one of the biggest mistakes is bare soil so we
like to keep it covered this is vet growing you
know between all of the squash plants and if you
add an extract after your broad forking you're
getting in the microorganisms down through
that compaction layer and breaking everything

up defeating your compaction means that your
plant roots can go deeper to get more nutrients
in water healthy soil equals healthy plants
healthy plants y equals healthy love it [Music]
so the first one is bare soil so we like to keep
it covered um whether that be with straw mulches

uh along the soil that helps retain moisture also
feeds your biology or hardwood mulch we used to
we like to use hardwood mulch at the farm CU that
also feeds the biology but that also means live
cover crops um that can be vet or Rye or wheat
and then um but that also extends to cover crops

on the offseason as well so once your crops
come out of the ground and you're preparing
for winter really putting those cover crops
down so it doesn't sit bare over the winter
um just allows for your microbiology to feed over
the winter and then that when you use something

like oats and peas that's a winterkill that adds
that organic matter for the spring deom um and it
just helps keep everything together you know I'm
really aware of this Nicole and this is something
that I've been advocating myself for all these
years but not that many people know about the

biointensive methods of production where actually
the crop is acting as the ground cover the canopy
and this is a good example of this the soil is
covered but we haven't put anything else from the
plant but just like the close spacing and the fact
that the soil is so deep and at one point just the

the plant just occupies all the growing space uh
you'll see to your right here we're using um you
know ramble wood chips Yep this is for the flowers
and the herbs again the soil neatly covered here
um but I want to show you something that I'm
sure you like come on we'll show we'll go to

the greenhouse so you see there's there's places
where when we don't have crops that overlap it's
hard to create the canopy so one of the strategies
that we've been doing here is just planting cover
crops just we talked after the plants are into
the ground so there this is vetch growing you know

between all of the squash plants vetch is a
good nitrogen fixer too vetch is a good nitrogen
fixer the next mistake to avoid is um like heavy
tillage or like just anything that will create
kind of a pan so when you till things you create
a compaction pan in your soil so that's when you

get compaction right on the tillage point so what
we use to um break that up is a subsoiler so a
broad fork is a subsoiler which gets down 12 10
10 in down into the soil um and that's breaking

through compaction layers and then if you add an
extract after your broad forking you're getting in
the microorganisms down through that compaction
there and breaking everything up so it's just
air rating the soil um in a much gentler way than
tillage I have to tell you I'm happy to learn new

things I've never thought about putting compost I
you know I just told you that I'm learning about
compost extracts really exciting but to do it
after the broad fork it's really exciting it works
um in a more conventional setting as well
where you can use the Yen's plow to break

up the soil and then um do you have like a tank
in the back of the plow? Yep, and then what we've done is we've added a pipe down the back so
you're getting it literally down yeah so that

would be on a larger scale, you can still do it
but on in the Market Garden or in the garden, a broad Fork then put your and if you really
want to double up compost broad Fork extract all right. The next mistake to avoid um in gardens
Market Gardens and home gardens is compaction so

compaction is really tough on your plants because
plant roots can only grow down to about 150 to 200 lb per square inch of pressure so once they
get that they go out sideways so defeating your compaction means that your plant roots can
go deeper to get more nutrients in water so

compaction is basically this, a nice one, this is
a nice B because you can get your hand in pretty deep so that's that's doing pretty good but what
leads to compaction is um foot traffic is really bad for compaction so anytime you step on a garden
bed you're compacting it um a good way to kind

of defeat that in here with to be add mulches in
between your rows so people know that's where you step and this is not where you step um bare soil
is bad for compaction especially Outdoors because rain can compact soils very easily as well and
then that creates a very small compaction layer

and then tillage creates the compaction layer
on top so just breaking through those and that means your plant roots can get a lot deeper
through the soil. What do you think about the concept of permanent raised beds I.E perab beds?
We have those, we love them so they're great to

diminish yes because you work a certain space
every year and that like over time that's what
creates healthier soil avoid synthetic fertilizers
really to build your biology you want to be using
compost and compost extracts really to build
up that population of microorganisms synthetic

fertilizers are not adding any microorganisms um
most of them are salts because they are active
in water so then that creates kind of a salt
layer on the top of your soil too which can
almost go anaerobic at times as well so we
just want to avoid synthetic fertilizers um

I've heard it once compared to as steroids for
your soil whereas adding uh compost and natural
ones like compost and extracts and wood chips and
mulches you're feeding your soil so it's creating
a healthier more robust soil than just fertilizers
let's say I'm doing The Devil's Advocate let's say

I'm biking down the road here and I'm looking at
the corn and it's quite impressive like these are
Big stocks of corns you almost like 6 ft High 7
ft High stacked and you know I've been seeing this

corn grow year for like 15 years it the corn is
tall but how are the ears like that's the thing
too like you can have good height but what's
your production like as well would you say also
that perhaps like the side effects not just in the
soil but on in the run the runway the waterway

oh 100% like there's that's why there's so much
water protection and in Ontario we have the Water
Act and all like the pesticides because to create
healthy to work around the overspray in order to
create healthy plants but not like at the cost
of human health sometimes too because it's going

into our water and that's not the best thing ever.
Like I grew up on Lake Erie which is notorious for its gigantic algae bloom that happened from
overspray of fertilizers so that was like that's when people started to wake up and realize
that excess runoff is not great because it's

affecting our lakes so we we wield them.
Some compost and you're in another video we saw how to what makes good compost what good compost
is and you brought an example of really amazing beautiful compost you had my 12 on 10 thank you
rating for sure it's probably the nicest compost

I've ever seen thank you very much um actually it
is the compost that I've ever seen and so how does that substitute like why is that better it's
um why aren't we just buying you know 202020 and putting that in the tomatoes it's healthier
so you're creating a healthier soil which in the

long run like once you start adding compost and
really building up your soil biology you don't need to add compost every year anymore like so
it's a lot of effort and a lot of money up front but like once you really start to build that up
and once your soil starts working for itself you

don't need to be adding in additional fertilizers
any like additional compost because it it's starting to work itself and if you feed it with
like straw or wood chips that's what feeds the soil and creates it in that cycle so you don't
like we don't add compost onto our beds anymore

every year because we don't need to and would
you say the difference between compost and good compost is is important yes so that's where you're
making sure you have those microorganisms in there to make sure that you're creating the nutrient
cycling creating that building of structure and

water infiltration so that's what really gets your
soil working. Love it! It's all the microorganisms... the last mistake is not caring for your soil
or not making that full connection because we want
to make sure that we get the well-rounded picture
for soil health. Like once you start to incorporate

compost and the microorganisms into your soil
that's when you really start to build your soil, which leads to better water infiltration which
leads to less compaction so your roots can get
further down into the soil, they can reach more
water, reach more nutrients. So issues like drought

don't really become a problem because your plants
are getting more water. Issues like flooding don't
really become a problem because the water can
infiltrate down easy enough. Nutrient management
starts to become a lot easier because the soil
starts to cycle the nutrients itself, so it

starts to feed itself and then feed your plants. So
once you get it to that nice sweet spot where it
starts to work, that's when you just add in things
year by year like little things in order to keep
it working and keep the system happy. The most work
that gets done in farming happens under our feet.

Yeah, and that's the microorganisms at work in the
soil, and that's something that's not tended to all
the time. But why would we be putting in so much
more extra work when the microorganisms can do the
work for us? So healthy soil equals healthy plants,
healthy plants equals healthy people. Love it!

5 Garden Mistakes To AVOID For Healthy Soil And Healthy Plants

5 Garden Mistakes To AVOID For Healthy Soil And Healthy Plants