“If you don’t have your soil ready, time is ticking!” Me, staring out at 6 feet snow drifts on my garden beds…” 😂

As an aspiring small farmer that is starting with literally nothing, Your video releases keep me in seasonal timing and I am soooo very thankful for it!!! I’ll never forget your help as long as I live.

I've printed off 50 or so pictures of Ben's face and scattered them around my vegetable beds. In addition to this I use a Bluetooth speaker and play Bryan Adams everything I do I do it for you on repeat into the earth. This combination brings my soil happiness and joy. I recommend you try it for yourself.

I absolutely love this man's enthusiasm about compost.

That bleeped out bit in the middle 😅🤣🤣🤣 🎉 thanks for that! And the final sign off shot was epic and lovely!

I have a small worm farm going, and some local horses, so I add horse manure and compost worms to my compost heaps. It works a treat. In the autumn, I sifted out all the stubborn uncomposted stuff, mostly twigs, roots and tufts of grass, chucked all it in a ton bag, then added two feed bags of manure and a fork full of worms. They've been busy in there all winter churning it into beautiful compost, and I've just forked it into the polytunnel, worms and all.

Thank you soo much for mentioning garden compost as the first choice. As a plant-based food grower I greatly appreciate it as so many channels focus on animal-based products. More people are going plant-based and I hope they find your channel. Wish I had more access to deciduous leaves...living amongst conifers makes finding leaves a challenge...they are such a great compost source! And thank you so much for using low-cost items like old windows and cardboard... this way everyone can grow amazing food!

My raised beds, and grow bags have been covered with a thick layer of leaves since autumn, and I have been keeping my compost bin full. I even filled up two trash bins with chopped up leaves for use later in the season. Very soon, I will start the process of mixing in the decaying leaves into the soil, and planting transplants, or direct sowing seeds. My greenhouse project is nearly finished. It needs a little more soil to level the ground in the front, then it will be ready for the cover. Next on my to do list is making the three raised beds that will be placed inside it, and moving my planting table inside after that. All is on schedule. I have 20 tomato seedlings started, five cherry, the rest large, two trays of Red Bearded Bunching Onions, a tray of Rainbow Swiss Chard, Luccullus Swiss Chard, Fordhook Swiss chard, New Zealand Spinach, Tokyo Bekana Mustard, Japanese Giant Red Mustard, two trays of assorted lettuce, and 92 pepper plants (15 varieties). Next week, I will sow seeds for snow peas and radishes, and the following week, Danvers, Komatsuna, Tatsoi, Chijimisai, Kale, Boc Choy, turnips, and beet root. I have 25 Seascape Strawberry plants on order that I will be planting too. In three weeks, it is potato time. And so the planting season begins. When the weather warms up a bit in April, I will finish the garden by planting cucumbers, pole beans, summer squash, winter squash, assorted herbs, and flowers to attract pollinators.

This is a wonderful video, Ben, and so much needed as our winter here drags on and on. I still have 15" of snow all over my farm, and garden, but your video gives me hope that warm Spring days are coming. Thank you!

I did two tests on some horse manure I got from a local farm a few months ago. I did one test on it by adding worms to make sure there was no active dewormer (my worms survived!). Now I'm testing for persistent herbicides by growing green beans indoors in both soil enriched with manure and plain soil. The manure won't be ready for my beds this spring in any case, but at least I know whether I can add it in the fall and, in the meantime, feed some of it to my worm farms.

Love it ! I have sheep, chickens, and a rabbit so I try to get my sh☆☆ together all year: ). With that and leaves and compost, it makes me feel good to feed the soil. I am so excited for Spring!!

Have a horse farm near me that gives away free, 1 year aged manure. Gonna grab some this month and let it settle for Spring. Heard the tip last year and its going to save SO MUCH money on my new raised beds. Really excited to see how this year goes. Cheers.

Love these videos!!! Thank you so much for sharing with us.

I love the quick information!

Thanks again Ben. I have been lazy this year. I have a zillion seeds,but have not even opened the packages. I could use one (or six)😂of those huge bags of compost. God Bless you and yours, may your garden be the best it has ever been and you have bountiful produce.

Wonderful video & advice 👏 This is exactly what I needed! Thank you!!!

I’ve learned so much from your videos, thank you 🥬🌺

Love the bits of humor sprinkled into all of the useful information.🥰

Thank you so much for sharing your gardening knowledge and experience with the world! I have learned so much from you! Ever since finding your channel, I've been gaining the confidence to go bigger every year and try new plants

Hi Ben loving your energy and enthusiasm 😎

I started container gardening last year and learned a great deal from your videos , the information you give is so valuable and appreciated,I’m hoping for a good growing season ,and look forward to your videos this year

Excellent as always!

Wonderful advice sir

I love your videos, thank you so much. I'm just 19 and a beginner so it really means a lot! I love how passionate, yet "to the point" you are!

Hi Ben I'm here in the Midlands in Ireland and your videos have me wanting to go planting everything now! Going to get some seeds today, sown a few veg here and there but really going for it this year!

Ooh I’m excited to see your garden grow this season. That sh+t is beautiful!! I’m building 3 raised beds up with my compost this winter. You’ve educated & inspired me! Thanks always & Happy gardening Ben!

Thank you for making such informative and enjoyable videos! Your channel is always my first stop when I have a garden question, and it is so helpful to follow along with these timely topics as the year goes on.

Video idea for spring. I'm sick of weeding and covering so this yr I'm attempting cover crops in the beds. Buckwheat grows up in a few weeks so chokes out weeds trying to sprout (or so they say). When it's time to plant you mow it down and leave it to become mulch (it feeds the soil) part it and plant amongst the cut plant debris. If it flowers before you're ready one just cuts the heads off before they seed. Maybe you could give it a go in one bed and let us know how it goes.

I think this is my favorite episode. Well done!

I love your energy! We still have a bit of snow on the beds, but I am excited for the season.

Truly a gardener's black gold.

As always - a compact direct and informative video on preparing one’s garden beds for an abundance of delicious veggies on your table. Thank you.

Perfect Ben , Cheers , that explains this relationship between the root and the soil perfectly , excellent presentation .

Such great information. Thank you 😊

Awesomeee! Thank you... for the tips.. Time to get started in the garden..We are here in the French countryside.. today, 11 Feb it was 17C outside, and felt like around 20/21 C ... I worked out in the garden most of the day... What a great feeling to be back outside, after a cold winter.. beautiful warm and sunny day! Felt like spring!

Just found this channel, I love him! So educated and enthusiastic, great to watch, I'm hooked !!!

Thank you for this. Today, we unveiled our own homemade compost from kitchen scraps. It was a year in the making but so so pleasing! 😁

Great video. Just the information I need to get motivated!😊

Very useful information. I am in Houston, Texas, USA, but soil preparation has no boundary. I started picking up gardening again after my husband passed away last year. I have learnt a lot from your videos. That really help me with my small raised-bed garden, and, pot garden. It is late February and I have already planted everything. Thank you, Sir. (Enid Phillips from Houston, Texas, USA)

Thanks alot Ben, just what I needed!

Great information and much needed as I embark upon my first allotment. thanks 😁

You are the best! I am new to growing fruit and veg, and have six new raised beds. It’s difficult to know what to do and when to do it, so these videos are extremely helpful.

Always on point and on time. Thanks, Ben. Love your work.

Great video! I love watching Mac too.😊

Thanks Ben, getting ready here for the grow season in 9b Sacramento. I am very fortunate that I have an arborist who I hire to trim my trees, he is good enough to drop by chipped mulch whenever I ask and he only drops off what I need. ie if I want 2 wheelbarrows full, that is all he dumps on my driveway. I too have used steer manure, sometimes it's so strong that I run it thru my compost to dilute it. Like you, I am looking forward to a great new growing season. Thanks for the latest vid.

Well done!

This is exactly what I’ve been doing this week. Was lucky enough to get a huge pile of manure from my neighbours last summer, & it’s rotted down beautifully 👌🐴🐴 Thanks Ben!

Thanks for the WESC theory❣️it’s what I need to stop my weeds.

Hi Ben, great video on getting ready with plenty of information for the next season. Thanks for sharing and take care 🙂

Thanks Ben, in my third year, just got your Grow Veg book. Bedding plants sowed for the borders but can't wait to get the raised beds and greenhouse ready! Later here because I'm in the Highlands. Last frost could be mid May!

Ben - I cannot tell you how useful and inspirational your vids are especially late winter/early spring when its too miserable to go out in the garden. Time to get that compost/manure on the beds! Cheers.

Lovely stuff and right in time! (Zone 7a, checking in.) I was just looking at my beds and wondering if I should have a stab at them yet. Thank you!

I grew black eye peas in sand, the results were fairly good this year my crop yield will be abundant.

Excellent ideas, thanks for posting. I'd always assumed home compost to be a poor cousin to "muck" so am delighted to hear you rank compost the best. I got serious with composting the summer before last. Previously I'd just pile up everything in a corner and eventually, sometimes several years later, dig the pile out and use the good stuff on vegetable beds. Now instead I have several plastic compost bins (the Dalek type). Our allotment often has second hand ones available for a few pounds. I began shredding stuff with an electric shredder. I found fresher stems shred better than dried stuff (that surprised me, I expected dry stuff to be brittle and chip easily but I found the fresher stuff chopped up easier). I also use all the vegetable waste from my kitchen and torn up paper and cardboard. When added to the Daleks, it composts really quickly. It's always a little disappointing how much the volume reduces as it decomposes but I never run out of stuff to add. For invasive weeds like bindweed and stuff in seed I avoid composting directly but instead steep them in a lidded dustbin full of water where they slowly rot. This gets emptied once a year, by which time the weeds are a nasty slimy dead mess which I spread out to dry and air a little before adding to the compost. The foul liquid is diluted and used as a liquid fertiliser. .

Another great video. Thanks.

We always appreciate your encouragement and knowledge. Thank you!

So glad you mentioned seasons rather than, or as well as, months. As an Australian whose summer is December-February, I appreciate the mention of seasons as I just get confused when only months are mentioned. Thank you!

All good information, making me raring to go, which I have. Thanks for the tip on sourcing free horse manure. I shot up the road to a farm just 1/2 mile away where we used to store our touring caravan, so they knew me. They have a livery there, and when I asked, I was told to help myself whenever I wanted. The offer to pay for some was kindly turned down. The giant, well-rotted pile I came across (up a very messy, rutted track, sinking mud nearly over the top of my wellies and,so, undriveable) must have been worth a lot of money, going off your price paid, but I decided not to tell them that. 🙂, It was hard work but so worth the effort. So, after many years of getting nothing at all, my veg plot, rhubarb and 2 dwarf fruit trees planted this evening, have had a real treat. 👍

Howdy Ben and precious Rosie. 👋 I have most of my containers ready for spring planting.👩🏾‍🌾 I've also been planting through our mild winter.

❤❤❤😍 thank you for the priceless information that you share.

Thanks for the video. I've started small the last few years and keep adding a new plant or two every year to see if there's any success. I've been lucky so far. I love the videos they make me want to do so much more. I've just sown peas, my first time, on 1st Feb ( St. Bridgets Day in Ireland- our first bank holiday for her this year) and they are going strong, thanks for all the great tips

Thank you for your good video.

You are literally amazing. Thank you so much for your videos. I'm a young mum and began veg gardening with no experience during the lockdown. My Mum was my go to for knowledge, we gardened together and she taught me the basics. Last year she became very unwell and died after her 60th birthday last November. I didn't have the time to grow anything last year between work, parenting and caring for my dear mum. I just began getting back into gardening this week and it's been difficult without my mum on hand, reminding me of my grief etc. A quick look on KZfaq and your channel came up and I've binge watched it the last few days and I've learnt so much. I hope I can manage to grow the veg my mum taught me to this year. I'd love any tips on how to prevent broccoli, cabbage and, raspberries from getting eaten by what I think is moth larvae... They are possibly different types of what look like small green caterpillars. Every year my raspberry bush gets eaten alive and the last time I grew cabbage and broccoli they were also covered and the leaves all eaten! Thanks so much.

I'm going to have to remember to put my composted manure in the greenhouse BEFORE it freezes solid. I've been putting cold tolerant veggies in my (unheated) greenhouse for the past week, cussing myself for not doing that in October. My compost is frozen to the tumblers, and the manure piles are under about a foot of snow. I had to go out and buy "organic" raised bed mixes to get the soil depth back up. **grumble** Thanks for all you do. I've got 4 pages of notes so far from your videos. I'm a more or less experienced gardener, and I've learned something with almost every video. My husband and I crack up every time we see you've swiped something from your daughter or your kitchen. Hubs ends up grousing at me at least once a year for missing silverware, missing utensils, etc. We both agree that you and that shovel should get a room. 🤣🤣🤣 (RE: the caring for tools video)

Good morning from VA ! Ihave watched you since you were on PBS in the US. My 81 yr old sister has discovered KZfaq. She was all excited the other day telling about this man (who talks funny) with so many good things about gardening. Lol😃 It was yku,of course. She isn't able to garden anymore, but I usually make her a small plot with cucumbers and tomatoes. And she orders me what she wants that I have to plant ! I'm sure she will have lots of things to help me with from watching you . So you have yet another fan in the family . Keep up the good work.

Hi Ben, It is so lovely to watch your videos! It feels like I have an older brother who is telling me how to do things. :)

Just picked up a bucket of free compost from my city eco station 👍 excited for my balcony garden this year

LOVE your channel!!!!! Thanks

We're so many months behind you, here in SE Idaho. (Abt 100 mi straight West from Jackson Hole, Wyoming) We still have nearly 2 ft of ICE on our roofs, 4 ft of snow on our lawns. With only 113 Average Days from Frost-Frost, our growing season is substantially less as well. BUT, I can get a tremendous harvest if I pre-sprout most seeds and fertilize weekly with a 16-16-16, adding trace minerals and Epson salts. Last year, we fertilized with rabbit manure and worm castings, BUT these organics were spent by mid-July.

☺️ your personality always shines through! Love this video 😊

Just got the key to my alottment today so perfect video timing!

i don't know about the UK, but in the USA horses are often wormed with stuff that is quite nasty to plants, so we have to check whether they were wormed recently as well.

I’ve watched many of your videos, but this one made me giggle the most. I truly enjoy them. Your doggie on the straw made me laugh so much. I also loved how you were sitting in the wheel barrow!! It took me so long to realize you were in a wheelbarrow bc I was laughing that you were petting your dog with garden hands. Thank you for the laughs (as I lay here with the flu.)

Super info for spring

Year after year you have great content. I've also noticed the video quality has gotten better. Nice work.

The WESC idea is brilliant

I"m in the U.S. and I'm not sure where to post this comment, but here goes: THANK Y'ALL SO MUCH! I had found your garden app when I was planning out a traditonal garden, but then found out about square foot gardening about a week ago. I read up a bunch, and decided I would go that route, but felt like I couldn't use your app as well as I could have when I was planning on planting in rows. You crafty bunch were already ahead of me, and I found the button for square foot gardening and am once again happily and excitedly planning out where I'll put all my current and future starts (and without paper!) Thank you from a very giddy zone 7A gardner!

lol the soil looks amazing, we have added so much to our allotment this year!

Brilliant Ben

most informative video thanks for shere your expereance.

Good stuff Ben!

Good as always

I never knew you cam use leaves as compost. We have a tree that hate with passion lol. The leaves fall daily all year around. I asked myself why are the previous owner plant the tree, our yard looked nice and clean for few hours when the wind blows there goes the leave i got so tried of raking it i just wait until it 2 ft deep then rake it and throw it away. If i only knew i can use it as COMPOST. As i am speaking there are plenty for me to rake lol. I am going to start saving it for my baby garden! Because I've been buying woodchips and picked the the falling leaves from my garden and threw it away i thought it was bad for my plants. Thank you for the information! So helpful

I’m almost, just about, nearly, self sufficient in homemade compost I reckon I’m making about 10-12 cubic meters each year by collecting everything I can but it’s amazing how much you need in the initial start up of a no dig garden, I’ve also just started making leaf mould to make my own seed sowing compost mix in future and I’ll do videos on this in future on my channel, sorry little plug there 😆 Great video as always 👍

Good advice, as always. I now have 3 more fertilizer makers. Cows and a donkey. If this rain and mud slows dosn, I'm going to pick up a load to go on the gardens ( better than snow. . ) Saw my crocus blooming so a good sign. Hope your weather is getting there.

SUPER! TACK så mycket! 🇸🇪🌷 Sweden 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Going to concentrate on improving the soil in my vegetable patch this autumn so thank you for this information. Looking for a strong arch to grow my beans etc next year and wondering where you got yours? Thank you for all your helpful videos.

I see Ben - I hit like. Thank you! I normally add compost in October, managed to transform sandy dutch soil to hold some moisture and grow many more things than before. It’s still a shady garden though

Great advice there Ben 👍

Great video

As a experienced gardener am enjoying watching your video's, we are still in summer in New Zealand. But so many people only start thinking about the winter crops now, which is nearly tooo late.

Time to get your Sh** together... literally! 😂😂🤣🤣😂 I do love your sense of humor Ben. Thank you for the laugh. 🤗

Great information. I loved the video. Thank you so much. Bertha in TEXAS

Really like WESC 🙂 very innovative. Planning to give that a go.

Your accent makes even manure, sound dignified. Great presentation...

Great advice thanks and Rosie is so cutexx

Love your chair! :D

Looks like you’re having a warm winter. Here in Nova Scotia Canada the weather can’t decide if it’s winter or spring.

This year, it'll be native soil (it's pretty good) next year I'll have compost (or maybe a little later this season as a mid season boost).

Good stuff