I've been growing supplemental food for 12 years and only in the last 5 have I gotten really serious. Most of what I eat through the year I grew. I can, dehydrate, freeze and if I didn't grow it I go to a local farm stand and buy in bulk. I rarely go to a store other then for meat or dairy products. I also know what's in my food. I've learned to be as self sufficient as I can. Ive already got some seeds started and my garden shelf going with a couple of over wintered small peppers. To be honest I don't know how people are surviving with the cost of food. Glad I grow my own, preserve my own and feed myself. Thank you Ben for passing on all your knowledge.
In the early 1980's, I found myself as a single mother of two and relied heavily on my garden to keep my children fed. I worked full time and included helping in the garden as one of the expected chores required of my children. I am happy to say that my youngest, now 45, is an avid gardener and sees the importance of knowing where his food comes from and how to produce it. I still garden (a lot,!) and can my own food and freeze dry some too. I wish more young people would see the benefits, both health wise and economically, of producing at least some of what they consume. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with others, Ben!
I think besides the obvious benefits of a garden increasing food security and access to healthy vegetables - the mental health benefits cannot be understated. For humans to connect with the earth and the cycle of life has such benefit to our overall wellbeing. Thanks for the video-love your channel.
The relief I feel when I look at all my preserved food- that we grew ourselves..so grateful- we are Expanding the garden again this year! .. ( and no one likes shoveling dirt in the cold!)
I started gardening 2009-10 also. Dead broke, no money for grocery. I remember needing a tomato. That’s how I got started. Been gardening ever since. I’m kinda glad I struggled because it taught me a lot. I can grow almost anything from seed. I just struggle with time to garden but I try to go out in the garden 1-2 hrs a day. I’ve been starting seeds indoor when my son is asleep. Gardening just makes sense. Thanks for the video.
My great grandparents always grew a huge garden, as back then it was a necessity. They lived through the depression and that was just a way of life back then. When I was a little boy I would help them water the garden, and pick cherry tomatoes off the vine to eat as a treat. I would pick cherries off their tree when they were ripe, and loved getting pomegranates in the fall from their tree. I started gardening when I was in high school because I found some of my great grandfathers old packs of seeds in with his belongings. It was right around 1998 or so, and planted some tomato seeds from a packet that had a "packed for" year of 1986 on them, and they grew. It made me feel like my great grandfather was gardening along with me. Fast forward to 2018, started a garden at the house my wife and I bought and it definitely helped us through the lack of fresh produce during 2020, and after even when there were recalls due to one thing or another on lettuce, spinach or whatever other veggies in stores. We had plenty because our garden had been set up years before and we are able to garden all through the winter.
I live in central Indiana we got down to 2 above, the high to was 19 degrees. was raised on a farm and was taught how to survive. I am 70 years old and still garden and can a lot. Ready for the season the start, I do have a greenhouse that 16 x 30 8mm polycarbonate panels. I live for the garden. Thank you for your video's I appreciate your teaching.
I enjoy your info! I am a 73 year old lady and live just north of Charlotte. I was raised on a farm so always had fresh veg, meat and eggs. I finally retired a year ago and have the time to garden again. Last summer i grew enough for myself and my kids and some for the next door neighbor. My plan is to enlarge the garden and grow more this year.
Yes sir! I’ve had a garden since 2013. It’s gotten smaller over the last 3 years because of my physical limitations. But I’m still going to have a garden. Thinking about more bucket gardening this year. Some I will put in a raised bed. I started seeds in December. Way too soon. But I started them and now they’re in my aero garden. I live in upper New Hampshire. So way too soon. Oh well. Live and learn
Even when I lived in a small apartment I grew in the little backyard that I had herbs, cherry tomatoes helps I know what I do the plants. Know in our home i grow much more. I plan to expand. I have some physical limitation, so I’m trying to make sure this year. I’m mapping things out to accommodate bad pain days and some things to be automatic without me. Any one on the fence about a garden do it. Also we got a used deep freezer last year. Few months ago we went with a few people we bought half a cow. Im trying to make sure we don’t spend more i things I can control.
Just wanted to say thank you. I’m so glad I found your channel. I’ve been an avid backyard gardener for a few years now, and missed last year’s growing season due to welcoming our first child into the world. I’m so excited to get back to growing this year with her tagging along and helping and learning. Your channel is very motivational and honest. Especially for the common person. Thank you and God Bless. PS: And to answer a question from a previous video: I’d love to see more Bee Content, especially how they benefit the vegetable gardener.
I have sprouts, all season cabbage, Calabrese broccoli, onions, and Self Blanching Cauliflower. I have to resow a few trays for my mother's garden-old seed, Brunswick Cabbage, and Waltham Broccoli. Round two of seed sowing starts tomorrow. In 2018, I started gardening with a few pots of tomato plants on the porch. They didn't do well at all. In 2019, I purchased two 2.5ft x 5ft raised beds, but didn't plant right for sunlight, the location sucked, and my mother sprayed herbicide around the beds, killing most of the plants, but I did get a decent harvest of carrots. In 2020, I got serious, three 4ft x 8ft raised beds and a cattle panel trellis tunnel. I also started reading a lot of gardening books, and a few You-Tube channels. The garden did better, and I got a decent harvest. Fear of a declining economy, and learning of how many pesticides are used in commercial gardening, drove me to expanding my garden with grow bags, three 2ft x 8ft raised beds, a polytunnel greenhouse, and a GreenStalk tower. Now, Bill Gates has poisoned the produce in the stores with APEEL and worse. The toxic and rubber watermelons are real. As for my garden, the polytunnel is gone, I have sixteen raised beds of various sizes, three GreenStalk Towers, a 10ft x 20ft herb garden, fewer growbags, an orchard with 11 fruit trees, a chicken coop and run, two compost bins, and I still have a few odd pots. I also got my mother into gardening. So, my needs are mainly to supply myself. I grow a lot more than I can eat, so the excess is shared with my sister-in-law, and a friend, or two. I don't need a lot of production to supply a family, so have room to grow a lot of variety. And I do! There are a few produce items that I buy at the grocery store, mainly potatoes and onions. I'm working on onions, but in my area, potatoes are a lost cause. The problem is the climate. I have a narrow window to plant, the first week of March, and that is it for the year. The rest of the year, it is either too hot, or too cold. So, I am switching to sweet potatoes. I can grow them from April through October. That gives me four succession crops if I need them. This year is an experiment to see how well they produce vs how many I need. Then I can adjust my gardening plans from there.
I have expanded my garden last fall and again this month and really ready to hone in on my preserving game. I now have 20 raised beds that are 4’x8’. I feel like I am just starting to have the garden space for it! This will be my 6th year gardening and I LOVE it. It’s in my blood. I will do it forever. Thank you for this great video! I love your content and happy I found you 👍🏼 Also, I meant to ask where you got your Greenhouse?
I've been gardening for about 10 years, but it was just a single beds worth of tomatoes and peppers. 2023 was the first year I got serious about it. Not a great harvest, but it was something. 2024, I planned everything out and produced so much that I was giving it away before it spoiled. It really made me think about preserving (canning and dehydrating), which is a big goal for this year. I didn't replace my fall garden with winter crops soon enough, so cold plants aren't as large as they should be. I made note of it, and will be ready next winter. I'm in the process of expanding like you are to plant perennials and to have room to play with new stuff. How much effort are chickens? As in how much time per week do you think you spend maintaining them?
I am gardening because I am worried about what the people who harvest our food will be going through. I can only imagine what's going to happen when we can't harvest our crops.
I started growing about 15 years ago when we were in a duplex. The landlords let us build a couple garden beds. That was my foundation. Off and on through the years until the Plandemic then I went in full time with it. Now I've learned a lot of survival things besides my hunting experience.
I wonder when they going to making it so ppl can leave Audio and or video comments....majority of ppl cant write, read and or comprehend .... Tones misinterpreted start unnecessary arguments etc etc......
I've been growing supplemental food for 12 years and only in the last 5 have I gotten really serious. Most of what I eat through the year I grew. I can, dehydrate, freeze and if I didn't grow it I go to a local farm stand and buy in bulk. I rarely go to a store other then for meat or dairy products. I also know what's in my food. I've learned to be as self sufficient as I can. Ive already got some seeds started and my garden shelf going with a couple of over wintered small peppers. To be honest I don't know how people are surviving with the cost of food. Glad I grow my own, preserve my own and feed myself. Thank you Ben for passing on all your knowledge.
In the early 1980's, I found myself as a single mother of two and relied heavily on my garden to keep my children fed. I worked full time and included helping in the garden as one of the expected chores required of my children. I am happy to say that my youngest, now 45, is an avid gardener and sees the importance of knowing where his food comes from and how to produce it. I still garden (a lot,!) and can my own food and freeze dry some too. I wish more young people would see the benefits, both health wise and economically, of producing at least some of what they consume.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with others, Ben!
I think besides the obvious benefits of a garden increasing food security and access to healthy vegetables - the mental health benefits cannot be understated. For humans to connect with the earth and the cycle of life has such benefit to our overall wellbeing. Thanks for the video-love your channel.
The relief I feel when I look at all my preserved food- that we grew ourselves..so grateful- we are
Expanding the garden again this year! .. ( and no one likes shoveling dirt in the cold!)
at least it warms you up. I might just have to do it.
I started gardening 2009-10 also.
Dead broke, no money for grocery. I remember needing a tomato. That’s how I got started. Been gardening ever since. I’m kinda glad I struggled because it taught me a lot. I can grow almost anything from seed. I just struggle with time to garden but I try to go out in the garden 1-2 hrs a day. I’ve been starting seeds indoor when my son is asleep.
Gardening just makes sense. Thanks for the video.
And after all that, you start canning! Now you really have peace.
we have been canning for a while now. My sons first solid food was greenbeans i canned.
My great grandparents always grew a huge garden, as back then it was a necessity. They lived through the depression and that was just a way of life back then. When I was a little boy I would help them water the garden, and pick cherry tomatoes off the vine to eat as a treat. I would pick cherries off their tree when they were ripe, and loved getting pomegranates in the fall from their tree. I started gardening when I was in high school because I found some of my great grandfathers old packs of seeds in with his belongings. It was right around 1998 or so, and planted some tomato seeds from a packet that had a "packed for" year of 1986 on them, and they grew. It made me feel like my great grandfather was gardening along with me. Fast forward to 2018, started a garden at the house my wife and I bought and it definitely helped us through the lack of fresh produce during 2020, and after even when there were recalls due to one thing or another on lettuce, spinach or whatever other veggies in stores. We had plenty because our garden had been set up years before and we are able to garden all through the winter.
I live in central Indiana we got down to 2 above, the high to was 19 degrees. was raised on a farm and was taught how to survive. I am 70 years old and still garden and can a lot. Ready for the season the start, I do have a greenhouse that 16 x 30 8mm polycarbonate panels. I live for the garden. Thank you for your video's I appreciate your teaching.
I enjoy your info! I am a 73 year old lady and live just north of Charlotte. I was raised on a farm so always had fresh veg, meat and eggs. I finally retired a year ago and have the time to garden again. Last summer i grew enough for myself and my kids and some for the next door neighbor. My plan is to enlarge the garden and grow more this year.
That's awesome! It's great that you can share the bounty with others.
Absolutely love this episode!!!! Thank you for being honest and telling it how it is.
thats the only way to be
Yes sir! I’ve had a garden since 2013. It’s gotten smaller over the last 3 years because of my physical limitations. But I’m still going to have a garden. Thinking about more bucket gardening this year. Some I will put in a raised bed. I started seeds in December. Way too soon. But I started them and now they’re in my aero garden. I live in upper New Hampshire. So way too soon. Oh well. Live and learn
Even when I lived in a small apartment I grew in the little backyard that I had herbs, cherry tomatoes helps I know what I do the plants. Know in our home i grow much more. I plan to expand. I have some physical limitation, so I’m trying to make sure this year. I’m mapping things out to accommodate bad pain days and some things to be automatic without me. Any one on the fence about a garden do it. Also we got a used deep freezer last year. Few months ago we went with a few people we bought half a cow. Im trying to make sure we don’t spend more i things I can control.
listening while grocery shopping
Awesome! Thats just inspiration to grow more
Just wanted to say thank you. I’m so glad I found your channel. I’ve been an avid backyard gardener for a few years now, and missed last year’s growing season due to welcoming our first child into the world. I’m so excited to get back to growing this year with her tagging along and helping and learning. Your channel is very motivational and honest. Especially for the common person. Thank you and God Bless.
PS: And to answer a question from a previous video: I’d love to see more Bee Content, especially how they benefit the vegetable gardener.
Well welcome and congradulations!! Already started Making Bee videos.
Last night it was minus 15 F.
I'm slowly expanding my indoor growing. Mostly hydroponics, DWC, Kratky. I want to try cucumbers in it next 🇨🇦
I have sprouts, all season cabbage, Calabrese broccoli, onions, and Self Blanching Cauliflower. I have to resow a few trays for my mother's garden-old seed, Brunswick Cabbage, and Waltham Broccoli. Round two of seed sowing starts tomorrow.
In 2018, I started gardening with a few pots of tomato plants on the porch. They didn't do well at all. In 2019, I purchased two 2.5ft x 5ft raised beds, but didn't plant right for sunlight, the location sucked, and my mother sprayed herbicide around the beds, killing most of the plants, but I did get a decent harvest of carrots. In 2020, I got serious, three 4ft x 8ft raised beds and a cattle panel trellis tunnel. I also started reading a lot of gardening books, and a few You-Tube channels. The garden did better, and I got a decent harvest. Fear of a declining economy, and learning of how many pesticides are used in commercial gardening, drove me to expanding my garden with grow bags, three 2ft x 8ft raised beds, a polytunnel greenhouse, and a GreenStalk tower.
Now, Bill Gates has poisoned the produce in the stores with APEEL and worse. The toxic and rubber watermelons are real. As for my garden, the polytunnel is gone, I have sixteen raised beds of various sizes, three GreenStalk Towers, a 10ft x 20ft herb garden, fewer growbags, an orchard with 11 fruit trees, a chicken coop and run, two compost bins, and I still have a few odd pots. I also got my mother into gardening. So, my needs are mainly to supply myself. I grow a lot more than I can eat, so the excess is shared with my sister-in-law, and a friend, or two. I don't need a lot of production to supply a family, so have room to grow a lot of variety. And I do!
There are a few produce items that I buy at the grocery store, mainly potatoes and onions. I'm working on onions, but in my area, potatoes are a lost cause. The problem is the climate. I have a narrow window to plant, the first week of March, and that is it for the year. The rest of the year, it is either too hot, or too cold. So, I am switching to sweet potatoes. I can grow them from April through October. That gives me four succession crops if I need them. This year is an experiment to see how well they produce vs how many I need. Then I can adjust my gardening plans from there.
Wow, that's amazing! You've come a long way from a few pots on the porch.
Same scenario here. At least SOME food gets grown all year.
I have expanded my garden last fall and again this month and really ready to hone in on my preserving game. I now have 20 raised beds that are 4’x8’. I feel like I am just starting to have the garden space for it! This will be my 6th year gardening and I LOVE it. It’s in my blood. I will do it forever. Thank you for this great video! I love your content and happy I found you 👍🏼
Also, I meant to ask where you got your Greenhouse?
canopia is the brand name now. got it online
I've been gardening for about 10 years, but it was just a single beds worth of tomatoes and peppers. 2023 was the first year I got serious about it. Not a great harvest, but it was something. 2024, I planned everything out and produced so much that I was giving it away before it spoiled. It really made me think about preserving (canning and dehydrating), which is a big goal for this year. I didn't replace my fall garden with winter crops soon enough, so cold plants aren't as large as they should be. I made note of it, and will be ready next winter. I'm in the process of expanding like you are to plant perennials and to have room to play with new stuff.
How much effort are chickens? As in how much time per week do you think you spend maintaining them?
THe most work is building the coop and then it is about 5 minutes a day and once a month cleaning the coop out.
I am gardening because I am worried about what the people who harvest our food will be going through. I can only imagine what's going to happen when we can't harvest our crops.
it takes pressure off of the food system i agree with you.
You picked the best title 😂
i had to think long and hard😉
First of all, thank you for the Spanish option and my question is where do you buy small chickens?
usually local farm stores will have them in the spring.
Where did you get your greenhouse?
The company is called canopia
I started growing about 15 years ago when we were in a duplex. The landlords let us build a couple garden beds. That was my foundation. Off and on through the years until the Plandemic then I went in full time with it. Now I've learned a lot of survival things besides my hunting experience.
I wonder when they going to making it so ppl can leave Audio and or video comments....majority of ppl cant write, read and or comprehend .... Tones misinterpreted start unnecessary arguments etc etc......
Ok. Is something bothering you
Well… it could be interesting to watch…. XD
You lost me at the conspiracy theory bit
ok