Too Much Mulch? Never!

In advance of storms (hurricanes, thunderstorms, or straight-line winds) the power companies contract out crews that trim trees along the side of the road that have limbs that could potentially fall across power lines and knock out power.  Those guys are constantly working.  They are right down the road from us and Tricia stopped and gave them our address.

It's not that we are interested in them cutting our limbs.  I hope they don't!  We are interested in the wood chips that they make.  They toss all the branches in a wood chipper that shoots the mulch into the back of their truck.  When the back of the truck is full, they need a place to dump the mulch.  That's where we come in.

Over the years we've lost count of how many loads we've taken.  We use the mulch in our garden as we use the "Back to Eden" Gardening method.  We've explained it before in past posts.  What a time-saver and labor-saver it is!  Anyway, shortly after giving our address, we received the first load:

We were grateful to receive the free gift.  We put it into our garden and it becomes part of the soil.  Here's the truck on its way out.  The workers will hook up the chipper to the back of the truck and begin trimming and chipping.  Soon they'll have another load.

So far we've received 4 loads.  My wife began talking to some of the gentlemen on the truck.  They told her they were originally from Cuba and that they've lived in Venezuela, too.  They made it very clear that they do NOT like communism and that the United States is the best country they've ever lived in.  These friendly, hard-working men love America.  It made me feel good to hear people saying nice things about our country for a change.  I love the USA!

For comparison purposes, I wanted to show you some wood chips that we had received two years ago (I think).  Notice the difference in the size of the pile.  Over time, bacteria decomposes the chips and the pile shrinks into half the size that it originally was.  Some might call this an eyesore on your property, and it probably is, but the benefits far outweigh the aesthetics in this case.  There are upsides to living in the country and not having an HOA.

The outer crust of the pile looks like wood chips, but if you scratch the surface, this is what you'll find:

The chips in the center of the pile are moist.  Mycelium runs through it, actively breaking it down.  Earthworms wiggle through the pile, actively working.  I take a bucket of the wood chips and put on some gloves and run handfuls of this across a piece of hardware clothe I have stretched across another bucket.  The scraping motion pulverizes the decomposed wood chips into a rich, black medium that is perfect for planting seeds into.  The bottom of the pile doesn't even need to be processed.  It is rich, dark topsoil.  This a a great amendment to the garden soil.

About All We Can Handle

At least a couple of mornings each week at 'dark-thirty,' we hear the back-up alarm beeping on the big truck bringing yet another load of wood chips and dumping them on the property.  I've lost count of how many loads, they've delivered, but we're almost at full capacity.  We're out of room, and it is too bad, because like a gardening friend tells me, "That stuff is like gold."  The best part about it is that the wood chips are FREE!  I have looked around and see that they can maybe dump two more loads.  We have a couple of names and addresses of friends who are lined up to take it after we are full.

Composting piles of wood chips are not going to win us any "Beauty Spot of the Month" awards by the Garden Club.  The piles are kind of unsightly, but the benefit provides far outweighs the deviation from aesthetics in the neighborhood.  You can see in the photo below, the piles are heating up and the bacteria is beginning to break down the piles.  They will decompose and then be really useful.

About three years ago we got twenty-something loads of mulch.  We filled the flowerbeds in the landscaping, mulched around the trees to eliminate the need for weed-eating, and we put a four inch layer over the entire garden as we initiated the "Back to Eden" gardening method.  I piled the remainder into a BIG pile at the back of the garden.

We composted kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, and shredded paper into it.  We dumped cow manure into it.  We buried numerous chickens that were killed by predators into it.  A multitude of possums that I trapped were composted into the huge pile.  Three years have past and the pile has shrunk into a big pile of black, fertile compost.

When I plant, I rake back a line of wood chips to expose the soil.  Then I begin hoeing up the soil for my seedbed.  In a testament of healthy soil, a gazillion earthworms wriggle around to greet me.

They are of all sizes and they are enriching the soil and fighting against compaction.

When we first started gardening, I am not exaggerating when I tell you that there were NO earthworms.  Composting is the key to getting them back.

So today one of the things I planted was a row of black beans.  I worked up the seedbed in the row like I detailed above.

I made a 1 inch trench and dropped a bean every four inches.

Then I shoveled some of the rich compost pile into a tub and chop it up real fine with a shovel.  Then I cover the beans in the trench with the compost material.  It is a good medium for the beans to grow in.  As they grow, I'll pull some of the fresh mulch around them to crowd out any weed pressure and also help the soil retain moisture and a cooler temperature.

We're expecting rain tonight, so that will help the beans to sprout in no time!  

First Load of Mulch in a Couple of Years

We had posted several times about a new gardening method we use called, "Back to Eden Gardening." You can check out a YouTube video to learn about it, but the synopsis goes like this:  You don't till or leave the soil uncovered.  You use wood chips (mulch) similar to what happens in the forest for propagation. 

If you keep a roughly four inch layer of mulch on top of your soil, you'll see several benefits:

1. You don't have to weed very much at all.  The mulch acts as a protective barrier for weed growth,

2. You don't have to water very much at all.  The mulch preserves soil moisture,

3. The mulch, over a short period of time, decomposes and becomes part of your garden soil, enriching it with nutrients and organic matter.

My wife noticed a tree trimming service in town.  They are clearing trees that have grown too close to utility lines.  They cut the limbs and feed them into a chipper and turn the limbs into finely shredded chips.  She gave them our phone # and address and they were happy to have a place to deliver loads of chips FOR FREE!  A couple years ago we got 22 or 24 loads, I forget.  Here is our first load this year:

Just one load of chips is a lot and there is a lot more coming!  I will be moving this into the garden and  begin to put a four inch layer across the entire garden.

You can already notice that the bacteria is already heating up the pile of mulch and starting the decomposition process.  The steam rises from the mulch pile early in the morning:

When it is planting time in the garden this spring, I'll run a line across where I want the row to be.  Then I'll use a rake to pull back the mulch underneath the string until I've exposed bare earth.  I'll then work up a 'hoe's width' area which will be my seed bed.  Then I'll plant.  When the seeds are up, as they grow, I'll pull mulch around the seedlings.  It's simple and effective. 

A Few More Garden Notes

One more look at the garden from the picket fence gate.  This photo emphasizes one of the nicest things about the Back to Eden Gardening Method - weeds are minimal.  Thick layers of wood chip mulch crowds most all the weeds out, leaving clean walk paths between the rows of vegetables.  This has been a real plus.  

The next photo shows the remains of the purple hull peas that the freeze last week knocked out.  It melted them to the ground!  It's okay.  We have numerous quarts of shelled purple hull peas in the deep freeze.

I did try to cover our green beans up with a tarp the night before the freeze.  The green beans were lush, beautiful, healthy and full of blooms.  I put the tarp over them and weighted down either side with t-posts.  Once it warmed up the next day, Tricia unrolled the tarp.

You can see that the leaves touching the tarp experienced some damage, but the leaves underneath are healthy and will continue to grow.

There are small green beans under the canopy of leaves, so hopefully, we will get a nice harvest of fresh green beans prior to the next freeze.

One thing that wasn't affected by the freeze at all was the mustard greens.  They are healthy and ready to be harvested again.

And that's what's going on in the garden right now.

The Fall Garden is IN!

I'll post more photos this weekend, but I am pleased to say that the fall garden is all planted.  With the hurricanes and the rigors of work, it is an amazing thing - at one point I didn't even think I would have time to put in a fall garden, but it is done!  Granted, the Back to Eden Gardening method has really made gardening SO much easier.  It is essentially no-till, except for the narrow seedbed I prepare for each row.  Here are some radishes that are popping up out of the ground:

I have about one season of seeds saved in the freezer and some in other safe storage, but as I plant the seeds, I re-order the non-hybrid seed for next year.  One interesting thing that I'm noticing when trying to replenish my seed inventory is seed scarcity.  At several of the seed merchants I patronize, much of their seed is marked OUT OF STOCK.  I was still able to get a few items.

I haven't seen that before.  I figure that the Covid-19 scare has many people purchasing seeds.  Perhaps it is the civil unrest and government uncertainty that has prompted citizens to buy seed inventory until its out of stock.  Whatever the reason, it is a good idea to know how to save seed from your open pollinated seed stock.  I will re-double my efforts to build up my seed inventory this year.

In addition to ordering seeds, I placed my order for the onion sets I normally get (Short Day Sampler).  They'll come in the mail in early January.  I have a nice spot picked out for them.  We had a really good onion crop this past year and I'm looking for more of the same in the upcoming year.

We had a cool front that blew in bringing with it stellar weather.  I can't wait to work in the garden this weekend!

A Quick Walk Through the Garden in February

Just a short walk through the garden tonight to talk about how things are going with the Back to Eden Gardening Method.  So far, so good.  Really, not much 'winter grass' this year.  The only thing that pops up is oxalis.  A couple of days ago I showed you the sugar snap peas.  Let's walk a few rows over.  Next week we'll look a few rows over from that.

First we have broccoli.  Nice, big heads of broccoli coming out of the garden right now.  We'll continue to harvest the little florets for quite a while now.  Tricia roasts the broccoli in the oven (with some cauliflower) in a little olive oil and minced garlic.  Scrumptious!

Speaking of cauliflower, here's a nice head of purple cauliflower.  Nice to look at and delicious to eat.

On February 15th, I planted two 15 foot rows of sweet corn.  I scraped back the wood chips from either side of some spinach that is finishing up.  I' allowing the spinach to go to seed so that I can save lots of seed from them.  We liked it.  The variety was Galilee Spinach, and it comes from Israel.  To the left, you can see the garlic and to the right, you can see several rows of carrots.  The carrots are about ready to be harvested.  We pulled a fat Cosmic Purple Carrot and ate it in a fresh garden salad Saturday night. 

I planted corn on either side of the spinach.  By the time I've harvested the spinach seeds, the corn will be up and growing.  At that point I will rake the wood chips around the corn to discourage weeds and preserve soil moisture.  I planted Stowell's Evergreen and Country Gentleman varieties this year.

In this row we have Swiss Chard - Rainbow Chard, to be precise.  First is a nice yellow-ribbed one.

And next we have a dark red-ribbed one.  Swiss chard is in the beet family but doesn't produce a big edible root like beets do.  We either eat it raw in salads or cook it like regular greens.  Lately, we've been cooking a mixture of turnip greens, mustard greens, chard, and Brussels sprout leaves.  It makes a nice side dish.

Finally, here is a pink ribbed chard in the foreground.  These are a cool-season crop and quickly fade away once the hot weather hits.  Until then it produces a multitude of leave to eat on.  When one gets eaten by a bug or damaged on the ground, we toss them to the cows, goats, and chickens.

Overall, so far I really like the Back to Eden Gardening method.  No more turning soil over.  It is pretty much no-till.  No more pulling up rows.  No more watering the garden.  Although you still have to weed the garden, it is not nearly as much as before.  Last year, I spent much time weeding.  The chickens always gathered on the outside of the garden fence as I'd throw the weeds over for them to eat.  Other than oxalis (fake clover) there's not many weeds to throw the chickens.  Our hens give the Back to Eden Gardening Method a thumbs-down rating!

An Update on The Back to Eden Garden Experiment

In earlier posts we chronicled a new gardening method we are embarking on called Back to Eden.  It attempts to recreate what happens in the forest.  No one tills the ground in the forest.  No one waters the plants in the forest.  No one weeds the forest.  Sounds easy, doesn't it?  That's what we're looking for.  We try to grow most of the food we eat, but we are looking for an easier way to do things.

At 53 years old, I still feel energetic and have a great desire to be outdoors gardening.  However, I find that I don't quite have the energy level that I used too!  Then, with my job I get in late which means my gardening is primarily done on Saturdays and a brief window on Sunday afternoon.  The shortened winter days means I don't have time for turning over dirt in the garden with a shovel or hoeing.  I certainly don't have time for intensive weeding.

Just a few months into the Back to Eden Gardening Method, I want to tell you what is going on.  First, a layer of wood chips about four inches deep has been spread across the entire garden.  I ran strings to produce a straight line and then raked back the mulch until the soil was exposed.  I planted the fall crop.  As the plants grow, I gently move wood chips around the plants.  Below you can see a row of spinach in the middle:

Although November was a pretty dry month, I haven't watered the garden other than immediately after planted to encourage germination.  Keeping the soil covered has preserved soil moisture and discouraged weed growth.  In speaking about weeds, we've found that weeds still grow through the four inch layer of mulch.  However, not as much AND, the weeds are much easier to pull out!  The mulch keeps the soil underneath from being compacted.  When you pull the few weeds that come up, many times you are able to pull them out from the roots.  Tricia and I go down rows and quickly pull weeds.  I cannot tell you how much easier weeding is now!

In the photo below, you can see our garlic has all sprouted and is pushing its way upward through the soil.

Before weeds begin to compete with the plant for nutrients and space, I've pulled 3-4 inches of mulch around the plant.  I'll keep this mulch here for most of the winter and then will scrape it back a bit in the spring.  In a couple weeks, I'll feed the garlic with some fish emulsion.

I've never had a tiller and would turn the soil over with a shovel and then hoe up rows.  That is a thing of the past!  Putting in the fall garden was easier than it ever was.  By this time in previous years, Saturday mornings were spent weeding the garden, tossing the weeds over the fence to the chickens, goats, and cows.  There's really not many weeds to toss to them now.  (The animals are not sold on the Back to Eden Gardening Method!)  Watering is virtually non-existent now.  So far, so good.

Now, gardening is always a learning experience, and I would be negligent to announce that this is a success before harvesting anything, but so far, I like the reduction in hard work.  Instead of keeping my head down working in the garden, I can now look up while in the garden in the cool of the evening and enjoy the absolute breath-taking beauty of God's creation!

We will report back with additional updates.

Let's Get this Party Started

Now that the sweet potatoes are harvested and a four inch layer of wood chips provide a cover for the garden, it is time to get started with a new, hopefully easier method of gardening.  I don't have a tiller and have always worked up a very large garden with a shovel and hoe.  I am 53 years old and I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep that up.  To add to that I work a full time job in a city 42 miles away.  I leave my home at 5:15 am each morning and return at 5:15 pm - at the earliest each day.  That leaves me with little time for gardening - a hobby that I love.  Especially when the days get shorter, I run out of daylight.  Let's not even talk about WEEDING the garden!

Soooo, I finally gave in and decided to try the "Back to Eden" gardening method.  We're going all in on this as we've received 20 truckloads (so far) of wood chips.  Who knows, next year I may be back to traditional gardening, but we like to experiment and learn and don't mind trying.  I decided there is no time like the present to get started.  Here goes.  I used a rake to move the wood chips away from the soil, leaving about a 6 inch stretch of soil uncovered.

We love sugar snap peas.  It is a favorite cool-season crop of ours.  The stalks grow tall.  The flowers are beautiful and the peas are delicious.  I like to just stand by the trellis and snap off the young, immature pods and snack on them.  Tricia stir fries them, adds them to fried rice and soups and salads, and cooks them with butter as a side dish.  I like to order from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  The seeds are open-pollinated, so you can save the seeds from your mature plants and plant them year after year.  (Last year we ATE all of the peas, breaking an old axiom: "Don't eat your seeds!")

I say this all the time and I'm sorry I repeat myself, but seeds are always a miracle to me.  I like to pour them in my hand and look at them.  Here is a handful of "dead" seeds.  They've been sitting in a paper envelope for months.  No soil.  No water.  No sunlight.  These could be soaked in water and be eaten, but no.  These peas will be put into the soil.  They'll sprout and produce a hundred-fold of what I'm holding in my hand - probably more.  Delayed gratification.  It requires patience.  And work.  And it is risky.  But the rewards can be huge.

I gently worked the soil to loosen it.  I didn't work it deep - just enough to make a nice seed bed.  The wood chip mulch that has covered the soil has kept the soil moist and easy to work.  I placed the peas 4 inches apart all down the row next to the trellis and then covered with a thin layer of organic garden soil and watered it in.  When the peas have sprouted, I'll train the seedlings to climb the trellis.  Then I'll rake the wood chips over the exposed soil to discourage weed growth. 

That's it!  Last year, I would have worked the entire area with a shovel, used a hoe to pull up a row, worked up the seedbed on top of the row and then planted.  This year it is so much easier.  I actually had time to get ready to plant my Waltham Broccoli seedlings.  I used a string to mark a straight line and used a rake to move the wood chips away from the soil.
 

I planted the broccoli seedlings and watered them in.

Tomorrow night I have church, but my plans are to plant the rest of my broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seedlings Thursday and Friday and then plant carrots and all of my other winter crop items starting on Saturday.  I'm a little late this year, but we'll see how things go.  It feels good to work in the garden.  The weather is nicer, with temps in the 70's.  We'll keep you posted on this new gardening method, telling you the victories as well as defeats.  Wouldn't it be nice if this method truly was easier and better?

An Update on Our Mulching Project (When the Chips Are Down)

In THIS POST FROM JULY, we posted about getting wood chips to start experimenting with the Back to Eden gardening method.  Here's a little update.  The wood chips keep on coming.  So far we've received 16 truck loads of mulch.  It is stacked high and deep in the side yard.  We probably won't win any "Yard of the Month" awards with all these piles on the property!  We're almost out of room, and I've been moving it as fast as I can with a pitchfork and a Gorilla Cart wagon.  Just as soon as I have a pile moved, two more piles arrive to take its place!

Below is a 45 foot garden bed in our side yard that I plant purple hull peas in during summer months and potatoes in the spring.  The purple hull peas just completed producing and I figured it was time to apply an 8 inch layer of wood chips to the bed.  I used a wagon to haul them from one of my many piles, dumped it out and used a pitch fork and a rake to spread the wood chips evenly.

In early February, I'll scrape back the mulch to plant Irish Potatoes.  The soil underneath will be soft and easy to work.  I'll plant the seed potatoes in the soil, adding some compost.  As the potatoes grow, I'll cover with wood chips, and the potato plant will grow right up through the chips

The wood chips are chipped up pretty good.  The pile is hot.  The bacteria is breaking down the chips into soil.  Oh, another way we are using the wood chips is to mulch around trees in our yard.  I do not like weed-eating.  The roots around our live oak trees make is near impossible to get close with the mower, and that leaves a lot of weed eating to do.  Mulching around the trees (hopefully) will cut down on the weed eating.

I have a few more trees to mulch around and then I will begin stacking the mulch in the back of the garden again.  From there I'll move it to the garden as we get things planted.

When the chips are down, we'll see how this experiment works out!

How Much Wood Can a Wood Chipper Chip?

About a month ago, we showed in THIS POST how we were embarking on a new gardening method.  We wanted to give a brief update of where we are in the process.  As of our last posting, my wife flagged down some workers chipping up limbs on a power line right of way and had two loads delivered to our house.  The price was right.  It was free!  Well, we bartered and gave the men some fresh eggs in exchange.

Since then, we've received many loads of wood chips - I've lost count!  We were running out of space to dump more loads in the yard closest to the garden, so the gentlemen began dumping the wood chips off to the side.  Unfortunately, they dumped two loads on the neighbor's property!  I'll have to apologize, get busy, and quickly move those piles.  That's on the agenda for this weekend.

We actually had them back up and empty a load in the pasture close to the garden fence, and that was fine, except for the fact that it blocked the path we use to walk to the barn each day to milk the cows.  We also pull a wagon through here with cattle and chicken feed each week.  Tricia promptly went to work with a pitch fork clearing a path.  She's not afraid of a little work.

Our old garden forks bit the dust.  It was a cheap tool that I think I bought for $5 at K-Mart before they closed.  I purchased a better pitch fork at Tractor Supply Company and and after blazing a trail through the wood chips, Tricia gives it the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

These boots were made for walkin'....

She also went to work with a shovel.  When the guys backed in the pasture to dump the load, they got stuck in the mud and rutted it up.  They had to call another truck to come pull them out.  Once out, Tricia shoveled dirt back in the ruts and leveled the ground. 

Our project now is to make room for more.  That means moving the existing piles into the very back of the garden.  I'll pile it high and use this area as a staging ground for the decomposing wood chips.  It is slow going.  Each afternoon after work, I've been spending 45 minutes to an hours loading wagons with wood chips and moving it to the garden.  I'm covering up grass and a row of buckwheat.  Over the next week or so this pile shown in the photo below will grow.  "Free" wood chips aren't exactly free.  There is a lot of hard work that goes along with it.  One must be patient.

Some of these piles have been sitting for about a month.  It is 90 something degrees outside.  When I dig into the pile of wood chips with my pitch forks, the pile is very hot in the middle and is smoking.  Amazing!  The bacteria is in the process of decomposing the chips and converting them into soil.

I'm planning to plant the fall garden shortly and then once the seedlings are up, I'll begin mulching around them with the wood chips.  It'll be a first for us, but as we understand it, it makes the process of weeding almost obsolete.  If not obsolete, a lot easier.  I'm actually pretty excited to see if that comes to fruition.  We'll keep you posted.

Getting Ready to Embark Upon the Back to Eden Gardening Method

Years ago, I had watched the Back to Eden Gardening Video.  You can click on the link in the last sentence to watch the video.  In summary, Paul Gautschi explains that when you pick berries in the forest, no one had to water them or tend to them.  God provides.  He explains that there is no one to till the forest ground.  The ground is never bare.  Leaves and decomposing wood cover the soil.

He sought to imitate this in gardening.  It is easy.  No tilling of the soil.  You don't need to water.  You don't need to weed very much.  Any weeds that do grow are easy to pull.  Sounds like a great plan.  Tricia went to visit a couple that has implemented the Back to Eden Gardening method and they are sold on it.  They said gardening has never been easier!  As we get older, we want to do things easier.  I've never owned a tiller and have been turning over our large garden with a shovel, pulling up rows, using a hoe to work the soil, and then a rock rake to smooth out the seed bed.  That's hard work.

I told Tricia if she could find some wood chips, I'd implement this practice.  Well, my wife happened across some trucks in Jennings trimming trees along some power lines and throwing the branches into a wood chipper that blows the wood chips into the back of a truck.  She stopped and asked the men if they needed a place to get rid of the chips.  They sure did!  She gave the men our address.

Saturday morning we were having coffee before going out to milk the cows, and I saw two wood chipper trucks driving past our house slowly as if they were lost.  Tricia ran out the front door, and I ran out the back and out to flag them down.  They meandered their trucks down the driveway, carefully avoiding low-hanging limbs.  When in place, they dumped two big loads of wood chips.

The chips are chopped pretty fine.  I don't know how many yards of chips, but I'd estimate in comparison to loads of dirt we've purchased, that it's about 14 yards.

It's a little hard to see in the photo below, but in the middle left, you can see steam rising from the pile.  It was about 85 degrees outside this morning.  The wood chips were really hot!  We've gotten a load of chips in the past and on cool days, steam would be rising from the pile.  Bacteria is breaking down the wood chips, returning them back to rich soil.

Here is a close-up shot of the wood chips.  It is dense and heavy when in your hand.  It will be perfect for what we're trying to do.

We gave the gentlemen some fresh eggs and they asked if we needed more chips.  "Of course," we said, "We'll take everything you can bring us."  So far three loads have been dumped and more is on the way!  We will explain more about the Back to Eden Gardening once we implement it.  Stay tuned for more posts on this topic.