Just using Used Coffee Grounds, Cardboard & Seeds No till Garden Soil Improvement. Gardening for Beginners Vegetables Plant Series 101 Part 1. These items help to mulch and will help your plants grow.
VIDEO: Coffee Grounds, Cardboard & Seeds – No Till Vegetables Gardening Series for Beginners 101. Pt 2
Just using Used Coffee Grounds, Cardboard & Seeds No till Garden Soil Improvement. Gardening for Beginners Vegetables Plant Series 101 Part 1. These items help to mulch and will help your plants grow.
Will the winter rye continue to grow if is cut to soil level?
With the benefit being the insulating value, it seems to me you could do the same thing with compost, wood chips, composted manure or many other covers that would protect the soil from freezing.
The cardboard gives the worms a place to hide, and holds in the moisture. The worms feed on the coffee grounds laid down, and grass that was growing there; then as a result creates an area of high concentrations of worm castings that is nitrogen and bacterial rich. The increased aeration, moisture retention, worm castings, and bacteria rich environment, in turn breaks down everything in the soil to water soluble form, that the plants can then utilize for optimal growth.
Another great video, thanks Mark. I'm looking forward to the next step, where you show us how to go about planting an actual garden in this.
Thanks for a great video. I use this method 'a lot' in my raised beds here in the Pacific Northwest. Not only does it increase my plant yield but it protects the soil from compaction and leaching of the soil from the long winter rains.
This is really, really interesting. I have never tried this method but those results are pretty inarguable.
Love your videos, they're very informative. I'm also in NJ just across the river from Philly. Getting a late start on my raised beds this year, and was wondering if you could recommend a quick growing cover crop to inter seed among tomato, pepper, and eggplant. I don't have the bed prepped from last fall, so it's currently bare soil. Would it be better to just go heavy w/ leaf mulch? Thanks!!
What type of winter rye did you plant?
After you use this method to start your garden space, could you use the cardboard to grow your veggies through?
I am just beginning my garden. We also have clay soil. I am in North MS, zone 7a/b. I want to begin to establish my garden now, Dec/Jan. I think raised beds would be beneficial due to the clay. Where do I start? Lay down coffee grounds, cardboard or newspapers etc over the entire area and then in early spring create my raised beds or create the beds now and then begin the process? The land currently has been pasture type vegetation and has been bushhogged a. couple of months ago, so now short dying back vegetation. I have listened to almost all your videos and have learned so much. Thanks for sharing!
It was a quarter of an inch thick. You made a big deal out of it. Lol Great series. Thank you.
Mark, very interesting concept.I am not sure if I understood correctly: do you put the coffee grinds under or over the cardboard? I have an olive orchard in Europe can I do this around the olive trees using some cut up pruning branches over the cardboard and coffee?
I put the cardboard down and the coffee grounds and placed the clods on top. I seeded the holes and I haven't seen anything yet. Its been 5 months..
I put down cardboard last fall. I didn't plant rye or anything else. How would you recommend starting to garden this year?
Mark, Your experiments and demonstrations are pure gold. You are answering questions particularly about the role of the sun in building soil that I have been wondering about for years. Acquiring materials to cover the soil and building nutrient rich soil thereby can be a challenge for sure. Here in the Georgia Piedmont my soil is heavy clay with lots of rocks with very little topsoil. You would think that wood chips would be abundant here and they are just costly to obtain in quantity. Likewise, making compost can be difficult as it also requires a variety of materials that are difficult to obtain in quantity. I discovered the hard way that I just can't bring any manure home and put on the garden as so much of it is contaminated with herbicide nowadays. I'm definitely going to utilize the ideas you have presented here and in some of your other videos about sunflowers to begin to enrich my soil for a no till experience.
Thanks so much for taking the time to do these presentations.
I am rewatching this because I am starting 2 more beds. Love your explanations and experiments. It is a blessing to have the freedom to have land to plant, grow, and harvest! Praying for your son.
Thanks so much, Mark! Now I know what to do with all the coffee grounds and cardboard I`ve accumulated. By the way, what month do you recommend planting the winter rye?
I made a MISTAKE.. YOU CAN either USE 1/4 inch UP to 1/2 THICK and YOU will get the same RESULTS, THANK YOU.
what about mulching instead of cardboard?
Hi Mark I am in NZ is this the Rye you use Fine American Rye and Fine Fescue (Growth Coated). its the only one I can find
I have used the tall boxes cups come in for tomato plants
I put cages over cardboard and stake them down with whatever
Then I like to cover it with leaves, wood chips etc to cool cardboard and look better
Instead of using cardboard, can a couple layers of painter's paper suffice?
It seems your coffee grounds were really minimal to get that achieve that type of result I have been using cardboard for a long time and what I do is along my perennials I dig shovel in there and spread it and then I stick cardboard in with the flutes vertical so are is able to go deeper into the ground water can seep in and it's it's ongoing at bills up the soil and so I think this is something you don't hear about it I like you to give that a try as far as putting you're using your shovel a real steep shovel that can go deep and just roll up the cardboard and stick these took these rolled up coils are cardboard or folded patties of cardboard down in those in the earth like I said the earthworm's go crazy they totally love it and I say that any soil that has a lot of earthworms is good soil but why limit it to a half-inch of cardboard if you have access to more card or why not make it an inch maybe you some that bailing wire to keep them together and use a drill to cut cut your your holes through there that might be a way to to go I don't know but cardboard is plentiful that's for sure that's for sure I appreciate YouTube
Very helpful video
Not onlly that but worms love cardboard and they will eat some of it and give back to the soil worm castings.
Wow ! Great comparison.. Cardboard rules ! What happens next? Do you cut down the Winter grass?
I have a large slope of clay soil in WNC that has trash weeds growing, blackberries and such, could I use the cardboard to eradicate the weeds and start over with seeds of some sort? Erosion is a potential problem on a slope. Thanks.
What if I do this now to 4 inch high tomatoes?
This looks great, thanks for sharing
So you planted winter rye just to add more nutrients into the space while it otherwise would be bare soil?
Would I get the same benefits if I prepped my soil over the winter by adding cardboard, organic materials, and recycled yard/tree material to hold the cardboard down and also decompose? Thank you, John