Things You Can BURY in a Raised Garden Bed

In this video, I show you all the things you can bury in a raised garden bed and I explain why burying organic matter in the garden is good to do!
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Self Sufficient Me is based on our small 3-acre property/homestead in SE Queensland Australia about 45kms north of Brisbane - the climate is subtropical (similar to Florida). I started Self Sufficient Me in 2011 as a blog website project where I document and write about backyard food growing, self-sufficiency, and urban farming in general. I love sharing my foodie and DIY adventures online so come along with me and let's get into it! Cheers, Mark :) #Raisedbeds #Garden #Gardening

[@Rig0r_M0rtis]

Next vid: "A dingo came and tried to dig out the chicken I buried. Now let's see what happens when you bury a dingo in your raised garden"

[@lisa2stewart]

That made me laugh out loud!

[@suzmac1526]

😆😆😆👍🏻

[@LiamR90]

This is genuinely how I want to be buried. No coffin, no embalming, no cemetery. Just on my own land in the dirt.

[@davidalearmonth]

"Now that it's winter" he says in t-shirt and shorts. I enjoy this channel, but have a slightly different experience here in Canada. :)

[@pirellyn]

Pretty cold here in N Scotland in winter (although we’ve just had a heatwave). So how long would it take to decompose in a colder climate?

[@kiwicombie]

Middle of the day in Brisbane is perfect weather through winter. Houses are generally cold at night as they’re built for the awful hot, humid summers

[@NordeggSonya]

Rocky Mountain House Alberta here. Cool and windy day here. Hit probably 20 C. Three hard frosts already. I have to cover my stuff in the greenhouse too. Gonna be a bad winter. I'm afraid already.

[@davidalearmonth]

@@NordeggSonya I'm over in Ontario. Yeah, I feel like it may be a rough winter coming.

[@jonathanfaulkner878]

“I’m glad you’re doing because you have gloves on.” Immediately proceeds to dig and handle with his bare hands at the sight of a chicken carcass.

[@JenniferChurchman]

It was a duck he went after with bare hands and it had been in the ground 10 months compared to the chicken he had just recently put it the other bed. And either way just wash your hands.

[@Cocoagoddess_]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@andersenzheng]

what could that chicken do, peck him?

[@kenpca]

@@andersenzheng LOL

[@BelieveInTheLordJesus777]

I think he was ironic. Another example is that the boy "complains" about the smell but the veteran doesn't care. :)

[@maikas_missions]

I wish I listened to my Father when i was younger, he grew most of our food and now i live on youtube trying to learn what my father tried to teach me

[@fullsend4life28]

Exactly this

[@chezmoi42]

Mark makes a good YT dad for gardening.

[@simplifygardening]

The microbial and soil life is so amazing at recycling all forms of decaying matter. All those nutrients are now back in the ground where they can benefit the growth of your plants. Excellent video Mark.

[@Selfsufficientme]

Thanks Tony! BTW, I haven't seen your latest video yet but looking forward to watching in soon when I have a break 👍

[@partlycloudyoptimist809]

Every time I work in the garden I feel like I’m burying my problems. Wether that benefits the plants not sure. Helps me out though.

[@KeeKeeSoto]

That's beautiful 😊🌿

[@Megatron995]

Plants grow well in sh*t, so it should help them! ;)

[@zanewalsh1812]

Glad I found y'all ☺️✨🙏🏼

[@neverlostforwords]

@@zanewalsh1812 Welcome. 😊

[@zanewalsh1812]

@@neverlostforwords thanks 🌄

[@barakofir245]

The most impressive part of this video is where you managed to get the boys to help around the garden.

[@earthkeepinggreen7763]

I loved him jumping out of raised bed🤗

[@jjudy5869]

If you raise them from the time they can toddle around, helping out...

[@chezmoi42]

@@earthkeepinggreen7763 That was great.

[@rhysdehaan]

You are a great man and living the way we should all live.

[@Tsuchimursu]

One Mark making dad jokes is fine but oh no if this world didn't drive me nuts were we all living like him...

[@earthkeepinggreen7763]

If only we could

[@driftingsoulsisters]

Afternoon Mark! Ive recommended your other raised bed filling video's to so many people, Weve recently moved and filled 2 large garden beds, lots of logs, goat poo, chook and quail poo, leaves, grass clippings, cardboard boxes, mulch, weeds, plant trimmings, waited 6 weeks and only needed 2 bags of potting mix to top it up

[@2ndSprings]

"Normally I'd wait 12 months to dig up an animal..... Actually, normally I wouldn't dig up an animal." Brilliant sense of humor, good sir.

[@MegaAshabasha]

Very surprising how quickly and completely the duck decomposed and a good reason to get rid of the coffin/cremation industries! Awesome to see the young blood getting their hands dirty too!

[@andersenzheng]

with better protection gears too. wear a glove, it does not damage one's macho. you never know if your soil has broken glass or rusty nails in it.

[@chezmoi42]

@@andersenzheng Well, you do if you built up the soil yourself. But if you're gardening in doubtful soil you have a point.

[@lornacollins1949]

I bury fish and fish guts. I occasionally bury crab shells when someone has a boil and donate the remains. I don't even use lime over it. Never had a problem yet.

[@partlycloudyoptimist809]

Having a terrible panic attack before work. This pops up to save me. Thank you.

[@felipelima9631]

Change your life ASAP. Simple life, like raising animals and cultivate food is simple enough.

[@Leto617]

@@felipelima9631 wouldn't change brain chemistry, i know you think you're helping, but it doesn't it hurts. please stop, it is not a lifestyle or diet issue

[@pavithranloganathan2007]

@@felipelima9631 its not a light bulb to Change ASAP

[@ruthantiaobong3502]

I've been having bad panic attacks this week dude. These videos do help to distract you from the many things swimming in your brain and chest. Positive vibes your way dude! I hope those idiots at your job leave you alone and you have a great rest of the week!!!🖖

[@felipelima9631]

@@Leto617 Internet Friend, I am autist, my son and daughter are too, and we are used to live in city with drugs (medicine). Opioids and other sh1ts. By making our life simple, our autistic brains suffer way less, without medication. We were sedentary, now we are healthy, happy and doing hardwork everyday. I just sharing my experiencie here. I wish someone had done it to me years ago.

[@nagaempress]

I thought that becasue I buried my pets in my yard I could not grow anything back there. Well I have been educated today.

[@aessidhe6304]

I like to bury the family pets around trees as kind of a living memorial with a rock cairn or marker of some kind at the base. Non-family pets get buried wherever I think the soil needs improvement. Plants grow great out decomposition.

[@lisasawyer5670]

One of my neighbors used to use the death of a barn cat as a good excuse to plant a new rose bush. She’d drop the cat down the hole, put a little dirt over it, and the the bush on top.

[@GiselleMFeuillet]

My mother in law has a peach tree around which all the family pets have been buried over the years. We still haven't had a single peach from it... the deer keep eating them before they're even halfway grown.

[@kirodh]

When you first showed the hole under the garden bed, I thought the chicken dug itself out ... haha

[@GiselleMFeuillet]

A zombie chicken... *pitches new show concept to Netflix: "The Squawking Dead"*

[@Hosemastenbrook]

“Wood chip would.” That look on your face! Lol

[@csn583]

Impressive restraint! 😄

[@bobbybusche2716]

I don't know if I missed it, but whenever I bury an animal, I cover in a shovel full of fresh wood ash. Then bury it. For me, it helps with the odors.

[@PaleGhost69]

Alternative title: How to be a garden archeologist.

[@byjamie-hillierrubis]

Alternative title, 'How to dispose of the wife.' 😂 💖🙏🌻

[@WagwanHappyPappyHapPap]

Some days when I wake up for work, i head out to my garden and I get a notification that you've uploaded. Absolutely brightens my day and helps me EVERY time. Thank you for all of you and your families hard work Mark!

[@upat65]

Since my city stopped collecting food waste (because of the pandemic) I’ve been burying it in my yard. I am amazed how fast it decomposes into the soil.

[@andersenzheng]

i have been accepting neighbors' kitchen scraps for my worms and compost for about 1 year now. made lots of friends and got a few of them into home gardening even.

[@chezmoi42]

@@andersenzheng Well done, Andersen! I used to have a tiny yard in the city, and dug my scraps into the various garden beds. It's incredibly efficient.

[@leedavis6354]

Had one of my little Quail pass away the other day. I gave her a proper burial in the garden. Thanks for the video love your tips

[@virtuousgardeningmore3551]

Great video! I bury egg shells and banana peels in my beds. I also tried to make a homemade compost bin with kitchen scraps but everything started to grow in the compost bucket. It was beautiful. Be blessed! 💜💜💜

[@chezmoi42]

Ha! I always had a lot of avocado pits sprouting in the compost until I started giving them to a woman who does natural dyeing. Now it's just the dates and some stone fruits. Years ago I let my neighbor use my compost bin , and her potato peelings were so thick that I got a couple of free potato plants from her.

[@theadventuresofbrockinthai4325]

Hey Mark, very interesting video. I have done that many times. I have even put our pets in the garden. I know that sounds bad for some people but I don't see anything wrong with it. I feel that way you get to still spend time with them as you garden and they are helping you grow more food.

[@chezmoi42]

lt really used to be the norm, we had several shoebox funerals when I was a child. It's a part of life, and as you say, they are still with you.

[@lyannecb8499]

My parents have always buried our dead pets in the garden, usually in the flower borders & with a suitable plant on top, eg a new fruit tree for my cat who loved to climb the pear tree. I've continued that with our pets, though I've a much smaller garden so luckily we've not had to bury anything larger than a cat yet. I'd feel bad having a pet disposed of anywhere other than their home.

[@lisa2stewart]

Makes me feel better to know I can keep my loved fur babies and not so loved spoiled bits and scraps close and will make my enjoyment and peace from my land that much more.

[@geministargazer9830]

I put mine under a nice tree so it feeds the tree but I have a nice kind of marker for where they are and I’m not digging them up or anything

[@patriciatinkey2677]

Love love love this guy this guy! Always makes me happy to listen to him. He's made me a better gardener, too!

[@davinamichaeli3640]

Your humor is refreshing 💖😂well needed too!!!! Missed your videos !!!!

[@merylkerby9453]

I did my first hukelkultur beds this year, thanks to you. I love your lifestyle and philosophy. Thanks for so much great content.

[@jgrady9553]

Building a raised garden tomb. Glad the hen's death continues to feed life -now it truly is a Birdie's Bed.

[@spiritmatrix2004]

😂🤣😁

[@Selfsufficientme]

Birdies bed lol...

[@outtathyme5679]

Kids, Nanna didn’t die, she just “fell off the perch”. Lol

[@TLinhNLe]

Your really good at talking when it comes to explaining what you know best in and around the garden patch bed.. because of that I can say you’d really earned that thumbs up plus didn’t cost me anything thing out of my pocket-but does make tremendously difference to ur channel..👍👍 💞💝💋 👨🏻‍🌾

[@chase118]

Hey Mark. My brother and I are in Arizona and we love your videos. I wanted to tell you that I have been practicing composting in my small backyard for almost a year now. In my most recent attempt, I decided to do very little to the compost and see what happened. After a month or so, unawares to me, tomato plants and some type of melon or squash plant are growing in the compost pile. So seeing you add organic matter to soil has taught me some stuff. I'm going to keep practicing or in other words - "getting into it." Thanks for what you do.

[@vickiephelps5169]

In parts of Africa the soil is very iron poor and is improved by burying tin cans in the soil to rust and add iron. I have also heard of gardeners adding multivitamins tablets to poor soil to improve micronutrients. You are doing great work! I am in the Southern US and I still envy your climate!

[@SevenSixTwo2012]

All your tips about raised garden beds, home-made compost, hugelkultur and burying stuff actually work. I've got 4 Birdies-style raised garden beds now (installed and started last year) and never saw tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchinis grow this big and healthy before. A big thanks from Canada for all the excellent gardening tips!

[@k.p.1139]

Glad to see you up and running. Welcome back, Mark!

[@peetl9738]

Having just bought a house, this is my first year with the two beds I built. The “premium garden soil” I bought to fill the top halves (I used dried fallen leaves for the bottoms) was quite poor in nutrients and barely has any organic matter at all. This vid will really come in handy since I need to turn the soil into actual premium garden soil. Love all your vids, Mark! Keep them coming!

[@glg3945]

Great information 👍. Love your videos. Peace and good fortune and good health to you and your family. 👍😁🥰

[@christinej2358]

We plan to do raised beds next year so your videos are very helpful to us! Thank you for sharing!

[@bushmansa518]

I always enjoy your content, it's great to see how much fun you can have in a garden.

[@evanberrett9152]

Very recent subscriber. Absolutely no regrets. You've just got a way of making people smile!

[@pkoppula]

Your videos are therapeutic, Mark 👌🏽👏🏽👍🏽❤️

[@GreysonNett]

Hi, I just found your channel a few weeks ago and I’m loving the content. Keep up the good work!

[@dankyjoker]

This guy is a great watch and you'll learn something almost every video!

[@sambland3903]

He's a legend, even by Australians standards.

[@anthonyb8208]

Always interesting and educational Mark.

[@pozzowon]

One of the first videos I saw was the first video of you showing stuff you dug in your beds. Nice to see an update

[@ericgardner3140]

My grandmother used to have us catch Perch from the local pond to add to her garden rows. The beefsteak tomatoes and corn that she grew were AMAZING!

[@MissPiixiie]

Mark, I had to move some mulch from where I mulched it a couple months back and it started creating a humus! So I said to my husband, oh, I know what this is. It’s called humus and I learnt about it on Self Sufficient Me. So thank you for bringing educational content to my KZbin feed which is easy to digest. Another Queenslander here who is learning so much from you!

[@lucbellone8512]

I love your videos and have been learning so much! You've seriously transformed my tomatoes, thank you!~

[@ronniebrace2917]

Great video! I’ve been so absorbed with trying to make compost it never occurred to me to bury a lot of the dead plants before adding compost in the fall. Thanks, this should help my garden a lot next season!

[@itsasickness4939]

Good stuff Mark. If it’s organic, it goes into my garden one way or another…. Buried, Bokashied, biochared, ashed or composted. A garden is a great way to grow great veg and lower your carbon footprint. 👍

[@joyous5507]

I swear to you, when they dug up the chook... I leant backwards in my chair away from the monitor because I reckon I could smell it!!! I am a country girl (63) born and bred, that lived in the Hunter Valley in NSW. That smell is imprinted in my memory. 🥴🤮 LOL

[@Cooky00123]

Good to see the kids helping out in the garden.

[@falcos]

You are so good at making videos! I love your channel

[@Betts456]

Hi Mark. I have been a subscriber to your channel for several months. I think your content is wonderful and informative. It inspires me to be more self-sufficient, productive, and spurs me to work on all my skill sets. I also wanted to convey to you was i saw your interview about the depression and physical challenges you went thru because of your plane ordeal. I came down extremely sick and was hospitalized because of coronavirus in just that last two weeks. I have been released and im on the mend with the occasional hit of oxygen needed my strength is crawling back to me. I mention this because I wanted you to know that your videos and your common man approach to hard work and discipline to your hobby and work inspires me to fight back from my own turmoil to reach the goals i still have in life. Love you my brother in the world. Keep inspiring us with your content. One day I will show you my own garden.

[@Hemp1972]

I'm wearing the 'Self Sufficient Me' Tshirt proudly, and for good reason so it seems. Love your channel! Greetz from Holland. 🔆

[@wandasimons3305]

Love watching your videos. Thanks for sharing.

[@wasptor]

That was amazing how quickly the duck was processed. Thanks, it was interesting. 🙂

[@matty332010]

Thanks again Mark, you're awesome!!

[@honeybeeification]

Just buried all my finished pea vines. Thank you for the videos!

[@trishthehomesteader9873]

Thanks Mark! 💜 I recently realized that I need to produce more compost for my beds. I started adding a lot of the shredded junk mail, let the chickens have a blast and the bin is already in much better shape! When my Birdies gets here (shipping delays, no surprise) I may have enough for the fill.👍

[@joanies6778]

Last year I found 6 dead birds in my yard (a neighbor's cats were the culprits) so I had to bury them. My dog, being a lover of anything dead and smelly, kept wanting to dig them up. So, that's where I built my compost bin, over the pet cemetary. This year I buried food scraps, old straw, yard waste, etc under ground prior to planting corn. Covered it with cardboard until time to prep the top soil for planting. Corn has shallow roots, but the area is full of worms and retains moisture quite well... this was an area I had used black plastic to smother out weeds/seeds over an extended period. Now it's full of life again, and the corn is thriving.

[@leonakadir3833]

I so enjoy these, even if I wasnt interested in growing veg they are really good to watch :)

[@gardenkings8537]

Beds are looking great Mark!!!

[@lisapridgen]

Glad to see you got your kids working out there it's first video I've seen with them helping you

[@byjamie-hillierrubis]

I'm not sure what use baby goats would be?

[@zanewalsh1812]

Those are beautiful recycling centers... ...and you can grow food from them between all the burying! 🥰😜 I tend to bury my sadness and worries in my garden. The grounding purifies the energy 💥🌄✅ and all is rebalanced 🕉️

[@amac9245]

The real question is..."How much mulch would a gardener mulch if a gardener could mulch wood?" Love the channel and it has been a real inspiration to my Food focused gardening endeavors. Cheers

[@shannong0079]

💚👩‍🌾🪴👨‍🌾💚

[@icouldjustscream]

Even with my new 15"/38 cm deep Birdies I used this method this spring. I put small branches, leaves and twigs in the bottom 4" and added a couple bags inexpensive topsoil to fill in any dead space, $1/bag. Then used 60% good quality soil / 20% compost / 20% aged sheep manure for the top 10". Added some organic granular fertilizer. Everything is growing well!

[@roneiarnold828]

Great content, as always. I've been learning a lot with you mate, so, thanks a lot. Cheers

[@TheCrazycrab2]

Amazing, simply amazing

[@she31992]

Months ago, I buried my unfortunate kid goat in my garden bed and its giving life to my cape gooseberry plants.

[@tylerdale470]

Hello dear how are you doing over there?

[@she31992]

Good thank you.

[@tylerdale470]

@@she31992 your welcome dear it's really nice to meet you I'm Tyler from Cleveland Ohio and you dear?

[@TheJegkkon]

Can't wait to finish school so I can get back home and start putting together my garden.

[@AAHomeGardening]

Jegkkon, that's so sweet Good luck with your garden

[@brightantwerp]

Thank you! Beccause of your inspiration I have a raised garden bed with hugelculture. I bury my quails in there, when they died. Never digged them up, but I have a lot of worms in there now.

[@SukiObito]

Really enjoyed the video. The jokes and puns are awesome 👌

[@KeeKeeSoto]

Now this is truly gardening in tune with nature!!!

[@mano3867]

I always enjoy your videos thanks

[@chrislourdes]

This guy is so entertaining and i can’t explain why

[@bmelloyello]

Your worms are so active and feisty! It's a sharp contrast to what we have in Iowa, in the US. If you dig down and pick up a worm I don't think it'll even notice (until you start to feed it to a salamander like I do, they tend to take note of that)

[@jimbox114]

We have some raised gardens out back and I pretty much compost in them all through the winter since we can't grow anything during the winter months. Had a Racoon getting into our chicken cages so after dealing with it I took your advice and buried it there. I planted some Spoon Tomatoes in that bed this year and they have absolutely exploded everywhere! Great tasting fruit and plenty of it.

[@6862211]

Love all your videos!

[@bensnide5846]

Gotta love the nitrogen cycle. Love the sense of humor here, along with all the great info. Please keep more coming. Thank you, all the way from the Green Mountain State.

[@fergusdangerfield156]

More excellent stuff mark, still loving your videos,here in south east england Keep em coming mate x.

[@gailgaddy5340]

Awesome, thanks I’ll try this. I live in south Florida USA. Soil is terrible. Trying to get rid of lawn and plant perennial plants and such. 👍

[@shaunglendinning]

Great advice Mark! A BIG THUMBS UP!! 😀

[@ShortwickCreations]

We had a bunch of jackrabbit and gopher nesting on our property this past spring. Once they started getting in the garden I started taking care of them. I took your advice from your last video and started burying them around our fruit bushes and trees. They have never looked better.

[@loubowen8082]

Another good reason to get the recycling out there. Thanks

[@MsMarlysRae]

Great informational video! Ha@"wood chip would"...then the great side eye trick! Loved it! 😆

[@lelleithmurray235]

Good morning Mark! Giving you a big thumbs up 👍to the sky!

[@tylerdale470]

Hello dear how are you doing?

[@johnnguyen409]

Awesome video as always!!! Love em!!!!

[@Kearnesy]

Ahh the amount of fish scraps , pigeons and other birds buried in ny garden explains why things grow so well

[@wegetoutdoors2521]

Really inspiring, can't wait to try out your ideas

[@jirup]

I have chickens, quail and budgies, whenever there is a death they go into the garden beds. Then there is waste fruit from the trees and kitchen scraps. when building new beds I make thin layers of wood chipping, lawn clippings, seed waste (mainly millet hulls), compost, leaves, toilet roll inners, shredded paper, bird poop. I rarely ever put out the green waste bin for garbage collection as most of the green waste is processed onsite. I love Birdies raised beds, they are the best I have ever used.

[@ReapWhatYouSeauxLeJeune]

Awesome video!!

[@AdamCzechJ]

8:50, “Fresh wood chip wood” 👀 😆🤣 love it !! Good stuff

[@angiedaoust]

Nothing wasted! I like that!

[@dizzledazzle9709]

G'day Mark! I've been sharing your videos in Arizona on the Next Door app. We have a couple of gardening groups and I've been sharing many of your videos with the group. Love your channel!

[@tylerdale470]

Hello dear how are you doing over there?

[@masonlee89]

This goes right to the heart of regenerative farming which I’ve been enthralled with lately. Putting biomass back into the earth to create a premium soil. Another great video. Thanks! 🍻

[@teresaditmore4049]

Such great ideas!

[@Michael-ex9uo]

I’m jealous of how rich your soil is

[@The_Stoic_PhilosopherSH]

Adding composted wood chips….brilliant!

[@dianadriverasbury9130]

Great information.

[@knotshure8806]

Found your page last week You continue to climb the list of my favorite humans. Just watched you tear apart "free range is bad article" Great channel. Thanks for the content .

[@Dr_VVho]

Happy winter man! In PA we are heading into the best gardening months :) wish us luck Great video btw ...thumbs up x2 and a comment