i have been turning a forest that is on my land into a bit of a food forest i just randomly spread lettice seeds last year and now there are a bunch of lettice growing in the forest so that was a cool surpise
It might seem screamingly obvious now, but one of my biggest lessons was not to be afraid to let plants go to seed. I always thought of it as a waste of a good piece of food. I am actually starting to have a garden that renews itself. You taught me that Patrick.
@@raystevens2900 if you keep diversity in your patch then you don't need to rotate crops. I have a few patches/beds around my property and the self seeded plants are much healthier than everything I raise and plant in the garden. But I have beds with tomatoes and kale and strawberries and flowers all growing together. Nature doesn't need to rotate its crops because of the awesome diversity ❤ sometimes things will fail but often there's great surprises!! There is a watermelon vine growing under a walnut tree I planted. I never had seeds or plants there before! But this vine came up on its own and is huge! It has so many melons on it (maybe 20) and it just came about on its own. There's also what I suspect to be a rockmelon vine there too but it's not doing as insanely well, so we'll see what it does 😉 I often just throw seeds on my mulch in the garden and see what happens; it has never disappointed me yet 👍😍👍
You're welcome, Fernando! We've been adding more and more of these low maintenance crops over the years. We have a number more that I didn't cover in the video. ;-)
We had fig trees at our old house planted in the 40's. They produced thousands of brown juicy figs, and we never did any work with those. I also planted purslane for greens, and curly mustard in a horse trough that took no work at all. The mustards self propogated, as did the edible purslane.
I would like to nominate Dandelion as a multi-purpose low maintenance crop. The Dandelion is a amazing companion plant that will keep putting out new growth as long as you leave the taproot intact. The plant also releases a gas (ethylene) that helps the fruit of nearby plants ripen. Finally come the end of the season when the plant has stopped sending out new growth you can harvest the taproot that when dried and roasted can be used as a healthy coffee substitute they has a very milk coffee flavor. Did I mention it is cold and drought resistant. It is a wonder plant.
There are so many plants that LOOK like dandelion, I'm not sure which rosette shaped weeds are actually edible. I actually thought this morning about buying some seed and planting it, so I could see exactly which plants in my yard are dandelions. True story.
We grow both native dandelions and Italian dandelions, which we grew from seed. Have you tried letting some of the plants flower so you can make a positive identification?
I Nominate the often mowed-down Elderberry bush. #1) they're free, at least, if you stop on the side of the road and yank up some roots. #2) Once the plant is established, elderberry bushes need zero watering, pruning, fertilizing, mulching, weeding, or spraying and #3) Although the raw fruit has an unpleasant taste, cooking or fermenting the berries brings out the complex flavor. They make excellent wine and jelly.
Don't forget the flowers! They're a great medicinal tea that helps with colds and flu's. Along with chives and oregano dills great for self seeding and cilantro. I also let my parsnips self seed sometimes. Love the videos.
Mulberry is good to if you don’t mind the birds making a mess on cars and deck. They come up all the time I’m always pulling them up . The birds deliver them all the time without postage. Fruit taste good but seedy.
I'm just starting but we have fruit trees that are wonderful! Blackberries grow everywhere here in the PNW, even in the ditches. We pick them when we hike in the woods.
Hi there! I live in zone 8b; maritime polar climate. I have been gardening organically for some years now, and the bio-intensive approach works so well! Self-seeding is so easy. Collards, chard, arugula, carrots, and dandelion are some of my favorite self-seeders. Some of my collards have come back for several seasons. Some random lemon balms (Melissa) have popped up, too, which is a fun surprise! I find that most bushy herbs seem to be very low-maintenance. We mulch our beds yearly and use diluted garlic tea to ward away slugs and aphids. I noticed the other day that a potato from last year's patch managed to survive and is now one of the biggest sprouts out of all the potatoes!
Swiss chard! I live in zone 5, and with minimal protection in the winter, it survives and is growing before the yard weeds. some years, the winter was mild enough I was picking fresh in February.
Bloody dock grows in my yard as a weed every Spring. There's so much of it we can't eat it all. Just plunge the picked leaves into boiling water, changing the water 3 times. Then cook it as you would any other green. It tastes like spinach with a texture like collards or mustard greens.
Lebanese eggplants blew me away growing in a shady Western facing access alley of my house in Sydney. No pests, no fertilisation need. Just a weekly water and I got over 1.5 kg of eggplants of each small bush, and they came back the following year. :). Chives are pretty expensive from the supermarket here and I have been so happy with how well they grow in the garden.
Those eggplants sound great, Joanna! You must live in a warm climate for them to come back the next year. Chives are an excellent easy crop to grow too!
Hello, I'm in the tropics, dry rain forrest ecosystem and papayas grow super easy! also cajanus cajan bean and some small spicy peppers, no tilling needed just drop the seeds and when the rain seasons begin, the plants will pop up on their own :D
What a great video! Thanks! I am just starting with my first garden . . . I kept it small and simple for my first time. But, I can see into the future :) more is to come!
Two of my very first crops were chives and oregano and they have came back for 3 years now. I got seeds from the chives last year so that I can plant more. We started eating quite a bit of them and the one plant that I bought has not spread nearly as fast as I would have liked. The seeds have already sprouted this year so I am pretty excited. The original plant has already started growing again too. We have chives about 9 months out of the year. I also dehydrate them when we don't eat them fresh fast enough. The oregano is already coming back again too. I don't do anything to either of these plants except let them grow and eat them. I bought 2 oregano plants to start with and that was more than enough as I get almost a gallon of dried oregano each year plus what we eat fresh. More than enough for a family of two. I bought mustard greens and sorrel seeds this year, so I will get to see how well those will do. Thanks for the great tips.
I grow a number of citrus trees which only require watering and organic fertilizer twice a year. I buy worm castings for my vegetable garden and use leaves for mulch. I like your gardening videos very much.
Something I find useful to do is grow my strawberries in troughs fastened to a sun facing fence, my only maintenance is to water them and lay in the runners to keep an abundance of new plants, but i could easily set up a trickle waterer to take care of them, the nice thing is were others get 1 row i grow 4 or 5 rows on my fence.
Herbs are the givers in my garden, lemon thyme, parsley, oregano, rocket (arugula) and some rainbow chard popped up this last week. My lemon tree is loaded with lemons, rosemary, lavender and calendula are continuing to grow, although the calendula can drop off in Winter. The blue berries have been nice this year, ours were much larger than the ones I could get from the shop. While the herbs are great all year round fresh on the plate nutrients, I will plan more vegetables, and hope to fit a lot more in. Thanks for your insights.
Will be putting self sowing, wild purslane and chickweed to work. Finding them homes out of foot paths, driveways, and lawns will make them more palatable. Can't wait to see them in my salads!
Northern Colorado is zone 5, too, but one could not say we get ample rain. Far from it. What we plant, we have to water. Until very recently, it was illegal here to harvest rainwater. That said, we've gone for fruit trees and berry bushes, as well as strawberries. Arugula does well here and self-sows so that once you plant it, you always have an arugula patch. Broccoli requires very little effort, apart from getting it out early before the cabbage moths get to it. We grow flowers, as well, and roses are the ultimate no-nonsense flower. Some produce rosehips, which are great for tea and high in Vitamin C. I don't recommend hybrid tea roses. They're fussy and prone to problems. We plant only shrub roses-those that rebloom and can take both the heat and arid conditions of Colorado. We do nothing beyond deadheading and pruning them, plus tossing on mulch and compost/manure.
I always grow Swiss chard every season. It is a cool weather crop that tolerates heat very well, and is a prolific producer. I plant it in the spring and harvest it until the first hard frost in the fall. (Zone 5)
payayas just came up from some compost I put out, I have 3 tree and get lots of fruit. Peppers live for years hear in zone 10a. Centlanro reseeds it's self everywhere along with parsley and anise. Tree kale keeps growing. My subchokes get wire worms that eat a lot of them. Number of kinds of mints are out of control. Tomatoes just come up from compost. cherry tomatoes do best as our summers can be foggy here.
I just finished watching many of your videos. I really enjoy gardening with flowers and shrubs, but have never tackled vegetable gardens. The simplicity of how you describe your gardening techniques, and the volume of plantings you have accomplished, have motivated me to rethink building and planting vegetables in raised beds in an unused portion of my property. I plan to repeatedly refer to your videos as I proceed on my journey. Thank you for the inspiration!
Rhubarb is the most low-maintenance thing we're growing. It couldn't be easier to help it multiply by splitting off plants and growing the rhubarb patch.
Zucchini is something I consider low maintenance. They are a daily harvest, and grow in a predictable pattern. Sweet potatoes also do well, as they only require ample water. Otherwise, they grow like a weed
I’ll add ground cherries, they are an amazing little fruit and self seed the whole garden if you let them. I use them for smoothies, for cobblers, for jam....they taste like pineapple.
How do you guys pit the cherries?? I planted four ground cherry bushes and just ended up freezing them and eating them frozen, as I haven't found a good way to pit them yet.
I've got just under an acre, and the low maintenance crops we grow in zone 9 are: rosemary, oregano, thyme, arugula, hops, and fruit trees like apples, plums and persimmons. I also let the wild prickly lettuce grow anywhere it wants, and harvest it for my chickens, and eat small amount myself. some say that prickly lettuce is the ancestor of all lettuce.
I just started a "garden" this year. I started with mint. The place where I am planting is a hillside taken over by pernicious weeds (which is why my landlady is letting me use it). So, I wanted something that would be low maintenance (i.e., more difficult for me to kill); could compete with the local weed population; and would be cost effective. I might try one or more of these other things next summer. They all seem like great ideas for the area I'm working, my gardening skill level, and, hopefully, my budget.
I believe peppers are somewhat easy to take care of, but they aren't as low maintenance as the plants you mentioned in the video. For me, I top or prune my plants occasionally, water, fertilize with compost tea, and harvest. For the amount of care I give my peppers, they produce a huge amount to harvest. Also since I live in Zone 8a, we have a frost-free season that begins around Mid-March to Early May ( depending on the kind of winter we have) and ends around Mid to late November. Additionally, I start my seedlings in January, which allows for multiple harvests indoors and outdoors.
Another great video, Patrick! Waiting to hear what information are pearls of gardening wisdom you are going to share is one of my favorite parts of my Sunday afternoons. Thank you as always!
Potatoes. I put some sprouting potatoes in the backyard as a child and they came back every year as we'd not be thorough enough when harvesting. Eventually it took paving over the garden to get rid of them! Dandelion is essentially a weed but I harvest it for tea, never grown it.
For low maintenance crops in our garden there are raspberries, black raspberries and currants. Also asparagus, kale which we let go to seed and it self sows, and chives. I am keen to try some on your list Patrick - but I think we'll need to create a few more raised beds first. Thanks for the video!
Gynura procumbens has become my best prolific hardy vegetable. Spreads all over and tastes great. Bare stems tossed out root in the compost. Even does great as a house plant.
We have a blueberry that produces alot of berries. It has been in the same container for 15 years. We stopped watering it in summers so it would die but given Scottish weather the rain took care of it. One summer it did die due to lack of rain but next year it sprung back. The berries on ours are not very sweet as it was from a discount store, hence we didn't care too much for them. Watercress is a great vegetable if you have running water. People have sown it in rivers and go to harvest it periodically. I wouldn't recommend doing that as it can overtake the place but if you know where is some you can go harvest it. Chyrstanthemum greens are quite low maintenance and will keep coming back.
I love common sorrel I have one large-patch that keeps growing all year round I keep picking it for my Dogs' soup they love it, It keeps growing bigger every season I also have berries, figs and sunchokes.. I am going to do artichokes, perpetual spinach and large red mustard this year, along with a large selections of kale, chard, some tomatoes etc etc etc...
longevity spinach and purple tree collards are a couple that I covet, oh my word and moringa. I have grown holy basil the last two yrs and I am praying it comes back up on its own again this yr. thnx for sharing you offer so much valuable information.
You're welcome! Those are some great perennials. We've kept our tree collards growing here in zone 5 by growing them under double cover. They've been a great addition to the garden.
Im growing cuban oregano or "oregano brujo" is excellent at keeping pest away. Also I have a rosemary bush that I don't water barely. Im doing it a little at a time. Thank you for your channel you have inspired me to start. Uuu and I just rescued a ghost pepper bush plant, im giving it a little love and has flowres already!
I love walking onions. I’ve grown mine in 4 states and only had a little trouble with slugs in Portland OR. A friend lost hers to a fungus in MA but I’ve never had that issue. My initial 4 bulbs have made many hundreds of onions. Otherwise I love no maintenance self seeding plants like arugula, tong ho, shiso, tomatillo, and weeds like clover, purslane, and lambsquarter, finally foraging what we don’t bother to grow like garlic mustard
We get great high bush blueberries in New England with just a little annual pruning. Many pounds a year from about 10 plants. We also have low bush wild blueberries. I mow over them with the tractor at it's highest blade setting every few years to rejuvenate them Also: An oft overlooked weed: Purslane is edible and tasty in a salad. And I never need to sow it - I just don't pull the weeds in one corner of my garden ;)
I have a ton of purslane right now. We had severe drought (Australia) for a few years then recently it rained day after day for a few weeks and suddenly everything went from dry brown-red dust to green! And purslane is one of the stand out plants in amidst all the beautiful green ❤ I was cutting back the jungle and eating it just an hour or so ago!
Excellent video. I think anyone hesitating to put in the time and effort to grow some of their own food will be encouraged by this video. I'm also turning more space in my large garden into more perennials such as asparagus and fruit bushes. This year more blueberry bushes were put in along my long driveway ( looks pretty and productive) and several rows in my raised beds got asparagus crowns set in. They were put in the back so they wouldn't shade out my regular summer/fall beds. Great video!
Strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, Sunchokes and chard are my favorites in the garden. Very low maintenance and always crops! I live in the Netherlands zone 7. We are lucky to be able to use a greenhouse for all my exotic experiments like ginger and citrus grass. Grows like weed.
The winecap picture in the video looks very healthy. You may have some success taking any piece of a winecap mushroom and planting it in another humid, moist environment, taking care to plant it near the same type of foodplant that you found it near.
My raspberries used to be low maintenance until the buggers spread like crazy and took over an entire 4x4 foot bed in the fall and early spring. I'm fine with it, though, I have been wanting more plants for a while, and most of the others just get mowed down. That was a good list Patrick, it made me want to find a blackberry plant or two and some sunchokes even more. Hopefully, I can make those additions next spring.
Thanks, Conrad! Blackberries and sunchokes will spread too if you're not careful, but we put less effort into keeping them from spreading that we put into growing many other crops.
Yeah, I generally don't mind a bit of spreading, but something went crazy with those raspberries last season. It has been the only time we have ever had a problem.
Oh gosh, there are so many excellent low maintenance crops to mention. Orach, grapes, comfrey, nanking cherry, green gauge plum, wormwood, mulberry, goji berry. they can all go wild, especially in a fertile system
Great video! As usual. :) Makes me quite jealous watching all this. I have tried to grow some veggies in my backyard for years and even though I harvest the occasional strawberry or tomato, almost every plant goes down before it even gets a chance. I'm getting huge slug and snail invasions every year. I'm fighting them with all my might and I"m killing tremendous amounts, but still they keep coming in very large numbers. I'm using those small organic pellets, putting out beer traps, spreading buckets full of coffee grounds and I often go out during wet nights to catch them by hand. Dozens and dozens.. without end. lol. I've had occasions where I plant my carefully grown seedlings in a patch, and the next morning literally everything is eaten. Not a single seedling left. That's quite discouraging... This year is going a bit better now that I've started using coffee grounds around my plants. Still many get through. I guess the shrubs and bushes around my garden are the perfect breeding ground for those slimy bastards. I'm working on removing a lot of that. Then there's my 2nd problem and those are cats. I live at the corner of a block, so we get a lot of cat traffic. They've always been welcome because they don't cause any trouble. Except when I start preparing my grow beds, especially if they're mulched with nice wood chips. They assume those are huge litter boxes and I've seen many bed being turned upside down right after I sowed my seeds or planted some seedlings. Not only very frustrating, but also a disgusting hunt to find and remove the turd of the day.. I'm trying to prevent all this by using pieces of chicken wire that I put down on my beds. Cats hate to walk on that, and can't dig into it. I have to remove that once the plants are starting to grow though, which again leaves them vulnerable for digging kitties. My last enemy is, again a normally welcomed guest in my garden and those are birds. I noticed that they like to dig in my beds as well, probably searching for bugs underneath the mulch. They don't do as much damage as the cats, but they do completely cover up the coffee grounds that are on top of the mulch. So.. yea... I guess I need even more coffee and really pile it on. :) I guess there's a solution to every problem. I could uproot every shrub and bush around my garden, I could use nets or cages to keep animals away, and I could even move my entire garden into a greenhouse, but that a bit far from my intentions to do some easy backyard gardening. While all of this is discouraging and even frustrating at times, I'm not beaten yet! This is my first year using coffee grounds and even though they aren't the magical substance that I thought it would be, it still performs rather well. I've actually got some plants with leaves still on them! Thank you for letting me use your platform to vent for a bit. I don't have any other gardeners around me, so my go-to place for my rants has become RUclips. Lol. Best wishes from Holland!
Thanks! I'm sorry to hear about the challenges. I'm surprised the organic pellets aren't helping more with slugs and snails. We used to have a pretty bad slug problem but it has steadily decreased over the years. One possible explanation is that insects that prey on slugs have taken up residence in the mulch in our garden. Like you, we've found that cats stay out of well mulched beds. They also usually stay out of densely planted beds. This year we laid our trellises flat on our garden beds after planting to keep the birds from digging. It slowed them down enough that they didn't cause too much damage. I hope you find solutions to the challenges in your garden! Best wishes!
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Thanks! The pellets do their job well. I keep finding heaps of empty shells. I guess they were breeding faster than I could kill them. I've taken away a lot of ground covering plants this year. That seemed to have helped. Plus the coffee grounds seem to do a good job, as long as I keep piling it up. I'm SO gonna have a harvest this year.. I can feel it! :)
Hi, i'm from Holland too. :) Have you ever considered keeping any ducks in your garden? I hear they insist on eating slugs and snails for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm considering to keep a pair of muscovy ducks or maybe loopeenden. What you and i are missing are the natural predators. I do have a lot of the insect eating birds, but no slug eating birds. You can lock up the ducks at night and let them out in the morning so you can keep an eye on their feeding. Chickens don't like slugs that much. Ducks look for nothing else basically. They don't decimate your crops either the way chickens do if you look away for 5 seconds.
melovescoffee I've seen some videos on keeping ducks and you're right, they're perfect slug killers! Great tip. Thanks. It seems that they're also a lot more social than chickens, plus they walk funny. Who can resist that? :) I have considered keeping a few, but I would really also like a small pond in that case. So many plans, so little time. :)
What a wealth of information! I'm enjoying going back and watching your videos. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos! You have really inspired me to try new plant varieties!
Mints. Lemon balm, spearmint, and to a slightly lesser extent, peppermint, are all great low-maintenance edibles that require more cutting back/pruning than any other kind of attention. Also, horseradish and any alliums. We're in Zone 8b, the Pacific Northwet. ; )
I've just tried something today that I hope works. We cut down our chives--blossoms and all--and spread the tops under the strawberries. This is supposed to repel bugs. (I hope it repels snails.) I'm going to plant some onions between the strawberries, too.
Another great video. I think for me, chives has been the over all easiest, although I did this tear after 10 years of neglecting it, had to thin about a 4X4 section of the raised bed that they are growing in. I gave bunches of it to any friend within this are that wanted some. Asparagus is another plant that I have enjoyed and after I planted the roots in a 4X30 raised bed, I have done very little to it. I mentioned in Stephens asparagus video that this bed was the first one that I used the BTE method and the spears are huge and when I cut the stems, the water literally drips out of them. Thanks again my friend. Blessings, Jim
Small harvests surprises me, Patrick. I know you have compost with an awesome compost mix. I know you mulch heavy, so asparagus being heavy feeders and liking moisture, not sure why your getting small harvests.
Aw, they do like sun. Mine get sun most of the day. They are late coming up, because my neighbor snow blows all his snow from his driveway onto it, so I am 2 to 3 weeks later than most to get this delicious crop, but it is so worth the wait. Blessings to you and your family.
Ground cherries are very easy to grow and I have not experienced any pest or disease problems with them. A single plant has yielded me gallons of delicious fruits, and since it's hard to keep up once the fruits start falling they reseed themselves.
I would definitely add hardneck garlic to the list. Although you have to plant cloves each fall, they require very little maintenance. They do not require a lot of fertilizer or water and are basically pest free. They don't require rich soil either.
Tomatoes are probably one of the most iconic garden plants but require so much work. Out of all the plants I find them so time consuming. I do second strawberries. Besides one year that they got blight, they practically take care of themselves.
I love that shot with your lovely plants at the beginning Patrick. Low maintenance food, that would be my spring onions, onions, garlics, beets, peanuts, corn and dwarf beans. I put it in and the garden and I let it do it thing with no to less fuss. Funny enough, lettuce is what I struggle with, it has a mind of its own. I am still working on my brassicas to keep the pests at bay. I bought some landcress to lure the pests to it instead of my brassicas. I will try it out next season.
Im reading your comment and wondering if you have tried the back to eden approach to help keep the pests down> sometimes the method of gardening we choose makes a big difference. We have had zero pests since implementing BTE....:)
Thanks, Mary! Those are some great low maintenance crops. Pests are a lot easier to deal with here where the winters are cold enough to set them back. We do a lot of our planting before the pests are even active, which helps a lot.
Thanks! We’re only growing what wants to grow here in zone 6(ish), and is content to reseed/ cut and come again😃. Just added Alsike clover, Miners Lettuce, Dandelion, Common Plantain too.
Great video, my five cats are let out at night and kill rodents that burrow under my raised beds including gophers, remnants of them often found on my porch.
We do share the same passion (organic gardening). it's a nice way to spend your time in a more productive way. Not only that I'm very sure that the produce i harvested are pestecide free etc. Last I love planting asian veges, herbs and green tea. Good luck and thank you for sharing your video.
The top 10 crops on my list are - 1 Mustard
- 2 Lambs Quarters
- 3 NZ native spinach
- 4 Silverbeet
- 5 Lemonbalm
- 6 Pineapple Sage
- 7 Green Sorrel
- 8 Zucchini
- 9 Rocket
- 10 Peppermint
Thanks! Those are some of my favorites.
you have a very soothing voice, which makes your videos not only educational but meditative. thank you.
Thanks!
I find your style of teaching very enjoyable! Thanks!
Thanks!
i have been turning a forest that is on my land into a bit of a food forest i just randomly spread lettice seeds last year and now there are a bunch of lettice growing in the forest so that was a cool surpise
It might seem screamingly obvious now, but one of my biggest lessons was not to be afraid to let plants go to seed. I always thought of it as a waste of a good piece of food. I am actually starting to have a garden that renews itself. You taught me that Patrick.
Very cool, Andy! Thanks for letting me know.
I feel like letting crops go to seed would stop crop rotation. Have there been problems from no crop rotation?
I haven't had any problems. You can also move the seedlings when they are still little or even harvest the seed and replant elsewhere.
Thank you, I want to plant onions soon.
@@raystevens2900 if you keep diversity in your patch then you don't need to rotate crops.
I have a few patches/beds around my property and the self seeded plants are much healthier than everything I raise and plant in the garden. But I have beds with tomatoes and kale and strawberries and flowers all growing together.
Nature doesn't need to rotate its crops because of the awesome diversity ❤ sometimes things will fail but often there's great surprises!!
There is a watermelon vine growing under a walnut tree I planted. I never had seeds or plants there before! But this vine came up on its own and is huge! It has so many melons on it (maybe 20) and it just came about on its own.
There's also what I suspect to be a rockmelon vine there too but it's not doing as insanely well, so we'll see what it does 😉
I often just throw seeds on my mulch in the garden and see what happens; it has never disappointed me yet 👍😍👍
Thank you for making zone 5 videos
Another great video. I also love that you allow your kitty to help.
Thanks, Kim! Oscar is such a good little gardening buddy. ;-)
I didn't even know some of those plants existed! Man... if it exists, Pat has it growing in his garden ;-) thank you as always
You're welcome, Fernando! We've been adding more and more of these low maintenance crops over the years. We have a number more that I didn't cover in the video. ;-)
have i ever told you how much i appreciate this channel? Thanks for everything you are doing to share your knowledge and craft.
Thanks for letting me know! I appreciate it.
Not to mention all of the wonderful perennial edible weeds, and all of the edible flowers. Herbs are also very low maintenance.
I keep marveling at your home grown soil.
Thanks, Barry! I owe it all to mulch and compost!
We had fig trees at our old house planted in the 40's. They produced thousands of brown juicy figs, and we never did any work with those. I also planted purslane for greens, and curly mustard in a horse trough that took no work at all. The mustards self propogated, as did the edible purslane.
I would like to nominate Dandelion as a multi-purpose low maintenance crop. The Dandelion is a amazing companion plant that will keep putting out new growth as long as you leave the taproot intact. The plant also releases a gas (ethylene) that helps the fruit of nearby plants ripen. Finally come the end of the season when the plant has stopped sending out new growth you can harvest the taproot that when dried and roasted can be used as a healthy coffee substitute they has a very milk coffee flavor. Did I mention it is cold and drought resistant. It is a wonder plant.
There are so many plants that LOOK like dandelion, I'm not sure which rosette shaped weeds are actually edible. I actually thought this morning about buying some seed and planting it, so I could see exactly which plants in my yard are dandelions. True story.
I second that nomination! We grow it in our garden too.
We grow both native dandelions and Italian dandelions, which we grew from seed. Have you tried letting some of the plants flower so you can make a positive identification?
Your neighbor's are going to hate you
"We don't have many problems with squirrels, birds or pests." 2 minutes later, there's Oscar.... C'mon man!
I planted chives and oregano 3-4 years ago and have added lavender and sage recently. I do like perennial garden plants for the reasons you describe.
Those are great edible perennials, Jim!
Awesome video.... Thank you for your dedication to teaching.
Thanks you! It's my pleasure!
I Nominate the often mowed-down Elderberry bush. #1) they're free, at least, if you stop on the side of the road and yank up some roots. #2) Once the plant is established, elderberry bushes need zero watering, pruning, fertilizing, mulching, weeding, or spraying and #3) Although the raw fruit has an unpleasant taste, cooking or fermenting the berries brings out the complex flavor. They make excellent wine and jelly.
I second that nomination!
Don't forget the flowers! They're a great medicinal tea that helps with colds and flu's. Along with chives and oregano dills great for self seeding and cilantro. I also let my parsnips self seed sometimes. Love the videos.
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I have no experience with elderberrys, but, at least in my area, the two first ones also apply to red currents, which is great.
I 2nd the nomination. Let's not forget Gooseberries, either.
Mulberry is good to if you don’t mind the birds making a mess on cars and deck. They come up all the time I’m always pulling them up . The birds deliver them all the time without postage. Fruit taste good but seedy.
I'm just starting but we have fruit trees that are wonderful! Blackberries grow everywhere here in the PNW, even in the ditches. We pick them when we hike in the woods.
You're off to a great start!
I think I'm in zone 5 but either way, I learned a lot from your video. Thanks!
Hi there! I live in zone 8b; maritime polar climate. I have been gardening organically for some years now, and the bio-intensive approach works so well! Self-seeding is so easy. Collards, chard, arugula, carrots, and dandelion are some of my favorite self-seeders. Some of my collards have come back for several seasons. Some random lemon balms (Melissa) have popped up, too, which is a fun surprise! I find that most bushy herbs seem to be very low-maintenance. We mulch our beds yearly and use diluted garlic tea to ward away slugs and aphids. I noticed the other day that a potato from last year's patch managed to survive and is now one of the biggest sprouts out of all the potatoes!
Those are some great low maintenance crops! I'm glad you've got some productive self-seeders too.
They sure are :-) Thanks for the great video! Very well-produced. And beautiful garden, too.
Vegetable Amaranth is loaded with iron! Most forgiving and healthy for you! Got to love it!
I agree!
Great information. Thank you for sharing
Swiss chard! I live in zone 5, and with minimal protection in the winter, it survives and is growing before the yard weeds. some years, the winter was mild enough I was picking fresh in February.
Swiss chard is one of my favorites!
Don't forget about the awesomeness of Asparagus! You can eat for 15-20+ years!
You're absolutely right, David!
david hudson but how many years does it take for it to produce?
@@jtrose6995 if starting from roots, you can't harvest the following year only
Can you freeze them.
Bloody dock grows in my yard as a weed every Spring. There's so much of it we can't eat it all. Just plunge the picked leaves into boiling water, changing the water 3 times. Then cook it as you would any other green. It tastes like spinach with a texture like collards or mustard greens.
Lebanese eggplants blew me away growing in a shady Western facing access alley of my house in Sydney. No pests, no fertilisation need. Just a weekly water and I got over 1.5 kg of eggplants of each small bush, and they came back the following year. :). Chives are pretty expensive from the supermarket here and I have been so happy with how well they grow in the garden.
Those eggplants sound great, Joanna! You must live in a warm climate for them to come back the next year. Chives are an excellent easy crop to grow too!
Hello, I'm in the tropics, dry rain forrest ecosystem and papayas grow super easy! also cajanus cajan bean and some small spicy peppers, no tilling needed just drop the seeds and when the rain seasons begin, the plants will pop up on their own :D
What a great selection of easy to grow crops! I'd love to have some fresh papaya!
I love, love Oscar!!!! He reminds me of my first cat Frisky who was a tuxedo cat.
Wow, just found your channel! Love it! You are like the Bob Ross of the gardening world. So informative and relaxing to listen to.
What a great video! Thanks! I am just starting with my first garden . . . I kept it small and simple for my first time. But, I can see into the future :) more is to come!
Thanks, Julie! Best wishes with your garden.
Thanks! My pick is cilantro. We use a lot and it self-sows in our 7b climate.
That's a great one!
Two of my very first crops were chives and oregano and they have came back for 3 years now. I got seeds from the chives last year so that I can plant more. We started eating quite a bit of them and the one plant that I bought has not spread nearly as fast as I would have liked. The seeds have already sprouted this year so I am pretty excited. The original plant has already started growing again too. We have chives about 9 months out of the year. I also dehydrate them when we don't eat them fresh fast enough. The oregano is already coming back again too. I don't do anything to either of these plants except let them grow and eat them. I bought 2 oregano plants to start with and that was more than enough as I get almost a gallon of dried oregano each year plus what we eat fresh. More than enough for a family of two. I bought mustard greens and sorrel seeds this year, so I will get to see how well those will do. Thanks for the great tips.
I grow a number of citrus trees which only require watering and organic fertilizer twice a year. I buy worm castings for my vegetable garden and use leaves for mulch. I like your gardening videos very much.
Something I find useful to do is grow my strawberries in troughs fastened to a sun facing fence, my only maintenance is to water them and lay in the runners to keep an abundance of new plants, but i could easily set up a trickle waterer to take care of them, the nice thing is were others get 1 row i grow 4 or 5 rows on my fence.
That's a great strategy, James!
Thank you.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening
You are the man. Requesting more videos. 👍👍👍
Herbs are the givers in my garden, lemon thyme, parsley, oregano, rocket (arugula) and some rainbow chard popped up this last week. My lemon tree is loaded with lemons, rosemary, lavender and calendula are continuing to grow, although the calendula can drop off in Winter. The blue berries have been nice this year, ours were much larger than the ones I could get from the shop. While the herbs are great all year round fresh on the plate nutrients, I will plan more vegetables, and hope to fit a lot more in. Thanks for your insights.
What a great selection of easy to grow crops, Natasha! You're right. Herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow.
Swiss Chard is one of my favorites - super easy!!
That's a great one, Jan!
I live in Bogotá, Colombia and some of the easiest plants to grow here are Oregano, Strawberry, Potatoes, Thyme, Corn and Physalis.
Those are some of my favorites!
Here in the UK growing blackberries is nearly pointless. I get near unlimited blackberries down the end of my road! They're everywhere and we love it.
It was like that where I grew up too! Also lots of blueberries.
God bless you!
I see your cat is actively interested in gardening. Does she help with the odd digging?
Will be putting self sowing, wild purslane and chickweed to work. Finding them homes out of foot paths, driveways, and lawns will make them more palatable. Can't wait to see them in my salads!
Those are great easy-to-grow choices, Glen!
another excellent and helpful video from my favourite RUclips gardener.
Thank you!
Knights of New Claytonia
Northern Colorado is zone 5, too, but one could not say we get ample rain. Far from it. What we plant, we have to water. Until very recently, it was illegal here to harvest rainwater. That said, we've gone for fruit trees and berry bushes, as well as strawberries. Arugula does well here and self-sows so that once you plant it, you always have an arugula patch. Broccoli requires very little effort, apart from getting it out early before the cabbage moths get to it. We grow flowers, as well, and roses are the ultimate no-nonsense flower. Some produce rosehips, which are great for tea and high in Vitamin C. I don't recommend hybrid tea roses. They're fussy and prone to problems. We plant only shrub roses-those that rebloom and can take both the heat and arid conditions of Colorado. We do nothing beyond deadheading and pruning them, plus tossing on mulch and compost/manure.
Great east-to-grow crops!
I always grow Swiss chard every season. It is a cool weather crop that tolerates heat very well, and is a prolific producer. I plant it in the spring and harvest it until the first hard frost in the fall. (Zone 5)
I agree! Swiss Chard is a great easy to grow crop.
Thank you so much Sir ! greeting from Toronto !
payayas just came up from some compost I put out, I have 3 tree and get lots of fruit. Peppers live for years hear in zone 10a. Centlanro reseeds it's self everywhere along with parsley and anise. Tree kale keeps growing. My subchokes get wire worms that eat a lot of them. Number of kinds of mints are out of control. Tomatoes just come up from compost. cherry tomatoes do best as our summers can be foggy here.
I used to have a couple papaya trees when I lived in Mexico. I miss being able to grow plants like papayas and mangos.
I just finished watching many of your videos. I really enjoy gardening with flowers and shrubs, but have never tackled vegetable gardens. The simplicity of how you describe your gardening techniques, and the volume of plantings you have accomplished, have motivated me to rethink building and planting vegetables in raised beds in an unused portion of my property. I plan to repeatedly refer to your videos as I proceed on my journey. Thank you for the inspiration!
My pleasure, Martyn! Best wishes with your vegetable garden.
Rhubarb is the most low-maintenance thing we're growing. It couldn't be easier to help it multiply by splitting off plants and growing the rhubarb patch.
Rhubarb is a good one!
Zucchini is something I consider low maintenance. They are a daily harvest, and grow in a predictable pattern. Sweet potatoes also do well, as they only require ample water. Otherwise, they grow like a weed
Great choices! We grew sweet potatoes for the first time in years this summer. They really were easy to grow.
Awesome garden Patrick! So lush and vibrant in June!
Thank you!
I’ll add ground cherries, they are an amazing little fruit and self seed the whole garden if you let them. I use them for smoothies, for cobblers, for jam....they taste like pineapple.
Great easy to grow crop, Lorraine!
How do you guys pit the cherries?? I planted four ground cherry bushes and just ended up freezing them and eating them frozen, as I haven't found a good way to pit them yet.
I've got just under an acre, and the low maintenance crops we grow in zone 9 are: rosemary, oregano, thyme, arugula, hops, and fruit trees like apples, plums and persimmons. I also let the wild prickly lettuce grow anywhere it wants, and harvest it for my chickens, and eat small amount myself. some say that prickly lettuce is the ancestor of all lettuce.
Excellent low maintenance crops! People keep reminding me of more of them that I also grow (arugula). I'm going to have to do a part 2!
Love the videos man i can’t wait to start planting this spring
Thanks! Happy planting!
Those are some great suggestions. I need more plants like this :)
I just started a "garden" this year. I started with mint. The place where I am planting is a hillside taken over by pernicious weeds (which is why my landlady is letting me use it). So, I wanted something that would be low maintenance (i.e., more difficult for me to kill); could compete with the local weed population; and would be cost effective. I might try one or more of these other things next summer. They all seem like great ideas for the area I'm working, my gardening skill level, and, hopefully, my budget.
You picked a good one! Mint will definitely give the local weeds some competition!
I believe peppers are somewhat easy to take care of, but they aren't as low maintenance as the plants you mentioned in the video. For me, I top or prune my plants occasionally, water, fertilize with compost tea, and harvest. For the amount of care I give my peppers, they produce a huge amount to harvest. Also since I live in Zone 8a, we have a frost-free season that begins around Mid-March to Early May ( depending on the kind of winter we have) and ends around Mid to late November. Additionally, I start my seedlings in January, which allows for multiple harvests indoors and outdoors.
You're right. Peppers are definitely lower maintenance in warmer climates. They're a bit of work here in zone 5 but well worth the effort.
Another great video, Patrick! Waiting to hear what information are pearls of gardening wisdom you are going to share is one of my favorite parts of my Sunday afternoons. Thank you as always!
Thanks, Hope! That is very sweet of you to say.
Potatoes. I put some sprouting potatoes in the backyard as a child and they came back every year as we'd not be thorough enough when harvesting. Eventually it took paving over the garden to get rid of them! Dandelion is essentially a weed but I harvest it for tea, never grown it.
You're right! Potatoes and dandelions are 2 of my favorite easy-to-grow crops too.
For low maintenance crops in our garden there are raspberries, black raspberries and currants. Also asparagus, kale which we let go to seed and it self sows, and chives. I am keen to try some on your list Patrick - but I think we'll need to create a few more raised beds first. Thanks for the video!
That's a great list, Jo! I'm glad to hear kale self-sows for you. I hope ours will do the same now that we're growing more kale through the winter.
Gynura procumbens has become my best prolific hardy vegetable. Spreads all over and tastes great. Bare stems tossed out root in the compost. Even does great as a house plant.
That's a great one, Bryce!
We have a blueberry that produces alot of berries. It has been in the same container for 15 years. We stopped watering it in summers so it would die but given Scottish weather the rain took care of it. One summer it did die due to lack of rain but next year it sprung back. The berries on ours are not very sweet as it was from a discount store, hence we didn't care too much for them.
Watercress is a great vegetable if you have running water. People have sown it in rivers and go to harvest it periodically. I wouldn't recommend doing that as it can overtake the place but if you know where is some you can go harvest it.
Chyrstanthemum greens are quite low maintenance and will keep coming back.
loved the video.....I live in Houston and I found that okra is very easy to grow....
Thanks, Derek! Okra is a great one. I wish we could grow it here too.
@@OneYardRevolution we can, i grow it every year under a maple tree.
I love common sorrel I have one large-patch that keeps growing all year round I keep picking it for my Dogs' soup they love it, It keeps growing bigger every season I also have berries, figs and sunchokes.. I am going to do artichokes, perpetual spinach and large red mustard this year, along with a large selections of kale, chard, some tomatoes etc etc etc...
very useful for me. Thanks. from Australia.
longevity spinach and purple tree collards are a couple that I covet, oh my word and moringa. I have grown holy basil the last two yrs and I am praying it comes back up on its own again this yr. thnx for sharing you offer so much valuable information.
You're welcome! Those are some great perennials. We've kept our tree collards growing here in zone 5 by growing them under double cover. They've been a great addition to the garden.
i live where dewberrys grow naturally they are like blackberrys but more of a vine and have spikes on them so blackberrys sound like a good idea
Dewberries look good, Robby! Blackberries also have thorns, though there are thornless varieties too.
Very useful video! ...thank you!
You're welcome!
Im growing cuban oregano or "oregano brujo" is excellent at keeping pest away. Also I have a rosemary bush that I don't water barely. Im doing it a little at a time. Thank you for your channel you have inspired me to start. Uuu and I just rescued a ghost pepper bush plant, im giving it a little love and has flowres already!
I love walking onions. I’ve grown mine in 4 states and only had a little trouble with slugs in Portland OR. A friend lost hers to a fungus in MA but I’ve never had that issue. My initial 4 bulbs have made many hundreds of onions. Otherwise I love no maintenance self seeding plants like arugula, tong ho, shiso, tomatillo, and weeds like clover, purslane, and lambsquarter, finally foraging what we don’t bother to grow like garlic mustard
I couldn't agree more about Egyptian Walking Onions! We've grown them for a very long time from just a few initial bulbs.
Rapsberry, currants, sage, cranberry, rhubarb, elderberry and nettle.
We get great high bush blueberries in New England with just a little annual pruning. Many pounds a year from about 10 plants. We also have low bush wild blueberries. I mow over them with the tractor at it's highest blade setting every few years to rejuvenate them
Also: An oft overlooked weed: Purslane is edible and tasty in a salad. And I never need to sow it - I just don't pull the weeds in one corner of my garden ;)
Those are some great easy to grow crops! I wish I great that many blueberries!
I have a ton of purslane right now. We had severe drought (Australia) for a few years then recently it rained day after day for a few weeks and suddenly everything went from dry brown-red dust to green! And purslane is one of the stand out plants in amidst all the beautiful green ❤ I was cutting back the jungle and eating it just an hour or so ago!
Excellent video. I think anyone hesitating to put in the time and effort to grow some of their own food will be encouraged by this video. I'm also turning more space in my large garden into more perennials such as asparagus and fruit bushes. This year more blueberry bushes were put in along my long driveway ( looks pretty and productive) and several rows in my raised beds got asparagus crowns set in. They were put in the back so they wouldn't shade out my regular summer/fall beds. Great video!
Thanks, Lane! Those are some low maintenance crops! Our blueberries will produce their first crop this year. Can't wait!
Awesome. I think you just changed my mind about gardening. :)
Strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, Sunchokes and chard are my favorites in the garden. Very low maintenance and always crops!
I live in the Netherlands zone 7. We are lucky to be able to use a greenhouse for all my exotic experiments like ginger and citrus grass. Grows like weed.
Those are great low maintenance crops, George!
The winecap picture in the video looks very healthy. You may have some success taking any piece of a winecap mushroom and planting it in another humid, moist environment, taking care to plant it near the same type of foodplant that you found it near.
Yes, that approach works well. Thanks!
BobTimeIsNow I need lessons in knowing good from bad mushrooms
My raspberries used to be low maintenance until the buggers spread like crazy and took over an entire 4x4 foot bed in the fall and early spring. I'm fine with it, though, I have been wanting more plants for a while, and most of the others just get mowed down. That was a good list Patrick, it made me want to find a blackberry plant or two and some sunchokes even more. Hopefully, I can make those additions next spring.
Thanks, Conrad! Blackberries and sunchokes will spread too if you're not careful, but we put less effort into keeping them from spreading that we put into growing many other crops.
Yeah, I generally don't mind a bit of spreading, but something went crazy with those raspberries last season. It has been the only time we have ever had a problem.
Great video, the quality and info is great and your camera person did excellent work. Subscribed for more, thanks for the video.
Thanks, Tyler!
Great looking garden. Came across your video while planning out my garden in New England. Subbed thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Justin!
Mint is absolutely low maintances too..
Many good ideas there Patrick!
Thanks, Bob!
Oh gosh, there are so many excellent low maintenance crops to mention. Orach, grapes, comfrey, nanking cherry, green gauge plum, wormwood, mulberry, goji berry. they can all go wild, especially in a fertile system
Great video! As usual. :)
Makes me quite jealous watching all this. I have tried to grow some veggies in my backyard for years and even though I harvest the occasional strawberry or tomato, almost every plant goes down before it even gets a chance. I'm getting huge slug and snail invasions every year. I'm fighting them with all my might and I"m killing tremendous amounts, but still they keep coming in very large numbers. I'm using those small organic pellets, putting out beer traps, spreading buckets full of coffee grounds and I often go out during wet nights to catch them by hand. Dozens and dozens.. without end. lol. I've had occasions where I plant my carefully grown seedlings in a patch, and the next morning literally everything is eaten. Not a single seedling left. That's quite discouraging... This year is going a bit better now that I've started using coffee grounds around my plants. Still many get through. I guess the shrubs and bushes around my garden are the perfect breeding ground for those slimy bastards. I'm working on removing a lot of that.
Then there's my 2nd problem and those are cats. I live at the corner of a block, so we get a lot of cat traffic. They've always been welcome because they don't cause any trouble. Except when I start preparing my grow beds, especially if they're mulched with nice wood chips. They assume those are huge litter boxes and I've seen many bed being turned upside down right after I sowed my seeds or planted some seedlings. Not only very frustrating, but also a disgusting hunt to find and remove the turd of the day.. I'm trying to prevent all this by using pieces of chicken wire that I put down on my beds. Cats hate to walk on that, and can't dig into it. I have to remove that once the plants are starting to grow though, which again leaves them vulnerable for digging kitties.
My last enemy is, again a normally welcomed guest in my garden and those are birds. I noticed that they like to dig in my beds as well, probably searching for bugs underneath the mulch. They don't do as much damage as the cats, but they do completely cover up the coffee grounds that are on top of the mulch. So.. yea... I guess I need even more coffee and really pile it on. :)
I guess there's a solution to every problem. I could uproot every shrub and bush around my garden, I could use nets or cages to keep animals away, and I could even move my entire garden into a greenhouse, but that a bit far from my intentions to do some easy backyard gardening.
While all of this is discouraging and even frustrating at times, I'm not beaten yet! This is my first year using coffee grounds and even though they aren't the magical substance that I thought it would be, it still performs rather well. I've actually got some plants with leaves still on them!
Thank you for letting me use your platform to vent for a bit. I don't have any other gardeners around me, so my go-to place for my rants has become RUclips. Lol.
Best wishes from Holland!
Thanks! I'm sorry to hear about the challenges. I'm surprised the organic pellets aren't helping more with slugs and snails. We used to have a pretty bad slug problem but it has steadily decreased over the years. One possible explanation is that insects that prey on slugs have taken up residence in the mulch in our garden.
Like you, we've found that cats stay out of well mulched beds. They also usually stay out of densely planted beds. This year we laid our trellises flat on our garden beds after planting to keep the birds from digging. It slowed them down enough that they didn't cause too much damage.
I hope you find solutions to the challenges in your garden! Best wishes!
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening
Thanks!
The pellets do their job well. I keep finding heaps of empty shells. I guess they were breeding faster than I could kill them. I've taken away a lot of ground covering plants this year. That seemed to have helped. Plus the coffee grounds seem to do a good job, as long as I keep piling it up.
I'm SO gonna have a harvest this year.. I can feel it! :)
Hi, i'm from Holland too. :) Have you ever considered keeping any ducks in your garden? I hear they insist on eating slugs and snails for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm considering to keep a pair of muscovy ducks or maybe loopeenden. What you and i are missing are the natural predators. I do have a lot of the insect eating birds, but no slug eating birds. You can lock up the ducks at night and let them out in the morning so you can keep an eye on their feeding. Chickens don't like slugs that much. Ducks look for nothing else basically. They don't decimate your crops either the way chickens do if you look away for 5 seconds.
melovescoffee
I've seen some videos on keeping ducks and you're right, they're perfect slug killers! Great tip. Thanks.
It seems that they're also a lot more social than chickens, plus they walk funny. Who can resist that? :) I have considered keeping a few, but I would really also like a small pond in that case. So many plans, so little time. :)
Best wishes with your slug/snail wars!
What a wealth of information! I'm enjoying going back and watching your videos. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos! You have really inspired me to try new plant varieties!
Thanks Julie! I'm glad my videos have been helpful.
Superb. Even after 8 years of gardening myself, I always learn new things from you. Thanks.
Thank you! I'm glad the video was helpful.
Mints. Lemon balm, spearmint, and to a slightly lesser extent, peppermint, are all great low-maintenance edibles that require more cutting back/pruning than any other kind of attention. Also, horseradish and any alliums. We're in Zone 8b, the Pacific Northwet. ; )
Greetings to the Pacific Northwet! Those are excellent low maintenance crops!
I've just tried something today that I hope works. We cut down our chives--blossoms and all--and spread the tops under the strawberries. This is supposed to repel bugs. (I hope it repels snails.) I'm going to plant some onions between the strawberries, too.
Another great video. I think for me, chives has been the over all easiest, although I did this tear after 10 years of neglecting it, had to thin about a 4X4 section of the raised bed that they are growing in. I gave bunches of it to any friend within this are that wanted some. Asparagus is another plant that I have enjoyed and after I planted the roots in a 4X30 raised bed, I have done very little to it. I mentioned in Stephens asparagus video that this bed was the first one that I used the BTE method and the spears are huge and when I cut the stems, the water literally drips out of them.
Thanks again my friend.
Blessings,
Jim
Great low maintenance crops, Jim! I'm hoping to add asparagus to our list too. We planted crowns a couple years ago but still only get small harvests.
Small harvests surprises me, Patrick. I know you have compost with an awesome compost mix. I know you mulch heavy, so asparagus being heavy feeders and liking moisture, not sure why your getting small harvests.
Probably because the plants are still relatively young and the garden doesn't get much sun.
Aw, they do like sun. Mine get sun most of the day. They are late coming up, because my neighbor snow blows all his snow from his driveway onto it, so I am 2 to 3 weeks later than most to get this delicious crop, but it is so worth the wait. Blessings to you and your family.
Ground cherries are very easy to grow and I have not experienced any pest or disease problems with them. A single plant has yielded me gallons of delicious fruits, and since it's hard to keep up once the fruits start falling they reseed themselves.
Wow, that's a great yield! I'm glad ground cherries are easy to grow where you live.
I would definitely add hardneck garlic to the list. Although you have to plant cloves each fall, they require very little maintenance. They do not require a lot of fertilizer or water and are basically pest free. They don't require rich soil either.
You're absolutely right!
Autumn olive, lovage, dandelion, rosehips, aronia berry, damsons and mirabelle plum.
Those are some great easy-to-grow crops, Mikkel! We grow lovage, dandelion, and raspberries too.
Tomatoes are probably one of the most iconic garden plants but require so much work. Out of all the plants I find them so time consuming. I do second strawberries. Besides one year that they got blight, they practically take care of themselves.
I couldn't agree more about tomatoes. It's nice to balance things out with lower maintenance crops like strawberries!
I love that shot with your lovely plants at the beginning Patrick. Low maintenance food, that would be my spring onions, onions, garlics, beets, peanuts, corn and dwarf beans. I put it in and the garden and I let it do it thing with no to less fuss. Funny enough, lettuce is what I struggle with, it has a mind of its own. I am still working on my brassicas to keep the pests at bay. I bought some landcress to lure the pests to it instead of my brassicas. I will try it out next season.
Im reading your comment and wondering if you have tried the back to eden approach to help keep the pests down> sometimes the method of gardening we choose makes a big difference. We have had zero pests since implementing BTE....:)
Thanks, Mary! Those are some great low maintenance crops. Pests are a lot easier to deal with here where the winters are cold enough to set them back. We do a lot of our planting before the pests are even active, which helps a lot.
Thanks! We’re only growing what wants to grow here in zone 6(ish), and is content to reseed/ cut and come again😃. Just added Alsike clover, Miners Lettuce, Dandelion, Common Plantain too.
Awesome info thanks for sharing!!!
Great video, my five cats are let out at night and kill rodents that burrow under my raised beds including gophers, remnants of them often found on my porch.
I was fighting the weed. Vegatable amerath for years until it became my chickens favorite food now I love it in my salade
I'm glad you found a great way to use your amaranth, Terry!
We do share the same passion (organic gardening). it's a nice way to spend your time in a more productive way. Not only that I'm very sure that the produce i harvested are pestecide free etc. Last I love planting asian veges, herbs and green tea. Good luck and thank you for sharing your video.
My pleasure! Best wishes with your garden.