i found you bcs i" obsessed with soil biologyy. Pls disregard those who are uninterested or not informed enough to know how important these trials are. your channel is amazing and a lifesaver for those of us just starting who cannot buy compost now bcs of Grazon. I';m working my way through all of your vids and glued to them... Thank you for caring enough about others, to go to the trouble of teaching us.

I look at it as the clay is a never-ending battery. You just need to provide the wires to connect to it.

You aren't kidding about the cover crops. Due to your inspiration, I planted winter rye last fall in my main bed and have been planting grocery store dried beans in any place I didn't have things growing. The results have been astonishing - even in the first year of doing it. I've even let what few weeds I get grow, and harvest them for mulch and compost. Living roots in the soil makes all the difference!

Mark, I suggest that you create a soil library. Take cores (just do something simple like pound a 2" diameter PVC into the ground and push the resulting core out into a box and store the somewhere.) and then you can look back over time and see what your practices are really accomplishing. Gabe Brown says in some of his talks that he regrets not doing that when he started his own journey.

Your videos truly inspired me and changed my thinking completely !!!!!!!!! I thought I wanna to build 40 car garage and buy cars and all 🤦🏻‍♀️ but watching your videos made me wanna buy bigger land , plant things and enjoy Mother Nature in the purest form . Your videos are so so so easily explained. I believe 100% I can do gardening easily ! Whole January been watching so many gardening videos of other ppl and thought myself oh no I’ll go to Whole Foods 🤦🏻‍♀️ . Thank you so much for creating gardening channel. Your passion and love for earth absolutely contagious 🙏🏻💗🙏🏻

Again thanks about your advice to try a tomato seedlings planting into the root ball of a sunflower of previous season. I tested 6 gardening methods for my tomatoes your method came in second for production crop .But it was less than half the work than any of my other methods tested it is so easy I'm 71 years old and saying 98 percent of people can raise tomatoes this method. I slightly had better results with my method that I had over 4 times work involved. You should challenge us old folks to try " Your sunflower root ball method" for easy tomatoes 🍅 Thanks Mark. I'll bet I'll have tomatoes the year I die and probably Black Krim as they are my favorite for early productive and best all around 🍅 tomatoes.

I want to say that watching you and the others you mentioned that this year I am having the same experience in Reno Nv. I only had to water corn once and my tomatoes are doing great. We have only had about an inch of rain this summer and that came in the beginning of August. It has been five years in the making but the results are fantastic!

Thank you for your videos. I love when you explain soil and plant life.

This past summer (2022) i was gardening in ground. I did the whole tilling and weeding and bare soil exposed deal. We all know how hot it was last summer, so no matter how much i watered it was NEVER enough, which lead to issues with the plants. Finally i went into the woods and grabbed bags and bags of leaves and placed then in my garden around my plants . After doing so, my plants became very happy, kept moist soil, and started giving me so much food. I learned to always mulch. Did more research and learned to always keep your beds mulched even when you are not using them. I did change my garden and will be doing raised beds starting this spring, built and filled them in the fall. I also added in worm towers that also doubles as a water tower for slow deep watering.

Thank you for this great information!

I grew some sweet potato greens and cut them in pieces and they created roots. I planted some in a pot because the garden did horribly this year. I think I will take whatever is in the pot, including the 3’ sweet potato vine and plant it in the dirt. Looks like you have trees back past your yard (my yard looks just like yours). Then looks like you have various green ‘stuff’ growing in front of that, besides the tomatoes. I have kept an area of the green stuff just because I think it’s pretty. It’s also in front of my trees. Most people would call them weeds. I know I won’t get much out of that pot because it’s probably too short, so I’m going to see what happens when I replant it into my ‘nature’ area. 😊 My peppers are doing pretty well in the garden, especially the one plant I didn’t allow to freeze last winter. (Houston area). I didn’t get any tomatoes I could eat, besides some cherry tomatoes. Besides that, these little white caterpillar critters ate everything below ground of my onions, radishes and something else, I forget what. I have gotten rid of them since organically. Strange how the plants looked just fine above ground except they just wouldn’t grow larger, as they should have, so I thought they were fine, but nope. Thank you for all the valuable information you are giving us! I am learning so much and it makes so much sense! ❤️

Thank you. Great explanations.

We had a patch of cherry tomatoes show up one year in So Cal, and never did anything to it, but always had tomatoes. I think it was probably bird droppings, but don't know. Didn't water it, or anything. I guess we eventually cut it down, when we sold. Very hearty.

It is always a great pleasure to learn from you

Very helpul for gardening newbies and pleny of techie info for those who need it. You are providing a GREAT service, Mark!

Mark I so appreciate your encouragement and help with understanding soil biology

Thanks for sharing such knowledge well appreciated

Great video Mark!

Thank you, great information! 👍

Thank you Mark for sharing your wisdom. ❤️🙏

This year was a very good tomato year. My canning jars are filled with sauce! I also saw zero tomato hornworms this year.. I also had virtually no splitting of my tomatoes. I only deeply water my tomatoes once every two weeks. If it rains, I skip the watering..

Love the video. Thanks.

Thank You so ...much Mark ,for all you share, just so you know I am sharing these soil info videos on FB to all my friends because you make it so simple to understand. We appreciate you !

Great info thank you 😊

thanks a lot for the video, I would have not figured this out about soil

I'm new to gardening. Last year I tried tomatoes they grew up nice and then it got hot and the plants started turning brown from the bottom up and died. Do you use any sort of pesticides to control insects or other diseases? This fall I'm going to collect leaves and try your method of a winter cover crop. Your videos are interesting. Thanks for making the videos.

Love what you do, but had to laugh about a 30 day drought. Anything less than 6 months, we just call summer. Drought is not usually declared unless 50 percent under average rainfall for 18 months. Western Australia 🌏

Thank you Mark.. I'm also from NJ but living in TN .. We have the same exact weather here so these videos are helping me a lot .. in the process of watching all your videos... not sure if i missed one on the winter crops, my question is do you pull out the rye when you're about to plant ,say tomatoes, and do you use the old tomato vines if so in what way...

Hi Mark, I have been watching many of your videos the past few days and loving every minute. Over the past several years I have seen countless videos about gardening and have to say your enthusiasm is off the charts!! Keep it up! I live in the PNW in Canada and my "soil" is primarily glacial till. A nasty mix of sand ,silt, clay and a lot of rocks. Do you think I will have any luck plating a cover crop if I put down a few inches of my compost and just plant into that. And if so, do you think something like winter rye will be effective at getting some roots into this hard-pan? Would love to here any advice you might have.

Mark I have to Laugh asa I sent my question below the next video I clicked on you answered it for me LOL

Please share your location. Thank you for the great info

Wow verry good Farmers

Clay soil is very rich in nutrients. Roots sometimes have trouble accessing them tho . My clay in missouri is so thick a small shovel probably weight close to 25 pounds and you could probably fire it into a pot lol. I have to till some compost and even a bit of peat to get good drainage. No fertilizer is necessary but I do notice improvements from some cheap inputs. Iron sulfate to break up the clay in the off season and lower the PH of my calcareous soil. I also use some alfalfa and chicken manure occasionally as alfalfa is dirt cheap and I get chicken manure for free.

Are you planning on a cover crop this fall after the tomatoes are done this year Mark? Rye again? Thank you sir. Your explanations are the best!

Hi Mark. Previously you’ve sold me on cover crops and leaf mulch, but I’m scared about the water (lack of it) issue. I think what I’ll do is reduce the amount of water and lengthen the time between waterings this season, because I didn’t put a winter cover crop this year. I’m six months behind you in Australia.

Hi Mark. I love your channel! I am in Northern NJ in similar conditions, so your information is always applicable. I have a couple of questions, if you could help. First, how do you deal with the deer? They ate my tomato plants down to the roots, and yours are lush and beautiful! What's your secret to them leaving you alone in NJ? As to winter cover crops, could we use brassicas like cabbage, kale, or broccoli? Or would they not be up to the task for some reason(s)? It would be nice to grow something edible, rather than the winter rye, if at all possible. Thanks again for all of your wonderful videos!

Great content! No audio on Right audio channel .

Great video! Do you ever add nitrogen for nitrogen loving crops with your method?

Extremely interesting knowledge based video, thank you for sharing with us

Hi Mark, I really appreciate your videos! I have a question. I live just north of Houston Texas in zone 9 in a subdivision and I have an above-ground Garden (14'x20', & 5'x13'). If I plant a cover crop do I till it in with a hoe before I plant in the spring? And when do I do it? 1 month, 2 weeks, before I plant? Thank you for your help!

Hello Mark, Greetings from Nepal. In a very short amount of time following your channel, I couldn't be more glad that I found your channel. Some great insights all over the videos, am binge watching all. I had one question regarding growing Tomatoes in the open as you do. We receive annual rainfall of around 1300 to 1500 mm (50 to 60 Inhes) per year here in the capital city of Nepal. And most of that rain is concentrated within the span of 3 to 5 months from June to October. And that span is our summer here and the growing season for Tomatoes. And there is a usual practice of growing tomatoes in the polytunnel for the fear of blight due to heavy rains. Have you had any issues with the Tomatoes being out in the open in the regular rainfall? How true is it that Tomato foliage getting drenched in rain causes all sorts of diseases to spread. Have you ever had such issues with Tomatoes in the wild? Regards, Daulat

Winter rye cover crop does this work in sand

Hello Mark….very interesting. I live in California and we don’t get much rain at all winter/summer so I am definitely going to try this method. I love to garden but it’s so hard when we are in drought and water is so expensive😏☹️

So… do you till your cover crop under before planting?

You have compost. The decomposed leaves between the leaves and soil.

Hi, Can you tell us what do you do with all tomato vines at the end of the season ? I've got like you massive plants sprawling on the ground and I just want to let them rot on the soil or shallow tilling but "old school" gardeners around me advise me to remove and burn all plants + Roots because of fungus... I plan to grow potatoes on this patch in 2 years then tomatoes again in 5 years. Thx have a nice day

Mark,,,, I'm in CT zone 6 B same as you... Can you please tell me if I'm suppose to plant rye now? Or will the roots die over the winter if i plant it too early/ or am i suppose to wait until late fall and let it go dormant to start growing in the spring.(?) Its confusing. i don't know if it is suppose to be established prior to winter...i cant find th answer online...Pls advise..Thank You ~.JD

What needs to be done with the winter crop in the spring ? Do you cut it down or pull it out before planting new crops ?

why are food costs going to be double next year?

17 essentiel minerals are enlisted, boron is not there.