Fatal Wood Chip Gardening Mistakes Beginners Are Making - Back To Eden Gardening
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- čas přidán 15. 03. 2018
- This video would have helped me so much when I started out with Back To Eden gardening.
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After watching the Back to Eden video several times I ordered woodchips from a local tree service company. I also ordered a load of mushroom compost and hauled several trailer loads of horse manure. 3" of mushroom compost, 3" of horse manure, and 6" of woodchips went to the garden area. This was in August. We planted the garden the following May. By that time the pile had shrunk to half its original depth. We dug down until we hit the compost level and planted our seeds and plants directly into that. The result was the best garden we have ever had. Almost zero weeds, very little watering, and garden bounty. Our corn harvest was the most amazing. Nearly every ear was completely filled out to the very end and the ears were large. Our potato plants were nearly three feet tall. We harvested nearly 300 pounds in an area of about 600 square feet. That was a number of years ago. This is the ONLY way to garden.
Thank you
now define mushroom compost please.
Horse manure and wood chips is giving me great results.
That’s a better explanation in your paragraph than what this man tried explaining?!
Animal manure + wood chips = compost
Adding mushroom compost probably speedied it up
@@kuiperbeltdropout8791 the whole point is making compost?! Don’t understand your comment
There’s hours and hours (weeks, as you say) of video info about wood chips. Excellent job of summing it all up in less than 10 minutes! One more point is that the woodchips mixed with manure will draw red worms, the ultimate composting machines.
These are the points that the back to Eden film needs to go more in depth with. I've studied the forest floor a lot as a kid, and came to the same conclusions as talked about in this video.
Unless you're agricultural trained, back to Eden will not make sense. I always thought it was a teaser, like if you wanted to know more, get my book.
Back to eden is this: get chickens, use wood chips as thier floor, use food waste, layer chips weekly. Do this 1 year, use the broken down chips/manure from the pen as your garden cover.
what's the ratio of manure to woodchips?
The ratio doesn’t matter too much for the homesteader. However I’d say to speed up the process. A 2:1 ratio. 2 yards tree mulch to 1 yard fresh manure.
I cover mine with a silage tarp. I check on it every Saturday. Keep it moist. I’m using horse manure b/c it’s so easy & free to come by. After about 3-4 months. It’s broken down pretty darn good. I then let chickens run threw it for a bit. I prefer to compost raw materials for about 9-12 months. I have super high iron, red clay soil. In the Sierra mountains of CA. Hopefully that gives you perspective.
julie r I started composting wood chips with my rabbit manure this year.
We started our garden in US midwest zone 5. Im a senior and Ive waited my entire to have a veg garden. Our plot is heavy sand and nothing would grow. In Fall 2016 we laid out one 4 x 20’ row. We first laid down cardboard, watered it well, then put down compost, organic blood and bone meal, a mix of leaves and grass, two large bags of garden soil (because we had them on hand) then the wood chips. In spring 2017 we were amazed at the number of large worms in the new bed. The moisture was also amazing. We planted tomatoes and green peppers. They grew fantastic. My neighbor who is an avid gardener and grew up on a farm was so surprised that my tomatoes were so nice, evenly colored and no cracks. We used two 60 gallon water barrels the entire summer of 2017 in only the very driest times. We only amended the soil because we did not want to wait two years. I was soo pleased that in spring 2017 we set about adding two more rows in the same layering order. I planted kitchen white potatoes that had been let to get long eyes on them. I also used this layering method with light wood chips for beans and cukes. Besides the plants in the first row we SUCCESSFULLY grew beans, cukes, yellow squash, huge zucchini, carrots, potatoes, spinach and garlic which was planted Nov 2016. We could not have been happier. The biggest surprise was the potatoes that we just used as a test. We got 10lbs of nice clean medium sized potatoes out of 5 wasted pieces I cut up from what I had in a bag. Buy the end of 2017 we had covered the entire fenced in garden with the Back to Eden method and had also set up two long beds for herbs outside the garden. I cannot say enough about this method. I learned from Paul Gautchy Ruth Stout and several others who had failures, successes and even those who went into the science of BTE and sort of put the information together. We could not be happier. Cardboard is plentiful at recycle dumpsters in shopping centers and just for the asking at stores. If you want to start producing from your garden right away you will need to buy amendments but it is well worth it not to have to till. We are selling our brand new tiller. Never had to use it!!!!
Happy to hear from your successses (in 2018), and thanks for the detailled explanation, it is very helpful.
Excellent video...should be automatic viewing after watching the "back to eden" documentary!
Totally agree! This explains so much. Thank you!
Great info! Paul does sometimes put uncomposted chips on but the chips have green leaves in them, not brown, so they break down quickly. Not to mention the fact that he's layering it on top of already composted chips with all the enzymes and earthworms that help it to break down quickly.
So one way that people can get it started quickly without animal manure is to ensure that their woodchip pile is mixed with plenty of GREEN leaves.
I had an arborist dump a load of chips on my property that happened to have lots of green material in it. I was AMAZED at how fast they broke down, and that's why! :)
This is definitely a subject that needs clarification. Thank you so much for making this video!!
I hate when people spend the time to make great and informative videos and people make harsh comments about it. Thank you for this video. Is English your first language because your command of the language is impeccable. Thank you for a very nice video.
*No his wife is American and speaks English❗️*
I call those folks, Silly Rabbits.
Yes yes. Agreed. The info is solid...did you look up this vid to be entertained OR TO LEARN?
@@ansellovestogroworganicall2180 In New Zealand we just call them bunnies lol
He's making cash out of it. It's not a favour.
When I was a teenager I grew San Marzano tomatoes and most of them died prematurely. My father covered my garden with wood chips in the autumn and by accident, the following year I had so many tomatoes I didn’t know what to do with them. The dead tomatoes were covered with chips and a year later they grew beautifully.
@@randompersonontheinternet8790 i grew San Marzano tomato’s from seed. No I don’t live in San Marzano but there is a type of tomato that I grew genius. Lol
@@randompersonontheinternet8790 lol just playin. I realize your point but my seeds were labeled San Marzano when I bought them. Just saying.
This type of detailed info is so important to spell out. Wood chips alone dumped deeply in the garden is a recipe for short term nitrogen starvation. I do think dumping wood chips deeply is a good 3 year plan for amazing soil WITH a beautiful top mulch, increased soil life and resulting soil conditioning. Valuable.
Just an FYI. Somewhere on youtube, a soil or microbiologist talks about the nitrogen issue and found that the nitrogen issue is very thin and only occurs where the soil contacts the chips. Plants roots are deeper and in my experience with vegetables, no issues have occurred. This is one of the videos. czcams.com/video/BQH0J2poixk/video.html
I am also working on my channel to prove it WRONG. I am burying fresh wood chips and also laying seed on top of the soil and covering with fresh wood chips. czcams.com/video/Rtzxu14p6mM/video.html .
THANKS
Look, you can identify what is in the pile, then it is NOT compost. Compost is the complete breakdown of organic material into a loamy compost, where you cannot identify what is in it. So, that pile on your left (our right) is not compost. It is wood mulch. It has not decomposed enough to be compost. Put it back in the compost pile and add moisture and nitrogen to it. If you sifted that pile, you might have a little actual compost there.
Most people get in trouble with the BTE method, because they cannot follow instructions and try to do things their own way. Instead of letting the wood pile partially decompose for about six months, they put it on their garden without doing that important first step. Then, they might put it on too thick or too thin and expect results. Well, it's going to take longer, folks, because you skipped the important composting process.
Also, people might mix the chips into the top layer of soil. Not good. You want to plant in your soil and put the partially composted chips on top, or if the chips are already down, dig down to the soil and plant, then move the chips around the plants as they come up. This way soil is not robbed of nitrogen needed to break down the chips.
Don't try to re-invent the wheel. Follow instructions! Watch the BTE film over and over and over again, if necessary, until you get it.
I AM ORGANIC GARDENING - of course wood chips are a mulch. And I said you have to plant in soil, not in the wood chips. Following the instructions includes adding a layer of compost. I wasn’t getting into all the nitty-gritty details.
If you mix wood chips in with your soil and plant legumes, the reason you have some success is because legumes have a nitrogen fixing bacteria on their roots, making up partially for the nitrogen the wood chips are depleting the soil of. You would have better results if you didn’t have the wood chips in there. Just top dress with partially composted wood chips.
@@alan30189 I did this both ways, on a very small scale I planted, covered with chips immediately and nothing grew I called Paul G (I planted in the soil not the chips) he said to pull the chips back plant in the soil and then wait for the plant to grow once it gets large enough you can put the chips back around it. Before I started planting, the chips were down for about a month the ground was softer than what it was before. I pulled the chips back planted a couple rows and waited for the plants to grow they are doing much better this time not close to harvest but looks like I have a good probability of this happening
Thank you so much! You just stopped me from making a huge mistake! I just got a pile of wood chips that I was going to put straight into my garden. I am going to put them into my chicken coop first before using them in the garden. Wow so thankful I watched your video! Justin Rhodes has his chickens in his wood chips. I can't believe I missed that important step! Thank you so very much!
Diana Mallory you can still use those chips. I put down a mix of horse manure and compost first then card board, Then cover with the fresh woodchips, works great! You make small cuts in the cardboard and place plants then put chips back around the plant. It really works great.
If you have chips like the pile on the left (his right) in the video, which is everything shredded together, you can put them directly on the garden as mulch, just don’t till into the soil. But processing with chickens first is definitely better.
let the chickens help you.
Had earthworms for my aquaponics, used them for 'preprocessing' and worm-tea, you're right, let the worms work for you too (and chickens love them) #winwin.
card-board, manure-chips-mix, cover chips. sounds good to me, I use a plastic tarp then wait to kill the weeds, still have to learn that card-board trick ;)
btw. I used card-board in my worm-bin, don't know why, but earthworms just loves eating card-board.
Thank you so much for taking so much of your time to help out with this clarification. You have really cut down thousands of hours for many of us farmers. All the best from Kenya! Love your channel
Good clear information. No bloat banter, just the facts. Love it.
Folks need to remember that the video documentary Back to Eden Garden film was not done by Paul, but rather a couple college students for a project. They came to him. He is not a professor of agriculture. He's a humble man who happens to be a master gardener. He did the video in accordance with the outlook of the student's project, they called the shots.
Since that video he has done garden tours of his garden every summer for those who wish to come learn, in those much more details of the hows and whys are discussed. Many youtubers have filmed these tours and posted them for years now. One such youtuber I have enjoyed has been L2survive. All the points mentioned in this video have been shared though those garden tour videos in great detail, plus a whole not more. If you have not watched those you should.
One more thing to remember, Paul has been working on his garden for over 30 years. You will not have his kind of results in a mere 4 years. He is trying to teach what has taken him all those years to learn. No matter how good a teacher is, it is nearly impossible to boil down 30 plus years of wisdom into one two hour video... Especially if you are not a person who is a teacher by trade. Many many times in those garden tours Paul has said that what he means by wood chips is the whole chipped plant including the needles, leaves, twigs and branches, with the green intact.
Thorough instructions have been given by Paul in many videos over the years. If you have not looked and found them, that is not Paul's failing. Now that you know those videos are out there, and I mean years worth, happy hunting. Chears.
Good advice! I realized the exact same point as I watched how various plants reacted to my supply of wood chips. I did an exhaustive search for all natural not colored triple shredded all hardwood wood chips. I paid $22 per yard and spread over 12 yards in my garddns. The results have been magnificent. Where I used mulched hardwood leaves and yard wastes I had different but also good results. I also think that many people don't realize that in order to plant into a wood chipped garden you need to clear away the chips and plant into the soil beneath the wood chip surface. Leave a little cleared space around the plant initially and as the plants take to the transplanted location you can slowly backfill right up to the plants. It's been a game changer for me and I have plans to increase my garden sizes by laying down more woodchips this spring.
Little White Dory.... I agree..I mouthed off with a whole disertation posted comment above...but your statement also has necessary details I didn't add in my comment that's important instructions/suggestions that are vital steps. From Margaret Jaeger...signed as a Master Gardener..true..true.
I was confused about why people were having trouble with "wood chip gardening" until I read your comment.
I think I must not be doing "wood chip gardening", but rather I'm just using wood chips as mulch. You wouldn't mix a bunch of mulch in to the plants your transplanting obviously, so don't mix the wood chips in either. I've always just cleared away the chips before planting, thinking it was sense that is common.
Even if it is strongly dyed mulch, it's still going to create hummus underneath eventually.
Just treat the wood chips as mulch, or "bark" and it's easy.
Yup. It appears to be the ticket for porous well drained soils as a protective and nurturing covering
Hello Simeon, great info. I think that ones climate should also be considered along with annual rain fall when doing the Eden garden. The fella who pioneered the idea lives on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state. The average rainfall is 17 inches (43 centimeters) and average temperature is around 50 degrees (10 Celsius). If you lived in a much warmer climate for instance you would need to add a lot more water through the season to keep the wood chips moist enough to break down.
Yes, you are right.
Elishia, if you can get past the first 3 years to the stage when enough of the chips break down it does make for an amazing system at least around trees and perennials. I added 2 inches a year after the third year and loved it.
Annette Anderson ,
Even grass clipping don't break down well in Southern California with it's 9 " of rain per year .
The annual rainfall range on the peninsula and vicinity is 16 to 220 inches. www.olympicrainshadow.com/olympicrainshadowmap.html
The Back to Eden farm that Pioneered this system is located in the rain shadow near Sequim Washington and when I searched average rain fall for that area 17 inches is what I found. :-)
I just started collecting wood chips for my garden 15 year's ago I only just heard of back to eden!
My main reason to collect wood chips fresh, dry and partially rotted was dry because it is light for collecting on bicycle and for the brown part of hot composting and for cooking and making biochar in a wood gas stove.
The fresh stuff I use for paths and mulch, and the partially rotten stuff I specifically collected for mycelial growth!
Not sure if back to eden is good but wood chips in any form have untold amazing uses in the garden!
Good info. I knew this not sure why I always knew this. Maybe because we use to cheat and go into the woods and remove already composted material from the forest floor to build our soil. It was really a thrifty way instead of using peat. Then we would used raw chips on top and in the walking paths to hold moisture in our clay soil. This channel get better and better!
Good to hear getting old wood from the forest floor works, we have been doing that for only 2 years and haven't noticed anything in our no till garden yet but will keep adding to it. We have also started an old rotten wood pile in the middle of the garden for the microbes, imagine the worms might like it too, not to mention the mice, they moved in the first year, lol. But I grow enough staples that I can share with them:)
SO SO VERY helpful Simeon. I saw the Back to Eden documentary and really left with the impression that the pile of shredded wood and leaves etc. was all that was needed to cover a garden.
CiaoBella I thought the same thing!
CiaoBella ,
Well, as Simeon said , it is and it isn't. It all depends upon your intended use.
A thick covering of just wood chips in an orchard to keep weeds down does work great . And it lasts a long time . Just what you need in an orchard .
But , for growing vegetables and fruits such as berries , you need more of a compost as Simeon said. I don't have forest as Simeon does , so I get wood chips delivered for free from tree workers. Then I use my chipper/grinder to grind the wood chips a second time. You need a lighter organic material to accelerate the decomposition. I use vegetable trimmings and grass trimmings from my lawn mowing. And I grind it all together. This gets it well mixed. So , where to get enough vegetable trimmings ? A supermarket will have large bins out back just full of discarded vegetables. Each bin is perhaps a couple of tones when full. Ask first and get permission to take the discarded produce. Some companies like Wal-Mart will put locks on their bins. They prefer to have that vegetable waste going to landfills.
Mix it or grind it all together and viola , nice compost in a short time.
Donald Miller I'm setting my composting system up with a few rows of Bocking 14 Comfrey. Cut the plants back to the ground several times a year and I'll have a lot of nutrient rich green manure to add to my woody compost.
We used Back to Eden gardening, and used wood mulch only, and it worked beautifully. Not sure why I've seen people her and there that's had problems.
I just layed chips out in autumn for a garden but I also threw in coffee grounds and a lot of fallen apples, hopefully my garden will produce this spring.
I added 6” of raw wood chips on top of my garden and had excellent results in the first year. I think a lot depends on what’s under those chips. I had an established garden with decent soil so in my case the chips aging on top of it did nothing but help feed the plants and draw in the worms, lots and lots of worms. So I wouldn’t say you can’t expect results in year one unless your only using raw chips on dead ground....
It gave fungal mycelium a place to flourish and grow leading to ectomychorhizzal relationships.
Partially rotted chips are best. They chipped the ridge I live on two years ago. Fungus is just now starting to grow in the midst of them when I dug down a couple of inches. By year three the plants will love it.
One part of my garden was filled with weeds and grass, so I did the lazy gardener's way - I put a layer of box cardboard, then a layer of coarse woodchips about 2 to 3 inches thick on top of the cardboard last summer. This early June I brought two tomato seedlings, mixed some kitchen compost, peat moss, horse manure and Epsom salt, remove the bottom leaves from the seedlings and buried each sideway in a small hole I dug in the cardboard woodchip so most of the stem was buried in the ground, then put the compost manure mix on top, and cover them with woodchips. That ground, though no more weeds under the cardboard, was not fertile. I could tell by the color and texture of the soil. It was light sandy brown color and had much sand. I gave not much hope for a good harvest, only that the seedlings don't die. After the initial irrigation for the first three weeks, I gave up watering them. Just let the natures do its work. It is too much work for me to drag the garden hose all of the way to the other side of the yard. Both seedlings are now more than 5 feet tall, have so many branches and are loaded with tomatoes. I just harvested the first one today - fully ripe crimson red, soft and full of tomato aroma - barely two months after putting down the seedlings. I never had a harvest this good and this quick. Never underestimate the power of woodchips and un-disturbed weeds. There are amazing secrets down there.
Exactly as my grandmother taught me. Well done!
Wow this video is extremely helpful! Very subtle things you pointed out but they are very critical to success of growing things. Thank you very much best video ever
Its very simple. Mimic the forest.
Burnt wood, rotten wood, fungus, wood chips, leaves, animal manure, ect ect.
It is easier said than done. It takes 30 years to grow a tree to its mature size. The first thing to do when you buy a piece of land is to grow trees and shrubs, not vegetables. Plus you have deer and rodents that will kill your young trees. Over the past 5 years, I had more than 20 young trees being killed.
Meh. Spend the 1st year on your property observing. Don’t be all arrogant and make permanent gardens or orchards. Once you’ve gotten intimate with the lay of the land. Then start planting trees intensively. You can always move a veggie garden. Not so much an orchard or lumber forest
@@07negative56 Orchards? Deer and rodents will kill any trees. I planted many different varieties of evergreen and deciduous trees. I would say more than half of them were killed. Those that are surviving are still subject to drought, insects, rodents, and deer. Moles will kill young trees too. When you have a piece of barren land, you have no layout! Most modern farmland has nothing on it! More than 40% of the land in the U.S. is barren with NO ecosystem at all. Now, I am starting to plant as many trees and shrubs as I can from seeds or from cuttings. This way I can let many of them die. I am still planting more than 10 trees a year and I don't think I can fill my 2 acres in the next 5 years.
@@ArthurHau
That is why most farmsteads have dogs and cats.👍😉
@@3lightsteps Dogs are worse than voles or moles cause they will dig around like crazy. If you have a mole that do not pop up, Dogs don't bother digging. If you have voles, dogs will dig everything up just to hunt for voles.
I live in iowa we get a lot of rainfall and heat in the summer. In may i bought several bags of organic woodchips. Pretty sure they were cedar too. Which were very hard to find. Most bags of woodchips are not organic. I looked for some that were not in bags but could not find any in the time i had to construct my garden. I dont have nor know anyone with a chipper. But as it turns out Im very glad I bought them in bags cause we had a happy accident. I had a hard time getting through all the bags right away and some sat in the sun and rain for 1-2 months. By the time i got to them they were already starting to break down into compost. The clear plastic bags sucked up the rain and intensified the heat. Loved it and will try it again next yr for my very small garden. Ive been gardening for 15 yrs and it has been a real treat to not have to weed constantly. I also love the fact my garden is producing well into the fall. In the past my plants would be drying out by now and i would be rushing to pick the last of my garden now and most plants would already be done for the season. This yr i think ill try a fall succession. my garden is 12 inces off the ground and the heat from the woodchips has kept everything grean and continues to produce new buds even now. Im sure a plastic covering and occassional watering with a hose would have the same effect as the bags. Btw these were large thick woodchips which broke down in only 1-2 months with no other ingrediant then rain and sun.
Thanks buddy and thank you for your clean cut english, i am humbled.
🇸🇪🇺🇸💓
I sure do appreciate the clarification! Thank you!
I would just like to thank you so very much for sharing what you’ve learned from all of your hard work. Your wisdom means a great deal to me. I compost all of my leaves into leaf mold and grass clippings on my place and have been thinking about chipping all of the limbs now.
2 years later and this is still helping clear up a lot for me! Thank you so much for your time.
Just great--thanks fir deconstructing why the components of compost are so valuable and so ready. Soooo many of us find out each fact piecemeal, about how grinding up a ziplock baggue full of egg shells to powder saves 2yrs wait, how blending rotting banana/apple/cantaloupe peels saves 3months...and now you telling us about wood chips take 2,3yrs and even then, need to be mixed with green leaves and branches or else it finally breaks down only to sawdust.
*The mixed variety if all this us compost, I never knew this, never knew that all those patches if bark weren't useable THIS SEASON...in fact to add, even those little standby backup for day flowers, of time-release bead fertilizer are almost useless for the final third weeks of your growing season as they dissolve too late. Thanks, you made so much sense, so logical.
Very helpful video, I was about to cover my front garden beds with raw woodchip hoping to grow some edibles next year.
Now I'll use the woodchips in a hot compost bin along with dry leaves, manure and garden/kitchen scraps then in the winter use that to cover my front beds.
I'm in Australia so it's summer here.
Thanks. I'm glad I could learn from your mistakes instead of making them myself.
A video that explains the pros and cons of different wood chips. Like types of trees, wood chip size and it's most beneficial application. That would make a great video.
Amazing how when we follow the system God created we end up with amazing results!
After years of layers of dead fall leaves, grass clippings, and rotted wood chips I can crawl around on the softest garden soil ever! And occasional manure when I could spread some before a rain SO my suburban neighbors would not complain. What a change from hard clay! The soil is alive and producing life and life giving.
This is the best explanation I've seen so far on the Back to Eden method. I have experimented with it, but mostly I do sheet mulch. I moved to an acre, had a ton of cardboard moving boxes, two pooping horses, and a eucalyptus tree that decided to lose a huge branch the day after I closed escrow. Problems turned to solution with sheet mulching... laid down the cardboard, put on a layer of fresh manure and covered it with chips. I did a lot of tree planting the first two years, and where I sheet mulched the trees did really well, and where I didn't a greater percentage of the trees died the first year because of summer heat and drought. Where the ramial chips were piled waiting to be spread and never was spread became beautiful compost after a few years. Had a lot of mushrooms in the chips the first winter! So I planted in it or spread the wealth this year. Happy fungus to you.
Awesome info.... thank you for sharing..👍👍👍 makes sense
This was VERY helpful. Well clarified 👍🏾
Bro, you saved my ass! I ran out and bought a shredder chipper and chipped all my branches thinking I would put it as mulch, but saw this just before I acted. Thank you!
This is one of the clearest videos on the subject around. GREAT WORK!
Another mention for Charles Dowding! Look up his No Dig method using a layer of compost as much. This was a good video here. Good job explaining the differences and time needed!
Totally agree and happy chickens help big time. ;)
that was an excellent clarification. well done sir.
Valuable information - great job! Thanks for sharing this with the rest of us!
I'm glad I saw this before I got too optimistic about "wood chips". Thanks for the clarification!
I posted a video of my 100% leaf-soil , and then this video shows up in my feed! Great info!
Gonna check it out
Of course... Now it all makes sense!
Well done!! Thank you!!!
Simeon, you saved us! Thank you so much for sharing. You do an awesome job on all your vids- extremely helpful.
I found this very helpful. 😁 You taught me just what I needed to learn before using this massive pile of oak chips and leaves I’ve been gifted. So far it’s been mostly used as path material, buried deep, or as mulch over cardboard on unused sections of the beds. You got me thinking about options available to help the remainder of the pile compost a little faster. Thankfully, I have a good supply of manure to assist the transformation.
Look at how to grow mycelium In cardboard. Go and to the forest and find a wood loving species of mushroom. Cut to piece and use to grow mycelium on the card. Once established mix in woodchips you have boiled (pasturise) and allowed to cool and drain. Put into a larger containers and mix your cooled woodchips it all up with your mycelium block which was once card layered with mushrooms. Once the wood has the white mycelium all over it mix this into your woodchip in your woodchips paths etc for yearly mushrooms. You could use edible mushrooms or non poisonous mushrooms pleasing to the eye. Super easy and there are sooo many you could do this with
Thankyou so much! !
Thank you for clearing up the different components and how they work,enjoy your channel keep up the great job!!!
Thank you for putting this clarification out there, very important to know😃
Im getting woodchips (left pile) delivered for free any time I see a truck in my area. My backyard is almost fully covered and all my fruit trees are doing great. I use it mainly to fight evaporation and to soak up more rain in the landscape. The compost is a bonus, but I know it will come especially with the chickens doing their part. FYI in my eyes those 3 piles of material are woodchips, sawdust, and unfinished compost.
there is a difference between using it as a ground cover and trying to grow a garden in it.
_Just something to know in future if you ever face such situations._ People normally don't expect Fruit trees to live very long, compared to large landscape trees expected to live over 100 years. So its OK when Fruit trees existing root systems growing just below original grade end up getting suffocated from oxygen exchange with above ground atmosphere after someone layers four inches or more of mulch on top of them. Because they can grow a whole new adventitious root layer to get above suffocating obstruction.
But for large hardwoods and softwood trees like Pines & Spruces, general rule of Arboriculture is to never raise the grade or ground level. (Remember wood chips decompose, transforming into new soil. And trunk/roots need to breath) By applying layers of new black dirt soil on top of existing rootsystem below it. Especially directly around base of tree which ends up burying trunks above ground tissue and surrounding rootplate where all outbound buttress roots exist. Since these larger trees new adventitious roots grow in all directions along with back toward trunk.
Which end up compacting soil with network of crossing roots, and girdling its own trunk expanding in girth as tree gets older. And trees had evolved rootflare to defend against stem strangling roots by hydraulically severing any paralleling roots getting in trunks way. But trees can't do this if ground level is raised where part of trunk produces less expanding girth. Similar to if someone tried strangling you with rope.
Being easier to break by flexing if rope around shoulders rather than neck. Thus trees with trunks resembling taperless telephone poles entering ground face more risk of strangulation! So I suggest to folks they regularly remove some of the old mulch layer and use stuff elsewhere in garden, before applying whole new layers. When folks have little choice but to raise surrounding grade, they make sure to build tree well to wall off trunk. Keeping trunk at original grade, while new feeder rootsystem regrows up into higher altered grade.
_Hope you found this stuff interesting. As an Arborist here in Chicago I run into this problem a lot more since scientist at our local Morton Arboretum began encouraging removal of grass around trees to be replaced with beneficial mulch._
@@CONCERTMANchicago Great information! Thanks so much.🤠👍👍
boom
You kept me from making a big mistake! Thank you!
Thanks for clearing things up for us. You will be saving us loads of headache. I will treat our wood chips differently now. Bernie.
Fantastic video! Very clearly explained! Love that you don’t personally attack Paul & Back to Eden, instead clarify the process and share your own successes and mistakes with this method.
Thank you so much! Very informative!!!
If you combine the Ruth Stout Method with the "Back to Eden" method with wood chips you get a pretty amazing result. The Hay from Stouts method tends to break down quicker than the wood chips so it feeds the plants quickly while the wood chips put down on top of the hay break down slower but you still have that layer of protection against weeds. I'm still testing this combination but so far its been wonderful.
That's what I do. Horse manure, chicken bedding and lawn clippings in addition to any old hay, and fallen leaves. Plus I would protect my seedlings from being pecked and scratched with a thick hay covering near the plants. I also used cardboard. Just about anything:) Now, I am a new home and am starting over with knowledge. It's so fun. I miss my soil, though!
Any update on the combination?
@@benjaminwulf914 The long and short of it is, unless you have lots of time in the garden, Stouts method just introduces WAY to many weed seeds for my liking. It just fills up the weed seed bank in the garden. With a minimum of 4+ inches of woodchips on top of the hay it makes a nice bed of soil beneath but don't ever get lower than that because the weed seeds will grow with a vengeance. I think Woodchips very thick with compost added in every now and then is the way to go, for me. Test your soil and make sure your soil is staying balanced. Woodchips are amazing but they do not provide everything needed in plant growth. Tons of potassium so potatoes will do amazing but keep your soil balanced for the best resulting brix level in plants.
@@CrossroadToCountry Thanks so much for the detailed response, it was very helpful.
this is so great, exactly what I was trying to find out . Thank you
You are explaining perfectly for new gardeners. Also Mr. Salatin uses the animals to directly amend any bedding and the pigs to mix it in the spring by layering grain to ferment in the layers of organics, bedding and squashed, broken down manure, a system made in heaven for any hard working person of the land, also like you do, smart, one less chore you need to do, as all involved, the animals would be producing manure/fertilizer anyways. I understood Paul G. because my dad has done this method since he was a child (he passed in his 80's), taught to him by his dad, then to me. We had huge piles of chipped wood with all leaves, buds, pine cones everything in it, another pile with just chipped wood then piles of cow, rabbit, horse, chicken manures all separated in their own piles, acidity content and such, then piles of grass clippings, pine needles, wood ash, all in separate piles once again, a huge compost piles of vegtable scraps, eggshells, etc. We kept bags of, bone meal, dried blood, but no chemical fertizer. I always knew what to put in garden to start one off and then to grow the plants in each area with their necessary needs. You watch the plants, they will tell you from the day they sprout what they need (you have to learn basic knowledge of what you are growing first, what are their basic requirements), then tweek by where you live. Most any soil can be made great soil by what is added into it, then on top of, to become fertile. I laugh when I see plant and tomatoe trellis' at stores, just my tomato plants will grow 7-8 feet tall, I have made 4x4 square holed, 52 inch tall horse fence circles, 4 foot diameters, stacked, one on top of the other to try to contain only 1 plant. Grow what you like first and learn those plants well the first or second years, then on to plants you want to sell. Once you obtain this visceral knowledge of what the plants are asking from you can learn to grow a few in demand crops and grow them well so you can promise a steady supply, then add on if you so choose. This way you will not waste your time or your money. If you trully have a love, a passion for gardening, do not mind getting dirty, not just for money but that will come if you so choose, it will just come naturally, it is a very rewarding and a peaceful pusuit. It can be done organically, it doesn't take any more work than using chemicals. Remember just sticking things in the ground and expecting a miracle in todays depleted and sometimes poisoness areas is no longer a feasabilty, not saying never, just highly unlikely. I can grow anything I have ever tried but my one failing is those darn run of the mill yellow squash, they will just never grow to adulthood without turning hard as a brick. I can grow any kind of squash, small to huge ones but those, forget about it, good thing they are not a favorite of mine and have little nutrition compared to many others. Finally, people that have a passion to help others understand and are not natural teachers sometimes in their enthusiasm tell the steps A, B, C, D, E, F, and then jump to J, K, L, M, N, -- S,T, U, V, an so on without reasoning in the few small steps missing that are obvious to them, are not obvious to others. I am so glad to watch Paul G., Mr. Salatin and your videos, everyone can always learn something no matter how experienced in one field, can always gleen something in another as I have been doing. Thanks, Good Luck to all.
Good clarification.
There's no substitution for composting. I set up compost bins that were mostly chipped branches and leaf mold with some food scraps and after a few months it looked like what you are call compost but after a year the core was like the richest soil you ever saw. I screened it to get out the most degraded compost and returned the rest to the pile. You have to look at the stuff in the middle as undigested food. The compost material is digested and ready for the body/plants to use.
An excellent explanation of a common error. It's like people complaining about the first 2 or 3 years of adding in biochar hurt their plants then things got dramatically better. Biochar is a sponge and it soaks up nutrients so you need to soak it in compost first. You have to think about how available nutrients are to the plant. The middle pile would be zero, the left hand pile would be minimal while the right hand pile is actual fertilizer. People want a magic bullet but generally it always comes back to time. Adding in animals does make a huge difference but compost always needs time.
Thank you for showing and explaining the difference. So many people condemn the system without ever having made it to the compost stage. And that Paul has had years to get to his final results.
I know you don't respond to old videos but I hope some way you find yourself reading this because I would like to thank you. I watch very few videos multiple times but this has been one that I do watch over and over. No, it's not technical this or that. It's just plain everyday talk that's very important. If you don't start right, seldom will you end right. I planned to haul in tons and tons of wood chips and I would have been disappointed the next gardening season when my crops failed. Now, thanks to you I know to take the chips, added composted chicken litter or cow manure (easiest for me to get) and work them together so that next gardening season my garden bed is ready to grow what I put in it. I thinking of putting a layer of cardboard down also (to encourage earthworms) - below the composting wood chip/manure level. Thank you for saving me heartache, headaches, time and money. ~Sherrie from South Carolina, USA
Great information...we put lots of wood chips in our garden this year...I think we jumped the gun tilling our chips...this will certainly help my soil for sure!
next time leave your chips and dont till them in...... when ready to plant in the spring, just rake back the chips where you want to plant, amend that soil with composted material or manures, plant your plants, then gently move the chips back over the soil around where you planted and viola! You will have beautiful plants that wont get choked out by the weeds. In the fall, just rip your plants out, throw them in your compost pile or in with your chickens and in the spring start the process all over again. Always leaving your chips alone and only raking small areas to expose the dirt underneath when ready to plant. Every year or so just add some chips around in the areas that are starting to get thin. After 3-5 years you will have plenty of chips built up that you will likely only need to re-mulch every other year or every third year. This method makes gardening very efficient and you will spend less time working in your garden and much more time enjoying!!
@@nathanmedema5458 or even better, cut or graze the plants without removing their roots. Leave them in the soil to decompose in place
The fastest way we have found is to mix manure with the chips/leaves. Our orchard we use the chips mainly.
thank you sir! you the best. We need mooohr people like You
This is priceless info for new and old gardeners! Thanks! I only wish I knew this 3 and a half years ago but I guess I'm learning the hard way as well.
There is another way to speed up this breakdown process and I currently use it in my vegetable garden. On bare soil, I put two or more inches of fresh compost down and then add the wood chips on top. This has the benefit of adding lots of microbes, bacteria and fungi, which do the breaking down into compost. I also use light sprinklings of compost, shredded leaves, coffee grounds, etc... throughout the year right on top. I never completely cover the wood chips. When you water or it rains, the small pieces go through the big chips to the bottom, which once again feeds all the critters down below. When I plant, I pull the chips back and plant in the soil. When the plants are big enough, I push the chips back in place. I have had no problems with nitrogen issues and I think that is due to the roots being below where the breakdown is happening. I also live in the same area as Paul, and we have the added benefit of lots of rain. As a side note, I never use just cedar chips due to compounds that inhibit the growth of other plants, but there are small amounts mixed in with the other chips. I hope this helps.
Huffster doesn't he say to add a fresh layer of chips/leaves a very fall? That's what I've been doing in the garden after the initial 6" of compost, however we started an orchard area with about a foot of woodchips. They weren't as great of quality & had less green so it may take some time to be useful. I planted berries in there last year & added an amendment to be safe...hopefully that works!
I might have missed him saying that, but adding materials of just about any kind is my annual practice. I just don't fully cover the chips due to concerns about causing nitrogen issues and if I can make the materials finer by shredding or mowing, I do. I add more chips about every three to four years. I have found that as things breakdown, you will end up with the biggest chips at the very top. I think this is why I don't have to add chips annually. The sun and air harden the big chips and slow decomposition. Good luck!
Adding a layer of compost first does speed up the process. What a lot of people seem to be missing is that the chips are food for soil microbes (worms, fungi and bacteria) and that these creatures are what provide the nutrition for your plants, whose roots must be placed in the interface between the subsoil and the chips. I am in zone 6 in central New Jersey and have 5 years working with wood chips. Simeon's point about having racial or branch wood is valid in that this mix will compost faster. but my experience has been if you have a good base even high carbon layers break down and feed the microbes.
I agree, but remember that your plants need nitrogen to grow and so do the microbes in order to breakdown the material, which isn't always super high in nitrogen. This takes time, which your plants can't wait long for. The microbes aren't going anywhere except to dinner. If your plants are to close to the interface of fresh wood and whatever is under them, you can have issues. Fortunately, this region has been proven to be pretty thin, so you don't have to go much deeper than it. I usually place some compost around the plant as insurance.
I use wood chips strictly as mulch, in my back yard garden. Our S. Oregon summers are very hot and dry. I never dig the wood chips into the soil, but they make for excellent mulch, without depleting nitrogen. The garden is only about 300 square feet of permaculture beds. So, it’s not difficult to rake back the chips, at planting time, then rake or spade them back on to the top as mulch, slowly composting.....
This is really useful information. Great addition to Back to Eden video.
Also I thought that Paul in on the videos mentioned that he got the wood chips and let it rest for a year, until he planted something. After which in the beginning his crop wasn't great but improved over time every year.
Good man. Thanks for taking the time to clarify it for us. This is one of the best use of social media.
THANK YOU!! I wondered why so many people were complaining about why it wouldn't work for them. Now I know because of your clarification. Bless you!!♡♡♡
Great insight and instruction. Thanks. Great channel.
When I shred wood (branches really), I add a good quantity of branches with leaves and all, and even just big green leaves (I live in a region where we have palm trees). iow I keep a balance between the carbon and nitrogen. Works a treat, pile always goes straight to heat.
Thanks so much I’m just getting ready to create my first no dig garden. Your helpful information will spare me time. Thank you for all your help.
Totally agree! I also watched Back To Eden years ago and had my gardens covered in raw wood chips. Same as you, I quickly realized that my veggie would not do well. Last year, I had the trucks dump all of the wood chips in the chicken run. Within the end of the summer, everything had become beautiful compost that I could apply without even having to sift It!!!
Wood chips with the leaves and twigs chipped in are known as Arborist's chips here in the states.
Known as wood chips in NJ
Homesteader science is my favorite topic. I just have to hear it with a Swedish accent to clarify things sometimes. I can get free wood chips but when I realized how long it would take to get good soil underneath them I had to stop and think again. I would love to try the Ruth Stout method gardening using h a y as a thick mulch material but I can't get free hay. So I'm back to square one trying to turn this rented yard into a garden with no tilling.
Google 'horse boarding '. ask for manure. Find a local feed store and ask to put up a 'wanted, manure ' notice. Watch the free section on craigslist for manure.
THX1138 Smith the deep hay mulch has worked AWESOME for me in central Tx for 5 years. Basically making compost right in the garden bed all year long. Make sure its not sprayed!
We went the Ruth Stout method 5 years ago and love it. If possible, I recommend ordering a round bale, putting it in the middle of the garden and pulling off as much as you need, the rest will start the decomposition process and will be great to add later on. This is the inexpensive and easy way to obtain hay for gardening that I could find, square bales are expensive and hard to find.
Getting manure from a horse barn can be difficult/expensive as they don't want to be bothered by gardeners for the most part.
The best book I found to explain why Ruth's method works is Teaming With Microbes by Lowenfels & Lewis. I'm still working at getting the microbes in the garden but the hay sure cut down on my watering while increasing my harvest, hope you can try a round bale!
P.S. hay comes with weed seeds but we simply flatten the plants when they grow too large. I believe Ruth was able to find straw that has far less weed seeds, straw is rare in our neck of the woods.
Why get stuck in "importing" everything. Step aside from the buy, buy, buy mentality, I know it´s deeply rooted in the mind set. But...
Let´s be honest, the only way to avoid spending time, is to buy ready made compost, with delivery included. Can´t be faster than that. ;-)
But simple and basic, cover crops. Works a treat, it´s cheap as it can be, certainly needs time. But nature knows what to do and do it better anyway and everyday. ;-)
Since you don´t have your own (yet), a bag of seeds, preferably cover crop mix. Spread them in the right season and time. This way you can increase the germination rate and lower water demands. Chop & drop, chop & mulch, chop and compost elsewhere or let it go to seed, etc. Many options available.
Depending on conditions/type, etc. you can get several "chops" per year. ;-)
You´ll not be just adding from external source, you´ll be building the entire cycle directly on the soil. ;-)
Cheers
Yes! I discovered the exact same information. Agree 100% with you. Thanks very much for sending this out.
Well done.
You didn't give up, unlike a lot of people who fail to understand and give up, you worked to find what went wrong.
Fantastic, thanks for sharing your info. I just watched a video by one who said you should not do BTE for vegetables, just works on orchards, he is wrong and you proved it. people need to watch and listen carefully to those who do it successfully before they condemn something they failed at. the system does not fail, only the people who do it wrong, FAIL.
Thanks Simeon! Actually used raw chips in my Indiana garden for a covering after everything was planted and it worked great. (You can't help but be a good gardener there!)Then I moved to New Mexico and never thought about moisture being very necessary. We had an 1/8 of an acre garden and the chips just sat there because there wasn't enough moisture to help break them down! We even tried watering them but the moisture couldn't reach to the bottom of the chips. We had first soaked the ground them put 5 layers of newsprint down (we came into rolls of it), soaked that, then woodchips. We would water them. Within ONE day even the ground under everything was bone dry! It was a mess. Only our fruits worked that year-raspberries, blackberries, jujube trees, and most of the strawberries. Now we are back in Indiana on 2 acres with a CSA. Chips are great for the pathways and will now go in with the chickens. Thanks for a great video.
Great clarification for everyone, but I guess I never thought of Woodchips as anything other than a mulch. It's meant to be nothing more than a buffer between the top soil it is covering and itself. It breaks down over time, but your fertilization still need to come from things such as compost teas, and I frankly recommend (especially here in Thailand) to do a one-time dig (down 12 inches from the soil surface) and mix in Biochar. They cover with either contractors paper or some sort of corrugated cardboard, and then - Woodchips. Let that sit for one year (or minimum 6 months) and you will have permanently improved your soil.
Northern Thai Garden Guy Interesting! I’m going to look up biochar. I’m worried about mold, though. I get sick.
That's the point. It's the interface between the chips and the soil that you are after. When it becomes deteriorated then it will form the rhizosphere of the plant.
@@Tinyteacher1111 get over it. If you garden fungi is everywhere all around you.
Biochar is like a "sponge" for nutrients and soil fauna. You put it one foot down so the roots can get established in it. It also holds water.
@@JD-ir5fj I believe that's what I said, but I would go with even less Biochar if none at all now. I have no need for it with heavy clay soil here in SE Asia.
Very well explained, thank you! This is how I understood the documentary as well: only composed wood chips for annual vegetables. I sometimes get people on my permaculture gardening courses who get enthusiastic about this idea but by misinterpreting are set for failure. I use wood chips on paths in my kitchen garden and around trees and bushes - this is where they work best. I did plant some presown pumpkins in the wood chips in the orchard and those did well because their roots go deeper than the interface where composting happens. Plus we used some fermented nettle feed to supply nitrogen.
I'm on my second year of using woodchips and I'm loving it.
The soil is super rich and I am looking forward to seeing how much better everything will grow this year. I definitely noticed a big difference last year from the two previous years, I'm on my fourth year of gardening.
I started out last year by tilling the soil one last time, then I laid down newspaper and added composted woodchips I got from the city where they allow citizens to dump their brush and pickup mulch for free. This year planting has been much easier, just have to rake off the big chips on top and hoe a row, sow some seeds and rake the chips back on top. I water every other day or so until everything gets going, then I water once a week unless it rains. In the heat of the summer I might water two or three times a week.
Before the wood chips, I watered everyday, and twice on hot days.
I can concur with what this video teaches. My friend who told me about Paul Gauchie, started his garden last year. He didn't till and just put down freshly ground woodchips he got dumped for free by a tree trimming crew. Although he did get some good vegetables, he didn't have near the yeild that I did. But for the amount of work he put into it compared to the amount of work I put into my first year, he did much better for his first year of gardening than I did.
Interesting. The book "the Humanity Handbook" by Joseph Jenkins offers a description of the mechanics of composting. While it is concerned primarily with the composting of human waste, the same princilpes apply to all composting. At my farm in British Columbia, Canada I composted literally tons of wood chips from (primarily) alder trees. Here in Việt Nam where I presently live I use the bark from acacia trees, both as a mulch and for some of the carbon content of my compost.
In order to compost properly a thorough understanding of the process is necessary. As an aside, I have been doing this for the past fifteen years. Best wishes to all
Small correction to an otherwise interesting comment: Joseph Jenkins's book is title "the Humanure Handbook" and it's about composting feces (for those of us non-native speakers for which the term "humane waste" is too vague).
Thanks Simeon, good clear description. The other key is making sure that you get you woodchips made/delivered during the growing season as without leaves it is no good. We have found that raw woodchips as ground cover in our chicken pens is pretty much good to go after a year as they help break it down, although it is quite fine start with. I think the best thing has to be a combo of composts, groundcover and other tecniques rather than pinning everything on woodchips.
One of the things I have been doing is watching every single Back to Eden Tour that I can find on youtube. Every time I learn a little nugget I didn't catch before.
Thank You!! I think this is excellent information for those struggling to get the Back to Eden gardnng method going.
EXCELLENT CLARIFICATION!!! I wrote a letter to the editor. Sadly, I used the word, "FECAL" instead of MANURE. I felt slightly embarrassed by this but seeing your video makes me so happy because I wrote about (hay and rabbit poop). lol.
What's the difference, just associations, right? Like, there's no functional difference. I'm going to get some tree companies to dump here and some animal manure - a lot of my neighbors have cows and horses.
Great explanation of the three different media types. One other aspect to consider is that when you put down wood chips in the garden it will leech or suck up the Nitrogen from the ground, so be prepared to add a Nitrogen amendment!! I have raised rows with the wood chips being used as the walking paths and to separate each row, in addition this is also working as an erosion control barrier because my garden is on a slope. Thank you for sharing and posting.
Chips can only ‘leech’ nitrogen from soil they are in contact with, so if used as mulch it’s not a problem, they would take it from maybe the top 1/2” of soil. As they rot down the nitrogen goes back into the soil. As long as they are not mixed into the soil it’s not an issue
julie r yes that is what I was getting at.
Pfeiler Family Farm Just a thought on this robbing of nitrogen.
Perhaps that is what makes the wood material into compost faster if it is used with animals first. The ammonia from animal urine would add nitrogen to the mix. From ammonia to nitrite to nitrate as in aqua culture? The bacteria would grow and convert to compounds faster. Rather than just waiting for wood to rot. Some woods have tanins that are resistant to breaking down.
Short-term carbon input increases microbial nitrogen demand, but not microbial nitrogen mining link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10533-017-0391-0
It is repeated over and over that chips tie up nitrogen and simply not true if used as mulch and also not true as this video we watched here explains if you use manure or other composting items in the mix. I find that people don't believe this without university or government evidence so this link from Washington State is often helpful. research.libraries.wsu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2376/5262/FS160E.pdf?sequence=2
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! This has been very helpful.
Thank you. Excellent and very clear explanation! I know that the finish product is used for gardening.
Super erklärt!!!! Vielen Dank - ich habe auch schon sehr viel darüber gelesen und gesehen, dass das oft misinterpretiert wird.
Der Stickstoff ist eben doch sehr wichtig ... Liebe Grüße
Wow. Ich almost verstehe! I should brush up on Deutch.
I put about 24 inches of fresh wood chips (with leaves and all) on top of my concrete-like clay soil. Within weeks it was down to about 10-12 inches. I am about to add alfalfa nitrogen to it and then I'm going to plant into it by making trenches filled with mushroom compost. We'll see what happens but I I think the Alfalfa and nitrogen will help that wood chips break down faster and I just think it's going to do great. I'll keep you all posted :-)
How did it go
Yeah. You didn't keep us all posted.
Update?
Thank you so much for the clarification! I’ve been looking everywhere for specific details about wood chips/vs composted wood chips.
This is a VERY important distinction. You are saving Paul!!
Have you read any of Charles Dowding’s books? It’s all about good compost. He makes hot compost, which has an added bonus of killing weed seeds.
we watch his videos, you're talking to CZcamsrs here, we want to SEE the receipts and look you in your eye...lol
prettymochame just T whatever
In fact, the uncomposted wood chips will use up soil nitrogen in order to compost, reducing that plant-necessary nutrient . Better to supply nitrogen using manure or other green material, allow the composting process to complete, and use the resulting compost afterwards. I applaud your video that makes clear the differences between the materials.
bullcrap
yea that is a bullcrap. a small bit of nitrogen is temporarily tied up... where the wood chips contact the soil. it is not something to worry about...
Thank you for the clean explanations !
Thank God for foreigners clarifying american english into unmistakable loud and clear instructions. Thank You! Learning dutch first i needed to reinterpret english and realized most people arnt conscious of their vague broad way of speaking when direct unmistakably directions needed to be given.
Thanks again hope this goes viral!
I have a small area where we used to park a car. I covered it with thick newspapers and some cardboard then with wood chips and kept it mostly wet. 2months later I threw rye grass seed and buckwheat. I still water and I've poked several holes with a pitch fork. The rye grass is a beautiful green, the buckwheat is blooming. I planted elderberry, a couple of kale trees, some seeds, tearing below the newspaper. It's far from ready but what I'm growing is doing very well. Maybe by fall I'll be planting seed. Oh and my coffee grinds go out there every week. From Florida sand to what? Only patience will tell.
You forgot to tell us how the pot plants are doing! LOL! ;-)
you should never use newspaper, or any mulch other than natural due to the dyes they contain. red mulch is tacky, and the worst for dye which can even track inside and stain in your house. especially for things you want to eat. I would definitely avoid using cardboard as well, as it is made with and often used to transport chemicals. Coffee grounds make for an excellent addition to a compost pile, where in the next year or two they would be effective compost. TLDR- you are making slightly poisonous low quality monster dirt. If you keep adding those things to your garden, it will be worse than sand. IF you have sand plant lupines lol.
Steven Babb - The newspaper ink they use today is soy-based and harmless. I still stay away from colored newspapers however, just in case. She said “wood chips,” not dyed wood chips. You assumed that. I think she would be smart enough to stay away from cardboard that might’ve had chemicals spilled on it. I don’t use cardboard because of the glue that’s used.
any ink or dye in any amount is undesirable in soil you will grow food in news paper, cardboard, and wood chips is NOT how you amend soil. You amend soil by adding better loam, compost, and correcting the PH
Steven Bob - Where is your evidence that soy based inks are harmful? Give proof, rather than pulling another assumption out of your ass. Wood chips should be composted for at least six months first, before top dressing a garden. They are NOT mixed with the soil! They are used to keep weed growth down and to retain soil moisture. Then, worms insects and microbes break down the wood chips into soil. Personally I don’t use newspapers in my vegetable garden. I always have a compost pile going and top dress the garden with compost and then after planting, I put partially composted wood chips on top to keep the weeds at bay. Works great!
Have you watched the “Back To Eden” video yet? Probably not. Watch it. You might learn something.
There is a guy in the uk who does no dig with compost making up the biggest percent of his soil his name is Charles dowding
There is a guy in the State of Nebraska, U.S.A. that does that too........ ME!!!! 8-)
Charles Dowding doesn't use his soil at all... When you garden in 20 cm of compost plus a ton of rock dust (a fertilizer) like he does, it's almost the same as gardening in a giant pot full of compost. The real benefits of gardening with a living soil is if you let the soil work for you. And NOT use fertilizers, which both compost and rock dust are... So that's either with a mulch like straw, hay, or chipped wood, or with green manure, IE plants that you let grow between cultures (legumes, mustards etc...). But Charles way of doing is just wrong, anyone can buy a ton of compost, rock dust and grow stuff in it... What you need to understand is that compost is mineralized matter. It's not fresh, it's already degraded by living organisms. It's what's left once everything has been done. So it only feeds plants, not your soil. Mulches and green manures feed your soil which then feeds your plants and also makes them taste better and toughen them up against diseases, which compost doesn't do. Also try growing tomatoes in a pot full of compost, you'll have an insane amount of foliage and very little fruit. Hence the rock dust he needs to add. In a living soil, the phosphorus and potassium come from the fungi, the mycorhizias formed with the plant. They can break down the bedrocks, and give those minerals to your plants, no fertilizer needed. But if you don't feed the soil, you don't have those mycorhizias. Maybe over time with the few twigs left in his compost Charles finally fed his soils and has a few fungi now, but in a REAL living soil gardening method, you can have them over winter, it's doesn't take decades, because you fed your soil with the right stuff, not stupid compost.
I've watched his 21 minute video. He provides some good information too.
@@nicolasbertin8552 're watch his video's. He talks about fungi, etc, & how "no dig" in beds with plenty of compost has huge amounts of soil life. Also check out his composting set up.
@@fourdayhomestead2839 I already know all that. I also know that the huge amounts of compost he uses generates catastrophic nitrogen pollution in the nearby rivers. Compost contains nitrogen in unstable form, unlike humus. If it rains on it, the nitrogen is washed away towards the water table and rivers. It's just as bad a chemical fertilizers in that sense. Why use compost when you can use wood chips or straw, which will create stable humus, and will store nitrogen instead of leaking it ? Regarding the "life" in his beds no that's false. There's life BELOW the compost, not IN it. There's nothing to eat for soil life in the compost, it's already been eaten. I have compost layers in my garden to sow small seeds in, that's how you're supposed to use it. And worms don't go there. They go at the interface between compost and the real soil. Same thing with fungi. The only way to have life in your compost is if it's not done yet. Which isn't the case in the compost Charles uses, as he told me he buys green compost from his local tip, which is a very hot compost that's really degraded and crumbly.
You answered a very complex question. Thank you.
Thanks a million for uploading this video!