hey guys come on in - one of my garden
spot's today is the fourth of July so
happy fourth of July
and the fourth of July is one of two
days a year I plant pumpkins I plant
them on Memorial Day and I made a video
of that that has something to do with my
service in Iraq and those who didn't
make it home that's a whole story in and
of itself but I plan on the 4th of July
because basically early July is your
last opportunity to plant pumpkins that
will be ready to harvest in time for
Halloween
most pumpkins depending upon the type of
pumpkin take at least 90 to 110 days to
mature and be ready for harvest so if
you're looking at the first of July
you've got all of July August September
that's 90 days so then October October
10 October 15 you're looking at 110 days
115 days so it July's your last best
time to do this so what I'm doing just
to explain here in this garden we don't
have the best soil we have a couple
different garden spots our best gardens
down there
I mean you drop this heat and that soil
and boom it just grows like crazy
because we used to keep our rabbits
there the soil is very fertile very rich
not so much in this garden we're working
on it it's a work in progress one of the
things we're doing to enrich the soil is
we're bringing soil that's already
enriched into this garden spot we have a
spot up on the hill where we get black
gold which you know is oak leaf mold and
then we have a stream down here that
feeds our pond where there's a lot of
silt ish type soil that's high in
nutrients so here's what I've done the
soil is so poor here that we actually
planted some peppers two different types
of peppers here that just didn't grow
the weeds grew so I've cut down the
weeds and I'm going to bring soils
because it's going to take several hours
this video is probably only gonna be
about 8 or 12 minutes long because we're
gonna do a lot of splicing a lot of
editing but over the next two or three
hours despite the fact that it's the
fourth of July and I have water that I
put in the freezer last night because I
always know the day before what I'm
gonna do on the homestead the next day
I'm gonna drink this down in today's
heat but I'm going to transfer a rich
soil to my not so rich soil garden and
I'm gonna make mounds to plant my
pumpkins so that's what we're doing and
I'm gonna take this phone real quick
from the most beautiful woman in the
world my wife and if you don't believe
me go look at some of our videos she's
in and you'll agree with me she's the
most beautiful woman in the world I want
to give you an update on a couple things
just three days ago we made a video on
how to grow cucumbers I want to say
pepino because that's what we call them
for years in the Philippines Peppino's
cucumbers using the fungus way method of
letting the vines go where they want it
three days ago we had no vegetables we
had no cucumbers on these vines look at
this three days later that thing is huge
it's fat we got some little ones here
and my life later here's a big one make
sure to check back with us later because
she's gonna make a video showing how she
makes for this wonderful Filipino
cucumber salad that we lived off of over
there for years cuz you know everyday
summer it's tropical you can grow here
around look at this one three days look
at that it's gorgeous okay I'll give
this back to the most beautiful woman in
the world and with no further ado I'm
gonna go get some soil and we're gonna
get started planting our pumpkins hey
guys welcome to our version of
Mesopotamia here on our property we have
three water sources coming together to
join right here we have a creek here
there's a creek over in the woods there
that actually comes in down here below
this old well pump down here below me
and then we have a third water source
back here it's basically another natural
spring that shoots water out of it when
it rains hard but they all come together
bringing in silt all kinds of nutrients
and nourishment to this part of our
property and you can see the soil here
is very rich very dark the soil up there
where we're throwing our pumpkins and
that garden is like a light brown which
means it's kind of thirsty and hungry
for nutrients so we're going to take it
up there and I mean these things are all
over the place guys when you're digging
soil and you find an earthworms that
means you it's very good soil now
there's gonna be worm castings in here
so now we're gonna start the long
arduous process of dragging this soil to
the garden okay so you're probably
wondering why is that guy using a sled
to get soil well am i cheap no but am i
thrifty yes see these sleds we bought a
lot of our stuff at Kroger a common
grocery store on the East Coast these
are like 15 bucks in the month of
December they have them every year well
if you wait until February you usually
get three for ten they make excellent
wagons or wheelbarrows for the farm and
three for ten dollars three dollars and
33 cents versus 100 bucks for
wheelbarrow and now dirts heavy okay
especially this moist soil from our
Mesopotamia Creek area I dragged it over
to where it's going with my lawn tracker
I just use and I hook when these tie
downs on here I'll make sure to secure
it and I don't need no $60,000 John
Deere on my homestead I use an $1100
troy bilt mower
all right so we got the soil over here
where we want it some more drag it in to
the garden come on with me into the
garden and now I'm just gonna start
dumping my soil here now look at this
you're gonna get shot of that honey are
you close enough come on in closer let's
let's give him a really nice view look
at this soil versus this soil this soil
now this is dry so it's not an apples
apples comparison but even if we wet it
down and which I'm gonna do because I
don't want this to be an apple some
water on here you can tell this is
almost black look at these worms I mean
guys this is a great sign of great soil
okay and we've got some clay and some
sand in here just a nice mixture we've
got these decaying oak leaves in here
over here I mean it's like almost clay
ish lighter brown a lighter color less
nutrients so I want to spin the next
however long it takes probably an hour
to an hour and a half bring in load
after load after load of soil from our
Mesopotamia area to here so we can plan
our our pumpkins I'm gonna let the most
beautiful woman in the world go inside
and stay where it's cool once I get some
soil over here we'll be right back hey
guys I'm adding another step that I
almost left out so I wanted to come back
to you quicker than I thought and show
you this you might remember I
demonstrated to you earlier in the year
the double dig no-till garden tilling
method how to tell a garden without a
tiller I'm gonna implement part of that
strategy here it just occurred to me
that one sled load worth of soil is
gonna be just about enough soil for my
perfect pumpkin Mound
well the seeds will sprout and they'll
start growing really good in this soil
but once they get down to this they're
gonna hit a solid object and they're not
gonna do so well so what I'm gonna do is
before I put every mound of my fertile
soil down as I'm just gonna take my
shovel and just like with the double dig
no to a garden method I'm not going to
remove an entire shovels worth of soil
and
decide and loosen up the soil beneath it
but what I'm doing is I'm just going to
loosen up the top like this because this
is the soil that will be beneath that
soil so this way here about three or
four weeks as the roots making our way
through this very rich soil they're not
gonna hit solid ground and then become
stunted they're going to hit well broken
up down so you see how I've done that
it's nice and loose but still this soil
is not that fertile but at least now
it's not hard it's broken up it's soft
the roots will be able to get through
there then I'm gonna take my and now
when I do the next man what I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna go ahead and loosen up this
soil here and then just dump my next
slid of fertile soil on top of it so I
don't have to move the soil twice
remember work smart not hard do it right
and then you do it once so this is gonna
be our first pumpkin bound right here on
the right where I'm continue to add this
and guys there are so many worms in here
I could go fishing all day with the
worms that were just in here you're not
seeing them all from that angle in that
distance but I mean they're just
everywhere
going around they're dark they're
blending in with the soil I mean I mean
they're freaking dozens of them okay so
now what I'm gonna do is before I go and
get the next mound of soil is I'm gonna
break up this ground which as you can
see is very hard so I'm gonna do it just
like I did there
and watch our video on which which yard
tool or gardening tool works which
muscle park you'll know I'm getting one
heck of a leg workout right here doing
this and be careful guys I mean you see
me bouncing up and down on this shovel
like a trampoline I do this all the time
if you're kind of new to this but you
don't do it as often as I do remember
hentai hentai slow and easy nothing out
here is worth getting hurt over and now
this soil look how solid and nasty in
for nutrients that is no wonder our
peppers in grow but now this is broken
up so now I'm gonna head back over the
creeks yeah another slight load I'm
gonna put it right here then when our
pumpkins start sprouting and the roots
are growing they're gonna be able to get
through this easy so yeah I need to take
I can go down they're almost up to my
wrist so I'm to get more soil hey guys
so here we are about an hour and a half
later and I made 13 trips to the creek
and back with 13 sled loads of very
fertile soil my beautiful bride who's
recording this now jumped in to help you
saw how I was breaking up the soil
underneath the mounds she did that while
I was getting soil remember those who
homestead together stay together so now
and it's overcast now this is crazy we
might have a thunderstorm coming in for
the last hour and a half while I was
doing this there were no clouds and the
Sun was beating down on me and it was
like 95 degrees whatever it is what it
is I want to show you a couple of
interesting finds I made in our Creek
honey let's give him a close-up here I
dug up a couple things the way the soil
worked over there was that we had about
six inches of silt dish topsoil then it
was about six inches of sand and then I
had about six inches of clay this was in
the sandy part about six inches in
underneath the topsoil if anybody
watching this has any idea what era this
might be from please let me know you
probably in the comments section you
probably noticed in the earlier part of
the video there was
well house up there we have reason to
believe there was an old homeplace up
there but we don't know we're in
Albemarle County I was gonna kind of
give that away here in a second anyway
Virginia but we're just a couple maybe
three hours away from Jamestown so we
know the Europeans were settling here
more than 400 years ago and we just have
no idea how long people is here even
before that but here's my second find
I'm with spin on this and rub off some
of the dirt but this is really
interesting I went inside and googled
this after finding this this is an old
broken coca-cola bottle it was about it
eight inches beneath the surface and I'm
gonna bring it up close so you see on
the bottom there since Charlottesville
Virginia don't know don't move okay
you got it so I'll talk about this while
she's getting that Charlottesville
Virginia
there's an old coca-cola bottling works
place down there that today is a
restaurant so I went in and googled this
so I could give you some facts about
this it was a bottling center built in
1939 that was in production until 1973
which ironically is the year I was born
I was born in 73 so I know this bottle
was made at some point from 1973 or
before so I'm holding a broken coca-cola
bottle in my hand that is at least as
old as I am I'm 44 it's probably older
it was well preserved because it was
buried under about 8 inches of soil in
our creek today it's on 10th Street if
you're familiar with Charlottesville
it's a little shortcut from West Main
Street over to the barracks Road section
of town you can drive by there you see
the old building it's like a restaurant
or a coffee shop or something now says
coca-cola bottling works but that's
where this came from and it's been
buried up here in my creek for who knows
how long now I've got my mounds my soil
is broken up underneath them so the
roots will be able to penetrate that
soil when they grow and I'm gonna plant
some jack-o'-lanterns just plain pumpkin
jack-o'-lantern and some Casper's these
are not the white Luminas they're kind
of like a bluish whitish but these are
both pretty pumpkins I counted the seeds
I mixed them together in a cup
encountered them I have 39 seeds or 40
39:40 seeds and i have 13 mounts at 13
do you do the math and basically it
calls for three seeds per mound so what
I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna put in
three seats per mound I'm going to do
you want to bear him about an inch half
an inch to an inch deep and again it's
the fourth of July so yeah I read the
back of those packets and ironically it
said just what I told you the beginning
the video one of these takes 90 days
until it's ready to harvest and the
other takes 110 or something like that
so by the first or second week of
October these things are going to be
ready to go and I'm gonna be ready to be
carved into the perfect jack-o'-lantern
now that's trusting all goes well and
we're gonna have to get out here water
this we're in the summer months what did
I miss
oh I didn't berry see now I'm gonna move
this class here in just a little bit I'm
gonna go ahead and plant here cuz I
can't skip a part of a row if I do I'll
never replant it and I wonder why my
pumpkins never came up and as far as
this saying giving away our location if
this hat hasn't done it which I'm worn
in like every other video we've ever
made
then you've not been paying attention to
detail but anyway this is all I'm doing
I'm going through I'm planting these
about an inch deep I'm spacing them out
evenly on the mounds now I'm gonna do
the rest here after a finish recording
you get the gist of it so if you're into
Halloween if you're into pumpkins you
want the perfect jack-o'-lantern the
latest in the year and which you can do
that is well then it depends on where
you are we're in Virginia zone seven so
if you're in the mid-atlantic region
it's got to be by July if you're further
north of here like if you're
Pennsylvania New York that area you
probably you might be passed your point
and of course if you're South Carolina
Georgia Florida going west you can
probably put it off a little bit longer
a week or two only because of course
Halloween's on October 31st so you might
be able to grow pumpkins that are ready
to harvest the end of November but you
missed it by a month so we're gonna
plant the rest of this we hope you
enjoyed this video we hope this gave you
a really good idea on how to plant your
pumpkins we hope you learn something
from it if you did please subscribe to
our Channel homesteading off-the-grid
and we'll see you next time