Plant this in Your Garden & Get Food in 60 Days

But look at all this we planted today, Rebecca. How many plants is this? Hundreds of plants.

Oh, like 5-ish hundred.

And 5-ish hundred. 5-ish hundred of plants today, guys. The kale, the spinach, and the lettuce. From the time we started, it's time we're going to be eating. It's going to be less than 60 days. Gideon, what? Your snacks are at the counter, okay?

Okay.

Why did you get us little bolts?

You mean— don't you mean, thank you, Papa! You love me so much, Papa! Uh, hole in the plot. Hole in the plot. I came in with my boots on. I guess I'd come out, put them on, set up the shot, and forgot to take my boots off before I went back in. Whoops. Anyway, got up a little early today, got about 30 minutes. Gonna work on a special video for you guys for my Grow Your Own Groceries Summit. This one on how to set up an instant chicken garden. The beautiful one just planted these seeds for me, what, 2, 3 days ago? Spinach, Swiss chard. Kale, lettuce, and a lot of it is already germinated. Do you see that? Got some germination right there, a little tiny one coming in. This just started a few days ago. This was a few weeks ago. Lettuce, kale. Where's the Swiss chard? Spinach. Where's the Swiss chard? More lettuce. Oh, Swiss chard! Why was I looking for Swiss chard? Oh yeah, we did have plant some. We did plant some Swiss chard. You know, I don't know if it'll be ready in 60 days, but certainly spinach, certainly lettuce, and certainly like baby kale. So this stuff was planted a few weeks ago. We're at the end of March. We cheated. We got to plant it a little earlier because we have a greenhouse, we have a cover. We're transplanting this today. I'm getting excited because it's been a while since we had homegrown greens. We have gone off the winter going into spring. This is exciting. This is how you build an instant chicken garden. Wait, the hay's not in there anymore. Yes, maybe it is. No, no, it's not. So I'm gonna first talk to you guys about the supplies that you need. Let's go over to the chicken tractor and go over the supplies you need for that part of it. I need to bring some of this hay. While we're talking about hay, let's So that's item number 1. You'll need some hay for your— oh look, they've been laying us some eggs. You'll need some hay for your nesting boxes. If you don't have hay, that's okay, just get some wood shavings at Tractor Supply or similar. You'll also need a chicken tractor. Mine's 40 inches by 8 foot. It's perfect size for a garden bed. I'll leave the link to the plans down below. Of course you need chickens. I like 3 chickens. In that amount of space. Look, in just— it's been 3 days. Look how much work they've already done. Look at the fertilizer right there by the waterer. Look at the till job they've done. It's incredible. All you need for the system, it'd be just fine for somebody with a small yard.

This is it.

This is it. Like, you brood your chickens, you can breed them inside for the 3 weeks if you got them as chicks, and then raise them up in this. But In this system, it's best to have adult chickens. If you don't have adult chickens, you can look for them on Craigslist, find them from a friend. They don't even have to be laying eggs. They're still valuable just for their tilling and fertilizer. So do you need a waterer? This is a 5-gallon waterer. I'll just leave the link to that waterer down below. I also put it on an upside-down feed pan. See it? Which we need to move over. I've clipped these guys' wings, so I don't think they're gonna jump out. So I'm gonna move— let's just move it right there, just so now— now look, they can have that fresh— look, you can see that's what this all this looked like under here 3 days ago. They've eaten the grass, they've tilled it, and we're gonna put our waterer back in here. We just cleaned it out for them today. Is that it? That's it. That's easy. Let's go to what you need for starting seeds. Okay, we just wrapped up filming on that. It went good. Uh, it's valuable stuff. And what you could do in 60, 60 days is absolutely incredible. Homegrown food. Here, here's the little bit of excitement I had there at the end. Shove it in, get your family together and eat it, guys. My grandpa worked hard, acquired this land. My dad bought it from him. I'm buying it from my dad's estate. And I'm telling you, there's nothing like communing with my grandpa, who I never met, because I heard tales, I heard stories. My grandpa would be so excited when we sat down to a plate of food that he had grown here. They sustenance farmed here. There used to be a big potato patch here. They did dairy farms here, or they did dairy cow here. If they didn't grow it, they didn't eat. And they sat down with pride. And to this day, there'll be nothing like sitting down to a plate of fresh salad and sea monster, cornish cross meat chicken. And we can do that in 60 days. That's crazy. That's going to be delicious. That food's going to have a story. We're going to remember how, oh, we had to move the chickens over because we put them up too close to the tree and we had to move them over. And, uh, Remember how fast the chickens killed that? And some of our plants in the greenhouse got yellow and, and didn't make it for some reason. And it's— but the ones that made it and survived and that we watered and now put in our belly, it's very special. And when you have food growing right outside your door, talk about convenience. In times like this, talk about food security and stability. That sense of is absolutely amazing. I want that for you. Just do what we said here. This is all you need to get started with this. Just go and do it. Just go and just plant. See them tilling? The chickens will till. They're prepping that. You can't just plant in grass. They're tilling and they're manuring. They're, they're pooping every day and they're fertilizing. Look how already she's tilled so much right there already. Hey Jonah, will you go get my Cows, and I'll go get the milking stuff. So you guys could get on that video. I'll leave a link to the summit. It's free down in the description. I'll teach you how to grow your own food in less than 60 days.

Would it be okay if I hung this here?

Sure.

Would you rather have it in fence?

No, that's great. Who wants to walk in all the way in there for that heavy?

The other thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna hang this We're gonna put these on them.

Okay. Do you—

where do you want this?

You're fine too.

Okay.

Yeah, you might put them a little further in because if we get blowing rain, you don't want your earmuffins to get wet.

Oh, should I put them in there then?

Yeah. So I'm gonna milk. What are you gonna be doing while I'm milking? Because we got a lot of transplanting to do.

Oh, the one thing I couldn't find was twine. I have everything out.

Okay, I told you it was in the fence stall.

It's rough in here.

Is this it? That's not it. You're right, it's not in here. Must be in the garden stall.

I looked.

Really? When we do find it, let's unwind it and put it on that nice spool we made.

Come.

Hey, what do I do when I can't find something? Jonah! Do you know where the twine is? Oh, it's probably right here. This is your gardening stuff for setting it up for the today? Yes. What's this?

This is the—

is that our cabbage cover?

Yes. And this is the things to cover it with, keeps the bugs off.

Okay.

Why are these out?

Please put your boats up, guys. I'm gonna think, did we leave it out when we were doing our fence? No, I think the last time we had it was with the strawberry and asparagus. We had it here, but I remember doing the prudent thing that day and picking up It's not there. There's some—

I don't want to use that.

Maybe asparagus and strawberries wasn't the last time. I think we used it when we did this line for our cows, which would have been the day after we did that. Yep, there it is. Okay, Justin, take the time and put stuff away. I'm working on it, guys. I'm working on it every day in every way. I'm getting better. It's a pain to go put stuff back up, but it's a pain to go looking for it too, so. Daddy, daddy!

You're nuts!

I found a couple other strings, Rebecca, that we forgot to pick up.

Yes.

And I'm putting them on your reel here. This is nice, right?

It is nice.

It's gonna be nice.

Are you part of the family? Are you part of the family? Do you think you're a human? Do you think you're a human?

You're my baby. Oh, you're all caught up in it.

You nut.

Come here.

Hold that. Let's wind it up.

Hold on. You gotta hold the string for big Papa. That wasn't a backflip.

No, it wasn't. All right. Becca, is it supposed to rain?

It's not.

It's looking cloudy.

I know it is. I just saw that.

I'll take it though. Look at that. I just heard thunder.

I know. Yeah, there's a small line of—

You had to skip skip skip.

What?

Oh, just a little bit.

And then, and then it's gonna clear up.

Let's do what we can, getting all tools ready and stuff.

Yeah, should I bring my plants out? Because if it's gonna rain, I shouldn't bring my plants out.

We don't need to on a cloudy day like this either. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't supposed to rain today. I know, we would have rested today and worked yesterday.

Well, it's not, it's not gonna— it's just gonna rain this morning.

Okay, you don't think it's gonna mess us up too bad? No, no, you think we'll be able to plant all these?

A polar plunge. That's the only thing we're gonna not be able to do, which is fine.

Yeah, you can't plunge anywhere between 30 minutes after you've heard thunder.

Yeah, with lightning and thunder.

And I just heard one. So look at that. Okay, we'll hope—

It's coming, but we'll be working and then eat breakfast. It's no big deal.

We'll hope it's temporary.

It is, it's temporary. Have faith.

In the weatherman?

No, I have faith—

I can hear everybody laughing.

I have faith in the radar. Okay, if the radar says it's not coming, it's not coming.

Okay, Rebecca seems pretty hopeful. I mean, this is one day a week we take. We don't have to edit, we don't have to work, nobody's calling. Get a lot done on the garden. We have time for a big project. Hope the radar's right and we'll— it won't mess us up too bad. Wow, you're cleaning up the sidewalk. Thank you, I love it. Oh, funny. There it all sits. You know, one thing I thought about, Rebecca, they kind of closed down North Carolina to essentials, and really nothing's changed for us. So I'm thinking these peo— everybody, if this is different for you, maybe It's the time to just get a taste of what it feels like to be a homesteader, right? Because we really only go out for essentials. We're only going to like the hardware store. We order any clothes we get online. Yeah, stay home all the time. That's one of the secrets to success on the homestead or farm. Just be home. Just be home. Hey, Miss Thang, thank you for your patience this morning. And the storm came. It's brighter though. It's weird. So hopefully it is just gonna pass, but it's pouring the rain right now. Hear it hitting the greenhouse? Look, it's pouring right here. That's coming down there. So you want to get her some alfalfa?

How much?

5 scoops? I don't think she's had any yet.

The sun came out. The rain is over. Have faith in the radar.

This is a spring problem. 2 gallons there plus this. Holy smokes, Flossie. We always get an influx when the green grass starts coming. We were late to dumping. Check it out. Look at this day. Holy smokes, that went from bad to excellent really fast. What are you doing? Cleaning up. Okay, no harm. Josiah, you gonna come help me milk or you gonna clean up? Anything but milk. Josiah, get in. You gonna clean up or help me milk?

Dude, you can string trim after I do milk.

2 gallons from Phyllis too. Thank you, Phyllis. This was our catching bucket. It gets crud on it, and I like to rinse it off before I bring it in the kitchen. But look, we have been clogging this up, but we fixed it. We dug that out. It's a French drain down in there, a bucket system Ben Holler built for us. A bucket under there. All this gravel that was in the bucket though got clogged with organic matter, so we got a new system. Are y'all going? Hey, did you start the quiche? You did? I guess we put down our compost sifter to catch the bigger stuff like hay, to prevent it from going in the gravel. And then when I go to clean, like my, uh, my jug, catch it in the bucket. See, look, there's hay in there. Now we're gonna scrape off the poop from the bottom. Now we take this water, instead of just pouring it out over there, we can pour it on our strawberry and asparagus. So that goes down into a bucket full of gravel. There's a hole in the bottom with a 4-inch drain pipe. It comes under the ground and out here. Isn't that nice? Beauty put a little spillway here so it doesn't wash away. It stays clear. You can run that full steam and it drains 100%. Look at these guys clearing Mom's rock wall. Nice. Okay guys, when you're done with that, will you throw it into Donald's posse? Mama, hopefully I can get done with the pigs. We can polar plunge all by 11. I've got 35 minutes till breakfast. You see, I don't want to miss that. Why am I always in a hurry? One reason is because I always want to eat breakfast. I always got a lot to do. Is this your situation, Lily? Yeah. This is your setup?

Mm-hmm.

Okay, I'm gonna go do the pigs. Well, shoot. I still have to put these away.

I need cocoa powder and then yogurt and milk.

Oh gosh, Shelly, did you not try to climb through that camera too?

I'm being serious. Alright.

I have a hat.

Alright. Man, that light is nice.

Is that our food scrap bucket? Yeah, found the lid for this. These cows have got to be in the easiest spot on the farm right now. Look, there they are. All right, hey, out of the way. That didn't even take 5 minutes.

Why'd you go around the car?

I was gonna set up this camera. By the way, guys, fun fact: getting 2 more pigs this weekend. Little feeders, little Idaho pasture pigs. We're gonna try that breed. We're gonna always have pigs, so that means we're gonna have to get new pigs before the old ones are harvested. Look at this view though, Josiah. I'm just mesmerized by it. Our house, the cows grazing. This is nice. The mountains in the background. It's the best. 7 minutes to breakfast, Jessi. Whoa, you don't have time? No, no, we're just gonna have to put breakfast off a little bit. We gotta plunge. Let's check the quiche though, we don't want it to burn. How's your yogurt going, Lily? Uh, good.

I'm finishing up smoothies.

Uh, Rebecca, since you're in your outfit, could you check the quiche while I go change?

Yeah.

I'm gonna change.

Can somebody grab Giddy, um, the dog? Teddy with you so that he doesn't get burned. It looks like it's done. I've turned off the oven. I'm just gonna stick it back in there to keep it warm.

All right, we're only 30 minutes behind. I'm still hopeful. Absolutely beautiful day. Quiche time, guys! Now that's a breakfast. This is nice, it's warm enough for them to eat outside. Mom and I are gonna have a breakfast date.

Truly makes a good smoothie, doesn't she?

She does. All right, we got our Elliott Coleman spacing guide. What?

Herb vegetable.

Is it getting canceled? Oh, so many things are getting canceled. Okay, well, we got our seed spacing guide from Elliot. We're going to tighten it up a little bit though. I feel like we can plant a little tighter. Josiah, where is he? He's back behind there. Hey, will you guys turn the compost pile while Mom and I set this up? In the meantime, the chickens have been in here. We moved them out, we covered it up with a tarp. This is what I like to do on a bigger scale, as opposed to mulch. We use the big tarp. Oh yeah, that's nice. So I was just looking in there, I think it's ready. So I think we just get our plants. Did you fold all those towels? Okay, let me look. Oh gosh, I missed out on the oil. Look in there and see if he folded those towels.

He threw a bunch under the couch.

They're under the couch, bro. Go get them out and fold them. I think we should just do one row at a time.

Okay.

Keep it covered as long as we can. So let's just get this one row uncovered and done. Okay, we got some sandbags we need to put away real quick. First on the list: kale, Swiss chard, collards. We got Sally loaded. A lot of food right there. I'll go ahead and set up the line. Okay, tie that to that middle post, and I'm gonna go put the other post in. We're gonna do a line from one post to the next and then plant along that line. Okay, go around it a couple times. We got mucho eager helpers, Rebecca. I don't know if that's good or bad. Okay, and then put it in there. Think that'll work, Rebecca? Yeah, we plant one at 5:15 and 25. Is that right? Okay, 5 inches in on our 30-inch row. So 5 inches, there'll be one 15 inches, and then 35. What next? Say collards. 13 feet of collards, 13 feet of kale. We don't have as much Swiss chard.

No, this one was done.

Our favorite breakfast vegetable. Well, cabbage. Yeah, we're done planting the Swiss chard, collards, and kale. It is, uh, swiveling up a little bit. Stressed out. It's a little warm. It's windy. It must be the— just the stress of the transfer because these guys aren't wilting.

Yeah, it is.

And you got some compost tea?

Yes, I do.

That'll boost them fast. What do we got? Just this? We might get all this in Arun's garden, babe.

Oh yeah, the cabbage and the broccoli and cauliflower have to be bug netted. Yeah, so if we can maybe get them all in the same row, that'd be great.

Yeah, we'll do that.

And then lettuce, spinach— lettuce and spinach can go on the same row. And maybe we'll— maybe then we'll direct seed beets in the other part of that.

Yeah, that's a good idea, Jenna. And with our mister too, they don't need one more stress. So we're watering them down. We won't do the sprinkler yet. We'll let them get established a little bit better. This is going to be the key to perking them right up. Yeah, it goes much slower, Becky. You gotta be much more conservative just to drop.

I think they're already starting to go back.

That's good. All right, we're gonna take a break here. Grandma, Grandma's here. She's gonna come help us in a little bit. Quick break. We've got the compost tea on there. I think that'll make all the difference. Jonah has gone to get the kids. We're gonna have a special Homemade, homegrown ice cream break. That's what it's all about right here, guys. Homegrown, homemade ice cream.

I like this one. Oh well, there's a chicken out from our breakfast posse, so I'm gonna go catch it and switch it out with one of the demo chickens.

Chicken Ninja Kid.

Chicken ninja chittlers!

Grandma's out helping now. I'm back. How's it been going, Becky?

Well, we have a mole.

Is that a mole track right there? Rebecca— here, Rebecca and Grandma finished our row with lettuces. Well, we're almost finished with lettuce. We've got spinach going in the ground. That's super fast. That'll be ready in just a few weeks. I think honestly we thought we were going to be done with all all this transplanting and the direct seed starting by now. It's 3:30. Now our goal is to— we just got to get these into the ground. We got broccoli and cauliflower going in after the spinach. We're counting this whole row for cabbage. Hopefully I'm going to be kissing a cabbage this year.

I hope so, babe.

So I think we'll have time to get these in the ground. Maybe tomorrow you could, uh, learn how to put in that, uh, the bug netting. All right, Rebecca, the crown jewel— cabbage. It's been what we're waiting for.

It's interesting, these ones didn't germinate and the soil blocks did.

Rebecca, that lettuce, spinach behind you, how does it feel coming out of the winter not having had your own greens. How does it feel to be on the cusp?

The cusp feels very good, especially because I'm the one who's been putting in all the hard work on starting the seeds and stuff. So it feels good. It feels good that like I'm contributing to the farm in a way, and that feels good. Starting seeds is a labor of love, and I was down there every day making sure they got watered and We haven't had our own homegrown greens since the fall. It's going to be really nice.

And here we are.

It's going to be really—

normally we have a winter garden, but this year we didn't.

But it feels good. It just feels good. And it feels exciting thinking that we might actually get cabbage. And for all of those who are wondering what we're going to do with all this food, um, well Hopefully we're gonna eat a lot of it. We're gonna give a lot of it away.

We'll store it.

And like the cabbage, I plan on hopefully fermenting a bunch of it, having it in the cool room on shelves and jars so that we have enough probiotics, fermented foods, to get us through the year.

So, okay, Rebecca, you got 20 minutes to go in. Do you think we can get this cabbage in?

How fast did we do that? How fast did we do the broccoli and cauliflower?

It was about 20 minutes, I think.

It seemed like we gave it to them.

Put our hands up, Mom! 4:30. So you're gonna water, I'll put on the compost tea, and Jonah, our main man right now, is gonna put up the cleanup. I think that made all the difference. And the sun's getting less intense. They perked right up with that compost tea. Hey, Mr. Man, we're not gonna leave you. We won't leave you. We had to tie him up because he was getting into the garden. Look, guess where he's going. Look right where he's going. That's all he cares about.

Oh yes, you love me.

That's all he cares about.

We're buddies. This, I believe, is oregano coming back from last year. This is all calendula sowings. It's re-sowed itself. I mean, it's everywhere. This is yarrow, lemon balm. I think that—

oh, don't step. You just stepped on my oregano. Come here.

Do you know how hard this is?