TAHITI, FRENCH POLYNESIA (2025) | Best Things To Do On The Island Of Tahiti

Welcome to the Rustic Garden Homestead. November is a great time to put your beds to rest and I'm going to show you how to really put the beds to rest no dig style. We don't need to dig the garden, we don't need to really do anything but layer different components onto the soil. I've been doing this every year since I've been here on this property for the past six years and things grow really well. Bottom line is if you can make a ton of compost just put down four to six inches of compost on your garden beds and you're good to go. But we all can't make compost to the degree that we really want it. Maybe we don't have the space, not enough materials. So I like to use wood ash for my fire pit, alfalfa pellets, cut grass and leaves, and compost. And I'm going to show you how you can use a combination of those products to really put the beds to sleep. They're going to get revitalized over the winter, worms will love it, microbes will love it, and the soil is going to be good to go. I primarily do this for beds that are in pretty good shape and that really get transplants. I don't really do this for seed starting because there's a lot of material sitting on there. So let's get started with the basic products that I recommend and then I'll just show you how I do it. There's a pretty heavy frost coming in a couple of days. It's going to kill off all my tomato plants and you can see how well they did this year into the first week in November. And the beds have been set up just like I'm going to show you in this video. We're going to work on the bed right here. The wood mulch we're going to just pull to the side and then we're going to layer down the materials. And then we're going to do this four by eight space. If you have weeds growing in the area, if you know that they're annual weeds so that when you cover them over, they die off, the roots die out, and they don't come back, you can just cover things over. If not, go ahead and weed your garden down. Again, this is what I do, you know, every year. I've been doing it on this specific property for the last six years and it works really well. I just want to take a second to talk about the chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers you can use occasionally. They're not going to wreck your soil, but they don't feed the microbes and they don't really do anything but feed the plants. But that sometimes is what you need. Organic fertilizers are definitely better, but they only briefly feed the soil. They don't add really any significant organic matter. So they're both really kind of short-term fixes. You want to add in organic matter. It can be your compost if you have it, it can be cut grass, chopped up leaves, anything that's organic piled into the bed. That's what the soil needs to really thrive and help your plants produce. This is what I recommend for your organic granular fertilizer. You can use something else besides alfalfa, but it comes in a 40-pound bag. It's about $18 to $25 depending on what you want to buy. This is not organic. You can get organic alfalfa if you want it. I just want to let you know that again I've been using this for six years on this property and the plants do really well. There's no hidden weed killers or anything like that in there. People worry about that, but if you're concerned, go ahead buy the organic version. Your alfalfa is going to come in pellets. This got rained on a little bit. After it gets rained on, it breaks down into these little fine particles. So when we're putting it down, we're going to soak this with a hose when we're done. It's going to break into fine particles. The other concern is that people worry that animals are going to come and eat this. I've never had anything come in here and eat the alfalfa pellets. But as soon as you add water, it flakes up into or inflate, it breaks down, inflate, and you know what am I trying to say? As soon as you wet it, it breaks apart into these tiny little flakes and that's what's going to get incorporated into your soil. So there's really small particles, no need to worry. It's about, you know, depending on how you kind of look this up, a 3-1-2 fertilizer or a 2-1-1 NPNK, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. It varies. It's going to add nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. It also adds a growth hormone that really does help plants grow. It's been proven, it's scientific, and just look up what is the growth hormone in alfalfa. We're going to put this down now. This is going to break down over the next four or five months and I use it again in the spring. But I do recommend the alfalfa. Add some organic matter, not like compost or the cut grass or leaves. The microbes will enjoy it. Worms do break it down and it does add that NPNK to your soil. The next thing I like to add is wood ash. Now there's a lot of, you know, discussion on the web about is it softwood or hardwood. Don't worry about what kind of wood you're burning. Just burn it. You're going to take the ash. This is really high in calcium, so the pH is high. If you put big clumps like this into your garden, it's going to cause a problem and it's going to change the pH and it's going to raise the pH of your soil. And you don't really want that. However, and because of that worry, people don't use this. All we're going to do is lightly sprinkle it onto the surface of the soil. It's going to add potassium, calcium, other micronutrients. And because we're just sprinkling it down lightly, it is not going to affect the pH of your soil. Over the next four or five months, rain, the organic matter you're putting on there helps buffer any changes in the pH. So you end up just getting the benefits of what's in your wood ash, you know, and it's primarily potassium with, you know, a lot of other micronutrients. This is my compost area. I'll show it to you in a second. I make a lot of compost and I use it heavily in the garden. Makes a huge difference. You can see the tomatoes behind me. Those are tomatoes that grow on their own, growing out of the compost pile. And they are the healthiest, strongest tomato plants that I grow. Every year they pop up. They're Matt's Wild Cherry variety. They don't get watered. They don't get sprayed. But because they're really growing out of the compost and all the benefits that the compost provide, they're really strong and healthy. And that's what we really want to replicate in putting our beds to rest. So again, if you have the space, and I understand if you don't, and you have the resources, you definitely want to make compost. I have plenty of videos on it. If you want to subscribe and follow me, I'll teach you how to tons of compost really. Let me show you some of what I use in the beds for this video. So this is one side of my compost area. The bins right in there are going to get filled up over the next couple of weeks. I just have a pile sitting there. I've got leaf mold growing in those. Leaf mold back there. Leaf mold is really the dried leaves mostly. Fine if some grass is added into there. And you just pile it up. You let it break down. It's a cold process. Worms get involved. Microbes get involved. Worm castings are left behind. It's really, really good stuff. If we spin around this way, look at some of my other compost pens. I will link the videos that show you how to create what you see here. Now in here, we have leaves, and we have grass, and we have garden debris. That's just a general compost bin. That's usually higher in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium because you're mixing in all kinds of greens and different things in there. And you let it break down. It's going to take, you know, probably two years if you're not really turning it. But don't let that stop you. You make a bunch of these pens, bins, whatever you want to call it, four feet wide, and you just pile stuff in. When we take a look at this one, this is mostly leaves. Down at the bottom there, that's about two and a half years old. Then we get to the middle, maybe one and a half, two years old. And then all the fresh stuff is going on. I could get into the bottom there, dig it out. I'm gonna have great leaf compost. I've been doing leaf composting in different ways. Here is just a trash can that you can fill. And look at all this beautiful stuff. This is perfect. So I'm going to use a lot of this in a bed prep today. So it could be leaf mold, leaf compost, a little bit different, less nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, more micronutrients, worm castings, versus, you know, your compost where you're putting in a lot of garden debris and plant waste and all that kind of stuff. Bottom line is if you have the space, go ahead and start making some pens and just bag up the stuff. Within a couple of years, you're going to have a consistent supply of compost for your garden. The leaf compost, leaf grow, leaf mold, and general compost are the third component. And then this is what I just bagged up yesterday. This will go on top of some of the beds, a nice big layer. We're going to just water everything in when we're done. It's just going to sit there and it's going to be great. And maybe you don't have the bins or you don't have the space, but you could bag up some of the cuttings from your property and use that. And it can be mostly leaves. It could be mostly grass. It could be a combination of both. Don't worry about it. You just want the organic matter to be sitting on the beds. Here are the two 40-pound bags of alfalfa that I picked up. I got mine at Tractor Supply Company. You can go to any farm and feed store. Really pick up the alfalfa that way. 40-pound bag, I think this cost me $21 for each, so that's $42. And again, why it's important, you could use organic granular fertilizer you buy in the store, but 40 pounds divided into $21 is well below, you know, a dollar per pound. So when you're buying the smaller bags, this four-pound bag, six-pound bags, eight-pound bags of organic fertilizer, sometimes you're paying well over two dollars a pound. So you're not really getting the same bang for your buck, so to speak. This might be a little bit lower in the N, P, and K than some of the organic granulars, but you just add in more. And it also has that growth hormone that I was telling you about. But you know, 40 pounds, $21 a bag, that's like 50 or 60 cents a pound for your organic fertilizer versus paying, you know, well over two bucks a pound if you're buying the smaller bags. So this is my bed. You know, I've pulled out what I wanted to pull out. You can keep the weeds. I am just going to cut the butternut squash off at ground level, leave the roots in there. I'm going to let the tomatoes stay a bit longer, hoping that, you know, some of these ripen before that frost takes them. You know, it's coming in, I think, this week, but we'll see how they survive. I would just cut the tomato plant at the ground, leave the roots in there. Because this is going to be primarily a place for transplants, you know, come transplant time, I just dig a hole, subscribe, follow me. I'll show you how I set up a planting hole and put transplants in for 2026. So I'll just cut the plants back. And then this is what the alfalfa looks like, you know, when it's fresh. Before, like the bag I showed you, it's got some water in there. Nice and green. It's got its nitrogen in there, phosphorus, potassium. And I just heavily-handed place it down. I want to show you just how much is going down. So it's going to look something like that across the whole space. Let me do, I don't know, about a quarter of the bed so you can just see what I'm doing. I have wood chips, or it's actually not wood chips. Wood chips I would move. That's shredded hardwood. That's just going to stay in there. Because I'm doing no-dig style, the wood that's on here isn't going to impact the plants that I put in. I'll just move it to the side, put the transplant in. But with the layering method, you're just going to create a nice environment for microbes and worms to do their thing over the next four or five months. That's going to be pulling nutrients into the soil. It's going to decompose over the spring and summer. And it's just really an easy way to get your beds prepped. Let me just spend a little bit of time showing you how I want really the alfalfa to go down on here. Because it's a little bit confusing sometimes on how much to place. So I would do something like that. You get the sense. So we come over here. And then we come back over here. Nice and heavily-handed across the surface of the soil. That's layer one. I'm going to do that all the way across. And then we still have a ton in here. I thought I should show you the whole bed so you can get an idea. This is the maximum, generally speaking, of how much I would put down. And I would probably do something like this if you don't have a lot of your own compost. If you do have compost, maybe use half this much, two-thirds this much. You just don't have to overdo it. But if you don't have the compost to add, you know, this is going to work really well. You still have a lot of the alfalfa left. And you can do many beds this way. And your plants are going to love it. It really does make a difference. All right, let's go to the wood ash. The next thing I like to add is the wood ash. And you probably shouldn't do as I do. Wear a glove. Wear a mask. This is a little bit damp. So it's not really powdery. It will float all over the place. You'll breathe it in. So I do recommend wearing a mask. I'm going to just take a handful. And again, you don't want to just like throw this whole clump down. That will affect and change the pH. But you're just going to scatter it across something like that. That is not going to impact the pH in any significant way. The pH several inches down, you know, four or six inches, 10, 15 centimeters, that pH isn't going to change. The root systems will get down there. You're just adding the potassium, calcium, other micronutrients right into the soil. And again, you know, just something like that. We'll do one more. And I'm just scattering some of it around. Oh, that's nice. Here's a nail. I guess you never know what you're burning in your fire pit. And that's all you do for the potassium. Or that's all you do for the potash. The next step, we're going to put down some compost. And again, I just want to show you what it looks like spread out through the whole bed that's four feet by eight feet. And it's nice to add the wood ash, especially for your tomato beds, because you definitely add calcium in there. And that is sometimes an issue with blossom end rot, although it's more really related to watering frequency. And more consistent watering can help you prevent blossom end rot. But knowing that you have calcium in there, it checks that box that it's not a calcium deficiency issue. Pretty straightforward. Next is adding the composted material. This is actually manure. I have some access to it. It's quality stuff. So it could be composted manure, garden compost, could be leaf mold, you know, composted leaves. It really doesn't matter which one you picked. It's something that you can make yourself. It's inexpensive. You can get it when you can't make a lot and you do have to buy it. Let's just say you're putting down, remember in this example, a lot of alfalfa, and you're really putting down maybe a half an inch to an inch, 1.25 centimeters, two and a half centimeters worth of your composted material across here. I want to stress that compost itself is gold. If you have a lot of it, you could just put down four inches of compost here, 10 centimeters, you know, a little bit more if you want. And that's all you really need. Of course, the wood ash is free. Put some of that in there. But I want to just give you options based on what you're able to bring to your garden. So really about a half an inch, 1.25 centimeters. I'm going to need more than that, but I'll show you what it looks like down. That's pretty much it. You know, you don't need to measure this exactly. This is just really principles. It's what it looks like, of course, without the manure there yet. So we've got the layers down. Putting down, again, your leaf compost, your compost, or animal manures that have been composted down. You know, mostly broken down. In four or five months, this is all going to be great stuff. Covered across, and now we're going to add in the grass and the leaves, and this bed is ready to go to sleep, do its thing for that four or five month period. Worms will get involved, move castings around, and everything's good to go. Your plants, when you put them into the ground, they send down deep roots, which you're not going to really affect your change, and they pull water and nutrients from down there. But it's that top, I don't know, four inches, eight inches, 10, you know, 15 centimeters, 20 centimeters, 10 inches, that you really are amending. And by layering the stuff on here, all the nutrients go through that top part of your soil, and all the shallow roots access that. When it rains, water will wash things down. Like I was saying, worms will bring stuff down. You know, put the beds to rest, you're going to refresh your soil, and the plants are going to be off to a great start next year. The next step is to bring in your cut grass and leaves. I have a bagging mower, works beautifully for just this, you know, purpose. Probably going to need, I don't know, maybe a bag and a half or something like that. But you're putting down two inches, four inches, five, ten centimeters, maybe a little bit more. This is a transplant bed, so whatever's left behind, like the compost should be fine, the compost manures or whatever you're putting down, that will break down. You could plant straight on top of that, put seeds in there. When you're adding the leaves and grass like this, this is not going to fully compost or break down. But it's fine for a transplant bed, because we just move it out of the way, we put in a transplant, and then we put the mulch back around it. Well, we put the grass and leaves back around it, and it's going to become a mulch for the summer, keep moisture in the soil. If I was going to put seeds down here, you don't want to plant seeds directly in something like this. So you would have to move whatever's left out of the way next year, loosen up your soil a little bit, and you can put seeds directly in there. But I just want to be clear that when you're putting in, you know, four inches, ten centimeters, something like this, it's not going to break down over the winter, and you just don't want to start seeds directly in it. You'll just have to move it out of the way. So I'm going to dump out the bag, cover it up, show you that process. You don't have to put this final layer down all at once. Maybe, you know, you want to put it down, wait a couple of weeks, let it kind of fall, and then you add more. It's really up to you. Just to give you an idea, that's about how much I put down there. Next step is to thoroughly soak this in. I'm not going to do that in this video. I think you get the idea. You're just going to soak everything down. That will soak into the alfalfa, get it to break into particles, and your bed is pretty much put to rest. You're good to go. I do have, I don't call these raised beds anymore because the sides aren't really tall enough, in my opinion. I call them framed beds. With framed beds, the material stays nicely in there. You could go ahead, throw some burlap on top of there. You could put your, you know, cages that you were using for your tomatoes, even though they're round, just lay them on there. That will help keep the material in place. Anything that blows out, it's just going to decay in the path. That's fine. That will all come back to the plants eventually anyway. If you're in a really windy area, I do recommend covering it a little bit, but don't cover it with plastic. You want moisture to be able to get into there so that it stays wet. The worms will enjoy it. The microbes need moisture to break down, so just don't cover it with a plastic tarp because it could possibly dry out. If you have to use a plastic tarp, you do probably want to make sure it's staying moist and just, you know, every couple of weeks check too. You don't want mice and other rodents to move in into that and be nesting and stuff like that. Thanks so much for watching. This is a great way to put your beds to rest. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money and you can see, you know, how well the tomato plants are doing here towards the first week of November with really prepping your beds, you know, pretty much exactly how I showed you today. I did say earlier that I was going to move the wood chips out of the way when I did this bed. I'm actually going to leave them because I forgot, you know, as I was talking, sometimes I do, that since it's a transplant bed, I can just move the wood chips out of the way, put the new tomato plant in there. So the wood chips are going to stay, going to do the same exact layering method I showed you right on top of that. Next year, I'll be planting in four tomato plants and basil right in the middle, the same exact way. Please check out my seed shop at therustedgarden.com. I sell tomato and pepper seeds, $1.75 a pack. All other seeds are only $1.50. And again, thanks so much for watching.