Every Gardening Method We Use and Why They Work For Us

Hey Luke, Louise from Australia, I love growing eatables, it's been me from very young age but have never inherited or been able to purchase land of my own,. I grow everything in styrofoam boxes from local fruit shop, but I would love to share a little bit of what works for me so that you can grow ever more, I blend my fruit veg scraps in a blender and I pour it around any of my garden 🏡 plants, then I sprinkle over some dirt to cover, if I have energy I will scrape around gently the base of the plants and pour in mush deeper down then cover with soil,. Hope this assists you in your practical garden 🏡 methods,. Louise, love your passion all the same

This year, I threw in sweet potatoes between my rows of tomatoes to use as ground cover (I have squash and pumpkin plants near my peppers and corn). I don't know if they'll product sweet potatoes, but the leaves (once the vines are long) are a great spinach-alternative, and since they sprawl, they'll help protect the soil. This is my first time trying this particular plant in this way, but they're growing quickly. In just a week, I've noticed a good 4-6" of growth, after a week of getting established.

Aboriginal peoples live in Australia, not Africa.

Hi, I’m new to gardening and planning our Spring 2024 garden early. A good amount of your seeds are out of stock but I’m guessing that’s bc the season isn’t over yet 😊. When’s a good time to look on your site to purchase seeds?

Is core gardening compatible with no-kill gardening?

How big of a lot are you growing on ? Seems like your in a neighborhood ?

Hi Luke, thank you for this video. I am 67 years young and have gardened most of my life. I started a new garden 3 years ago when I moved into my present home. The back yard was a mess of packed dirt, dog poo, shredded polyester dog toys and plastic pieces from 6 years of the previous owners. It was daunting! After a major cleanup, I started raised bed lasagna/no dig as it was impossible to get a shovel into the ground and my back isn’t what it used to be. The first season was trial and error, second season good results and last summer was great! I now have a1/4 acre of permaculture tree guilds, 7 fruit trees, a xeriscaped garden, pollinator beds, grape arbor, strawberries and a small veggie garden. I have to give thanks to your MIgardener channel, Gardener Scott and Charles Dowding for all your expertise, suggestions hard work and advice. You have made this gardener’s efforts an exciting adventure with minimal effort. Thank you! Growing Big at Home, Maureen.😊🌻

I pretty much have to figure a lot of stuff on my own from the onset because most gardening videos are for cooler or temperate climates.
Tropical climate here in the Philippines FYI. Rainy and warm. I'm still figuring out how much I should add compost and fertilizer since literally half the year is the rainy season, and I'm still wondering how much nutrients are being washed away, plus worries about root rot.
For my fellow tropical gardeners:
– I've tried using grow bags and air pruning pots for better aeration and drainage. Ants kinda seem to like using the grow bags for material though, so maybe air pots might be a better option.
– If using the 1/3 each mix of perlite, compost, vermiculite/peat moss, I was thinking of slightly adding more perlite for better aeration and drainage, particularly during the rainy season. Maybe something temporary or that decomposes like rice hull.
– I've managed to grow some cool season crops like lettuce and kale on the shady parts of the garden.
– Ton of slugs and millipedes in my area, so I switched to mulching with compost instead of leaves/straw/etc. Might be doable during the dry season since there might be less of them.
– Not really needing thick mulch, at least during the rainy season.

This provided a ton of great info and answered a lot of past fails already. Thank You!

Tomatoes dying here

Thank you for sharing these thoughts. They are, at the same time, both lofty (in the sense that you know that your viewers are smart enough to understand the complex realities of trying to garden) and pragmatic (in the sense that you aren't being ideological, but rather, "I can grow better quality food for less money and less effort if I did it this way…"). It's a great balance. I've learned a lot from the combination of following your channel and trying a lot of different things in my garden.

I'm wondering if the core method would work in containers? the largest containers I'm using right now are 15 gallon grow bags.

Thanks. Great information.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this one about plant spacing, I always plant close together because I need the space, and the plants almost always grow great by doing half the space requirement on the seed pack. And yup, keep trying using different methods in your gardens folks, we all have a bit different climate soils and green thumbs, some plants grow like crazy for me others I cant even get the seeds to germinate ! And if I do buy the plant it still dies!
But lots does grow and do extremely well! Keep trying everyone, I love all of our YouTube garden teachers! This one guy I watch in Australia, he says, you don’t have to grow all your food but everyone should grow at least some of their food!””
One last thing, you mentioned straw! I am a 2nd year Strawbale Gardener and I can tell you it’s great! A strawbale retains water like crazy! It’s like watering a spong!

Hey Luke, many thanks for your videos. Just a quick question: with polyculture, how can you keep the seeds for the next year?

Wonderful explanation and doing very good farming. Your tips and guidance are very much informative.
Good luck

I wish mich would get warmer!

For many years I did the traditional straight-line method. Then I changed to square foot gardens, then raised beds, and now a combination of grow bags and clumps. Clumps are kind of like flower beds, just put one in a corner over here and over there, wherever there is some space, this is great for perineal like asparagus, sunchokes, walking onions, etc.

Thanks for this video! Very helpful!

Hello I just wanted to thank you so much for your awesome content and beautiful soul 🙂

The word that you are looking for is indigenous, not aboriginal. Since most of Africa was populated by Bantu-speaking peoples during the past two thousand years, the term indigenous probable doesn't apply either.

This was one of your best episodes imo. Thx for all the great advice and ideas. 😎

Most people don’t understand how important living healthy soil is to produce a thriving garden with high nutrient density. Stop tilling your soil, layer feed with organic matter like wheat straw and top soil , veggie scraps, wood chips, coffee grounds, and add homemade compost. That’s the easiest and simplest way way to creat a great living soil for your garden to thrive in. Do this at the very start of the season around
Jan-feb depending on where you live and when the ground frost melts. I stopped tilling and started layering years ago and my harvests have only increased year after year. Not to mention pests have gone down too not sure if that’s just coincidence or healthy soil deters pests and insects. That’s my two cents.

Do you replace the core straw every year, please? Thank you!

Hi! I’m using this winter to learn more and I tried to buy your book on your webpage but it’s sold out! Please let me know when it will be back in stock as I’d rather directly support you!

Really excellent info!

Sunflowers also remove lead from the soil, they are nature's purifiers. Make sure to throw them in the garbage bin at the end of the season in order to get the accumulated lead out of your property.

Do you have a video showing how you use the straw bales in the garden beds?

Luke, this was an excellent video. Thanks so much for your wonderful tutorials.

Sorry, I have a question. Do you bury the hay every spring? If so, doesn't that disturb the soil, which is something you were trying to prevent in the first tip? I like the hay tip for raised bed. I ended up doing that this year without realizing the benefits. Thanks for the explanation.