In this video, I answer viewers questions.
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MENTIONED VIDEOS:
Tomato Canning with Alan: https://youtu.be/LlGdmCvzkSU
Crops for Shade: https://youtu.be/X7p9FoC99EQ
Transform Your Tomatoes with Aspirin Video: https://youtu.be/hzzizV1LFds
Planting Asparagus and Strawberries: https://youtu.be/yjQtfrcPT90
Neptunes Harvest (with discount) & Other Products I Love: https://www.nextlevelgardening.tv/products-i-love
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Hey Guys, I’m Brian from Next Level Gardening
Welcome to our online community! A place to be educated, inspired and hopefully entertained at the same time! A place where you can learn to grow your own food and become a better organic gardener. At the same time, a place to grow the beauty around you and stretch that imagination (that sometimes lies dormant, deep inside) through gardening.
I’m so glad you’re here!
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39 Comments
Time to start making swales dealing with rainwater runoffs.
If anything for all of our CA weather – then start getting hay bales (!).
– Put hay bales under the chicken house rain runoff in that area, controlling rain bounce (soil blight and mold bounce) and any wet/dry rotting of the chicken house concrete and wooden foundation. Molds, mildews, fungus, ….
– Put hay bales down and along the asphalt roadway shoulders (both sides), controlling the water flow, but also sucking up any water that can later mulch the hay bale into the nearby ground of that area.
– If anything, use those same (roadway and chicken house) hay bales for hay bale raised gardens, and plant a massive flower bed (sunflowers, dahlias, lilacs, crocus, daffodils, hostas, roses, ceanothus, … only needs monitoring and properly (and continuous) irrigation of the hay bales.
– Make a roadway shoulder hay bale raised bed veg garden (strawberries, blueberries, honeyberries, corn row field !, broccoli, cauliflower, mangel beets, daikon radish, … proper irrigation is needed.
I live in Minnesota. I don't over winter compost tea, but I certainly over winter regular compost. Freezing will not ruin compost. I just wait until it's totally thawed and warmed before working with it. It will pick up where it left off.
Squirrels …. Pellet gun. Not my favorite, but works.
Raccoons ate my entire grape crop in two days. 😣😣😣😣
Where the heck do you find clothes pins now days. LOL. Next to the 8 track players?
LOL. JK>
I grew tomatoes in shade last year and they did fine. Going to do it again this year.
Ive had a serious problem with small rodents attacking my root crops ever since my garden kitty disappeared. Any suggestion, other than poison? Ive tried topping the green onion tops 2 years in a row. I had terrible results on bulb sizes. This year Im not bothering with that. We'll see how it goes. I do know onions are heavy feaders, so I'm going to adjust that. I'm surprised that the person with the compost tea didn't get a burst bucket in those Temps. My bucket of comfrey tea busted open and drained out. I'm in NW Ohio.
Brian this might not be a question for you cuz of your zone. But I'll try anyway. I seeded onions indoors early here in Chicago Zone 5. Some info I find says I can put them out 4-6 weeks before final frost which is May 7 ish. But most are telling me no. Wait till May. Any ideas on this one? Thank You.
I have a 4'x6' bed for corn. Every year I loose at least 1/2 of the harvest to squirrels. Last year they decimated the entire planting when the they were 12 " – 18" tall. This year I bought 7' posts and a 7' x50' roll of dear fencing. I intend to cover the entire bed AND TOP. Hopefully this will work. If not, I'll just have to give up on corn. ☹
Finches were lovely. ❤️ Sorry about the rain damage. We got pretty wet in Bako, too, but we needed a good soaking, so I'm grateful. I'm heading outside to start cleanup as soon as your vid is over 👍
Pros vs. cons of rototillling established gardens each year.
YAY Brian's back! I've been checking several times looking for your smiling face! You guys are getting drenched! Keep dreaming about your plans, and little by little, it will start to become dry again and the sun will show again. Yes winter can be very brutal in the northern states, the comment sounded like my state, Ohio. Regardless, keep on keeping on, you are inspiring me to expand my container garden (the only dirt I have to plant in), and I have on my winter coat and gloves and mixing my new soil in the garage! Thanks for all your inspiration! 😊
BIRDS! They have eaten all my herb seedling leaves AND now my tomato seedlings. 😢
ANTS! Nothing has dissuaded them. Ive used professional pest control, hot water, and anything else including the white powder stuff. Ugh. Nothing helps. They bite or I wouldnt care about them. There are millions of them.
I had a problem in one of my raised beds with cutworms last year. I just turned some of the soil over yesterday and found a cutworm. How do you get rid of these awful things? I have not planted anything yet.
ME!! I will bring my books (I bought two copies, because, I just wont want to give my copy away when I meet THAT PERSON who needs it!) for signing, oh golly what fun it would be to come and be a fan for a day! You have been incredibly encouraging, inspirational, and just wonderfully willing to be transparent as your own learning curves revealed themselves to us, your gardening community. Love to you Brian, in a non weird way, and many thanks for your persistence, kindness, and garden education.
Thank you for all the great tips. Great ideas for motivation. Yes I love using toile for keeping squirrels & birds out of the garden.
Brian will you be growing any currants?
Brian, all the hummingbirds need our help in this very cold and rainy spring. I have sooo many of them now around my feeders. And- two of my oriole families are back already, eating grape jelly. Think about them.
Thank you Brian! We just had 3 nights of freezing temps and after 2ish days break, we have 3 more….ugh. so annoying some of my fruit trees flowered already. Stay warm and dry! I hope your retaining walls will be good! 🤗❤
When I was 10 or 12, being an avid fisherman, I decided to order worm bedding from Herders Hudson Bay Co. Being of such a tender age, I never bothered to do any research concerning worm cultivation…. Drainage, who needs drainage! LOL As you can imagine a couple of weeks later the smell was unbelievable. The Old Man insister that I dump the experiment. So if you do make a worm farm, remember that worms may like moisture, but drainage is key.
Question: do you grow Hibiscus outside. I have an awful time here in Michigan for the summer keeping a questionable named beetle(s), from completely stripping the leaves. Ive put up those bug bags and this doesn't seem to help. Im very frustrated, going on the third year. Its only about 7 feet from my garden area to. Ive even used organic sprays, and helps some but not enough. any, suggestion would be most helpful . Enjoy watching and learning from your gift of the outside, and hope your health is being maintained. And the weather calms down and not wash and destroy your creativity.
As
Always I learn something. Thanks!
Question:
Can I raise tomatillos in a raised bed? How can I do vertical tomatillos, do they need to be trimmed like tomatoes?
I'm Getting too pained to do in ground gardening so am changing over to all above ground and at this point, free tires are all I can afford. Is there dangerous leeching from tires? Some say yes, some say no, when i looked it up.
Blood meal has contributed to my dogs destroying my garden.
Imagine -11 with -33 or more windchill and having to care for chickens that week. I got super sick the next week! 😮
I would say you have done an incredible job with your property in a year and a half. Unfortunately California needs the water so badly but feel bad it is doing so much damage. In AR we’ve had a lot of rain and really cold temperatures. Our last frost in my are is supposed to be April 9. I think I will wait a little longer to plant. Weather has been crazy everywhere. Praying you don’t loose any gardens from erosion. Prayers and blessings sent your way ❤️🌺
I'm mixing my own soil this year – 3 cu ft peat, 3 cu ft compost and 1 cu ft of perlite. It costs about the same as the cheap potting soil but is much better quality. Hoping it helps in my container garden. I didn't have a container big enough to mix it all up so I got a folding dog pool. I worked great and hopefully will last a few years! I also invested in some Neptune's Harvest fertilizer both crab and lobster and tomato veg so I hope to get more crops this year.
Leggy seedlings – definitely pile up hay/stray on each side of the planted row – and lightly snug the barrow edges toward the seedlings. This gives them all the extra needed support they need. Don't transplant – at this point. Too late to thin. Shouldn't need to thin at any time with proper seeding measurements.
Laughed when you clarified contextual use of pruning 😅
Have you tried to grow Goji Berries? Do you know if they are juglone tolerant? I have a black walnut in my yard.
Are there any vegetable plants that prefer or tolerate afternoon sun? I have two planters that, in the middle of summer, don't get sun until 10.30am and will be in full sun all afternoon. Conditions are hot and humid in Massachusetts at the height of summer. I had malabar spinach and sweet potatoes there last year that seemed to be ok. It is also near a black walnut tree so juglone is also a consideration.
Cover cropping is the bomb. Feeds my chickens in winter and the worms are crazy mucho! Easy to shovel up and it’s compost. I use chicken straw bedding and leaves on some beds in fall. I’m seeing people put smallish compost bins inside their raised garden containers. Looks like a good idea if you keep moving it around. Seems like another chore to me. Mostly inground in my backyard. Some pots. Your garden looks beautiful.
Hey Brian I am growing Merlot peppers for the first time and I just realized that my fingers are stinging, burning from them. They are only 10 inches tall. ( by the way 2 weeks ago same thing I just didn’t know it was this transplant) is this the correct peppers? I bought these from CaliKim.
I so like the Q & A videos. I always learn something new and helpful. 😊
I have chickens. I’m just wondering how to use their manure, what will be the process to convert it to use in the garden?
Tulle is miraculous! It stops everything from eating my baby plants and greens! Now if I could just cover my peach tree, I might get one to eat!
My father taught me a lot about gardening. My Grandfather and his father grew tomatoes in west Texas. (Difficult). For now I will talk about the onion thing that you talked about. He taught me that when the onion is about three quarters of the way grown. Bend the green stuff over to the ground and scratch away the dirt about two thirds of the way from the bulb. It really works. P.S. I'm in Oregon. I really enjoy listening to you and your great teaching ability.. Thank you..
We just had 20+ inch of snow & now rain! Fun time