I’m QUITTING Gardening After Reading THIS, So Should YOU

In this video I want to talk about a dangerous headline and give you my opinion on it. What do you think about this?

U of MI Video: https://youtu.be/gD2LxgozPxo?si=9i46LxF1yzmkDJ11

Gopher Basket Video: https://youtu.be/KatouGB2xuU?si=_-bEtGZn8awhKim4

Gopher Hawk: https://amzn.to/3HEqW3D
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Hi I’m Brian with Next Level Homestead. If this is your first time here… welcome! I’m glad you’re here! If you’re a longtime friend, welcome back!!

For most of my life I was a city boy, gardening in the suburbs. I was the first generation in my family to not grow up on a farm and somehow it was still there inside me. So now my wife Emilie, son Noah and I have moved to a small farm (at least it will be) and we’re documenting our journey on this channel. Building gardens and chicken coops, buying a dairy cow and who knows what else lies in store. But we can’t wait to take you with us!

(The link above is an affiliate link. If you purchase through our links we’ll receive a small commission that helps support our channel, but the price remains the same, or better for you!)

it’s a really gloomy Misty
morning it’s probably appropriate for
this video at least the first part of
this video it’s not going to be the
whole video I promise I rarely have
rants on this channel um in fact of all
the videos I’ve done I think I’ve done
maybe
one maybe two uh rant type videos but I
think this time it’s warranted if you
guys happen to come up on this channel
for the very first time with this video
um there are better videos to watch as
your first time uh pretty much any video
other than this and I’ll put one right
up here somewhere for you to just go
click on and then you can come back to
this video later and the title of this
video is admittedly clickbait e but I
felt like I had to do that to counteract
the amount of click baity material that
the mainstream media uses to uh try and
push their narrative so please uh
forgive me for
[Music]
that what was that before we get started
on this video though I think I need a
moment to calm down so I can present
this in a less ranty and more productive
way so let’s take a little bit to go
visit our farm friends and get everybody
fed when we wake
hear the birds and see the
sun side by side our fears are
done oh the good times just
begun oh we know what we have let’s Hold
On Tight found what we’re looking for in
life call us crazy but things are
finally right
with you and I the future is
bright
[Music]
oh You and I we got it
oh we don’t need no
more even in the heart
time
easy
St
before
sleep hear the cricket see the
moon sa a sight and through and
through no limit to what we can
do oh we know what we have let’s Hold On
Tight found what we’re looking for in
life call us Gra see but things are
finally
right with you and I the future is
[Music]
bright
oh You and I we got
it we don’t need no
more even in
the you and I WEA any stor
deep
breath nope I just read the article
again and I’m back to being angry and I
have to say something I stayed quiet
last year around this time when egg
prices were through the roof there was a
worldwide egg shortage and the powers
that be were telling us that keeping our
own chickens wasn’t as beneficial as you
think it is and downright dangerous
actually so when I saw a headline just a
few days ago that was going down the
same path I felt like I had to put in my
two cents whatever it’s worth and this
doesn’t happen very often I feel like no
matter what side of the climate change
argument you’re on uh and there’s
probably more than two sides but however
you feel about it if it’s a Thing If It
Isn’t a thing what we can do about it or
there’s nothing we can do about it
however you feel about it number one
you’re welcome here you still belong
here I don’t go along with the thinking
that you have to agree with somebody to
be their friend I mean I’m old enough to
remember where you could disagree with
somebody even politically religiously
and you could still hang out and get
along and have fun so however you feel
about it you’re still welcome here
however you feel about it there are
plenty of corporations that have lined
up just to profit on the entire idea of
climate change politicians who are using
it to show that this side is a science
denier or this side is just using fear
tactics to get ahead as a simple lowly
home Gardener who has been practicing
and teaching organic gardening for two
decades now and who is trying to every
year Garden more and more
sustainably it really upsets me when I
see headlines like this this is just a
couple of days ago gardening is
something that has become a Saving Grace
for so many people both mentally and
physically including myself you know in
2020 when the powers that be told us
that we had to stay home Millions
flocked to gardening as something to do
to pass the time and fortunately what
good came out of that is a lot of those
people maybe you included are still here
4 years later still enjoying gardening
on top of that now 4 years later people
are coming still to gardening to offset
the rising grocery costs that seem to be
you know mounting more and more every
single month or people who just don’t
trust what they can buy in the store my
fear is there will be people who see
these headlines who were maybe on the
fence maybe timid a little bit about
getting into gardening and because of a
headline like this they’re going to
choose not to that would be so
incredibly sad and for those of you who
Garden um either for your mental
well-being to put food on the on the
table for your family I think you would
agree in the short time since this study
came out media Outlets all over have
jumped on it with the same dire headline
this has just served to multiply its
reach and I keep talking about these
headin lines and the reason I do that is
because that’s what gets people’s
attention that’s the sensationalism but
what does this study really focus on
I’ll put a link um to the University of
Michigan who did this study they have a
short video that kind of encapsulates
the entire study but the focus on the
video and the focus on the study puts
gardening in a lot better light than you
would believe by looking at all the
headlines they actually talk about how
important home and urban Gardens are now
and how important they’re going to be in
the future but in a world of shortening
attention spans most people aren’t going
to get past the headline and I think the
powers that be know that because they
bury the positives any positives about
any of these things they bury at the
bottom of the article where nobody’s
going to see it the most ridiculous
paragraph in the article is this most of
the climate impacts at Urban Farms are
driven by the materials used to
construct them the infrastructure these
Farms typically only operate for a few
years or a decade so the greenhouse
gases used to produce those materials
are not used
effectively okay so we’re talking about
in the case of Home gardeners the
materials used to make our raised beds
which you don’t even need to use
materials to make raised beds but the
wood that is harvested and trucked to
Home Depot and then you driving your car
to get the wood okay fine that’s fine
but it goes on to say conventional
agriculture on the other hand is very
efficient and hard to compete with for
example conventional Farms often grow a
single crop with the help of pesticides
and fertilizers resulting in larger
harvests and a reduced carbon footprint
when compared to Urban
Farms so poisoning the land with
pesticides
herbicides synthetic fertilizers
monocropping and taxing the soil to the
point of no return and poisoning our
bodies in the process that’s all somehow
positive because it lowers our carbon
footprint how does this make sense like
seriously tell me in the comments how
this makes sense I’m open this is where
I think black and white thinking goes
too far the focus is so much on carbon
footprint and what that may or may not
do in the future that we’re not taking a
look at what’s happening right now in
front of our eyes it’s frustrating it
makes me sad it makes me discouraged
but I’m not going to quit gardening and
I don’t think you should either in fact
let’s go on over and do some gardening
right now all right so it’s actually the
next day and it’s completely the
opposite of yesterday in fact over the
next couple of days we’re supposed to be
getting into the mid 70s now this might
be a topic that’s equally as divisive as
climate change and that is cilantro I
love it I can’t get enough of it I can
eat it plain Emily is one of those
people who thinks it tastes like soap
apparently that’s a genetic thing let me
know which side you land on cilantro is
a cool season crop which is kind of
weird since we eat it with salsa in the
summertime but cilantro will bolt or go
to seed at the first hint of warm
weather so we do have 70° temperatures
coming up but it goes back down after
that and they won’t even be germinated
at that
point so we’re
good so I’m just making a little Furrow
along each one of these drip tapes the
seeds are actually kind of big this is
coriander it’s the same plant it’s just
the seeds versus the leaves um about a/
inch deep and about 8 in apart now
mine’s going to be a little thicker but
that’s all right and what I plan on
doing with this because
our cilantro here I don’t know about in
your area but it bolts quickly like I
said at the littlest sign of heat and we
can have roller coaster weather in the
winter and early
spring so I’m actually going to plant a
lot of it in fact I’m thinking of both
these fabric beds filling both of them
up and then I heard that they freeze dry
really well like almost in fresh
condition and so I’m going to try that
so I can Harvest all this at once not
have to worry about it bolting and uh be
able to save it and use it whenever I
want
to so even though I’ve got drip in this
bed I’m going to go ahead and give it a
good soak with the hose um because
that’ll make sure everything’s good and
damp the seeds are right there in
contact with the
soil uh and then the drip will maintain
that all right that job’s done now it’s
on to the next job on the to-do list and
that would be to move some
trees there’s three maybe four that need
to get moved we’ve got the two liquid
Amber trees up here in the top of the
pasture those don’t need to be moved so
much as protected from Gophers when I
planted these I did not know the proper
way to make a gopher basket and so these
have been at risk I did have three here
and one was taken out by a Go
Gopher but since then I’ve been very
Vigilant with trapping but that’s not
always going to be possible so I’m going
to dig both of these up put them in
proper gopher baskets and move them back
about 5 ft toward the fence the best
time to do that is right now when
they’re dormant now this is the tree
that’s
questionable uh it did get lots of frost
damage but there is new growth coming
out this tree has grown so much in the
last year and it’s not dormant and I’m
worried about moving it but it also was
put in prior to my gopher basket
knowledge so I’ve got to think on that
one what I might do CU I’ve heard if you
put the Gopher basket deep enough it
doesn’t need a bottom to it it’s risky
but it’s also risky to dig up the tree
at this at this point in its uh size and
by the way that tree was a uh silk floss
tree and then there’s this one right
here the Fig now my mom came over and
she helped me defoliate it so we could
kind of force it into dormy uh the buds
are swelling as you can see though and
so this needs to be done ASAP planted
that there right after we moved in like
within 2 months and I wasn’t I didn’t
fully have this space conceptualized yet
and now it’s just in the wrong space
however right up
here is a great spot for a fig tree and
it’s a miniature fig so it only gets
about 12 to 15t tall and so it’ll give a
nice Mediterranean look to this corner
of the Mediterranean Garden with the
mountains in the
background but first we got to get rid
of all these weeds so I’m gonna run get
my weed
[Music]
eater
5 hours
[Music]
later
I’m just sitting here right now watching
her work do my work I’m relaxing she’s
doing the weeds I’m saving money on my
hay Bill giving her good nutrition not
too bad while she’s doing that I’m going
to multi task multitask and pot a fruit
tree a be root fruit tree that I just
got a couple days ago um Noah and I have
really been enjoying Fuji apples from
the store and we have one Fuji apple
tree it’s a spade over on the wall in
the Mediterranean Garden
but I got another one I’m going to grow
this one traditionally not
aalia
these are just going to be temporary in
these pots uh they will be planted in
the orchard once that’s ready even
though I know I’ve been saying that for
a couple of years but we’re almost
there so these are the three be root
trees I got this year and planted or pot
got a burgundy Plum and then the Fuji
apple which I just planted and a Florida
Prince
which already is leafing
out for be root trees well for any fruit
tree really you want to know what your
chilling hours are in your area um we
have like 300 to 400 chill hours so
that’s very low chill so with a name
like Florida Prince you would know that
it’s a low chill variety and it’s really
low chill and that’s why it’s putting
out leaves already here in still January
and would you take a look at these
artichokes I mean these were here from
last year but they’re
enormous it’s not time for them to
flower yet but they’re certainly putting
out a lot of growth actually too much
they’re shading out my
lavender so I just keep coming along
here and snapping some of the branches
off and speaking of
lavender
it’s doing great giving the bees a lot
of winter forage that they don’t get a
lot
of she definitely didn’t do all that she
got the tall stuff and then I took it
down with the weed
eater
so now that the hole is dug it’s time to
make the Gopher
basket it’s a job I hate I hate it I
don’t know
why uh it’s not
hard and if you want to know how to make
a gopher basket if you’ve got Gophers
this is going to protect your trees and
anything that’s a longterm in the ground
item uh roses I don’t put this on every
plant but things that I’m putting in the
ground and they’re going to live there
for a long time time so roses trees I
have a video on Next Level gardening
that’s going to show you how to make
these I’ll put a link down in the video
description but like I said it’s not
hard it’s just labor intensive it’s an
extra step it’s
monness it’s extra
money but ultimately we’ll save these
trees from gopher
damage bottom sides ready to
go now for the scary part actually
digging up the
tree it’s got a good root system on
it okay might have been
it going to get some of the dirt
off you know what here’s the Gopher
basket simple chicken wire I can’t tell
well first of all it only goes down this
far I basically put a little cup
remember this is a week after we move or
this was a month after we moved
in
all right not
b
that
I think it’s time to get my weed eater
again I could use some company up
[Music]
here
[Music]
for
[Music]
it’s the next day another beauti
beautiful day I’m enjoying it while it
lasts I’ve got Daisy out again helping
me keep the grass down up here so I got
both of the liquid ambers moved so this
one went from here to there that one
pretty much stayed in the same place I
just uh put the Gopher basket underneath
it I still haven’t decided what I’m
doing with this floss
tree
h no I still have no
idea and then the strawberry jam fig was
moved from
here to
here so today I’m going to enjoy a
little slower and less labor
intensive gardening practice and that
would be to cut back my perennials now a
lot of you if you’re in cold
climates uh your perennials might be
under a bunch of snow right now but if
you have a mild winter you look down at
the base of some of these perennials and
you can see here that amid all of the
dead sticks if you look down at the base
there’s lots of new sprouted growth
there once you cut all the dead growth
off you’ll have nice little green Mounds
just like this going to dead head and
prune some of the Roses I was at the
Garden Center this last week and um I
got another raspberry plant I’m going to
plant that up there next to the
blackberries and then I also got another
David Austin
Rose Thomas
Becket that’s bare root even though it
looks like it’s in a pot it’s still bare
root and I’m going to plant that up in
the Cottage Garden what I found last
year all the roses that I got they’re
all David Austin but they’re all pastel
pink yellow and I’m changing the color
scheme of this Cottage Garden this year
because last
year pastels might do great in England
when you’ve got that overcast cloudy
weather all
summer but here when you’ve got sun and
heat those pastels just kind of get
washed out so you can probably see that
Thomas Becket that Rose there is a
vibrant color and I’ve got a lot more
vibrancy coming to this Garden this year
versus last
year
for
all right it’s the next morning okay all
right I got everything cleaned out hey I
will get to you in a minute
Missy it looks a little empty but it
also looks clean so you saw me take out
the Lambs
I had four huge ones along the edge of
this these beds and they were right
where the daffodils hopefully will be
coming up the ones I planted last year
uh and they were very thick matted
mounds of lambers and those were planted
as six-packs last spring so they grow
like crazy so I needed to get them out
of the way of the daffodils I just
tossed them in the compost I’ve got
three more big mounds of them right here
that I will dig up and divide uh and put
them orne needed to me Lamb’s ears don’t
look that great once they’re past their
first year they start to look a little
bit mangy so for me I like to start with
a new plant whether I buy it in a
six-pack or just take divisions uh and
let them start again I was helped along
with my decision to uh actually dig up
the silk floss tree I noticed some
gopher activity right there next to it
so I put a trap out as you can see
there’s the yellow so
I either got him or he just tripped it
let me
check ah he just tripped it so that is
too close for comfort so I’m definitely
going to be digging this tree up putting
it in a gopher basket I put two more
traps out
yesterday uh one in the bottom of the
future Pond and one over where Bill
flattened out where the English Garden’s
going to go both of them have the yellow
strip as well so let’s see if
let’s see if we got bested by the
Gophers on all
three yellow
strip now there’s a fresh Mound right
there so this makes me feel positive and
there’s some resistance so definitely
got him okay one for
two here’s the third one showing
yellow there’s some resistance there as
well two for three not bad look I’m not
going to show you the dead gopher body
but I did have uh somebody say that I
shouldn’t talk about or show that I’ve
killed Gophers at all because they’re
just going along living their happy
gopher life until they’re not and that’s
sad well you know what they can live
their gopher life somewhere else or in
gopher heaven but I’m always going to
show it because there’s probably a ton
more people out there besides me who are
dealing with Gophers tearing up your
yard and want to know what to do about
it gopher Hawks work I’ll put a link in
the description not sponsored all right
guys that was a long video I know I
tried to give a little extra because I
missed Tuesday no Friday today’s Tuesday
I miss Friday’s video still trying to
get back in the swing of things of two
videos on this channel per week and two
videos on Next Level gardening and it’s
been tough getting back in that rotation
so I apologize but I’ll see you next
time