It consist of covering your ground with 6' or so of wood mulch.. not plow it it in.. but on the surface... I have worked my old fanny off on this... secondly, I have covered the chips with Black Gold .. leaf compost and manure. Planting time is within 2 months here in North Carolina- USA. I am wondering exactly how to plant the seeds. Make a furrow to the ground.. put some compost in furrow.. then seeds? I have always plowed, tilled and hoed .. but have never done this way before . can anyone give me some ideas on planting. This method is from a film " Back to Eden" on the internet . Very fasinating . Thank you in advance. Rod
Any chance you can pop up a link to the video so we can see what it is about? Wood mulch is carbon carbon and more carbon and will cause nitrogen draw down as it breaks down. I'd have my doubts about it being a good way to build soil, but not having seen the video I might be missing something.
Did you really mean you wish to cover your ground with 6 feet, aka 2m of mulch? I believe you meant 6" (inches) or 15cm which could be laid in swales on contour or as part of sheet mulching an orchard that is filled with grass.
I saw that video. I think that the idea is great, as long as it's just one guy doing it in his backyard. Once your friend sees the "back to eden" eden video, you can be sure you'll be punching each other's faces over who gets dibs on the mulch. Don't believe me? Add a few more friends doing the same thing and let's see what happens. Or not. That video centers on one resource, that while plentiful now, may not be so cheap in the future, especially with more and more people using the method. And while bark is free, to cover ground every season is also a lot of wood chips. They are starting to sell woodchips in places. It's only free until they see you and a bunch of other people wanting to haul it away. Then it's not free anymore. Another reason I found the film disturbing is that any time you put external resources into your land, who knows what can happen. Where were those trees? Next to a toxic waste dump? You don't know. I'm sure don't know anyone with a huge, gas-guzzling tumbler to make wood-chips for my garden of eden, so I don't know how practical this is even on that note. Probably doesn't scale well. And if it doesn't scale well, the video should probably not be promoting this as "the solution" to save us. These were my major sticking points with the film. For the most part I liked it and I thought it was produced well and the main character was credible and heartfelt. Oh, but I didn't like that he pruned his trees. Major negative points there. As for your case... I don't see anything wrong per-se about putting 6 inches of wood chips on your ground. As long as you're not mixing it into the soil and it's going over the soil, I don't think it's going to cause nitrogen deficiency. I think the video is okay in the method. It's those other things that are the problem, which are mainly long term situations (7 years of chems in the ground if you're unlucky+increasing price of woodchips)... Better than woodchips is hugelculture, if you have wood. As for sowing, I think he probably doesn't sow into the mulch. He probably starts plugs and then plants them. Or he might scrape back the mulch, plant, wait a couple weeks, and then re-mulch. That's my guess. Sorry for the rant...=- best, William
This sounds very interesting. I might be inclined to give this a whirl myself. Upon googling I found a much better more inclusive and informative link as I've posted here for you all to check out as well. They speak of screened woddchips which is more readily useable. You'll see this in here though! https://backtoedenfilm.com/how_to/index.html
Sound science The science behind the technique is sound. It is true that adding that much carbon to the soil will tie up all the nitrogen. But by placing it on top of the soil it will decompose separately and allow the nutrients released from said decomposition to trickle into the soil during periods of precipitation. Not to mention the benefits of mulch such as water retention and weed control. Bark chips or other regular mulches will work but the film focuses on chipped branches and the like from a tree service. There is a mixture of very small to fairly large pieces allowing for a continuous decomposition and fairly rapid results. Apply in the fall and your garden is good to go in the spring, no tilling, fertilizing etc. And it's good to go for the whole season with little to no watering required. We rent so we cannot actually put in a garden on the property but I am going to attempt the process in containers this year and see what happens. The film is free to watch online but I purchased it and have shared with friends and family to mutual awe and inspiration. Best of luck! ~Rex Oh, and it is 6 inches, not feet. https://backtoedenfilm.com/
For planting, especially in the first year, furrow down to the soil and plant your seeds, in compost if you like. and after the plants are established rake the mulch back over the furrow being careful not to damage the crop. There is a demonstration at some point in the film.
I don't know the film, but placing 6" of coarse woody mulch be it in your compost, on the flood of your establishing food forest, or in your garden, adding OM (organic matter) is a good thing. RE: Hugelkulture, DO NOT DO IT ON HEAVY CLAY SOIL, in fact a dead wood swale on top of soil is better then burying wood for hugelkutlure. It is by FAR better to lasagna sheet mulch any area as prep for veg or good forest then to do Hugelkulture. Lastly, after getting "Soils" from PRI and learning about 18 day compost and other things... ..by far the best money I have ever spent in gardening / agriculture aside from more plants, shrubs & / or trees being the exception. If you were going to lasagna sheet mulch deeply, place the cardboard down, then the mulch. Where you plant, make a hole going down to the cardboard, cut a hole. Place some compost in there, plant your transplant or seed now. Easy peasy. There are numerous threads about this method of growing, and it works by far better then hugelkulture, with the added benefit of revitilzing your soil over a greater area then just 1 hugel bed.
Hmm...I'm currently doing in on heavy clay soil (installed October 2011) and so far it's going well. The soil doesn't seem to compact nearly as much. I'm 1/4 the way through this year long experiment. I was much more worried about my choice of wood than the choice of soil. I also did two, side-by-side experiments with huglekulture, one with a clay soil+manure mound, the other with a base of branches+clay soil+manure+topped with rocks oats on it. It may have had something to do with the timing, but the one with wood is still high and growing strong, the other has almost completely dissolved and the oats are dead. I heard Lasagne-style beds aren't good over the long term, robbing potassium and other trace nutrients. Is that wrong? William
I think this depends on where you live. Here in dry Central Texas, I'm having dramatic success with buried wood beds in heavy clay.
You would be better off (IMO) with deep lasagna sheet mulching. After 1 year, the soil broke down into this black rich soil filled with life here on my property, however, I did also include pioneer plants such as daikon to help break up the clay. Hugel beds in heavy clay soils have a tendency to pool the water and make it difficult for the water to get out. This doesn't occur however when the hugel bed is created as a deadwood swale (on contour) which is on top of the soil. They are similar, but not the same & work differently. With the deadwood swale, the water collects underneath, rots the wood providing food for the soil inhabitants, and as such, makes the soil better for water retention and growing. Then again, this is just based on my experience for my situation. If you can, I recommend trying both and see what works better after 1, 3, 5, 10, 30 years.
I think Ludi's point is, "What water?" My situation is a little less extreme than hers, but guessing hugel pits may work fine here. We've got clay and decomposed granite.
in the video- Paul says he gets 15" or so a year. He never has to water... never... For the last 20 years here, if you don't get corn out early, it will not make. The lack of need for water and no weeds interest me.
So much depends on latitude. 15" of rain at 40+ degrees N latitude is very different from 15" of rain at 30 degrees latitude (where I am). I think we got about 12" last year... I'm not saying deep mulch is bad, I'm just saying it may be, under certain conditions, inadequate.
