if a unmarked I'm self-sufficient me and
today I want to have a chat to you guys
about Google culture what is it how I
used it in this very garden bed here
without even knowing about it and
perhaps you have two and what makes it
so excellent for growing your fruit and
vege now I want to use this bed here as
my example because at the moment I've
got some vegetables growing in here and
some beautiful tomatoes some black
Russians some of these tomato berries
sweet potato I've got kale there's basil
there's Asian greens there's beans all
in this one bit but before I explain how
constructed this garden bed using the
Google culture principle I have to come
clean and let you know that it was
totally by accident so what happened was
I was reading the comments on one of my
videos and one of you guys a few months
back said hey mark just wondering if you
practice here go culture or have you
used it in the garden I've read this
word and I thought that looks like
double dutch to me when in fact legal
culture is German meaning Hill culture
or mound culture
so yeah googling I found out all this
information and I found out that it was
effectively to build up a nice big mound
with all this organic matter log sticks
leaves whatever plant material and then
on top of that you lay soil compost
mulch and that's where it then becomes a
mound where you can plant and grow
vegetables and fruit trees or whatever
crops and it just so happens that this
bed here I've been practicing Google
culture in it and I didn't even know in
fact all these beds along here are done
using the Google culture method so this
bed this round one in front
of the rectangular bed without just
demonstrating this one here that I've
got the mint growing in you might have
remembered that from my grow a ton of
mint video this round galvanized here
this one this one here this one and this
other rectangular galvanized raised bed
that mirrors the one on the other side
there exactly so all of them have used
the Hyuga culture method with logs and
leaves and sticks and twigs and just
fill them half way up with organic
matter and it really has worked a treat
if I compare it to my early days of
gardening say twelve or thirteen years
ago when I made those raised beds at the
back here hopefully you can still see me
so when I filled these ones out down
here these large oval raised beds I was
told by the manufacturer where I got
them from that you should put about a
foot or two of drainage in the bottom
like crushed granite and then your dirt
your compost your mulch on top of that
for your growing medium but I've since
found out over the last decade or so
just through experimentation that you
don't need great drainage at all in
large high raised beds like this in fact
those beds there are definitely more
thirstier than these beds here I mean I
can call on the Hyuga culture method of
bed but to me because I never knew about
that method or process anyway I would
just probably call them the raised beds
with logs and organic matter used as
drainage or as a base or as a fill with
soil and compost on top
instead of any fancy German name and to
be quite honest so what does the process
do of lining the base of your raised
garden bed with all this organic
material and large organic material too
in many cases big logs and sticks well
it serves several excellent purposes the
first thing it does and it's not often
mentioned when you read about Hyuga
culture and that is for raised garden
bed like this it adds fill if you fill
this whole raised garden bed with good
organic soil that you buy from a
landscaping mob that can cost quite a
lot of money and the fact is you don't
need you know 3 or 2 feet of organic
soil for vegetables to grow in most
crops only need about a foot of growing
medium and don't forget you can also add
to the medium compost and mulch which
also help to build it up so it makes
sense not to waste feel like organic
soil or even crushed granite and other
types of fill that you have to pay for
for the base of the raised bed like this
it makes sense to use whatever you've
got around offcuts rubbishing in my case
I've got plenty of debris down the back
there that I can cut up logs etc and
place in the bottom of this bed the
second thing is it helps the garden bed
to absorb and hold water as the logs and
sticks break down they act as sponges
that absorption can then be released and
used by the plants and utilize that
water that's being soaked up in them the
other thing that is so effective about
this method of gardening is that as the
organic manner underneath the soil
breaks down and you can imagine the
plants roots going down into that it
breaks down and releases nutrients and
acts as a type of fertilizer it acts as
food for the fruit and vegetables
and there's another benefit as the logs
and the sticks are breaking down that
process generates energy so it releases
heat into the soil and plants do love
nice warm soil cold climates in
particular or even here through winter
that process of it's slowly breaking
down and releasing a little bit of
warmth into the garden bed is beneficial
for segment Amato's which don't grow too
well in this type of climate especially
during winter but as you can see I'm
getting at least some excellent fruit
out of my Tomatoes when perhaps I really
shouldn't be at this time of year when
the temperatures are getting sometimes
sub-zero and the final thing about the
breaking down process and using the
Hyuga culture method is that microbes
and worms that are feeding and living in
that breaking down material in the logs
and the sticks they also start to get a
relationship with the plants fungi as
well plants rely on microbes and fungi
and worms not just to break down the
soil for nutrients but to also help the
roots take up certain nutrients that the
plants need to thrive so let me just
pick this clump red tomato berry variety
of tomato and squeeze between these two
Hyuga culture beds because I guess
that's what they're called even though
if it wasn't for you guys I still
probably wouldn't have known what Hyuga
culture was I hope you enjoyed the video
of me explaining Hyuga culture even
though to me it was just a logical way
of getting extra fill into these raised
garden beds and by adding that extra
fill being logs and sticks and organic
matter that could break down attract
microbes and worms which in turn
helps the plants through fertilization
keeping the soil a little bit warmer
than it otherwise would retaining
moisture and the symbiotic nature
between fungi and animals helping the
plants making them in theory thrive
which I think the proof is in the
pudding good juices up hmm excuse me
all right let's beeline so thanks a lot
for watching
if you liked the video give it a thumbs
up don't forget to share it as well
because that helps heaps website
self-sufficient me calm bye for now I
think I'll go and have another tomato
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you
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