The Only Soil Video You Ever Need To Watch
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Date: 2026-09-04
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Comments and reviews: 20
Forestdwellr
most important gardening topic! Actual soil is a rare commodity in most urban or suburban gardens. The gardener friend talking about buying soil at a garden centre doesn't understand what soil is. it's also funny talking about soil in front of raised beds. Almost no raised beds contain soil, it's generally soilless media very high in organic mater with no mineral fraction. Moving to a small plot garden with garbage fill for soil under a horrible edge to edge lawn last year, I brought in 15 yards of golf sand (finer than normal) and added about 10% organic matter with peat and coir for my cut stone raised beds and then amended with micronized rock dust and plant residues along with heaps of actively aerated compost tea and a compost top dress. Hydroponic to start but converting slowly to something almost like soil over time. From garbage lawn to full lot perennial poly culture in anthropogenic soil to overgrow the new neighbourhood!
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most important gardening topic! Actual soil is a rare commodity in most urban or suburban gardens. The gardener friend talking about buying soil at a garden centre doesn't understand what soil is. it's also funny talking about soil in front of raised beds. Almost no raised beds contain soil, it's generally soilless media very high in organic mater with no mineral fraction. Moving to a small plot garden with garbage fill for soil under a horrible edge to edge lawn last year, I brought in 15 yards of golf sand (finer than normal) and added about 10% organic matter with peat and coir for my cut stone raised beds and then amended with micronized rock dust and plant residues along with heaps of actively aerated compost tea and a compost top dress. Hydroponic to start but converting slowly to something almost like soil over time. From garbage lawn to full lot perennial poly culture in anthropogenic soil to overgrow the new neighbourhood!
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soltersortna
A good explanation! Less actionable tips but there’s plenty of videos for that. I have a crabgrass infestation at my new home’s 90x10 garden bed, and I’m considering some extreme measures. This year I just planted and left it to nature to see how bad the nutrients were and my tomatoes were half size and nothing else survived at all, even before the crabgrass began Thankfully I built a separate smaller raised bed with fresh soil so I wasn’t left without veggies! But I think with a bit of pre emergent (which sadly means I can’t direct seed, and a truckload of compost next spring, I can get it back in order. And before anyone gets high and mighty with a reply about pre emergents, no I can’t just pull all the grass, it’s 900 square feet of solid green. I would take other suggestions though, the other consideration was a blanket of cardboard (after the compost.
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A good explanation! Less actionable tips but there’s plenty of videos for that. I have a crabgrass infestation at my new home’s 90x10 garden bed, and I’m considering some extreme measures. This year I just planted and left it to nature to see how bad the nutrients were and my tomatoes were half size and nothing else survived at all, even before the crabgrass began Thankfully I built a separate smaller raised bed with fresh soil so I wasn’t left without veggies! But I think with a bit of pre emergent (which sadly means I can’t direct seed, and a truckload of compost next spring, I can get it back in order. And before anyone gets high and mighty with a reply about pre emergents, no I can’t just pull all the grass, it’s 900 square feet of solid green. I would take other suggestions though, the other consideration was a blanket of cardboard (after the compost.
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kevinfrazier5138
I love when people say they have bad dirt. Usually I find they just mean they have clay and don't know how to change that. They just throw fertilizers and home depot potting soil at it and nothing helps. I give them one pass of cover crops and then they start complaining that things won't stop growing. I have a five seed mix that hasn't let me down yet, and depending on which of the cover crops is dominant tells me what kind of things will grow in that soil after the cover crops have done their work. I also never plant anything on its own at this point, every tomato has a bed of clovers for example. The ecosystem doesn't end at the top of the soil, gotta have homes for the beneficial insects.
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I love when people say they have bad dirt. Usually I find they just mean they have clay and don't know how to change that. They just throw fertilizers and home depot potting soil at it and nothing helps. I give them one pass of cover crops and then they start complaining that things won't stop growing. I have a five seed mix that hasn't let me down yet, and depending on which of the cover crops is dominant tells me what kind of things will grow in that soil after the cover crops have done their work. I also never plant anything on its own at this point, every tomato has a bed of clovers for example. The ecosystem doesn't end at the top of the soil, gotta have homes for the beneficial insects.
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blackkennedy3966
The easiest do and forget way to improve soil is mulch. In as little as one year. you can see big improvements. My soil is sandy loam naturally it dries out quickly and turns hard and hydrophobic in the dry season. With mulch after two years it’s a darker richer loam and holds more water and it’s lost the hydrophobic properties. No need to fertilise either you grab a pinch of it and smell it you can smell all the fungi and stuff in it. Very bioactive now plants love it. Just keep it topped up with coffee grounds and more mulch some kitchen scraps too and the OM builds up you can see the black layer If I scrape the top layer with my finger.
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The easiest do and forget way to improve soil is mulch. In as little as one year. you can see big improvements. My soil is sandy loam naturally it dries out quickly and turns hard and hydrophobic in the dry season. With mulch after two years it’s a darker richer loam and holds more water and it’s lost the hydrophobic properties. No need to fertilise either you grab a pinch of it and smell it you can smell all the fungi and stuff in it. Very bioactive now plants love it. Just keep it topped up with coffee grounds and more mulch some kitchen scraps too and the OM builds up you can see the black layer If I scrape the top layer with my finger.
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scottb4087
Please, can you comment on or make a video on wet garlic I can't find anything on wet/fresh garlic other than through AI and I would give anything to hear from real gardeners about it.
I randomly tossed three bad cloves of garlic in my back yard in February and one actually took root. Something about it not going through vernalization and not being cured made this AMAZING single bulb that was a completely different entity.
The flavor was garlic mixed with green onion and lemongrass and other than the end of the roots the whole thing was edible.
If traditional garlic is compared to an aged Bordeaux wine, this was an explosive Champagne.
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Please, can you comment on or make a video on wet garlic I can't find anything on wet/fresh garlic other than through AI and I would give anything to hear from real gardeners about it.
I randomly tossed three bad cloves of garlic in my back yard in February and one actually took root. Something about it not going through vernalization and not being cured made this AMAZING single bulb that was a completely different entity.
The flavor was garlic mixed with green onion and lemongrass and other than the end of the roots the whole thing was edible.
If traditional garlic is compared to an aged Bordeaux wine, this was an explosive Champagne.
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ChicaFoo
I have to make my soil from scratch. Not only do roughly 40% of houses in my area have radon in the soil due to naturally occurring uranium and radium, making it so root vegetables have to be grown above ground, but a hundred years ago when my house was built, they buried all their trash so every time I do dig I find piles of stuff like rusty nails, metal livestock ear tags, belt buckles, and old timey glass medicine bottles that are somehow still intact. It is cool to dig that stuff up but the result is I have to garden in raised beds that I can’t fill with soil from my back yard.
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I have to make my soil from scratch. Not only do roughly 40% of houses in my area have radon in the soil due to naturally occurring uranium and radium, making it so root vegetables have to be grown above ground, but a hundred years ago when my house was built, they buried all their trash so every time I do dig I find piles of stuff like rusty nails, metal livestock ear tags, belt buckles, and old timey glass medicine bottles that are somehow still intact. It is cool to dig that stuff up but the result is I have to garden in raised beds that I can’t fill with soil from my back yard.
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kelly2791
Brilliant. I love gardening videos like this. Thanks for taking the time to make it.
I've just started letting weeds take over the areas I don't have plants for at the moment. There's a lot of Ivy-Leaved Toadflax which acts as a ground cover and a lot of what we call Herb Robert - which never goes away anyway, so I just leave it in some areas. It doesn't bother me pulling it up when I have to. Quite like the smell actually.
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Brilliant. I love gardening videos like this. Thanks for taking the time to make it.
I've just started letting weeds take over the areas I don't have plants for at the moment. There's a lot of Ivy-Leaved Toadflax which acts as a ground cover and a lot of what we call Herb Robert - which never goes away anyway, so I just leave it in some areas. It doesn't bother me pulling it up when I have to. Quite like the smell actually.
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aftonwhetsel375
Absolutely the perfect person picked for teaching us about soil! Gray, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, and always being willing to teach us the correct information, in an important friend advice kind of teaching. You are the kind of person anyone is lucky to sit down and have a conversation with and walk away feeling refreshed and grateful. You’re truly a blessing.
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Absolutely the perfect person picked for teaching us about soil! Gray, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, and always being willing to teach us the correct information, in an important friend advice kind of teaching. You are the kind of person anyone is lucky to sit down and have a conversation with and walk away feeling refreshed and grateful. You’re truly a blessing.
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Aaronthetreeguru
I studied soil biology under Dr Peter Yeow at Melbourne University, and Grayson lightly touched on all topics. But that was 30 years ago. Advances in local tricoderma has come a long way. PH is worth your time. It controls cation permitivity. Plants are electrostatic couplers, keep the ground state moist.
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I studied soil biology under Dr Peter Yeow at Melbourne University, and Grayson lightly touched on all topics. But that was 30 years ago. Advances in local tricoderma has come a long way. PH is worth your time. It controls cation permitivity. Plants are electrostatic couplers, keep the ground state moist.
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CindyRussi.
I didn’t know that soil can actually harm you. I got a recommended video yesterday of a guy in England that was elderly and almost died from it. The back of potting mix had a warning for sensitive groups and that you should wear a mask because inhaling the soil particles can be deadly
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I didn’t know that soil can actually harm you. I got a recommended video yesterday of a guy in England that was elderly and almost died from it. The back of potting mix had a warning for sensitive groups and that you should wear a mask because inhaling the soil particles can be deadly
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justinkasica721
Mixing in organic matter into clay type soils will not improve drainage if anything it will worsen the area for plants. Only way to improve soil structer is sacrificial cover crops to build SOM. If SOM exceeds 10% there are deminished and negative effects on yeild and crop health.
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Mixing in organic matter into clay type soils will not improve drainage if anything it will worsen the area for plants. Only way to improve soil structer is sacrificial cover crops to build SOM. If SOM exceeds 10% there are deminished and negative effects on yeild and crop health.
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ellenkuang8853
A really cool thing that is also crazy to put into perspective is that healthy soil is a carbon sequestration technique because the living organisms inside it IS what's sequestering carbon. The healthier the soil, the more carbon based living beings supported by the plant roots.
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A really cool thing that is also crazy to put into perspective is that healthy soil is a carbon sequestration technique because the living organisms inside it IS what's sequestering carbon. The healthier the soil, the more carbon based living beings supported by the plant roots.
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VPCh.
The first day of my geology program, I made the mistake of using the word dirt when answering a question the prof asked the class.
He went on a 10 minute rant about how much he hated the word dirt. 7 years later, and I'll still never make the mistake of calling soil dirt again.
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The first day of my geology program, I made the mistake of using the word dirt when answering a question the prof asked the class.
He went on a 10 minute rant about how much he hated the word dirt. 7 years later, and I'll still never make the mistake of calling soil dirt again.
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Jadon8or
Whenever I have soil in a pot, it dries out a lot, even if it's compost. Straw mulch doesn't always work. I have tried to make it more spongey and retain more moisture but if it is exposed to sunlight a lot, say a plant that likes a lot of sun, it still dries up. Any help
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Whenever I have soil in a pot, it dries out a lot, even if it's compost. Straw mulch doesn't always work. I have tried to make it more spongey and retain more moisture but if it is exposed to sunlight a lot, say a plant that likes a lot of sun, it still dries up. Any help
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YogiCecily
This was an excellent video. I’ve watched many videos about soil, but Gaylen’s presentation was fantastic. I love seeing different areas of his garden, and his little jokes and analogies made this inspiring and entertaining THX
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This was an excellent video. I’ve watched many videos about soil, but Gaylen’s presentation was fantastic. I love seeing different areas of his garden, and his little jokes and analogies made this inspiring and entertaining THX
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DeniseNorris-tv7vc
Thank you for a dirt vs. soil explanation/lesson delivered with information entertaining enough not to put me to sleep! Although every time Graylen is featured he always provides knowledgeable and entertaining content
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Thank you for a dirt vs. soil explanation/lesson delivered with information entertaining enough not to put me to sleep! Although every time Graylen is featured he always provides knowledgeable and entertaining content
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Neenerella333
My little lot is on rocky(limestone) slabs and boulders. In my dopey rock climber experience in limestone canyons, roses, grapes, poison ivy and walnuts like the limestone components. Blueberries most certainly do not.
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My little lot is on rocky(limestone) slabs and boulders. In my dopey rock climber experience in limestone canyons, roses, grapes, poison ivy and walnuts like the limestone components. Blueberries most certainly do not.
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ahnanda68
I’m trying to recycle my dirty soil yeah that was kind of funny when my daughter was like seven she said mom sometimes you gotta eat a little dirt That’s what my science teacher said
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I’m trying to recycle my dirty soil yeah that was kind of funny when my daughter was like seven she said mom sometimes you gotta eat a little dirt That’s what my science teacher said
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chilly_7272
I love your videos and this is exactly what I needed to diagnose and fix my basically wood mulch garden beds. Buying all my seeds for next year through botanical interests
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I love your videos and this is exactly what I needed to diagnose and fix my basically wood mulch garden beds. Buying all my seeds for next year through botanical interests
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a_francisco
In my home, I’m the gardener and my husband is the fish keeper. Together we’ve realized that fish keeping is truly keeping pet water, and gardening is keeping pet soil
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In my home, I’m the gardener and my husband is the fish keeper. Together we’ve realized that fish keeping is truly keeping pet water, and gardening is keeping pet soil
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