Where to Put a Garden + Hardest Vegetables to Grow

First

Brussel sprouts have beaten me for years, last year started making actual Brussel sprouts deep into winter day 275, then the aphids took over. Not sure what I’m doing wrong but I’ll get it one of these years!

Thank you Great show. Have found afternoon shade to be good for growing many crops if unlimited east and south exposure is available

Carrots being a hard crop is wild to me. They are literally the only crop my mom can grow haha 😂

Do you mean crabgrass instead of bermuda grass?

a refugee community garden would be so awesome.

Broccoli, Califlower, Brussel Sprouts and Beets are hard for me. Eggplant is extremely easy on my property though.

I've never had any issues with my eggplants so far. I start them indoors and place them out after the last frost and they seem to do fine I start them 12 weeks inside before I put them out.

Oof, my garden is in rich floodplain right on the side of a creek, 200 yards away from my house, and almost too wet to work in the spring 😅. But the deer aren't scared on my land, I've seen 30+ right off my side porch. I have to electric fence the garden regardless of where it's at. It only floods like once every decade or so, and wet ground may be aweful in the spring, but it's nice in the summer heat. Less watering and if I do need to water, there is a creek right next to it.

Jesse... Do you even remove the Creeping Charlie?

I just want to highlight what you said about people gardening gaining an appreciation for the people that grow their food.

Harder :
Muskmelon - the impact of water status... The taste lowering when too much water available. Mild to heavy rainfall could sounds catastrophic. Ah, and fruits explose close to maturity, specially with heat (but that is a heat-requiring crop...) ; "but fortunately" the proper look to decide when to harvest is quite indistinguishable ..🫠

Other harder, that I didn't try :
Potatoes. At the scale to be competitive on the market. Need a lot of mecanic material.

Easier :
Faba bean. The ones you open the pod to collect big flat bean.
Just thrown in late automn, no burrying of seeds (with a presoaking process to mention).
No weed management.
No irrigation.
No staking.
Cropping sequence :
Soaking+sowing
Forgotting for 5 months
Harvesting

i love story time with my gardening

I love ALL No-Till Growers videos!

If you garden on a slope as Jesse does, Jesse has some great videos for you and also covered it in his book. Basic decision Is whether orient the beds across the slope, perpendicular, to slow down and catch the rain as it comes, or to orient them straight down the slopes so the pathways can drain excess water away from the garden. Since I can have very wet or very dry seasons I finally decided to go down the slope. My soil retains moisture pretty well after a number of years of no dig practices. Very wet are more of a threat to me than the very dry ones. In my community garden we have running water between the frost dates so the dryness isn't much of a threat except of outside of those times.

I have a plot at a nearby community garden. I have to sign a contract that states you cannot sell anything you grow on the plot. They do encourage that excess produce be donated to a local soup kitchen

Castle farms with you fish motes sound great

❤❤❤

I was surprised that you didn’t mention east/west row direction, for sunlight and for ventilation

Hi, I'm not a farmer myself but trying to be self-sufficient with veg, potatoes, etc. Since I live in a ground floor apartment and only have a very small, shady garden, I ran out of space quickly once I started gardening 8 y ago and therefore started looking for other options. Naturally, most people here in Europe would have tried to get an allotment. I did not.

Instead, I looked for options to rent a piece of land from private hands, and I guess such options are shamefully unknown/ totally underrated if you are a private gardener trying to be as self-sufficient as possible! It took a few months posting in local groups but I eventually got offered a part of a very old, not well-maintained orchard. That part does no longer have fruit trees on it and hence no roots in the ground, but was overgrown with nettles, brambles and the likes. Yes, it took some work to clear the space BUT: I have the BEST soil you can imagine.

Why? Nobody has trampled on it/ compacted it over the years.There has never been any tilling. Machines were never used. No pestizides/herbizides were ever used on that space. Instead, all the grasses and weeds growing during the year have kept breaking down over all those winters and added to the soil. Except that for some years ago, for a while, sheep were used to keep the grass down, the space has more or less been left to itself. I am in year 3 and hardly need fertilizer, only using clover pellets for the very hungriest of crops. I could not have asked for a better space to grow my food!

And yes, I am outside of town, with no electricity, running water and sanitation. This might be an issue for some people, but there are solutions. E.g. I built a large shelter for my tomatoes, using the roof to collect rain water. It has a small shed underneath to store my tools and a compost toilet. Basically, this is all I need, and I can only recommend people looking for growing spaces to seek such unique opportunities.

Pumpkins are a bear for me. I struggle to get the timing to work out. I get few female flowers and when I do, it's the one day no male flowers open! Fertilizing once I do get a good flush of female flowers is tough. I wake up early and go out and hand pollinate on my own. And even then I struggle to get my baby pumpkins to survive. I thought I was going to have great success last summer but several fertilized pumpkins died on the vine.

With a bit of trepidation I tore up all the grass in my front yard and made a garden. Since the neighborhood is a bit on the fancy side i feared some pushback but it has been wonderful! No grass to mow, lots of passersby to chat to, and the best access possible. Be daring!

I'll be honest, I OD'd on eggplant many years ago and cannot eat it anymore -- but I continue to grow it as an AWESOME Trap Crop (for flea beetles), and then I give away the harvest.

Hard and easy is so subjective in the garden!

I have been in Community Gardens and I will not do it again. I love to work with new gardeners, BUT, many quit in August and leave for vacation. If there is an infestation of, say Flea Beetles, then we all share it, and some will not treat the problem due to finances or absenteeism. We need to be a team, but, sorry to be a sour grape, but, like an HOA, there is always a person who wants to be the "Boss." I will raise my own garden in my space so that I only clean up, treat infestations, and don't have people's children walk on and take my vegetables by ripping them off the vine. Not a good investment for me.

Ha! Garden placement. I hear you. But my main growing area is a long way from the house, and a long way from water because it's the only decently sunny spot.

Just for extra fun, my whole property is laid out at 45 degrees to the compass, so there's no "north side", and it's usually somewhere between quite windy and very very windy here, so I had to build fencing with windbreak fabric (which isn't as effective as I would like to keeping it to chest height - and it still blocks some evening and morning sun.

The wind is why we have so much shade as fir trees and beech hedge have been planted to block it from the house and orchards. Plus a couple of random oaks... My neighbours tell me that felling trees has bureaucracy attached and they had to even plant more in a different spot to get permission!

YES we have deer, and my cat, though he will take on huge hares and even chases foxes away, draws the line there. I try to be in the garden every day except in the middle of winter, I find it good for me and don't mind. I'd move my office up there if building something would not cast too much shade.

There's lots of perennial grass, I did an ok job of killing it, but I do spend a fair bit of time battling it (but hey, that means I'm up there scaring the deer!)

I lay a hose in the season to solve the water issue (we have dry summers) and at least the land drains well!

All this to say - I agree with ALL your points about garden placement! Every one that you mention (save drainage) has been an issue in mine. It's definitely a thing to think about seriously to avoid wasted effort!

Lot of great info. Amen on the bermuda. The only places I have.not seen it is in my wooded area and the pasture.

Ugh, I totally overdid my 40+year old body on Sunday. Please do a quick reminder that stretching before working outside is super important, ESPECIALLY when a false spring is calling, and ESPECIALLY if you're over 40!! (My hip is killing me)

The community garden I belonged to has a requirement that 10% be donated (it was given to our women's shelter.) also, had a rule the produce was for personal use _ not to be sold.

Hey Jesse, really appreciate all your content, I am a backyard and community gardener. Our community garden is run by the bowls of hope society, a non profit that supplies healthy soups to 1200+ kids in our community at their schools. Members get a 20x20 plot for their own use and then we volunteer labour to help produce food for the soup program on the community plot. Any excess gardeners produce we can donate as well

Thanks for being you🙏👍🥳

I help run a community garden and we donate all of the produce we grow to the local food bank. We also bring food to local seniors that aren't very mobile so they can get fresh produce.

In these troubled times, it’s great to relax and listen to your videos. Thanks!

I think you nailed the first year so wonderfulness of growing cucumbers. Ughh…I’m down to only planting the latest crop possible with success. The pests (beetles and bugs) are strong. Constant finger punching hasn’t seemed to help.
Any advice from helpful gardeners?

Start small. Clear trees and stumps if you can before any work begins. Lets just say I have experienced this first hand.

I find onions difficult
Poor germination (seed needs to be fresh)
Tough to weed
Take forever

I've had success with turning lawn into garden space without waiting by just putting down one or two layers of cardboard and then putting compost right on top. Hard to put any big transplants into it but great for arugula, lettuce, spinach, peas, beans, bok choy, etc.

Well said !

I grow eggplant as a trap crop. I might be able to harvest one or two a year, but that isn't why I value the plant.