Hey…I have one of those tools, my brother got it for me when I retired…..gotta love family who knows ya well! I love that spade . .and you do have a couple of curious donkeys there, too cute.
Your video reminded me of an experience from many, many years ago. I remember sitting in a Freshman English class where the teacher loved to show us slides of her European Summer Vacation Trips with her mother. It seemed like 90% of her photos had her mother in them. For example, here is a photo of the Eiffel Tower & my mother; a bridge & my mother; an old tree and my mother. The teacher’s slides were more interesting to her then they were to the class. After about three sessions of watching her boring slides, and during the 4th session she put up a slide and announced that it was a picture of a Spanish donkey and her mother. Someone in the back of the room spoke up and loudly asked: “Which one is your mother?” That ended up being the last slide session our class got to watch.
I have that same strap problem but with lingerie. If you cross the straps in back and then buckle them to the bib, you will find that they don’t keep falling down one or both shoulders. It’s very irritating and usually happens when you have dirt all over your hands. Try it Mike. It’s a method I used on my sons’ overalls 50+ years ago and their straps never fell down their shoulders when I did this.
Dottie
II recently moved to Arkansas, and have more weeds than grass, so if I want to start a new bed, and it has grass, I try to transplant it. My “topsoil” has the most good stuff, and I do not have to dig far to run into rocks and hard packed soil or clay. I have to get yet mostly like shade garden, and just outline my new beds with fallen logs from the woods, dig a hole for the plants, put in some store bought dirt, and cover the area with grass/leaf trimmings, . Love your video about the nursery spade, may have to get yet another tool!!
Hi Mike,
Please, sell me one of your small Purple ghost Japanese Maple you shown on your page. I will pay with. Credit Card. I live in New Jersey, M. Batistich
If only my soil was like yours. North Carolina red clay is what we deal with here. Yes it can be done but my back would not like me for weeks.
Great video, thanks for sharing.
Robert Behlen
My first Pennsylvania garden had similar issues. Brick-ready clay? Yeah. There was an actual brick factory a couple miles away.
We found a horse farm and offered to take their manure at no charge to them. It was the best kind, in that the horses were bedding on wood shavings. Then we dug trenches and worked in the manure and shavings, mixing in the clay until it got to be a decent quality texture for gardening.
In later years, I was not up for all that labor. So for any new beds, we laid down cardboard or cardboard-thick layers of newspaper over the untilled ground
Over the paper layer went a 6 to 8 inch layer of that composted manure combo. I planted directly into the compost, then went about gardening as usual. The cardboard/newspaper killed weeds and grass below, and was soft enough for the garden plants’ roots to get through by the time they were big enough for that.
I hope this information is helpful.
Mike I’m having trouble with a grass(es) spreading into my garden beds via rhizomes. Would making an edge like this or the one in another one of your videos help? I’m thinking of an edge some people do where there is a 3-4 inch drop off from the top of the grass to the flower bed then the flower bed is usually mounded. What people seem to suggest is a physical barrier like plastic or wood. Thing is I’m on a limited budget and have hundreds of not thousands of feet to do. So my best idea right now is to get discarded vinyl siding from a siding contractor. I would love your advice here. Also I’m wanting to stay organic because I grow my food in these places.
The vinyl siding might work but in my experience edging materials do not stay in place very well, pop out of the ground here and there and soon it looks bad. The deep edge might help and you can spray with a vinegar solution. Some experts claim household vinegar does not work well enough, but others tell me that it does. I need to try it this summer on some areas around the donkey fence. See this https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2019/11/organic-weed-control-an-alternative-to-chemical-herbicides/
Wow Mike – you have beautiful dirt everywhere you dig. Your video was very helpful.
I’ve been using a little cheap half moon edger with a boot lip on it from Kmart. It’s been much better than a shovel for the reasons you described but I’m sending the hubs out for one like you’re using in the video. TODAY!
My edged bed makes such a difference in so many ways.
My neighbors throw piles of spendy mulch on their beds with raggedy edges and don’t know why it doesn’t look right.
I don’t sharpen my spade a lot these days but when I was landscaping and using the spade to dig out stumps I needed it sharp. I carried an angle grinder on the truck but a stationary grinder is far safer to use. But if you want to really keep up with then just over the edge with a good steel file each time you use it. You really only want to sharpen the back edge of so the cutting edge is tapered on one side.
A lot of Mike’s advice is really good, but I disagree with this video.
There may be a place for this method – where you have only shallow root grass with no weeds, and a place to compost the removed sod. Unless you have some deep holes, buried sod tends to manage to grow through, and even if the grass doesn’t other weeds that may have been in it do.
However, it would not work anywhere I have been, because the ground is not that clean. I have dug a lot of flower beds. In every case, I edged it neatly the size it was to be. Then I went at it with a good garden fork. I went a couple of inches deep to get the grass roots and shallow weeds, and knocked all of the dirt out against the fork (I have found a fork superior to a square spade for many things) as I went. Then I go back and dig to fork depth, breaking up the soil and removing the roots that are deeper, many of which are runners that periodically send up shoots. This way I have a clean space for a flower bed without having to add soil to replace the thrown away / composted sod. If the deep roots are not cleaned out, they are almost impossible to clear the weeds once the flowers or vegetables are planted.
I’ve landscaped about 1,000 homes, always using the method that I explain here. We’d dig out stumps when re-landscaping homes, then use the sod to fill those stump wholes. I always stood behind my work and never received complaints about grass or weeds in the beds. When possible I’d spray the sod first but that wasn’t always possible. Ideally, this should be done over time allowing the grass to die or sprout then disturbing again. However, that’s not always practical. If you leave sod in a bed then you have to turn it upside down and over it with more topsoil and a good layer of mulch. Grass cannot grow where it is not getting any sunlight.
Mike, I stripped relatively large areas of my lawn last summer to create large planting beds, I rented a sod stripper. It worked great. Then I rolled the loose sod like jelly rolls and used those rolls to create two crescent shaped raised beds, each 30’ long x 8-12 feet wide by 2-3’ high. Then I topped them with super loam. Eventually I planted with mostly shade perennials and bark mulched everything. Not a single blade of grass came back. Thanks,
Eddie
That’s great! A sod cutter or sod stripper is a great machine as long as you have a plan and a place for dealing with all of those rolls of sod. It would be a shame and a great deal of work to just haul them away. I like the way that you were able to use them.
I’ve got several 4×8 ft raised beds that are overgrown with quack grass. It looks nasty, but earthworms love it.
I’ve covered the beds with cardboard and will put over that several inches of compost. Then I’ll plant in the compost and let the roots go down. This is recommended by several gardening experts and makes sense to me. Thank you for your videos, Mike. It’s a wonderful resource.
Hey…I have one of those tools, my brother got it for me when I retired…..gotta love family who knows ya well! I love that spade . .and you do have a couple of curious donkeys there, too cute.
What is the name of your tool?
Johnnie,
It’s simply a nursery spade. If you don’t spend at least $80 you got the wrong one.
Your video reminded me of an experience from many, many years ago. I remember sitting in a Freshman English class where the teacher loved to show us slides of her European Summer Vacation Trips with her mother. It seemed like 90% of her photos had her mother in them. For example, here is a photo of the Eiffel Tower & my mother; a bridge & my mother; an old tree and my mother. The teacher’s slides were more interesting to her then they were to the class. After about three sessions of watching her boring slides, and during the 4th session she put up a slide and announced that it was a picture of a Spanish donkey and her mother. Someone in the back of the room spoke up and loudly asked: “Which one is your mother?” That ended up being the last slide session our class got to watch.
You made quick work out of that! Love your videos, especially when the donkeys are co staring.
Hi Mike,
I have that same strap problem but with lingerie. If you cross the straps in back and then buckle them to the bib, you will find that they don’t keep falling down one or both shoulders. It’s very irritating and usually happens when you have dirt all over your hands. Try it Mike. It’s a method I used on my sons’ overalls 50+ years ago and their straps never fell down their shoulders when I did this.
Dottie
Mike! My back hurts just watching you. Isn’t there a bent tool!
Teresa,
This is a good back stretching exercise. A bent tool and you’d lose all the leverage of the weight of the spade.
II recently moved to Arkansas, and have more weeds than grass, so if I want to start a new bed, and it has grass, I try to transplant it. My “topsoil” has the most good stuff, and I do not have to dig far to run into rocks and hard packed soil or clay. I have to get yet mostly like shade garden, and just outline my new beds with fallen logs from the woods, dig a hole for the plants, put in some store bought dirt, and cover the area with grass/leaf trimmings, . Love your video about the nursery spade, may have to get yet another tool!!
Love the donkeys, thank you for the information.
Hi Mike,
Please, sell me one of your small Purple ghost Japanese Maple you shown on your page. I will pay with. Credit Card. I live in New Jersey, M. Batistich
Sorry Mara, I do not ship plants but our members do.
Someone has lost a LOT of weight. Great job, Mike, you’re looking really good – tanned and healthy. We’re proud for you, dude!
Thanks Doug, in full disclosure I had weight loss surgery in late 2019.
I THINK I KNOW WHERE TO FIND EACH OF THE ITEMS YOU SUGGEST. I WILL GET SOME OF EACH AND GET STARTED.
If only my soil was like yours. North Carolina red clay is what we deal with here. Yes it can be done but my back would not like me for weeks.
Great video, thanks for sharing.
Robert Behlen
Robert,
Here in north east Ohio I’ve worked in a lot more clay soil than I have sand. Really good soil is hard to come by.
My first Pennsylvania garden had similar issues. Brick-ready clay? Yeah. There was an actual brick factory a couple miles away.
We found a horse farm and offered to take their manure at no charge to them. It was the best kind, in that the horses were bedding on wood shavings. Then we dug trenches and worked in the manure and shavings, mixing in the clay until it got to be a decent quality texture for gardening.
In later years, I was not up for all that labor. So for any new beds, we laid down cardboard or cardboard-thick layers of newspaper over the untilled ground
Over the paper layer went a 6 to 8 inch layer of that composted manure combo. I planted directly into the compost, then went about gardening as usual. The cardboard/newspaper killed weeds and grass below, and was soft enough for the garden plants’ roots to get through by the time they were big enough for that.
I hope this information is helpful.
Allison,
This information is quite valuable, thanks for sharing.
Mike I’m having trouble with a grass(es) spreading into my garden beds via rhizomes. Would making an edge like this or the one in another one of your videos help? I’m thinking of an edge some people do where there is a 3-4 inch drop off from the top of the grass to the flower bed then the flower bed is usually mounded. What people seem to suggest is a physical barrier like plastic or wood. Thing is I’m on a limited budget and have hundreds of not thousands of feet to do. So my best idea right now is to get discarded vinyl siding from a siding contractor. I would love your advice here. Also I’m wanting to stay organic because I grow my food in these places.
Steven,
The vinyl siding might work but in my experience edging materials do not stay in place very well, pop out of the ground here and there and soon it looks bad. The deep edge might help and you can spray with a vinegar solution. Some experts claim household vinegar does not work well enough, but others tell me that it does. I need to try it this summer on some areas around the donkey fence. See this https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2019/11/organic-weed-control-an-alternative-to-chemical-herbicides/
Wow Mike – you have beautiful dirt everywhere you dig. Your video was very helpful.
I’ve been using a little cheap half moon edger with a boot lip on it from Kmart. It’s been much better than a shovel for the reasons you described but I’m sending the hubs out for one like you’re using in the video. TODAY!
My edged bed makes such a difference in so many ways.
My neighbors throw piles of spendy mulch on their beds with raggedy edges and don’t know why it doesn’t look right.
I love your information.
Thank you Becky.
Mike has the hamstrings of a college linebacker! Make us a video on sharpening said spade! You rock, Mike!
Dean
I don’t sharpen my spade a lot these days but when I was landscaping and using the spade to dig out stumps I needed it sharp. I carried an angle grinder on the truck but a stationary grinder is far safer to use. But if you want to really keep up with then just over the edge with a good steel file each time you use it. You really only want to sharpen the back edge of so the cutting edge is tapered on one side.
Mike I like how you get the donkeys involved! obviously they love you! as alawys your nuggets of insight invaluable.
Mike, you make it look so easy, and I know it isn’t. WTG!
A lot of Mike’s advice is really good, but I disagree with this video.
There may be a place for this method – where you have only shallow root grass with no weeds, and a place to compost the removed sod. Unless you have some deep holes, buried sod tends to manage to grow through, and even if the grass doesn’t other weeds that may have been in it do.
However, it would not work anywhere I have been, because the ground is not that clean. I have dug a lot of flower beds. In every case, I edged it neatly the size it was to be. Then I went at it with a good garden fork. I went a couple of inches deep to get the grass roots and shallow weeds, and knocked all of the dirt out against the fork (I have found a fork superior to a square spade for many things) as I went. Then I go back and dig to fork depth, breaking up the soil and removing the roots that are deeper, many of which are runners that periodically send up shoots. This way I have a clean space for a flower bed without having to add soil to replace the thrown away / composted sod. If the deep roots are not cleaned out, they are almost impossible to clear the weeds once the flowers or vegetables are planted.
Bruce,
I’ve landscaped about 1,000 homes, always using the method that I explain here. We’d dig out stumps when re-landscaping homes, then use the sod to fill those stump wholes. I always stood behind my work and never received complaints about grass or weeds in the beds. When possible I’d spray the sod first but that wasn’t always possible. Ideally, this should be done over time allowing the grass to die or sprout then disturbing again. However, that’s not always practical. If you leave sod in a bed then you have to turn it upside down and over it with more topsoil and a good layer of mulch. Grass cannot grow where it is not getting any sunlight.
Brilliant!
Mike, the experience shows in your efficiency and conservation of motion.
My compliments,
Jack Altoona PA
Thanks Jack!
Mike, I stripped relatively large areas of my lawn last summer to create large planting beds, I rented a sod stripper. It worked great. Then I rolled the loose sod like jelly rolls and used those rolls to create two crescent shaped raised beds, each 30’ long x 8-12 feet wide by 2-3’ high. Then I topped them with super loam. Eventually I planted with mostly shade perennials and bark mulched everything. Not a single blade of grass came back. Thanks,
Eddie
Eddie,
That’s great! A sod cutter or sod stripper is a great machine as long as you have a plan and a place for dealing with all of those rolls of sod. It would be a shame and a great deal of work to just haul them away. I like the way that you were able to use them.
Dear Friend,
I’ve got several 4×8 ft raised beds that are overgrown with quack grass. It looks nasty, but earthworms love it.
I’ve covered the beds with cardboard and will put over that several inches of compost. Then I’ll plant in the compost and let the roots go down. This is recommended by several gardening experts and makes sense to me. Thank you for your videos, Mike. It’s a wonderful resource.
Best wishes,
Jack Altoona PA
Good luck with that Quack grass Jack!