My BIGGEST Soil Experiment EVER!

What soil is best for your garden? It's a question I have been asking myself for years! I have been fascinated by how critical of a role soil plays in our plant's development and all the different approaches and methodologies that exist. While I have done countless smaller scale experiments, I had never trialed these different soil blends and methodologies beside one another. So, I decided to rip up a huge chunk of my backyard and launch the biggest soil experiment I've ever conducted! Check out today's video to see which three soil blends I will be growing the exact same vegetables in and subscribe to be notified of the results!
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[@VistaSergy]

I like the random shoe holding person over fence in background at time 5:13 😂❤

[@patty594]

even I am an agricultural student I still watch video like this because it is good hearing lessons from gardeners who have experience🌱💜

[@MindandSoil]

That's awesome to hear Patty! Where are you based? Super cool you're going to school for agriculture!

[@babythanhx3]

I’m really in awe how you did all that work. It’s my first year gardening and I’m truly inspired by your dedication. Not only that, but the details down to the design is beautiful. Thank you for all your hard work in doing this experiment and I can’t wait to watch this journey and how it unfolds.

[@MindandSoil]

Oh thank you so much for this Tonya!! So appreciate you sharing those words with us. How did you come across us?! Additionally, there's nothing I enjoy more than helping first time gardeners! Do you have any specific questions at the moment? Let me know and I'll be happy to help you fall in love with gardening any way that I can :D

[@catheriney5672]

So looking forward to hearing the results. I was sad to see your trellis come down, wish I could have teleported it to my garden 😄 Thanks for sharing this... amazing hard work!

[@MindandSoil]

Haha! I should have checked before to get it for you!

[@clivesconundrumgarden]

Well, that was a lot of work. But I appreciate the scientific approach. We watch a youtuber in Britain, Terry King, who uses a few techniques to keep his beds from rotting. Ahh those beds are beautiful. All that sweating will be worth it. It's for science!! Oh! Charles Dowding just put out a compost comparison video and he basically finds homemade compost with worm castings is fabulous. You should watch that one! We thought of you! Cheers Colleen and Jason 🌱

[@MindandSoil]

Hey hey! Yeah I saw that one pop up - still need to check it out! Yeah it's going to be really cool to see how to continue improving that bed each year as well. I'm thinking I'll do that from more of a soil food web approach

[@yoriichi3347]

Whats the update on plant growth

[@keyaC42]

I’m new to your channel and you have encouraged me to start my own vegetable garden. I’m so excited for your experiment results. Thank you so much for the knowledge.

[@MindandSoil]

Keya!! You are making my day! Thank you so much for sharing this with me - means the world to me! Where are you based and how are you feeling about the first season? Here to help answer literally any questions!

[@keyaC42]

I’m based in Maryland and I’m feeling a little nervous and excited at the same time, but I’m learning a lot from your channel. Thank you so much.

[@MindandSoil]

@@keyaC42 Love to hear that!! And if you have any questions at all at any point through the season please please please just drop them as a comment on any video - I'll respond within 24hrs. It can be a little bit daunting and overwhelming at first but I'll help you through that stretch and then you'll be absolutely loving your gardening time!

[@kelleyleblanc5025]

This is awesome. I’m excited to see how it goes. Thanks for putting in so much hard work to do this :)

[@MindandSoil]

Ah thank you so much Kelley! Appreciate those words and your support 🙏🏻🙌🏻

[@oldporkchops]

I watched this video because Ashley mentioned it in a video of hers. I tried looking for the Results video but could not find it. Did Ashley let the cat out of the bag by briefly mentioning the results in her video? :)

[@PDXGardenHome]

Thanks for doing this! Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

[@MindandSoil]

Appreciate that!! I need to get back down to Portland, lived there for a year back in the day and love it

[@jamiem3575]

Hi Jordan! Happy spring!!

[@MindandSoil]

Happy Spring to you too Jamie!! Where abouts are you gardening?!

[@jamiem3575]

@@MindandSoil I’m in upstate NY. Zone 5a. Things are growing. We had a very wet and unpredictable spring. I’m a little behind, but not giving up. 👍🏼

[@MindandSoil]

@@jamiem3575 Oh super cool! I'll be out in the Catskills in early September! Any chance you'll be around?

[@jamiem3575]

@@MindandSoil well there’s no telling, maybe! Catskills are about 2 hours north of me. I’d love to see the mountains in the fall. The hardwood’s colorful leaves. Breath taking!

[@merez08]

Seeing that you trellis the Sun Gold tomatoes. Do you prun them as they are cherry tomatoes. I planted mine a month ago in Toronto and was told not to prun cherry tomatoes.

[@MindandSoil]

Great question! Most importantly - do know that you can prune or you don't have to prune - there isn't a right or wrong. For this experiment I will be pruning them to help keep it as consistent as possible (all growth will then come from the main stem). However, for my other tomatoes I am going to compare 100% of suckers pruned to keeping 3 suckers on each plant and see how that does! stay tuned as Im sure Ill share the results as a video!

[@felicia6383]

Exciting

[@MindandSoil]

Couldn't agree more Felicia! I can't wait to see what happens!

[@russellradwanski5771]

Shout out to Ashley for recommending your channel!

[@MindandSoil]

Yasss! Love all the experiments we're getting up to with Ashley!

[@russellradwanski5771]

@@MindandSoil I really fell in love with soil experiments over the lockdown. Can’t get enough testing of various soil amendments in different growing conditions, particularly the making of and use of different types of compost and it’s effects in the garden. I was just telling Ashley I’ve got 4-5 different types on the go to compare and contrast their effects, time from setup to usable product, etc. Would love to go deeper and do full blown mineral and biological assays but unfortunately that’s not really possible where I’m at, so subjective effects on my plants and the smell and feel of things is all I can go on. Looking forward to more soil experiments!

[@MindandSoil]

@@russellradwanski5771 Love that Russell! Honestly I think that there are lots of really great findings from the way you're approaching it. Getting into the actual lab analysis pieces is interesting, but in a lot of instances I would say they are probably more so confirming what you're already observing! Keep up the amazing work!!

[@Brad-99]

Good episode 😁

[@MindandSoil]

Ah thanks so much Brad!! I like how you call it an episode. Perhaps a little foreshadowing for something I've got planned next season 😎

[@Brad-99]

@@MindandSoil right on ! right on ! Right on. Lol Cheers

[@MindandSoil]

@@Brad-99 Hahah!

[@DohertyFSJ]

Do you use treated wood for your beds? I've heard so many differing points of view in whether or not to use it. I wonder if you could point me in the direction your research took you on deciding?

[@MindandSoil]

I've used both! In terms of research I just Googled around a bit and also found results from folks saying to use them and to not use them. I'm not a big fan of fear mongering so I didn't hesitate to use them and have preferred them as they don't rot as quickly. And I'm still alive and in good health! :D

[@TheEdudu15]

What is going on at 5:10?

[@DougPowell01]

No wonder it was hard work, that tiller was far to wimpy.

[@sjoerdmhh]

Experiments are always nice! I think your Dowding-bed is not Dowding at all. As Charles Dowding explains quite often, he covers the native soil with a layer of compost regularly and this compost breaks down (so the beds don't get much higher over the years). The plants start out in the compost but will root in the native soil. So filling a bed with pure sifted compost, on top of a tarp isn't Dowding style. The soil organisms have to be able to mix compost and soil. And why is only the soil scientist bed straight on top of native soil? Dowding is not "soil is bad", but it's "feed soil (organisms) from the top, not by mixing".

[@MindandSoil]

Thanks Sjoerd! It's not on a tarp - that's just a layer of landscape fabric that I believe the roots will be able to pass through and into the native soil. I put this down because as I was digging that bed up tonssss of tree roots had crawled up into it and were strangling the bed. So my hope is that the layer of landscape fabric will allow the smaller plant roots through while keeping the tree below. I'd be curious to hear what you think!

[@sjoerdmhh]

@@MindandSoil makes more sense now. Is the landscape fabric biodegradable? You might be better off with a layer of cardboard, which will break down and allow the passage of macroscopic soil organisms as well (here that would be mostly worms) because those will do a lot of mixing. And you won't be left with bits of plastic with roots stuck in them. Still not sure if CD would apply such a heavy layer of compost. He treats (and discusses) the compost as a mulch layer, not a soil replacement.

[@MindandSoil]

@@sjoerdmhh I was thinking of doing cardboard - that's what I've done in most of my other beds, but knew that once it decomposes all of those roots would have come back up through the bed... which now has me thinking and wondering if that's going to happen in all my other beds that I established with cardboard 🤣

[@jasontoolan3816]

Love this one too, thx. Will you teach us about residential, powered aerated static composting? How much easier it’s creation is compared to the old manual rotation methods. Taking advantage of intercity free wood chips. Please share why this Biodiverse Compost creates resilient farm crops, according to Dr Elaine Ingam Food Soil Web, founder. It’s worth looking into. I’m a homeowner with a leaf blower, a tarp and a garden hose. Making high value Biodiverse compost and donating to my local farm.

[@MindandSoil]

Love that you're donating it Jason!

[@jamiem3575]

First comment and like!!! 💜💜💜

[@MindandSoil]

Wahooooo!

[@deborahtofflemire7727]

Any one no how to get rid of ground hogs???

[@kelleyleblanc5025]

Yes. One way may have some cringe (I’m on a farm) I’ve also heard relatives use those sound emitting spikes and it worked

[@MindandSoil]

It's not something I have experience with but what I would probably do is put chicken wire/fencing down at the bottom of the bed so that water and roots can pass through but so that no animals can dig into the bed

[@kelleyleblanc5025]

5:15???

[@MindandSoil]

Haha omg Kelley. If I had a penny for the number of clips I have where while filming the neighbours do something, or their dog starts barking, or a kid across the street falls and starts screaming, or the landscape company starts weed eating at another house near by, lordy I'd be rich! 🤣🤣

[@kelleyleblanc5025]

@@MindandSoil always something!! It was a good laugh 😂

[@MindandSoil]

@@kelleyleblanc5025 Hahah totally!

[@jez770]

So you didn't keep the initial bed as a control?? Who's to say it wasn't absolutely fine? Its like treating a patient just off a blood test - big no no. Need to look st symptoms. Why did you even do this, what wasnt working with your previous system? Just for a video idea? I am not impressed with Ashley's experiment design at all.

[@haidafella8651]

First bed was the control