In this instructional YouTube video, Nicole Johnsey Burke walks viewers through a typical big‑box home‑improvement store and highlights five garden products that are unsuitable for an organic garden, explaining why each is problematic and offering a more sustainable, affordable, and less toxic alternative. She starts by warning against Max Weed Control weed‑barrier cloth, recommending builder’s paper as a decomposable weed‑suppression layer. She then critiques synthetic fertilizers for degrading soil health and polluting waterways, proposing earthworm castings as a natural nutrient source that also attracts beneficial worms. Next, she denounces glyphosate‑based Roundup for its toxicity and suggests diluted concentrated vinegar as a safer herbicide. She advises against standard tomato cages, which can restrict growth and hinder pruning, and instead promotes trellises, obelisks, or arches that accommodate vining tomatoes and are reusable season after season. Finally, she explains that peat moss is a non‑renewable resource and recommends coarse sand to improve soil permeability without environmental cost. The video concludes with a teaser to a follow‑up segment on building a raised garden bed for under $100 at Home Depot, reinforcing the theme of cost‑effective, eco‑friendly gardening.
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Every year millions of Americans head to this store where they spend tens of millions of dollars on products for their home garden, but the truth is there's a lot of stuff in this store that just doesn't belong in an organic garden. So let's go shopping together. I'm going to show you 5 things you should never buy from this store to put in your organic garden, plus I'll show you the replacements—things that are better, more affordable, and way less toxic—that you can buy for your home garden. Let's go! Whatever you do, don't buy this Max Weed Control weed barrier cloth. Trust me on this one. I know we all want less weeds in our garden space, but this is not the answer. Once you place this down in your garden, you're going to have this layer of plastic that will never go away. Anytime you want to dig in, plant some new plants, you're going to be working through this plastic. And even when you've got this in your garden space, it doesn't guarantee that there won't be any airborne weeds above it. I've got a much better thing you can use instead. Instead of using weed barrier cloth, I love using this builder's paper. We're talking $13 for about 450 square feet of paper. You can double this up to make it thicker, and this does the job. Plus, it will decompose over time, so you can plant new plants in the space and not have to worry about weeds growing around it. Do not put synthetic fertilizers in your organic garden. Synthetic fertilizer may make your plants grow bigger for a season, but it comes at an incredible cost. First of all, this fertilizer is going to degrade your soil. Soil should be the place where you add food, where you add nutrients, and when you add the synthetic fertilizer, it actually taxes your soil and pull salts from your soil. It's going to hurt your plants next season. Next, it also stresses out your plants. Putting so much pressure with so many nutrients on your plants all at once is not natural, and your plants can feel that. Finally, this fertilizer doesn't just affect your garden. Every time it rains, this fertilizer is going to wash out through your garden soil and impact waterways and wildlife that surround your home and garden. Just don't use it. This is a great alternative to synthetic fertilizers. Earthworm castings are a natural way to amend your garden soil. They don't stress out your plants, and they actually improve the environment around your garden. It's been proven that earthworm castings in your garden actually bring more worms to the soil. Is that crazy? So every time you add earthworm castings to your garden, chances are you're going to get more earthworms too. So you'll get bigger plants, better soil, and help the environment. All at once. Don't buy this or use it anywhere near your garden. It says right on here that this needs to stay away from children and pets and pretty much anything living. We want our gardens to be full of life, and yes, there will be weeds. The last thing we want to do is introduce toxic synthetics like Roundup into our garden space. Trust me, there are much better alternatives. Instead of Roundup, use concentrated vinegar. Now this stuff is super strong. You also need to keep it out of the reach of children, but you're going to dilute it a little bit with water, and then you can spray it on any weeds that are anywhere around your garden. This is much better for the environment. It's not nearly as toxic, and it gets the job done. So if you don't want to pull a weed by hand, use some concentrated vinegar, dilute it, spray it, and you're done. Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with these tomato cages, but I just wouldn't buy them, especially for tomatoes. I used these my first season in the garden and had serious buyer's remorse. Tomato cages look nice right at the start, but they become a nightmare to care for. As your tomatoes grow, especially if they're vining tomatoes, they're going to far exceed the height of these tomato cages. They're going to grow 5, 6 feet tall, flop over these cages. You won't be able to get access to prune the tomato plants, nor will you even be able to pick your tomatoes. It's a complete waste of money, and I've got something much better for you to use for all your tomatoes this season. Instead of a tomato cage, you want to get something like this: a trellis. You can either get an obelisk or a panel trellis. I also love to use arches. These are 6 feet tall. You're going to plant the tomato right at the base of this trellis. You can vine it up the trellis, attach it as it grows. You'll always have access to the plant as it's growing, and it's going to reach all the way up here, not flop over, Plus you'll have this trellis season after season after season. These are really affordable. They're only $20. These are $40. Now tomato cages are great for peppers and eggplants, so maybe we should rename them. I would never buy peat moss, and here's why. Peat moss is something that's been used in gardening for decades, but the studies have shown that time is running out on this resource. This is a resource that's generally found in Canada in the peat bogs, and we're finding more and more that this is a non-renewable resource. Now the reason that people use peat, the reason that gardeners I love it is it lightens the soil. It makes the soil nice and fluffy. It adds permeability to the soil, which is so important, especially when we're growing vegetables. Vegetable roots are really small and tender, and it's hard for them to break into a thick clay soil. So something like peat moss breaks that up, adds airflow, adds permeability, and helps plants grow. But there is a much better thing that you can buy to put into your garden soil that will still lighten it but not put the tax on the environment like peat moss does. Instead of peat moss, I would use coarse sand. Coarse sand is in my 103 soil blend, and I learned this from an incredible soil provider when I first started my garden business. Sand immediately adds permeability. It adds air pockets and places for water to flow in your soil. It immediately loosens it up and allows your vegetable plants to push their roots deep into the garden in the same way that it would with peat moss, except Sand is much more of a renewable resource. It's found across the entire world, and it's something that doesn't tax the environment nearly as much as peat moss. Now, before you leave the store with an empty cart, you got to follow me back into Home Depot where I'm going to buy all the supplies to make a beautiful raised bed for less than $100. You can watch the whole video right here.
