Back to Eden Organic Gardening 101 Method with Wood Chips VS Leaves Composting Garden Series # 8

Tips, Tricks

1. Hi Mark,
   I just watched your video. It is very informative. Thanks. in order to solve the water issues. perhaps making a canal 12" deep on both side from start to end may solve the problem. let me know what you think ...
2. I have a suggestion that may help. I read a paper recently about using cover crops to add mycorrhizae (AMF). Many were common cover crops. Forage oats I believe was the most effective at increasing AMF propagule density. This could be a much faster way of increasing AMF in your soil than relying on slow growing trees. Also many tree species rely on EMF while your common vegetable relies on AMF like most herbaceous. There are some AMF trees (maple if memory serves), but pines are predominantly EMF.
   
   And thanks for doing this experiment. It has been highly educational viewing. Perhaps you could eventually try to synthesize the two techniques, perhaps leafmould as the underlayer and mulch as the top to enhance your particle size gradation and reduce phytotoxicity?
3. Interestiing experiment, thanks.
   My theory is that fresh woodchips are loaded with natural toxins (that all trees have to fight pests and diseases).
   It takes many months for these toxins and woodchips to decompose,
   and only then would they be good for vegetable growth.
   Even weeds will never grow in fresh woodchips, which says it all really.
4. How tragic! So sorry to hear of your loss. I lost my father to cancer, and a good friend just got a stage 4 diagnosis. Food is our medicine and we need to do all that we can to bump up it's nutritional value. Life is short, health unappreciated (until it's lost). We all need to value both... a great deal more. So happy to see that you have found a way to be able to spend more time with you son, and quality time at that. Peace & Blessings. L.
5. Hello Mark. Thanks for your videos; you put a lot of effort into them and are teaching many people. I wanted to mention to you that there have been several medical studies showing hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps children with autism a great deal. I recommend you look into it if you haven't already. It helps with a large variety of other things, too.
6. Be patient, good things come to those who wait. In time god will bless you more and more as each day goes by. That was nice to see you and your son and your dog walking through the garden
7. you call that hard soil? I would die for soil that good ! I'm in Texas the soil here is hard clay with a little sand in it with a ph of 9 . Try parsnip to break up the soil
8. Thank you for sharing at the end about your life. I was moved by the tragedy and how you are pushing through. That was a beautiful image of you and your son walking together.
9. God bless you guys.
10. God bless you and all you've done for researching this!  The information is awesome!  Did I miss somewhere why the field peas are not growing as well in the wood chips?  Do you think the squash plants would've done better if the field peas grew better?  What about if the squash was sprayed with tea from worm castings?  I have pine trees lining my property - about 30 feet from my garden and I'm hoping the roots will provide enough pockets and agrigaites (sp?) for my second year of the BTE gardening.  I believe I've added too many wood chips on top this fall (6-8 inches or so)  I do have a layer of 6-8 inches of leaves beneath it.  I have a leaf shredder and I'm wondering if that's the way to go vs the wood chips, so I am anxious to watch the rest of this video series!
11. this is a great video. we are trying the back to eden garden method as well. good luck to you.
12. thank you for enlightenment, I have been troubled with a very wet area that's hard as rock. this year we kept all our leaves and put them on this area. hopes for the best. bless you and yours. love your videos.
13. I think the Eden method works. I think it works better of the long run. But I dont think the first years harvest will be as good as the second, which wont be as good as the third.
    
    It takes time for the process to really start working. That is why the leaves worked better, smaller media. However, the leaves will wear out faster.
    
    I think the best method would be to replicate what is found in nature. Mix the leaves with wood chips. Have you ever seen a field covered with just wood chips in nature? How would that happen? I see ground covered in sticks and wood chips, mostly leaves and needles.
    
    If you have only large ice cubes, it will take a while for them all to melt. If you have ice of a variety of sizes, the smaller cubes will melt faster, and the larger ones will melt later. Same idea.
14. Paul has a pitch on his garden. Probably enough saturation was never an issue. Adding leaf heavy chips lightly or Paul screened soil to your green ground coverd beds should be a positive in early fall.
15. First, thank you so much for doing this serie. We have converted our garden to wood chips, and are a bit anxious going into the next season.
    Why are your rows so wide?
16. Thank you so much for posting this, such great information!
17. leaf mold is 100% awesome, im having fantastic results from it. thanks to your channel educating me on the benefits. I would never have tried it without you!
18. Very interesting! Spruce trees (sorry....Forestry Tech here )
19. For the simple reasoning
20. Just a thought about the wood chips. I used wood chips along with leaves and grass clippings on my garden last year with fantastic success. However I only used about an inch of wood chips. This year I only used grass clippings and now last years wood chips are nearly gone. Also, you never want to work wood chips into the soil because they will suck the Nitrogen out of the soil as they decompose. If you leave them on the surface they will decompose apart from the soil and slowly drip a high nutrient compost tea into the soil.
    
    Now my soil is very sandy so drainage is not a problem for me. Maybe for clay soils you should only add the wood chips an inch per year and layer it with leaves. That way the wood chips and leaves both hold moisture while the wood chips are not so thick they won't allow the soil to dry out a little. This method will build the soil cover slowly but after about four years you will have a very good cover that continuously sends compost tea into the soil.
    
    It just takes awhile to build good soil.
    
    Remember what Paul says about humble beginnings.
    
    Good luck.