Growing a NO DIG Garden from START TO FINISH - Growth and Harvests Over 5 Months

[@TheKiwiGrower]

If you’d like to check out part 1 of this video for some further info you can find it here 🌱 kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6jXf6d7Z92omKc Thanks heaps for watching todays video and feel free to share it with a friend who might also enjoy 😁

[@athury6084]

Thanks so much&i'll try it

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Hope it goes well! :)

[@athury6084]

@@TheKiwiGrower if u dnt mind i can your number

[@lukehurley6922]

I grow the same beans that you grew in this video every year and we've always let them dry out on the plant picked beans in the fall and Hall them out and then canned them in pint jars we fill the jars with beans about half inch to an inch from the top and then go back through and fill them about halfway with water then we use them for different things like vegetable soup and other soups

[@lukehurley6922]

I've also had better luck with those doing little 8 to 10-foot teepees connecting them all together with a board across the top for me personally they tend to like to climb high

[@TimUckun]

I appreciate the effort it takes to record footage over the months and then edit them together to present a story at the end. Thanks for doing all of that us. You are a great story teller.

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Hi Tim, thanks so much for this comment. You’re right, it does take a long time to put it all together, so it’s really nice to get comments like this! Cheers 😁

[@catherinegrace2366]

Right? Inspiring!

[@antmanthegnome]

One day when I own a house with a proper yard, this is exactly what I want to do.

[@1Alchemist]

same!!

[@bustedkeaton]

I did it when I rented a place with a decent yard, it was great!

[@gnomobarbudo7630]

This is one of the most useful and interesting farming videos I've seen.

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Hey thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed :)

[@megamanmadrid]

OMG I can't believe this, I am romanian and as a kid I always went to my family's corn plantation and it always had squash and beans growing along side each other. To see this growing technique on the other side of the planet is just mind blowing 🤯🤯🤯

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks for the comment, glad it could remind you of that!

[@bustedkeaton]

Native Americans taught European settlers this planting trick. Corn, beans, and squash together is called The Three Sisters.

[@megamanmadrid]

@@bustedkeaton Yes, I found out about The Three Sisters method later, doing research on youtube and Internet. Thank you 🤗🤗

[@dinkohrvat344]

In croatia they plant watermelon under the corn

[@sidleeah2593]

Greetings from Texas. I'm retired and mostly confined to an apartment after a life filled with gardening, farming and working in horticulture. I watch a lot of great TV, including your videos. Thank you for them. You do a great job on all fronts. They're interesting, informative, and beautifully shot. The things you choose to grow are compelling, from unusual fruits to indigenous American companions, all grown very well. And as the presenter you are well spoken, personable, and easy on the eyes. I was in New Zealand once, stuck overnight on the plane with a brief visit into the airport 🤪. How nice it is now to visit your beautiful place and thrill to the pleasures of plants once more. Thank you so much, sir! Sid

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Hi from New Zealand! Thanks very much for the feedback, its definitely appreciated. Glad I could show you a little more of NZ than just the airport haha

[@nicolasbertin8552]

I've been doing no dig in my urban shared garden for 3 years now, and I learned a lot. There's a lot of mistakes people make with no dig. The first mistake is usually to NEVER dig. It works in sandy and loamy soil : you put organic matter on, and it works. But with clay soil, no. You still have to dig it once in a while, coz it compacts itself with winter rains. Or the way that I do it now, is a powerful cover crop of rye, vech, winter peas and fava beans. The second mistake is the type of organic matter. But that's not limited to no dig : people in America especially often put too much nitrogen rich matter and fertilizers. You don't need all those bone meals and fish meals and blood meals... One carbon based mulch is essential, like straw or wood chips, and you pair it with a nice nitrogen rich mulch, like compost, grass clippings, manure, or in my case spent barley from a local brewery (amazing product). But if you put too much nitrogen, you won't feed worms and mushroom enough, who love carbon, and you'll end up recompacting your soil if it's clay, or at the very least be invaded by nitrogen hungry weeds like quack grass or bindweed. But beyond that, no dig is easy, and SHOULD be the gardening and farming of the future. Whether it's cover crops or permanent mulch, it just works... Roots in the ground, worms, and some form of mulch, you won't need to dig anymore. And it's much more productive once all the soil life is booming. Your plants are less sick, your veggies taste better, and you don't have to break your back working the soil.

[@RobinFlysHigh]

Thanks for the info!

[@nayohme728]

for our compact soils here in west texas, as digging becomes a job after a while, we like to add a good bit of sand into it with our compost, it really helps maintain moisture and well as keep it loose enough it isnt compacted again

[@lifeliver9000]

Very wise info and similar to my no dig garden experience, interesting what you say about clay soils. I’ll use that tip.

[@judylloyd7901]

@@nayohme728 Clay soils maintain moisture. Sandy soil drains and dries out really quickly. Clay soils are the most nutrient rich, but they're heavy.

[@ahabthecrab]

The stripy butternut looks to be a cross with a calabaza pumpkin and a butternut. These two types of squash can easily cross pollinate since they are very closely related.

[@michaelyciano2123]

He is soooo attractive with all his farmer knowledge.

[@thelaudd8570]

never really had an interest in gardening/growing things but saw a video on my recommended by you and ive gotta say everything ive seen so far is extremely informational and easy to understand for someone not very knowledgeable about this art. loving the high quality videos, keep up the phenomenal work!

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks so much, that's so nice of you! Glad you're enjoying them :)

[@mattbuszko]

watching gardening videos helped me get into gardening. I was just a voyeur for a long time lol, but then I decided to actually start trying to grow some things I was personally interested in. For example, my landlord had a gooseberry bush (if you're not familiar, they're like a very interesting mix between a tomato and a cherry - sour and sweet), so I got curious about trying to get one of the seeds to sprout. That was only about a year ago, but it's had quite a pleasant domino effect. I'm growing papayas now, different types of spinach, a few baby coconut trees. So cool once you start trying your hand at some of this stuff

[@Neuralatrophy]

But, even though you didn't get a massive harvest from the beans, you actually did get a massive harvest BECAUSE of the beans... The nitrogen fixing from the legumes may have directly affected the health and size of your other plants, the squash in particular and you got enough back to plant beans in again next round. Would be awesome if industrial farming picked up this kind of tactic rather than fertilizing the crap out of everything.

[@theadventuresofzoomandbettie]

That's a really good point I didn't think of!

[@teresamexico309]

Also, adding the pumpkin/squash plants they do a great job covering the whole surface, so weeds do not get a chance to grow so no chemicals to kill weeds are needed, which are very toxic. Large scale farmers could do the same, as you have said it.

[@haharmageddontv6581]

Three sisters for the win!

[@haharmageddontv6581]

@@teresamexico309 also cools the ground to avoid scorching lower leaves/roots and saving watrr

[@mythologistthe92nd]

My mind is going a mile a minute at the moment! The only problem I see is that industrial farmers need to use machines to harvest large areas quickly, and as the three sisters are so different there isn't a single machine that can be used on all of them at once I think. Maybe flying drones? Imagine thousands of small flying drones connected to a computer that first harvests the beans at the top, then the corn in between the stems and finally a tractor or whatever you harvest pumpkins with when everything else is done! I wonder if you can make something like that cost effective... 3D printing maybe?

[@flipfloop3225]

The only seasonal KZbin channel

[@iri3977]

Wowww!! Awesome Harvest indeed !! Thanks for sharing👌

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks! And no worries at all :)

[@TobyJin]

Definitely will give this a go myself when spring hits, you managed to get so much out of a patch of land with not that much effort. Hoping this technique of growing things will also help recover the health of the soil as well.

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Awesome Toby, looking forward to hearing how it goes! Definitely one of the best ways to improve soil health in my opinion! No dig really helps the soil food web develop without disturbance :)

[@TheGreenBean]

Great video! I switched over to no dig also and it has been a real game changer! I pulled 18 pumpkins this year. Everything seemed to grow better with no dig.

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Nice one! Totally agree :)

[@astick7777]

Three Sisters! Good job Kiwi

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks Adam!

[@jamieevans1387]

I think this is my favorite video so far!

[@dallastehunaPT]

Bro your video quality is 10/10. If only you had the time to pump out a video every week haha.

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks man, appreciate the feedback! Haha yea wish I could get more done too :)

[@moseshenry1180]

That was my favorite gardening video I've seen in a while.

[@bensrandomshows1482]

From New England, omg this gives me the region's fall vibe, its great!

[@IWantMyTimTV]

The videos just keep getting better! Thank you for this wonderful presentation!

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks so much Tim! 😁

[@dominicanwar363]

I think your show is great btw. Re. 3 sisters (squash, corn, beans). I tried it here in Malta (North African climate). Just like you, I noticed that the beans didn't do well but the squash and corn did OK. I think I know what is going on! Despite the 'hype' my experience is that beans need as much N as anything else to grow here. HOWEVER, once they have grown and start to die back, the N is released (from the root nodules) to the soil. I did an experiment this spring planting tomatoes next to peas but towards the end of the pea season (March / April here). Sure enough, the tomatoes have gone crazy as the peas die back (it is also very useful that the tomatoes cling and climb to the pea stalks, so removing any additional need to support them). I suspect that the 'finer details' of the very ancient 3 sisters method have been lost over time and the key to making it work is to grow the beans 1st. Then plant the corn approx. 1 Month before the beans will die back. As the corn grows (and needs more N), you can tie the bean vine to the corn of course, thus freeing up the understory to plant squash. Then, as the beans die and release mineralized N to the soil, both the squash and the corn benefit with the double whamy that the ground cover reduces evaporation so requires less water. Tah dah! i.e. the missing part that makes the 3 sisters work is timing. Also, (because you clearly enjoy the unusual) may I reccomend (if you haven't already) that you try to grow 'yard long' or 'Asparagus' beans (USA) or 'snake beans' (Asia)? I have found that they will grow in our 30+ C summer heat when most other beans fail and they are amazing in stir fry dishes (obvs. not a good choice for 3 sisters). You may be very surprised at the taste. Keep the videos comming (so sad that I cannot grow feijoa here (3 attempts at both seeds and saplings all failed) I am very envious).

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Hi Dominic, thanks for the info. Yea like you say I believe plants are able to access the nitrogen more once the bean plants die off, but I think there is also a fair bit of research that other plants can still benefit fairly well from living nitrogen fixers due to root shedding. Definitely an interesting topic and something I'd like to keep learning about! The technique of the timing you've suggested does sound like a good option and makes sense, so thanks heaps for that :) I had a go with red noodle yard long beans this summer and got some from them (showed them briefly on my Summer garden tour video). They didn't thrive here like the runner beans I grew, maybe the Summer wasn't hot enough, but we at least got a bit of a harvest from them and they were a cool thing to have growing! :) Cheers

[@gabie4442]

You are fantastic at what you do. May GOD Bless you.

[@Samandcolbygirls.2024]

Hey Brother, love your channel i live in Western Sydney penrith to be exact in a warm Temperate climate with winter morning 0 to 8 deg and 35 to 44 deg summers day i love your no bullshit approach to grow give your subscribers ever bit of information you can without the fluff dont change mate your doing a great job

[@kaijinzens]

I love your videos

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks so much!

[@juntjoonunya9216]

Oooh wow this is cool! I now want to learn all other ways of combining crops like this efficient method

[@jocelynashley4337]

So much information! Love the video, it's great to see the no-dig garden mature over time 🌽

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks Jocelyn, definitely was a fun process. Glad you enjoyed it! 😁

[@Marcus_Postma]

About a year ago I got a bit of a surprise to find a pumpkin patch growing in my back yard. Mind you I have various plants that grow wild there (mostly along my fence lines), including grapes, various peppers, black berries and a couple vegetables I don't recognize. I also have cherry trees in my front yard, and pine trees in both the front and back yards. Turns out my neighbor was disappointed because he thought he didn't grow any of the pumpkins he planted, when in reality they just all grew in my yard. But we can't see each others yards with all the vines and small trees along our fence, so he didn't know that until I mentioned there were pumpkins growing in my yard (12 of them). By the way I live in Lower Michigan, so the weather isn't the most predictable.

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Awesome to have some wild fruit growing in your back yard. Haha your neighbour must've been a bit confused there for a minute lol

[@suduputha659]

your great organic farmer 👩‍🌾

[@matsudaindustries2530]

Such an underrated channel, amazing videos 🥰🥰🥰

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thank you so much!

[@martinjuarez2508]

Muy estimulante tu video, desde cero a la cosecha. Gracias. Abrazo desde Argentina 🇦🇷 🇦🇷

[@vancegilmore245]

Everything looks so healthful and delicious....

[@KhanCrete]

something that i've learned from growing up in the american midwest is that corn tends to draw up nitrogen from the soil without returning it, and beans tends to replace nitrogen in the soil. that's why we have a crop rotation in my area of corn one year, soybeans the next, and so on. i feel like that's another reason why the three sisters method is so great (aside from making great use of the land and providing some great, multi-use crops), it helps to manage the health of the soil more than any one crop would. loved the video

[@greenhillsparadise]

Totally inspiring and a fabulous watch!!! Love your videos!

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks Jo! 😁😁

[@naumikaur7459]

Absolutely brilliant! I learnt something new about companion planting. Will definitely try it this year. Thanks

[@lobsternaut2351]

your life sounds so fun

[@SquidSnackG]

Dude! You got me hooked on this farming/growing stuff! So cool!

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Haha I'm glad you're enjoying them man!

[@tochterdesbodens2449]

Awesome! It's my second year gardening in the cold country. See how you've done it gives me a huge inspiration! Thanks for sharing!

[@rodneylane7640]

We really enjoyed this - we were looking forward to a harvesting video. Its been a while since you gave an animal update - could you do a video about the how your animals are all going now (dogs and cats and fish included). We noticed there were turkeys in a few videos so would love to hear about them and where they came from. Really enjoying the beautiful green vista's behind you as well - lovely area you live in. Keep those video's coming. :)

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Hi Rodney, thanks glad you enjoyed :). The animals are all going well, not sure when I'll do a video just on that but we raised our turkeys from eggs, and we now have them as companions - they just roam around in our paddocks with our sheep and hang out with us too :)

[@5pecular]

The tri planting trick is cool

[@zane8789]

Definitely trying this method next year

[@morgangsta]

Cool! I got a dirty dancing vibe with all 3 butternuts when baby was carrying all the watermelons 😂✌🏼

[@TheKiwiGrower]

🤣🤣

[@lagurr]

Beautiful corn! Mine were missing a bunch of corn but still yummy 😋! I'm going to plant them closer next time like you did! Love seeing the planting till harvest it's always motivating to see such great results 🙌🏾🌺🌱🍃🌿

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Hey, still nothing better than fresh homegrown corn either way right! Glad you enjoyed the video and good luck with the future growing! :)

[@Zphora]

Amazing! Thankyou❤.. I will buy land/ property in a year and start gardening / permaculture/food forest. I will have crops, bees honey animals etc. I can’t wait! It’s the dream life!!!! This channel is so inspiring ❤❤❤

[@EventHorizon34]

I just love your gardening videos! Going to implement some of your ideas into my own garden. Thank you so much!

[@Walktowardstruth234]

I love your gardening videos and the tips too

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Glad you like them! :)

[@riotprincess1983]

This is such a wonderful video, it made me INCREDIBLY happy!!!

[@amgadmedhat6211]

The delts bro😂🔥

[@drlawitts]

You gotta be very organized to make videos like this and keep a steady narrative over many months

[@charlenes5]

Awesome garden

[@sikabongvlog4862]

Love your garden too much. Love you😘

[@epposcrap]

Had 50 sweetcorn plants 1 summer and i must of harvested 140 cobs, each time i had a bbq id take a few, also i bumpered it with raddishes inbetween. Great vid good harvest and thanks for the wins and losses

[@p-nice9]

Fantastic Videos!

[@MMSY]

Thank you for upload

[@miamelrayo9793]

Looks like you live in a perfect climate to have a perfect garden ❤️

[@TheKiwiGrower]

We're pretty lucky here, but still some challenges (like wind), and also the cold which doesn't agree with some of the subtropicals I like to grow haha. Cheers for the comment :)

[@chazhawaii7608]

Aloha from Pahoa, Hawaii. Mahalo for your great videos. It is clear that you really enjoy what you are doing. Had to laugh at your “no workout today.” I can’t imagine where you get the time to do that on top of all the farm work that you do. So much of this brings up fond memories of my childhood. I am originally from Northwest Ohio. My grandfather had a small 10 acre farm on which he grew mostly corn but would rotate out to soybeans, especially when the prices of that would go up. I remember the sunflowers also. He would sometimes grow popcorn which was awesome. My grandmother was in charge of all the other veggies, lettuce, cabbage, green beans, etc. As kids we would go over and help out with the weeding. I really enjoyed the fresh green beans and haven’t found an equal since then. Keep up the great work!

[@Eidenhoek]

:06 That is a very cute corn.

[@keithcurrie570]

Excellent video thanks

[@natureretreat5655]

Good work 👍

[@Aryan.N]

I love those pumpkins!😍 one day I'll try to grow some

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Such cool looking pumpkins ay! Hope you do grow some, it’s a lot of fun :)

[@SirathPoemsri]

Really adore this vid, you have a lovely day!

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks so much :)

[@planterbanter]

Haha the turkey is so cute 😂 love the no till method and looks like you did a great job. Enjoyed this video a lot!

[@MsMaurice69]

Good show mate from across the channel.

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Cheers Clayton! :)

[@rajishmaharaj7552]

Great video

[@mohammadsadegh]

Thanky you. you are the best. The area where you live is extremely beautiful and full of energy. And you were able to convey the beauties of your lifestyle to me very well. I love it! I would love to experience this unique energy. You really work with love. good job. I hope your life is full of beauty and beauty. Really, you are committed to taking videos and training all this time, it can be nothing but love for your job, you are unique.

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks so much for the feedback, glad you enjoyed! :)

[@bustedkeaton]

Sunflowers make a good "fourth" sister to the corn, beans, and squash--they're great stakes for the beans just like the corn.

[@helenmcgill5563]

Fabulous video, cheers 👍

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks Helen! 😁

[@urrain261]

This is a very great video, i learnt something new as a beginners. I really appreciate your efforts of making this. Thankss!!!

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Glad it was helpful!

[@DonMega06]

My dad grows different types of gourd and squash, when they do dry out just drill a hole for a bird and they absolutely love them for bird houses

[@VCsGARDENINGCHANNEL]

So nice and big 👍👍

[@FrozEnbyWolf150]

I was thinking the striped butternut could be a "Barbara" butternut, which has the same striped pattern as a cushaw. It's the same species, Cucurbita moschata, as your Long Island cheese pumpkin. The typical butternut can grow quite large under the right conditions, though some like my personal favorite, the Tahitian butternut, are bred to grow to massive sizes. Also, I was hoping you'd mention that the beans you planted, the scarlet runners, are known to be perennials and should come back year after year. It's one of the few beans that produces tubers, which help it survive cold winters, and also happen to be edible.

[@sonjaveda9832]

Wow thats cool

[@سعيدالطنحاني]

Thank you , from uae👋🇦🇪

[@horaceandspeedy]

I've only just found this channel which is a bit embarrassing being a Kiwi too. Having just moved to a 809sqm space on old river bed from a larger space on top of a sandhill I am looking forward to things growing a little better without the use of so much water. I'm just in the midst of clearing out the previous owner's non productive items and starting from scratch with edibles. So many favourites waiting in pots for me to get the ground ready!

[@Mr.srinath]

I wanna see this area..😢😢 so beautiful mountains..❤

[@natsellar8982]

Perhaps you could try double row planting your corn/bean crop so you can walk between them. I single row plant and hand polinate the beards of the corn every few days just to be sure I get full cobs.... it works well. I'm going to try your intercropping with beans next year. Thank you Kaleb. :)

[@alexbickers7389]

So excited to find you on KZbin. Wild weather here in Northland, NZ today, so got to do some KZbin cruising. Looking forward to following your gardening journey and learning from you. Cheers

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Hi Alex, cheers for the comment! Glad to have you enjoying my videos and hope to see you in some of the new ones coming out :)

[@chrisitinabobinski3798]

Looks like you got around 75 lbs of squash that was my goal but I only got around 30lbs but new gardener hope to do do better this year with what learned thanks for going over the companion planting and the downs about the beans .

[@midei]

I love your channel. Very interesting. New subscriber. Greetings from Spain!

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks so much, Hi from New Zealand! :)

[@matthewmartin6252]

I haven't seen any comments on the Long Island cheese pumpkin so I wanted to make sure you know that you should definitely give it a go again. My climate is very different from yours (very hot and humid U.S. south) but I find that they love full sun and are extremely vigorous climbing vines. You can expect huge leaves that can easily reach about a half meter wide. I usually only get a couple of fruits per plant but what do grow make the best pies. They are rich and buttery!

[@bupetitochisunka3870]

You should try the pumpkin leaves they are very delicious, watching from 🇿🇲🇿🇲

[@AGRIMOVIEemi]

BRAVO OTTIMO lavoro 👍👍👍

[@jantellfowler5883]

Just subscribed, great video 🥰🇧🇸🖤

[@KiwiGirlG6]

Thats so cool, i learnt about the 3 sisters method but i wasnt to sure about how it would work in Nz

[@natsurusen]

Awesome video! The butternut pumpkins look more like a Piena di Napoli 😄 planted also some varietys and got something different out of it.

[@thepenavaro]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

[@TheKiwiGrower]

No worries Miguel, thanks for watching 😁

[@handelhan7264]

good job

[@isaaculentas]

Love it!! Thank you

[@TheKiwiGrower]

No worries! 😀

[@ihopeugrow]

Did u have any pest problem with this no dig garden? Love this video!!! More power! 💪

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! I did notice a few stink bugs around, but nothing that really caused any damage :)

[@Manes-Ancestrales]

Fantastico ♥️❤️❣️💓

[@dilladibia476]

This was very helpful and the crops look really good hahaha 😁 I'd like to try it soon and maybe use them for cooking 😁

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Hi Dilla, glad you found it helpful! Hope you give it a try :)

[@detdailylife]

I love that fruit

[@reedsloan9663]

Im crowning this guy "crazy dave" from PVZ

[@dilladibia476]

Present brother 😁 always like the content you create, makes me want to go there as well hahaha

[@TheKiwiGrower]

😁 Thanks so much Dilla, glad you’re enjoying my content!

[@MonsterPumpkin]

I clicked the video accidentally but I just had to stay after the intro, I was too emotionally invested in Billy the Butternut by that point

[@SirathPoemsri]

The best

[@dilsediltak1891]

i am from india and watch your video

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Hey thanks for watching! :)

[@incorporealnuance]

I really wanna do this, because I love corn, but all I gotta do I find some varieties of squash & beans that I don't loathe to eat

[@claudiob.7528]

Vielen Dank! Sehr schönes Video 😊

[@TheKiwiGrower]

Vielen Dank, ich bin froh, dass es Ihnen gefallen hat :)

[@whatisgoingonineedtoknow.]

I found growing squash and pumpkin close together can get crossed pollinated, so they might not look what they should be but still tastes good and if you save the seeds it might not grow true.