And, I see that your creeping charlie is loving it as well! Tell me how you are planting your seeds in the BTE? I'm a bit perplexed by that. Any of the mulch gardening I've done requires pulling the mulch back to expose the soil, planting in the soil, then tucking the mulch back once the plants are up. Same with BTE?????
Is that what that stuff is called? Pulls up easy.
The first year of the chips, they were applied in the spring, so I tried to plant in the soil or used a furrow of potting soil/chicken compost in which to plant in most cases.
The second year I tried to do that again, but it seemed to not go very well...the soil was still pretty hard when you got to the bottom of the chip compost and the seeds were planted in that hard stuff, the soil was left exposed until the plant got big enough to pull the chips back to it...but meanwhile that left the soil too dry because the chip wasn't over it and it just got harder and harder with each rain. That made it hard for the seeds to struggle up or form roots enough to get big enough for the chips to be pulled back around their base.
This year there is so much compost mixed in with the chips that weeds are growing freely all over the surface and are rooting deep, mid way or right below the surface. My logic is, if the weeds are doing it, so can my seeds...so they are getting planted in the chip as if it were soil now. That seems to be working.
For small seeds like flowers, I make a shallow furrow, plant the seeds and lightly scuff the chip/compost back over them. For bigger seeds like beans, squash, pumpkin I just poke them down in the chip/compost with my finger to the first joint and call it a day. For things like lettuce and such, I just drop the seed and sprinkle a little fine stuff on top.
I am interested! our garden is HUGE and I would love to try something like this....
