- Today is a big chores day,
we have a lot of little things to do around the garden
and we're gonna get started right over there
by chopping and dropping those fava beans.
While I was on my way over to the fava beans,
I got stopped in my tracks
'cause I noticed that this zucchini is actually ready to go.
And I actually wanted to highlight
this variety really quick.
This is called Emerald Delight,
and what's really nice about it
is that you can see right here
that these leaves are very open and it's very branched out
instead of very compact and dense in here,
so it's actually really easy to see these squash blossoms
and the actual squash itself.
And there's actually one in here that's ready to harvest.
And while I usually don't like standard zucchinis,
other people in the household have different opinions,
so I do grow some regular squash for them.
So this is a nice, perfect young baby sort of zucchini.
This is my favorite stage to eat 'em at,
I find that they're much more tender, nutty,
and less watery at this size,
and still has some squashed blossom intact,
but it's not looking too good anymore.
So there you go.
Nice, perfect little squash.
And there's another one on the way,
so I'm very excited to see that
my squash is starting to be pumped out.
So starting from here (tranquil ambient music)
all the way down to the end of the bed over here
is entirely planted with fava beans.
Now I have done some chopping and dropping already,
and actually this area that I'm standing in right now
is entirely made out of chopped and dropped fava beans
that I actually only did maybe about three weeks ago.
So they break down very quickly.
And the idea behind doing this process
is that by taking this plant,
chopping it and leaving it to compost in place,
all those nutrients are preserved in that same area.
So these fava beans are very good at accumulating nutrients,
specifically they're very good at fixing nitrogen,
and all that nitrogen is bound up in the roots.
So we wanna make sure we leave the roots in place,
but we still need to kill the plant
and we might as well turn it into mulch
and actually return
some of those nutrients back to this bed.
Now, traditionally in this bed,
what I've had growing for a while are eggplants
that have been overwintering for quite some time.
But honestly I think they just got drowned out
by the rain this year.
The idea was that the fava beans would protect them,
but they didn't protect them well enough.
So we'll see if there's any eggplant left,
but first we gotta chop and drop this all.
So I'm gonna get chopping and then we'll see
if there's any eggplant actually remaining
down there in this fava bean forest.
Now that I've done a lot of the major chopping of the tops,
it's starting to get a little more difficult at the bottom.
So we're gonna come at the base
and try to cut it at the soil level,
and then I'll show you what's really going on
underneath this bed.
So right here I can actually see an eggplant,
but it's not looking too happy,
so let's do a little excavating here.
I'm gonna go ahead and pull one of these out of the ground
just to show you guys what the nodules look like
when they're full of nitrogen.
So this thing is absolutely loaded
in nitrogen, full nodules.
So let me bring you in a little closer
and show you what they look like.
So if you take a look at this root mass,
what you'll see are the normal roots,
which are all these guys hanging out here.
But all along these roots, these tiny little white balls,
those are the nodules that are full of nitrogen.
So this, like I said, is a legume,
and it does fix nitrogen
directly from the air into the soil.
What that means is that if I leave all these nodules
in the ground, they will eventually decay
and release nitrogen back into the soil.
So whatever I plant here next,
it's going to be able to reap the reward
from all the nitrogen trapped in these little nodules,
and it's going to make for a more productive bed,
which is exactly why we wanna make sure
we leave these roots in the ground.
But the plant tops themselves are also full of nutrients,
so we're going to make sure
that we also return them to the soil as best as we can.
So here's a little handful of these nodules
that I've separated from the roots.
And so like I said,
all of these are basically a little nitrogen bombs
that are going to feed whatever I plant there next.
So let's go back to the bed and chop off some more tops
and leave all these roots in the ground.
Here's whenever our eggplant victims from the year,
could see it's not looking too healthy.
So I think (chuckles)
this is a redo here.
So I think what we're going to do
is actually entirely reset this bed.
We're gonna go ahead, chop, drop and cover.
I'm gonna water it in
and we're gonna throw burlap over the top
to help cook this up faster,
so I can actually get some more plants in here.
So let's get in closer so I can show you this stump
on one of these fava beans
and show you exactly how to terminate one of these plants.
Here we are in the eggplant bed up close and personal,
and this is one of the eggplants
that I put in earlier in the season.
I'm gonna go ahead and walk away from it,
it's not looking too great and it hasn't grown much anyway.
But here's one of my overwintered eggplants,
which sadly is no more.
So I'm gonna actually pull it up 'cause I'm gonna,
oh, man this is an ancient eggplant.
This is one of the first things I put in the ground
'cause it actually still has
one of these jiffy pellet little covers.
So (chuckles)
these are one of the first things I tried to use
when I started growing
and it's crazy to see that it's still here
'cause they claim that it breaks down in the soil,
but it doesn't,
'cause I have it in my hands right here after many years.
So taking a look at this, the roots are entirely dead,
they've been actually chewed up and decayed.
So this plant is toast,
there's no chance for that to return.
Now let's focus back on this fava bean though
on how to terminate it 'cause this one
is one that actually already chopped and dropped before.
But what you're looking at
is there's a bunch of these little new chutes forming
and they're even flowering again.
So that's totally fine
'cause the flowers mean that it's fixing more nitrogen.
But to make sure this is properly dead,
what we have to do is actually come in at the very base
and either cut just below the soil level
to actually cut some of these roots out,
or cut into the stump to make sure that it can't regrow.
So probably should have got a bigger knife
'cause this is quite the stump here.
But I'm gonna go ahead below and cut these roots instead.
Most of the roots are still left on the ground
so that's totally fine.
But this basically guarantees that this fava bean
will not return because I don't actually want it to return,
I want it to actually be something else now.
Let's talk about next steps
on how to actually turn this back into a productive bed.
A lot of the chopped and drop material
wasn't really chopped that well using the shares.
So what I'm going to do now is use a flathead shovel
that I have just sharpened quite nicely
to chop up the rest of this material.
Now a lot of people have commented saying that
this looks like an incredible waste of time,
why am I not using something like a lawnmower
or power equipment?
And you're welcome to do that, it will make your life easier
if you use something like a lawn mower,
but for me this is exercise.
I like getting physical in the garden,
I like doing things a little bit harder
'cause I feel a little bit more connected
to some of the process.
So I'm gonna chop this up
and then we're gonna rebuild this bed.
So everything's broken up pretty nicely,
and if it's not broken, it's at least snapped.
The idea is to increase surface area,
make it easier for critters to eat it up
and turn it back into nutrients.
So now we're at this stage,
I'm gonna go grab a couple tools and let's rebuild this bed.
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(tranquil ambient music) by us here at Epic Gardening
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If you don't wanna buy anything at all,
enjoy the rest of the video.
I just wanted to give you guys a quick shout out.
This sale is only going until May 29th.
So let's get back to the video now.
I have to admit this whole bed flip process
is taking longer than I expected.
This was supposed to be a quick little segment
on chopping and dropping,
but we're doing it so let's just keep doing it.
And I will say that let's do an update in like a week or two
and see how this looks then.
Especially if you guys are interested in seeing that,
put it in the comments.
If you're not interested, I won't do an update I promise,
but let me move this irrigation out of the way
and we're gonna rebuild this bed.
The idea behind this is basically we're composting in place.
So what do we need for compost?
We need greens,
which is what all this chopped up fava beans are gonna do.
We need browns, which is what the straw is going to do,
and to make the whole process faster
so that we can actually plant in this within a week or two,
I'm also going to cover it in burlap.
Now you saw me cutting these bags in half,
these are coffee bags
that I get from my local coffee roaster,
and it's actually one of the cool perks
of having a nice local coffee shop
where they roast the beans in the house
'cause they get all their green beans
and coffee bags like this
and they often just give 'em away for free.
So whenever they have them for free,
I make sure to grab a stack
'cause they have so many uses in the garden.
In this case I'm going to use them as a top layer
of kind of extra mulch to help lock in moisture
and speed up the breakdown process.
So let's go ahead and start rebuilding this bed.
First thing we're going to do
is place all this green matter on top of the bed.
So I'm gonna just do this all with my hands
'cause I'm feeling very manual today.
So there's our green waste, our green matter
that's going to be creating the bulk of this compost.
Now I'm gonna go grab a hose
so we can get this nice and wet.
'Cause the more moisture we have at the beginning,
the faster it's gonna break down.
This next ingredient isn't necessary,
it's just old finished compost.
And the idea behind this is that
it's already got a lot of the bacteria
and stuff that compost need.
So this should in theory
help speed up the process a little bit.
Now we go in with the browns.
This is essentially a lasagna bed flip,
but we grew the lasagna in place.
And a lasagna bed is just a,
it's called lasagna because you're making layers,
so you're making layers of greens and browns,
which is what we're doing here.
This is a thick two layer lasagna.
Before we put the burlap,
let's put the drip irrigation over the top
so we could lock that moisture in even more.
This entire bed is now maybe six inches off the ground,
whereas when we started, it's probably only about
two to three inches max off the ground.
So it's now definitely a raised bed,
and it's looking pretty nice.
So I think at this point, just need one more stake here,
and then we'll go ahead and throw the burlap on.
Now again, this burlap
I wouldn't say is strictly necessary for this method,
but I do think it will make it go faster
just by providing a slight amount of darkness,
making it more comfortable for these critters
to come move in and really help them start this buffet.
This project is done, so now let's move on to the next task,
and again, if you are curious
about what this will look like in a week or two,
drop it in the comments
and I'll make sure to provide an update
in the next kind of vlog.
But for now, this guy is ready to go,
so let's move on to that next task.
(tranquil ambient music) On the way to the next task,
I remember that I have my grafted tomato
planted here in the ground.
So I want to show you guys what it looks like now,
and we'll definitely do progress updates
throughout the season.
But this is the fourth amino rootstock,
so that's the base that I grafted onto.
And what I grafted onto it as a Cherokee purple tomato.
So the idea is that this heirloom tomato will now
produce more fruit, bigger fruit
and grow more vigorously thanks to that rootstock.
And it's looking like it's taking,
it looks like it's alive and it's starting to grow.
So I'm very excited for that.
And like I said, this I'm posting updates on for sure
because honestly I wanna see if this is worth it
and I'm sure you guys wanna see
if it's worth it at home too.
So let's go ahead and move on to that task now.
The next thing we need to do today
is figure out how to support these determinate tomatoes.
So these are determinate, not indeterminate,
which means that they're not gonna get that tall,
they're gonna grow to a certain height,
maybe three feet max, set a bunch of fruit
and then once I harvest that fruit,
they're done for the season.
So I don't need anything too complex.
I think what I'm going to do is basically
build some sort of hybrid cage made out of string.
So without further ado,
(chuckles) let's just figure out
if this is going to work.
So all I have here are these really cheap wooden stakes
that you could get pretty much anywhere nowadays.
I actually bought these at a grocery outlet of all places.
So I'm gonna go ahead and put them in about a foot deep.
These do break very easily,
I don't even know why I bought them to be honest,
but here we are, we got them, so let's use them.
So now we have the actual stakes in place.
What we're going to do now is use some cotton twine.
And this isn't going to be quite a Florida weave.
I'm basically just going to make this cage out of string.
So the idea behind this is that once I tie this all off,
it's going to create a support system
on the outer wrung of all of these stakes,
that's going to keep the branches up
and hopefully keep some of this fruit off the ground.
So I'm gonna just come in like this,
and when I get to these center stakes,
I will treat it kind of like a Florida weave
in the sense that I'm going to wrap around it
just because it makes the whole system
a little bit more tight,
and it actually forces the two poles to be working together.
(tranquil ambient music)
By the way, early on,
I'm going to do the wrap more frequently
just to give it extra support.
So ideally I would probably go,
I don't know, every six inches, maybe eight inches,
but here I'm only going about four inches at the most.
So that's a great first wrap, but I'm going to have to put
another two or three wrungs on for now.
And then throughout the season,
I'm probably going to get up to around this height,
and hopefully these stakes survive that long.
So I'm gonna go ahead and throw another wrap on
and then we'll move on to the next task.
This task is officially complete for now
and like I said, I'm going to have to come back through
and do a couple more wraps throughout the season,
but for now I feel pretty happy about this containment.
So now let's go over to the other side of the garden
and take a look at some tasks over there.
A lot of you guys requested updates
on the strawberry tower and here it is.
It's looking quite nice.
The ones on the top rows are looking the best.
Now there are a couple dead spots
or ones that are on their way to dying.
I have been slowly replacing them,
but overall looks like I'd say 80% of them are thriving,
and then maybe 10% are entirely dead,
and the other 10% are probably going to be on their way out.
It's not too surprising with bear roots,
it's all a water management game.
So it's possible that these lower ones
weren't getting enough sun and they do feel wetter,
and that's most likely why they've actually died.
So at the beginning I definitely suggest
hand watering your strawberries of their bare roots
just to get them established.
And once they're established, they can handle the water,
but at the beginning it's just a little bit challenging.
But I am very pleased with this result overall,
and I think it's going to be a fantastic barrier.
So that's what these guys are looking at,
now let's go pop in the garden.
Now we're over here in the north garden for this next task
where I'm going to be planting a bunch of peppers
that I started in that previous video.
So I did a video a while back
where I showed you every pepper seed that I'm starting,
and now it's time to plant most of them.
So I've already planted some of them over here in this bed,
which is consisting of larger slicing tomatoes
in the back on the Florida weave,
and then we have two rows of peppers
based about 12 to 10 inches apart.
Lately I've been enjoying putting my peppers
much closer together
'cause I think they actually perform much better that way.
So we're going to do something similar here,
but this bed is a lot more narrow,
so I'm going to have to figure out
a little bit of a creative way to plant this.
I'm going to do a semi zigzag
where I'm going to start on this outer corner.
So that'll be pepper number one there.
And then I'm going to actually,
you know what? (chuckles)
I don't think I could even zigzag here.
So let's just do 10 inches and a line
straight down the middle because otherwise,
I'm just gonna get too close to these tomatoes.
So the first pepper I'm going in
with over here is tequila sunrise.
This is a wonderful kind of snacking or frying pepper,
has this really nice orange color to it,
and it's also quite prolific.
So I'm very pleased to plant this again.
I grew it in my garden last year
and I knew I had to grow it again.
So I'm gonna do two each of every pepper that I put in.
So this next one is again going to be tequila sunrise.
And that's gonna go in 10 inches away from the first one.
Now like I said, I find that going closer together
with peppers is actually a much better strategy
than going too far apart,
'cause when they get close to each other,
they actually shade each other,
protect them from suns scald and things like that,
they don't actually want on your peppers.
And then the next pepper,
let's take a look at what we have here.
I have actually, let's go in with these guys,
these are the Bulgarian peppers that I brought,
these are the (indistinct)
or most commonly known for most people is trevena truska.
And they make a very nice thick walled red pepper
with delicious sweetness.
Hopefully I'll save a bunch of seed this year,
so I could maybe share it with some of you guys
because this seed does exist out there.
But I found that the ones that I've bought elsewhere
just didn't perform as well as I'd like.
Now this is one of my favorite peppers.
So instead of two, I'm actually gonna go with three.
Now if you've ever found
that your seedlings are hard to get outta their container,
one of the best things that I found
is to just give it a nice smack on the side,
and then their seedling will just lift right out,
no problem whatsoever.
Let's put in, ooh,
two of these NuMex lemon spice jalapenos.
These are from Botanical Interest.
When I read the description, I knew I wanted to grow it
'cause I love lemony flavored things, I love jalapenos.
And putting those two together honestly sounds amazing.
So I'm actually
(chuckles) really excited to see
if the taste stands up to the namesake.
Next up, let's go in with this golden marconey pepper.
This is also from Botanical Interest.
This is kind of like the escamillo pepper
that I grow from Johnny Select Seeds.
And this one is actually an heirloom,
so I'm very curious to see how it differs.
It looks very similar,
it's a long kind of Italian frying pepper.
I believe this is a, well, it's golden,
so it's a yellow color. (chuckles)
And while I'm over here,
let's go ahead and choose the next one,
which is going to be Thai Hot and Mad Hatter.
Another two great set of peppers,
especially if you like cooking.
And let me actually bring you in a little bit closer,
so you can see actually what's happening over here.
(tranquil ambient music) As you can see,
I'm surrounded by flowers here.
So I don't think pollination
is going to be an issue for me this year.
And actually since I have so many flowers all the time,
pollination is never really an issue for me here.
And that's another great reason by the way
to grow flowers if you don't already do that.
So back to the planting, we're doing golden macaroni,
or Marconey, sorry, (chuckles)
right there, 10 inches apart,
that's the standard that we're going with.
And again, two of each.
I like to do at least two of every pepper
'cause I find that if I only do one, I'm very sad
that I don't get to actually use them in a fun way.
When you plant more than one of each type,
then you actually get a harvest
that you could do something with.
So for example, if I only had one of these,
and one day I went out and harvested two peppers,
I can't really do much with that for dinner.
I could snack on them, add 'em to my meal,
but they're not going to be able to shine and stand out.
So I highly recommend that if you guys don't do this,
that you try to plant more of fewer varieties
instead of a bunch of single varieties.
This gives you a better experience,
especially when it comes to cooking,
gives you more latitude to play around with things,
and to actually experience the peppers full potential.
So that's why I'm doing two of every pepper no matter what.
The only one that I would do a single of
is if I was growing something like a super hot pepper
or even like a habanero
'cause I just don't need that many of them.
I only need a few to get the full experience.
Right here, I'm going to be putting in the Thai hot.
And wow, these guys are actually in doubles.
I didn't thin them.
And you know what?
Let's not thin them, let's see what happens
if I plant two peppers in the same place.
Should be totally fine.
So actually just for the experience here,
I'm going to be removing one of them on the next one.
Get rid of that, and I'll just plant one in this hole.
So now we'll have a side by side
of a double planted pepper right here,
and a single planted one right next to it,
and we'll see if it's actually a good idea
or a bad idea to leave two peppers in the same hole.
All right, down to the last pepper on this bed.
That's going to be the Mad Hatter.
This is one that if you haven't grown,
I highly recommend it.
Not only does it look cool
like a little weird hat or like a little spaceship,
but it also is actually quite delicious.
They're not spicy, they're very snackable,
very easy to grow, the kids like eating them,
'cause they're so fun looking
and they're again, very nice and sweet.
At least that's been my experience.
So just for putting it in context,
when you compare peppers and tomatoes,
let's do a total count here.
I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
10, 11, 12 peppers,
to one, two, three, four, five, six tomatoes.
So you can get twice as many peppers in a row
as you can with tomatoes.
And like I said, I could even zig-zag them
and get even more peppers out of this.
(tranquil ambient music) So I think we've
definitely covered enough topics for today.
Hopefully this didn't run too long,
hopefully you guys learn something along the way.
If you have any questions
about anything I did in this video,
please drop 'em in the comments
and I'll be sure to respond or make a new video on it.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you.