“Decoding Gardening Advice: The Science behind the 100 Most Common Recommendations” – Book Review
Tips, Tricks
One of my goals as a gardener is to do my best to figure out which gardening products and practices really work, and which ones don’t. This interest led me to Jeff Gillman and Meleah Maynard’s book “Decoding Gardening Advice: The Science behind the 100 Most Common Recommendations”. How would you rate each of the follow 10 recommendations as either correct, debatable, or wrong? 1) Create an environment favorable to earthworms 2) Use mycorrhizae to promote healthy plant growth 3) Use pine needles to make soil acidic 4) Use vermicompost to improve garden soil 5) Avoid watering overhead to control plant diseases 6) Apply compost tea to help enrich soil 7) Add lime to soil to raise pH 8) Always mulch gardens 9) Add sand to clay soil to improve drainage 10) Water deeply and infrequently to encourage a strong root system "The Truth About Garden Remedies" by Jeff Gillman: http://amzn.to/2ahkgtq "Decoding Gardening Advice" by Jeff Gillman: http://amzn.to/2ahkj8z "The Truth About Organic Gardening" by Jeff Gillman: http://amzn.to/2aN5iKc "The Informed Gardener" by Linda Chalker-Scott: http://amzn.to/2ahkjFJ "The Informed Gardener Blooms Again" by Linda Chalker-Scott: http://amzn.to/2a7lK6x One Yard Revolution is all about growing a lot of food on a little land using sustainable organic methods, while keeping costs and labor at a minimum. Emphasis is placed on improving soil quality with compost, mulch, and compost tea. No store-bought fertilizers, soil amendments, pesticides, compost activators, etc. are used. Join me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oneyardrevolution Channel Page: http://www.youtube.com/user/OneYardRevolution Featured Videos: Do Pine Needles Make Soil More Acidic? http://youtu.be/_B8-1sVcfzE
Comments
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1. create an enviroment favorable to earth worms is correct
2.use mycorrhizae to promote healthy plant life is debatable
3.use pine needles to make soil acidic is wrong.
4. use vermicompost to improve garden soil is correct.
5.avoid watering overhead to control plant disease is debatable.
6.apply compost tea to help enrich soil is debatable.
7.add lime to soil to raise ph is correct.
8.always mulch gardens is debatable.
9.add sand to clay soil is WRONG on so many levels!😂
10.water deeply and infrequently is correct.
using mycorrhizae and rock dust completely baffles me. if you have your garden set as mother nature would why are these things even being brought up? and i'm talking about from people who have been at it for years and have been on youtube for a long while. all of a sudden it was the rage. then i compared them to the books i read long ago and had to change channels. but i would like to fill a knee high stocking and bury it just as a fun thing to do. if i don't get at least half of these right i'm going to be :-( -
Nice one Patrick! Always good to decode things. It's high time I pruned the gooseberry and red currant bushes at the back of the garage, they've been neglected for years (a bit like me). Pruning is a task I am unfamiliar with so I've watched a few short video clips on the subject and, you guessed it, I can only hope that I will receive the spiritual wealth to accomplish this work well, the material wealth also necessary (my house mate's secateurs need replacing) and the good fortune required in this latest endeavour. I've read that gooseberries aren't as popular in The US. Is this true? And what does that book have to say about using piss as fertiliser?
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1) Create an environment favorable to earthworms
yup
2) Use mycorrhizae to promote healthy plant growth
debatable
3) Use pine needles to make soil acidic
debatable
4) Use vermicompost to improve garden soil
yup
5) Avoid watering overhead to control plant diseases
wrong
6) Apply compost tea to help enrich soil
debatable
7) Add lime to soil to raise pH
yup
8) Always mulch gardens
debatable
9) Add sand to clay soil to improve drainage
wrong
10) Water deeply and infrequently to encourage a strong root system
yup -
Hi Patrick, I am Annie from Malaysia Last year, I watered my organic garden wit compost tea, it florished and I had so many tomatoes that it was a pleasure snacking on them when I went to work on the garden. My home brew consisted of fish emulsion which I made myelf, dried cow manure and molasses with a 3 T of diluted EM1. This year I did not use any compost tea and I can see the marked difference, plants are not doing as well as last year. So I perked up and now water the garden with compost tea again. The Collards, Tomatoes and chilli peppers are doing great. The corn isn't, but its not their fault as I neglected them earlier in their growing stage and besides we had rain every day so much so that a few of my Cherry Tomato plants died. I had to replant a few and am quite happy with the new plants. The Ziinias are vibrant and so is the Sunflowers, Squashes and Syo long cukes, I harvested 2 giant Syo cukes. The Black Beauty Eggplants were delicious, I harvested around 50 from 6 plants. They were large palm size. So I will have to say, weekly application of compost tea helps.
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I agree being open to others ideas encourages our development , but testing or analyzing those statements if you are able too is the best approach.
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I believe he would be a excellent candidate for you to compare your results against his as he also does extensive tests to see whether all these amendments are worthwhile or just gimmicks that wastes our time and money: --> https://www.youtube.com/user/BrightGreenThumb/videos
your thoughts. -
looking forward to more of your videos, thnx for sharing.
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haha yep.. too many myths make a person obsessed in all the wrong areas
plants don't require bacteria and fungus to grow... infact those things are more likely to cause root rot and many other fungal type diseases on your plants
plenty of trivial myths and lies around about gardening that simply hinder your progress... the best solution is to go back to the old method.. keep it simple...
water fertilizer and that's about it.. nothing else other than water and fertilizer ;) plants really don't require much more than that..
keeping it simple means.. keep it simple.. you are more likely to succeed if you do it the simple way -
I will have to read that book! BTW: Every time I see your Jerusalem Artichokes, I am reminded by just how pitiful mine look. All that I can say is that my JA's must be some sort of dwarf variety!
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Oh boy, I'm not sure where to start with this one Patrick! Great video and thoughts about the book, thank you for doing it. You have me convinced to order. :)
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Always love that ending part of your videos with the music
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1, 4, 7, 8 True - 2, 3, 5, 6 debatable - 9, 10 wrong. Love your channel lots of great info!
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I'd love to play but can't get beyond the comments section. I'll wait and see I guess-read the book when winter strikes.
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Without reading others: 1, 4, 6 and 8
1. Yes –
2. Not sure mycorrhizae needs to be added – I don’t…but my house is…in a forest.
3. NO to pine needles
4. Yes to Vermicompost
5. Yes – Rain is good enough, otherwise something tells me it’s a bad idea to poor chlorinated water overhead
6. Yes – increasing beneficial bacteria can’t hurt
7. Add Lime…No..I don’t do it, but I have alkaline soil
8. No – The word ALWAYS is a trap. I’m sure there are circumstances where mulching may
Not be beneficial -
!
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I feel like these are almost trick questions. Just about everything people do can be debated. I do enjoy your analytic style and look forward to your future videos.
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your take on garden videos is spot on with this and your test gardens etc.. please keep us informed thanks
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You're TEASING us Pa-TRICK.......can hardy wait for the update!!!
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correct - 2,4,6,7,9
debatable - 1,5,10
wrong - 3,8
I try to grow organically so I think some would be correct for me but debatable to others. -
My guess is...
Correct: # 1, 4, 7, 8
Debatable: # 2, 5, 10
Wrong: # 3, 6, 9
3m 32sLength in seconds