Transforming our terrace using VERMICOMPOST, STRAW AND CHOCOLATE?! Planting a NO-TILL GARDEN 🌱

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when it comes to planting a garden there
are a few secret ingredients that we had
no idea could make such a difference and
thankfully in this episode we get to
share that magic with you we did it in
about 5 hours we have an entire garden
now welcome back to our Channel if
you’re new around here we’re Britney and
Drew two hopeful adventurers who got
married and after 8 years of Van life
found our Dream property and moved
across the globe to Portugal where we’re
now documenting the journey of
transforming this historic water mill
into our very first home not on Wheels
now let’s take in a deep
breath and let it
out let the adventure
begin all right this is our Grand
Terrace and there’s rain in the forecast
I’m hoping to get a little grass seed
down on this big flat area so that it
takes root and starts growing that way
everything just looks nice Lush and
green we don’t have a big Dust Bowl
around here for the summertime it’s a
pretty big Terrace the biggest one we
got around and for that reason I asked
one of our friends Paul if I could
borrow his grass seeder it’s going to be
much easier than the blower which we
attempted in a video in the
past or just trying to like Chuck it
around with my hands but before I lay
the seed I’m actually going to use
this tool right here I think is meant to
like just break it up just the top of
the soil just a little bit and create
some little puncture marks that way the
seeds get in there better’ be nicer if
it was wider it’ take a lot less but I’m
just going to run back and forth a bunch
of times break up the soil just a little
bit to give a little bit more advantage
to each of the seeds I have no idea if
this is really what this thing’s meant
for but I don’t know it’s kind of fun
seems like the right thing to do
[Applause]
and you can see it definitely breaks up
the soil a little
bit so after about 1 minute of using the
ground breaker up I need to move all the
stones the Rocks before I put the seed
down you can see kind of craggy a little
bit full of clay so we will see how the
seed does over time I feel like a
kangaroo with a grass seed pouch open it
up with this lever and we got the hand
crank over here DRM
roll look at all the seeds flying wow oh
feel like I could be like doing the drum
line that looks meditative it is very
meditative one day we’ll just be
lounging up here one day I babe with a
little rain sunshine and time we could
start to see our first sprouts of green
grass popping
up and it’s so nice to see that the sun
is shining again what a beautiful day
for projects and
composting these yellow flowers are
everywhere so after a little bit of a
debate between which Terrace we should
put our new Garden on we decided that
Terrace through would be the best if
you’re new to our Channel you need to
know that we started the on our Terraces
from the river going upward so we have
Terrace one down low Terrace 2 has the
container on it this is Terrace 3
Terrace 4 5 6 and then many more new
Terraces this is the area I need to get
strimmed so that way we can get our
garden in here really excited about
using the trimmer again it’s been a hot
minute
[Music]
[Music]
there goes our neighbor on his little
motorbike he’s so sweet we’ve never
really had a garden before other than a
little Tupperware Garden on our patio in
Los Angeles back in the day and Terry
who is part of the castle wall retention
project he is like an expert in
permaculture and soil science so he’s
going to be coming here tomorrow and
helping us plant our very first Garden
he gave us a list of supplies to go get
so Drew and I are going to go do that
this afternoon and we’re going to take
you with us Terry just left us a message
I remember lots and lots and lots of
cardboard lots lots lots of cardboard
but right now we have major things
happening on our Terraces he’s digging
little holes about 5 m above
[Music]
heart having these holes made by
somebody else was a good choice even
though we might not use them all I can
fill them in a lot easier than it would
have been to try to dig them looking
back we realized that we didn’t need
quite so many holes we might only use
every fourth or fifth one but our plan
for next spring is to plant cork Oaks
madronos and Cyprus at that point we
should have an irrigation drip line in
place that will feed these upper
Terraces from cement water tanks that we
plan to place higher up on our land
which will also help with firefighting
on this upper little Terrace here we
want to plant cypress trees cuz they
grow tall and it’ll be nice just for
privacy along our road
[Music]
here we have
arrived to the windmill how fun I had no
idea that even existed here me NE
they’re so Charming I remember when we
thought about buying one of these
remember that ruin yeah but we’ve just
arrived to the town which town OD and
there is a little candy store here
that’s got a lot of what we need for at
least that’s what we’ve been told and
that’s the Hope
wow that’s exciting ah tomato
K that’s cabbage I would love to plant
some broccoli oh me
too no not yet no Americans from where
Florida Florida oh not very different
than this the weather true more uh humid
in Florida yeah
humid let’s do some
zucchini let’s do like four of those
okay
four and
lavender basil this is good to plant
near the tomatoes I’ve always raved
about the inch you can get all different
size inchadas here then you just pick
your handle so all of them just slip
over it’s like build a bear but build
your own inchada here’s the handles a
short one for how awful oh a really
little one down here I think I found the
smallest one of
all I mean next to the axe handles I
mean you can’t get any smaller nope I
think I didn’t find the smallest one
maybe I should just keep this one for
all of time we got got our new plants
and look at this outside of the store
they’re growing their own I think this
is kale I got your list right here I was
going to get six straw bales and two hay
bales there you go and then crap load of
cardboard he bear losos this is where we
get our boatload of cardboard so it’s
somewhere around the back well lots of
cardboard and it’s already compressed
Perfect all right let’s grab some got it
wow
can’t even see you under all
[Music]
that look at the Fun box you found I
love that they’re called churos
aquaticos basically these are pool
noodles but European style they must
have come from like Spain
churos that was a great cardboard trick
who knew
[Music]
look at the
goats so cute this is the
place looks a little
sketchy but apparently this is where we
can find the onions and the hay and the
straw oh and there’s even a little puppy
so cute so cute hi little guy there’s
lots of little guys hi so cute hi
oh this is the agriculture store this is
the place I was told to
come this is where we go this is cool
[Music]
look who’s riding in the back seat with
us
now I don’t know if you guys can see
that but there’s like little gold flakes
of hay trailing behind the truck it’s
like we’re leaving a glitter dust yeah
like pixie dust you know W spring lots
of little babies in there oh and Ducks
how cute look at all the Ducks listen to
the bells that Bird’s riding that sheep
oh he’s on his
back
wow and you know what’s cool if you look
away in the distance you can see our
house up the
mountain all the way up there is where
we live how special
[Music]
St and the city it’s like such a
contrast from the Country Roads we’ve
been on within like 2
[Music]
km one more stop other than night and
tight it’s going to be hard not to buy a
lot of things here especially with all
of those bare teres is it like going to
the grocery store when you’re hungry you
shouldn’t go to the plant store when
you’re hungry when you have space SP on
your land like space in your belly o so
beautiful
wow got a lot of good things wow ooh I
know you like
cilantro look are strawberries are
they
[Music]
oh that’s
fun one thing of asparagus 12
these definitely don’t look as healthy
and good as the ones we were picking
fresh I know wow these are
[Music]
beautiful found the garlic and the
onions it’s four get two of these and a
bag of onions yeah we’ve made it back
home with all of our new
babies I’m very excited to get our
garden going tomorrow me too and I don’t
think we lost too much straw in our
trailer on the ride home we drove very
carefully throughout the mountain roads
wow look at that you
guys so
beautiful I can already see the flowery
patch now
[Music]
we are going to be planning on that
Terrace down there so we want a quick
easy access so we can get the bales from
the trailer right down our ramp to where
we’re putting the garden meu is meeting
her twin what do you think I know you’re
much cuter you’re much cuter good
girl with so many projects on our minds
these days and supply lists that we’re
trying to keep straight workers were
trying to schedule questions were trying
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wait to see what tomorrow has in store
sweet dreams ever since we had Penny and
Tim their original owners over they’ve
been sleeping in the bed with us
[Music]
good morning it’s a beautiful day in the
neighborhood and it was just the perfect
kind of morning to make a little trip to
the nearby nursery where we could pick
up some substrate in case we needed to
supplement the supply of homemade
compost that Terry would be bringing we
have arrived that’s a nice mound of dirt
that’s where they pot the plants for
purchase she pots plants for purchase
kind is like she sells
seaf
substrate compost
[Music]
hello hello welcome back to the
show what do you think of our new
Terraces let have a wow and this is
holes for planting this one we’re going
to do Cypress just because in the future
we want to have a wall that’s kind of
separate and they’ll grow quick exactly
and then these other four
Terraces we just have the whole a’t that
crazy no instead of him doing a Terrace
every level here I had him combine it
and make one huge hu hug usable area now
is it that’s what I
thought one you know what I mean two
okay there’s your middle as you all
reach then you don’t damage your lower
back right can be any shape if you
wanted to get really kind of
permaculture about it then you want to
do a horseshoe yeah because then you got
maximum surface area get some cherries
nice early Blossom they do well here
Cherry if we went around like that we
could add the tree there and it’ll give
a nice shade for the garden okay yeah
which is cuz our Sun’s moving that way
there to
there that will give us a 1 M Arch okay
or horseshoe rainbow this rain
[Music]
we have to remove all of the plastic W
they went over the top there they really
did wow the glues are okay cuz they’re
vegetable glues but this is plastic
okay some of them are this one’s pretty
wet yeah somewhere a bit shoggy out
there
oh the cboard itself will become fungle
food when we put our compost mix on
which is full of fungus we’re going to
give the fungus something to to work
with the purpose of the cardboard is
mostly to stop what’s here you don’t get
weeds coming through in your bed in the
end it’s all going to mulch down and
that cardboard will will disappear the
fungus it won’t be there in a year and a
half you or a year you won’t see the C
it’ll all be digested by the fungus
hopefully right that’s the point where’s
the
[Music]
cowbell happy day sweet look at
that so at this point we think that we
have enough of the tape removed from the
cardboard pieces Drew is still working
on a batch and we have our one
two three garden bed arches each one is
surrounding one of our fruit trees that
we planted our very first fruit trees
from our friends next with the ground
already wet and our boxes all dismantled
and DET taped it was time to lay our
first layer of cardboard making sure to
get a solid ground cover and being
careful to place the stones back on top
to help hold them in place before they
would get weighed down with the next
round of watering but this time it would
be with a very special and nutrient Rich
worm tea made by Yours Truly Terry
himself all right so Terry is preparing
the compost extract over here so this is
a compost I make this is lovely the best
in the world we’re going to take two
nice handfuls of this cuz it’s probably
40 L something like
that and just give it some of
this and then leave it to soak for a bit
so it hydrates and then we’re going to
massage that out look how healthy this
stuff looks difference between them once
the worms have done it wow this is and
this is lovely this is Black Gold wow
wow Gorge beautiful is that what this
will turn into that’s what that was wow
even this that yeah the worms will eat
most things except the Citrus I only
make compost and I don’t put house
cuttings in my compost okay just like
mulch nature Cuts got it who knows what
they put on but all of those things will
be
antibacterial yeah so that you working
against yourself look at this he’s got
like a nose I just couldn’t leave him
behind thought he was too unique that’s
not a
nose cutting from nature you got nothing
in there which is antibiotic right right
so like a eucalyptus eucalyptus can be
very hard to digest they’re very oily
they take a long time so not ideal for M
or compost take a bit longer to digest
them leaves that was your waste product
you can figure out a way to compost that
quite easily right but if you’re going
to select cuz you want yeah you wouldn’t
select eucalyptus that Pine Olive
anything that’s deeply oily is hard to
compost it will everything will compost
but we want two months finished that
takes 2 months to create that that takes
2 months that takes another two months
wow that is November’s compost it’s
fully fungal it’s got all the organism
groups in it it’s amoeba count is off
the roof which is great cuz the amibas
eat bacteria what we’re going to try and
do is reduce your population of bacteria
so we can bring the ratio of fungus up
okay by putting the animals in that eat
the bacteria we want to get to a one:
one biomass okay fungus to bacteria
ratio okay for a garden this is not
Earth this is a community of organisms
stuck to the material and the only way
we can get them off and into a solution
so we then spray it evenly is by what
we’re going to do right now yeah we show
you how we make a tea let’s do it the
color that you can see coming out of
there that’s produced by fungus if you
see that we know we got good fungal
activity you’re looking for 70% dark
chocolate that’s perfect we start
packaging that in the chocolate bars
Terry’s
chocolate we want the organisms from
here that are going to come through
these really fine holes but leave all
the material behind so it doesn’t block
our
sprayer yeah so 3 minutes of massaging
and then we can pretty much say that
we’ve got most of the organisms into the
water and I’ve looked at this under the
microscope and it looks great wow so
it’s my best compost yet a all right
let’s fild the sprayer yo time for the
Ghostbuster gardening backpack
extraordinaire that’s
cool this P up find the pour clears it
so if you pour it from higher okay
I I get like 12 13 full backpack sprays
from one one battery one battery wow
which is not bad
right see that thing
go so after he wets this layer then
we’re going to put one more layer of
[Music]
cardboard you look like you’re having
the time of your life right now spraying
that stuff I’m in my element now I can
tell when you’re not behind the
microscope you’re out here spraying in
the field I’ll be happy than concrete
mixes and the nice thing about this
stuff if you get caught in it no
chemicals no chemicals although somebody
will probably say
no we’ll get you some swimming goggles a
manini
next Terry sprayed another layer of his
Rich vermiculture tea followed by adding
a dash of chocolate I mean compost
material then it was time to DET tape
and spread out another layer of
cardboard on top providing more food for
the fungus and less of a chance for the
weeds to grow up and through
come take a closer look that’s another
plate so we’re going to knock that out
there another plate they have like two
arms that do this and just like like
cards like card FL that’s how the plate
is yeah
a so we’re doing one plate thick I’ll
just kind one plate thick yeah that’s it
move right so’s do that
magic trick so after what has taken us
about 3 or 4 hours our new garden bed is
basically ready for planting and before
Terry came to help us today he had us
watch a video about Ruth Stout which
Drew and I have found really fascinating
it’s a really simple low-maintenance way
of gardening I just plant and pick the
reason that I can do all this is because
I keep my ground covered all year long
and that’s all there is to it Terry has
taken Ruth Stout’s method and sort of
like made a little twist on it think
Ruth Stout but with a spot of tea and
some chocolate to make it that much
sweeter yeah that color is that is the
activity of fungus right so let’s go and
have a look where do you want to plant
what so you want to have a strawberry
area I don’t know what Tomatoes you’ve
got but they’re going to need a lot more
water than say lettuce and that stuff
okay yeah this is uh compost and vermic
compost mix the vermic compost will have
lots of Ender fights which is what the
plant wants to develop its root system
as I was just saying to Drew if you put
them close together when it’s windy they
support each other okay and it does get
really windy on this Terrace so let’s do
them in this little Nook okay and I just
do one of these or do I like in one to
the cardboard okay don’t break the
cardboard kind of just putting them all
in this little
yeah yeah just kind of like little
cluster around this area we’ll know they
four fifths down the body of our
caterpillar yeah we’re going to make a
container for what for the soil plug
we’re going to put in it and then going
take a nice plug of our mix and just
drop it in there and then you’re going
to make a nice little hole in that and
drop that in there always remember to
press it down and always remember the
water it in
okay beautiful
yeah do a little little hole oh little
little so all you’re going to do is make
a little finger hole like that okay
shape of that plug lovely little
plug beautiful little
Roots that’s it we have our strawberries
he recommended getting about 10 more so
we’ll have to fill this in a bit more in
the
future that day we planted our very
first garden with strawberries Tomatoes
zucchini lettuce Pei Pei peppers onions
garlic oh and sunflowers of course which
might actually look like pretty
excellent quills on our unintentionally
caterpillar shaped Garden which we all
loved we couldn’t have done it without
you because we were really overwhelmed
thank you because we didn’t know where
to start and look at this it’s like in
half a day in half a day that’s
incredible great idea today my
[Laughter]
friend you’re welcome
yeah the best gift Terry you’ve been
studying the biology of soil for a while
learning a lot about this what is the
course and information you’ve been doing
at the Soulfood web.com it’s a school of
a woman called Dr Elaine inham she’s
like the goddess of composting in my
world she’s a wonderful woman It’s a
Wonderful school and it’s great
knowledge cool is there a link or
anything you have that we can like put
in the show notes below that basically
helps you and
if you do that that’ be cool it out if
you guys are interested and obviously
Terry’s a pool of knowledge who’s helped
us out and he can help you out but check
out that link in our show description
below thank you very much so if you’re
local in The Algarve Terry’s making
compost and compost
yeah cool Co that’s the good stuff the
chocolatey
[Music]
goodness who knew now we have plant
babies
[Music]
so much more ahead thank you guys for
watching this episode and we will see
you in the next one and thank you to
tyry we couldn’t have done this without
you it’s
[Music]