Garden Soil Preparation

Bill discusses typical soil prep and then the way he does it. Focus on using plants to grow plants.

[OfftoShambala]

Lol on the corn crops... when I was a kid we spent a lot of time running around an avocado ranch and they let the leaves fall to the ground forming what we thought of as a house just on the inside of the drip line... there was always a thick mulch of leaves under there... good times

[memberson]

Very good conversation. I spoke with the representative from Black Cow manure company they say that they process their manure using heat and months of letting it sit. And they see that gets rid of any antibiotics or anything that maybe in the cow system win the cow is producing this organic waste what are your thoughts?

[j.d.]

Being in tropical Aus and having some land we compost all our organic waste and chicken manure, so we use that as our soil prep... We have large brick bins and they are filled with all the stuff from the garden and have been put through the mulcher and then left to mother nature, with the heat and the rain... no turning, no messing. We move the bricks from the side and take the "enriched soil" from the base. We are also on a deep clay bed, so that is another challenge we have.

[Tpollos]

Great information Bill, Thanks. Cheers, B.

[alanragan]

Doesn’t weed b gone type chemicals break down speedily over time?

[grassthief]

Hello bill how about leafcompost & mushroom compost this is to help my clay soil for grass not Garden ?

[dylan]

every fall i heavily mulch my garden and flower beds with leaves and by June it disappears also mint you can never get rid of i sprayed round up on it and still did not completely die showed up somewhere else then just accepted it being there.

[joannthompson]

What would you suggest to s tx late June till September cover crop once our spring tomatoes r done I go with sweet potatoes as cover crop but they don't add to the soil. We usually u have 50 plus days of not rain

[OfftoShambala]

I heard that daisies and sunflowers which I believe are in the same family, will clean radiation out of soil and chemicals too... not sure if it’s my own hypothesis or if it was a claim I heard, regarding their ability to clear chemicals, but can these be used as cover crops?

[bettybeiling]

greetings ..i use grass clippings from my lawn, and in the fall use the leaves from raking my lawn, plus compost from my horse stall, till this into my garden every spring and have a dark fluffy soil, my garden is small, from all your videos everything is always so green, and lush .

[derrickpitter]

Dug up a tree and some shrubs recently but not sure how aggressive I need to be about removing the root matter. I got most of the woody tree roots and the long tendrils from the shrubs but there is still tons of tangely little roots in there. That spot had the most light so they needed to go. Going to throw about 3" of compost on top of the native soil. Hoping my lettuce, kale, spinach and assorted greens will have enough room to root well. Curious what your thoughts are?

[Elaine-brlw]

Great info, my motto is, "the more I plant the better my soil is" and the goal every year is to plant more. Cover crops are tops. I do some digging to bury kitchen scraps but going to do more now after your video and like the flame idea and planting into compost instead of digging it in. I am in zone 6 in Missouri. I am obsessed with chop and drop of perennial plants and use a small mulcher. Thank you for your knowledge and experience, its very valuable, thank you for sharing. Biological farming is brilliant.

[Ethelred]

Thanks for the info. I'm buying a lot in Eden Roc. My understanding is that the soil there is thin, so raised beds are the preferred method. Should I incorporate black cinder with the mulch? What ratio would you recommend?

[KurtLloyd-wj]

Any tips for those of us in Puna with rock hard lava in which native plants have little problem growing, but seems impossible to "dig", even with a jackhammer? (A little less than a mile from the coast in the north part of HPP.)

[marjannoory]

Hi Bill, I have a question a bout building a small permitted house in Pahoa and I do not know any builder over there.Do you have any suggestions please?

[christophergruenwald]

I’m going to buy a weed flamer now! Temps in South Dakota are slowly starting to creep above freezing during the day. I’m getting pretty excited to see garden again after the several feet of snow cover melt off it. My seeds are started, fruit trees are pruned, bring on spring!

[nancyfahey]

What's that mustard you mention that repelled nematode?

[BrianBetron]

Wow - what a wealth of knowledge you are to the community. Thank you!

[memberson]

I hope I didn't misunderstand you it sounds like you're saying that you put down compost and then just planted into it corn

[greenblood]

Out here in Cal we are already a half way into the summer...80s and blueberries, blackberries, mulberries will be ripening up in a week or two. With all that extra cold and rain this winter flowering got shifted two months early. I dont remember when last time we got 500 chill hours before March. Huge swarms of painted lady butterflies are flooding California from Mexico.

Not all imported organic material is bad. I've been hauling in spent beer hops and coffee grounds for years. I haven't had any issues with them - only positive results. They are available for free in unlimited quantities from local starbucks and brewery shops. All chemicals that could be in original material get washed out into customer's cup. It breaks down pretty quickly (4-6 weeks).