Put a tablespoon of orange peel oil in a five gallon bucket and fill with water. Locate the ant hills and dig into around the center to create pockets of air under their entrance. Then slowly pour the solution in the holes. I've exterminated hundreds of colonies this way and it's not toxic.
@Nuts and Bolts laughing so hard at that description. I live in NE TX and I couldn’t agree more about those dang ants. Prepare a veggie bed and the ants are like: woo hoo a new condo for everyone!
I live in north Mississippi, about 300 miles north of Danny. I cannot have raised beds OR containers. Pots and containers get taken over by fire ants, and so do raised beds. I gave up on both years ago, and I just plant straight into the ground. I pile leaves, grass clippings, etc. in my garden area in the winter, then in spring I turn it under and plant right into the ground. No fuss, no muss, no fire ants. There's no one right way to garden. You have to do what works best for you and your particular microclimate.
try more pete moss in your raised beds,pete moss is the key here,it help hold moisture in your garden ,fire ants- 4 oz of orange oil per gallon,for a good size nest,5 gallon i use,it kills them dead at a slow pace,what it does is eats their skin off and with 5 gallons you more than likely will kill the queen or queens,,,raised beds- pete moss,compost,perilite,cow manure [use caution here on the manure,most farmer today feed their cattle or stock with hay that has been treated with a wide leaf spray,which will pass throw the animal and kill your garden]
@@maybeso1940 man thats a lot of work when I can just plant it in thd ground and run a wheel hoe through it. I live in mississippi as well and I've tried the orange oil and it just dosent work for very long. It gives you a few weeks at best. Also i have no idea where to get peate moss. Its really cheap to do conventional gardening we have cows so manure is easy to come by. These methods may work well elsewhere but ive had terrible luck with them before. The bucket gardens work if you spray bifin around the bottom few inches of the bucket. But i hate to use pesticides so I dont do that anymore either.
Here in Australia we have sandy soils on the west coast and the woodchips have completely improved my soil, lots of worms after just one year. Snails have disappeared - yay! I believe the ants are helpers that break down the woodchips and turn into soil rich with worms and to my surprise I have fungi coming up which I am told is a sign of healthy soil.
Fire ants are like your Ants you have (Jack Ants?), but they are smaller and they are a scourge to to gardeners and outdoor lovers in the American south. They are originally from South America and came from cargo ships in the late 19 century. The warm humid environment and lack of predators to control them has resulted in a population explosion of them in the American south region and their colonies are huge. There is a gentleman on youtube that makes and sells sculptures with molten aluminum showing their tunneling which shows how large and vast their colonies get in a short period of time. They harm native ants and other insects and animals. Some people are allergic to their bite. They are unwelcome and they tend to harm roots of native and non-native plants by their deep and extensive tunneling in the soil. This will cause the moisture and water to leave the root zone too fast which requires more watering and heavier and more harmful fire ant control methods to the environment which runs off into our water systems causing other problems. I try not to use fire ant insecticides unless I absolutely have to, and try to stick with citrus oil and other organic methods when I can, but it is a constant battle since there aren't really any natural predators in the region to keep them in check. Fire ants are the worst species of ants and they are way too prolific in the south because nature for over 100 years hasn't provided something to keep them in check (cold weather, predator, etc.) so we have to intervene. The University of Florida is looking into in flies from South America that will lay eggs on fire ant foragers which will keep their population in check, but I don't know if they will eventually target native ants as well. There is also a fungus from South America that will get in their brain paratisize them and when it blooms then spreads spores to the entire colony, but this fungus doesn't discriminate so it would decimate/harm beneficial insects and bees (honey bees and our many native bees) which aren't prepared for it & really isn't an option either.
Do not mix wood chips with soil 8" deep and expect good results! If wood chips are not covering the surface, they do not act as a mulch! You lose all your water to evaporation and heat because you aren't insulating the ground and you aren't providing cover to the soil surface to protect from wind and sun. Instead, you have basically made an active compost pile by mixing the mulch into the soil and those wood chips will now rob your garden soil of nitrogen to break down. That is why you aren't seeing good results using these methods: you are't using them correctly. That being said, do whatever you like! I'm just pointing out the obvious. I used both of these methods with great success on the high plains of Colorado, sandy calcareous soils that were some of the most heavily affected land by the dust bowl... only getting ~16" of annual rainfall... which is actually worse than Texas. I watered my garden twice... *the entire season* . I had carrots the size of my arm. So I know it will work from my experience, you just have to understand exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it and *NEVER EVER* mix your mulch into the soil like that or you're just asking for problems.
T Y, Im now starting to get serious with permaculture fruit orchard, planted on swale...planning to create 3 to 4 more swales 19 ' apart. Largest existing swale is half circle, 220'w x 210' ht. Adding the swales inside existing one. Planning to add woodchips on top of swale,( tree rows) 5' w.
I had the same problem with the wooden boards on my raised beds. I used untreated & treated and the termites just went to town. I switch to cinder blocks. It takes a bit of time to get them in place & they do cost a bit, but they are rot & termite proof. My back to eden was a weed, fire ant & squash bug haven. I do cover some of my raised beds with leaves & pine straw, but not all of them. Leaves in my asparagus bed and pine straw in my strawberry bed. The rest is open with very little weeds. I'm not able to do in ground gardening, so my cinder block beds work well for me here in East Texas. I have soaker hoses and water twice a week during the heat of summer. Not every type of gardening works every where or for everyone. Find what works for you in your area.
Moral of the story - Do what works best for you in the area you find yourself in with the conditions you are faced with. I have worked with gutter gardening (see Larry Hall videos) for years now because of rabbits and other small critters. I also do 55 gallon barrels cut lengthways along the seal line to create two containers that I put in cradles about waist high for perrennial herbs, garlic and green onions. Works great When our move to Idaho is complete. I'll have to bring in a lot of topsoil and will work with Hugelkulture as well as the system I've built here. Like Danny and Wanda we have a slope to our property so terracing will be the way to go with all of these styles of gardening.
I live in Minnesota, I made a hugel culture in pure sand soil and it worked fantastic!! We got almost no rain this year and ALL my other garden beds were a disaster. The hugel culture worked better than I've ever seen. It was actually unreal. I never watered or weeded all season except when I first planted my starters. That's literally ONE watering. I planted potatoes, cherry tomatoes and sunflowers. The production was off the charts.
I'm in the Fl Panhandle and have the same problems with raised beds. I built one smaller hugelkulture bed 2 years ago and wanted to begin planting it but its a giant piss ant festival. And, in my experience, back to eden and leaf mulching just raises slugs where I'm at. I'm going back to conventional organic gardening where I will amend before each planting and feed compost and fish teas through the season. That method works in sandy soil.
We are totally rebuilding our soil with the Eden method. Where we do the Eden method we see HUGE increases in soil tilth and organism activity. We just finish our first hugel so we will see how that goes. Fact is, you have to figure out what works for YOUR area.... does not mean any method is bad.
I have experimented for 35 years with different gardening systems in northeast Texas and my results have been very similar to yours. As I have gotten older and less agile, my garden has become smaller and I mostly use cover cropping with minimum tillage approach. I still am searching for better ways to resolve water needs and the soil becoming too hot to plant the fall garden on a timely basis. My objective is to have a four season production system of veggies and fruits without using long term storage systems, heated greenhouse and irrigation during the drought season. My production horticulture education and vocational agriculture teaching experience has made this goal a lifelong quest and I have enjoyed every success and failure.
Jim, what if you plant cover in late summer, mow it down, and then plant within the drying cover crop? You get the benefits of a mulch without actually spreading any wood chips. This is essentially how beans and other row crops are planted in no-till, dense-cover applications. There's a lot of videos on the technique.
I'm in northeast Texas, zone 8b. Here we have sandy clay soil, so raised beds do fine. I've used large feeding troughs for some beds and others I've edged with cinder blocks. Like you said though, fire ants are a constant bother. We buy gallons of vinegar and treat any hills coming up in the beds as soon as we spot them. Also, I set sugar water traps around the garden for the ants. I find I have less problems with the fire ants when I use leaves for mulch rather than wood chips. I use the wood chips around trees and at the bottom of my containers. Thanks for your vids. Happy gardening.
Yes, I agree Danny. I've used five gallon buckets & many other kinds of containers to grow peppers and other vegetables for years now. Raise beds dry out so much faster. Have you thought of trying cement blocks for your raise beds borders? I have them around my little garden area.
I am trying a very old method of wood treating called Shou sugi ban. You burn the wood a certain amount, brush it with a wire brush and coat it with teak or boiled linseed oil. Once cured you put it up and just re-coat the outsides every so often. I am testing a heavy burn on the insides which is suppose to be more water, rot and insect resistant and a lighter burn on the outside for looks. I just used regular non treated lumber to do this.
Thanks, Mr. Danny. I appreciate you taking the time to show us what works or doesn't work for you. I think the thing is each region is different from the other regions. We have to learn what works for us and go with that. Not disparaging other regions just saying why continue doing what doesn't work because it does work for others. I'm with you. My gardens are sandy, lots of heat and humidity and lots of strange bugs other regions don't deal with. ~Sherrie in South Carolina
We live in Wisconsin and the wood chips rob all the nitrogen from the soil and the centipede invasion was like a biblical plague.We are done with the back to Eden garden too good luck to anyone who wants to try, make sure you put a ton of manure down if your growing garden but you don't need nitrogen if you are just building soil You will need large amounts of manure when you begin growing.
you are not supposed to work the chips INTO the soil. As top cover they break down slowly enough that they will not bind much nitrogen. The fungi that decompose the woods will release the nitrogen eventually, but that takes a while.
Dunno if you guys cares but if you guys are bored like me during the covid times you can stream all of the latest movies on InstaFlixxer. I've been streaming with my girlfriend for the last days =)
Thank you. I never bought into gimmick gardening fads. Some could be useful in situations but they all look like more work. Anything that gets in the way of my compact tractor, wheel hoe and worm access is prohibited. (except trellises of course) Too much or too little water is 90% of problems. I make trenched drainage ditch paths instead of raised beds. leaf/grass mulch eliminates most watering, weeds and keeps worms fat. People love gimmicks though... 10 years ago about every porch round here had a "topsy turvy tomato"
So many of these marketed methods of gardening just don't work in certain regions. I'm in southern Arizona and my back would love to garden in raised beds; however, I refuse to water twice (or more!) a day or purchase soil or compost. All my garden beds are 8-10 inches below grade and I add homemade compost once or twice per year. Works for me!
I read somewhere that the treated landscape timber can be use for vege planting.. the way to prevent the chemical from mitigating into the veges is by planting the veges about 6 inches away from the wood.. you can plant companion flowers that is close to the wood or you can lay down landscape plastic against the wood.. this I got from my research.. am going to do this to my landscape timber..
Fantastic video! I so needed to see this information. I have been working on my garden and for the most part doing an epic fail. Seeing a master gardener and hearing what went wrong for you was so helpful. Thank you for this video.
Hey pard I just farm the old way. I put cotton seed hulls in my garden and the ground is so good you can just hit the dirt with seed and it will sprout with out problems. Cotton seed hulls is one of the best compost I've ever used.
Wonder where you are gardening at? Your comment reminded me of when I grew up in PA, we kids could spit watermelon seeds into a pile of dirt & "viola" to our surprise a plant would grow...
I also heard that hulls of rice (or whatever that residue is called) are good mulch. However ! you want to be aware of the herbicide aminopyraline, they use if for grass - meadows but also grasses like wheat, rye (probably not rice if it is grown in water). So it could pop up in straw, compost, hay, .... or the hulls of grains even. They do not use aminopyraline for cotton, but it is heavily sprayed most likely with something else.
That is the advantage if it is possible to use wood chips - usually they are not sprayed, so if they do not have higher levles of radioactivity (tests of the 1950s and 1960s, in some areas the trees built it certain minerals, and accululated radioactive material). Aside from that wood chips are good.
New pressure treated: The chemical is copper-based. The copper has low toxicity to mammals, but bugs, mold, dry rot don't like it. Also: The copper is not water soluble, so the rain doesn't "wash it into your bed" like the old chemicals (arsenic, particularly)
I build my raised beds with bricks. They will last a lifetime. After every crop I move the soil into new beds that have been half filled with weeds so that I am constantly making new soils and expanding my garden.
What may work for some, may not work for others. It's such a joy to me seeing that you at least tried and are learning something from it! I hope you find success in your future adventures with much abundance and blessings! Thank you for sharing the ins and outs of your homestead. Happy days to you!
I agree wholeheartedly! Except I came over a year ago, to this as my first homestead channel specifically to learn to grow & process sugar cane. I knew it would be needed in a shtf scenario to help preserve foods. Salt I already knew where & how to procure.
Container gardening worked good for me in central GA. Problem with some though the ones with a narrow base blew over from stormy weather gusts of wind. With nut sedge, bramuda and Bahia grass bare gardens in the dirt get over grown too fast to keep up with, so containers are the way to grow. I have red clay with some sand with poorly depleted old farmstead ground so nothing but trees and berry bushes with dug out holes and hugelkultur wood at the bottom of the hole to improve drainage works here in this dirt. Thanks for warning about wood raised beds. At 25 dollars each, I can buy a 55 gallon plastic barrel, cut it in half, and at13 dollars each, get a pretty ideal container. I found the bases are important. To make it easy, I will use roundup on mowed grass, cover with thick black plastic mixed with bulk salt, and lay old dug up bricks on top to put the containers on top. The dry ground and salt should keep weeds and insects fro growing up the edges s I can just Ron the mower by to cut the grass next to the container garden, I put out cardboard and pine straw around the trees every year, but there may be something out there I can use to last longer to keep trees from being over run from there noxious grasses. I also have privet and mimosa trees and bushes to contend with. If I had it to do over, I would not have bought this property, it is overwhelming.
Shoo Danny, I am SO glad I watched this video! I was about to Hoogle bed our whole yard. But, I'm going to pass on that one. I have had to stop gardening in the ground because of the ants! 2 years in a row they made it impossible for me to get in and do anything without getting ate up. But, I think I will make a mound in the back yard for growing dirt 😁
I too live in a hot wet climate in N.J. but very cold winters. I started my kulture mound in a low water retaining area with smaller trees that fit tightly and filled in with everything in my yard. Branches, grass clippings and leaves plus what weeds and garden scraps I get. So far the only side effect is that the weeds are much healthier and my trees are now green and happy all around it. Only growing gourds now but next year will start melons and two small dwarf fruit trees. Tips from another gardener, Robbie and Gary. I have been using large pots or containers with the bottoms cut out, then i put layers of soil then scraps more soil, then another pot then plant both pots stacked. No need to compost in a pile, it works in the pot. I used the direct fertilizer method on my strawberries this year and they went crazy putting out runners. Robbie and Gary have a channel based in the heat but her tips work everywhere. Check out their solar bird baths, so smart. Thanks for your video, sorry you had so much trouble with them and I've never tried wood chips in the garden.
run the chickens through your back to eden garden, they'll eat the weed seeds and the bugs and add nitrogen to the soil for bumper crops. Use wicking beds for your raised beds and they won't dry out, and use concrete block or wall stone to raise them out of the ground.
Deep South Homestead I think the fire ants love it there with all those lovely termites. Your giving them a free feed so I understand why they want to be there, they have a banquet meal when ever they want it, I’d let the chickens lose .
You might want to try putting a char on your lumber that is exposed to weather & soil ... we do it here in Atlantic Canada with decades of success. Use a big weed-burner and crank it up. There are stumps behind the house here that were burned in a forest fire 80 yrs ago and they just have not decayed. Thanks for the well done video!
Rail road ties are the best boarders I've ever used. Not sure about toxic chemicals used on them, they were built for my flower beds. I love your strawberry beds. We plan to mimic them.
Great information! I’ve also tried a variety of gardening methods . Couldn’t figure out why my raised beds were so puny and dry. Also have problems with fire ants and wood chips. Going back to basics for next spring. This video should be required viewing for all the county extension agents in the Deep South-
I use cardboard n hay. .put cardboard down n cover with hay between rows. Tomatoes n peppers I put the cardboard down n hay n plant through. No weeds. N never till . Plant pineapple through cardboard n hay. It's a modified Ruth stout hay garden .I'm in Florida.
Danny we have the same exact problems here in South Louisiana. The termites and Carpenter ants will eat Cypress chips. That’s why years ago I got rid of any shrubs and flower beds around my house and constantly check my weep holes for termite trails. As far as the garden goes there’s always ants up on the higher side but atleast we don’t have those mole crickets yet.
Only thing we could use when we lived in FL to make raised beds was cinder block or bricks. Worst that could happen was you'd break them. I'm going to keep your four inch thing in mind next year and see how my different beds do and if I can change some of them to make them better. Thanks for the video!
Thank you!!!!! For this video! The info is extremely helpful to me for future planning. Im finding the same, after much hard work.... some stuff just doesnt work in my zone and soil situation.
Danny, I started a back to Eden earlier this year. On 1/2 of my area in 1 foot deep woodchips and half of it 8 inches. On the foot tall area I have next to no weeds. On the 8 inch area I have grass clumps galore. Now I have planted nothing in it yet. I was waiting at least a year for it to mature before planting it. And I live further south than you. I'm in Baldwin county south of I 10.
Renee Brown gardens take work I’m sure you know that but letting the weeds grow is a no no big time just rip them out, this is the problem with so many people they throw chips on the ground and think I’ll do nothing now and like magic booom I’ll have a magic garden . Sorry but it doesn’t work like that every situation for each person is different but we all have to do some work. I collected leaves as such for mulch and had hundreds of trees popping up but I just keep pulling them up and they get less and less . It will sort itself out later but got to rip those weeds or they will insult you lol
You should do just fine Renee as long as you laid them directly on the ground and not in raised beds. You will get weeds but they come out of the ground a lot easier. It takes about two years for the wood chips underneath to break down enough to really feature soil however after a good winter with lots of rain they should be charged and read to go in the spring. I too have covered my property in woodchips and we are having a fantastic experience. I think a lot of people overthink the process. Either they tell in the wood chips or they get the wrong chips in the video he mentioned bark and stuff. Always get chips from an arborist that includes not only the wood but the green leaves. I hope you have a fantastic growing season and good luck
Amen Sir, do you. A garden should flourish. Cause your garden to flourish your way. Land is different in same places and different places. Take care. Most of the viewers if not all will certainly understand you.
Here in the Eastern Thumb of Mi. we have this sand and clay mixture that you cannot water enough, if you do not mulch. But the bugs hide in the mulch and eat your plants at night. So this next year I will do semi raised beds with drip irrigation with ground cover to control weeds and BUGS. Thanks for sharing
That was a very specific analysis of the types of gardening options you've encountered, and was very informative with what you had, what worked, what didn't, and the 'why's' of both. A really valuable video, Danny. Thanks! : )
some ideas from my southern garden, I keep my wood chips in a large pile until they decay into rich black soil then I add it to the garden, this takes about 2 - 3 years so I try get get new chips each year to keep my supply going. I use a lot of composted leaves, after the leaves compost a year I run them through a cement mixer with a few smooth rocks or brick chunks to pulverize them and add that to the soil, they retain moisture and enrich the soil. I like to use cardboard as a ground cover in the garden it attracts worms and as it decomposes it enriches my soil. The cardboard prevents weed and grass growing and holds moisture in the ground, you may need to lay some dirt on top of the cardboard to hold it down. lay down a piece of cardboard cut a hole in it where you want your plant and it's ready to go. My drip irrigation runs under the cardboard and no water is wasted.
I agree. I like straw and haybales for my squash and tomatoes. The bales, I found, do best with one side against plastic or other wall so it doesn't dry out too fast. The following year it's great compost.
I live in upstate South Carolina. I have a raised bed garden that I call a kitchen garden. It’s for herbs, lettuce, and asparagus. I plant about an acre each spring and fall, on a hill that is terraced Of red clay filled with rocks. I can’t put enough lime on it. I add any organic material I can each year and disc it in. It’s never enough. If I did back to Eden, I would have to quit my job to have time to do it. Those of us who grow most of our food should tune out those who grow tomatoes in buckets on their patio, buy most of their food at Whole Foods, and think they know everything about agriculture on social media.
Living in the deep South is like living on a different continent. I've been collecting center block's to use as borders. I also put a thin layer of wood chips down in the fall to break down and create good soil. I use leaves as a top cover during the growing season and I had great luck this past summer. Maybe center block's would be a better option for you.
@@DeepSouthHomestead Im not very far from you and I too use cinder blocks (have for about 20 yrs). I just filled the holes of the blocks with sand and have not had much of a problem with fire ants. I have found that when i do get ants in my raised bed (not often), diatomceous earth seems to take care of them. Im not sure if it kills them or just runs them off (probably just runs them off). BUT, I only plant my peppers in the raised bed.
Thank you Danny for this informative video, glad these old videos are here. Thankful to glean information from folks like you that have much more gardening experience. Moved to a rocky ridge in northern Arkansas less than a year ago. Learning from our small container garden this year that very good fencing is key out here in the forest.
When did BTE become so dogmatic that you must apologize for not using it. Great vid of what does/does not work in your climate, soil & bug population. You two have a wonderful heart for teaching. God bless.
When loads of public appearances across the country at every possible location attracting small gardeners, added to channels seeking views, homesteaders seeking solutions, all eventually skyrocket out of proportion & become accepted as: "Rule Of 'Green' Thumb."
Beats me. With some it is others it's not, I'm in the not group. It is supposed to be about using some kind of cover that will break down and naturally fertilize your garden while holding moisture. There is a site on FB and many of use discovered what works for one don't work for another. For example I am in New Jersey and another guy is in NC. I can get away with raised beds, mixing grass with wood chips ect because of the different weather that I have than what he does, which would be disastrous for him. That also works vice versa, he can do things I can't. What I get from the BTE film is he paid attention to what was going on around him and he mimicked it. Seems to me that is exactly what Danny is doing. paying attention, knowing what don't work and making changes so it does. So in a sense Danny is still doing BTE just a different form that works in his area.
LOVE LOVE LOVE your channel! just moved to AL with somewhat of the same soil type, after living in the north that had black gold everywhere. Its such a huge difference!! not used to seeing red dirt! LOL. I have been researching to death what to do to get my black gold here in the south. Really appreciate all your wisdom and the sharing of it to people! Please keep posting!
Yep. A lot of people just don't get this. Gardening by hand is easy when you have a little area the size of your living room to work in. I have had people at my home that talk about no till and this and that. I then offer to let them use a portion of my property for free. They come with their hoes, rakes and shovels and twine. Mark off a two hundred by one hundred garden and then start to work the soil. After the first dump truck shows up with the soil they ordered and they see the amount of earth they have to move, they usually just go home and don't come back. I have ten plant-able acres. You can't work that without a machine.
We have a similar problem here in West Tennessee with the BTE, except the Bermuda grass takes over. I have spots that are 2 feet thick, and can't keep it out! We do have the best 30x60' stand of Bermuda! We are done with BTE as well
Great video Danny !! We are in N FL and since I am still working, we have a small 20 X 20 garden the old fashioned way...in the ground, in rows. We built a small wooden fence around it and added some chicken wire to try to keep the critters out of it when the veggies are growing. We keep the gate closed so the free range chickens don't eat our veggies. When the garden is done after the hot summer, we remove one section of fence and till it with the tractor and let the chickens and ducks get in there. This past year we added some herbs and marigolds in various areas in between veggies. That worked out great.
My sandy soil here in Fl is rife with root knot nematodes. The 1st 2 yrs here i had great gardens. I guess they had been starved for years and when i started feeding them and i had given up. I'm doing grass clipping over cardboard over kitchen scraps now. I'll see in the spring, but it appears it's going to be long and constant process to keep it built up. I saw an article on our IFAS website years ago about how to plant a tree, and they said there's no use amending the backfill as it would quickly become the same sandy soil you swapped it for, so i'm sure the layering will have to be constantly renewed. i don't mind doing the work 'til the garden fails, then i'm slow to try again. I'm also collecting every thrown out cooler i see using them for wicking tubs thinking the insulation and the wicking will require less watering.
You described many of the problems that I had with raised beds. Fire ants, rotting insect eaten planters, plants that couldn't get enough water, etc. People that haven't dealt with fire ants specifically often have no idea how resilient, ruthless and dangerous they are. I also had problems with wasps of multiple varieties. They liked gathering the rotting wood for their nests, and I'm highly allergic to them so there were times that I couldn't tend to the beds because too many wasps were flying around.
I have been a gardener for many many years in NH and we have never had a border of wood around our huge gardens. We have beautiful vegetables from our gardens every year. We mow and edge around the borders every week so the gardens are very neat. We are on a slope also but we don’t need to water more than once or twice a week in the dry season of July and Aug. I think putting wood around your gardens produces all kinds of insect problems.
Its all about individual context isn't it? Its up to us to apply our personal details and sift thru all the alternatives, experiment and adjust til we find out what works best for us. Thanks for your video's.
Amen Danny lots of tips thanks for all the great info you are so right that not everything will work for everybody where you live and you can learn different ways to work some ideas for your area collaborating with others and making it work for you is one of my favorite things about Homestead and the RUclips community Thanks for sharing and you have a great and blessed day😎
Instead of wood, have you thought about using thick corrugated plastic roof sheets cut lengthwise, and staked with metal rods about every foot? That should be insect resistant, and also help retain soil moisture where you're loosing it on one side.
I agree. I'm in Georgia where Back-To-Eden and Hugelkulture would never work because of the termites, ants and poor water retention. I stick to pots, bordered beds ( I like rocks) and in ground planting. I guess the take away is not everything works for everyone everywhere -
Hey just watched your video, if you try and combine hugelcultur with a raised bed, i think you will have great succes. What i mean is dig rotten wood into the ground, and throw some rich soil on top. Make the raised bed out of stone or brick we use 30-40 cm in height. The rotten wood in bottom of the beds are great at keeping the moisture in the soil, which in turn makes ants find another more dry place to live.
Amen Danny! The best gardens I have seen online have mainly been people's first attempts. Look at 50 Ducks, he shows several years in play lists. His first year was his best year. I have seen this scenario repeat time & time again. I used him as an example because you can hit the play lists & scan his without having to search hundreds of random location videos on other channels to find comparison years.
You know whats best for your area and with times as they are the time to test new ways. However how about a core bed to retain moisture. one small bed trial.
Hi there, you made some good points here that are often overlooked due to the hype and repetitive promotion of certain methods. Absolutely - do what works in your area! Compost/mulch (as opposed to just woodchips) could work alot better for you in terms of retaining water and keeping ground workable and fertile. Just a bit of it mixed through the soil would probably help alot more than the "back to eden" method. And weeds can be kept at bay by just topping the soil with a layer of greens, like grass clippings or even pulled weeds. It keeps the moisture in to. Tried and true methods that go beyond the hype. ALSO, I thought I should mention that cinnamon works very well for repelling ants!!! It reportedly repels termites as well. Either brew a tea and/or crush up some quills and sprinkle the bits around. You could also try soaking cinnamon quills in a non gmo oil to make an oil repellent, which should be longer lasting. I'm not sure about fire ants, but I know it repels the common black ants here in New Zealand. The ants were all over my propagating sugarcane until I poured cinnamon tea in there. It worked instantly. Not an ant in sight now. And the cinnamon didn't adversely effect the growing of the cane either. Make sure to use authentic ceylon cinnamon, because the other stuff is another species and may not work as well. In your climate, you could even grow a cinnamon tree for a constant supply :) Thanks for the quality videos - Your sugarcane ones in particular have helped me alot!!!
WOW Crazy how much information I learn when I watch your video's . I thought about putting raised beds in at my Dads Place in Fla. Thinking that might work. Yet after watching this. I know it would not. Down there treated wood don't last but a few year too.. & the heat is horrible too... so different then planting here in Michigan.. I agree with you do what you can do in your area cause it sure don't work all over the same.. Thanks for sharing.. :")
I would say to try cement blocks, which I have done, but have simce found out that they can maybe leach out unwanted chemicals into your soil too... I haven't researched that much yet. I have also used metal cattle water tanks, I try to not buy them new but use old ones farmers don't want anymore. Also, one can use a border of straw or hay bales, but that can bring a slug problem. Sounds like fire ants r a problem w any raised bed in the south, anyways ? ( I put holes in bottom of my water tank beds btw). I only had raised beds for trying to not bend over so much. Doesn't really help because I'm tall & leaning over isn't any better. I'd rather scrouch down anyways. I n ground is best even up north, for balancing moisture levels over all. Improving soil w compost is the key, for anywhere.
PS the other mistake that you make in the south is my raised beds. Never never garden in a raised bed even in the north they dry out really fast. Always garden in level soil even if your bed is sloped. Good luck my friend
@@SirCracker check out Doug & Stacy OFF GRID somehow they love their raised beds & do well with them, they live in Northern Missouri (or central) I guess if you live in an area that gets cold enough winters for the bugs to die off than raised beds might work. Sounds like the heat in the south with mild winters is not a good combo for the raised beds. But trying to figure it out, so I know where to buy the best land to garden...
Man. Im a damn yankee. And up north i have treated 4x4s on ground 20 years old. Still going. I even i have a old farm post that was dipped in creosote still going good.
What I'm thinking is termites are a different superman breed in the south where the ground doesn't freeze much over the winter months to freeze off the bug breeds...I'm guessing...
Just a thought ... I used "new" treated wood to build a handicap ramp here in Michigan. Some of it is punky after only about 4-5 years. The "old" treadted wood deck is fine after 30 years. I'm told the "new" wood doesn't use formaldahide Maybe that's what you want for your garden??? I wouldn't count on it lasting too long in your climate if it's like our 'new" treated wood.
I live in texas, ants are a problem no matter above, in ground, raised bed, flying in the air upside down, etc.
Put a tablespoon of orange peel oil in a five gallon bucket and fill with water. Locate the ant hills and dig into around the center to create pockets of air under their entrance. Then slowly pour the solution in the holes. I've exterminated hundreds of colonies this way and it's not toxic.
Yep! Everywhere!
@Nuts and Bolts laughing so hard at that description. I live in NE TX and I couldn’t agree more about those dang ants. Prepare a veggie bed and the ants are like: woo hoo a new condo for everyone!
I live in north Mississippi, about 300 miles north of Danny. I cannot have raised beds OR containers. Pots and containers get taken over by fire ants, and so do raised beds. I gave up on both years ago, and I just plant straight into the ground. I pile leaves, grass clippings, etc. in my garden area in the winter, then in spring I turn it under and plant right into the ground. No fuss, no muss, no fire ants. There's no one right way to garden. You have to do what works best for you and your particular microclimate.
try more pete moss in your raised beds,pete moss is the key here,it help hold moisture in your garden ,fire ants- 4 oz of orange oil per gallon,for a good size nest,5 gallon i use,it kills them dead at a slow pace,what it does is eats their skin off and with 5 gallons you more than likely will kill the queen or queens,,,raised beds- pete moss,compost,perilite,cow manure [use caution here on the manure,most farmer today feed their cattle or stock with hay that has been treated with a wide leaf spray,which will pass throw the animal and kill your garden]
@@maybeso1940 man thats a lot of work when I can just plant it in thd ground and run a wheel hoe through it. I live in mississippi as well and I've tried the orange oil and it just dosent work for very long. It gives you a few weeks at best. Also i have no idea where to get peate moss. Its really cheap to do conventional gardening we have cows so manure is easy to come by. These methods may work well elsewhere but ive had terrible luck with them before. The bucket gardens work if you spray bifin around the bottom few inches of the bucket. But i hate to use pesticides so I dont do that anymore either.
Here in Australia we have sandy soils on the west coast and the woodchips have completely improved my soil, lots of worms after just one year. Snails have disappeared - yay! I believe the ants are helpers that break down the woodchips and turn into soil rich with worms and to my surprise I have fungi coming up which I am told is a sign of healthy soil.
Ants are fine, fire ants are a pain...literally.
Fire ants are like your Ants you have (Jack Ants?), but they are smaller and they are a scourge to to gardeners and outdoor lovers in the American south. They are originally from South America and came from cargo ships in the late 19 century. The warm humid environment and lack of predators to control them has resulted in a population explosion of them in the American south region and their colonies are huge. There is a gentleman on youtube that makes and sells sculptures with molten aluminum showing their tunneling which shows how large and vast their colonies get in a short period of time.
They harm native ants and other insects and animals. Some people are allergic to their bite. They are unwelcome and they tend to harm roots of native and non-native plants by their deep and extensive tunneling in the soil. This will cause the moisture and water to leave the root zone too fast which requires more watering and heavier and more harmful fire ant control methods to the environment which runs off into our water systems causing other problems. I try not to use fire ant insecticides unless I absolutely have to, and try to stick with citrus oil and other organic methods when I can, but it is a constant battle since there aren't really any natural predators in the region to keep them in check. Fire ants are the worst species of ants and they are way too prolific in the south because nature for over 100 years hasn't provided something to keep them in check (cold weather, predator, etc.) so we have to intervene.
The University of Florida is looking into in flies from South America that will lay eggs on fire ant foragers which will keep their population in check, but I don't know if they will eventually target native ants as well. There is also a fungus from South America that will get in their brain paratisize them and when it blooms then spreads spores to the entire colony, but this fungus doesn't discriminate so it would decimate/harm beneficial insects and bees (honey bees and our many native bees) which aren't prepared for it & really isn't an option either.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Do not mix wood chips with soil 8" deep and expect good results! If wood chips are not covering the surface, they do not act as a mulch! You lose all your water to evaporation and heat because you aren't insulating the ground and you aren't providing cover to the soil surface to protect from wind and sun. Instead, you have basically made an active compost pile by mixing the mulch into the soil and those wood chips will now rob your garden soil of nitrogen to break down. That is why you aren't seeing good results using these methods: you are't using them correctly. That being said, do whatever you like! I'm just pointing out the obvious. I used both of these methods with great success on the high plains of Colorado, sandy calcareous soils that were some of the most heavily affected land by the dust bowl... only getting ~16" of annual rainfall... which is actually worse than Texas. I watered my garden twice... *the entire season* . I had carrots the size of my arm. So I know it will work from my experience, you just have to understand exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it and *NEVER EVER* mix your mulch into the soil like that or you're just asking for problems.
T Y, Im now starting to get serious with permaculture fruit orchard, planted on swale...planning to create 3 to 4 more swales 19 ' apart. Largest existing swale is half circle, 220'w x 210' ht. Adding the swales inside existing one. Planning to add woodchips on top of swale,( tree rows) 5' w.
“Let me tell you something, we are fixing to put a tractor in here!” 😂❤️🙌🏻 Love it! Danny your honesty is awesome!
I had the same problem with the wooden boards on my raised beds. I used untreated & treated and the termites just went to town. I switch to cinder blocks. It takes a bit of time to get them in place & they do cost a bit, but they are rot & termite proof.
My back to eden was a weed, fire ant & squash bug haven. I do cover some of my raised beds with leaves & pine straw, but not all of them. Leaves in my asparagus bed and pine straw in my strawberry bed. The rest is open with very little weeds.
I'm not able to do in ground gardening, so my cinder block beds work well for me here in East Texas. I have soaker hoses and water twice a week during the heat of summer.
Not every type of gardening works every where or for everyone. Find what works for you in your area.
Moral of the story - Do what works best for you in the area you find yourself in with the conditions you are faced with.
I have worked with gutter gardening (see Larry Hall videos) for years now because of rabbits and other small critters. I also do 55 gallon barrels cut lengthways along the seal line to create two containers that I put in cradles about waist high for perrennial herbs, garlic and green onions. Works great
When our move to Idaho is complete. I'll have to bring in a lot of topsoil and will work with Hugelkulture as well as the system I've built here. Like Danny and Wanda we have a slope to our property so terracing will be the way to go with all of these styles of gardening.
You must do what works for you. Watching this video is like watching an experimental station in operation. Thanks for all you show and tell us.
Good to see some honest reporting for a change in a video. Thanks for posting.
finally some one standing up. ty!!!
Lots of laughs Danny, you are on a roll, and I think it is awesome! More power to you!
You are right! When it comes to gardening one size does NOT FIT all.
I live in Minnesota, I made a hugel culture in pure sand soil and it worked fantastic!! We got almost no rain this year and ALL my other garden beds were a disaster. The hugel culture worked better than I've ever seen. It was actually unreal. I never watered or weeded all season except when I first planted my starters. That's literally ONE watering. I planted potatoes, cherry tomatoes and sunflowers. The production was off the charts.
I'm in the Fl Panhandle and have the same problems with raised beds. I built one smaller hugelkulture bed 2 years ago and wanted to begin planting it but its a giant piss ant festival. And, in my experience, back to eden and leaf mulching just raises slugs where I'm at. I'm going back to conventional organic gardening where I will amend before each planting and feed compost and fish teas through the season. That method works in sandy soil.
We are totally rebuilding our soil with the Eden method. Where we do the Eden method we see HUGE increases in soil tilth and organism activity. We just finish our first hugel so we will see how that goes.
Fact is, you have to figure out what works for YOUR area.... does not mean any method is bad.
Back to eden ain't worth a shit here in Deep South GA!
@@joshuawilliams194 HaHaHaHaHa
@@joshuawilliams194 You gonna post that on everyone else's comment that had success?
I have experimented for 35 years with different gardening systems in northeast Texas and my results have been very similar to yours. As I have gotten older and less agile, my garden has become smaller and I mostly use cover cropping with minimum tillage approach. I still am searching for better ways to resolve water needs and the soil becoming too hot to plant the fall garden on a timely basis. My objective is to have a four season production system of veggies and fruits without using long term storage systems, heated greenhouse and irrigation during the drought season. My production horticulture education and vocational agriculture teaching experience has made this goal a lifelong quest and I have enjoyed every success and failure.
Jim, what if you plant cover in late summer, mow it down, and then plant within the drying cover crop? You get the benefits of a mulch without actually spreading any wood chips. This is essentially how beans and other row crops are planted in no-till, dense-cover applications. There's a lot of videos on the technique.
I'm in northeast Texas, zone 8b. Here we have sandy clay soil, so raised beds do fine. I've used large feeding troughs for some beds and others I've edged with cinder blocks. Like you said though, fire ants are a constant bother. We buy gallons of vinegar and treat any hills coming up in the beds as soon as we spot them. Also, I set sugar water traps around the garden for the ants. I find I have less problems with the fire ants when I use leaves for mulch rather than wood chips. I use the wood chips around trees and at the bottom of my containers. Thanks for your vids. Happy gardening.
Yes, I agree Danny. I've used five gallon buckets & many other kinds of containers to grow peppers and other vegetables for years now. Raise beds dry out so much faster. Have you thought of trying cement blocks for your raise beds borders? I have them around my little garden area.
I am trying a very old method of wood treating called Shou sugi ban. You burn the wood a certain amount, brush it with a wire brush and coat it with teak or boiled linseed oil. Once cured you put it up and just re-coat the outsides every so often. I am testing a heavy burn on the insides which is suppose to be more water, rot and insect resistant and a lighter burn on the outside for looks. I just used regular non treated lumber to do this.
I so feel for you.
Thanks, Mr. Danny. I appreciate you taking the time to show us what works or doesn't work for you. I think the thing is each region is different from the other regions. We have to learn what works for us and go with that. Not disparaging other regions just saying why continue doing what doesn't work because it does work for others. I'm with you. My gardens are sandy, lots of heat and humidity and lots of strange bugs other regions don't deal with. ~Sherrie in South Carolina
We live in Wisconsin and the wood chips rob all the nitrogen from the soil and the centipede invasion was like a biblical plague.We are done with the back to Eden garden too good luck to anyone who wants to try, make sure you put a ton of manure down if your growing garden but you don't need nitrogen if you are just building soil You will need large amounts of manure when you begin growing.
you are not supposed to work the chips INTO the soil. As top cover they break down slowly enough that they will not bind much nitrogen. The fungi that decompose the woods will release the nitrogen eventually, but that takes a while.
Always nice to know what works & what doesn’t.
You tell em Danny! =)
Dunno if you guys cares but if you guys are bored like me during the covid times you can stream all of the latest movies on InstaFlixxer. I've been streaming with my girlfriend for the last days =)
@Kash Chance Yup, been watching on instaflixxer for years myself :)
@Kash Chance definitely, have been watching on InstaFlixxer for since december myself :D
The point is...do what works for you because everyone's location is different. Well said, thank you.
back to Eden w0rks good for me, pots are iffy, raise gardens do the best, we get a lot of rain early in the growing season and again in the fall.
THANKS for sharing!!! Do what WORKS for you and don't worry 'bout the rest!!!!!
Thank you for your honest assessment of different ways to garden!
Thank you. I never bought into gimmick gardening fads. Some could be useful in situations but they all look like more work. Anything that gets in the way of my compact tractor, wheel hoe and worm access is prohibited. (except trellises of course) Too much or too little water is 90% of problems. I make trenched drainage ditch paths instead of raised beds. leaf/grass mulch eliminates most watering, weeds and keeps worms fat. People love gimmicks though... 10 years ago about every porch round here had a "topsy turvy tomato"
So many of these marketed methods of gardening just don't work in certain regions. I'm in southern Arizona and my back would love to garden in raised beds; however, I refuse to water twice (or more!) a day or purchase soil or compost. All my garden beds are 8-10 inches below grade and I add homemade compost once or twice per year. Works for me!
I read somewhere that the treated landscape timber can be use for vege planting.. the way to prevent the chemical from mitigating into the veges is by planting the veges about 6 inches away from the wood.. you can plant companion flowers that is close to the wood or you can lay down landscape plastic against the wood.. this I got from my research.. am going to do this to my landscape timber..
Thank you, Mr. Danny. Always always good info from y'all. Greetings once again from Tuscaloosa.👍
Fantastic video! I so needed to see this information.
I have been working on my garden and for the most part doing an epic fail. Seeing a master gardener and hearing what went wrong for you was so helpful.
Thank you for this video.
This was an interesting video. Thanks for taking the time to point out what doesn't work!
Hey pard I just farm the old way. I put cotton seed hulls in my garden and the ground is so good you can just hit the dirt with seed and it will sprout with out problems. Cotton seed hulls is one of the best compost I've ever used.
Wonder where you are gardening at?
Your comment reminded me of when I grew up in PA, we kids could spit watermelon seeds into a pile of dirt & "viola" to our surprise a plant would grow...
I also heard that hulls of rice (or whatever that residue is called) are good mulch. However ! you want to be aware of the herbicide aminopyraline, they use if for grass - meadows but also grasses like wheat, rye (probably not rice if it is grown in water). So it could pop up in straw, compost, hay, .... or the hulls of grains even.
They do not use aminopyraline for cotton, but it is heavily sprayed most likely with something else.
That is the advantage if it is possible to use wood chips - usually they are not sprayed, so if they do not have higher levles of radioactivity (tests of the 1950s and 1960s, in some areas the trees built it certain minerals, and accululated radioactive material).
Aside from that wood chips are good.
New pressure treated: The chemical is copper-based. The copper has low toxicity to mammals, but bugs, mold, dry rot don't like it. Also: The copper is not water soluble, so the rain doesn't "wash it into your bed" like the old chemicals (arsenic, particularly)
I build my raised beds with bricks. They will last a lifetime. After every crop I move the soil into new beds that have been half filled with weeds so that I am constantly making new soils and expanding my garden.
What may work for some, may not work for others. It's such a joy to me seeing that you at least tried and are learning something from it! I hope you find success in your future adventures with much abundance and blessings! Thank you for sharing the ins and outs of your homestead. Happy days to you!
Fantastic vid
The why's of all your decisions makes this vid extremely valuable
This was one of the best videos you have made.
I agree wholeheartedly! Except I came over a year ago, to this as my first homestead channel specifically to learn to grow & process sugar cane. I knew it would be needed in a shtf scenario to help preserve foods. Salt I already knew where & how to procure.
Container gardening worked good for me in central GA. Problem with some though the ones with a narrow base blew over from stormy weather gusts of wind. With nut sedge, bramuda and Bahia grass bare gardens in the dirt get over grown too fast to keep up with, so containers are the way to grow. I have red clay with some sand with poorly depleted old farmstead ground so nothing but trees and berry bushes with dug out holes and hugelkultur wood at the bottom of the hole to improve drainage works here in this dirt. Thanks for warning about wood raised beds. At 25 dollars each, I can buy a 55 gallon plastic barrel, cut it in half, and at13 dollars each, get a pretty ideal container. I found the bases are important. To make it easy, I will use roundup on mowed grass, cover with thick black plastic mixed with bulk salt, and lay old dug up bricks on top to put the containers on top. The dry ground and salt should keep weeds and insects fro growing up the edges s I can just Ron the mower by to cut the grass next to the container garden, I put out cardboard and pine straw around the trees every year, but there may be something out there I can use to last longer to keep trees from being over run from there noxious grasses. I also have privet and mimosa trees and bushes to contend with. If I had it to do over, I would not have bought this property, it is overwhelming.
Shoo Danny, I am SO glad I watched this video! I was about to Hoogle bed our whole yard. But, I'm going to pass on that one. I have had to stop gardening in the ground because of the ants! 2 years in a row they made it impossible for me to get in and do anything without getting ate up. But, I think I will make a mound in the back yard for growing dirt 😁
I too live in a hot wet climate in N.J. but very cold winters. I started my kulture mound in a low water retaining area with smaller trees that fit tightly and filled in with everything in my yard. Branches, grass clippings and leaves plus what weeds and garden scraps I get. So far the only side effect is that the weeds are much healthier and my trees are now green and happy all around it. Only growing gourds now but next year will start melons and two small dwarf fruit trees.
Tips from another gardener, Robbie and Gary. I have been using large pots or containers with the bottoms cut out, then i put layers of soil then scraps more soil, then another pot then plant both pots stacked. No need to compost in a pile, it works in the pot. I used the direct fertilizer method on my strawberries this year and they went crazy putting out runners. Robbie and Gary have a channel based in the heat but her tips work everywhere. Check out their solar bird baths, so smart. Thanks for your video, sorry you had so much trouble with them and I've never tried wood chips in the garden.
Thank you, that will save us a lot of time and effort.
run the chickens through your back to eden garden, they'll eat the weed seeds and the bugs and add nitrogen to the soil for bumper crops. Use wicking beds for your raised beds and they won't dry out, and use concrete block or wall stone to raise them out of the ground.
Concrete or stone attracts fire ants and they take over the area because they heat up from the sun just what they like to build beds up on.
Deep South Homestead I think the fire ants love it there with all those lovely termites. Your giving them a free feed so I understand why they want to be there, they have a banquet meal when ever they want it, I’d let the chickens lose .
You might want to try putting a char on your lumber that is exposed to weather & soil ... we do it here in Atlantic Canada with decades of success. Use a big weed-burner and crank it up. There are stumps behind the house here that were burned in a forest fire 80 yrs ago and they just have not decayed. Thanks for the well done video!
Rail road ties are the best boarders I've ever used. Not sure about toxic chemicals used on them, they were built for my flower beds. I love your strawberry beds. We plan to mimic them.
oof, those are incredibly toxic because they are treated with creosote.
Great information! I’ve also tried a variety of gardening methods . Couldn’t figure out why my raised beds were so puny and dry. Also have problems with fire ants and wood chips. Going back to basics for next spring. This video should be required viewing for all the county extension agents in the Deep South-
VERY INFORMATIVE! thanks for the amazing info!! So many things to consider from your part of the world that we don't even consider here in Canada.
I use cardboard n hay. .put cardboard down n cover with hay between rows. Tomatoes n peppers I put the cardboard down n hay n plant through. No weeds. N never till . Plant pineapple through cardboard n hay. It's a modified Ruth stout hay garden .I'm in Florida.
I use black locus, strip the bark off and it will be here for your grand children are old and grey :)
Danny we have the same exact problems here in South Louisiana. The termites and Carpenter ants will eat Cypress chips. That’s why years ago I got rid of any shrubs and flower beds around my house and constantly check my weep holes for termite trails. As far as the garden goes there’s always ants up on the higher side but atleast we don’t have those mole crickets yet.
Only thing we could use when we lived in FL to make raised beds was cinder block or bricks. Worst that could happen was you'd break them. I'm going to keep your four inch thing in mind next year and see how my different beds do and if I can change some of them to make them better. Thanks for the video!
I have one bed that I am raising because the water table is so close to the surface that it doesn't dry out until July.
Thank you!!!!! For this video! The info is extremely helpful to me for future planning. Im finding the same, after much hard work.... some stuff just doesnt work in my zone and soil situation.
Danny, I started a back to Eden earlier this year. On 1/2 of my area in 1 foot deep woodchips and half of it 8 inches. On the foot tall area I have next to no weeds. On the 8 inch area I have grass clumps galore. Now I have planted nothing in it yet. I was waiting at least a year for it to mature before planting it. And I live further south than you. I'm in Baldwin county south of I 10.
Renee Brown gardens take work I’m sure you know that but letting the weeds grow is a no no big time just rip them out, this is the problem with so many people they throw chips on the ground and think I’ll do nothing now and like magic booom I’ll have a magic garden . Sorry but it doesn’t work like that every situation for each person is different but we all have to do some work. I collected leaves as such for mulch and had hundreds of trees popping up but I just keep pulling them up and they get less and less . It will sort itself out later but got to rip those weeds or they will insult you lol
You should do just fine Renee as long as you laid them directly on the ground and not in raised beds. You will get weeds but they come out of the ground a lot easier. It takes about two years for the wood chips underneath to break down enough to really feature soil however after a good winter with lots of rain they should be charged and read to go in the spring. I too have covered my property in woodchips and we are having a fantastic experience. I think a lot of people overthink the process. Either they tell in the wood chips or they get the wrong chips in the video he mentioned bark and stuff. Always get chips from an arborist that includes not only the wood but the green leaves. I hope you have a fantastic growing season and good luck
Renee Brown
I am starting mine now I’m in Hancock co. I’m worried about termites. I already got fire ants galore
I live in the North but I have to grow my pepper plants on my deck where they get part shade and they do great
You should try some composite decking boards for your bed borders.
Amen Sir, do you. A garden should flourish. Cause your garden to flourish your way. Land is different in same places and different places. Take care. Most of the viewers if not all will certainly understand you.
Here in the Eastern Thumb of Mi. we have this sand and clay mixture that you cannot water enough, if you do not mulch. But the bugs hide in the mulch and eat your plants at night. So this next year I will do semi raised beds with drip irrigation with ground cover to control weeds and BUGS. Thanks for sharing
That was a very specific analysis of the types of gardening options you've encountered, and was very informative with what you had, what worked, what didn't, and the 'why's' of both. A really valuable video, Danny. Thanks! : )
We’re doing back to eden gardens and it’s working out pretty good.
If you can get it use ipe wood for your beds. It will never rot. I have used ipe for my beds and they are 22 years old. No rot at all.
some ideas from my southern garden, I keep my wood chips in a large pile until they decay into rich black soil then I add it to the garden, this takes about 2 - 3 years so I try get get new chips each year to keep my supply going. I use a lot of composted leaves, after the leaves compost a year I run them through a cement mixer with a few smooth rocks or brick chunks to pulverize them and add that to the soil, they retain moisture and enrich the soil. I like to use cardboard as a ground cover in the garden it attracts worms and as it decomposes it enriches my soil. The cardboard prevents weed and grass growing and holds moisture in the ground, you may need to lay some dirt on top of the cardboard to hold it down. lay down a piece of cardboard cut a hole in it where you want your plant and it's ready to go. My drip irrigation runs under the cardboard and no water is wasted.
Cardboard covered with hay. No weeds
@@jamesbarton3165 no hay in my garden due to the seeds found in hay, I use decaying wheat straw
I agree. I like straw and haybales for my squash and tomatoes. The bales, I found, do best with one side against plastic or other wall so it doesn't dry out too fast. The following year it's great compost.
I live in upstate South Carolina. I have a raised bed garden that I call a kitchen garden. It’s for herbs, lettuce, and asparagus. I plant about an acre each spring and fall, on a hill that is terraced
Of red clay filled with rocks. I can’t put enough lime on it. I add any organic material I can each year and disc it in. It’s never enough. If I did back to Eden, I would have to quit my job to have time to do it. Those of us who grow most of our food should tune out those who grow tomatoes in buckets on their patio, buy most of their food at Whole Foods, and think they know everything about agriculture on social media.
very good video and informational
Living in the deep South is like living on a different continent. I've been collecting center block's to use as borders. I also put a thin layer of wood chips down in the fall to break down and create good soil. I use leaves as a top cover during the growing season and I had great luck this past summer. Maybe center block's would be a better option for you.
Cinder blocks attract fire ants and they take them over with ant beds.
@@DeepSouthHomestead I guess every state is different, not just north and south.
@@DeepSouthHomestead Im not very far from you and I too use cinder blocks (have for about 20 yrs). I just filled the holes of the blocks with sand and have not had much of a problem with fire ants. I have found that when i do get ants in my raised bed (not often), diatomceous earth seems to take care of them. Im not sure if it kills them or just runs them off (probably just runs them off). BUT, I only plant my peppers in the raised bed.
Thank you Danny for this informative video, glad these old videos are here. Thankful to glean information from folks like you that have much more gardening experience. Moved to a rocky ridge in northern Arkansas less than a year ago. Learning from our small container garden this year that very good fencing is key out here in the forest.
It may be too pricey, But have you ever considered using what’s called ‘composite’ - you know that material that takes the place of wood 2x4’s
Thanks for the info. Very good info.
When did BTE become so dogmatic that you must apologize for not using it. Great vid of what does/does not work in your climate, soil & bug population. You two have a wonderful heart for teaching. God bless.
When loads of public appearances across the country at every possible location attracting small gardeners, added to channels seeking views, homesteaders seeking solutions, all eventually skyrocket out of proportion & become accepted as: "Rule Of 'Green' Thumb."
no offence but BTE was dogmatic from the day it started with the "I am Moses" attitude.
Beats me. With some it is others it's not, I'm in the not group. It is supposed to be about using some kind of cover that will break down and naturally fertilize your garden while holding moisture. There is a site on FB and many of use discovered what works for one don't work for another. For example I am in New Jersey and another guy is in NC. I can get away with raised beds, mixing grass with wood chips ect because of the different weather that I have than what he does, which would be disastrous for him. That also works vice versa, he can do things I can't. What I get from the BTE film is he paid attention to what was going on around him and he mimicked it. Seems to me that is exactly what Danny is doing. paying attention, knowing what don't work and making changes so it does. So in a sense Danny is still doing BTE just a different form that works in his area.
Great information. Thanks
Very interesting video!
LOVE LOVE LOVE your channel! just moved to AL with somewhat of the same soil type, after living in the north that had black gold everywhere. Its such a huge difference!! not used to seeing red dirt! LOL. I have been researching to death what to do to get my black gold here in the south. Really appreciate all your wisdom and the sharing of it to people! Please keep posting!
Thx for the honesty.
I agree! Bring on the tractor! Gardening will kill you trying to do things by hand!
Yep. A lot of people just don't get this. Gardening by hand is easy when you have a little area the size of your living room to work in. I have had people at my home that talk about no till and this and that. I then offer to let them use a portion of my property for free. They come with their hoes, rakes and shovels and twine. Mark off a two hundred by one hundred garden and then start to work the soil. After the first dump truck shows up with the soil they ordered and they see the amount of earth they have to move, they usually just go home and don't come back. I have ten plant-able acres. You can't work that without a machine.
We have a similar problem here in West Tennessee with the BTE, except the Bermuda grass takes over. I have spots that are 2 feet thick, and can't keep it out! We do have the best 30x60' stand of Bermuda!
We are done with BTE as well
From Eastern Tennessee you made me laugh at your Best Stand Of Bermuda Grass! I felt so bad for you.
Great video Danny !! We are in N FL and since I am still working, we have a small 20 X 20 garden the old fashioned way...in the ground, in rows. We built a small wooden fence around it and added some chicken wire to try to keep the critters out of it when the veggies are growing. We keep the gate closed so the free range chickens don't eat our veggies. When the garden is done after the hot summer, we remove one section of fence and till it with the tractor and let the chickens and ducks get in there. This past year we added some herbs and marigolds in various areas in between veggies. That worked out great.
Instead of tilling turn the chickens loose to do the tilling (scratching everything up) and fertilizing (popping).Saves a little time.
thank you for the information. it's always good to see and hear the other side of different types of gardening that are being promoted.
Looks like you got quite a bit figured out! Do what works for you makes perfect sense to me!
My sandy soil here in Fl is rife with root knot nematodes. The 1st 2 yrs here i had great gardens. I guess they had been starved for years and when i started feeding them and i had given up. I'm doing grass clipping over cardboard over kitchen scraps now. I'll see in the spring, but it appears it's going to be long and constant process to keep it built up. I saw an article on our IFAS website years ago about how to plant a tree, and they said there's no use amending the backfill as it would quickly become the same sandy soil you swapped it for, so i'm sure the layering will have to be constantly renewed. i don't mind doing the work 'til the garden fails, then i'm slow to try again. I'm also collecting every thrown out cooler i see using them for wicking tubs thinking the insulation and the wicking will require less watering.
You described many of the problems that I had with raised beds. Fire ants, rotting insect eaten planters, plants that couldn't get enough water, etc. People that haven't dealt with fire ants specifically often have no idea how resilient, ruthless and dangerous they are. I also had problems with wasps of multiple varieties. They liked gathering the rotting wood for their nests, and I'm highly allergic to them so there were times that I couldn't tend to the beds because too many wasps were flying around.
I have been a gardener for many many years in NH and we have never had a border of wood around our huge gardens. We have beautiful vegetables from our gardens every year. We mow and edge around the borders every week so the gardens are very neat. We are on a slope also but we don’t need to water more than once or twice a week in the dry season of July and Aug. I think putting wood around your gardens produces all kinds of insect problems.
Its all about individual context isn't it? Its up to us to apply our personal details and sift thru all the alternatives, experiment and adjust til we find out what works best for us. Thanks for your video's.
great video.
Amen Danny lots of tips thanks for all the great info you are so right that not everything will work for everybody where you live and you can learn different ways to work some ideas for your area collaborating with others and making it work for you is one of my favorite things about Homestead and the RUclips community
Thanks for sharing and you have a great and blessed day😎
Instead of wood, have you thought about using thick corrugated plastic roof sheets cut lengthwise, and staked with metal rods about every foot? That should be insect resistant, and also help retain soil moisture where you're loosing it on one side.
I agree. I'm in Georgia where Back-To-Eden and Hugelkulture would never work because of the termites, ants and poor water retention. I stick to pots, bordered beds ( I like rocks) and in ground planting. I guess the take away is not everything works for everyone everywhere -
Thanks for this information.I think you have just solved my problems with my raised garden beds.
Hey just watched your video, if you try and combine hugelcultur with a raised bed, i think you will have great succes. What i mean is dig rotten wood into the ground, and throw some rich soil on top. Make the raised bed out of stone or brick we use 30-40 cm in height. The rotten wood in bottom of the beds are great at keeping the moisture in the soil, which in turn makes ants find another more dry place to live.
Amen Danny! The best gardens I have seen online have mainly been people's first attempts.
Look at 50 Ducks, he shows several years in play lists. His first year was his best year.
I have seen this scenario repeat time & time again.
I used him as an example because you can hit the play lists & scan his without having to search hundreds of random location videos on other channels to find comparison years.
You know whats best for your area and with times as they are the time to test new ways. However how about a core bed to retain moisture. one small bed trial.
Beds without borders.........That's for all the information sir.
Hi there, you made some good points here that are often overlooked due to the hype and repetitive promotion of certain methods. Absolutely - do what works in your area! Compost/mulch (as opposed to just woodchips) could work alot better for you in terms of retaining water and keeping ground workable and fertile. Just a bit of it mixed through the soil would probably help alot more than the "back to eden" method. And weeds can be kept at bay by just topping the soil with a layer of greens, like grass clippings or even pulled weeds. It keeps the moisture in to.
Tried and true methods that go beyond the hype.
ALSO, I thought I should mention that cinnamon works very well for repelling ants!!! It reportedly repels termites as well.
Either brew a tea and/or crush up some quills and sprinkle the bits around. You could also try soaking cinnamon quills in a non gmo oil to make an oil repellent, which should be longer lasting.
I'm not sure about fire ants, but I know it repels the common black ants here in New Zealand. The ants were all over my propagating sugarcane until I poured cinnamon tea in there. It worked instantly. Not an ant in sight now. And the cinnamon didn't adversely effect the growing of the cane either. Make sure to use authentic ceylon cinnamon, because the other stuff is another species and may not work as well. In your climate, you could even grow a cinnamon tree for a constant supply :)
Thanks for the quality videos - Your sugarcane ones in particular have helped me alot!!!
Cinnamon tree? I have to research that and see if they will grow here.
WOW Crazy how much information I learn when I watch your video's . I thought about putting raised beds in at my Dads Place in Fla. Thinking that might work. Yet after watching this. I know it would not. Down there treated wood don't last but a few year too.. & the heat is horrible too... so different then planting here in Michigan.. I agree with you do what you can do in your area cause it sure don't work all over the same.. Thanks for sharing.. :")
I would say to try cement blocks, which I have done, but have simce found out that they can maybe leach out unwanted chemicals into your soil too... I haven't researched that much yet. I have also used metal cattle water tanks, I try to not buy them new but use old ones farmers don't want anymore. Also, one can use a border of straw or hay bales, but that can bring a slug problem. Sounds like fire ants r a problem w any raised bed in the south, anyways ? ( I put holes in bottom of my water tank beds btw). I only had raised beds for trying to not bend over so much. Doesn't really help because I'm tall & leaning over isn't any better. I'd rather scrouch down anyways. I n ground is best even up north, for balancing moisture levels over all. Improving soil w compost is the key, for anywhere.
PS the other mistake that you make in the south is my raised beds. Never never garden in a raised bed even in the north they dry out really fast. Always garden in level soil even if your bed is sloped. Good luck my friend
@@SirCracker check out Doug & Stacy OFF GRID somehow they love their raised beds & do well with them, they live in Northern Missouri (or central) I guess if you live in an area that gets cold enough winters for the bugs to die off than raised beds might work. Sounds like the heat in the south with mild winters is not a good combo for the raised beds. But trying to figure it out, so I know where to buy the best land to garden...
We have considered terracing here in the future. One side bordered only. Good to know what to watch for!
Man. Im a damn yankee. And up north i have treated 4x4s on ground 20 years old. Still going. I even i have a old farm post that was dipped in creosote still going good.
What I'm thinking is termites are a different superman breed in the south where the ground doesn't freeze much over the winter months to freeze off the bug breeds...I'm guessing...
Just a thought ... I used "new" treated wood to build a handicap ramp here in Michigan. Some of it is punky after only about 4-5 years. The "old" treadted wood deck is fine after 30 years. I'm told the "new" wood doesn't use formaldahide Maybe that's what you want for your garden??? I wouldn't count on it lasting too long in your climate if it's like our 'new" treated wood.
What about using Trex?
Thanks ... might check into that.
Have you tried cement blocks for raised beds. I live in Georgia and that is what I use. Works great.