The Eden guy... if you watch other videos of his, you will see that he is not using deep woodchip mulch on his bed where he direct seeds greens and stuff. in those beds, he covers it with a layer of screened chicken compost. So when he says he is not using fertilizer, he means he is not using chemical fertilizer. BTW, I added 5 hens to my system and in addition to eggs for my family, I get the manure for compost ... I use the woodchips in the perennials. Such as, Hazelnut, blueberries, and Raspberries...
Gautschi can get away with not putting chips, and keeping chips covering his gardeen all the time. Because his climate rarely gets over 75 degrees all summer. Not enough heat to burn up the organic matter.That is why his tours in July, and August of his garden looks wonderful. Where places where it is hotter, like in the high 90's to the low 100's. Their garden are toast in July, and August.
That depends. I'm in Central Florida, zone 9b and it's quite hot in the summer. I'm a woodchip gardner and I make it work in July and August. I think you just need to adapt to your environment and plant what grows. The wood chips really hold the soil together and hold the moisture in, and they break down into more excellent soil pretty quickly. I do plenty of chop and drop and add amendments like coffee grounds and urine and that seems to speed up the decomposition and adds nitrogen. I'm lucky that while our summers are hot and humid they are also wet so I really never water unless I'm watering in some seeds - and then I quite often only water one time. What I do would not work in the high desert but I'm sure there is way to adapt.
Posted this comment on another reply, but I'll drop it here too in case anyone else wants to know: Paul didn't start using chicken compost in his garden until about a decade or so ago. He used wood chips for his annuals for the majority of his time doing "back to eden," _but the chips were screened._ I've had the privilege of visiting his garden many times over the years, and can confirm that to be the case by asking very clearly in-person. I also believe that he has since returned to using only screened wood chips for his annuals as of a year or two ago and no longer uses chicken compost, due to his decline in physical ability (the chicken compost comes with its fair share of weed seeds, and he has to collect it himself, and now he's conveniently able to buy pre-screened wood chips from a local supplier). Hope that helps!
@@charlescoker7752 High heat is not really an issue (east texas here, +110F is not uncommon). Wood chips are a mulch - mulch is an insulator from extreme heat and extreme cold. If your ground is drying up, your mulch is not deep enough, that's really all there is to that. *Or* the actual 'chips' of your wood chips are too big - larger chips means more space for hot air to permeate through to the top soil. I had my front yard chipped with an industrial chipper that spat out chips in which some were ~8in long, and my back yard i chipped myself with a friends chipper on his tractor which made chips no larger than playground size... after the summer my front yard was bone dry and the back was perfectly fine and moist.
I do the exact same thing adding shredded wood chips about 3 times a year. The insect will break down all the material very fast and you have to continue to keep adding it. It is amazing how fast it breaks down. The longer you do it the better your soil becomes.
You can make compost you don't need to buy it. If you have chickens feed them some of the garden waste and whats left over put it in the compoast bin. Add green and brown Oganic matter plus the chicken poop when you clean out their pen. In a few weeks you will have plenty of compost. Plus you also get eggs, and chicken meat if you have a few meat birds.
Rewatch Back to Eden.... The woidchips were around trees and shrubs. His vegetable garden was different. The woodchips had had months in the chicken pen. They were totally broken down, shifted and then applied to the top of the soil. Not once did Paul Gauchi say cover the place with woodchips. Look at all his lawn areas. What you are doing is fine. Water with compost tea and the woodchips will break down much faster.
The problem with the Back to Eden documentary is what it leaves out (or at least does not clearly say.) Chickens, using them to break down waste plant material, and then spreading the mixture of manure and broken down plant material, is a huge part of what Paul does - but barely mentioned in the documentary. Well done for catching that. I have only watched Back to Eden once. Other videos from Paul do cover it. Not many that I have found though.
@@glennjgroves @annburge291 Paul didn't start using chicken compost in his garden until about a decade or so ago. He used wood chips for his annuals for the majority of his time doing "back to eden," but they were sieved - *that* is the part that I don't believe I've ever actually heard him say anywhere online. I've had the privilege of visiting his garden many times over the years, and can confirm that to be the case. I also believe that he has since returned to using only screened wood chips for his annuals as of a year or two ago and no longer uses chicken compost, due to his decline in physical ability (the chicken compost comes with its fair share of weed seeds, and he's able to buy pre-screened wood chips from a local supplier). Hope that helps!
Curtis, I do a lot similar to you… and I’m on bedrock! I let my woodchips age a year or two and then put them through my old Kemp hammermill style shredder. The product is partially composted and almost nothing bigger than 1/2” - 3/4” long. I often put this through a 1/2” hardware cloth screen. The resulting finer material is the best slug control I’ve ever used. The top dries out quickly and when the slugs crawl onto it, it sticks to their body so they can’t lay down a slime trail and escape… in the morning… out comes the sun… et voilà… escargots!
I was going to suggest the same process. I run bark mulch through a chipper/shredder. I also run the bedding from the chicken coop in alternating shovels and then I add weed stems as well for some green.
The point of mulching heavily with wood chips though is that after 3 years of it you don't need anything else. No fertilizers, no compost, nothing. Commercial farmers in France who do this still use compost as a topsoil to sow small seeds like carrots and turnips of course. And on a few crops such as squash and onions, they can use plastic tarps with holes laid down on top of the mulch, so they don't have to weed their beds. Coz even though annual weeds won't go through the mulch, some perennials like quackgrass, thistle and nettle will.
That's fairly new mulch as well which makes it a bit more difficult. If you can constantly keep mulch that is decaying on the back burner to feed the soil, you will continue to succeed! A 1-2 year old mulch is best.
Love the update on your thoughts on this. I’ve adopted a similar approach relevant to my context. I’ve got good access to both tree shreds and waste alfalfa hay. So I’m running a combination approach in all my paths with alternate layers of hay and wood chips. Beds are getting topped up with compost and then mulched with hay and other organic materials. It’s ending up being a mixture of the back to Eden approach and the Ruth Stout deep hay method. It never ceases to amaze me the difference a good layer of mulch can have on the health of the soil, which just keeps getting better it seems season after season.
Ruth Stout methodologies could barely only feed a family comprised of herself: there are NO results of any substance if u r a lazy plus stunted gardener using Eden BS tactics.
have you been to pauls house? He doesn't just mulch. He mulches his trees pretty heavily, but where he seeds he uses the chicken leftovers and screens the mulch through a 1/4" screen. He can plant right into it. For me one of the most important things is that you get enough water. Here in utah you have to water it or it doesn't work, and the mulch doesn't break down over time
The woodchips will also help you prevent erosion on your slopes, just some food for thought, and they'll also keep your soil temperature much more consistent cool in the heat of the summer and warmer throughout the winter months, but if there frozen your not digging in them.
I soil block right on top of my mulch market rows after harvesting, I just move the mulch aside and don't even dig down, I also mulch with multi different materials and the soil thanks me for it. If you don't have compost near you available by bulk, that's a hole in your market others could use too, might be an easy opportunity to make more money and if you have chickens, they will turn it for you. All you need is green and brown matter, and a small bit of land. Great video, cheers.
That is so true about the compost. I have in the past done 1/3 vermiculite, peat moss, and compost and gotten big peppers, but this year I have small peppers and redid my beds with just straight compost. I think the crusting and drying out is the problem.
Absolutely not I actually have to thank you, you led me to BTE, I got and understood your previous message, so I had to check out BTE because I had know idea what you where talking about, but wow when I found out I had so many light bulbs go off, I am limited on water and being able save 70 to 90 percent water savings, and that's huge, so happy to see you on board.
There is a big miss understanding on the back to eden and wood chips. You have to inoculate them with compost in order for them to decay faster. He actually says it in the movie but people just heard wood chips. He we have foind a great option that is to inoculate wood chips with worm casting tea. It works incredibly well and regenerate the soil very fast. Also the secret is to get very fresh wood chips so that the decomposition happen in your soil and not in a pile. Glad you realzed this, there is no shame to learn
No one disputes the added value of mulch: BUT creating mulch from wood chips (like hemlock, cedar, hardwood) in a short time frame unless one lives in zone 10 where only soft wood fibers (weak cellulose and lignin) grow in these hotter climes. Here in the frigid eastern Ontario (hardwood country): they are virtually a waste of time (5-10 years), and most importantly at my age: Energy.
@@dol3980 wood chips is one of the highest carbon content you can feed the soil with, they need a lot of nitrogen to decompose and turn into soil. That is why it takes so long.
Chop and drop, coffee grounds, urine, various forms of JADAM liquid fertilizers - all can be applied to crops or the entire area of wood chips. A little hard to do at a large scale but for someone who is growing for their family it's really easy. You'd be surprised how many gallons of urine you can collect in a week!
Curtis: I live and homestead in the remote area of the Ottawa Valley, and have almost identical challenges you faced with slopes, rocks galore and organic topsoil very sparse - what a curse - but why anyone wud want to live in the burbs these apocalyptic days is beyond my wildest imagination. U presented me with great ideas like terracing and utilizing slopes to enlarge my growing area. I use timbers one cuts for firewood, etc. and Hugel methods to enlarge this space and the tractor bucket is busy bringing in rocks and logs for stabilization and access. I am not a fan of Eden methodologies as here in frigid Canada this bark and chip materiel breaks down very slowly: so I compensate by using decaying wood and leaves as amendments for the poor soil I inherited. I cud go on n on but U and I have a lot in common and thanx for the advice you transmitted in this video. As Gerald Celente (Trend's Journal") says: "Hell is just around the corner" and we are preparing to be spared from its verdict by being remote homesteaders and incidentally working 10 hours a day to defeat this scenario. Merci.
Congratulations as time changes, as do we to the surroundings of nature that allows us to manage. Indeed it's a process and around the world many are changing what use to be... at this point both you and the Dutch Farmer are tackling simular ideas for your family. Until I return home to Guangxi, my journey in NC is on the same track building up for my granddaughter to enjoy in 7 - 10 years; while at Wake Forest University. A dream life. This video confirms my site has been fairly correct with little adjustments needed. ty.
Every Monday, at 5 PM, Pacific time, Paul Gautschi is LIVE. You can ask him questions. Him and Carol are there for up to three hours. I'm not sure you knew about this, so I thought I would post here. We addressed the cardboard issue a couple of weeks ago. - Please tell others. Thank you for doing this video. ruclips.net/channel/UCog231QtSPc4fa41OnRz7OQ
So good to see you are able to elucidate the problem of learning to deal with the present circumstances as opposed to pandering to a fixed ideology. Hope you are finding time to make your music still.
Love to see your farming techniques evolve to a more nature-based approach in such a short time. Using what you have around you, being adaptable and building resiliency are how we are going to survive moving forward. Keep sharing and inspiring!! Love your shirts!!
I love this video! Thank you for making a video that what I do isn’t insane. So many times people say your wood chips are killing your garden. Proof is in the pudding.
Yet another great value added video. I'm avoiding a lot of you tube these days, but you popped up and you are always worth my time. It's all about context. Slower, long term, and deep soil nutrition is going to be really hard when you are cranking out product and need volume. I've done this method and composting in place for more of a time saver and back saver due to limited machinery. Almost all methods work, eventually. Many neglected areas with perennials just get grass clippings dumped to keep weeds down. About year 3 of this process and the growth was through the roof.
Curtis , my friend has a zipper type hand tool that enables him to expose a row and direct seed using a Jiang 1 row seeder, one the crop is up he can zip some mulch near the plants
chikens+mulch= compost. Chikens do a good job of grinding it down through scratching. but if you are on a slope they will push it down hill though their scratching. i like to use wood chips in my self cleaning coop.
Good when you can use what you have. A few weeks ago, the county was taking out a pine tree in the name of progress. All I had to do was ask, and they dropped the shredded tree in my yard. It's being transformed into compost long term AND being applied now as mulch to conserve water in desert / drought. Even experimenting as topper for a raised bed's carrot sowing to keep soil moistforgermination. Typically, I mulch in the Fall, before our rains, with Tractor Supply pine shavings. It degrades well during our Winter rains and can be a good mulch for a few years. I'm excited to have the shredded tree to use.
1:40, did it this year with great success. I totally butted heads with your previous Eden video =P (100% context though/life). But Johnny's single row seeder has worked wonders for this gardening. This fall I will be planting carrots and onions and then pushing wood mulch back over for already seeded spring crop hope it works. This year I used 2x4's for 7 days to cover carrots to keep in moisture. I use peat moss to store veg in during winter, then re use peat to cover tiny seeds like carrots and onions with a layer then 2x4's on top. The 2x4 helped keep the wood chips from burying the small seeds while germinating. I removed boards and just let the mulch fall as it may afterward. Last year I struggled with crazy mice damage to all my root veg so I went to Eden style this year and so far so good. My potatoes actually a problem, I mulched with wood chip and I think it gave them early blight and also the potatoes didn't 'pop up' so now they are WAY deep LOL. I want to see the world go Eden!
I don’t know if it would apply to you but Sepp Holzer used the rocks from his mountain side to absorb and release heat for his crops and orchard trees to create and maintain micro climates. He was even able to grow citrus 🍊 and 🍋 on his mountain Austrian farm.
Our property is exactly the same. 2 feet of clay on bedrock. We used logs to raise some beds then filled with as rich of soil as we could find. Covered with hay and use fish emulsion. Potatoes are growing great. Everything else is being eaten as it sprouts by the forest animals. We have huge sources of mulch but little leary about ticks.
Great video. This spring has been unusually hot here in Tennessee. Most corn and soybeans burned up in the fields. Everyone with irrigation had losses also. There was corn on the bottom 1/3 of the cobs the rest was empty. Soybeans didn't set pods or plants were very short. We got 1.25 inches of rain in 60 days. Crazy weather year.
Interesting video. We're heading into a precarious time with food shortages guaranteed. I liked the bit about leaving the crops dormant in the soil throughout winter and harvesting as needed direct out of the ground. Glory to God.
Super helpful video for us. We’re east coast Canadians and it’s been HOT and DRY for 2 years. We’ve put large wood chips between our garden rows and I think we’ll add smaller ones on top. If direct sowing doesn’t work we’ll do more seedlings. We also collect seaweed and make compost tea with it adding comfrey and weeds etc. it’s tough when it’s so hot and dry in summer, not to mention winds!
I noticed after watching the film about Paul Gouchi's property, I finally noticed that he talks about a heavy mulch on his orchard with great success. I believe the wood chips form a great fungal environment that trees and bushes thrive on. However, Paul grows vegetables in a separate section with a screened soil from his chicken coop. I only mention this because I have had mixed results until I finally saw this detail. I like what you are doing and pray you have great success.
wood chips are pure carbon,and one thing he stresses is you want wood chips with green leaves mulched in,the leaves and stuff(green) provide nitrogen for the chips(brown) to break down. the key to doing this is deep,so 1ft deep of chips and such. he adds in chicken poop,rabbit poop etc(more nitrogen) to help break it all down. a year later you have a bed that is turned into compost and ideal to plant in. if you try and plant in wood chips first year(depending on climate) you may not get good results.
Despite a few drawbacks, you will not regret your decision to use wood chips. I've been using wood chips for 5 years now. I only have to water once or twice a summer and the weed pressure is low. My soil looks better and better each year too. The only big issue I had was increased slug pressure. Slugs love woodchips too!
Glad to see you address Back to Eden from your new context. My clay does exactly as you described andthe the mulch really helps withmoderate that crusting issue. Will also encourage worm activity for structure enhancement. Glad you are screening the bed mulch. The last interview I saw with Paul Guache he had gaineda access to finer mulch which he waslittle usinf in his rows. Even he is innovating still soI no reason you can't! Great content..
Wouldn't it be easier to make your own compost, than to keep moving mulch on and off direct seeded beds? Not sure how familiar you are with Charles Dowding. I assume you know about him, but if you don't, you should check him out. He has the least work-intensive compost making system, where he turns all waste into compost, with minimal effort. Surely, your garden and kitchen waste, plus an appropriate amount of wood chips, would produce enough compost for your direct seeded beds.
Doing the screened mulch is pretty smart. I am not using back to Eden in my beds because fresh wood chips are usually very abrasive and extra work to dig through when planting by hand. I think back to Eden works better on fruit trees where the digging and planting is only done once for 15-20 years of production, but for annual vegetables it is extra work and I need to be efficient with my time and energy. If you screen it and take out much of the abrasiveness so you can hand plant easily, then I can see that working. Then it is a bit like no dig gardening where you can keep adding that on top to help keep in moisture, block weeds, and still plant fairly easily. Good idea!
wow dude doin great! I watched you back when you just finished biking your gear around the neighbourhood and Its great to see how its going. Been doing the wood chips for several years now and i love the results. anyways thanks Curtis, youve inspired more than you know.....cheers oh and love the shirt.
Thanks, Back to eden is primarily going back to God and let him advice about how, what and when you garden. Great Video, nice to see how shreded bark is usfull. There is a lot of that available in my context aswell :-)
I put about six inches of wood chips on my beds mainly for weed control because I was working away from home for about three years. They I ran my BCS through it and had wonderful black soil, very rich and fertile.
Been using Back to Eden for 4-5 years and I love it! I have sugar sand for soil and in the areas that I have been putting wood chips, I have topsoil. Pineapples love it, fruit trees love it, vegetables love it. And the quality of weeds that grow are better weeds than I had before; weeds that the chickens eat. I think you will be happy with Back to Eden!
Love the backtoeden vids and the DUDE - such an inspiring man (Curtis is too of course).. loved backtoeden man - his outlook, his incredible fruit trees - like something out of a dream of ecological society - and the fact he is disabled and farms like a warrior - legend.
Curtis, I am glad you did this video. I've been watching and wondering ... gee he's on a mountain top of rock and I sure wonder how he can get compost deployed there. I'd love to see you do updates from time to time on your experiences with this.
I listened to your criticisms of back 2 Eden years ago and your characterization in this video of your previous comments is correct. You are not a hypocrite. Different problems, different solutions. Back 2 Eden is probably great for lots of contexts. My dad has recently fallen in love with this approach.
I had a p-patch where several decades of mulching the pathways created a perfect medium for crab grass to contaminate everything... making it very hard (maybe impossible) to get rid of the crab grass. In my opinion, the pathway would have been better off being left bare.
Just as you said Curtis. Context. I have no access to compost either nor a screen but lots of wood chips. Paths of wood chips are the way to go. Long rows of crops and the use of cover crops work for me with deep chips between. Rough wood chips would be a disaster on my beds. Glad to see you've moved on to a different style of gardening. I always enjoy your observations and the things you have learned and share. Thank you!
Agree: rough wood chips are a disaster : who the hell has the time to screen and process (for compost) n break wood chips to size less then .5 cm.. I cut my own firewood n use sawdust instead but watch that u do not have an excess of bar oil on chips ie. sawdust - as oil and fungi do not mix well.
when you make the seed row put earth worm casting then the seed and more earth worm casting on top of the seed then cover with a little mulch. vermiculture
Nice job you doing and I like watching your new homestead project gives me a great idea what to expect when I start mine! Just a little advice in regards to Back to Eden Method Paul Gautschi always reminds people not to use just bark the greens of the trees is also very important and there is where the most and most easily released nutrition come from. I collect some leafs in autumn to use it, also Paul used the compost out of his chicken run for the vegetable beds. I use mulch in my chicken run so as straw which is some of my compost for my vegetable beds. Overall I wish I would be already on my homestead.....very jealous, thank you for sharing your experience with us.
Oh it LOOKS nice but you missed a lot of information while ruling it out in the other situation. I hope it works well but having done it for a couple years I realized the need to have the carbon/ leaf ratio better and aged a bit and then cycle it through the chicken yard for a while with even MORE plant matter fed to them. THEN you will have GOLD. I hope I am wrong in your dry alpine area it might work.
@@offgridcurtisstone Not trying to nitpick but the title totally mislead me then. GL with the garden though. Like you did, mulching is such a great way to create moist soil. BTE is just so many more parts and I see a lot of people doing simple mulching and complain that BTE isn't working.
Theres never any other people in your videos. Do you do all this mostly yourself? That would be pretty impressive. I know youve been at it for a long time but still!
Maybe put cardboard boxes broken down to flat cardboard ,and put your bark mulch on the cardboard for walkways. In a years time that could be hoed up and used for garden beds and make new walkwsys on the old beds. Sawdust will break down clay.
The Eden guy... if you watch other videos of his, you will see that he is not using deep woodchip mulch on his bed where he direct seeds greens and stuff. in those beds, he covers it with a layer of screened chicken compost. So when he says he is not using fertilizer, he means he is not using chemical fertilizer. BTW, I added 5 hens to my system and in addition to eggs for my family, I get the manure for compost ... I use the woodchips in the perennials. Such as, Hazelnut, blueberries, and Raspberries...
Gautschi can get away with not putting chips, and keeping chips covering his gardeen all the time. Because his climate rarely gets over 75 degrees all summer. Not enough heat to burn up the organic matter.That is why his tours in July, and August of his garden looks wonderful. Where places where it is hotter, like in the high 90's to the low 100's. Their garden are toast in July, and August.
That depends. I'm in Central Florida, zone 9b and it's quite hot in the summer. I'm a woodchip gardner and I make it work in July and August. I think you just need to adapt to your environment and plant what grows. The wood chips really hold the soil together and hold the moisture in, and they break down into more excellent soil pretty quickly. I do plenty of chop and drop and add amendments like coffee grounds and urine and that seems to speed up the decomposition and adds nitrogen.
I'm lucky that while our summers are hot and humid they are also wet so I really never water unless I'm watering in some seeds - and then I quite often only water one time. What I do would not work in the high desert but I'm sure there is way to adapt.
Compost isn't fertilizer. So he's right: he's not using fertilizer.
Posted this comment on another reply, but I'll drop it here too in case anyone else wants to know:
Paul didn't start using chicken compost in his garden until about a decade or so ago. He used wood chips for his annuals for the majority of his time doing "back to eden," _but the chips were screened._ I've had the privilege of visiting his garden many times over the years, and can confirm that to be the case by asking very clearly in-person. I also believe that he has since returned to using only screened wood chips for his annuals as of a year or two ago and no longer uses chicken compost, due to his decline in physical ability (the chicken compost comes with its fair share of weed seeds, and he has to collect it himself, and now he's conveniently able to buy pre-screened wood chips from a local supplier). Hope that helps!
@@charlescoker7752 High heat is not really an issue (east texas here, +110F is not uncommon). Wood chips are a mulch - mulch is an insulator from extreme heat and extreme cold. If your ground is drying up, your mulch is not deep enough, that's really all there is to that. *Or* the actual 'chips' of your wood chips are too big - larger chips means more space for hot air to permeate through to the top soil. I had my front yard chipped with an industrial chipper that spat out chips in which some were ~8in long, and my back yard i chipped myself with a friends chipper on his tractor which made chips no larger than playground size... after the summer my front yard was bone dry and the back was perfectly fine and moist.
I just gotta say, "Dude's shirt is on point."
Okay, now I'll get back to watching the video. Lol
2022=Orwell timeframe of prophesy. Orwell is not fiction but reality today.
two years later and this is more true than ever.
I do the exact same thing adding shredded wood chips about 3 times a year. The insect will break down all the material very fast and you have to continue to keep adding it. It is amazing how fast it breaks down. The longer you do it the better your soil becomes.
100% the key is keep adding as you said! Let's build this land we all live on :)!!!
You can make compost you don't need to buy it. If you have chickens feed them some of the garden waste and whats left over put it in the compoast bin. Add green and brown Oganic matter plus the chicken poop when you clean out their pen. In a few weeks you will have plenty of compost. Plus you also get eggs, and chicken meat if you have a few meat birds.
Rewatch Back to Eden.... The woidchips were around trees and shrubs. His vegetable garden was different. The woodchips had had months in the chicken pen. They were totally broken down, shifted and then applied to the top of the soil. Not once did Paul Gauchi say cover the place with woodchips. Look at all his lawn areas. What you are doing is fine. Water with compost tea and the woodchips will break down much faster.
The problem with the Back to Eden documentary is what it leaves out (or at least does not clearly say.) Chickens, using them to break down waste plant material, and then spreading the mixture of manure and broken down plant material, is a huge part of what Paul does - but barely mentioned in the documentary.
Well done for catching that. I have only watched Back to Eden once. Other videos from Paul do cover it. Not many that I have found though.
@@glennjgroves @annburge291 Paul didn't start using chicken compost in his garden until about a decade or so ago. He used wood chips for his annuals for the majority of his time doing "back to eden," but they were sieved - *that* is the part that I don't believe I've ever actually heard him say anywhere online. I've had the privilege of visiting his garden many times over the years, and can confirm that to be the case. I also believe that he has since returned to using only screened wood chips for his annuals as of a year or two ago and no longer uses chicken compost, due to his decline in physical ability (the chicken compost comes with its fair share of weed seeds, and he's able to buy pre-screened wood chips from a local supplier). Hope that helps!
@@ZechariahAhl-su9ns that makes more sense - thank you.
People who say you should never be hypocritical are being hypocritical.
Curtis, I do a lot similar to you… and I’m on bedrock! I let my woodchips age a year or two and then put them through my old Kemp hammermill style shredder. The product is partially composted and almost nothing bigger than 1/2” - 3/4” long. I often put this through a 1/2” hardware cloth screen. The resulting finer material is the best slug control I’ve ever used. The top dries out quickly and when the slugs crawl onto it, it sticks to their body so they can’t lay down a slime trail and escape… in the morning… out comes the sun… et voilà… escargots!
I was going to suggest the same process. I run bark mulch through a chipper/shredder. I also run the bedding from the chicken coop in alternating shovels and then I add weed stems as well for some green.
Helped my garden with slugs and mice
wow
The point of mulching heavily with wood chips though is that after 3 years of it you don't need anything else. No fertilizers, no compost, nothing. Commercial farmers in France who do this still use compost as a topsoil to sow small seeds like carrots and turnips of course. And on a few crops such as squash and onions, they can use plastic tarps with holes laid down on top of the mulch, so they don't have to weed their beds. Coz even though annual weeds won't go through the mulch, some perennials like quackgrass, thistle and nettle will.
That's fairly new mulch as well which makes it a bit more difficult. If you can constantly keep mulch that is decaying on the back burner to feed the soil, you will continue to succeed! A 1-2 year old mulch is best.
I said "new" mulch what I meant was it is more fresh, if that wasn't clear.
One thing Paul mentioned is he uses wood chips not wood bark. There is a difference.
Yes, chipped leafy branches.
Now you are speaking my language with clay soil that needs to be conditioned and loosened. I use mulch on most of my gardens too.
Your shirt: AAAAAAAAMEN!
Love the update on your thoughts on this. I’ve adopted a similar approach relevant to my context. I’ve got good access to both tree shreds and waste alfalfa hay. So I’m running a combination approach in all my paths with alternate layers of hay and wood chips. Beds are getting topped up with compost and then mulched with hay and other organic materials. It’s ending up being a mixture of the back to Eden approach and the Ruth Stout deep hay method. It never ceases to amaze me the difference a good layer of mulch can have on the health of the soil, which just keeps getting better it seems season after season.
Very similar approach here… and of course I don’t till!
@@garthwunsch solid choice! I’ve also abandoned tilling for the most part. Just keep piling on the compost and organic matter!
Ruth Stout methodologies could barely only feed a family comprised of herself: there are NO results of any substance if u r a lazy plus stunted gardener using Eden BS tactics.
Dang man, Curtis is looking like he’s in better shape than we’ve ever seen him before
Freakin love that shirt and hope you have now seen why woodchips are amazing
have you been to pauls house? He doesn't just mulch. He mulches his trees pretty heavily, but where he seeds he uses the chicken leftovers and screens the mulch through a 1/4" screen. He can plant right into it. For me one of the most important things is that you get enough water. Here in utah you have to water it or it doesn't work, and the mulch doesn't break down over time
Agree as here in frigid Eastern Ontario not unlike Utah - I have the same issues with this Eden BS.
The woodchips will also help you prevent erosion on your slopes, just some food for thought, and they'll also keep your soil temperature much more consistent cool in the heat of the summer and warmer throughout the winter months, but if there frozen your not digging in them.
I soil block right on top of my mulch market rows after harvesting, I just move the mulch aside and don't even dig down, I also mulch with multi different materials and the soil thanks me for it. If you don't have compost near you available by bulk, that's a hole in your market others could use too, might be an easy opportunity to make more money and if you have chickens, they will turn it for you. All you need is green and brown matter, and a small bit of land. Great video, cheers.
Right on.
That is so true about the compost. I have in the past done 1/3 vermiculite, peat moss, and compost and gotten big peppers, but this year I have small peppers and redid my beds with just straight compost. I think the crusting and drying out is the problem.
Absolutely not I actually have to thank you, you led me to BTE, I got and understood your previous message, so I had to check out BTE because I had know idea what you where talking about, but wow when I found out I had so many light bulbs go off, I am limited on water and being able save 70 to 90 percent water savings, and that's huge, so happy to see you on board.
whether history or your garden context is everything! cover the soil! the best advice for anyone wanting to grow anything.
There is a big miss understanding on the back to eden and wood chips. You have to inoculate them with compost in order for them to decay faster. He actually says it in the movie but people just heard wood chips.
He we have foind a great option that is to inoculate wood chips with worm casting tea. It works incredibly well and regenerate the soil very fast.
Also the secret is to get very fresh wood chips so that the decomposition happen in your soil and not in a pile.
Glad you realzed this, there is no shame to learn
No one disputes the added value of mulch: BUT creating mulch from wood chips (like hemlock, cedar, hardwood) in a short time frame unless one lives in zone 10 where only soft wood fibers (weak cellulose and lignin) grow in these hotter climes. Here in the frigid eastern Ontario (hardwood country): they are virtually a waste of time (5-10 years), and most importantly at my age: Energy.
@@dol3980 wood chips is one of the highest carbon content you can feed the soil with, they need a lot of nitrogen to decompose and turn into soil. That is why it takes so long.
Chop and drop, coffee grounds, urine, various forms of JADAM liquid fertilizers - all can be applied to crops or the entire area of wood chips. A little hard to do at a large scale but for someone who is growing for their family it's really easy. You'd be surprised how many gallons of urine you can collect in a week!
@@dol3980 Not sure what you mean by only soft wood fibers in zone 10...most of the hardest woods in the world are tropical hardwoods.
Sounds like a new book title "The Context".... Awesome to see you back here
Curtis: I live and homestead in the remote area of the Ottawa Valley, and have almost identical challenges you faced with slopes, rocks galore and organic topsoil very sparse - what a curse - but why anyone wud want to live in the burbs these apocalyptic days is beyond my wildest imagination. U presented me with great ideas like terracing and utilizing slopes to enlarge my growing area.
I use timbers one cuts for firewood, etc. and Hugel methods to enlarge this space and the tractor bucket is busy bringing in rocks and logs for stabilization and access. I am not a fan of Eden methodologies as here in frigid Canada this bark and chip materiel breaks down very slowly: so I compensate by using decaying wood and leaves as amendments for the poor soil I inherited. I cud go on n on but U and I have a lot in common and thanx for the advice you transmitted in this video. As Gerald Celente (Trend's Journal") says: "Hell is just around the corner" and we are preparing to be spared from its verdict by being remote homesteaders and incidentally working 10 hours a day to defeat this scenario. Merci.
Looks great Curtis! Looks really really great. As far as the mulch, as you’ve always emphasized is always comes down to context.
Bravo Curtis, your hard work has paid off!
Thank for posting and thank you for being real.
Congratulations as time changes, as do we to the surroundings of nature that allows us to manage.
Indeed it's a process and around the world many are changing what use to be...
at this point both you and the Dutch Farmer are tackling simular ideas for your family.
Until I return home to Guangxi, my journey in NC is on the same track building up for my granddaughter to enjoy in 7 - 10 years; while at Wake Forest University. A dream life.
This video confirms my site has been fairly correct with little adjustments needed. ty.
Love the shirt's message!
Every Monday, at 5 PM, Pacific time, Paul Gautschi is LIVE. You can ask him questions. Him and Carol are there for up to three hours. I'm not sure you knew about this, so I thought I would post here. We addressed the cardboard issue a couple of weeks ago. - Please tell others. Thank you for doing this video. ruclips.net/channel/UCog231QtSPc4fa41OnRz7OQ
Love what your doing! The mulch is the only thing that will break down the clay!
I always appreciate your nuanced takes, Curtis.
So good to see you are able to elucidate the problem of learning to deal with the present circumstances as opposed to pandering to a fixed ideology. Hope you are finding time to make your music still.
Love to see your farming techniques evolve to a more nature-based approach in such a short time. Using what you have around you, being adaptable and building resiliency are how we are going to survive moving forward. Keep sharing and inspiring!!
Love your shirts!!
I love this video! Thank you for making a video that what I do isn’t insane. So many times people say your wood chips are killing your garden. Proof is in the pudding.
Yet another great value added video. I'm avoiding a lot of you tube these days, but you popped up and you are always worth my time. It's all about context. Slower, long term, and deep soil nutrition is going to be really hard when you are cranking out product and need volume. I've done this method and composting in place for more of a time saver and back saver due to limited machinery. Almost all methods work, eventually. Many neglected areas with perennials just get grass clippings dumped to keep weeds down. About year 3 of this process and the growth was through the roof.
Curtis , my friend has a zipper type hand tool that enables him to expose a row and direct seed using a Jiang 1 row seeder, one the crop is up he can zip some mulch near the plants
chikens+mulch= compost. Chikens do a good job of grinding it down through scratching. but if you are on a slope they will push it down hill though their scratching. i like to use wood chips in my self cleaning coop.
Good when you can use what you have. A few weeks ago, the county was taking out a pine tree in the name of progress. All I had to do was ask, and they dropped the shredded tree in my yard. It's being transformed into compost long term AND being applied now as mulch to conserve water in desert / drought. Even experimenting as topper for a raised bed's carrot sowing to keep soil moistforgermination. Typically, I mulch in the Fall, before our rains, with Tractor Supply pine shavings. It degrades well during our Winter rains and can be a good mulch for a few years. I'm excited to have the shredded tree to use.
1:40, did it this year with great success. I totally butted heads with your previous Eden video =P (100% context though/life). But Johnny's single row seeder has worked wonders for this gardening. This fall I will be planting carrots and onions and then pushing wood mulch back over for already seeded spring crop hope it works. This year I used 2x4's for 7 days to cover carrots to keep in moisture. I use peat moss to store veg in during winter, then re use peat to cover tiny seeds like carrots and onions with a layer then 2x4's on top. The 2x4 helped keep the wood chips from burying the small seeds while germinating. I removed boards and just let the mulch fall as it may afterward. Last year I struggled with crazy mice damage to all my root veg so I went to Eden style this year and so far so good. My potatoes actually a problem, I mulched with wood chip and I think it gave them early blight and also the potatoes didn't 'pop up' so now they are WAY deep LOL. I want to see the world go Eden!
hehe I am just over joyed to see this! You will reach so many more than I will!
I don’t know if it would apply to you but Sepp Holzer used the rocks from his mountain side to absorb and release heat for his crops and orchard trees to create and maintain micro climates. He was even able to grow citrus 🍊 and 🍋 on his mountain Austrian farm.
Curtis I so appreciate you and your videos. I look forward to every time you post! Thank you.
Nice shirt 👍
Our property is exactly the same. 2 feet of clay on bedrock. We used logs to raise some beds then filled with as rich of soil as we could find. Covered with hay and use fish emulsion. Potatoes are growing great. Everything else is being eaten as it sprouts by the forest animals. We have huge sources of mulch but little leary about ticks.
Love how based this guy has gotten over the past few years
It's true, I've noticed the same.
What does based mean?
Happy to see you looking extremely healthy and it seems like you have more peace of mind.
Great video. This spring has been unusually hot here in Tennessee. Most corn and soybeans burned up in the fields. Everyone with irrigation had losses also. There was corn on the bottom 1/3 of the cobs the rest was empty. Soybeans didn't set pods or plants were very short. We got 1.25 inches of rain in 60 days. Crazy weather year.
Cool, thanks man
Interesting video. We're heading into a precarious time with food shortages guaranteed. I liked the bit about leaving the crops dormant in the soil throughout winter and harvesting as needed direct out of the ground. Glory to God.
Super helpful video for us. We’re east coast Canadians and it’s been HOT and DRY for 2 years. We’ve put large wood chips between our garden rows and I think we’ll add smaller ones on top. If direct sowing doesn’t work we’ll do more seedlings. We also collect seaweed and make compost tea with it adding comfrey and weeds etc. it’s tough when it’s so hot and dry in summer, not to mention winds!
I noticed after watching the film about Paul Gouchi's property, I finally noticed that he talks about a heavy mulch on his orchard with great success. I believe the wood chips form a great fungal environment that trees and bushes thrive on. However, Paul grows vegetables in a separate section with a screened soil from his chicken coop. I only mention this because I have had mixed results until I finally saw this detail. I like what you are doing and pray you have great success.
wood chips are pure carbon,and one thing he stresses is you want wood chips with green leaves mulched in,the leaves and stuff(green) provide nitrogen for the chips(brown) to break down. the key to doing this is deep,so 1ft deep of chips and such. he adds in chicken poop,rabbit poop etc(more nitrogen) to help break it all down. a year later you have a bed that is turned into compost and ideal to plant in. if you try and plant in wood chips first year(depending on climate) you may not get good results.
Despite a few drawbacks, you will not regret your decision to use wood chips. I've been using wood chips for 5 years now. I only have to water once or twice a summer and the weed pressure is low. My soil looks better and better each year too. The only big issue I had was increased slug pressure. Slugs love woodchips too!
Glad to see you address Back to Eden from your new context. My clay does exactly as you described andthe the mulch really helps withmoderate that crusting issue. Will also encourage worm activity for structure enhancement. Glad you are screening the bed mulch. The last interview I saw with Paul Guache he had gaineda access to finer mulch which he waslittle usinf in his rows.
Even he is innovating still soI no reason you can't! Great content..
Contextually, (and ask Curtis) name me one locale where "Guache" techniques can be deployed successfully to produce 2 year topsoil:
Wouldn't it be easier to make your own compost, than to keep moving mulch on and off direct seeded beds? Not sure how familiar you are with Charles Dowding. I assume you know about him, but if you don't, you should check him out. He has the least work-intensive compost making system, where he turns all waste into compost, with minimal effort.
Surely, your garden and kitchen waste, plus an appropriate amount of wood chips, would produce enough compost for your direct seeded beds.
I think with Charles being in Whales though he gets a lot of rain, doesn’t get extreme cold or heat and that plays a role too.
Back to Eden is a food forest. It is the opposite of market gardening, which is usually labor intensive mono crops in rows.
Usually, perhaps, but not always. It's not uncommon to combine the two in permaculture.
Congrats Curtis! Glad to see you finally came around, better late then never!
You can broadcast seed right on top of the mulch, tickle it in with a soft rake
Thanks for posting great content on youtube...much appreciated.
Doing the screened mulch is pretty smart. I am not using back to Eden in my beds because fresh wood chips are usually very abrasive and extra work to dig through when planting by hand. I think back to Eden works better on fruit trees where the digging and planting is only done once for 15-20 years of production, but for annual vegetables it is extra work and I need to be efficient with my time and energy. If you screen it and take out much of the abrasiveness so you can hand plant easily, then I can see that working. Then it is a bit like no dig gardening where you can keep adding that on top to help keep in moisture, block weeds, and still plant fairly easily. Good idea!
wow dude doin great! I watched you back when you just finished biking your gear around the neighbourhood and Its great to see how its going. Been doing the wood chips for several years now and i love the results. anyways thanks Curtis, youve inspired more than you know.....cheers oh and love the shirt.
The shirt got you a follow immediately
Thanks, Back to eden is primarily going back to God and let him advice about how, what and when you garden. Great Video, nice to see how shreded bark is usfull. There is a lot of that available in my context aswell :-)
Another Great Video. Thanks Curtis. ; )
I put about six inches of wood chips on my beds mainly for weed control because I was working away from home for about three years. They I ran my BCS through it and had wonderful black soil, very rich and fertile.
Been using Back to Eden for 4-5 years and I love it! I have sugar sand for soil and in the areas that I have been putting wood chips, I have topsoil. Pineapples love it, fruit trees love it, vegetables love it. And the quality of weeds that grow are better weeds than I had before; weeds that the chickens eat. I think you will be happy with Back to Eden!
Good vibes in this video. Respect.
Love the backtoeden vids and the DUDE - such an inspiring man (Curtis is too of course).. loved backtoeden man - his outlook, his incredible fruit trees - like something out of a dream of ecological society - and the fact he is disabled and farms like a warrior - legend.
To properly do Paul Gautschi you put woodchips on your perennials and you need compost/biochar/cover crops for your annuals
Real simple
Time Place and Circumstance. Always the base of the patterns that we observe and develop.
Dump ALL incumbents.
I also have rock, sand, clay devoid of nutrients. It is a slow progress, but transformation is possible.
You could create a mulch spreader wheel at the front of your seeder
Curtis, I am glad you did this video. I've been watching and wondering ... gee he's on a mountain top of rock and I sure wonder how he can get compost deployed there. I'd love to see you do updates from time to time on your experiences with this.
I L-O-V-E that shirt Curtis...!!
And that your are finally Back
2 Eden Gardening.
Perfect youtuber and channel right here!💯
I listened to your criticisms of back 2 Eden years ago and your characterization in this video of your previous comments is correct. You are not a hypocrite. Different problems, different solutions. Back 2 Eden is probably great for lots of contexts. My dad has recently fallen in love with this approach.
Really beautiful terrace setup, this is the dream come true! Such a bangin' set up, and the mulch is the transformative icing on the cake 💫
I had a p-patch where several decades of mulching the pathways created a perfect medium for crab grass to contaminate everything... making it very hard (maybe impossible) to get rid of the crab grass. In my opinion, the pathway would have been better off being left bare.
I spend as much time pulling this witch or scotch grass from bark chip pathways as watering. RITE-ON.
Brother you’ve always been fit but your looking very healthy these days , keep it up 👍
I really admire you man --you have major drive! 👍
Live and adapt.
Any thoughts on how to do this with a bermuda grass lawn so that it won't run into it and take over?
Just as you said Curtis. Context. I have no access to compost either nor a screen but lots of wood chips. Paths of wood chips are the way to go. Long rows of crops and the use of cover crops work for me with deep chips between. Rough wood chips would be a disaster on my beds. Glad to see you've moved on to a different style of gardening. I always enjoy your observations and the things you have learned and share. Thank you!
Agree: rough wood chips are a disaster : who the hell has the time to screen and process (for compost) n break wood chips to size less then .5 cm..
I cut my own firewood n use sawdust instead but watch that u do not have an excess of bar oil on chips ie. sawdust - as oil and fungi do not mix well.
Different situations call for different methods of growing. There is no one size fits all.
when you make the seed row put earth worm casting then the seed and more earth worm casting on top of the seed then cover with a little mulch. vermiculture
Love the t-shirt
No it is NOT mulch everything with WOODCHIPS ! It is Mulch everything WITH Woodchip COMPOST !
The Chips NEED to be composted !
Nice job you doing and I like watching your new homestead project gives me a great idea what to expect when I start mine! Just a little advice in regards to Back to Eden Method Paul Gautschi always reminds people not to use just bark the greens of the trees is also very important and there is where the most and most easily released nutrition come from. I collect some leafs in autumn to use it, also Paul used the compost out of his chicken run for the vegetable beds. I use mulch in my chicken run so as straw which is some of my compost for my vegetable beds. Overall I wish I would be already on my homestead.....very jealous, thank you for sharing your experience with us.
Great video Curtis! Thank you
super interested to see how this developes
Love the shirt
One of us! One of us! One of us!
Oh it LOOKS nice but you missed a lot of information while ruling it out in the other situation. I hope it works well but having done it for a couple years I realized the need to have the carbon/ leaf ratio better and aged a bit and then cycle it through the chicken yard for a while with even MORE plant matter fed to them. THEN you will have GOLD. I hope I am wrong in your dry alpine area it might work.
you're right, he is probably gonna have to rethink his system since he skipped a bit of the back to eden method.
It's just a video. Not pretending to do real Back to Eden or be any kind of expert in it.
@@offgridcurtisstone Not trying to nitpick but the title totally mislead me then. GL with the garden though. Like you did, mulching is such a great way to create moist soil. BTE is just so many more parts and I see a lot of people doing simple mulching and complain that BTE isn't working.
Ya, that's just RUclips. The only way to get views is to click bait.
Nice shirt! And video! 🌱 ❤
Luv the vid and i luv the shirt
Theres never any other people in your videos. Do you do all this mostly yourself? That would be pretty impressive. I know youve been at it for a long time but still!
Sometimes I have help with editing. But 99% of my content is all me.
YES.
Maybe put cardboard boxes broken down to flat cardboard ,and put your bark mulch on the cardboard for walkways. In a years time that could be hoed up and used for garden beds and make new walkwsys on the old beds. Sawdust will break down clay.
Manure or compost is a big part of getting back to eden being successful in the first couple years
Make bioreactor with the wood chips.
Looks great!