[MUSIC PLAYING]
What you should know about soil is every damn thing.
What you should really know about soil is that we're soil,
we're carbon.
That's kind of what this is.
But I'm going to take you guys through some
of the different kinds of soil.
And this is really what's going to allow
you to be able to plant some healthy shit.
Let's start with the bad.
So let's start with this compacted soil.
And see this?
The only thing that can basically grow in this
is weeds that don't take a lot.
But you can see how crumbly this is.
So it has no water retention whatsoever.
And then we have clay.
And with clay, actually, this is the same stuff
that they make clay pots out of.
So it holds too much water and it
doesn't release it, which is bad for your plants.
See how this clumps together?
And then we have sand, which this is good
if you have succulents and things like that, where you
want to lose a lot of the water because you
don't want too much water to be held in your succulents.
And then we have this is really what you want.
You want loamy soil.
But you can see a lot of the organic matter, how
it's broken down in here.
And this is what you want.
It even has rocks, different minerals.
And you can see that it holds moisture,
but it also breaks up.
And what this does is it lets your roots--
they don't have to fight so much to get through the soil,
so they use that energy to get more roots rather
than using the energy to fight through soil,
which you get a bigger plant.
The bigger your roots are, the healthier your plant is.
So what this basically is is kind
of a combination of all these soils
because you want some of these characteristics in the soil
that you use to plant in.
So basically, most of you guys probably
have this hard, compacted shit in your yard.
It has no nutrient value whatsoever,
and it's going to be hard to even work in this shit.
What I'm going to try to get you to
is this beautiful stuff right here.
So let's recap.
This is something I'm going to do throughout the class
to highlight the important shit you need to remember.
First, just because you have soil in
your backyard really don't mean you can use that shit.
Your plants have to thrive in it,
so making sure your soil has everything they need
is really important.
It needs to retain enough water so the roots can get to it,
but it also needs enough drainage
so they don't become waterlogged.
So you want a nice, loamy soil that
has both clay for water retention and sand
for drainage.
Finally, it's important to make sure
that your soil has enough nutrients for the plant
to absorb.
The good news is composting-- yes, composting--
which we're about to discuss, is a great way to do just that.
So starting a compost pile.
I know you asked, what the hell is compost, first of all?
It's the best thing you can do for this planet
and it's the second best thing you can do for your garden.
This is compost.
This right here is fuel to the fire,
a view of your healthy plants.
This is what happens in the forest.
And that's what we're trying to do is replicate the forests.
Biomimicry is what it's called.
Way before humans came along and started fucking everything up,
mother nature had a great system in place for recycling energy.
A living thing would come into being,
go through its life cycle, die, and then decompose back
into the soil.
After that, the nutrients it gave
the soil would become fuel for other living things to thrive.
So basically, composting is us taking a cue from mother nature
by collecting organic matter, helping it decompose,
and then mixing it into our soil to give it nutrients.
Another thing I love about compost
is this takes things out of the waste cycle,
and then they don't wind up in a landfill
because this stuff is never going to break down
amongst the plastic, and the toy trains,
and the electronics that's in our landfill, when this can
go right back into the soil.
And compost can break down from three months to a year.
If you just pile a bunch of leaves together and leave them,
it'll break down.
It's just going to take a longer time.
I mean, there's also methods of compost
where you can put your compost in a plastic bag--
you know, a black, heavy plastic bag--
and you wet it, and you put air in it,
and you just tie it up and leave it.
And that's going to break down too.
And that's a way you can make leaf mulch.
But also if you want to make a compost pile,
you can build it on top of the ground and you just layer it.
And you don't have to even enclose it.
There's a way that you can build a compost pile that's round,
and you can just stack your stuff and real neatly,
and you can then watch the pile as it breaks down.
It would do this, and then it turns into this,
and then you don't have to take it anywhere.
So that's on-site composting, where
you're not making a compost somewhere,
and then you're bringing it.
And this is what I do on my Parkway Garden.
I have piles of compost being made all over the place.
There are a couple of ways that you should
maintain your compost pile.
First of all, you don't let it dry out
completely because if it's dry, it's not going to break down.
You want air to circulate through your compost.
So you want to turn it where the dry stuff, all of a sudden,
is on the bottom and the things that are broken down already,
they're on the top.
And sometimes, it's a three-step process.
Like you want to start your compost, and it heats up,
and it breaks down, and then you just turn it into another bin,
and then that breaks down, and then
you turn it into another bin.
And you leave it there and you let
it break down to when it gets to the point where it's like this.
Compost is really not that difficult.
I know it seems challenging.
Yeah, it takes a little time and thought.
But if you have the right containers,
it can be quick and fast 'cause you don't really
have to do anything.
It happens naturally.
It's going to happen fast if you do it a certain way
and it's going to happen slower, but guess what?
It's going to happen, so just do it.
OK, let's recap.
You can make compost in a bunch of different ways.
The easiest is to create a pile in your yard
and start throwing stuff on it.
Another way is to put compostable materials
into a big bag that will also decompose.
I like to use coffee bags.
And for all you fancy folks, you can
buy specially-made containers that help speed up the process.
Whatever method you choose, it's important to keep it wet--
not sopping wet, but moist.
And mix it up every now and then, so air can get to it.
And that helps it break down faster.
Once it all breaks down, mix the compost into your soil
and turn that dry, compacted shit
into a healthy, nutritious soil that your plants will love.
And if you're looking for even more info,
check out our workbook.
So I'm going to go over some things
that you should have in your compost and some things you
definitely shouldn't put in your compost.
First of all, let's start with organic matter.
If it's organic, I believe it can go into the compost.
And I don't mean organic in the sense of the way it
was growing per se.
I mean if it came from nature, it can go into your compost
because think about the forest.
You know, when Bambi dies or some shit right there
in the forest, no one buries it.
It decomposes right back into the soil.
And actually, it helps the soil.
So and then the leaves fall and a tree falls down
or a lightning bolt hits it and it falls to the ground.
All these nutrients and enzymes in the soil
is going to break this down.
So you're at home and you want to put it in your garden.
All your food scraps.
Coffee-- definitely, go get coffee grounds.
Because think of all these coffee
places around just the United States
and they throw all their coffee away.
They throw all their coffee grounds away,
so they don't break down and go back into the soil.
Coffee grounds is a very, very healthy amendment
for your soil, so use your coffee grounds.
Don't throw them in the trash.
Hair, sawdust, egg shells.
And I actually, that's sawdust.
And this is really good for a mulch
also on top of your plants.
Maybe you can plant it like an inch and a half, two inches.
And it helps retain the moisture, definitely
in your potted plants.
But also, here is a bowl of food scraps.
And we have banana peels, egg shells, onions.
And so here's the thing about onions, since we have them
here.
A lot of times, you will cut an onion
from the side that had the root on it.
And sometimes, you can still see them.
And sometimes, you will see the little green pop up.
Put that in the ground because what
that's going to give you is a couple of more onions.
And if nothing else, it will give you onion seeds.
So don't throw it away.
Same thing with garlic.
We've been trained that once garlic, the green starts coming
out of it, throw it away.
It's no good.
And that's exactly what you want.
That means that garlic is healthy.
So that whole clove, you want to just put it in the ground
and that one clove is going to give you
a whole other garlic bulb.
But if it's organic matter, you want it
in your compost, period.
Now, I'm going to tell you guys some things that you shouldn't
put in your compost.
Greasy food-- you don't want grease in your compost.
You don't want no cat shit in your compost, dog shit.
That shit ain't cool.
And lint from a dryer.
People tell you it breaks down, but it never does.
And you don't know what kind of synthetics are in it,
so you don't want that in your food.
So it's real simple.
If you don't want it in you, don't put it in your compost,
you know?
There's a ton of stuff you can take out of the waste stream
and use to create awesome compost.
Common household things include hair, coffee grounds,
egg shells, and vegetable scraps like peels and rinds.
You can even throw in that moldy orange
you've got sitting in the back of your refrigerator
that's now turned green.
However, avoid greasy foods, inorganic materials
like lint and paper products that
have been chemically treated, such as magazines and milk
cartons.
It's also best to avoid putting in meat products
because they can stink up the place and attract animals,
but you can compost meat scraps in other ways,
and we're about to get into that right now.
There's something you definitely should have in your garden,
and that's these fellas--
worms-- because they will help break everything down
and they will also what they do, they help aerate your soil,
but they also break down your food waste for your compost.
So you can literally put worms in there,
and they're going to even break the food scraps down faster.
What I do also, I forage for vermiculture-- for worms.
A lot of times, I'll take my food scraps
and I'll just bury them in the ground.
It's going to break down.
The worms are going to break it down.
All the enzymes and everything that's
in the soil, that's going to also break it down and that's
going to help your soil too.
So just dig a hole and just start throwing your food scraps
in the hole.
This is a way that you can turn it
into rich, nutritious compost--
worm compost.
But you can also make worm tea out of this, which is a way--
you don't drink it.
It's for the plants, so don't drink it because it's actually
made from--
it's actually worm shit.
They call it, you know, worm castings,
but basically, it's worm shit because they
break the food down, and then they poop it out
and this is what happens.
But it's some of the most richest, nutritious things
you can do for your plants and your garden.
I do believe that you should test your soil.
If you're planting in your front yard,
if you're planting in your backyard
and you're not doing the above-ground boxes,
you should definitely have your soil tested.
What the testing is going to show
you is if your soil is toxic because a lot of times,
these housing developments, they were built on toxic sites.
And a lot of people don't know that or you
might have had an oil well over there
and you have all these things that
are in the soil that is not healthy for you
nor your plants.
And it might not be from radiation,
from a nuclear disaster, or the manufacturing plant that
spilled all of their waste.
It might just be the paint chips from your house
that is literally making the soil totally unhealthy.
If you do test your soil and you find out that it's toxic,
there's still a lot of hope because there are plants
that you can plant that does bioremediation.
And what that does, it pulls all the toxins out of the soil.
For instance in Fukushima with the nuclear reactor,
there is millions of sunflowers planted
all over the city that's been pulling radiation
out of the soil, and then they just dispose of the plants.
So you can do that in your garden.
They've done it all over Detroit too
because a lot of the soil in Detroit was toxic.
But now, they have thriving, healthy gardens there too.
So if you want to do bioremediation
in your own garden, there are a number of plants you can use.
Along with sunflowers, my favorites
are Indian mustard, Indian grass, white willow trees,
and poplar trees.
All of these are great for pulling bad shit out
of your soil for you.
That said, if you do find your soil is toxic,
but don't have the time or energy for that,
you might just want to make an above-ground bed,
and then you can buy the soil that you want.
You know exactly what's in there.
It saves time.
You go to the store.
Your back doesn't hurt because I know
you're going to be using your shovel wrong.
And you can cut to the chase, and you
can plant your plants the same day,
and then go have whatever your preferred drink is.