Green house up and first plantings in my Back To Eden garden

This is my first season growing with the Back to Eden method of using wood chip mulch. I put my wood chips down over my garden beds, last fall. I have noticed an abundance of worms when I dig and the ground underneath is soft and workable, not dried out in clumps, like last season.

I put up my temporary greenhouse in mid April and transplanted some lettuce, spinach, broccoli and scallions into the garden beds. I was careful to move the wood chips back and plant in the soil. My transplants have just been sitting there, not growing that much. My broccoli all went to seed. A week ago, I added some blood meal around the base of the plants, in case the soil is low in nitrogen.

A couple weeks ago, I planted some seeds in my beds. I pulled back the wood chips and planted snow peas, lettuce, spinach, broccoli and radishes in the ground. Nothing has come up so far except for the peas. One thing I found is that the wood chips I had hilled up, would fall back down on top of where I planted the seeds, when I watered. I plan to replant these areas of my beds. This time I will move the wood chips from the area I am planting and put them on the pathways. Once my plants start growing, I'll side dress with wood chips from the pathways.

Some of my carrots wintered over and are now growing vigorously. I can't wait to try them!

In my other bed, my asparagus has come up and looks to be thriving. I planted it last year, so I understand I can't harvest any until next year, which will be the 3rd growing season. I planted some potatoes that were sprouting in my basement, into my bed about a month ago. Most of the plants have popped up through the wood chips. My sweet potatoes arrived Friday that I ordered from Johnny's Seeds up in Maine. They sent me 'slips' which are rooted stems with some leaves on top. I started planting them yesterday and finished today

Asparagus doing well

Last year's sprouting potatoes used as seed potatoes this year

Sweet potato slips being planted

Back to Eden Film Photo Contest

I transplanted some lettuce, broccoli and spinach that I started in my window, into my BTE garden. They seem to be doing well in the wood chip covering.

Wood chips applied, waiting for spring

I took the following video of my progress in applying wood chips to my garden.

I decided to expand part of my garden with a new 5' x 20' section on top of existing lawn. I put down 4 layers of newspaper and covered that with 4 to 5 inches of wood chips in late November. I will be interested in how much the grass has broken down by the time I plant next May or June.

I understand that Paul does not recommend planting in raised beds because they tend to dry out quicker than the surrounding soil. In the bio-intensive gardening method I have been following up to this point, raised beds are a central concept. I have decided to keep my beds for the time being, since the soil inside them is much better than the surrounding soil. As the sides rot out over time, I may not replace them, especially if I have good results with BTE.

Applying wood chip mulch

I have been making a number of trips to our town recycling center and bringing home wood chips in the back of my Jeep. Here is a pile after 2 trips.

I have started applying a layer of wood chips to the surface of my garden and carefully side dressed my asparagus plants. I may create an additional growing area next to this bed using newspaper and wood chips so I can grow some corn and winter squash next year.

I continue to add the wood chips to my other 3 beds and the rows in between. My tomatoes were all green for 3 weeks in late August / early September. Now they are all ripening at once.

Back to Eden Gardening

I watched a movie last week about Paul Gautschi's method of gardening using wood chips as mulch. The movie is called Back to Eden and can be viewed here. His method is as follows:

• Cover ground with 3 - 4 inches of wood chips (not bark, sawdust or mulch) in fall (so it can age over winter)
• Put 3 to 5 layers of wet newspaper on ground first to kill grass; remove weeds first
• Plant seed in dirt under wood chips
• When plant emerges, backfill/sidedress with wood chips
• Water when seeds are germinating; minimal watering needed afterwards
• Use organic fertilizer the first year if wood chips are not composted (blood meal or fish emulsion are water soluable)
• Do not till wood chips into soil; leave them on the surface as mulch
  

His method requires less watering, no fertilizing after the first year and less weeding.
I'm planning to try out his method. I went down to our town recycling center today and they have wood chips available for free. Next Saturday I plan to bring several loads of wood chips home with my Jeep. I'll put them on my garden this fall, so they have the winter to age. I'll also put them on my paths to keep the weeds down.

Speaking of my garden, here are some pictures of this year's garden. I planted potatoes again this year and they did well. I had problems with my spinach and lettuce this year. I also planted some asparagus plants for the first time this year; it is doing well.


I tried a new method of staking my tomatoes with twine this year. It worked well.

Potatoes blooming.


Spinach and lettuce starting.

Future improvements and planting seedlings

My middle bed comes right up to the door, which makes it difficult to step into the greenhouse. I plan on removing about 2 feet of the middle bed closest to the door, so I don't have to be a contortionist when I enter the greenhouse.

My friend gave me some more seedlings this year. I planted them yesterday and they appear to like their new home. They include spinach, lettuce and some mystery plants.

Put up the greenhouse

I put up my greenhouse this weekend. I'm late; I wanted to put it up in March but too much was going on in my life. I dug a 2 foot hole and put a 4x4 post in it, next to my greenhouse door for better support. I cut two notches in my door frame to keep the plastic pipe in place. I also put an additional horizontal PVC pipe about 1/3 of the way up one side to stiffen the hoops. If this works as planned, I'll install another one on the opposite side. I'm using my new plastic for the first time. It feels different from the ordinary hardware store plastic. It almost has a mylar feel to it. I plan to set out my tomato plants this week and start some other warm weather plants.

New 4x4 post to support end wall.


I notched the top of the door frame to secure the PVC pipe, which last year kept jumping off the top of the door frame.

I added a 'longitudinal' section of PVC along one side of the greenhouse. This did help strengthen the frame. I plan to put another one on the other side of the greenhouse next time.


I had problems last fall with supporting the other end of my greenhouse. The PVC hoops were not strong enough to stand up to the wind on that end. As an experiment, I installed a 2x3 secured to my greenhouse frame at the bottom, and secured to the PVC hoop with tie wraps at the top. It seems to be helping support that end on windy days.