I've looked at some of the most insane gardening hacks on the internet and
suggested some better ways to do them in previous reaction videos here at
Epic Gardening. But today I want to flip the script and look at YOUR gardens.
Kevin Espiritu here from Epic Gardening,
where it's my goal to help you grow a greener thumb.
And while I have a soft spot in my heart for those Blossom videos,
those sort of silly ones, I have an even softer spot in my heart for all of you.
We just recently passed a million subscribers here on the Epic Gardening
channel, which is insane! Can't believe it,
and could not be more grateful to all of you.
So I had you all send in your gardens for me to take a look at here on the
channel. So I can't do all of them.
You guys sent in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them,
but I've picked some. And if you like this series,
maybe we'll do more in the future. But without further ado,
for a million subscribers,
cultivate that Like button and let's get into reviewing your gardens.
First off here, we are starting with Aaron En. We've got,
looks like a birdhouse gourd garden with some corn.
I mean this is really interesting actually.
We've got gourds lining the back fence and then you've got some sort of floating
row covers in the front. Very natural looking garden.
It looks like standard wood raised beds. And what's going on in the back there?
We've got corn that's sort of wrapped up at the bottom with something.
I think that's probably to keep it together and increase pollination.
Really creative look. Great job, Aaron.
I actually am quite jealous of the gourds that you've got going on.
Next we've got Jeremy Goldsmith. Okay, Jeremy,
this is a great example of how to grow in smaller spaces.
This is actually a pretty big balcony.
I didn't grow on a balcony this big when I was in an apartment,
but you can see what he's doing.
He's pushing everything right up next to the railing,
trying to maximize that light.
I would suspect he might have some sort of stipulation where he can't hang
things over the railing because otherwise that would be a great place to put
some of this stuff. But he's got a very lush,
looks like urban vegetable garden going on there.
I see a couple of houseplants in there. Nice job, Jeremy. Grant P. Look at that!
I mean, you cannot go wrong. A man and his gourds will never,
ever be topped. And I may have a photo like this pretty soon.
So great job Grant P on that.
Here's a creative creative garden from Jade Hope.
You can see she's got some tires in here.
She's got just a standard sort of four by four raised bed.
She's got some of these tomato cages.
Just a great example of how to maximize space and use things creatively so that
you don't have to spend a lot of money. You can even see on the side here,
she has these just standard fence planks that are bolted into the fence to get a
couple of extra containers in there. So, great job Jade. Alyssa Scott, wow,
this is a tidy garden. I really like the mixing of different styles here.
You can see she has an IBC tote there.
That's probably to collect some rainwater, I would imagine.
And then she's got container gardens.
She has a standard raised bed with an L shape.
And then look how she's connecting these trellises.
So she's got what will eventually I think, as the season ramps up,
be a gourd tunnel, a squash tunnel, a cucumber tunnel, tomato tunnel.
Cause you'll be able to climb them over and meet in the middle or just climb it
all the way over.
And you'll have things raining down on you as you walk through your garden.
So great job there, Alyssa. Link Robertson. Okay. I know Link pretty well.
We've chatted a bunch and he's got a fantastic garden, I have to say.
That's a proud man right there.
And I would be extremely proud to call that my garden. So great job, Link. Okay.
This one is from Learn Stuff.
I chose this one because I'm just extremely jealous of the greenhouse in the
background.
That's a very classic style of greenhouse that looks absolutely gorgeous.
This is more of a more classic landscaped backyard, nothing wrong with it.
Absolutely love it. Very gorgeous. Here we go. This is,
I wanted to show Richard Mason's garden because it's a great example of what you
call a keyhole garden. So it's a U shape.
It allows you to get a lot of square footage,
but at the same time you have accessibility. Because if you were to let's say,
not have the keyhole, you would have a hard time reaching into this massive bed.
So the keyhole garden allows you great access and it's also a great way to fit a
garden into potentially unconventional spaces. Sarah Schutter.
Here we have a great example of what I'm assuming is going to be a pretty hot
climate adaptation.
So what she's done is she's created a way to put a shade cloth over effectively
her entire gardening space. Now I've seen this before, once in my life,
in one of the best backyard gardens I've ever seen.
It's kind of a top secret garden. I'm going to do a full tour on it pretty soon,
but I was extremely impressed by that.
And it looks like Sarah is doing the same thing.
So even if you're in a hot climate,
you can make these adaptations and get some production out of the garden.
Here we have Lilian Tong's garden.
I like this one because it's a difference in material.
A very clean and crisp look with these cinderblocks and she's got a very nice
and orderly bed.
So I think it looks fantastic and I can't wait to see it filled in.
Here's Emily Martin's garden. What I like about this one here is number one,
she's built in her entertainment or her chill area surrounding the garden.
So when you're sitting underneath there with that amazing little dog right
there, maybe doing some grilling or something,
you're surrounded by gardens on your right, gardens on your left,
gardens in front of you.
And then she's got an amazing solar panel array going on.
And what I really like in the foreground here is she has these pieces of what I
assume are just wood that was lying around the property as her natural looking
garden edging to form either a semi-raised bed or just to edge out the space.
So it's a great natural look here. Here we have Fearless Home Gardening.
I love this name. Fearless Home Gardening.
This is a great example of planting in a somewhat natural way.
Not very hyper-organized. And I don't mean that as an insult. I mean,
it's a very aesthetic look. It looks very natural. It looks very pleasing.
You can see you've got some edibles mixed in with some ornamentals. A beautiful,
beautiful garden. And I just, I'm really impressed. This one's from Scott Parks.
You know I'm all about that fire pit, Scott.
But what I really like about this is you created a separate space.
I'm assuming you might have some pest pressure.
You might have some rabbits or squirrels or chipmunks,
and that's why you've gone with a fence that's tall like that.
But you've also edged it out and put some railing planters along it to even
maximize that space further.
So if you are someone who does struggle with pest pressure,
maybe this is a good option for you. Our next one here is from Sarah C.
The reason I like this one is number one, you have a tall,
low raised bed in the front where you can grow some of these deeper-rooted crops
in the taller section and some more shallow-rooted crops in the lower section.
Great way to use that.
But then she's got this just massive trellis that looks like it's adapted from
pallets potentially, or just a very simple construction lumber,
growing an absolutely abundant amount of produce. So, very classic garden.
Absolutely love it. Here we have Vickie Sutton's garden.
I love any kind of arbor,
but what you'll notice here is she's making use of five gallon buckets,
which are a gardener's absolute secret.
You can use them for just about everything, including growing crops.
I'll even take a shower,
when the shower's warming up I will keep the bucket underneath the faucet,
and then I will use that water in the garden.
So I can sort of double use that water.
I don't need to just run it down to waste.
But what Vickie is doing here is first of all,
very creative container use and she's mixing and matching.
You're able to move a container around.
And what you'll notice is she's on a paved side yard here.
So this kind of is her only option unless she wanted to build raised beds on top
of concrete.
So I think this is a great way to use a container garden to get the most out of
a paved surface. Okay. This one I just HAD to include,
this is from Ryan Capinski. Look at that face. That is a man who,
if you mess with this guy's potatoes, you will pay the price. So Ryan,
I empathize. If someone ever messed with my potatoes, I would destroy them.
I would absolutely, I'd spray neem oil all over their face.
I would try to eradicate them in some way.
And you've got a healthy crop of potatoes there, my friend.
This is Kanani Pottinger using grow bags,
but what you'll also notice is on the right side here,
in this little brick lane inground bed, she's doing some brassicas.
It looks like some sort of broccoli or cabbage or something like that over
there. And I think it's just a great way, again, a very paved backyard,
but you can still maximize it. Especially with these grow bags going over this,
looks like turf grass here.
So a great way to add some greenery and some produce to what otherwise would be
sort of a barren paved space. This one is from The Minted Maiden,
and I love gardens like this that are absolutely jam-packed with stuff.
A lot of the times, when we're growing in our small spaces,
you've got to just cram stuff in and let nature take its course.
I love a semi-unkempt garden. And I'm not saying that this isn't organized.
It's organized in the sense of it's just overflowing and it looks absolutely
beautiful! This cosmos in the foreground is incredible. And man, I mean,
I would love to sit in that chair back there and just enjoy like a cup of tea or
something in this garden. So a great job, Minted Maiden.
This is The Espinoza's Urban Farm.
They're using a Greenstalk vertical garden tower.
One of my favorite vertical gardening systems ever. I really, really like it.
It looks like they have the modifications, the support modifications,
which I don't have on mine yet. They're growing some amazing kale,
some amazing greens. I mean, if you're in a small space,
you kind of have to go vertical. And I'll do a whole episode on that.
Although I have done a profile growing beans in the Greenstalk vertical tower,
but I'll do a full profile on the Greenstalk sometime in the future. Good job,
Espinoza's Urban Garden. This one's from Andria Simone. The sheer scope of this,
that beautiful sunset that looks like it's about to come in.
And look at the trellising system over here.
It's hard for me to tell exactly what plant she is growing down there.
I would have guessed probably tomatoes from last season.
But what I really like about this,
take a look at how she is placing these grow bags. She's saying, you know what?
I can get even more production by just putting little grow bags in the corners,
in the pathways here and there.
And she's got what looks to be a sunflower hedge that was just sprouting up in
the foreground here. So, very well laid out garden. You see these hoop houses,
these bent over PVC that she can throw a floating row cover on if need be.
Beautiful garden. Very well laid out, very well organized.
So this garden is from JE and you know it has to come in here because it's the
beds that I use here at the Epic Garden,
that I actually distribute here in America. So this is from JE.
It looks like they've got a tall and a short bed.
But really what's exciting about this one to me is this X-wing
shaped bird netting structure that they've built.
It looks like they've got some conduit.
They've used some sort of black bendable plastic type of PVC material.
And then they've got this bird netting around,
which is a fantastic way not only for birds,
which will come after your fruits and things like that,
maybe a strawberry bed - they'll really love to get in there.
But this will also prevent squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and things like that.
So a really great adaptation.
I also like the very neat and tidy drip irrigation they have set up here.
So this one is from my boy Luke, over at Legendary Urban Gardening.
I love the name, Luke. You know that. This is a potato harvest.
I mean this is a man who loves his potatoes.
Anyone who loves potatoes is a man after my own heart or a woman after my own
heart. I'm a potato fanatic and I absolutely love them!
I've got about 36 of them planted in the ground behind me right now.
So good job, Luke, nice harvest my friend. This one,
and I apologize if I'm not pronouncing this correctly, is from Phanat Xanamane.
This is a crazy beautiful crop of brassicas here.
You've got some colored cauliflowers here. I mean, you've got some broccoli.
This is really, really envious ...
I'm very envious of this because I struggle to grow brassicas here in my
climate. And even when I do grow them they don't look quite this good.
So this is an absolutely gorgeous harvest.
I can see probably a bigger operation here.
If you look over to the right there's a greenhouse with some hanging,
maybe hydroponic strawberry systems or something like that.
But absolutely fantastic harvest, my friend.
So what we're going to do is finish it off here with Joona Besada.
I love this perspective. First of all, it's a gorgeous home,
gorgeous view in the background. But take a look, I mean,
just try to name every crop that you can see growing here. I see corn,
I see squash. I see maybe some peppers in these containers down here.
Some tomatoes may be in the foreground,
potentially potatoes over to the middle right. But man,
beautifully designed and a fantastic example of how much you can cram into a
small space.
This looks like one of those homes that has that really sort of narrow profile,
but the property goes back quite a bit.
And it even looks elevated because you can see these stairs in the mid-ground
there just coming up. I would love to tour this garden sometime.
It looks absolutely amazing. Very, very nicely done Joona Besada.
It was really difficult for me to select this few gardens of yours to
react to. There were hundreds,
there were hundreds and hundreds and I WILL do more of this in the future if you
guys like it. But I just want to take this time to say, hey,
thank you SO much for the support here in Epic Gardening,
whether you're here from YouTube or you're on the podcast,
or you've bought a copy of the book, or you're an Instagram friend.
I mean it really is crazy to think that something I started in my garage in
2013 has gotten to the point where it is now - all off the back of just sharing
something that I love to do. So I can't thank you enough.
If you guys are interested,
I may do a How I Became The Epic Gardener origin story video at some point in
the future here on the channel. But for now, thank you so much, everyone.
Good luck in the garden.
And keep on growing.