3 Ingredients to Fix ANY Soil, the Lazy Way

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Check out Karson's YouTube channel here!:

0:00 Intro
1:07 Observing Nature
5:44 Killing vs Healing everything
7:02 Is this cheaper?
7:45 This isn't good soil
8:43 Soil testing
10:45 Composting
12:10 Testing my soil
13:15 Why I made this video
14:12 A word from our sponsor
15:13 My soil test results

MORE ABOUT ME

I'm Anne of All Trades. In NASHVILLE, I have a woodworking, blacksmithing and fabrication shop, a selection of furry friends, and an organic farm. Whether you've got the knowledge, tools, time or space to do the things you've always wanted to do, everything is "figureoutable."

I became "Anne of All Trades" out of necessity. With no background in farming or making things, I wanted to learn to raise my own food, fix things when they break and build the things I need.

8 years ago I got my first pet, planted my first seed and picked up my first tool.

My goal is to learn and share traditional techniques and skills while showing my peers how to get from where they are to where they want to go, how to do the things they are passionate about, and what can be done TODAY to engage their own community and grow deep roots.

Whether it's carving spoons, making my own hand tools, restoring my antique truck or growing heirloom tomatoes, the farm and workshop definitely keep me busy and support - whether financially through Patreon, through shopping my affiliate links, through buying merchandise, plans or project videos, or even just liking, commenting, and sharing my content with others helps me GREATLY to keep producing quality content to share.

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Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means by clicking and shopping through these links, I might earn a commission, at no additional cost to you - which is a great way you can help the creation of more free content just like this. Your time and attention mean the world to me. I know you work hard, and I'm careful to only share brands and products that I FULLY support. Keep being awesome!

Help Support this project and others!

Other places you can find me:

[benvoliothefirst]

For those in a hurry to get back to their gardens:

1) Mimic nature (leaf litter covering the soil)
2) Test your soil
3) Compost

Also, your local agricultural co-op will probably test your soil for free, just FYI!

[kayerhoads]

My sentiments exactly. Neighbors say I have a weedy garden, but soil is covered, so many worms, birds, bees. And the garden feeds me all winter, including some "weeds".

[honestlee]

I transformed my soil by putting wood chips everywhere. I pulled out the big weeds and buried the small ones. I keep adding wood chips and green material on top. There was a big improvement after just 2 years and it keeps getting better. I also used compost tea every few months to help bring life to the soil.

[mouse]

I live in MS, surrounded by woods. My ground is mostly sand and clay; however, the woods surrounding my house has a mix of compost, sand and clay so it drains well and is full of nutrients. I go under trees and peel back leaves and take down till the clay gets more prevalent then top it off with leaves. Any earthworms/buggs I happen to get comes too.
As far as pests, I even have sugar ants in my garden, but they dont harm the plants too much, probably because I encourage spiders and lizards to make my garden home. I have a compost pile with nothing but organics close by and leave my garden faucet on a slow drip. The constant damp around my spigot, along with the other things I have around it (bricks, small plants) makes the perfect home for lizards and my garden snake Terry in the summer.
I decided a couple years ago to work with natureinstead of fighting it, and your channel made me feel like I wasnt as crazy as everyone acted like I was. 😂 Thanks. ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE ❤

[vivatan]

Mother nature is the best teacher. I always think of nature, look at the trees, no one disturbed the soil and the trees are doing well!

[vociferonheraldofthewinter]

My friend didn't believe me when I told her there were no earthworms where I live. She had to look it up. After that, she was so shocked and stumped on how to help me revive my soil. In her mind, earthworms are key and you can't make topsoil without them.

I have discovered that we need water, water seeping INTO the ground and not running over, and nitrogen. You can lay all the compost and mulch on the ground that you want and it'll just dry out and sit there for years if you can't get water IN and some nitrogen to break it all down.

The desert can be frustrating, but it can be done. Even here. I'm having great luck with the most insane diversity of desert grasses and wildflower seeds that I could come up with. More than 30 native species so far and they're starting to make serious progress in only two years.

[deneseburrell]

My Granny used to take me out in the valley, dig up plants, and plant them in her beautiful garden. My mother used RoundUp around my garlic patch, which didn't grow ANYTHING for 10 years. Use compost! No more garbage cans! Throw leftovers in a pot and make tea! And don't forget Hügelkulture and electroculture! Best things ever. And don't trust the FDA~💚🌱🌾

[MyFocusVaries]

It's the easy way. That doesn't make it lazy. That's just efficient.

[FarmToMarketRoad]

I am amending my soil with my lawn mower. When it's dry the soil cracks open. I have been mowing and raking a mixture of leaves, grass, weeds, sticks, loose soil into cracks. Some are 6" deep. Dump the bagged debri caught with lawn mower back onto cracks and rake in. Debri disappears into cracks. May take a year to work, but i am confident it will. The best way to amend soil is. To add organic matter. May add some clover seed or legume seed.

[tamararobinson]

I love the look, feel & smells of a natural garden. Some uptight “subdivision” type yard people get all fidgety around my yard - some love the feel but can help themselves and make theirs sterile and “perfect”. 🙄 I get it - because I can’t relax in their precise “perfect” places. 😁

[catlover]

I have thick orange and grey clay and have been working on it with the contents of my compost pile, wood chips and I shred my own plant debris. All of it helps improve my soil :) It gets flooded during wet times and just sits there so I added a LOT of woodchips to raise the ground level. Its several inches higher now, has turned to soil and soaks up more water and is much improved. It took a few years but was totally worth it!

[Ishiisan]

My HOA hates me because I do things like I leaf mulch 😂
I used to collect leaves from my neighbor's yards but the problem is so many people around me use pesticides now 😩

[lizlucey]

“Lazy gardening” is working with nature. Love this 💚

[vancamerawoman]

It’s just what nature does’…. So true.
A truck load of wood chip and leaf littler turned the cement and dust of my place into the best place I’ve ever grown on. 4, years is how long it took me too.
Well done 👍🏻

[kristenfarland]

This is soo fascinating!!! Beginner gardener / farmer here who just bought raw land and have an overwhelming amount to learn lol.

[LoquaciousByNature]

This isn't lazy...this is smart 😊

[audreylong]

me, you're the hip Paul G from the "Back to Eden" garden documentary. Great to see & thanks for promoting the easier gardening many of us are doing.

[drewblack]

Another use what you got. Great video. Always inspiring. Someone took a bucket of leaves and used a paint mixer attached to a drill to pulverize her gathered leaves. Kind of a good jump start on making soil. 👍🏻

[johntheherbalistg]

I have scaled back on plants quite a bit since I got chickens. Most of my attention has been on potatoes, since that's the biggest bang for my family's buck. I grow them in buckets and cardboard boxes or just whatever (I hate digging for potatoes). I bought some half decent potting soil four-ish years ago. I've been doing 2-3 rounds of potatoes in each container per year in the same dirt. All I have added has been chicken shit and woodchips. I permit weeds to grow in them when the weather is bad for potatoes (sometimes, with the potatoes), then as it starts to warm up, I pile them up with the two magic ingredients to kill off the weeds and feed the soil. My potatoes are getting better over time, not worse, with no additions other than the aforementioned two. I'm about to try something similar in new containers, but starting off with my junky sand, instead of potting soil

[besoamy]

I laugh when people throw away and burn leaves and grass clippings..❤ your channel Anne