Gary Pilarchik: Fall & Winter Garden Bed ‘Turn & Amend’ Preparation (Turning Beds is Safe – ‘No Dig’ vs ‘Dig’)

21 Comments

1. 

   @RubberDuckStyle 10 months ago

   You kill the mycorrhizal and other fungi. You also destroy the network. Tilling or disturbing soil is the worst thing you can do.

2. 

   @leonsaquaponicsandhomegard6793 10 months ago

   Good stuff 😊

3. 

   @ordiekelleher2641 10 months ago

   Very great.

4. 

   @THERUSTEDGARDEN 10 months ago

   Thanks so much for your support! Cheers & Thanks, Gary!
   
   Visit My Seed and Garden Shop
   
   The Rusted Garden Vegetable Seeds & Home Garden Supplies: https://www.therustedgarden.com

   Earn 15% and become a TRG Affiliate for our seed & garden shop
   
   Sign Up Here: https://bit.ly/4aarkDD

   Popular Items from My Seed and Garden Shop…

   The Rusted Garden T-Shirts: https://bit.ly/4cSTuVA

   Seed Starting, Growing, and Pest Management
   
   Neem Oil: https://bit.ly/43IJl9C
   
   Peppermint Oil: https://bit.ly/43IJl9C
   
   Rosemary Oil: https://bit.ly/43IJl9C
   
   100 Gallon Fabric Pots (approximately 100 Gallons): https://bit.ly/3PMoZ9S
   
   #20 Gallon Fabric Pots (21.32 Gallons): https://bit.ly/43Hz9OA
   
   #10 Gallon Fabric Pots (10.44 Gallons): https://bit.ly/3J5lEyK
   
   #5 Gallon Fabric Pots (4.3 Gallons): https://bit.ly/3J5lEyK
   
   1 Quart Seed Starting Fabric Pots: https://bit.ly/43HQE1c
   
   Seed Starting Standard Plastic Flats: https://bit.ly/4cF326m
   
   Seed Starting Cells/Containers:https://bit.ly/3PMaCT1
   
   2 1/2" Square Seed Starting Containers: https://bit.ly/43GOQWv
   
   3" x 4" Round Seed Starting Containers: https://bit.ly/3TYckD7
   
   Seed Starting Flats with Drainage Holes: Coming Soon
   
   'No Potting Up' Large 6 Cells for Seed Starting: https://bit.ly/3xiLBIK

   Seed Collections and Packs
   
   The Rusted Garden 'Scan and Grow' Collection
   
   Scan the QR Code for Planting Instructions: https://bit.ly/43HYBDQ

   10 Cool Weather Garden Crops for Spring & Fall: https://bit.ly/3xw3Ji5
   
   10 Leafy 'Greens' Varieties for an Easy Greens Garden: https://bit.ly/4akuHIl

   The Rusted Garden Heirloom Tomato Seed Selections: https://bit.ly/49towQK
   
   The Rusted Garden Pepper Seed Selections: https://bit.ly/3U1G1TM

   My Amazon Garden Store Front
   
   As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
   
   Just use my… The Rusted Garden Amazon Influencer's Storefront link at https://www.amazon.com/shop/garypilarchiktherustedgarden anytime you shop.
   
   I put the products I use and discuss, in videos, there and have gardening products set up by categories. Such as Grow Lights, Fertilizers, Pest Control, and More.

   My 2nd YouTube Channel Geared Towards Brand New Gardeners
   
   My First Vegetable Garden: https://bit.ly/3POOjMq

   My Podcasts
   
   The Rusted Garden Homestead… All About Growing, Cooking and Sharing Food: https://bit.ly/443SSGL

   My Blogs
   
   The Rusted Garden Journal: https://bit.ly/3vznpBl

   Join this channel to get access to Perk Memberships which focus on providing small live garden mentoring Q & A sessions, classes, and member influenced videos:
   
   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCptL6_qMImyW_yZwiMjQdpg/jo

   My Books:
   
   The Modern Homestead Garden: Growing Self-Sufficiency in Any Size Backyard
   
   Available Now https://amzn.to/40rfkIb

   Growing An Edible Landscape: How to Transform Your Outdoor Space Into a Food Garden
   
   Available November 2023 https://amzn.to/41tfno2

   Products I Use and Recommend and I have an affiliation with them:

   GreenStalk Vertical Gardening Towers
   
   Use the Discount Code THERUSTEDGARDEN on GreenStalk 'Vertical Tier Systems'. Use this link and enter my code for the discount https://greenstalkgarden.com/?rstr=therustedgarden

   AgroThrive Organic Bio-Fertilizers
   
   Use my affiliate link and my code TRG10 to save 10% on your first order: https://agrothrive.com/?ref=M5o6fjdAruq_S

   Vegega Metal Raised Beds
   
   Check out all the metal bed design & colors (dozens) at Vegega. Here is my affiliate link use my code TRG to save 10%: https://www.vegega.com/?ref=le64f3gm30
   
   There is often free shipping and my code does NOT stack when current sales are active and equal to or above 10% off.

   Follow The Rusted Garden on Instagram: https://bit.ly/4aiMQ9l
   
   Follow The Rusted Garden on Meta/Facebook: https://bit.ly/49tP2cF
   
   Follow The Rusted Garden on Threads: https://bit.ly/49tPesp
   
   Follow The Rusted Garden on TikTok: https://bit.ly/4cFGQZR
   
   Join me in my Private Meta/FB Group: The Rusted Garden Homestead: https://bit.ly/3xlvSbH

   Contact Me at therustedgardenmerch@gmail.com for questions or if you are interested in collaborations, affiliations or advertising.

   #gardening
   
   #gardeningtips
   
   #garden
   
   #gardentips
   
   @THERUSTEDGARDEN

5. 

   @PhillipMelanchthon 10 months ago

   No till vs no dig.

6. 

   @guyserenko1354 10 months ago

   I made a cardboard shredder out of a old paper shredder and I welded a mud mixing drill to it it shreds Amazon boxes and I top my beds with it all year I've never had such good soil and worms love the cardboard.

7. 

   @ludmilaishansade4018 10 months ago

   Hello, Harry.
   Do you have any idea of what is the pH for this peat moss. I can’t identify it.
   With respect.
   Thanks in advance.

8. 

   @cynthiafisher9907 10 months ago

   I agree with you.

9. 

   @poodledaddles1091 10 months ago

   I appreciate your fear-busting instructions!

10. 

    @hermanhale9258 10 months ago

    I think your clay will turn back into clay. That's what mine does.

11. 

    @amyschultz8058 10 months ago

    I'm not a new gardener anymore but great content for those learning especially when it comes to red clay soil. When we bought our place 20 years ago, that soil was like concrete in the summer.

12. 

    @jaytoney3007 10 months ago

    OMG! I've been destroying my soil every year. Nothing will grow in it. LOL! Yeah, right. Every fall, after the leaves have begun to fall, I mow over them, store chopped up leaves in two trash bins for use later as mulch, top off my compost bin and compost pile, and cover all empty raised bed space. If I have any leaves left over, I usually do, they go inside my chicken run. Guess what I do with them later. If you guessed use the poop laden, decaying leaves as mulch, you are right. In the spring, I turn the decomposing leaves into the soil.

    I harvested and processed Swiss Chard and Komatsuna the other day, and covered the soil where the Komatsuna was growing. Can't have bare soil. Also, there was a nitrogen deficiency in the soil, so I tossed in a couple handfuls of granular fertilizer. The raised bed is good to go until February when I start planting again. The chard is cut and come again, so no worries with it. Frost is in the forecast for the next two days, and again next week, so I am doing a clean up pepper harvest tomorrow, and cutting the plants to soil level and adding them to my compost bins.

    It is going to be cold Saturday, so I may, or may not harvest Tatsoi. After that comes Yellow Heart Winter Choy. Egads, I planted a lot of that. I'll probably start pulling up turnips too.

    The red cabbage and Napa Cabbage are forming heads, and looking great. RIP Dutch Cabbage—fusarium wilt (yellows). The broccoli and cauliflower are starting to flower, and in about a week, I'll harvest a second crop of Pak Choi. It will be a month or two before the carrots and parsnips are ready to pick. The beets have healthy leaves, but it is hard to tell if they have roots. The turnips have overgrown their space and are covering them. Not a big deal; it is time for them to start coming out. Then the beets will have the raised bed to themselves.

    In about seven weeks, I break out the heat mat and grow lights, and start all over again. My next garden is planned and plotted out on 1/2 inch graph paper. With the addition of six new raised beds, relocation of three, and all beds having hoops for netting, shade cloth, or plastic, the garden is going to be scary big, sixteen raised beds, three Greenstalk towers, a 10 x 20 foot herb garden, an orchard with eleven fruit trees, and more. Yep, scary big for a backyard garden. Call it a little over an acre. Oh, and I have chickens too.

    Next year, I want to build a second chicken coop and run, and double the size of my flock. Hopefully, then I'll be happy with what I have. Actually, I already have too much, but what the hell. That is what friends, family, and neighbors are for (To pawn off my excess.).

13. 

    @joshcolbert4682 10 months ago

    Let's Go Gary!

14. 

    @smokerise 10 months ago

    I quit digging this Georgia clay many years ago…I only grow in raised gardens. I turn every year, I use leaves, and I have huge piles of wood chips from the EMC in my county, I also have mulch piles from our chickens and horses.
    The best thing about raised gardens is that you can control what goes into the soil, and learn from trial and error.

15. 

    @tiger1554 10 months ago

    Where do you buy your fertilizer from? I'm trying to catch a sale over here in Maryland but can't seem to find them.

16. 

    @ausfoodgarden 10 months ago

    Digging soil definitely destroys a lot of the microbiology, but compacted clay there's probably not a lot in there to start with.
    Chopping it up and then adding compost will improve it very quickly. Remember too that microbes can double their population in under half an hour, so it's not catastrophic.
    With compacted clay I actually double-dig it then add a stack of compost and mix in then throw a handful of mixed seeds on top. Mulch with leaves once they start to come up.
    The soil is usable within months and keeps getting better over time. A great no-nonsense video Gary. Cheers!

17. 

    @robwasnj 10 months ago

    Ironically I just did this 2 days ago before this video came into my feed. I've been doing no dig for years and my clay soil has turned into concrete. I did use a small roto tiller to incorporate LOTS of compost (made on site) into the soil, it's been so dry no worms were harmed in the process. I don't feel tilling was detrimental to the process, it broke up the soil in a similar way that digging and breaking up the clumps would but more importantly it mixed the compost through very well, the soil is once again loamy and beautiful. We have now 7 huge compost bins with shredded leaves I drove around and collected leaf bags neighbors were throwing out. I guess next year I will see how this worked out, I have high hopes. I also put in a little bit of fertilizer into my compost piles to get them going, sometimes urine and water, my. thermometer said it was in the "hot" region, I couldn't believe how well it works. Anyways, great video and it's nice to see some affirmation I'm on the right path by digging my garden again. I also covered my beds with a thick layer of mulched leaves and then put some black woven (porous) fabric over that with a few bricks, hoping to warm the soil earlier in the spring and invite the worms back in.

18. 

    @jjakejones 10 months ago

    Problems is that slugs like mulch also and tend to eat all my seedlings.

19. 

    @TanjaAmbrozic 10 months ago

    Gary, gardener from zone 4 Calgary Alberta Canada, your videos have helped me so much the past 5 yrs. Started composting last year, it's a amazing! THANK U!

20. 

    @honeydew4576 10 months ago

    We put our own home made soil in raised beds.

21. 

    @honeydew4576 10 months ago

    Gardening is like cooking, or any kind of art….everyone has their own recipe.