt
Thank you! Wow this vid spoke to me and was so informative. I’m a fan of bagged leaves, leaf mulch and composting. Great tips and demos using Myco, planting seeds and plants. Can’t wait for the upcoming lessons on bindweed control. Much needed! God bless you!
It's an interesting idea. I tilled some ground last year and failed to maintain it and Johnson grass or whatever popped up that I couldn't tell from the corn in tried to plant. I let it grow super tall and then mowed it over at the end of the season and it's done a good job of suppressing weeds in year 2. This year I'm looking for cover crops to go crazy with at the end of the season and hope to create a mulch next year.
I've thought about running around on garden waste days and fill my truck with bags of people's leaves.
I had gotten some landscape fabric and am now returning it. I am so glad I saw this - just in time. HOWEVER, I have tried leaf mulching in the past using my own leaves and ended up spreading a huge problem of spider mites! I am going to look for arborist chips to mulch my rows as the woodier product does not seem to spread insect issues.
You are encouraging me to get sheep 😆. Thank you for sharing your experiences. We definitely be cover cropping this fall.
Here in Louisiana I can add my green grass clippings straight into my garden in little thick piles around plants and fruit trees and the heat, humidity, crickets, worms, pill bugs and microbes quickly break them down into rich soil and I have to mow about every 3 to 4 days so I`m constantly adding more.
I also mow over leaves in spring and fall and add pine straw, forest soil, leaf mold, twigs, weeds etc. I scattered organic fertilizer with 20 added soil microbes and bone meal and some organic lime pellets too because our soil is acidic and I wanted to add some minerals to the mix. I noticed tubers needed these to form.
I`m slowly building layers of rich soil and I don`t till. I may loosen the soil some if needed to mix in very rich leaf mold some or dig a small hole for transplants but that`s it. I also leave the roots of plants in the ground and cut the plant stems when I need to remove them. And something is always growing 365 days a year and usually a variety of things are planted together because I`m always experimenting and filling in empty spaces.
Thanks for your Information,always appreciated! The leaf mulch Idea is almost a no brainer,since my Property is 80%Bush I too will go back to mulching!😄 Thanks for reminding me ,Nature knows best. Hello from Canada Ontario.😀
I have been thinking about fertilizer all morning, thank you for this info. 😊
I LOVE your passion and knowledge...is there anything you can't do...great job for what you are doing...thank you !!!
Great info as always, thanks!🧡❤ And I love the hat!! 🥰🌻
Thank you! This Colorado sun, phew!!
Such an informative video. Your homestead is an inspiration
Thanks again, love your videos!
Beautiful hair braid
Love your hat!
Great information as always -- thank you! Mulching my garden is one of my favorite things to do! ;) What are the flowering shrubs in between your garden rows? Gorgeous farm, thanks again!
Fantastic video content
thanks for info, great video. thank you for sharing.
Thanks!! 😊
This landscape fabric is scary if you just think 💭 how much micro plastic goes into the environment. It's much better to use leaves 🍂🍁🍂
👍 Thank you for sharing 😎🐢 always a pleasure 💚💚💚
Thanks for popping in, friend!
I use arborist woodchips all over my garden and apply regularly. My plants are thriving and I use almost no fertilizer.
How/where did you put the word out to get donations for leaves etc? Love that idea!
Nextdoor and our neighborhood Facebook page 😊
Love the hat too
I’m so grateful for you and your work on real conservation. I’m currently reading the book;”THE LIGHT EATERS “ by ZOE SCHLANGER. She goes into the micro study of what is good for our soil and the communication of our plants.
Thanks for this video. What are the strips that are in between the rows you are planting?
Yay! It's Lisianthus plantin time! No rootshield this go around? I'm sure you are crazy busy so happy planting to you!
I’m skipping it this year and seeing how they do now that my soil is where I want it!! We will see if I regret that haha
@@Blossomandbranch I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out! I'm sure everything will turn out beautifully.
When I dip, you dip, we dip!😮 I'm sorry that verse got stuck into my head around 11:17 and I felt you should join in the joy!😂😊
❤ watching your videos
I love what you are doing! Would you ever use grass clippings as a mulch too? I have been driving around my neighbourhood collecting leaves since watching this 🍁 😊
Great video!!! it left me feeling both inspired and a bit overwhelmed. Over the past week and a half, I’ve distributed wood chips throughout my extra-large backyard perimeter garden. My motivation stems from the poor state of my soil-compacted and predominantly composed of Colorado clay. However, I constantly remind myself that soil improvement takes time and patience.
I eagerly signed up for a substantial wood chip delivery through ChipDrop this year. In a friendly “fight” with my husband, I successfully advocated against using landscape fabric in our walkways-thankfully, he now understands its drawbacks. My current concern revolves around whether I’ve inadvertently crowded out and compromised my planting areas. Could I have unintentionally created a nitrogen-deficient environment? While I lack a designated compost bin, I still distribute /bury kitchen scraps and covered the perimeter with leaves and grass clippings all throughout last fall. My hope is that this organic layer between the soil and wood chips will provide viable planting options, but I remain apprehensive about the well-being of any plants I attempt to grow.
If you have any insights or suggestions, I’d greatly appreciate them 😊
Love this. Thank you. My friend is a farmer and uses plastic cover and then burns holes in it. I don’t agree with that method. I know why they do it… horrible weeds. But it just doesn’t seem earth friendly.
I also have to mention that your outfit is so amazing. Where do you find such beautiful clothes?
I prefer chopped leaves since they seem to stay put better. I just use my push mower to mow once and then put the catcher bag on to pick them up when I mow a second time.
Greetings, your work is beautiful. Thank you for the information. ❤️ I live in South Carolina where the soil is sand, and if there's grass, six inches of loamy sand. Do you believe your methods would be effective here ? Many Blessings ☯️🌷💜🙏🕉📿
Hi! Do you have any suggestions for remeding a plot that has a really serious horsetail infestation? Thank you for your interesting and educational channel😊🌷
Thank you maam. The bindweed in my area looks like morning glory. What kind of bindweed is it you seem to have. Also I've been using wood mulch for years but the squash bugs and other pests seem to winter over in it. What to do about that. Thank you
We've stopped tilling the soil 2 yrs ago. We now have alot of native grasses, including western wheat grass. Can we plant into the grass?
Do you use rock and landscape fabric in your walkways/driveways between beds? Thanks!
Regarding putting the leaves on in the spring, rather than spreading them in the fall - I'm curious why you use that timing? I have always put them on in the fall, allowing them the winter to compost in place. In the spring I'll pull them back from perennial beds or if I'm sowing annual seeds , leaving the leaves in the walkways and putting the excess into a compost pile.
Hi! I have a question: what about fertilizing potted plants? Thanks!
We wish. Knotweed..... after 4 years of fighting it, we went to fabric. Maybe one day when we get it under control.
Did you mention your thoughts on bindweed?
Hello! I'm thinking about using sweet peas as a cover crop:: at what point in their growth would I need to mow them to release the nitrogen? Thank you!
When the flowers come in can you do like a 17 min ASMR tour of your garden?
I have been adding blood meal to my soil thoughts❤?
Did you say bindweed, I'm very interested in hearing about this invasive weed that has gone wild in my yard.
Do you have any problems with ticks hiding in the mulch? I used leaves as mulch last year and the ticks are insane. We have high deer pressure too.
Here for tips to get rid of bindweed!!!!
What hand trowel are you using?
what about straw? can that be used as mulch? I don’t have leaves currently so I am thinking of getting some straw
💚💚💚
What do you do with the plastic bags that the leaves are stored in after you use them? Don't they start to break down in place as well while they are storing leaves? Looking for more sustainable solutions myself so just curious.
We typically only store them in there for a few months so that’s not long enough for me to be concerned about breakdown. We just dispose of them, they would have ended up in landfill if we didn’t take them so it’s still better-we get donations of the disposable bags but I usually put those in our lead towers as those bags break down before winter is over.
How do you choose which beds to cover crop and which to cover with leaves in the fall?
Comes down to whether I have time to get to it and whether the plants I had in there were done in time to cover crop it :)
Whenever I try to use leaves as mulch, the wind blows them away - how do you deal with this?
Do you have any problems with moles and voles?
I really like the idea of deep mulch - but we really struggle with slugs and snails. When we started the garden we didn't have enough material for an overall deep mulch cover, so i set up clover path ways, and mulched the beds with hay and straw - but I really struggle with slugs and snails - I really don't mind the weeds - you get those out pretty easily.
I wonder how the snail/slug situation is in your area and if commiting to deep mulch overall (and getting rid of the clover path ways) will do the trick.
I would try pine needle mulch if you can-helps a lot with slug issues
But yes, we once did clover and the snails much preferred that moist cover. Plus the clover all crept into the beds!
@@Blossomandbranchoh yes, they love it and from last fall on the clover got really established and really "creepy" 😅
@@Blossomandbranchdo you struggle with snails in your area at all? We have some pine needles but not enough to cover all the garden area
I am also struggling with slugs with the deep mulch!
Does using pine needles cause the soil to be too acidic for certain plants?
Nope! It’s a common myth but it doesn’t have that effect ❤️
So you legit can weed whack the cover crop down and plant right in the remaining plants?
Depends on the crop but yes many work that way! Peas are great because they don’t like the heat so whacking them down basically at any point heading into summer, they may regrow but barely. Other crops can be killed this way and planted into too, but they need to be at the right stage-typically they need to be just starting to flower when you cut them down for them to be killed by it!
I used to do put heavy mulch on my garden and was very content with how it worked. HOWEVER, all that has changed now that I have an infestation of Asian Jumping Worms.😫😩😖 Any time I put organic matter down I just felt as if I was providing a buffet for them to grow and reproduce. 😡 SO now I have metal raised beds and weed barrier on all the other areas. Would be interested in hearing from others who have these horrible worms and how they are managing the problem.
Ruth Stout method I see
I’m wondering if snakes like to hide in all that debris 🤔 I live in the South so 😅
Bermuda would obliterate that bed down here in Mobile. It's a jungle out here.
We have a lot of stickers/goat heads and burrs
Would you know how to get rid of these naturally
Green Dean foraging said sand burs are edible.
Lemme know how it goes 😜😂
These are called Tribulus terrestris . And the burs are called Rununculus falcutus. No, they are not edible they are poisonous to us and animals. Goats, cows sheep, etc. Thanks for your reply though.
The rununculus is poisonous. I don't think the stickers are they are just annoying. They get in your tires shoes. And feet which hurts like heck
@@v1kohle my grandparents have sand burs. They get into the carpet.
I suggested they remove the carpeting. They did except for the bedrooms. It's terrible to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and step on one of those monsters.
I always stop by a gas station on the way home and pick everyone I find off and throw in the trash can. I try to get them all before I leave their house but I usually miss some.
I look at my carpet in the car. I don't want to bring those things home!
Do you have a source for alfalfa that isn't GMO? Pretty much all of it is these days.
Yes, you can search organic alfalfa pellets. I don’t mind using GMO alfalfa as an amendment but I don’t want herbicide in it.
Try Standlee organic alfalfa pellets at Tractor Supply
I use the fabric period. Much easier to just add the multch to compost
Wool for nitrogen 🤯😍
Did your facebook page got hacked?
Good content but your audio is weird: mono right channel only. Keep checking to see why my sound system broke...
Mono is fine. Single channel is weird
My beloved Blossom & Branch: please sell your books for terminate cover crops, and making mulch for generative agriculture. Help me garden effectively. jtsdrd
I've got very mixed feelings about the suppression of ALL "weeds"... Isn't a regenerative garden supposed to be biodiverse? In my garden at the moment the only flowering plants to attract pollinators in my garden are the so called weeds (dandelions, dead nettle, nettle, some perfumed nettle, clover ) which are in fact medicinal plants and by being perennials we know that they dig deep, loosing hard soils and bring nutrients to the neighbours plants, fixate nitrogen plus the dandelions are known to be pioneers who volunteer to fix the soil problems and they disappear once they've done their job? So now why should we be killing or suppressing them, it doesn't really make sense to me... What I do I leave them for now, as I said being the only flowers in the garden until the planted flowers bloom, and then just cut them and use them as green mulch. So I don't know how to integrate what you're talking about with what I'm doing...I'm proper 😕😕🤔
It depends on the weed. As I mention I don’t really worry about dandelion but most of our weeds are nonnative and outcompete anything native we are trying to establish, especially in this scale. Bindweed for example is classified as one of the worlds most noxious weeds and if you have it, you know why. It will climb, suffocate, and kill any plant you’re trying to establish! Hoary cress, clover are also nonnative and can become incredibly detrimental to ecological gardening. We have native “weeds,” plants such as chokecherries, American plums, hyssops, asters, and yarrow that sucker and spread aggressively but the difference is they are native and don’t threaten the plants we are trying to establish.
Plus, with over 200 varieties of plants in this space I’m not too worried about biodiversity 😆
Bindweed is my worst nightmare that coincides with Japanese Beetles. It is devastating to see all your efforts destroyed. I also think about my now nearly 90 year old aunt telling me “weeds are just plants we don’t want growing there” you’d have to know her to appreciate how cute her advice came across! But in the end she reminds me to give myself grace in the garden, listen and consider the advice of others, but savor your own journey and discoveries along the way. ❤. I’m far from expert and perfect, but relish the grounding and healing being in my garden provides to me. Happy 2024 growing season to all. 😊
@@ntur117I left a bucket of mixed weeds open. After it filled with water and fermented, I noticed that the beetles flock to it and drown. I can scoop them out and throw them into the chickens or just let them become fertilizer with the weeds.
@@almostoily7541 ohhhhh awesome! I discovered a couple years ago these devils love rhubarb and that annoying ivy vine too so I get my harvest of rhubarb just in time before they start to emerge and then it becomes a trap along with the evasive ivy. I try to collect them in soapy water but it’s tricky because the leaves are so smooth so once they get disrupted they just slide into the center of the stalks. I planted clarkia for the first time last year which I quickly discovered they also love, the upside was they left my Basil alone that was growing right next to it. Weird huh? This year I seed started and grew over 60 geraniums (for party centerpieces) and I’ve read they don’t like these either. Thank you for the tip!!!! I’m gonna give it a try in a far corner away from where I don’t want them and see how it goes.
@@ntur117 I hope it works for you!
I just remembered that there's a sweet potato they're supposed to love and will leave the other sweet potato varieties alone.
I ordered it but it hasn't come yet.
It was from Sand Hill Preservation site and called Beetlejuice.
I've found that wild amaranth is a good trap crop for flea beetles. I let a couple grow next to the squash.
Dr Earth😊 chicken 💩fish emulsifier.... molasses
Why are you not using stinging nettle for nitrogen? It hase a lot of it and its for free.
I dont anderstand why people focus on that chemycals whe at the same time they have organic for free fertiliser! Everithing that you buy in the store - GOD is giving it to us for free in the nature.
why easy when we can have it cimplicated
😂 dressed like a deep prairie girl but ya live in a dense neighborhood