I promise, I did not do anything to my deeply composted and cared for garden. I simply realized that I already had a Back to Eden area in my yard -- a place where I had the tree chipping guys dump a pile of wood chips about 4 years ago, and when I couldn't use all of them, they sat there and rotted. So . . . since the Back to Eden movie made me very curious about the method, I decided to clean up the area and try growing some things there this year and comparing the results to what I grow in my regular garden.

The area is soft and spongy, just like the BTEG guy says. The weeds came up easily, even dandelions, just like he said. There were worms in the soil, which is significant since the soil here doesn't normally have many worms until I feed it with compost and manure. So far I've planted potatoes (he says they don't need hilling in BTE gardening -- that would be nice.) They got the same treatment as the potatoes I planted in my garden. If anyone is interested, I'll post about the results.

There's a lot of good, some "taken for granted," and a bit of mostly harmless misinformation in the method, but the "wood chips" part is a red flag. It may take a few years, but all that wood will catch up in lost nutrients and/or increased disease/fungus in many parts of the world.

I want it to be obvious in one direction or another -- either obviously not nearly as good as my garden (and it will have very stiff competition, since the other potatoes are planted in about the best soil section I've got). If it obviously compares well with my garden potatoes, then I'll have to figure there is something to it and explore a little more. Do you think that the wood would have already done most of its destruction since it has been already 4 years? It was a *deep* pile of chips, and the rot is about 3 inches deep now.

You can stick a shovel in the ground 6-12" and see how incorporated it is in the soil.

It shouldn't be "dead" soil even if there's chips incorporated. It's just not good for structure or overall health if you're starting with a fresh piece of land...and I doubt I'd be continuously adding it as a mulch or amendment.

this did not mix the rotting chips into the soil, but kept the layers pretty much the way they were.

both places have the same sunshine, and I will not water either one because I don't water my garden at all. I planted on the same day.

So I'll give a report in a month or so. If I can possibly figure out how to do it, I'll post photos as well. (How DO you post photos???)

jolj -- can you solarize this summer and start the experiment next year?

The big drawback is that pernicious weed control is difficult and they often totally take over. Calcium has to be high enough to discourage many of the deep-rooted weeds and grassy weeds.

The place I bought the seeds said not to put in too big of garden but so far the only real work was loading the planter and following the lines.

This will probably be a big test too since it is my first real garden and I am months away from 60. I saw the video and thought - why not.

I bought a two wheel planter and it works great. I do have to push the mulch out of the way sometimes but love that when I see grass growing, I just throw on more mulch like the film says and it dies. The weeds are very few and come out easy.

I did notice deer had triped over my row line so I am putting up posts (normally used for electric fence) with sachets of Irish Spring and human hair.

I too will share as it develops with photos since we can attach links.

I also had a tree company dump more mulch and now putting in watermelons. I am still working full time but love working on this project.

The primary message I took away from it was that he just puts compost on top of ground (be it clay, rock etc) is amazed that his plants thrive. and he continuously adds more compost and his plants continue to thrive.

He does have a preference for wood chips, in part due to his orchard no doubt. but he evens shows a part where screens out the finer parts of the wood chips to mix with greens, manure and other compost... so in the end it all equals compost.

I don't really think what is doing is "new method"... it's a variation of lasagna style gardening.

Thanks for being the guinea pig and letting us know your results!

IME, keeping heavy layers of woody mulch on the ground does wonders for conserving moisture and increasing the earthworm population. In a light soil just the moisture retention can result in increased yields. However, it also greatly encourages a fungal dominance (which has its drawbacks) and does next to nothing to correct any existing mineral imbalances. If one is starting out with a reasonably balanced and fertile soil then it can only work wonders.

I am not sure about the mineral imbalances, in fact, for the most part imbalances will be corrected. For example, one foot of wood chips (which I estimate to be about 10 lbs), cooking down to about one inch of topsoil, will increase the P content in the first foot of soil by some 170 ppm before leaching (normal P content is 20 ppm). All other micronutrients will also be added in amounts close to optimal. Basically, wood chips allow you to concentrate on N alone. If you have neutral or alkaline soil, wood chips and urea is all you need.

My potatoes got about 8 inches of snow last week. I haven't seen them, so I'm curious about whether or not they had to start over with their growth.

So if your soil is part of a general region of an impoverishment of certain traces (the majority of the state of florida, for example, or many traces in light soils generally in high-precipitation climes), then the the wood-chips result from trees and bushes grown in the same impoverishment. I can't accept that such imbalances could be corrected by what would amount to a magical act.

Honestly, that's what I do for all my perennial beds. I throw leaf mulch and ironite, too. I may do "real" fertilizer at some point, but mostly, I'm just too lazy.

It's a great way to build up soil quickly but lazily. I had an area with 1" of topsoil over gravel-mixed-with-soil. (I think it was, 40 years ago, yet another location in my yard that someone had the brought idea of mulching with gravel.) Now a trowel goes in like a hot knife through butter for a good 5" before the rocks cause problems.

I LOVE arborist woodchips. I would take 40 cu yards a year if I could get someone to deliver!

Will keep you posted. I'll get to see my garden again in late June (I'm the one who, because of family and work travel, will see if it's possible to grow all the food for a small family by only spending one week a month in the garden!)

This article describes the origins of this method and provides a lot of useful information on how to use wood chips for maximum effect.

Regenerating Soils with Ramial Chipped Wood

My conclusion was that I'd definitely play around with planting in wood chips in a separate area, but I would not introduce wood chips to my main garden. (When I dug the potatoes, the chips got mixed into the soil, and that's not supposed to be a good thing.)

Soil Management for Vegetable Production on Honeoye Soil with Special Reference to the Use of Hardwood Chips

It'll also tie up some nutrients, especially N, while breaking it down...which can be overcome with additional inputs.

It can take 3+ years in many areas for that action to become inert organic matter. In that time your "soil" may attract some interesting wood/decay attracted pathogens/insects...most are harmless to the garden, though. The size of the chips will also play a role in how long they take to turn to OM. Smaller chips degrade faster, but they also tie up more nutrients while doing it.

I personally wouldn't use it unless I was trying to "reclaim" or condition a large piece of land. I'd rather cook up compost in 3-6 months in a separate area for my beds.

Chipped Branch Wood

N content may be technically the same in the soil in the lab, but -available- N in the solution is what matters.

Immobilized N does nothing for plant health.

Microorganisms immobilize both NH4 and NO3. If there isn't at least a 8:1 carbon-to-nitrogen ratio in the soil, breakdown will go slower and less N will be plant available for nutrition purposes. This process competes with plants for available nutrients.

This certainly isn't the magi method its being portrayed as. There is no magic method. People produce fantastic gardens without wood chips, so wood chips are not 'the secret' to successful gardening. Mulching is old news - of course it helps.

We can think of it as a scientific flask of mixed stuff that "science" puts it's laws and expectations on the chemicals inside of it.

Low pH is bad for a lot of plants...acidic soils...but for the most part it's not the acid that's causing the problems...it's the aluminum which becomes plant available rather than tied up that leads to the problem. Al is incredibly toxic to the development of most living things, and plants are no exception. Roots, cell division, nodule fixation in legumes...Al is a beast on destruction. Once a certain pH is achieved, Al is still there, but it's tied up in a way that plants can't make it available. To make it even more complicated, the addition of organic matter (or OM created after something, like wood chips, has finished decomposing) helps buffer some of problems associated with pH driven aluminum toxicity by giving stray H+ an Al3+/AlOH3+ places to complex with (immobilize) before it adds to a lower soil pH or Al toxicity. The OM helps bind (chemically) stray H+ and Al. The positive (cation) Al and H can find negatively charged surfaces (- charges, such as most clays and organic matter) to complex with.

It's about what's exchangeable or immobilized in the soil more-so than what it's actual content is.

"In summary, the main arguments for using chipped branch wood, despite the possibility of nitrogen immobilisation, are:

1. The rate of immobilisation is less than might be expected because:
a. the carbon supply in the wood is protected by lignin;
b. the C/N ratio of branch wood is relatively low.

2. Nitrogen immobilisation in the autumn and winter is beneficial, because it mops up excess nitrate that would otherwise be lost through leaching.

3. Immobilisation of nitrogen will benefit a leguminous green manure crop by stimulating it to fix more nitrogen from the air.

4. By the following season, when the next crop is grown, the immobilised nitrogen will be being released into the soil again."

The author goes on to say that even if there is a decrease in yield in the first season or two, the long-term benefits are worth it. Improving the soil and preventing erosion is more important in the long run than maximizing yields.

According to the Canadian researchers that did the research on Ramial Chipped Wood, from the first link I posted on this topic, "There are humic subtances that have a short life (compost and manure) and others that have a long life (more than 1000 years). The Asian steppes, the South-American pampas and the North-American prairies, being covered with herbaceous plants, have a short-life humus. The soil claimed from hardwood forest has a long-life humus."

I have been to Paul's house many times over the past year and I can tell you that it works. He lives in Sequim Washington, go see for yourself. The first year might be an average year but, the more you use this method, the better the results get. Just look at the forest. When was the last time you had to water or fertilize the trees and plants in the woods. Nature has a way of taking care of itself. You just have to get out of its way. Paul has been doing this for over 30 years. Now he only adds new woodchips every five years or so. Except for his strawberries. In the fall he covers them every year. Only the strong plants grow through the wood chips and he never has to thin them.

I have asked him just about every question there is about his garden and his answers are on my vlog. If you watch the documentary that was done on him along with my interviews, and you still do not want to give it a try ... don't.

The primary reason why I would never use this system is that I need to warm up my soil in the spring. A thick layer of wood chips acts as an insulating blanket on the soil in the spring, keeping it cool as the air warms. I need those early weeks of the season to extend my growing period - to get my tomatoes and peppers producing sooner, and to turn over row crops sooner in the year so i can re-use the space. After the soil is warmed up sufficiently, then I can add grass clippings as I cut the lawn. And what really rules it out for me is that my neighbors have trees in their yards, and I have to dig roots out of two of my three plots every year. No permanent garden for me - I have to swing a mattock every year to remove the damn roots. Permanent mulch makes an irresistable root magnet.

I'd use wood chips like someone else said - to prepare a new garden in poor soil. And that would only be if I had excess space, and three years to wait for the chips to fully break down and cycle through.

I've seen a few people post the great results of using wood chips - in their first year doing it. Any benefit came from the effect of mulching the soil - not the 'back to eden' method. Mulch certainly has its benefits - if the slugs don't get you. But you can't see what they claim are the benefits of the system until the fourth year.

TIME- many people cannot wait x weeks, months, years, decades to use their soil. They want/have to do it as quickly as possible.

That is why I find those who criticize some for hauling in any kind of dirt to be silly- unless they have some sort of time machine to zap forward to get to the good stuff.

Gardening is not like reading a book, one cannot skip the bad parts.

Wood chips did wonders for my garden the 1st year I used them (this year).
In 2 of my beds I dug wood chips into the soil in addition to mulching with them. Added lots of organic liquid fertilizer. These beds did the best. And it was in heavy clay soil that produced almost nothing during the previous 3 years of trying.

People shouldn't be afraid of nitrogen tie-up. Just keep adding more fertilizer until your plant's leaves are nicely green. I added liquid fertilizer twice and that was enough.

Over the season, my wood chip beds actually required less nitrogen fertilizer and kept the plants greener than the normal clay soil beds I have. This probably was because in the clay soil, there was nothing to hold the nitrogen fertilizer and it would wash away. In my clay beds I didn't get much of a harvest, as usual.

Now I am digging in wood chips (and stumps) into all my beds.

It's far from one-size-fits all and depends a lot on your local environmental conditions.

If you got the space I don't know what the big deal is about composting the chips. With more control and turning you can "cook" wood chips down a lot faster since you can control your inputs (moisture and heat, especially).

You can segregate the issues of adding fresh chips while making some good compost...usually in a much shorter time. You can add fresh grass clippings, fresh manure, etc...stuff you normally wouldn't want to dump into an active garden and speed it up even more.

That said, that method is generally a bit slower and best works in colder climates compared to how quickly you can cook it down with green inputs in warmer climates.

Soil science...wee.

We can get into types of hardwoods used leading to pH root-zone nutrient nonavailability (Mn, Fe, Zn, Cu, etc) when you use a lot of hardwoods in the root zone. The need for supplemental nutrients until the plant can make it through 4-6"+ of the wood to overcome pH-induced effects on the plants is something I'd rather not deal with.

The main reason a lot of container gardeners use pine bark rather than pine chips in their container medium has a lot to do with pH influence on nutrient availability...and yes, I realize this isn't a general hardwood source, I'm just using it as an example of pH influence.

I'd rather compost the wood chips separately where it can be turned into "good stuff" in a much shorter period of time, especially in my area where it's not uncommon for wood chip infested clay soils to hold onto those chips for years before they break down.

I live in an area with a soil/moisture scheme that usually keeps wood chips, even laid on top of the soil undisturbed, around for more than a year even if it's only an inch or two of hardwood chips.

That said, you can also break down a huge amount of the stuff (12-24-48"+) in separate composting piles in well less than a year treating it like it's own ecosystem...adding fresh grass/green clippings and manures to speed it along...or just cooking it with an existing compost pile that's healthy enough to handle the hard "browns."

There is also the fact of improved fungal flora, although I can not quantify that and it is certainly much more important for woody plants than for vegetables. For collards it will not matter but my impression is that all vegetables derived from woodland plants like it. Garlic, for example. The one thing I do not want in the garden is finished compost. It is sterile and does not support the same microfauna. Yes, leaves are better for microfauna support and nutrients, but they also blow over seedlings and kill them, and they need replenishing one year later. Also, I would think very differently if I did not have Sluggo or urea.

I do not use chips exclusively, if I have an unused bed for the winter I will dig a few bags of leaves in, since not all my beds have optimal soil. But having good soil, chips will maintain nutrient levels with minimal effort.

For many years, we mulched our gardens with sawdust. We planted many things in black plastic and used the sawdust between the beds. We also mulched cabbage and other cool loving crops with sawdust. The only reason we don't do it now is that we can afford the sawdust. We used to get it free.

The nitrogen tie-up is not something to be afraid of. We just added nitrogen to the sawdust and our gardens did wonderful. Our garden soil was awesome. Now we've started mulching between the plastic beds with grass clippings over layers of newspapers. It's great for weed control and is adding humus back to the soil. We really miss the sawdust! We've even used fresh sawdust. It's not something to be worry about. Just add some nitrogen.

No, it is a bug. What you're talking about is just mulch - Back to Eden didn't invent mulching. The real benefits come down the line, when the wood chips break down and build up the soil with organic matter. And that takes three years. If you've already been using mulch - as many people do - then if you shift over to the Back to Eden method, you're going to have to wait for three years to get the benefit of the system.

Just dig in a lot of wood chips, 20% by volume or more, into the soil at least a foot deep. Cover with wood chip mulch 3-4" deep and fertilize with nitrogen fertilizer: urine, blood meal, or urea.

My test beds with this dig-in method did great.

My test beds with just loosened clay soil and wood chip mulch, did poorly as usual. Especially in a dry climate, the chip mulch doesn't break down over the summer.

Going forward, I hope the 3 year mulch breakdown will be a feature. Ideally, I won't have to dig in chips again into the soil, but I won't know that for another year or two.

Professor Lemieux also found that the addition of leaves was necessary in tropical climates to avoid zinc deficiencies, but the leaves should be brown, not green. Green leaves contain chemical elements that are easily accessible to bacteria. These bacteria can prevail over white rot fungi (Basidiomycetes).

According to the "Back to Eden" movie, Paul Gautschi, the gardener featured in it, has been getting wood chips delivered from the local tree service for 12 years. Early in the movie he implies that he has used wood chips in his orchard for about 30 years, but gives no details about exactly when he began using them or how he acquired them. The Canadians began their research in 1978 and they published numerous articles on it up until about the year 2000. The researchers at Cornell University began their experiment way back in 1951, and in the article published in 1971 they speculated that their results may have been influenced by the fact that they used chips from hardwoods, not conifers. The Canadians would later confirm this. So let's give credit to the true originators of this method.

Ramial Chipped Wood: the Clue to a Sustainable Fertile Soil

The only spaces that didn't have abundant weeds were where I put 6-10 inches of wood mulch. I have two spaces I actually got that deep in. In those areas I either have no weeds or very few and they are easy peasy to pull up.

I started this mess 4 years ago and even my husband "the skeptic" has agreed to allow me to bury the whole garden this winter.

Problem? I still have kale, chard, onions, garlic, primroses, and other stuff growing so I have to work around them putting in the mulch over the rest of the space.
HAHAHA I live in OKlahoma..land of the ever growing water sucking junipers and I still have garden plants growing! And some of them are years old..some of my chard are on their 3rd year!

I'll never ever go back to "old fashioned" way of gardening..that whole plow and till method is for the birds!

I read this blog (address is above, couldn't get it to hyperlink, have to cut and paste) that said that the Back to Eden method was not good for vegetables. I am new to learning about healthy soil and prior to reading this blog I was convinced the BTE wood chips were the way to go. But now I am not so convinced. I read through this discussion and found it very interesting. Just wondered if anyone could comment on the blog I read and whether there is validity to what she is saying about the different types of fungi and bacterial dominated soil versus fungi dominated soils being better for different plants? Thanks.

You can break down those chips in a much faster manner without additional inputs in your cropping system using traditional composting with green additions (a season to a year depending on chip size). Some people don't have the space for that, though.

Joe

The wood chips act as mulch and you never plant in it. You move the mulch aside and plant in the compost. When plants are established, you move the mulch back around the plants. So, if you garden the way presented in the film, you do NOT need to wait three years to get the benefit. Water conservation starts immediately, as does weed control. The plus of the system is that it continually improves as the mulch breaks down to enhance the soil.

I have three major problems in my garden - rocks, weeds and drought. The back to eden method addresses all three. I've hauled 6 yards of mulch so far this year (for a senior lady, that was a LOT of work). Its probably easier than tilling this rocky Ozark soil! The wood chips will wait until I have all the compost down and warming up. I'm loving gardening this way.

Is anyone else stocking up on seeds before the shtf in this country?

This year the soil is in such great shape and I will report as things begin to grow.

Does anyone else from Oklahoma have this type on this forum?

Joe

Thanks,
Joe

I'm actually only a couple of miles from Oklahoma and Arkansas, so even though in Missouri, I'm really south of you KC. Spring is slow in getting here this year, but YES the rains are coming so far (and snow - I hate that, but am not complaining after such a terrible dought).

Thanks for the update, grandmaflorist. Our soils are very different, mine is clay and rock, but our weather is the same. Its good to hear something that worked in the drought last year.

That said, obviously there are many regions of this continent and others where getting truckloads of wood chips cheap or free is not possible, IOW, in regions that are largely treeless. If one is in the middle of nebraska one probably won't be able to cover a large garden with wood chips. Which brings up the fairly obvious point that mulch does not have to be wood chips. For example, straw is far superior, or eel grass, or even hay.

I know from experience that long use of woody mulches with little other inputs after a few years results in a soil life system strongly skewed toward fungus, so strongly that most annual crops give low yields. Insects pest-pressure and disease also declines greatly, so the trade-off may be worth it.