You will not see this 2 years later but you just saved me a lot of needless stress!! My husband just built me a beautiful raised bed. He asked me how deep and me being a novice said " this deep." It was one of the 12 inch sides. Well after I kept seeing all this stuff about depth requirements!!🥴😲...I thought oh God no! This man built this beautiful bed and I can't use it!!!? He will still build a smaller deeper one for the few things that may require but I am SO HAPPY to know we can still use the larger one!!! He out a shelf on it and everything!!!😊😊😊

Best depth/volume video for plants I have ever seen. Thanks.

Thank you!!! I've been so stressed lately and watching this has given me more confidence.

My entire garden is in containers, so this was INCREDIBLY helpful! Thanks and God bless!

It's true what you said. Hurricane Maria left me with no use of the raised bed. The giant tree is still there and has been hard t get it out but I have my balcony that I'm building recao and culantro (coriander) in a big plastic canister. I also did another canister of potatoes, and so on. I'm working with what I have. I'm also planning to paint and fix my balcony and will be adding more plants. I visualize my space, think what I will need to make space. Like for instance I put a wood panel and stick it under balcony bar and under the other side I put a nail to hold the the wood panel. It looks like a table and I have my grapefruit, orchids, and other plants.Great video. Hi to your wife.

Thanks Luke! Your explanations in the video are very helpful. Just planted, today, some peas from the seeds I purchased from your website. I'm sooooo excited to watch them progress. Thanks for the great video!

I agree whole heartedly! I grow greens, beets, radishes, celery & carrots all winter in my greenhouse in about 6" of soil with no problems. If the plants are receiving the nutrients they need, they're going to grow. My daughter spilled radish seeds one year and they grew in the seam of a cement pad - they were weird looking radishes when we picked them but edible!

This is reassuring to learn! I was always concerned about one patch in my garden. I can only get the spade in about 30 centimeters deep since there seems to be bedrock (not sure if that's the right word in English) underneath. I did grow a lot there last year, my first year gardening, but hesitated to plant anything more than lettuces and a few herbs in that bed. It would be an ideal location in the garden to plant perennial herbs, though, so I think I will give that a shot this year.

I live in a condo with very limited window sill space. Thanks for sharing this, Luke! I feel very encouraged to try growing other plants. God bless!

Fantastic video. Very helpful. About to start a large indoor garden. Your presentation answered many of my questions. Thanks.

I am so glad I found this informative video. This is my second year of growing my own veg.last year crop was really good so i want to extend it all with these foldable grow bags etc.

Thank you for this video! I'm just starting to grow vegetables and herbs and I'm building my own low budget raised garden beds and boxes and containers so this info is really helpful <3

Awesome, just building a narrow herb bed and have been deep in the conundrum of soil depth. Subscribed!

Thank you!!! Im in Southfield, MI and we have a tough growing season.... due to lack of sunlight.

Another Great video. I think so many beginning gardeners believe they need to till their garden as deep as they can.( Lots of wrong information on line) I was one of those gardeners until this year. I built raised beds with 8" of sandy loam soil and manure based compost. That's it! No more tilling my garden a foot deep or more! In fact, no more back breaking tilling at all.Thanks for sharing your experiences.

LUKE. I love the way you filmed the update in the beginning of the video. That was such a pleasure to watch. I think you should try doing more of that style in future garden updates; closeup video and a voice-over. Yes yes yes. It works.

It would have been a good idea to discuss tap roots and surface roots for this video, and talk more about how root structures impact the internal functions of plants, and how this plays out in regard to specific types of plants. Tap roots, regardless of the plant species, seek WATER. Surface roots seek to provide essential nutrients to plants, as well as "structural stability". If plants receive enough water near the surface, they do not need to seek (as much) depth with associated tap roots for this function, and the majority of root growth and structure efforts will be devoted to the surface root ball. Surface roots, no mater (as much) what the plant species is, like to reach out and form symbiotic relationships with the aerobic soil organisms found nearer to the surface. They do not have (much) issue regarding intertwining with other plant roots in the surface zone (it is a bit of a competition), however there still exists symbiotic relationships between soil and plant, so some plants just do not do well together considering these types of relationships (plants TELL the soil what they want by excretion of specific complex compounds to encourage biological colonization that produces the nutrients that they want from these symbiotic relationships). That conversation goes way deeper than a tap root. It is safe to assume that most vegetable species plants really do not need that much depth of soil. Fruiting trees (including nut trees) as well as various "root crops" on the other hand will prefer some soil depth because they WILL send down a "significant" tap root system during early plant development regardless if there is plenty of moisture at the surface or not. Understanding these details regarding how plants engage in their environment will provide way better success than any "soil volume per plant" type of analysis and recommendations.

Tap root structure growth always follow the soil moisture. Going vertical can provide more volume of water to keep the soil moist for the roots to follow. Bottom watering is ideal for those with limited space. It is also easier to maintain as far as my experience goes.

Nice information! There are also some varieties are specialized for shallow soil! For example, Shogoin Daikon!

Wow that garden is so nice looking!