Watch This BEFORE Buying Garden Soil for Vegetable Patch

Buying garden soil for your vegetable garden? Watch this video first to find the best garden soil to buy!

Self Sufficient Me is based on our small 3-acre property/homestead in SE Queensland Australia about 45kms north of Brisbane - the climate is subtropical (similar to Florida). I started Self Sufficient Me in 2011 as a blog website project where I document and write about backyard food growing, self-sufficiency, and urban farming in general. I love sharing my foodie and DIY adventures online so come along with me and let's get into it! Cheers, Mark :)

[Rubberglass]

He starts off a video admitting a mistake he's made. This is a mark of humility that is rare these days. Love this channel!

[ambercochrane]

I cant believe how much you have taught me. I cant belive l have convinced my husbssnd to make a vegi garden all because of your video. My doctor recommended gardening to help with depression and lm telling you its the best therapy ever. Love your videos. Thankyou.

[ikon]

This guy is like the Steve Irwin of gardening. Tremendous!

[CreatureGirlInc]

I watched this before finishing my raised beds....STILL got duped into poor soil. It was cheap at least and over a year of "treating" with a lot more organic matter has now started showing a lot more success by the end of last year. This year I've stepped up my game and my family gave me X-Mas gifts of manure and vegetable seeds. I Was beside myself with joy.

[Lippitydo]

i live in literally the opposite environment/climate as this man and yet i've been binge watching his videos for three days.

[Bluegrasshero]

This guy isn't afraid of a little hard work!! One of the best gardeners on YouTube hands down!

[ThatGuySurveyor]

I'm 22yrs old and i live in a city, i came from a small town and my mother kept a garden in the backyard every year. I never at the time stopped to consider how much i enjoyed fertilizing, watering, and tilling the soil until recently (due to my health seemingly getting worse over time, and connecting that with the realization that crops in the city markets are heavily poisoned, and lacking in nutrients) and watching your videos has made me want to buy land back where i was raised and start a garden, leaving the city life behind forever. Thank you for uploading so many crucial and helpful hints, you are an inspiration sir.

[William-Morey-Baker]

just gotta say Mark, you inspire new and experienced gardeners and farmers alike, all around the world. good on ya, and thanks for all the wonderful positivity!

[chrisholbourn]

Good on you for showing your wins AND your losses Mike. Respect. Love your videos.

[marliem.]

I'm sorry you were ripped off Mark. I'd be pissed off at being mislead that way. Thanks so much for your advice!

[davidbennett]

You've offered a plethora of good advise in countless vids but most of all I want to THANK YOU for getting to the stinkin point quickly rather than blabbering on for 10min about what you're GONNA teach us in this video.
... like far too many do.
😉
Keep up the good work and I'll keep hitting the "like button".

[AJsAdventuresinAsia]

You are a natural smooth speaker. Informative and interesting. Nice work man, you get my thumbs up

[RoyMachne]

My sister used to have a 30cm deep garden with commercial soil in it.
When the neighbour saw that we wanted to use it he told us that the previous owners never had any luck and that we should just quit now.
We have a pile of refuse (chicken manure, woodchips, wood ashes and lawn clippings) that has been sitting and waiting for more than 10 years at my parent's place. We brought a few bags of it to my sister.
Once we mixed that compound in my sister's garden and removed the tarp that was underneath the garden bed to have it mixed with real soil, that sterile patch of dirt turned into the most efficient garden we ever had!

[ksubswithoutoriginalcont]

Hahaha jokes on you i don't even have a Garden!!
i just love watching your Videos..

[janinasimons]

LOL Thank you, we have a good garden supplier and I bought some top soil for my garden as it was cheaper in bulk than buying the odd 25ltr bags. I also bought tan bark. and they we pack side by side.

My delivery arrived. and 3 days later on weekend I started filling some small garden bed, that really didnt need much, eg cannas, and other flowers, plants natives, so it was full of thin tree branches, leaves, grass, paper, scraps and cardboard with some holes in them and them the soil. then watered so water could filter through before i planted... I went inside to get a drink.

Came back outside and checked on my new garden pot. and I had a swimming pool, the water was not seeping through and I hate mud pies, ,, I took some photos as I was going to town...

Talked to supplier and found out the drive had bought me sand for grass... [ no comment on that one] and they were happy to deliver the top soil at no cost... and being lovely peopl, I got a little more of both top soil and finer tan bark and they wouldnt take the sand away... and it is sand....

So now I will be filling all my plastic bottles with the sand to make garden paths....

Gardening is fun.

[Aggie]

Mark Australian home gardeners need knowledgeable green thumbs like you to help those of us who are trying to be more self sufficient. I have learned so much from your UTube tutoring and all from the comfort of my own coach. You are knowledgeable, down to earth and know how to make it enjoyable to watch....Now let’s get into it 👍❤️

[Sammiejomitchell]

So amazed to hear the truth. I’ve been organic gardening for 40 years. My best beds I started with hard packed clay and turned them into beautiful rich soil that I can stick my arm down in it easily up to my elbow. This without all the crazy work of turning and composting. I never use commercial fertilizers. I use organic matter, dropped in place, ashes, sand, and cooked dry bones that I break up. It takes about 3 years to get the best soil ever and it costs nothing. Best deal ever is seed free grass clippings. Just had someone today tell me I had to kill all the natural fungi in the soil....omg!

[SmallWonda]

Oh thank you - this explains SO MUCH! Now I know why buying Premium garden soil from the landscape suppliers has ALWAYS been so disappointing! I need more chickens!!

[ravenameristram]

Best garden show ever. You need a show on discovery or somthing. I'm all the way in New England but your teachings apply everywhere!

[zannab]

I had exactly the same issue when I changed to a new local landscape supply co. I was previously buying loads of 50% topsoil and 50% mushroom compost, mulching it and then ageing it for a season. But one of the local supply co's changed management and impressed me with their spiel about their "veg mix" soil - a beautiful blend of premium soil, compost and aged manures. Thought I could plant into it straight away, so I was sold. It was moist when I first got it and seemed light and loose but it did feel a little "sandy/thin", so I thought I'd add a bit more compost and it'd be great. Within a day the top of the soil dried to dust. After watering it literally just turned to mud, creating a baked, cracked crust when dry. I just don't understand how these companies that "specialise" in soils and mulches etc. can think these mixes are acceptable. The only way I can fathom that they sell them with a straight face, is that none of the staff have actually used the soils to grow in themselves, which just blows my mind.