hey everybody Sam here and Angela and Welcome to our Channel welcome back to our garden
we're out here on a glorious sunny and pretty toasty day in today's video what we're going
to do here in the garden is we're going to be mulching our beds which is uh you know
something to do in and of itself but while we do that I'm going to be walking around
with my temperature probes our moisture meters and doing some data collection I'm curious
like probably some of you are if the raised beds are really really hot how does it compare
to our soil temperature in the ground and then how much of a difference does it make
when we add our straw mulch on top so let the science begin I have here a dual probe
meat thermometer or a food thermometer this is the one we have on hand and hopefully it's
going to be pretty accurate since it is supposed to be used with food first thing I want to
test is how the temperature of our raised beds unmulched Compares with the temperature
of our ground I'm going to pick a spot that has not been watered we have our irrigation
turn on early in the morning so some of our paths have moisture in it I'm picking a spot
right here that is dry I'll put one probe into the ground the other one is going to
go here in our pepper bed where like I said no mulched it's also dry and let's see what
the variation is on temperature
now wait a few minutes so the temperature probes settle down and I get accurate readings
and what I'm finding the soil is 77 and the raised bed is 86.
so the raised bed is warmer I don't think any of us are really surprised at that however
it's only nine degrees warmer which is not as bad as you would expect right now it is
about two o'clock in the day it has been full sun today so these beds have been baking they've
not been shaded we haven't just got out here with the sunrise so I think this is a pretty
good estimation or good result for measuring the difference between the soil temperature
and the bed all right what we want to test next is our green bean bed the one that we
replanted the other day this one has been mulched so let's check the temperature on
it as opposed to the ground soil right next to it
here is the temperature of the soil down to the ground it's 81 degrees in this particular
spot changing over to our raised bed it is also 81 degrees very interesting in this case
it looks like the Earth temperature and the raised bed temperature are exactly the same
with the mulch very cool
the last thing I want to do is check the bed temperatures between mulched and not mulched
sure it's pretty much what we just did but why not do one more test at least here I can
flip between the two different probes on the screen and begin to see bed one and bed two
so there we have it in this particular instance it looks like what like a Three Degree difference
between the two beds not a big difference but we're still going to be mulching the other
bit of data we haven't yet covered is the moisture level difference between the two
beds of mulch and not mulch that's where the difference really comes into play we do have
the rain point that we have hooked up to our phones so we can check what the humidity is
and for the Bean bed that has mulch it is still at a hundred percent humidity but for
the pepper bed it is only 75 so it has lost 25 percent since being watered this morning
it has been less than a week since we planted these bean seeds and I don't know if it's
the difference in moisture in the soil because they have been mulched the whole time but
these popped up really quick and we already have some that are about three inches tall
so maybe all the extra moisture is really letting them pop quicker but hey I'm happy
with it oh okay I think we're done playing science fair projects maybe maybe not but
let's go ahead and get rock and roll with what we want to do today as Angel has got
here big old Bunches of wheat mulch or wheat straw let's mulch our beds that have yet to
be done
[Music]
thank you [Music] our carrot bed and turnip bed is looking not really great and we're
kind of debating whether or not we should or shouldn't mulch it because the growth are
very very small we're going to go ahead and lightly mulch it if nothing else the extra
moisture retention should help it and if they need to grow they can push through the straw
just as easily I mean they pushed up through the dirt so we're thinking we're not going
to mess up by doing that because otherwise they're looking a little too toasty and I
haven't been doing much regardless [Music] thank you
[Music] as we do our cabbage bids you're going to notice that one does not look like the
other we have some bamboo poles that we got from our neighbor they have a Big Bamboo patch
we went and helped trim the bamboo for them and we got a lot of free poles to use in our
garden so we have both of them set up with the stakes but one has the bug net cutterer
and the other one does not it should be here in a day or two we're just kind of waiting
it to arrive we thought this would be large enough for both but it's not so hey that's
the way it goes just a little explanation on why the two cabbage beds look different
what this exactly is and what that eventually will be
thank you
foreign
[Music]
well I think it looks a lot better actually with all the mulch on there or the straw whatever
you want to call it it does I like it it looks a little more finished and I'm glad that it's
going to hold in the moisture a lot better because it's like every time we come out here
it looks bone dry on the top may not be underneath but it looks like it on top yeah definitely
well guys hopefully you got to enjoy hanging out with us in the garden here today this
is a little short project for us but it's something that is honestly really really needed
to happen and it was really fun or cool to see the temperature differences between the
ground the raised bed unmulched and mulched right and like you said the moisture as well
which is probably the number one thing about mulch is moisture and here we definitely need
it because it's so much drier and hot yeah than where we were yeah over the past two
weeks we have got one inch of rain that was basically one storm that rolled through and
that's it this uh is a much drier climate than what we're used to up in the mountains
of North Carolina we got thunderstorms regularly probably like every evening out here not necessarily
the case nope well guys thanks for coming along as we got our garden mulched if you
have any questions or comments leave them below otherwise we'll see you guys next time
on the homestead see you guys bye
that's our own little so let's find out I don't know so let's find out how it goes no
that's fine just let's find out I'm I'm just Frozen so you you whatever let's go oh come
on do something more than that I don't know so let the science begin so let the science
begin it's reading 84.
so not a huge difference there oh it's not 84.
who's teaching Master our kids me it's time to get with the program it is get with the
program
another important thing we're taking to in consideration as far as getting ready to mulch
that made no sense is the moisture levels between the beds is hugely hugely what kind
of grammar so it has lost a quarter of the percentage of yeah here is the earth here's
the Earth Welcome To Earth guys I've waited a couple of minutes so that the temperature
probes equalize e-colorize nice so it has lost a quarter of its humidity out of the
beds by evaporation or whatever yeah that's still all right I have given these these how
long has been so it's lost 25 percent
it's this way I can expose
all right pose my answer too hot in the garden uh face up a little bit get some more catch
more light