2nd FAIL-Find out WHY? This is Part 8 of 12 Part Series that will help you understand the PRO’S & CON’S of Back to Eden organic deep mulch gardening 101 method with wood chips to composting just Fall leaves. Great start for beginners Tour our secrets for organic soil & growing gardening vegetables 101 documentary with pest control. Looking into soil food web & soil health in a no till organic garden. diy garden. Organic gardening and farming
VIDEO: Back to Eden Organic Gardening 101 Method with Wood Chips VS Leaves Composting Garden Series # 8
2nd FAIL-Find out WHY? This is Part 8 of 12 Part Series that will help you understand the PRO’S & CON’S of Back to Eden organic deep mulch gardening 101 method with wood chips to composting just Fall leaves. Great start for beginners Tour our secrets for organic soil & growing gardening vegetables 101 documentary with pest control. Looking into soil food web & soil health in a no till organic garden. diy garden. Organic gardening and farming
Yes, outstanding. I've been preparing my first garden bed in 20 years. I have been watching many videos, and yours are the most informative. You have saved me so much time. Thank you.
So sorry about your wife. Glad your sons have such a great dad. I lost my dad at a young age. Your sons are very lucky to have you.
I’m having a good year so far in the back to eden gardening method where I live which is near Canada I added 3-4” thick of western red cedar wood chips and 20 lbs of chicken manure on top and it’s breaking down so fast and everything is taking off so fast in it
yes orchard and grasses, and grazing animals.
Outstanding comparison! I am changing what I am planning for certain now.
That is why it went wrong, you're not supposed to separate out the wood chips from the leaves and needles and grasses, etc…the wood chip mixture should be just that, a wood chip MIX with leaves, grass, etc… that is how Paul does it because if you ask him, that is how nature does it so he does it.. Actually Paul don't use wood chips in his annual plants, he uses a compost from chicken pen, the wood is only a mulch so stop trying to pretend you are going to get nutrients from it in less than 3 years. You need compose, very good compost, today, tomorrow, everyday in the garden. Once, after years AND years will you begin to benefit from the break down(the wood transformed into compost), but right now you benefit with the water conservation and weed dampening. Just letting you know, you need compost right now, you can plant in your soil if you want, but it needs a good compost today, not 3 years from now.
There is many things and factors in what Paul does and his abundance, his water is perfect balance, that also affects plants when he does have to water, but not affect in a bad way like some well water and city water will. but really that is the main thing, keeping the right balance of water, and the nutrients will only build thru the years with you adding another layer once every fall. and the wood chip mix do both those things perfectly for you, adds nutrients, and keep the perfect balance of water for those plants that need alot, and even for those who need little water, it works excellent because it has dry spaces where plants who don't want all that water, and moist spots where plants can tap into to be fed, and both these conditions exist all throughout the layering, where ever you layered it. NOTE: after years and years of you layering it will these conditions exist, about as soon as 3-5years. And Paul also makes sure his compost he takes out of the chicken pen is properly composted, that is important. his chickens eat better than we do, so they are healthy, but he still knows to take only the properly composted materials.
But you totally have something there with the leaves, you could use the leaves as a mulch in the garden and it won't hurt the delicate stems like hard wood can, but still have a wood mix near, like in the isles. Then eventually after 3-5 years, rake the top fresh layer of chips of the surface off your isles, and plant in the rich soil under it, and now make the old planting rows become the new isles, now wood chip the hell out of them. oscillate every 3-5 years. And i wouldn't recommend raising anything, it works better level with the earth, this way you can conserve more water, and also oscillate anywhere you want without digging a bunch of shit, disturbing and killing the soil.. Plant directly in the compost the wood made.
I have only some experience with this, in my 2nd year too, but i studied everything i could that Paul really does. But if you are starting out like we are, you need compost first if you expect a good year now. Eventually after years of applying wood chip MIX every fall, you will be able to just pick a spot, and rake back the top layer, and directly plant and watch the thing take off like a bat out of hell. and yes i agree with you, plant fruit trees, Paul has them and they helped with the system of fungi, and the fungi helped the trees, into abundance. that is what he was really doing from the beginning, putting in fungi loving things to grow, wooded stuff, like fruit trees and berries bushes, etc…He was planting perennials, the annuals are not in the wood chip mix he has a separate place he grows most of those. He has now been using and experimenting in planting annuals directly into the COMPOSTED chips since now it is surly composted after 35 years or whatever he said. And getting success, and annual plants that died in a direct hail storm out in the open, survived under his fruit trees, etc…
I realize you probably know this stuff, and i might have missed something in the video that would explain that you do know all i said here and more, but i write this for me too. There is a chance you will reply with something that teaches me something.
you failed because you didnt pay attention to any of the videos. Paul put wood chips in tje chicken coop. Those chickens worked those wood chips, along with the weeds and constant input of organic green material, wood ash and then he sifted it and put it in his garden.
START OVER!!!!!!
It’s sounds like the best option when starting this style of gardening would be a layer of fall leaves under a layer of mulch. Garden of Eden will work better long terms as the wood chips break down slower. So it makes since with this being the first year of growth the back to Eden style did perform as well.
I am so glad I watched this video until the end. What a poignant personal story. May you and your boys be always blessed.
Why not water every couple days? Let the mulch hold the water and eventually dry up? And water again. This will change throughout the seasons..
You need to add nitrogen fixers to feed the fungus to help break down the wood chips and fix nitrogen for the surrounding plants Fungus has a beneficial relationship with the plants during the summer and during the winter they feed on their decomposing bodies so they distribute nitrogen so all the plants around can grow as big as possible so they have food for winter
great vid
Beautiful story
I can’t tell you how much time and effort this video saved me in 2021. I would’ve drowned 40 pepper plants without this info.
Thank you! God bless you!
So much has been taken from you, yet, you still give… I don't know what to say. Sorry Mark. God bless you and your family…
A lot of people misuse the term mycorrhizae fungi, what you are talking about about 12 minutes in is not mycorrhizal fungi it's just fungi in general. Mycorrhiza fungi literally means fungus of the roots, and has to have an association with roots to grow, so if it is growing in your soil or compost or whatever you want call it without roots it is just some sort of fungi or bacteria.
Thanks for this video! A lot of good info. I know somebody who’s also from New Jersey and he says wourder too.
Sending you and your sons love.
At 15:40 you mentioned planting pine trees in the garden. I’ve been thinking about that for several days, because of your instruction. Sacrificial trees that can grow 3-5 feet, get cut and have the roots working through the soil. Thanks for your help.
Seems to me like you just need to forget wood chips and stay with leafs. Am I missing something?
Water em with 1/10 urine water , they need nitrogen 🙂 after few yrs with this mulch situation will gest better when it will start advanced decomposition process 🙂
Mixing lot kinds of edible mushrooms in blender and pouring em on the mulch will improove fungal potential in soil
Hello. Maybe it’s the area you live. I live in North Buckinghamshire middle England and decided to try this method last October following reading several items on this type of growing. I can only say that my Potatoes were a very good success. I also tried growing Cabbage and Turnips, again both doing extremely well. I am having insect problems attacking the leaves of my Turnips, and seem to have an Ant problem. Apart from that I am happy. Oh and my Butternut Squash is rampant.
What do youthink aboutthis explanation?
https://youtu.be/d2lwqbtpav0
Is it possible that this is due to nitrogen starvation? The idea that it doesn't rob nitrogen is based on keeping the wood chips on the surface while the roots below are unimpacted. But you show the roots growing exclusively into the partially decayed wood chips, which likely have low nitrogen because they take so long to break down. While the fall leaves, because they break down so much faster, can start providing nitrogen so much faster. This makes sense to me, and explains why in the documentary they highlight horse and chicken manure in addition to the wood chips, which now seem to be imperative when using Back to Even to add to annuals which have not developed deep roots.
God bless you sir,
thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Follow up. Went woodchip BTE anyway. Never till or even flip grass over. 8" + arborist chips to smother grass. After grass/weeds are dead (a couple .onths+) plant trees. Plant trees in soil by opening mulch hole down to ground level. Dig hole in soil and use wheel barrel hold dug soil. You do not want to put shoveled dirt on top of woodchip mulch as mixing causes nitrogen robbing for that spot for a while.
After planting tree return woodchip mulch to almost touching bark.
There is issues these days with using Ruth Stout method = no till and mulch with hay. That's because most farmers use broad leaf herbicide on hay field. This also excludes using manure as they pass chemical in poop. The broad leaf herbicide is persistent and can destroys garden soil for many years. To test grow tomatoes in suspect material and plant will curl up and die. This is especially important whdn selecting manure.
The BTE for gardening, chips need to be decomposed better. So you pile woodchip for a year, waiting for spring season. Use sugar water mixed in gallon containers a pour over woodchip pile at least once a week and water in. This promotes bacterial decomposition which will later help fungal decomposition. The pile should be flipped to increase decomposition speed but debatable.
After the year of decomposition screed the remnants so the smaller chips can be used in garden for veggies. 4 inches deep is good enough . Plant seeds in soil by scootching mulch aside. When screeding decomposed mulch keep the blackened soil found under the pile. Use ths soil for evening off hole or row for seeds.
As time progress the woodchip mulch in tree area (8 inches+) will get better and better. The garden mulch will be consumed quickly, so re mulch veggie garden each year.
Aging is important. The best sign is mushrooms. Many also incorporate cover crops which bring sugars down deeper in soils by their roots. I have not tried this yet. This year I bought Dandelion seeds and Purseline seeds that I plan to grow as cover crops. Since they both are edible I will have to work out my pathways.
One crisis I did not pfedict is my citrus plants got hit with HLB. The greening disease. Sucks as there is no cure. It's everywhere in Florida and devastating citrus industries all over world.