Back to eden end of season thoughts

[Chic Rustler]

So the season is over for us. After 2 seasons of back to eden style gardening im ready to wiegh in my opinions.

1. Its not the end all, best ever option.

2. Weeds are suppressed considerably, but i still find a few.

3. Bermuda grass sux!

4. Pile all the manure in the world on top of the chips. Its not going to fertilize the plants. It only speeds decomposition and builds humus.

5. You need to fertilize. Nitrogen doesnt appear on its own.

6. Raised beds full of compost provided higher yields for us.

7. Seed sprouting is tough. For some reason seeds dont like to sprout even with the chips pulled back.

8. Seeds sprout later too. Because of the cooler soil under the mulch compared to raised beds.

9. Water retention increased!!

10. Soil building is a process....a long one!


11. Ants love woodchips. Better get ready for a fight



I dont think its the end all in gardening. In fact some of the negatives ojt wiegh the positives. Working around all the woodchips sux! But its much more cost effective than other methods and i dont need a tiller.


Pest damage has been high this year. Not sure if it had anything to do with the woodchips or not. Not sure if it was better than it could have been without the woodchips or not.

 

[Mini Horses]

We all know mulch helps retain moisture...can help alter/maintain soil temps, summer & winter. Hay/straw can have issues if chemicals were on the fields. Chips can have issues with type of woods. We are always having to worry about the what ifs. But...gardening is good.

It's costly but, pine shavings/bedding works if you are careful as some plants don't like the PH levels. Tilers can destroy worms, chicken poop can burn plants, etc., but, it sure helps keep weeds down! If you have a large plot, can sure save your crops. I don't think there's a cure all, just what works for YOU. Often it's a combo of things and different for different plants, different areas, different gardeners.

Just keep on keeping on!

I am going to disc and till in 2019. What happens, happens. At this point, a crop with less chemicals is my goal. My ground is good, in general -- not perfect but, productive. I have ample manures, will have a little commercial on hand "in case". Will just wait and see. Winter will eventually get to all of us & we can plan, scour the seed porn and begin seedlings -- for yet ANOTHER garden "experience" An always changing experience!

 

[baymule]

Don't forget the cardboard! Under the chips, I lay down cardboard to smother out the weeds. As you can see in my fall clean up picture on my 2018 garden thread, I didn't have enough cardboard. LOL LOL LOL

 

[baymule]

In this pasture I sowed 5 pounds chicory, 10 pounds white ball clover, 10 pounds white arrowleaf clover, 50 pounds of rye grass, on November 8, 2017.

April 2, 2018

I kept the sheep off of this pasture until April 23, 2018

On May 20, 2018, we mowed it.

It left a thick layer of mulch.

My point of posting these pictures is to show you what lush growth you can expect from clover. Even after the sheep grazed it down to stems, there was still LOTS of mulch that covered the ground.

So if you plant your garden in a good forage clover (that will grow high) and you don't have grazing animals, you will have LOTS of humus to add to the soil. I would mow it well ahead of your planting date and let it dry out, then plant through it.

 

[baymule]

@CrealCritter by mulching, it adds humus to the soil and over time the soil becomes deep, loose and holds moisture. At our old house, I could sink a spading fork with one hand in my garden. When I first started, the ground was so hard, even weeds struggled to live.

We are adding horse, sheep and chicken manure. Cardboard over that, topped with wood chips. It is vastly improving our beach sand soil. I ran over it with the tractor disc to start with, but this BTE is defiantly working for the better.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm an old school gardener I reckon. I try and not mulch because it just gives a place for bugs to hide. My mulch is dirt that I till up in-between the rows and rake up into the base of the plants when I cultivate. Yes I absolutely do fertilizer but only nitrogen when plant leaves look pale, both my gardens tested low on nitrogen but good for the rest. I found that most all veggies should have dark green leaves almost blue looking when sun light hits them directly. I wouldn't have a garden if I didn't have a decent tiller because I know of no other way to garden. My tiller breaks up the soil and makes it loose for seed sprouting and easy for roots to grow. I don't think I would have much luck gardening in hard compacted (untilled) soil.

@CrealCritter by mulching, it adds humus to the soil and over time the soil becomes deep, loose and holds moisture. At our old house, I could sink a spading fork with one hand in my garden. When I first started, the ground was so hard, even weeds struggled to live.

We are adding horse, sheep and chicken manure. Cardboard over that, topped with wood chips. It is vastly improving our beach sand soil. I ran over it with the tractor disc to start with, but this BTE is defiantly working for the better.

What Bay said. I had hard pan clay here...could till it over and over and over, then with the next rain you couldn't even get a tamping bar into it. Added the wood chips and I could drop a fork into it and it would sink up to the base of the tines.

I wasn't impressed with BTE for various reasons but I'd never go back to tilling now that I've seen what a thick, composting mulch will do for my clay soils. I switched from the BTE to the Stout method and couldn't be happier that I did.

There are times I want to till it just to get rid of bug larvae but then I come to my senses. Planting on time this year let me get ahead of the various squash bugs and beetles and by the time they took over the garden we had already gotten good crops off the squash, pumpkins and cukes.

 

[baymule]

We exchange ideas and methods here. We can take what works for us and add some of our new knowledge. I have gardened all my life, but never on pure sand like what we have now. @Mini Horses i don’t haul wood chips. Power line contractors came through here 11/2 years ago and we let them park their trucks here. They brought us 110 loads of wood chips. Bonanza!

 

[baymule]

My first year, everything died. So don't feel bad. This year I lost a lot of plants too. Then the wild cucumbers showed up and took over. Otherwise I think I would still be picking peas. We moved here February 14, 2015. We had closed in September of 2014, but actual moving day was Valentine's day and our 19th anniversary. The first year was death to all plants. the second year was better, last year I had squash out the wazoo and lots of tomatoes. This year was ok, not great, but ok. I got purple hull peas put in the freezer, greens, a small basket of onions to eat on all summer, corn, enough tomatoes to can quite a few, so it wasn't a totally bad year. Oh, and I got a lot of my favorite spicy sweet pickles put up too.

The wood chips and cardboard have definitely helped-a lot. While they may not be the answer to everything, I think they have helped you a lot too. If you plant a cover crop, plant clover. It will put nitrogen into the soil and when you till it under, it will add humus. Or you could just mow it down and it will put a layer of mulch on top.

 

[CrealCritter]

We exchange ideas and methods here. We can take what works for us and add some of our new knowledge. I have gardened all my life, but never on pure sand like what we have now. @Mini Horses i don’t haul wood chips. Power line contractors came through here 11/2 years ago and we let them park their trucks here. They brought us 110 loads of wood chips. Bonanza!

Some people just have the "gift" and I'm replying to one right now.

 

[tortoise]

I appreciate the update. I've been too worried to put chips on my garden yet. I have them in a big pile next to the garden. Main concern is if there might be black walnut in the wood chips.