99% Of Gardeners Make This Killer Mistake With Their Soil!

In this video, I explain why leaving garden soil unprotected can damage your garden. Many gardeners rest garden soil during winter, but leaving garden soil unprotected all winter and exposed to the sun can have serious consequences. Protecting soil is important, and in this video, I share the easiest ways to do it.

Protecting garden soil is easy, yet 99% of gardeners make this killer mistake with their soil! Making these small changes now will make your garden healthier and more productive in spring!

TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 How The Sun Damages Soil
4:46 Protecting Soil Method #1: Growing
5:37 Protecting Soil Method #2: Mulching
7:35 Protecting Soil Method #3: Tarping
9:23 Solutions For Earth Bed Gardens
10:23 Can You Mulch With Compost?
12:44 Adventures With Dale

The following products* were mentioned in this video:
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Additional protection products and soil amendments*:
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Full Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/themillennialgardener

If you have any questions about how to protect garden soil from weather and sun damage, want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!

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EQUIPMENT I MOST OFTEN USE IN MY GARDEN*:

Miracle-Gro Soluble All Purpose Plant Food https://amzn.to/3qNPkXk
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Expandable Vinyl Garden Tape https://amzn.to/3jL7JCI

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ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8B

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© The Millennial Gardener

#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #gardensoil #composting

What’s growing on gardeners it’s Saturday December 9th and another year is coming to an end here on the Southeastern coast of North Carolina mistakes we make in our garden this time of year have a ripple effect Into The Following season and on today’s video I’m going to share with you the number

One mistake that gardeners are making this time of year that they don’t even know they’re making that has huge negative consequences for their Garden productivity The Following season if you’re new to the Channel Please Subscribe and hit the Bell to receive new video notifications and check out

Our Amazon store and spread shop links in the video description for everything I use in my garden and awesome custom designed apparel and other gear your support is greatly appreciated and that mistake is not protecting your garden soil from the harsh UV rays of the sun

All winter long garden soil is not an inert growing medium it is a collection of billions and trillions of microorganisms bacteria and fungi working in Perfect Harmony together to decompose organic matter and feed your plants living thriving Garden so soil produces happy healthy plants whereas dead sterilized garden soil produces

Poor quality results allowing your garden soil to bake unprotected by the sun all winter long is literally killing your garden soil now I know what you might be thinking why would I need to protect my garden soil during the winter time when the sun is weak I don’t

Protect my garden soil during the summertime when the sun is just absolutely miserable well that’s not actually true you are protecting your soil during the summer and you don’t even realize it the normal pattern of gardening is this we plant out our transplants in late winter or early

Spring they grab hold in the garden soil and then they get big and strong in late spring and then they reach maturity at some point during the summer that is typically what’s going on well what you don’t realize that you’re doing is when you start planting transplants out into

Your garden and The Roots grab hold those roots are actually creating a symbiotic relationship with the soil so all of the bacteria and the fungi that are in the soil they actually to a degree latch onto the roots of the plants and you start colonizing them so you’re actually supporting the

Microorganisms within the soil then as the plants grow they start shading out the soil the soil underneath this garden bed right here is like the soil in a protected Forest canopy all of these broccoli leaves are like giant trees so these plants are actually protecting the

Soil from the harsh UV rays of the Sun so you don’t really realize that when you plant things out in late winter early spring and then they carry throughout the summer the plants themselves are shading the soil and protecting the soil and actually colonizing the good beneficial

Microorganisms in the soil that you want to grow so you’re really supporting the colonies of the things growing and you’re keeping them nice and cool and protected from the Sun that symbiotic relationship between the plants and the soil microbiome does not exist during the winter if you’re resting your beds

And nothing is actively growing in it if you have all of your garden soil just sitting with nothing growing in it all of the colonies of bacteria and the fungi basically have to overwinter in the soil with no hosts to cling onto and sustain The Colony and what is happening

All the UV radiation is just pounding on this soil for months and months bleaching and sterilizing it so the top of your soil will basically turn into sand I mean look at this we just got some rain but the soil is most dry because it’s sitting exposed to the UV

Radiation of the sun even though I just explained everything to you you may still have your doubts you may be thinking I live at a very high latitude our sun is really weak you just don’t understand how weak it is well do you really want to take that chance I’ve

Shown you in years past how I love using milk jugs as greenh houses for my plants because it accelerates the growth by trapping in some heat well this plastic has been sitting out since the fall and that’s from the fall sun moving into winter now I hope that illustration that

I just showed you really helps Drive the point home because I have quite the mess to clean up on my hands right now just the UV radiation from the weakest sun and the shortest days of the year turns a milk jug container plastic into brittle glass it just snaps if you fail

To protect your garden soil your plants are going to be sluggish The Following season because after you plan out your first few transplants you are going to have to wait for that soil microbiome to recover for weeks or months before things start really taking off again the

Good news is you don’t have to suffer this fate protecting your garden soil is so easy that there’s really no excuse to not do it and now I’m going to show you exactly how you can protect your soil throughout the winter the first way to protect your garden soil throughout the

Winter is to Simply grow things in it as I previously mentioned because this bed is full of plants all of the roots are being hosts to all of the beneficial be bacteria and fungi in the soil so it is creating not only a living microbiome but it is helping it multiply grow even

During the coldest months of the year the microbiome in this bed is multiplying and growing larger and it also has the benefit of shading out the soil this is like a cover crop right here because the leaves of the cabbage and the mustard greens and the broccoli

And the kale and all the wonderful things that I have growing in there are creating a forest canopy over the soil it is protected from the harsh UV rays of the Sun and because of that that is why this is the absolute best way that you can protect your soil during the

Winter now if you can or won’t grow things out in your garden in the winter the second best thing that you can do is cover it with a natural Mulch and there’s really only two rules that you want to adhere to when you do this number one rule number one is that you

Want the mulch layer to be about 2 to 3 in thick that will provide enough of a layer that will protect the top layer layer of your soil from bleaching and sterilizing from the UV rays of the Sun the second thing you want to do is you

Want to be sure that you use an all natural product now what you see in this bed right here is shredded hardwood bark mulch that I buy from big box stores that is a great option to use as a natural mulch but it is not a mandatory requirement you can use any natural

Product you can use chopped up grass clippings from your lawn you can use a wood mulch you can use pine Park nuggets you can use wheat straw as long as you know that it isn’t contaminated with some type of herbicides you can use chopped up leaves from the forest that

You can mulch with your lawn mower and then dump on top of your beds you can use pine straw that you can rake from your yard if you have pine trees you can get wood chips from the power companies or tree trimming services as long as it

Is a natural product that’s really all that matters what you don’t want to use are things like dyed mulches from the big box stores because they’re usually ground up old Construction Products and lumbra that they dye with artificial dyes to make them look like the really wood when really it’s construction

Scraps you don’t want that in your garden you also don’t want to use rubber mulch or stone mulch because rubber mulch is usually Industrial Waste and chewed up tires not something you want in your garden you don’t want to use Stone mulch because there’s no organic matter there and the decomposition won’t

Be there to feed your soil so it’s important that you use an allnatural mulch because you have to realize it’s going to be breaking down and adding nutrients to your garden over the winter time so that’s good and it’s also going to protect your soil now if you can’t

Cover all of your garden soil with a natural mulch because it’s either too physically taxing or you can’t find an affordable enough source of mulch to meet your needs the third thing that you can do is cover your garden soil with a tarp now while this is the least

Desirable thing that you can do because you won’t get that added benefit of having all of that organic matter breaking down over the winter and refeeding your soil it is better than than nothing because at least by covering your garden beds you will protect the existing microbiome and

You’ll restart the new growing season in the late winter early spring with much healthier soil overall now I’ve made many videos in the past about tarping your garden during the off seon and I’ve used this in tandem with multiple techniques I like spreading kitchen scraps all over the top layer of my

Garden soil putting compost on top of that then adding mulch then tarping my garden beds that is a trick that I use to turn turn the garden beds over as quickly as possible because the tarp not only protects the soil but it traps in additional heat and it helps any organic

Matter that you do add to the soil break down more quickly so you can use this method all throughout the year I find that you can refresh your garden soil in only about 60 days doing this I even use this technique in the summertime when I

Want to turn over a bed to plant a new crop in but that being said it is also a fantastic method simply for protecting soil during the winter that you’re not going to grow in the one bit of advice that I will give you is if you purchase

A tarp to do this make sure that the tarp is rated for UV rays some tarps are not UV resistant and I’ve used them in the past thinking I was going to save money and the sun breaks down the tarps and then I have nasty chunks of plastic

All on top of my garden soil well now I only use uvt treated UV rated tarps and I don’t have that issue most of the tips and recommendations that I made in this video are geared towards smaller gardeners and Growers such as myself that grow in raised bed gardens but what

If you grow in an earth bed what if you have acres and Acres of Farmland well if you have a very large Farm style situation chances are you probably grow a cover crop on top of your soil in order to protect it with the intent to

Till it under a few months before you’re going to actually grow in it in order to allow all that organic matter time to decompose but what happens if you just have some pretty small standard size Earth beds and you don’t have acres and Acres of Farmland well they make sillage

Tarps that are 40 60 80 100 ft long so if you have pretty good-sized Earth beds that aren’t Acres of Farmland you can buy some pretty large tarps in order to cover the area this is specifically helpful for people that are no till garders since you won’t have to grow a

Cover crop and disturb the soil by tilling anything under now before I end this video I want to address one very specific subject can you use compost to protect your garden soil I am going to say overwhelming no why do we bring in compost into our

Garden well it’s not only a source of organic matter and nutrition for our soil but it is also a source of new bacteria cultures and beneficial fungi that we want to bring in if you place a layer of compost down on your soil right now and let it sit all winter long that

Compost is going to get bleached and sterilized by the Sun so you are going to be putting down a very expensive cover only to have that microbiome destroyed in my opinion you’re wasting your money also the compost is going to be exposed to months of weathering so

All of the nutrition in that compost that is mostly finished and broken down you will be washing that out of your soil over time so if you do like to add compost to your garden this year I would recommend that you cover it well with a tarp to protect the microbiome that you

Just brought in as well as prevent any nutrients from washing away if you won’t protect it with a tarp at least cover it with with mulch to try and prevent erosion and to protect exposure from the Sun now that being said me personally I don’t add compost to my garden beds

Until I’m 30 to 60 days away from planting in it sometimes I only use compost at the exact moment that I’m planting in my garden compost is a premium product it is expensive if it’s finished it is already ready to go it doesn’t need a long time to sit on top

Of your soil and that right there is the number one mistake that many gardeners are making over the winter time and how to prevent it so you start off the year with healthier garden soil when it comes time to plan out your transplants if you follow the tips in this video your soil

Will start out in a healthier position and your plants will be more likely to take off the following growing season so everybody I sure hope you found this video helpful if you did please make sure to hit that like button subscribe to the channel and please ring that notification Bell so you’re notified

When I release more videos like these if you’re curious about any of the products that I use in real life and my garden they will all be linked Down Below in the video description in my Amazon storefront so expand the video description click on the Amazon link and

You’ll see everything I use in real life and while you’re there check out my spread shop for custom merch if you want to support the channel thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video wow Dale look at all the geese in

The pond today have you ever seen such a thing buddy those are Canada geese and they’re everywhere look at that wow it is a chilly late November morning we’re taking Dale for a walk in his festive Christmas sweater we are all set for the holidays right buddy