Raised garden beds can be watered by hand, with a sprinkler, or with a customized irrigation system. The best methods for watering raised rows include drip irrigation and soaker hoses, which deliver water directly to the base of the plants, reducing the need for a drop irrigation system. The best time to set up a drip irrigation system is during the setup process rather than after they are built and filled.
There are five ways to water raised garden beds: manual watering, garden hoses, sprinklers, drip lines, and furrows. Watering in the early morning or late evening is recommended for optimal watering. Installing a drip line irrigation system ensures that the plants receive water exactly where they need it. A soaker hose is more effective at keeping the soil moist and allowing water to seep beneath. Straw and topsoil act as a moisture retainer for the plant’s roots, allowing them to spread and grow quickly into the soil.
Watering requirements vary depending on the source material and the amount of compost. To water at least one row at a time, aim the water at the soil and hold the watering can head or hose as close to the soil level as possible. Investing in an automatic drip irrigation system like the Garden Grid is the best way to water raised bed gardens, as it ensures consistent watering. If one to two heavy soakings through the week are not enough, burying cotta cups in the soil and connecting the water transmission line to the water source will help the plant’s roots call for water.
📹 Row Hippers and Drip Irrigation
Two thing that have made a huge impact on how a garden are raised rows and drip irrigation. Planting on a raised row protects …
What is the maintenance of a vertical garden?
Vertical gardens require regular maintenance tasks such as pruning, cleaning, checking the automatic irrigation system’s function, irrigation, fertilization, and monitoring plant health to prevent or treat issues like fungal diseases or pest attacks. A low-maintenance vertical garden is achieved through strategic design, selecting plants suitable for climate and sun exposure, and using an automatic fertigation system. However, maintenance remains necessary during certain seasons.
How do you water multiple plants at once?
In order to maintain plants, it is recommended that drainage trays or cachepots with watering cans be utilized to facilitate the pouring of water into the bottom of the tray as one proceeds to each plant.
How do you water a vertical garden?
Vertical gardening is a popular trend in the rapidly developing world, offering a simple way to add greens to homes both inside and out. It is a popular choice for those worried about their hectic lifestyles preventing proper care for their plants and flowers. Vertical gardens have a way of commanding attention and taking up little room, but they must be given specific care to flourish.
To maintain the beauty of vertical gardens, it is essential to water them thoroughly from the bottom up rather than spraying them from above. This will relieve strain on the plants and minimize weeds in the plot. There are various types of vertical gardening setup ideas and plants for indoor and outdoor vertical gardening, and taking the time to create a well-maintained vertical garden can lead to less upkeep. By following these steps, you can create a well-maintained vertical garden that will not only attract attention but also provide a beautiful and functional addition to your home.
What is the best irrigation system for row crops?
Rice, the most water-intensive crop in Missouri, is irrigated using the cascade flood method, which involves adjusting levee gates to maintain 2 to 4 inches of water depth across fields. Fields are divided into pans, with levees placed according to the slope. Irrigation water is pumped in the upper field pan and overflows into the next pan through the levee gates. Land preparation for cascade flooding is labor-intensive.
Southeast Missouri farmers were among the first to adopt furrow-irrigated rice production, which does not require levees and can be used for soybeans the following year. In some rice fields, soils with low clay content or sand boils do not efficiently retain floodwater, and furrow or center pivot irrigation would be the best options.
Managing pumps is challenging, and electric power companies discourage running pumps during peak hours. A variation of the flood method is side-inlet, which uses lay-flat plastic pipe to fill pans all at the same time. This method requires less guess work with stopping the pump and has been shown to save 39 energy and 60 irrigation water compared to cascade.
Can you overwater a raised bed?
The text advises waiting for plants to dry out before planting them, ensuring they are not damaged by overwatering. It emphasizes the importance of good drainage for healthy plants, and suggests amending the soil to minimize damage. However, if the beds are filled with local soil or fill dirt, compaction can cause problems and reduced productivity. The text also mentions a helpful bulletin covering vegetable gardening in Central Oregon, which includes a section on raised bed gardening.
The text also mentions a week of no watering and 1. 5 inch of rain, which may cause the plants to dry out without much damage. If the plants start dying, the author may buy new seedlings to start over before it’s too late in the season.
How do you water a row of plants?
To ensure the health and longevity of established trees and shrubs, use overhead sprinklers, apply deep watering to the entire root zone area, avoid light watering, water early in the morning to minimize water loss, and mulch around the base for water intake. Watering during consistent rainfall is minimal, but during long periods without rainfall, timely irrigation is crucial. During drought, it may be necessary to water more often to ensure the long-lived plants’ health and survival.
What watering options for raised garden beds?
This article presents a comparative analysis of six raised bed irrigation options for home gardens: hand-watering, overhead watering (sprinkler), soaker hose, drip lines, drip tape, and garden irrigation grid. Each option has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, and it is crucial to have a well-defined strategy for watering your plants. The optimal choice of irrigation system depends on the dimensions of the garden beds, the financial resources available, and other pertinent factors.
How to keep moisture in raised garden beds?
To prevent container gardens from drying out in California heat, follow these tips:
- Choose larger containers with more soil to retain moisture longer.
- Amend the soil with organic materials like compost, sphagnum peat moss, or worm castings to increase water retention.
- Spread mulch around plants, about two to four inches thick, but away from the base.
- Plant in fewer large pots than many small ones, as smaller pots dry out quicker. Group plants with similar growing requirements in one container, considering their space requirements.
By following these tips, you can maximize the space you have, add color and interest to your landscape, and prevent container gardens from drying out in the California heat.
Do raised beds need watering?
Raised beds necessitate regular irrigation and the implementation of a drip irrigation system to ensure minimal maintenance requirements. It is recommended that long-term feeding be conducted with slow-release fertilizers, followed by the application of liquid feed, if necessary. Soil-based mixtures are more efficacious at retaining nutrients than lighter planting substrates. To ensure optimal growth, it is recommended that slow-release fertilizer be applied to the surface of the raised bed.
Do raised beds need to be watered more?
Raised beds are a more efficient method for watering vegetables than in-ground beds due to their good drainage. In-ground beds require 1 to 2 inches of water per week, while raised beds may require more. To determine when a raised bed needs watering, feel the soil frequently. To reduce watering needs, use a drip irrigation system that slowly waters the roots for a deeper, longer-lasting soak. This method delivers water directly to the roots of plants, reducing water loss due to evaporation and runoff.
Additionally, homeowners can turn individual sections on or off to ensure the vegetables receive the correct amount of water. Avoid overhead watering from a hose or sprinkler, as it can increase the occurrence of fungal and bacterial diseases and splash pathogens from the sick plant to the healthy ones.
How do you water elevated plants?
Jessica Watts, owner of House Plant Collective, shares five smart tips for watering hanging plants and plants on high shelves. These tips include using a garden sprayer, trying bottom watering, going soil-free, using glazed or plastic pots, and choosing hardy plants. Watering plants on high shelves presents a physical challenge, especially in hard-to-reach areas. However, potted houseplants can add an eye-catching accent to any room, especially in underutilized spaces. Here are some tips for watering hanging plants:
- Use a garden sprayer for easy watering.
- Try bottom watering.
- Go soil-free.
- Use glazed or plastic pots.
- Choose hardy plants.
These tips can be applied to both hanging and hanging plants to ensure proper watering and maintain their health.
📹 This Gardening Method is Game Changing
Forget what you know about backyard gardening. Maybe our grandparents were right. Grow or Die: The Good guide to Survival …
Looking for a little advice on the disc hiller. Mine is a lot like yours. I keep breaking discs and snapping off bolts. I thought I had the angle of the disc to severe but see that yours is even more so than mine. Wondering if you can offer some advice on float or draft on my tractor when making rows, and how far apart my discs should be. perusal a variety of articles and they are all different widths. I have 16″ discs on my hiller.
Man, I am so glad you made this vlog. I’m in my 60’s and have been gardening, well, most of my life. Grew up helping my mom in the garden. I garden just like she did. Which is exactly the way you are explaining today with minimal tilling. All I ever hear, in most vlogs, is DO NOT TILL, and I get it, but how I’ve been doing it with amending my beds with old leaves and manure and never ever any chemicals. All organic. And my gardens are very abundant. I love my row garden. I love being old fashion on purpose. peace
when i first started gardening 2 years ago i was trying to do all the “things” growing in containers filled with store bought soil mixes and compost, which is great if you have the funds to do so, the last year i have grown in small rows directly in my ocala florida sandy back yard, using lentils as a cheap covercrop in between plantings. to slow water movement in between my rows i have mulched with spanish moss to keep moisture as well as loading a big cattle feed bucket with spaniah moss and water then letting it ferment and feeding my plants daily. its working great so far, best cherry tomato crop ive had this pass fall and my radishes and beets are currently doing great!
The moral of the story… there is no wrong way to garden, and failures and successes both teach the gardener what works best for them. I love perusal your articles Mr. The Good. You are a gift to humanity. Your thoughts and ideas might just be part of the tapestry of people driven solutions that save the world.
I’ve been doing David’s Grocery Row Gardening Concept for about 7 years and it works really well, however, David brings up an excellent point. All systems have pros and cons. Using wood mulch and leaves, I find it almost impossible to do direct seeding (which is why I only plant perennials). If I had less clay and more time for bigger gardens, I would definetly do single row. Find the system that matches your time, knowledge and interest and try it out! The worst thing that can happen is you learn some things and pass that knowledge on to others in your area. We learn more from our failures than our successes. We grow through trying.
We moved to a large property a couple years ago. We have been experimenting with different methods in our garden. Cardboard with wood chips over it for path ways is a great success for us (we are older) Raised beds, permaculture areas, and row gardening. This year we are going to add a high tunnel and see how that goes.
Man I wish I had that much space man I love your gardens, and I agree Failure is the best teacher, you can watch all the articles on yt you want about “fail safe ” gardening and “back to eden” gardening but until you figure out what microclimates you have in your grow space and kill some plants because of “human error” due to figuring out what plants like to be where your gonna have a tough time, it took me years to figure out my space and that’s after I went through a aminopyralids contamination and had to wait til I saw tomatoes growing healthy in the soil, it’s been a journey for me but it’s so worth, thanks DTG 🙏
I’ve done a row gardens since 2019 and have been vilified for it on the internet. It’s insane. Even though I don’t use synthetic ferts I only use fish emulsion I make and composted wood chips. Still apparently i am the bad guy for using a small John Deere tractor to make row crops haha. People are nuts
Oh my goodness, thankyou for posting this. I’ve been doing this forever and started feeling like I was doing something wrong because it wasn’t raised beds or “back to eden” or raised rows with tons of mulch, etc. We plant cover crops and do lots of compost, aged manure, leaves, straw, etc. My plants get huge and produce tons of food. I saw that square foot gardening recommends 9 bush beans to a single square foot? There’s no way. My bush beans get almost a whole square foot big each! And yield tons of beans! Yet I started feeling like I knew nothing about gardening because of all the “newer” methods and thinking that my garden needed a complete overhaul. Not knocking other gardening methods, I love learning everything and maybe incorporating some, but really appreciated this article confirming that sometimes the simplest, old time methods are still great too and I shouldn’t feel like my method is bad!! Thankyou!! ❤
My experiment this winter is that, when I harvested carrots, I had a lot of tiny carrots still growing, so I made rows and spaced them out better put on some half rotted straw between rows and a little on top. I cover them with an old plastic table cloth at night, if the temp is dropping too low, and I uncover during the day time to help reestablish them in the sunshine. My chickens scratched up a few, but I stuck them back in the soil. As the weather gets colder, I will leave them covered during the harshest months. I may get early carrots in late spring/early summer, and I may not. They weren’t usable as they were, and I am not hurting anything by trying.
The idea of it being a toolkit, is really an important point. It’s great to learn all the different methods and see what works and what doesn’t for you and your area. My father did and till, single row garden, but at the end of the season in upstate NY, he’d throw mulched leaves (free local resource) over his entire garden area. Come spring, it would be completely broken down and he had the darkest, super nutrient rich soil I’ve ever saw. Then he’d till his rows and plant transplants and seed. It’s basically a mix and match of different concepts. It’s great to know them all if your growing for survival, and practice makes perfect!
What also works to super size what you have growing is to mix up the “tea” mixtures. Make your own tea with dried comfrey leaves and roots from a health food store (if you don’t have them growing fresh), worm castings, sea vegetables (from an Asian market or health food store such as kelp) other medicinal herbs like dried Nettles, etc I add in Wheat grass powder, coffee grounds added to mushrooom compost and your own compost made from plant based food scraps. Put a couple cups of the solid ingredients in a stocking or sock tied shut and put in a 5 gallon bucket covered with rain water. Keep a bubbler running while it steeps in the sun for at least 48 hours and mix the tea with rain water before giving it to your plants. I dilute it 1 part tea to 7 parts water.
I think that all the “this is THE way,” it is harder to learn that there are better ways, different ways, and ways to do things for this time and place. Thank you for showing that flexibility is probably THE way and allows you to do all the ways! Tried Fava beans as a cover crop/stir-fry greens for the first time this year, in part thanks to you!
I have been enjoying your website for a few years now. I even just bought one of your good books, “Push the Zone,” so I have been following your lead in the no till/less till gardening approach. About a year ago I started wathcing Travis from Lazy dog Farms, he follows a single row, old school gardening practice, so I too started some single row garden beds. Very fun. Funny thing is Travis started a “no till” plot last Spring. Love perusal both these website.
I’m not sure I can handle this amount of excitement in the gardening space! First yam digging and now this!? I dislike square foot gardening. It was the first book I read as a kid on gardening (think you said that too? Maybe another YouTuber). So I did plenty of it and it’s just a slight notch above container gardening which also sucks for the most part imo. Pfft, Justin got his ideas from Joel Salatin, the true GOAT 😉
I started single row gardening when I moved to TN. Soil tests showed just slightly on the acid side, which was fine with me. But it was hard packed clay. So I watered heavily the night before, then next day tilled down until I hit dry clay again (about 2/in) and did the same thing next few days, until I got down to 1/ft. Then added a HUGE bag of Vermiculite, which was what the Farmer’s co-op recommended. Now I dig down a foot, drop in a fish, cover it with a handful of lime to keep out the vermin, cover it, Then plant right on top, whatever I’m transplanting from the mudroom seedlings. But! I DO have a row or 2 of 5/gal buckets full of potatoes, a few 14/ft cattle panels bent over for string beans, just to get the boring out!
Thanks, David! We stopped tilling our garden five or six years ago and I cannot hardly grow anything in it. In the spring it has the most beautiful thick carpet of native weeds/edibles growing before we plant in it. So it’s very fertile. But like the beets growing in there now from seed…. some of the beets are ready to harvest and some of them are nothing but 2″ seedlings still. So now we’ll till that garden! Thank you so much.
I really appreciate your attitude of experimentation. I’m planning on a combination of Ruth Stout/Charles Dowding type garden this year. We have lots and lots of weeds, and hours of weeding is just not something that I love. I’ve grown gardens in rows before, successfully too. But, I’m gonna experiment this year. Thank you for the article.
When I started gardening, I kind of thought it couldn’t be true that rows were so awful. But everybody said they were. Now I remember a few years ago a popular English gardener did a article from a professional farm and he said every professional farmer he knew relied on rows and there was a reason for this. The higher yield of rows.
Mr David, I was one of those edgelords that thought the straight line garden beds was outdated and in need of a ‘better and more natural’ method. So I tilled a little 30x40ft plot of land and used one of those ‘fertilizer/salt spreaders’ to mix together about 20 different species of plants. I did this pretty late into August so that is a massive factor. By late October I had decent sized turnips in patchy sections, about 20 cherry tree saplings spread evenly throughout the plot of land, 1 or 2 pumpkin patches that never got to fruit and thats about it. I couldn’t tell what was weeds, or what was vegetable/fruit and I stepped on a few turnips without noticing they were even there(meaning I prolly stepped all over other plants). Now that its December everything is ‘mostly dead'(like Wesley from Princess Bride…) except the turnips keep truckin. Im sure the result would be different if I did the same in April but just the not knowing what plant is which, and the absence of any ways to walk thru the plot of land without damaging what was growing makes me want to go back to the straight line garden beds. I shall stop lording over my edge and listen to Mr David.
the dust bowl happened because of certain practices in a certain region. the prairie flora was holding the dirt there and allowing water to seep into the ground. we removed that and then the strong plains wind + drought made a mess. they still grow tons of cotton on the high plains of texas and lubbock still gets dust storms. the only difference is that now roundup cost 4 1/2 times more than it used to.
I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your insightfullness. I actually started perusal youtube because of you many years ago and I have used the ideas you have taught through the years in every garden I have ever had. I am a FL native now living in a far colder place and gardening primarily in containers and yet I still use many ideas you have shared especially your willingness to try new things and to experiment-in fact, that is what the “Q” in my website name stands for – QUESTION and I just want to let you know that.
I didn’t know there was a dogma about row gardening I’m only 39 but that’s the way I’ve always done it. When I was growing up my God parents lived right next door and they where retired farmers wich there really is no such thing they just weren’t farming professionally anymore but every thing that we planted in the garden we started from seed in the green house
No Sale. I’ve been gardening for 50+ years and although Gandpa gardened in single rows with 3′ pathways he tilled, I migrated to 3-4′ wide beds years ago…and now with living pathways. I use a string trimmer mower attachment to keep the pathways neat. I still till in fall/spring but it’s shallow 1-2″ tilling so as not to disturb the soil food web much. It works for me.
Ive always tried multiple kinds of gardening and went with whatever worked the best for me, not whatever the most people online recommend. I’m 100% organic and I mulch with a variety of straw, grass clippings, leaves, weeds and plants from the woods, compost, wood ashes, wood chips, kelp meal, azomite and rock dust, manures and guanos, etc. I’ve been gardening for 40 years and this is the best years crops I’ve ever had. I moved a dead zucchini leaf yesterday and there were an abundance of earthworms under it! I must be doing something right.
Growing up, we gardened in rows. When I had my own garden as an adult, I’d been reading all the ‘garden in beds’ stuff, and that’s what we did, for the most part. It’s fine for small spaces, but if you have a large garden and need to produce a lot of food, beds are a lot of extra work. They have to be weeded by hand because the plants are too close together to weed with a hoe, or with a wheel-hoe. They take extra water and extra fertilizer, because, as you keep saying, the plants are too close together. I’ll still use beds if I only have a small garden, but if I’m trying to produce a large percentage of our diet? Plus possibly growing some feed for our chickens and goats (and feeding the livestock guardian dog)? It’s going to be mostly row gardening.
I started with sq ft because I started gardening on rocks. Then I tried tilling small spots in the lawn. Last year I had a large space so I did row gardening. Overall I didn’t like row gardens but I found some crops I liked it for. This coming year I’m mixing it all together and trying out a high tunnel. Whatever works and gets food to the table imo
I ve been learning gardening and permaculture for quite a few years now. I ve noticed there are different things i like to grow different ways 😋 potatoes are a main crop, they grow in an old field (with very rocky soil) and it works fantastically. Squash gets some weedie spot in a veggie garden (it doesnt mind the weeds really), and i always build a little hill for it with lots of random organic matter. Some small things, mainly greens like wild rocket, i only grow in containers. I ve learned a lot.. but there s still so much more to be figured out 😃
I started my veggie garden in August 2021. In Cape Town, South Africa we have tough Kikuju grass so I dug it out, used cement slabs to form a grass barrier. Over here we almost ran out of water a couple of years ago so being a pensioner I decided to cover the sandy soil with cardboard (no money for compost) to stimulate soil microbes. I cut holes in the cardboard and inserted “grow tubes” (made from old soda bottles) in the holes. I grew my veggies inside the grow tubes. I used a 5L water bottle to water only inside the grow tubes thus using much less water. I will continue to dig out more grass and expand the size of my veggie patch. I compost the cut grass clippings and on one piece of soil I just lift the cardboard and dig in my kitchen scraps, earth worms have come back in this piece. I planted 6 trees as well from neighbors trees as cuttings, but 2 are from seed. When the trees mature I will have leaves for compost too. No money garden is a challenge, but it’s worth it as i have had a good harvest of organic veggies. Wish you success in your garden.
I live 6000’ elevation NW New Mexico. I have gardened and canned my entire life (I’m 57) and I still love to learn about it. I row garden, some beds and some no till (mostly strawberries and asparagus). I have found that growing in the furrow is best for our arid climate. We get 8″ of moisture a year, but we are blessed with irrigation water. We also have a huge delta in our day time temps and night time temps – so gardening can be tricky. I just found you thru Ice Age Farmer and I cannot wait to learn more from you!!!
Found you a couple of weeks ago and catching up on your articles. I appreciate all the encouragement you give. My gardening has been hit and miss for years. I’m encouraged this year if the rain would ever stop! I’m in Central Illinois and our weather has been so awful this spring. Hot them cold then wet. I joined your website in hopes of learning more. Thank you David. I won’t post much never do but I’m here! 😁
When I grew up 60 years ago, we always did our garden single row except for vines. I knew about Ruth Stout’s mulching system, but where would we get that much mulch? Row cropping is rough on the soil and a real drag if the weeds get away from you because of too much rain. A plus is being able to reach the harvest. Ever tried picking Okra crowded in a bed? 😐 I’m putting in a garden on new ground. Every fork brings up at least one rock(or boulder) so I can’t roto-till.( I’m in Rockansas!) I don’t know anyone to pre-plow for me, so it’s what I can dig by hand. As a result, I’ve crowded the plants a little…or a lot. If I had all the land prepped, I think I’d do JADAM style with landscape fabric for most crops. To me, the biggest negative with that is it doesn’t encourage cover crops.
Love it David. I’ve been learning every way to garden for 10 years. I knew there had to be a better way than planting in dust, filled with triple 13. 🙂 My daddy grew a ton of food that way. However, I use what I can from every method I’ve learned. 95% of my 3500 square foot growing space is 100% organic. One 20×20 spot was hard clay. I tilled as deep as I could (6-8inches) and covered it with cardboard and deep hay. I thought we needed to wait for next year to plant. My daughter dug holes, added triple 13, covered that with dirt, planted melon seeds and covered it with hay. The rest of the season we watered with water from the creek, mixed with chicken and duck poop. My 4 grandsons ate watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe for weeks. The ground has improved amazingly. It is a dark color and I can dig down a few inches with my finger. Gonna cover the hay with poop and grow all organic this spring. Thanks for sharing all your hard work!
Got your website from Doug and Stacy. I am in Oregon and just perusal your article 3 months old. I will be perusal all I can for you have been on YouTube 6 years. So I will learn your teaching. Plan I’m 60 and am planning a COBB House this year. Still looking for the right amount of acre or more to survive growing, eating and preserving for me and have a vegetable stand for whatever I will not use. The biggest thing is if I didn’t grow it, catch it, and no chemicals. You have some great information. Thank you
I love your articles and I know your speaking English but for some reason I’m not understanding the lingo lol. “Run the chickens through” is one example. I’ve only been gardening for about 4 months now and have learned a lot thanks to you and Self Sufficient Me. We do have chickens but we let them go wherever they want. Bumper crop and cover crop are things I just learned about. The swamp water did Outstanding. 2 days after putting it on my plants they were up by 4 inches.
Kinda looks like you might be growing cats! We have owned our 13 acre property and been working on it for only two ~ three years. We are just now looking to try this type gardening in a plot about the same size as the raised row permaculture type garden. I am always working in our permaculture orchard, tweaking the plantings of understory shrubs and stuff. All sorts of gardens scattered all over the place! I love it!
Could a person just add training wheels to a scuffle hoe? I’m waiting for the report on how much easier it was for the squirrels to eat all of your ripe strawberries because they didn’t have to search for them. There are bunnies hiding in the bushes perusal you make this article and praying for nice long rows of tender lettuces and carrots to appear next spring. Seriously though, your point is an excellent one. The Grassroots Garden in Eugene has been digging out their paths and packing the trenches with leaves, which compost in place with the added benefit of nutrient runoff from the rows of vegetables they grow for Food for Lane County. Then they throw the composted leaves back onto their rows and fill the paths back up with packed leaves. The rows keep getting higher in my community garden plot by using Merry Bradley’s method and I essentially have raised beds being supported by leaves and wood chips rather than lumber. It’s free but it takes a lot of work- know anyone with a bunch of kids?
My sandy soil would completely be ruined if I hilled like that. I think the success really depends on the type of soil you have. My garden would dry out immensely fast. I learned that early on. Tilling makes sense if you are tilling in a cover crop. I think as a rule if you are tilling it should be to terminate a cover crop. If you have the space, this definitely seems to be the way to go, if you have lighter fast draining soils mounding like that probably isn’t the best option. I would keep it as flat as possible.
I do single till for bed prep and mulch my paths between the rows with wood chips. I run the chickens through in the winter and hard rake everything back to shape in spring. I do that with 8, 30′ beds and it works out ok. 2 of the beds have voles because I did the buried logs thing that I wouldn’t do again.
Someone may have compared you to Justin, but now I have to say you’re going the Farmer Jesse route from No Till Growers and doing living pathways…… something I’ve been fascinated about…… but UP A NOTCH WATCHOUT! You’re going to Chicken Tractor them…. YESSS! I love it. So eager to see articles about how that works out . I just moved to Houston, don’t have property yet… but with the extra rain I think I could pull off living pathways especially if I’m gravity irrigating wobblers with rain water for dug beds
I have little garden patches all around the edges of my slightly larger than average yard because my grandparents who were the original owners planted lovely huge shade trees. They also had the most beautiful Kentucky Blue grass. (no small feat here in Nebraska). I really have no space for that type of growing but if I could still squat😂 and I had an open acre or more, that would be great!
I live in the high desert and you just explained how I did 200+ acres to produce and feed a small town with no grocery store the only thing difference is each row has a scale on each row and I do chickens and rabbit every other row and tractor them to a new spot daily and reseed the path as I go only 10 inches of rain on a good year …do it people it works great I don’t pick weeds at all
I’d love to see drone footage of your overall layout on your property. I don’t have a choice but to water and mulch. My annual rainfall is the same as one of your storms-13″. No till, deep mulch has saved my soil from the drying winds (year round) and -20F to 100F. Just have to rake mulch away for the new seedlings until they mature to about 4″ tall. Even then I hold the mulch back from touching most plants as I sometimes have slugs. I’m in the northern midwest, land of the massive irrigation lines in the hay fields. Love your many gardening tips that are quite universal. Currently reading Elliot Coleman for some northern gardening balance.😉
This is how I have always guarded I do grow some wide rolls 16 inches wide but they were lol I feel them with onions I can plant a lot more this way there are some things I grow like that but mostly just a straight of peas beans okra corn squash whatever but this year first time I’ve ever planted Milo. I’m not sure I will be able to get annual ryegrass or oats or wheat for my goats this winterTo plant a cover crop best luck to you my friend
I made my giant biggest garden yet in 2020, expanding it to cover as much of the yard as I was physically able to broadfork before the planting season had passed. And when I went to plant my seeds, I thought, “I have all this space…and I can’t for the life of me remember why I’m supposed to plant in beds. I broadforked this whole area, why not just plant rows and maximize the space? Is there some reason beds are better than rows?” It seems like all the homesteaders and organic gardeners grow in beds, and I couldn’t figure out if there was a reason to work on such a small scale. So I just threw caution to the wind, threw down some chicken manure, and planted in giant rows. I didn’t leave enough space between them, so the manured area grew into giant entangled forests of tomatoes and leafy greens that swallowed the 1 foot pathways between them. But we harvested a ton of food, even from the less productive rows. My son ate cherry tomatoes and husk cherries off the vines, and the ones that rotted on the ground before we could get to them went to the chickens. I still don’t understand the benefit of beds, unless you’re working in a small space or you’re trying to use the island method due to limited time or resources. But when land and fertilizer are available, rows make more intuitive sense to me.
You touched on a subject that has me lost. I’m fascinated by Johnson Su and Dr Elaine Ingham; sites about no till, regenerative growing and deep mulching. BUT, I’m in Georgia zone 8b by about ten miles and very few, if any southerners practice or have faith in woodchips, deep mulch etc. You mentioned pests. Do you think our humid climate and awesome critters make these methods too difficult or unnatural to try here?
I grew up gardening that way with my grandparents. While I think the initial results are great I do think long term results maybe different We can also learn from the past about the erosion from cultivation washing or blowing away the hummus your working to create and cultivation bringing weed seeds to surface. Here in Georgia some six inches of top soil is gone from share cropping and erosion from having bare soil. I would think cultivation would also not be very productive to soil biology. It would seem counter productive to add a food source for biology by growing a cover crop but cultivating it in and disrupting the biology. It would seem better to chop, drop and tarp or chop gather and compost. While I have nothing against using rows, I used rows of compost and use compost as a mulch. Dowding has years of comparisons that his no dig beds always produce more than his dug bed experiment. I put Dowding’s cardboard and compost method to the test here in Georgia and was surprised by the results and being cost effective. While being mostly a gardener and new to mushroom cultivation I find what I thought and knew about fungi as a gardener was not all correct. I think there is a gap between these two worlds. How some fungi have bacteria living within the mycelium and they live in a symbiotic relationship. Then some fungi consume bacteria, nematodes and insects. Then you have primary and secondary decomposers and they can grow on all types of things like straw, wood, grains, alfalfa, soy, manures, worm castings, compost, sucralose, fish hydrolysate and they seem to thrive with a added source of nitrogen.
The best thing about planting in rows is that you don’t forget what you planted. In Hawaii I plant in pots on top of lava. I plant in circles surrounded by fence rolls to keep out the chickens and to make climbing easy for the plants. I use black cinder with compost tea and othe teas. Whatever works is my mrthid.
Just while im thinking of it, im going to be rolling with the idea of bean trenches as a way of pruning roots from inconveniently close by trees ^^ just dig down one row until all the roots are chopped back lotta work, throw some stuff in there, beans. I think of it as a shield protecting my other gardens from being leeched out by the roots. Ohh I did this next to a ligustrum hedge as a test and it worked nicely got a big harvest this year *
Very interesting but I’m a bit confused. The only benefit specifically to using single rows that I heard you mention is less irrigation but you didn’t mention why. Cover crops work in beds as well as rows. “By spacing it THIS WIDE you’ll have to irrigate a lot less” How wide and why would you have to irrigate less?
Have you considered raised rows mulched in a compost to produce bacterial dominant permanent beds to build faster humus ? With ally crop legume perennial crops to keep the bacterial nitrogen effect going And building vs restarting each season with till ? No doubt your building soil and looks like good results but to keep bacterial colonies alive and crushing it as long as the growing season allows seems most productive for really getting that soil crumb to a max per year vs tilling and killing them for the nitrogen release each season ? I’d love to hear your thoughts, it’s working, I love what your doing with always growing and learning and teaching ! Thank you !
I would like to put in a keyhole garden for perennial herbs near the back kitchen door. But with limited finances I have been trying to figure out how to build the walls to it. I think, with nothing else but dirt it would be worth a try to rent a cement mixer and add Portland cement to the red loamy clay we have here and use wooden form molds to make earthen bricks for the wall. Has any one tried this? If it works, I would also make rings around our fruit trees and raised beds for berries. Has anyone done this? Zone 8, central Georgia.
i bag all my grass clippings and put it down in my rows i till it in in early fall and plant clover and mustard over the winter for cover crop i started with basically beach sand and now over the years bult the soil up to where i dont really have to do much during the summer months. everyone in the area comes to me and asks what i done to be able to grow a garden
It’s true, our ancestors had it right but your grocery row method is also great. i mean, I was wasting space between my fruit trees but now I have double-dug beds in-between that I can plant annuals in. i still have my original double-dug annual garden beds as well and a food forest. I just rebuilt my compost bin and turned it into four using old posts and pallets we scored for cheap recently. This has been the year of change for us, really looking forward to the year ahead.
Every yard is different, too. Some things work better in one area that doesn’t work as well in another. Unfortunately for me, even though we have good soil in the garden areas (it’s terribly sandy everywhere else…), all sorts of critters raid my (fenced in) gardens. My most productive gardens are in pots up on our deck which my hubby hates… . BTW, I found your kitties positively entertaining! 😃❤️ My neighbor’s cat used to be my gardening buddy. She would walk back and forth with me as I’d get wheelbarrows full of compost to dump in the gardens. I really miss her and her company. Our cats are strictly pampered indoor kitties who used to be strays. 😏
Hi David. Just found you. When you say that the more space there is the more moisture is retained in the soil could you explain please. I am operating on the understand that if I always keep my soil covered like with arborist wood chips and/or herbs, veggies and berries that the leaves covering the soil will also help retain moisture. Perhaps I took your comment out of context? Thanks. I love to try new things also, and keep an open mind, and not get stuck in dogma.
Your the 1st person who has made sense about gardening, I grow everything in rows the old fashion way. I hate raised beds or this bullshit Aquaponics, yes it solves famine & hunger but you have no flavour just like what we’re getting from Holland in mass production of veggies this too is shit for flavour . In a garden of any size my laws are in Autumn either animal manure of some kind if possible dig it in to your soil or compost of some type, let the snow or frost cover your garden to replenish and to kill bacteria in the soil. My garden plot for growing is 70 mtr by 28 mtr and I always dig it up by hand going 30-40cms deep and making sure it gets well turned over . To me mulching is a lazy way of gardening for 1 the nutrient do not get down properly to the roots because the ground stays hard . I have about 20 empty 200 ltr barrels into which I put all my fruit and veg which is not fit to eat and all my dead .leaves at the end of each year to make compost . Also I have 4 ic tanks collecting rain water from my drain pipes at the back of the house so I can water my plants . like i said the old way is the best way . I don’t know who were the idiots in the European government who came out with the banning of using natural manure for farmers and they have to use artificial instead . SOMEONE MUST HAVE GOT A NICE BACK HANDER FOR BRINGING IT TO LAW.
HI again. You mentioned cover crops in between the rows. Since you do brassica, wheat, legumes and buckwheat and they are all maturing at different times, when do you sow them? Then you have to walk on them to tend to the row? or is this just fall sowing for winter and spring cover crops? Thanks trying to get a visual on it:) All the best.
ost garden plants are Bacterial dominant, it is the trees and bushes that can be considered the fungal dominant plants.. so when you are making JDAMS, and other plant related pproducts for the growth of a garden of orchard,think of the types of bacterial/ fungal soils they live in and feed it that….in thr forest you don’t see the trees being fertilized by plant waste from miles away, but by the waste (leaves and stems) of the tree itself….
I tried an area for in ground, old fashioned garden. First the soil was poor, though good for FL. Then the moles came…ruined lots of plants. Then came the ubiquitous ants and aphids. Then the caterpillars. Then (🎼 dum dum duuummmm) the stink bugs… I tried and tried, then the final blow came when a tree company working the power line overhead had a bucket truck blow a hydraulic line all over my formerly organic garden space 😩😭 Done. I transitioned to big containers…kiddie pools, nothing less than 10 gallons. Joyous harvests! First ever!
Question: When you do cover crops, what would you do if you didn’t have the tiller? Compost then reapply? Field hoe? Or probably just graze it all the way down with ruminants or farm animals? Not a fan of loud engines, vibrating handles, tilling and all that goes along with a BCS etc if there is another way I can accomplish it. I’ve been working in Houston just clearing sod by hand when it needs to come out for a bed. Would love to hear your or anyone else thoughts David! I guess if you can’t graze it you could scythe it and mulch that onto beds elsewhere with things already growing. I also think having a wheel hoe and single row beds off to the side as calorie bulk or backup to everything else is a no brainer
It’s an interesting idea but it won’t work for us, unfortunately. Unless we put in some furrowed crops in the spring which I’m considering to put in a bigger potato crop. We practice companion planting, with almost no gardening tools, to grow a lot of food in less space, much of it vertically. We use a snow shovel to spread the current year’s compost on top of cleared beds, then cover with grass & leaves, and leave it alone during the winter. In the early spring we plant seeds directly under the grass clippings and leaves, which serves as mulch. No tilling, no digging, no furrows. Over time the garden plots have become raised beds and we keep manually adding stones to the berm. Almost no irrigation is needed and the companion planting keeps the soil balanced with only natural amendments because I hate to waste them. Like dehydrated and powdered banana peels, coffee grounds, powdered eggshells, and boiled, dehydrated, and powdered homemade “bone meal”. The area is zone 6b in Missouri, so we do use hotboxes to extend the fall season.
My grandparents and parents gardened in just plain ole dirt rows. All they did was throw some kind of animal poo and leaves over the garden in the Fall…….. tilled it all in in the Spring. Planted. That’s it. No raised beds no trellises, no back to eden gardening techniques. Just grow your food. Then throw what you’ve got on the dirt to cover it up over the Fall/Winter. Till in the Spring. Plant. Repeat. Oh and while it was growing, every night we’d throw our food scraps into the garden. Just tossed it in any random direction. I’m sure the worms loved it.
Old time farmers had plenty of land. The majority of modern people in America only have a small backyard, if they even have that luxury. Raised beds and other techniques that maximize productivity in small spaces work better if you have a small backyard. If you have acres of land, you can afford to spread out your garden more.
its not really game changing. its the old school way. the issue is the game is changing, not the methods. the first question anyone should ask: is this cost-effective? because if its not, there goes potential profits (if youre going for profitability). for self preservation, the main issue is can you afford the land necessary. THEN you factor in preference. while one might prefer to do it single row style, thats not really effective if they only have, say, 1/4 acre to work with (considering profitability if not for self preservation)
I have to wonder if all the Youtube farmers are sponsored by the cover crop industry? Everyone on here seems to promote buying seeds to repair what you damaged. I have a better solution that costs less! Move your animals every morning, if you find that your animals are destroying that spot in 24 hrs, split your animals up and only put half as many animals on that spot each day. Dont let them eat that pasture bare before you move them. The grasses will take over from any weeds, you introduce smaller amounts of fertilizer at a time so you don’t shock the plants that are on there. your pasture will improve faster!