Gardening is about 45% an everlasting experiment, 45% a new art that you'll always be perfecting, 9% hard labour, and 1% enjoying the fruits of your efforts.

Never saw sunchokes grow so tall, good job. Maybe a forest garden needs a patch of ostrich fern for fiddle head production. Might be a good use of wet areas in the forest garden and will produce an early spring snack. Also, we truck in bags of deciduous leaves (maples are best, I think) to use in our garden. Leaves bring in micronutrients pulled up from sub soils making them available to plants. We just pick them up, all bagged by people getting rid of them, along the streets in our local village. First year leaf litter use is as a water retention/weed control mulch on potatoes (3 to 4 inches deep). We mulch after hilling in late June so the soil can warm-up in the spring for optimum plant growth. In the fall we work the much layer into the soil at potato harvest time for added fertility next year. As you point out, pine forests have few to no deciduous leaves so bringing some in might help improve soil ph and nutrient level for garden plant growth and they are free.

My aunt also planted potatoes in sand at her newly built house and she had a surprisingly good crop.

You are quite an inspiration. I'm the head of my local political party unit, I call it a neighborhood party unit. Our candidates never win so I wanted to create some sense of community in the 3 neighborhoods my area covers so I decided to start up what I call the Victory Garden Club. Basically take those who do gardening to teach others to grow their own food in their backyard. There is a nearby community garden run by a local church that rents out some land they have to various residents who pay an affordable fee to grow their own food. Of course I live in a big city but hopefully this club will be self sustaining and not only help people interested in growing their own food, but to teach people to be leaders as well. I've tried to start this sort of outreach before and like your garden, sometimes things take root and produce fruit while others die on the vine, or outgrow themselves. Thanks for all your hard work.

TIp: When you terminate a crop and you're going to let the bed area lay fallow till next season, get some silage tarps (black side up). Water your bed and lay them over the beds. Any weed seeds will germinate and then die due to lack of light. It will also draw lots of worms. When you take the tarp away, your soil will be weed free and ready to plant. It's also a good way to put a plot on hold if you don't want to deal with clean up. Just chop & drop it in the bed and cover it.. Careful about using too much sawdust. It will rob nitrogen from your plants as it breaks down. Cabin's looking great btw.

Interesting to see how you preserve all that food 👍👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Yep, a mate of mine who grew tomatoes commercially in glass houses white washed all the glass panels to protect the plants. But you have shown the potential of what you have with your own garden. Congratulations Shawn.

start hauling manure guts from deer processing etc ...set up a series of compost piles, all the organics you can bring in to cure over this winter no wasted trips...road kills you name it ...trash fish from traps etc..the fencing in the rear of shot at 6minutes 8 seconds is ideal for compost heaps about 2 feet in diameter these allow oxygen in and moisture they bind and the heaps are turned with little effort...these tubes escentially can be used over and over until they are used for tomato cages and bean fencing...along with the gator may i suggest a excavator with digging attachment you are now getting to ripe for manual digging and haulin it would or could with proper attachments prove useful for the saw mill? the shorter wheelbase of a bobcat with tracks make excellent diggers for rain water catchment and with the digging attachments can even slowly build access and egress from the road ...slowly over time you will tire of hiking in and they will place culverts etc...do the footer excavations and manage small boulders... and if i may be so bold used tires make mechanical concrete, these new style road bases have been proofing themselves indestructable for about 15 years now! not for speed they just hold the rock in place nothing washes away... You are in a race now full development by 59 years of age time is definitely your biggest enemy now...leave the new helpers worn out instead of yourself ...I believe you did this to promote a love of nature and independence make sure you got enough left for the long haul...

can u imagine your jungle in ten years..... when the building is done.... and u dont need to go anywhere... just enjoy

Me thinks Shawn likes his gardening more than building his cabin

You win some you lose some, that’s part of the learning curve. You have a huge plot which you basically look after with some help from your wife and Emily. Time will tell and once the cabin is built you will have that in abundance. Take care, be safe. ❤️ Dorset, UK

@kaboom-zf2bl

Жыл бұрын

considering it's all virgin ground ... for year 2 on it he is doing excellent ... even his failed experiments gave loads of useful information ... so although they failed they answered the questions he had ... . I cant wait for year 8 to see the overall change ... that's when the soil will be as good as it ever will be ... if I had to guess I would expect almost an 8 to 9 fold increase in yield across all the gardens ...

I used to work in one of the largest commercial greenhouse facilities in all of Washington State (this was many years ago, it may not be the largest anymore) and we used a lime whitewash on the roofs every year, starting in mid-spring and not removing it until October or so (when we started Poinsettias). We grew no food crops, it was all landscape annuals and perennials, as well as a few ornamental house plants, but I learned a lot about plant growth in general during the time I was employed there, and while I am certain you have researched your gardening choices extensively, I'd like to share some of my ideas for growing food crops in the challenging conditions you are attempting to deal with. First of all, if you can afford to do so, expand the growing area you have under glass. As far north as you are and the climate you are dealing with is simply not going to allow you to adapt many food crops to living and producing effectively if not in a more controlled environment. That being said, greenhouses are tricky to manage and require rather vigilant monitoring of temperature, air circulation, humidity, as well as pest and/or disease invasion. Greenhouses are designed to be a CLOSED environment, to protect the investment of the crops growing within via a high level of control over their environment. If you need pollinators, introduce your own bees/butterflies, rather than allowing wild pollinators (and any other less-than-helpful biota) into the greenhouses. Link your greenhouses to each other, but allow them to also be quarantined from each other in case you do get an infestation of undesirable pests or diseases. Second, don't grow anything in the greenhouse(s) that you know will survive the conditions of your outdoor garden areas. Many of the food crops you are growing will do much better in a greenhouse environment, but can survive outdoors at a lesser rate of productivity i.e. smaller fruits/veggies and lower yields. However, as you know the plants can be turned back into the soil after harvest and work to improve the soil for next year's crops. Adding lime to the soil in spring before planting and in fall after harvest will also help "sweeten" acidic soils. Third, for fruit trees, maybe think about dwarf varieties, both in the greenhouse and outdoors. Most dwarf fruit trees are heavy fruit producers, despite their small size. Many of them also produce more than one crop a year. Most citrus and semi-tropical fruits are available in dwarf varieties. Understand, I'm not telling you how to manage your food production or food crop production. I'm just suggesting how you may be able to increase your effeciency in achieving food security and a higher level of self-reliance. I'm not an expert, by any means, but I do have a very large and very green thumb, hahaha. I also recognize that you and your family have had other projects and priorities to deal with, so garden failures are part of the price being paid to accomplish other higher ranked goals. It's ok. There are only 24 hours in each day and with extremely limited human resources helping, only so much can get done. I think you and your family have done an amazing job building this off-grid compound and really look forward to watching it continue to grow over time.

You have a wonderful variety of veggies. I would love to see a video of what you can-up, freeze, and pickle. That is a whole lot of work. It would be a pleasure to see.

Our potatoes were one of the only successes. Comfy did well. Herbs did good. Only a few squash as something ate the early plants. We threw some buckwheat that was the only ground cover that survived. Clover no go. Corn no go. Radishes and dicon no go. Onion and carrot no go. Always next year. Soil is building tremendously fast. Only fish emulsion worked. Next year more biochar. We found a source for little blocks of pine wood to use. Can't wait! Get a machete Shawn. Best garden weeding tool.

"Not doing awesome." That is definitely some subtle positivity and optimism.

Shawn, I love to see everything working for you, you work so very hard and deserve total success in all you set out to do...It doesn't matter to me if something occasionally doesn't turn out how you wanted, I'd still enjoy every minute of every video. UK.

Thanks for the tour, Shawn. Looking forward to seeing how you decide to organize everything you've harvested in the cellar once you've finished the cabin.

Nice potatoes. I discovered not long ago purple potatoes I didn’t even know they existed. I love your greenhouse. Great video Sir

@kaboom-zf2bl

Жыл бұрын

then dont go looking for white carrots ... yeah they exist too ;)

@FarawayPrepper

Жыл бұрын

@@kaboom-zf2bl that’s so cool. There’s yellow watermelons too ;)

Thanks for coming back with another great video🐕👍WS NC

In the early spring, when the fiddle back ferns are still unfurling and are curled up the size of your thumb, you snap them off and harvest and saute with butter salt n pepper. Tastes like asparagus. Hard on the kidneys too like asparagus. Only eat one or 2 x's a week only. CHIPPEWA & Ojibwe Native tribes gather.

@jeonggogue3914

Жыл бұрын

Koreans harvest from the nature and dry them for the winter also too to eat them during the cold months..

@jeonggogue3914

Жыл бұрын

Of course it needs parboiling before hands

Shawn you put so much thought into your work! Love it!

Always a like from me. If you threw down hay and raised a xouple of pigs that would turn your garden fertile in one season. You can always use some pork for bacon and ham.

Great to see you as always!

Shawn your right spray shade or put shade cloth on the outside of the greenhouse. Inside without roof ventilation will not do much for you. As you know plants shut down if it's to hot. A auto mist system inside also helps. Looks like you've got your hands full. Take care.

@kaboom-zf2bl

Жыл бұрын

one problem with auto mist for him would be a good strong source of water ... sure he has access to water but he then needs to pump some up into he rafters and then get it timed to disperse on some signal ... and this without MAINS power ... (he'd be looking at upward of 600,000 bucks to get mains in even close)

Hi Shawn, if I can recommend you 2 nutrients for your garden to get it going it would be a) lime to neutralize the accidity in your soil and also creating a better soil structure b) nitrogen to faster break down the organic matter. I would plant a lot of Lupins next spring, they naturally enrich the soil with nitrogen and look pretty...I have the highest respect for you and what you are creating all by yourself👍👍👍

I loved your winter survival tips that you gave!

I'm already looking forward to next year's planting... Lol. I got some freestone peaches started, no stratification really needed. I cracked open the pits to get the seeds out and soaked them long enough to peel off the brown seed coat. I then put them in between a couple moist paper towels in a Chinese takeout box, and wrapped that in a tea towel. I left for about a week in a warm spot, and now I have a dozen peach seedlings... Close to 83% germination. (not bad for a first time) I did the same thing with lemon seeds, now I need a greenhouse to overwinter them! (These fruit trees are not so much for me as for my son. He will hopefully have a nice orchard in a few years.)

My corn didn't grow worth an f needs full sun. Walking onions and squash did great. My sweet cheery tree Lapins on Mazzard root stock is growing good. My asparagus is off to a great start. The bees seem to like the new Lazutin hive. I use bear nail boards on bee hives. I had a swarm of all kinds of bees on bear bait pile. The wild gooseberries and currants did well too. I should buy some hazelnuts plants. Lots and lots of work to get good soil. A blue tarp works wonders to help break stuff down or kill weeds and seeds. Gonna try a trash pump and see if I can't pump some swamp muck on my garden area. Bucketing muck uphill is not fun. The free buck wheat seed did good.

I learn so much from you, from every single video. I grew a few Brussels sprouts this year and had to do some research. They are fun to grow and so healthy. Your gardens are so amazing. I’m convinced there are three of you. No other way one person could do all that you do.

Excellent update video, thanks Shawn. The greenhouse heat is a big problem. I think if possible the ground source heating and cooling is the best way to control the problem.

Thank you for sharing Shawn

@barryyoung500

Жыл бұрын

Where are you guys are in Ontario are you up near to Toronto are up by going home park

@barryyoung500

Жыл бұрын

Cuz if you're near Kenora I have a lot of relatives in Kenora cuz my mom's last name before she married my dad was Neil

Thanks a lot for the second garden update! Working toward your soil improvements will pay off in the long run. I can only imagine the learning curve on a greenhouse like that as busy as you have been with other things.

You are so blessed to have such a beautiful life….…….and silence to be safe with your loving family. Enjoy this wonderful life

That garden might not be as productive as you wanted, but you were extremely productive this summer season. I’m sure that soil is going to do much better next year. PS im loving the upswing in content, thank you!

I'll watch this anytime.

Great to see Shawn. Thanks. Blueberries do like acid soil and potatoes don't mind it being low on Ph. So when you bring up the Ph level with ash or other calcium resource, it might be troublesome for them to grow. Another thing lot of people don't know is that potatoes need crop rotation. It is ok in fresh ground for 2 - 3 years. But in general they need 8 year crop rotation. So move the potato bed around and when you have harvested the bed, ad ash and or calcium to it, till and plant something else. Then plant potatoes again 7 years later.

@cynthiafisher9907

Жыл бұрын

I live in Idaho and we grow a lot of potatoes. Our soil is very high in ph.

Thanks for the tour of your forest garden. It looks fine to me! Great job Shawn!

What I took from this video is that it is not easy or maybe even possible to maintain an active garden while also building a complicated cabin structure.

Amazing for first season garden in the forest…can’t wait to see what it will do next season….🌀💚🌀

There is always something to do. It all looks great.

Well everything is working you have do e very well. Also with the Cabin Build. You and family have been very busy and have been successful. Blessings

Nature’s way is beautiful Garden looking healthy . Potatoes are ready when the leaves dye wonderful yr for rain such a blessings 😊congratulations Thankful for sharing Shawn . 🐾🐾💕😊🤗

Outstanding. I would consider the lessons learned in the greenhouse as part of your harvest.

beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself

Looks quite interesting to me. I can imagine what its going to be when you have more time to tend to it!! I cant even imagine how you had time to do what you did do!! Cant wait to see the furure videos, you are a man with great visions for the future, i know its going to work. Thankyou for all your vidoes .and all the efforts you put into them for us!😉👍

Your garden’s produced pretty well this year. Again you are now aware of the do’s,& don’ts. It’ll only get better with experience,& more time to focus. The cabin build was the main priority. Live,& learn Shawn.💯❤️👍🏾👏🏾😀🙋🏽‍♀️✝️🙏🏾🇺🇸

Hello Shawn; Rabbit is good eating. Some collars would possibly lower the damage they do. Should be easy enough to find where they travel and come in. Fish, rabbit, and berries were staples for me during my survival days.

I'll be growing my own weed that way I'll be set for winter

You can order ladybug babies. Before they can fly. You can sprinkle them all over your garden. And by the time they get their wings they will have eaten hundreds of aphids each. That’s the best way to fight the aphids.

Sounds like your finding out what is right or wrong and learning what works and what needs changed. Harvest is near.

In my opinion, which is worth less than nothing, the garden should have been cleared and mulched with a heavy-duty mulcher then tilled with a heavy-duty tiller prior to the start of gardening.

I believe Ladybugs eat aphids and you can buy them to release on your plants, next year perhaps. Thanks for the tour of your trial garden.

Appreciate you showing us the thorns and not just the roses. Would expect that from a monumental solo work in progress.

Thank you for the tour.

"Terra boa com um bom adubo..tudo que se plantar daí..🌱🌱🌳🌱🌱🍓🍎🥒🥦🥑🥒🧅🌶️🍆🍊🥬🥬🥕🥕🍅🍅🍌🍌🍒🍒👍 parabéns 👏 pelo seu belíssimo trabalho:) alimentação saudável, vida saudável:)

Not sure how the City would feel ... perhaps invest a few hours driving around Barrie and picking up yard waste bags when they're left out for pick-up 🤔

Different communities often have a specific time of year when they give away free compost. It might be a way for you to get extra compost to help your plants if you can find it when your community does that.

winter crops like Kale and the other brassicas might do well , absolutely fascinating what you are doing - so many thanks for Sharing

i am amazed how much work you get done. ime shure you must be one of triplets👍 anyway keep up the great work

Thanks for making such an amazing effort on both your channels Shawn. I look forward to every single video, regardless of the content, and have right from the beginning of their creation years ago ...they're way better than TV ...

I get a chuckle when you use the colloquial expression of "these ones". I'm just not used to hearing that and I like it. Going to start using it myself.

brilliant video , so so interesting .

Shawn you are not alone with the severe bug destruction even those of us in the lower 50 have dealt with the same. This has definitely been a year for the insect!

I was watching Smokin' Ed Currie's channel (he developed the Carolina Reaper, which I grow) and he ordered lady bug and praying mantis eggs for his greenhouse. Perhaps that would be something to consider. And last year I sprayed crushed non-coated Aspirin on my tomato and pepper plants. The acid in the Aspirin is supposed to stimulate the plants' defenses. I had a lot of tomatoes and Reapers that year compared to previous years. So much that I had to give away a lot of tomatoes. I dehydrated the Reapers and crushed them. I think I have a couple of years worth stored away. Next year I think I'll concentrate on tomatoes and Reapers and dehydrate a lot of them. The freeze driers are too expensive for me considering how much I harvest. I love the variety of plants that you have and how you're building up the soil.

Beautiful garden Shawn so healthy so green and producing a fine crop. started doing some research on improving my soil so that I can start growing my own veggies at least, and a natural homemade remedy that I can use for bugs that attack them and of course the hornworm that is attacking my beef steak. A lot to learn. You folks are going to be very busy with the harvesting and preserving. interesting video Shawn

Bonne nuit 🌌 Shawn, je suis très en retard dans mes vidéos.. matériel défectueux, que je ne peux changer actuellement..d'autre part j'ai eu une réaction inadaptée, suite à un commentaire très gentil..je sortais de chez le vétérinaire, j'étais effondrée..pendant toutes ces années j'ai réussi à occulter mes chagrins suite aux deuils..et une boule de poils de 39 kg a réussi à changer cette carapace...un vrai porc et piques roulé en boule..je vous demande humblement pardon.....vous êtes passionné par toutes vos activités..Respect💚🍀

The tomato blossoms fall off when there is too much humidity. Growing them next to your pond will be a problem. A small pollytunnel which can open each end on hot days would be more successful for tomatoes.

Looks like so much work! Mad respect! I recently switched from conventional composting to bokashi and can't recommend it enough (a fermentation method, does not only act as a fertilizer, it improves soil structure and adds beneficial microbes to the soil, so you don't have to keep fertilizing all the time and the plants become more resistant to diseases). Also I only learned this year: don't trash your pepper plants, they get better the 2nd year! There are videos on how to overwinter them on yt. And be careful with the topinambur/ jerusalem artichoke! Somebody planted some here and now our entire yard and vegetable patch are full of it, it becomes a weed like bamboo at some stage, taking over everything if planted without a rootstalk barrier. and it is not as pleasant as I had hoped, very time-intensive to harvest, doesn't really taste great and most importantly: it didn't keep in the root cellar. everything else was fine for many months, some things in wet sand, others just stacked, but we ended up carrying most of the topinambur back up the stairs, because it got moldy so quickly. maybe there are different kinds and ours is more wild or less suitable for what I intended. but the yellow flowers are lovely.

As always, great video! The usual ones are great and I find the gardening ones awesome. It might be my age, but I don't know how you can keep track of all that; even with a map and a gardening journal, I would forget a lot of it, kudos!

Great job, Shawn. You are a very lucky guy to have a wife and family that supports the things you do. I was not so lucky and will never see anything like this now. Take care and good luck.

@marthaadams8326

Жыл бұрын

Sorry for the lack of support. But, how does that stop you? reorganize and attack from a different perspective maybe? I know one can get worn down. And, it is a great risk to do what Shawn does, financially, physically, and emotionally. The work never stops on any farm, but some of his physical undertakings will start to take a toll in midlife. So, best for young men to do it and plan on their older years (like no MBR on second floor.

@Go4Corvette

Жыл бұрын

@@marthaadams8326 Raised four kids, put all of them thru college, sold the business, home, and gave all the money to my kids. Exwife got zero. Retired and am on the dying end of life now so the building days are over. No money no honey.

You had aphids, we had Japanese Beetle infestation. Fortunately our garden is smaller and more manageable, the fruit trees few and this was our gardens first year - mostly experimenting and learning like you. But at 70, a garden any larger than what we created would probably see me inhabiting one of the raised heuel culture beds and pushing up daisy's lol.

I’m excited for your planning this winter off-season and garden rolling into next year. It’s going to be really cool to see all the perennial plants coming back! They should be much improved after this year. Unfortunately there will probably be some losses from the hard winter as well. We just had a baby, I had a lot of the same setbacks that you were discussing, just lack of time and trying to cut corners to compensate. Like you said, you get burned.

Depending on the breed, the pepper plants may benefit a lot from being pruned twice to encourage branching, so they don't grow too tall. The first tipping happens pretty early when it's 10-20 cm; and the second round on the branches.

I just imagined building some kind of fish aquarium tank that has this screen like or grated like separate extra part in it that covers the whole floor and raises up and down when you want it to and it elevates all the fish out of the water so you could easily grab one and process it for a meal and that would make life easier sometimes if you ever dread fishing and want an easier way to get your fresh fish. Of course you'd have to go catch some first and put them in the aquarium. Some kind of water fish tank. You never know when you might need it.

@InDeathOnlyNothing

Жыл бұрын

There would be like a stainless steel grated flat rectangular floor piece with some rods welded to it with holes through them at the top and ropes attached to each rods and there would be like a BBQ Spit crank turning rod or like a well hand crank part above the tank and you just turn the handle and the ropes wind up on the rod and it brings the stainless steel platform up and there would be little notches that you can move in and out to rest the platform on like the car jacks have or shelves have.

It’s a learning curve gardening most think it’s easy but there’s a science to it your soil how much sunlight how much rain weeds and having male and female plants

Potatoes and berries love acidic soil. You may need to add some lime for the more fussy plants that like sweet soil.

Love garden walk arounds

Shawn I’m amazing you and your process especially gardening along with your talents building cabin… One thing would appreciate for you to be sure your videos are Closed Captured (C.C)… As loves to learn from you… This CC would benefit for Deaf community along for those Senior Citizens whom not able to hear what you are saying and tour the garden… Thank you for helping us… Enjoy your garden with all fresh vegetables…

Your amazing all that you accomplish. The garden is very impressive. For those of us that are hard of hearing...could you use a mic when you outside ( which is always...lol) or be sure to use the closed captions? It would be appreciated.

The rabbits and deer will probably kill your small apple trees in the winter unless you put the plastic protectors around them or wrap them in burlap.

Ah hosts or deer lettuce in the Adirondacks.If you want to eat it be sure you have a big fence. They like the green and white species better than the all green. Love your persistence at growing in the forest.

Que maravilha de vídeo 😍❤️🌹

Hopefully you will have more time to tend to both gardens next year!

Good to see your daughter have her own channel.😏😏

Very nice garden and futur fruit trees etc.. I sure do hope that the gvt will let people like you be free to do what you want!! Lately we have been hearing weird things concerning the gvt .. wanting people to reduce their independence!! Soo aggravating!!

So much, so soon. Gonna be a winner; if it carries on like this. Best of luck Sir. Keep up the great work. 1M callories is so much better than the same in subscribers. Keep covering all those bases, gently and methodically. Walk round, see what needs pulling up, harvest when and where you can, and keep leaving the abundance for The Mother. She'll pay you back. Peace Sir. m out

Great video as usual. Keep it up Shawn

@barryyoung500

Жыл бұрын

I love the fish just like you and I love hunting too and I love lake trout even brook trout

How much work is involved! In creating, training, containing, protecting, maintaining, weeding, watering, harvesting, freezing, dehydrating, drying. I think I can find many more to add to these few actions. I was gobsmacked. At the sheer scale. Normally. Wouldn't it? Take an army of people to do the above. Fantastic all round.

Hola saludos bendiciones que Dios te bendiga siempre cuidese que bonito siempre lo admiro por sus logros que Dios te ha dado saludos 🤗 😉 😊 😘 🙏 😁 🤗

You need to get a garden tiller to ground the plants in the garden into the soil

Lots of ferns over there.

Shawn this project of yours .. i would consider myself the richest man in the whole world if i can do the same .. this is like dream come true honestly ✌️✌️✌️

Salut from one hatched in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1952

Pros n cons...( life in a capsule)!! All in all looks good!! You and the family have much to harvest,it looks like!!?? Jus sayin 🤷!! 👍🐺🧙‍♂️!!!!

It's amazing how much food he is growing

First year gardens are tough especially bush gardens.

Well done 👍!!!!!!

The guy across the from us ,grows squasheit takes over his backyard and big squash hang over the fince.

Thank you , Shawn . 🐺

SHAWN BENDICIONES ABRAZOTES SALUDOS A USTED FAMILIA Y AMIGOS