Planted OILSEED RADISHES in my Back to Eden Garden with Wood CHIPS and it is doing great ( so Far ).
#gardening #gardeningtips #gardening101 #howto
VIDEO: IT'S GROWING nicely in my Back to Eden Garden with Wood Chips. Pt 2
Planted OILSEED RADISHES in my Back to Eden Garden with Wood CHIPS and it is doing great ( so Far ).
I have had them grow 12 inch long you can eat the greens too very nice if you like the spice. Some chicken manure in the wood chips would make it convert to good soil too. But as its dropped by 60% down the end product is soil the radish are growing in it how ouls they have done on the bare clay.
Great stuff as ever Dave
Hi Mark. Did you consider experimenting with winter rye in the wood chips. Rye also has deep roots. Furthermore, they keep a living root in the ground until you terminate it when it flowers. This is your own advice.
Sorghum / Sudan grass as a cover crop in summer seems to be a good decompacter with deep roots and a good liquid nitrogen pump + high biomass producer that can be left standing for animal forage in winter…
Hope this works! I tried alfalfa on some of mine and it struggled for the most part and it ties up the garden space too long. Because I have very limited space I have turned to digging 3-4 foot deep post holes and filling with chips, leaves, and compost then planting my plants in them. Then the next year I move where I put the holes. Going on the 4th year and my clay doesn't puddle anymore, I try to keep living plants, and mulch on the rest since I found your great channel! And it all seems to improve much quicker. I know this isn't feasible with the amount of ground you have, just wanted to share.
Mark,
I replenish my wood chips each year or so, as they break down, so there is always a fresh layer on top. I can hear them squish as l walk on them, but do not get any ponding or puddling. My garden is much smaller than what you have though.
P.S.- How is your son making out in the Marines?
My soil is so hard the daikons push/grow up. Lol . Always learn something from your videos. Thanks.
thank you Mark!
Your on the right track. I like what Gabe Brown has to say about multiple species growing on the same area.
I have a suggestion for you. We talked about this before. Eastern Gamma Grass. (Tripsacum dactyloides)
A C4 perennial that grows well in over wet condition and has strong mycorrhizal fungi symbiosis, and still is tall enough to be considered ornamental grass, but also a high nitrogen compostable material or high protein forage too! It checks all the boxes.
The way it survives in over wet conditions is by a protective sheath around deep roots that pierce that hard clay. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42948269?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
This should solve your puddling problems
So, Mark, won't the frost kill off these radishes? Was the goal just to see if you could plant directly into the woodchips, and not have a crop of radishes? Thanks, and I am happy to see the seeds germinated!
Wow, Mark, your seedlings are impressive! As I shared with you before…they grow well in my garden but the deer absolutely love them!!! I have a handful of smallish plant tops left but the carpet of radishes is now on its way to becoming venison stew. 😉
where you at in jersey??? Hackensack here!!!
Hello!
I AM ORGANIC GARDENING There is another way Mark, it’s called Roman chamomile. You can grow Roman chamomile, a perennial, on those wood chips like a lawn. They’ll put some roots in and open the isles up a bit and become like a lawn that tolerates a lot of traffic and smells good when you walk on it. What do you think?
Wood chips, straw, leaves etc. If its organic and protects the surface of the soil, I'll use it. I live near a major forestry site, so free wood chips are pretty much at my door step. Trees are excellent for erosion control. Investing in trees and shrubs that grow well in flooded conditions may help with taking up the excess water. It may be with considering getting a few cypress trees or dogwood trees, or any other type of water-loving native species of trees.
I hope it works so I can do the same here in Arizona. Our clay/caliche soil is a pain and I've layered woodchips for the last three years. We've grown a nice half inch of rich soil using the woodchips. We are about to spread our aged horse manure and used coffee grounds on top and afterwards another 8-12 inches of woodchips with leaf material too. We are hoping to achieve a 2 inch top soil within a year or two.
it all works together.
Keeping a living root is 100% the best idea ever i definetly notice this with my garden this year i used the morag gamble sheet mulching method it worked great but as i increased the amount of roots in the soil from my perrenials i noticed a big difference in how water moved and life in the soil. One thing i am trying is leaving my annual plants in the ground i chopped the tops left the root in the ground then mulched the whole bed with leaves im hoping this will help the worm activity over winter like fodder for the wormies!
If you want help decomposing wood chips inoculate them with king stropharia mushrooms. It will help build soil by breaking down wood chips very quickly and the mushrooms are delicious.
Mark, would you answer a question about strawberries. Would they grow with cardboard and coffee grounds method? The soil is sandy. I have compost from the landfill to layer. Thank you.
I've watched almost all of your videos but cannot remember the ones where you talked about the weeds and letting them grow in garden as like a " pesticide" so I'm parking this comment here. I have never heard of that before but was gonna give it a go this summer and just "manicure" them instead of pulling them up or cutting them to the ground and see what would happen. I stumbled over a YT video yesterday called What Plants Talk About by DocumFeed and it was what YOU were talking about!!! It talked about the plants talking and sending distress calls when they are being attacked. I'm like wow!! I cannot wait and be all scientiffy this year!!! Thank you for letting me know about this!!
Why didn't you just broad fork it once the first time to loosen that clay and immediately cause soil to forever after drain when you cover them with mulch and compost etc?.
I am ready to start my season in NH. Great information as I am using wood chips on a small scale. I plan on starting w/ snap peas and then put my tomato plants in that area, can the snow pea plants remain in the soil as a living plant?
Hi Mark, I was just thinking that you could dig a flood mitigation drain for this area ,running the water to a dam. With that clay you could make a good dam