Back To Eden Gardening Vimeo

Kolomona Myer

Posts: 26

Location: Traveling about right now

books cooking homestead

posted 7 years ago

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Thank you all for your responses.

Mark wrote: It is hard to say from your picture, so i must ask...did your top soil they sold you seem more like soil or more like a shredded wood product?

Mark, When I received the soil there was a lot of shredded woody matter, as well as sand and fine gravel. I suspect you are right that it's just a way for them to get rid of wood chips.

Kevin wrote:My only problem with the "Back to Eden" video is that he doesn't talk much about time. That soil that he is planting into has been developed over many years and is very rich. It is so rich that it can handle using fresh wood chips as mulch. The average soil, even from a garden center, cannot.

Kevin, I rewatched the video yesterday and I believe you are correct that in order for this method of gardening to work properly one should start out with high quality soil. Not the stuff that I purchased.

Ce wrote:Climate? Ag zone? Rainfall?

Climate: Pacific Northwest, Just south of Tacoma WA.
Zone = 8b : 15 to 20 (F)
Avg. Annual Precipitation (Total Inches) = 37.00"
Ce, I agree that the soil test probably wasn't very accurate but it was redily available and some measure is better than no measure at all. I looked into Garrett juice. I will definitely consider it.

R wrote:One of the little critical details glossed over in the film is the TYPE of woodchips. He gets chipped prunings mainly from powerline trimming--they have a LOT of green in them, both leaves and growing branches, and very little "wood." NOT what you get when you go buy wood mulch.

R, The wood chips that I got were just as prescribed, powerline trimmings, at least that part I got right

Justin wrote:I think you're correct on the soil analysis idea. Take a look at what you're underlying soil is. The woodchips are acting as a mulch and have very little impact on the nutrients available to plants for the first few seasons. Are your soil tests of the underlying soil? Or the soil + woodchips? Out of curiosity, what is your base soil like (i.e. the soil below the cardboard)?

Justin, I haven't tested the underlying soil, I'll get back to you on that

Kevin wrote:The next year I dig this wood mulch up and place it on top of my garden.

Kevin, this is sound advice, I also use these woodchips for keeping walking paths from getting muddy. I will begin harvesting last years path material for the garden before spreading new chips.

As far as what to do.
I was thinking of making a huge amount of compost tea using chicken, horse and rabbit manures. I have a little compost I can throw in as well along with some molasses. I will aerate the mixture using an aquarium air stone. Then pull back my wood chips and spray this mixture on the soil and replace the chips.

Does this seem like a good idea? Any suggestions regarding the amount of tea I should make and how much to apply? do I apply all at once or should I apply over some time?
My garden measures 24 feet by 20 feet