Topping Up A No Dig Garden Bed

Website: http://vasilisgarden.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vasilisgardenofficial/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VasilisGardenOfficial/

How we going everybody out in the veggie garden we had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all did too and our thoughts and prayers go out to those less fortunate ones around the world and we should take advantage and appreciate everything that we have in front of us

For those who are blessed with the vegetable garden and for those who are not and want to have a go well it’s not that hard it really isn’t as long as you got a little space or even a pop plant you can’t make it work for yourself so

Please give it a go and that’s what I’ve been doing here trying to educate everybody and my s in fact on learning anything and everything about mother nature and how things grow and what we need to do and what we shouldn’t be doing to make things flourish in our

Garden because at the end of the day it’s all about nutritional density the value of the nutrient in the food that we eat has to come out of your garden without any toxic chemical intervention and I’m talking about synthetic stuff stuff that is not good for your garden

And I’m referring to the microbes the microbes in the soil the fungi and the bacteria that does the work now you’re looking at at a raised bed that has literally depleted it has sunk into the ground the plants have thrived out of it they’ve done wonderfully well we’ve come

To the end of them and now we’re going to start planting this bed again with another batch of vegetables but before we do that let me run you through what we’ve got in your bed here now we started off with some straw at the base then we had cocoa and compost and then

On top of it we put our planting mix our most popular planting mix and then top dressed it with uh some more straw bamboo mulch now before we go into preparing this let’s have a look at the texture of the soil underneath and in fact this is

The bed that when I dug up through our workshops that we were doing in preparing beds we took a handful of soil out of this and we found at least 20 to 30 worms now these were composting worms not earth worms but they were in there

Doing a wonderful job and hence why it’s depleted so rapidly or within 6 months so I’m I’m hoping the worms in here otherwise we’re in big trouble so where should we dig we’ll dig wait we’ll not dig here because here we found a snail little baby snail okay gone o and

We found the caterpillar too there’s one there that’s how we do it let’s have a look first lift have a look at this worms worms over here worms let’s just crack this one open carefully let’s see what’s going on it’s so it’s a smallus b it’s a party going

On here folks there are worms everywhere look at them just slithering away they’re doing a great job in breaking down the organic matter in this soil look look at that a handful of worms literally if you don’t have 25 worms in your hand when you dig up like that your

Saw’s not alive and that’s what you want to see in all your beds this is what I’ve been doing and working on my garden beds to achieve this I got to thank my M Craig too there folks because he’s been pushing me to do a no dig garden and

I’ve been struggling to get my head around it only because I’ve been brought up to dig the garden but when you don’t dig it well you’re not disturbing these little creatures here and all the other life in the soil as well and it’s so important that you don’t and you allow

Them just to keep on feeding and composting it for you the way nature intended look at that look look at the just look at these I can’t cover them they’re going to dig their way back into the ground again have a look at them there’s hundreds of them in this little

Corner here just in this little pocket I should say so this entire bed is needless to say Full of Life full of life it’s you can see it wiggling away they’re everywhere just just dig one more maybe you think I just planted them here let’s go here worms just there worms worms

Everywhere look at this juvenile worms and there’ll be larger worms down below further down look at this full of worms everywhere beautiful this is composting this is like a big compost bin but it’s better than that cuz we can plant into this and we’re going to keep growing and

Planting into it so what are we doing now well we’re going to be preparing this bed to raise it so what I do here is just layer it now we’ve got our composting facility going on down there the whole life of it and also before we

Go there this is a cutting a leaf cutting from The Big malaka Tomato that I did a few weeks ago well I won’t say a few maybe a couple of weeks ago or so we got to lift this one out of the ground because we’re going to fill it up to

About here not all the way to the top we’re going to put about 6 in 150 mil of soil and compost so let’s see well this is aive for let’s see how many roots it’s actually taken on and carefully pop it out we’re just going to raise it

Above the ground level let’s just break up the soil a little bit like that and sorry to all those little worms down there that I’m actually disturbing look at this these are all the roots developing on it I’m going to try not to break it oh it’s going to

Fall apart anyway well there we are it’s taken off all the new Roots that’s just from a leaf cutting remember that a leaf not a stem from the plant it’s an actual old leaf and it’s turned itself into a stem and that now will grow on and

Become a full pledged plant of its own with fruit and everything as well so we’re going to put this aside so we can top dress this you want to learn how to create life in your saw the way I have just done here while these are the

Simple steps that you need to follow so we’re working with the existing garden beds not a new garden bed from scratch you’ve got an existing bed you got a top dresser now the amount you put on top can vary it doesn’t have to be exactly

To what I’m doing but this is the layers that I create I start off with superfood a handful or two handfuls per square meter so this is a square meter and I like putting about two handfuls you can put one that’s enough that’s all you need with the super food next next you

Add a handful of black GD as well on top of your existing garden bed and that’s what I’m doing here our Rock mineral just a handful of this is all you need like that I know some of you put a lot more than that up to you but a

Handful is sufficient next we start adding our mediums on top of that next we’re going to add our layers of medium I start with a bit of cocoa like this you can put 2 cm 3 cm worth of cocoa this is a beautiful medium to hold

Moisture it’s not good for the top it’s good for in the ground it’s a base part that we start with and you layer it like that beautifully so there’s one bag there in fact I might do two cuz I got plenty of room to fill this one’s a bit

Drier that’s okay spread it out evenly like that so remember we got our organic matter at the bottom now if you’ve got a bed that’s got nothing in it and I’m talking talking about a raised bed you start off with a bail of straw at the

Bottom of this about 2/3 of the height it’ll be about this height where your straw should be at before you start adding your compost and your planting mix on top of it so in this case here our straw at the bottom was already added it’s depleted our compost and

Planting mix have sunk down with it as well and you saw the life in there so now what we’ve done is the cocoa and next we’re adding I didn’t bring a sec t or anything to cut this open so don’t get upset that I’m tearing the bag this is our

Compost so we add a layer of compost and between each layer folks I highly highly recommend you hydrate it sometimes the mix can be a little bit dry this is just a little bit on the dryer side I had to let it out for too long and the sun’s

Dehydrated it so let’s hydrate this I got a different wand here this wand’s actually been buckled in for I actually bumped it and I’ve concaved it so the water pressure is quite quite harsh rather than soft and gentle and it’s important to get it hydrated because you need the moisture

To get down there remember it’s actually quite wet underneath so the moisture from underneath will get absorbed like a bit of a wicking style upwards through the mul through the cocoa but then you still need to hydrate it from above as well so the water one to start with

Like that now while that soaks and you’re doing your layers this is what I like doing I like to layer it like as a lasagna and that includes the black grit and the superfood super food for those who don’t know what it is it’s fras made by soldierly and there’s a specific way

That we make it one of a kind in the world it almost this looks like black grit the fine stuff cuz we got a coarse version and that brown stuff that you see in there is the kiten which is the shell of the insect or the laa that

Sheds its skin as it grows and that acts as a mechanism to trigger the plant’s defense to go and protect itself it actually grows stronger and healthier and stops any pess and diseases getting to it easily so we just hydrate that lightly a bit more like this and then we start

Layering our planting mix now the planting mix is where all the magic happens folks this is where all the life is I mean the compost is fantastic as well cuz there is compost in the planting mix cookie cookie look at the cookie beautiful stuff that is going to

Hold moisture for us I’m going to crumble it up a little bit because I don’t want it too large but that will hold an amazing amount of water and release it like a sponge does when everything around it is dry so and with a planting mix you want to get at least

4 to 6 in while this is Lumpy I had the bag open left it out in the garden and it got rained in and that’s what happens when it gets hydrated see that that’s beautiful that is what you want to see it doing forming like clay does but it

Just breaks away beautifully like that and it’s exactly how we want the medium to function and really at the end of the day how much you put of compost and or planting mix depends on how high you need a raise it I can keep going all the way to the

Top and I don’t need to go all the way to the top because I’ve got plenty of growing medium down below and these walls will add protection especially where we live here cuz it gets really windy so while the plants are small they get a little bit of protection on the

Sides which is good for the plants and we’ got plenty of roots down below or soil down below for the plants to grow as you saw earlier one more bag of planty mix and I’ll be satisfied with the height of it all you can add more compost if you like

And if you really love the cocoa well add more of that down at the bottom but for me I love the planting mix folks and I know a lot of you love it to the those who have please share your results and your comments on and

Your views on our planting mix I’d love to hear from you what sort of results you’ve had in your G in bed with our soil medium that we have created and there we are one more thing you get a beit excited with this stuff I reckon just one more handful of super

Food and we need to hydrate this as well even though it’s already a little bit moist it’s important to hydrate it because we’re going to put our MOS on top of this and if you haven’t seen me do the mosch you might think iide how simple is

That just spread some MOS at the top well not not exactly that’s not how I do my MOS I start with the MOs in a wheelbarrow and I soak it for as long as possible minimum 2 or 3 hours folks minimum but I soak it for at least well

This in this one in particular I’ve been soing for about 2 weeks so that MOS is completely inoculated with you guess what with our Eco Butch and liquid gold and look at that we got beans growing out of out of it I got to love it so

This is our Bean straw it’s been sitting in here for a couple of weeks now and it stinks like those night cuts and what happens here when you do this you’re inoculating it with all the good microbes you activating it and it’s going to have the decomposing process so

When you spread it out on top of your garden bed you’re telling all the life in the soil that there’s a new party in town they’re going to say hey guys there’s some good food coming in here let’s get up there and start feeding hence why you saw those wonderful worms

In the bed that we had underneath here and that’s how all my beds are I was planting out the beds on the ground as well and because they’re directly on the ground I found some big chunky earthworms just below the surface about 4 in below the surface and they are

Doing a great job cuz they really help to aate the soil as well they tunnel through the soil they leave deposits and they go back there and feed again and they attract other pests so they do a really good job in looking after your bed but the only way you’re going to get

That is by using quality products and every time you use and for those who haven’t seen me say this or heard me say this before it’s for you guys out there cuz everybody else knows what I’m going to say now every time you use a synthetic fertilizer you’re disconnecting your

Plant from the soil yeah it’s growing in the soil look it’ll get some um nutrients from the from the ground as well but what you’re doing is disconnecting the life in the soil and that’s the good bacteria the microbes and the fungi from being able to connect to the

Roots of the plant and feed and exchange feeds the plant does photosynthesizing you know it creates sugars and all those wonderful nutrients through the sun pushes them down into the soil and in return it gets what nutrients it needs from the microbes and when you use a synthetic fertilizer well

That connection is broken and then they become reliant on the drugs and if you stop using the drugs what happens you have withdraw symptoms then your plants get sick they go backwards and you wonder why they’re struggling and then you go back for more drugs and you start using fertilizers

And fungicides and insecticides that are toxic and it’s just a spirling downward turn of no success few will succeed but not many not like this not by comparison you might think you’re succeeding with using synthetic fertilizers and insecticides and fungicides folks I don’t really spray at all I talk about

Spraying and I share some great tips for those who really struggling otherwise and I’ve got a few trees that have had a really tough time and I still haven’t sprayed them and I’m just letting them push through what I do is work on the soil keep feeding the soil you know

Compost superfood our planting mix but if you need to reach for something natural and organic you don’t want to go with the chemicals it just doesn’t work it’s it’s it’s a shortterm fix for long-term problem and that’s not what we’re here for we’re here for a

Long-term good time and an easy time and a well-connected time with Mother Nature and that’s what we’re doing even though it’s above ground she’s in there she’s doing a job and let me get this wonderful big malaka all right now he’s going to go on the south side cuz that

Side there’s the north side and I’m going to plant him you know what I’m going to plant him just just here just in this spot there look at that we’ve already got little Cur grub not Cur grubs uh poie boys I call them you see still a little bit dry

Underneath so we got to hydrate all this again to make sure we get the moisture in I guarantee you this will start to absorb the moisture once it gets hydrated it’ll be hard for it hard press for it to dehydrate I guarantee on that one there

Now I’ve planted that I didn’t plant it deeper normally I’d planted a bit deeper don’t need to that’s okay let it settle in like that I’ve just planted some basil sweep basil but it all a little bit on the yellow side they’ll green up soon enough we’ got some flat leaf

Parsley I stuck an eggplant in there bonica another parley the tomatoes here and then I’m going to throw some seeds in here of corn I know some of you are thinking this late facil you’ve never planted this late I don’t know what it is but I just feel like Now’s the Time

To start planting this is for me where where I am I know some of you if not a lot of you have already got lots of corn growing and quite high in fact but for me down here it’s only just starting the season for me I’m watering it now with the EK Butch

And liquid gold that’s been sitting in the wheelbarrow and you can go straight you w knocked like that you can go straight over the top but don’t drown the poor thing well with M that is so make sure you liquid feed them too just to Kickstart them just like

That and if it rains again tonight like it’s predicting a bit more well this will get the Deep soaking and the nutrients locked up in these uh in the mulsh is going to Lee through there and all those worms down below I’m telling you we’ll come back in

About a week or so and I guarantee you they’ll all be coming up to the surface to get into the new feed that’s all the fresh stuff that we’ve added in there so if you haven’t top just your garden beds and you need to do it this way this is

The way that I found to be the most successful and I know a lot of you have done it have been successful as well so it works in all regions of Victoria or whatever parts of Australia you are and un fortunately planning mix isn’t available inter state yet it will be

Soon but for now for those in Victoria if you’re needing some planning mix go on our website we got our Boxing Day special still running all the way through to the end of the week great specials across the board with free shipping across Australia for everything online obviously not the planting mix

Teas and sea supply facilties garden.com for everything you need and an amazing garden bed like this well this one’s going to become one just like the rest from Evas Sil maresi