How to Have The Best Vegetable Garden You Can

[makeupklutz]

Well John, I think you are THE BEST! I saw a great idea for making super cute seed bombs as a Valentine's gift. What are your thoughts on seed bombs? Yeah, nay? Thank you for sharing you projects & knowledge.

[gilichu]

The better is the enemy of the good - Voltaire

[northwestblazinfire]

@gilichu niice

[peaceinstead]

Thanks again for your videos!

[mmaaaxxo]

Awesome attitude. I love hearing this and it's exactly my philosophy. You can't do everything immediately, but get started! And I loved that you give credit to the open market of people doing services for eachother freely. keep it up brother~~

[hollykarlsen]

Can't wait to see what you do with a farm, John! I love that you grow all that beautiful food on less than an acre! You are so inspiring.

[rubbernecker13]

Great advice, thanks for the wise words.

[swsebrownsugar1888]

i love growing my own food  (^_^)

[pgeeks808]

I am of your

[kampnman]

John, its all awesome!! Do I correctly understand your using 100% organic compost and mixing in rock dust? Which means you are not using any top soil or top soil / compost mix? Do you have a vido link that discuss this more? I just built my first raised bed and now need to fill it with soil. I have read some pros and cons of using 100% compost vs. a good topsoil/compost mix. Can you elebrate or giving me additional info. Thanks, Frank

[phoggee]

I don't remember on which one of your videos I saw that you're gonna be in Santa Rosa some time soon and you're gonna be selling some of your tree collards, please remind me when that is.

[zardozica]

Great points John.

[nealio75]

Life is about compromise sometimes. You just have to find where your able to compromise and where you cannot. I think people who become so afraid of not having everything line up to their ideals ultimately fail to do anything at all. I like what you say in this video because it drives that point home. You have to learn to do something even if it isn't what you consider ideal. If it is an improvement on what your doing, then DO IT. Thanks John!

[Calichickengirl]

Hi John- THIS IS ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO! Just wanted to say thank you for all the great info. I was wondering if you can post your source for the Chineese artichokes you harvested a while back. I really am interested in trying to grow those and the Jerusalem artichokes this year. Thank you~ Tacey

[gloorbit]

Shades of grey indeed. Best not to get too anal about things, no?

[RawCarol]

John,

Do you rotate the areas that you grow your greens in? I am trying to figure out how to rotate my veggies, when I mainly grow greens?

I think you are your videos are awesome by the way

[growingyourgreens]

Yes. I do rotate the non-perennial crops. If you have the space, grow something like fava beans or clover over the winter, in a bed or two on the "rotation" to fix nitrogen.

[jean405]

Reply to DanielManahan

How strange, you put money before your health. I find the joy of gardening, and eating my own produce far outweighs the cost.

[growingyourgreens]

I actually don't find it too strange.. MOST Americans value money above all else.. We see this all the time, Personal Health, Planetary Health, People, Environment suffer because people value MONEY over all else.. People Lie, Cheat and Steal for Money.. Just watch the news. This is what what most of society and the media teaches sheople... I strive to teach and show a better way of living. Hopefully most of my viewers place a higher value on the things that are truly more important than money.

[Whadsupgator1]

So basically do the best that you can with the resources you have and are available to you. For example I want to use more rock dust but it's expensive to ship and there aren't any local places I'm aware of that sell it so I have purchased a small amount. I figure some rock dust is better than no rock dust.

[growingyourgreens]

Im glad someone gets the gist of my video :)

[bootydaddy70]

Great video John,what do you think about planting apple seeds?

[growingyourgreens]

Planting apple seeds is great if you have "room" and time to play with. Apple seeds are not "true to seed" so you will get a new variety of apple once the tree grows and (if) it fruits. Many apples produced this way may not be sweet, although you may get lucky and invent the bootydaddy variety of apples.. Of course, you can always graft on to apples that don't turn out to your liking.. or make hard cider out of them :)

[lawrencerjose]

Awesome John! I appreciate all you do and share! Thank you for this video, and for your honesty.

[MrsNewAmericaNow]

So True...critical thinking is no longer taught in school, just follow orders and don't question anything.

[MSGBlair]

Great information. Keep up your excellent videos. They are greatly appreciated and you have earned my respect and admiration for "getting it done" without making excuses.

[veggietorials]

Fantastic video John. You hit the nail on the head...some people seem to be paralyzed by perfection, so they do nothing. My garden is perfectly imperfect and it works for me. Mahalo for the great tips!

[sly2kusa]

I just spent $50 on seeds from 2 different places (mypatriotsupply and tomatofest). My goal is going to be to have each product go back to seed so that I can create a sustainable garden, year round. I live in Southern CA, so I truly believe that I should be able to achieve this! :-D

[nedraofscots]

Good, Better, Best

Neve let it rest

until your Good id Better

and your Better is your Best

My aunt wrote this in my class book about 60 years ago and I have live by it all my life. Love that you brought it up.

[GTRShaun]

"oh, I can't eat a healthy diet, so I'm just going to eat McDonalds all day" ROFL

Love your vids John... keep up the good work, and love your sense of humour :D

[GospelTruth37059]

Got my first bag of Azomite John! Looking forward to seeing how it works this year,also ordered some worm castings this year for worm tea:) Yummy lol

[AUTS4U]

Would you contact me? I would like to email you? Thank you

[growingyourgreens]

You can message me through youtube. That being said, Its rare that I reply to personal messages.

[vintageozarks]

John, I believe you are striving to do your best as a gardener. You excel actually.  Often those people who try to tear you down don't even have a house plant, much less do they do as much as you do. Plus, your enthusiasm is priceless.

[CheapEnergyIdeas]

During the Civil War General McClellan and his entourage sat on their horses on the side of a stream..McClellan wondered if he could cross his troops and stated" I wonder how deep it is?" Tired of doing nothing..Young George Custer rode out into the stream up to his horses ankles , turned around and said" Its this deep General sir!!"

[TheRastaRick]

Great Enlightenment!!

[OssBank]

A good way I have found and deploy every growing season is growing tobacco. It does take care of the aphid problem. It is like growing a large fly paper trap, leaves are always covered with aphids and a nice colony of ladybugs are crawling about taking care of the straggler aphids.

I'm sure there is many other anti-aphid options out there. Though never hurts to experiment with different plants what works best for you.

[lesview]

Good stuff John, thank you! I would love to see more stuff on greenhouse gardening. Built my first one about a week ago and it held up to the snow in ice storms here in Puyallup Washington. Keep the video's coming I'm learning a lot.

[writingsinthesky]

Always enjoy your videos, your enthusiasm and your dedication to growing your own food and spreading the message. I have a small urban garden too. If you'd like to see a video of some of our heirloom vegetables from last year, please go to my channel.

[ThirdLittlePiggy]

I think you're great - I always have! Keep on growing-your way! Thanks for everything.

[Whitney3797]

This may be your best video to date!

[Helioforge]

Nice, as a beginning gardener, I'll try lots of random things. There are so many ways to mix soil for germinating seeds, and it's really important to start the plants, so I'll make several mixes to give the plants a greater chance of success.

[spencedawg8]

Great video! I share those same values! Gardening solves a lot of problems, even if it's at the "good" stage!

[TheBlondeRN]

Thanks so much for the videos John, always inspiring.. I'm stuck here with 10 inches of snow and an ice storm, but dreaming of spring!!!!

[DanielManahan]

how do you desalt sea water? that would be a great way to set out boats on the ocean with raised gardens and have a constant source of both soil, water, and food.

[growingyourgreens]

The Sea Water I use for the trace minerals is a special deep sea water that has been processed and in a form that can be used directly in the garden. For further information on it, please see oceansolution*com

[whereispg]

Like your attitude.. Let me ask you. Im in Miami, Thinking about maybe building a couple raised beds..What "greens" u think grow the best for my climate? How about enclosing the beds in a mini GreenHouse ? cheers

[growingyourgreens]

You can EASILY grow in Miami. Please search my videos on YouTube for Florida to see all my videos that will more directly relate to you. Also watch

watch?v=pkyX1evktzk

for my specific 1 hour talk geared to gardeners in South Florida

[DanielManahan]

John, at appearance alone it looks like you spend more money than make back in gardening. Wouldn't an organic farmer do it more traditionally since they are a business trying to make a profit? have you done an accounting and compared the results to GMO foods? (don't compare to whole foods they are too expensive)

trying to save money first, healthy second. hopefully both!

[Thaneii]

@DanielManahan What an asinine question. John’s philosophy and mission isn’t about making money, it’s about eating healthy. And the best way to do ensure the quality of your food is to grow it yourself.

[growingyourgreens]

I probably spend more money than most of my viewers on my personal garden. That being said, "You can't take it with you". I learned at a young age, the thing I value most is my health and at a young age, it was almost taken from me. I will spare no expense to have the highest level of health. So that is my #1 goal. If I did have a commercial farm, I do know HOW I would make it viable as a business.. but that's not my current goal. See

watch?v=rxLV3vM-t_w

where I talk more about this.

[Gehenna71]

@growingyourgreens Well ... I don't care about broken, old and used furniture. As long as I can use it my money is for the garden! It is about 100m² but has a variety of plants, a small pond, a small rocky garden, annuals, perennials, tropical plants, herbs, vegetables, fruits, a shed, a small tomato greenhouse, water barrels, compost barrels, and it's far from finished as now I'll go up in height :) I wish it was bigger to build a greenhouse but I don't complain, I'm happy with what I have!

[Genuinemythman]

@DanielManahan

Lets say john pays 9.99 for a pack of 4000 lettuce. Lettuce on average matures in 2 months and wieghs about 1/2 pound. John says he has 4000 square feet of gardening space, and lets say 1/2 is cultivated. Also lets assume lettuce costs 2 dollars a pound which is for cheap convention non organic lettuce. If he planted all lettuce he would spend and in two months have 1000 pounds of lettuce. In two months he nets about $2000 worth of produce for 10, hes saving money!

[dramey03]

@Genuinemythman

IF he has the market, thats best case scenario, and a great scenario at that

[growingyourgreens]

I would agree, if you look at it on HOW much I am saving on the food Im NOT buying, it can definitely off-set the price of my "gardening hobby".

That being said, the price of the best-tasting, bio-photon rich food that I harvest fresh from my garden... PRICELESS.

[oldrockmustard]

@DanielManahan I strongly disagree!! Health comes first then save money. With health, you  think better, is more willing, even to work. Health first!

[TheProductiveGarden]

Very wise words John. Nice video.

[GenesisHealthy]

Aphids are evil... They seem to come out of nowhere and pig out...

[CaliforniaTravelTips]

Thank you so much for these gardening tips. They will come in handy this spring when we start planting again.

[Thefirstaquias]

Thanks for the video.

[bunntbright]

so if I don't have raised beds would growing in the ground still be better that buying my food.

[GenesisHealthy]

@bunntbright Think about what you just asked in light of what he said in his video about JUST DO IT!

[nosuchthingasauserna]

@bunntbright When I was little we lived off of our garden from the ground. As I got older and moved out and away from the farm and rented all I could do was buy grocery store food. A garden in the ground isn't bad. The reason people use raised beds is because their own dirt is poor, too hard, have concrete and not dirt, and a garden in the ground means more bending in dirt that compacts. It's not a bad thing, it's just harder to work.

[bunntbright]

@nosuchthingasauserna Thank you so much for your reply. I would love to have raised beds someday but for now I'll just do the best I can with my dirt.

[ksw1688]

Great episode! I really enjoyed it! :)

[8drewski]

thanks john! hey can you please make a worm composting video?!?!

[pibrown6]

When I was in High School, I had a teacher who always said: "good, better, best, never let them rest until the good gets better and the better gets best. Gread Video. I like your attitude!

[EarthyPlum]

Good Words John!

[morelmo]

Great episode!

[BalconyGrow]

I really do appreciate the way you think. I like the good, better, best philosophy. On a side note, my boyfriend thinks i'm strange because i go over to the neighbors and ask if i can rake their leaves for my compost. lol Keep up the great work John. :0)

[bonzdee]

Hi John, been watching your video's for a while, so is my first question. I'm collecting a lot of seeds as well, my question is, what is the best way to store them?, so as to use them when the season for growing them comes around. Summer is nearly ending here in New Zealand, so want to store my summer seeds for next season. Thanks for any advice you give.

[growingyourgreens]

Its my goal to have a seed saving video... one of these days.. Basically you want to store them when they are dry and in an air tight container so that moisture can not get in them. Cool, Dry Place. a 5 gallon bucket with a lid that seals well is good, or a old paint can that seals really well. Of course, many old jars that food came in, if they have a good seal, are also good to use as well.

[onedogwato]

@bonzdee Hey mate, i use paint tins, go to your local paint shop there only a few bucks and seal air tight.. Cheers..

[OssBank]

@bonzdee Most seeds once put in protective packaging like John mentions can be then stored in either the fridge or the freezer. In my experience through trial an error, I don't store pepper seeds in the freezer.

[IllumTheMessage]

Good stuff John. Too many people sacrifice the good for the sake of the perfect.

[bilstonjay]

Your videos inspire me a lot John. I'm an atheist but if I need a Jesus or a God I'm going to name you. Nice one! Great vid. Take care mate. :-)

[AnitaGofradump2008]

Great video John as always :).  Has the wormcastings compost had any effect on the whitefly problem you had in a previous video?

[growingyourgreens]

There does seem to be less whiteflies at this point. I havent really "inspected" them closely, at this point.

[billisherenc]

One of the best front yard gardens I've seen, given me some good idea's

[ShahTelevised]

Awesome video!