Why We Are Not Doing BACK TO EDEN Gardening 

That's what I did, too. Initial tilling and then never again.I made permanent aisles that never get planted and that always get walked on. The rows are never tilled. So far so good but really, the aisles are in good shape because I covered them with cardboard and then woodchips. The cardboard has lasted about 2-3 years and now I need to put down a new layer and cover again with woodchips. We are in a windy spot so the woodchips serve to keep the cardboard in place. Good luck! Exciting to watch!!

What a great neighbor! I recently bought new land and my first year garden was on top of soil I bought. this year I moved the garden and I'm working the lasagna method. I love the versatillity of gardening. Much success to your garden production

I started gardening 45 years ago. As a church project, I helped a lady with her garden and I was sold, but I did not like to weed. I read many gardening books and magazines and learned the Ruth Stout method of layering a deep mulch over you soil with eliminated the need to water most of the time and weeds became almost non-existent. You don't need wood chips to make a deep mulch garden work but they are nice. Also, if you do have a nitrogen problem your first year, just add some organic and you are good to go. Simple ....now you can spend more time watching your plants grow dreaming about what you want to plant next year !!!

Topic was perfect for me today. We are facing the same decision regarding whether to go Back to Eden now or to delay the trip for 2-3 years. I like your logic for your situation, and I believe we will do the same. Thanks for discussing your reasons. You never know who's in need of the point of view. Also, I really like Tom. It appears he's a great guy, and I learned more about tilling hard soil and deciding whether or not to mill my whole wheat berries. Hope to learn more from Tom in the near future. Best wishes from the NC Piedmont!

I highly, highly recommend reading the book: "Teaming With Microbes." It will wake you up on how constant tilling destroys the beneficial bacteria and microbes in the soil. BTE is the way to go. Retire the tiller. What you are doing is fine though. Break up the ground first, if you want to start right away, then start heavy mulching. If you want to expand, start mulching thickly in the fall and the new area should be ready by spring. Let things compost for six months before mulching. Maybe there are some farmers in the area that will give you their chicken coop refuse. Your little boy is so cute. He wants to help you so bad. You might want to invest in a spud bar to break up those rocks. Those rocks will eat up your post hole digger.

One word of caution from a person who learned the hard way. All the shredded wood that the tree companies leave on the roadside is a mix of all woods. It's also a mix of all the deases these trees were infected with or carrying

I cover mine with hay and oh boy does my soil look great. The worm population grew exponentially. Besides, the only thing I cover with wood chips is blackberries. Sometimes I put grass clippings in my walkways. Mulch is great.

We approached it pretty much the exact same way as you. First year with old pasture > garden we tilled, manured then tilled that in again. Planted the garden and then top dressed with chips in paths and around plants. Worked really, really well. This year I'm moving to no till, ie: broadforking and adding more chips. Our fenced in garden area is 90'x80' with 4 proper garden plots divided within that overall space.

Thank you! I came to the same conclusions that it takes time. Thanks for validating my thought process. We are slowly accumulating mulch too. Cool tools too!

66 trucks of mulch on the road...66 trucks of mulch! Take one down, empty it out, 65 trucks of mulch on the road...

I have heavy clay soils and use non-till methods in my home garden. I discovered the power of heavy mulch making a lazy man's garden. I outlined a bed in the lawn and just buried the sod with several layers of newsprint and about six inches of mulch. I had planned to come back soon after and pull back the mulch in my "fake bed" and spot improve the soil for individual plants. Being lazy, I didn't get around to planting anything for 6-8 months, and when I pulled back the mulch I found that the soil needed little improvement. There were earthworms galore and rich black soil! After several years of just adding mulch the fence the bed was along got taken down by a hurricane. When they put up the new fence they prided themselves on digging 4' post holes (deeper than most) and I was amazed to look down into those holes and see that the heavy clay soil had been improved all the way down. I would love to establish a permaculture "food forest" that requires no inputs once established.

Art, Using a heavy mulch of anything is back to eden gardening, you don't need wood chips if you can't get them

I'm really enjoying watching you guys. I grew up with fruit and vegetable gardens where I could come go to my grandma's from school and eat what was outside and play outside. After spending time with my grandparents, my parents would race us home which was within walking distance through a sparse of wood. they would drive the truck and me and my siblings would run. My father also had a garden so things were easier then and more cost effective, but deaths in the family and aging caused my grandmother's garden to dwindle. All of my aunts and uncles and their families have moved to different towns, cities, and states. We had to move into town, so my parents no longer have a garden. I'm fresh out of college, and I just want to thank you guys. I'm getting ideas!!!

I'm no farmer but having grown up in the mtns. where rock is the main component in typical soil, I agree with your 'bust the ground with machinery first" and then maybe ease into the no till methods. I like your down to earth methods not quite textbook but more 'doable' by us mere mortals. Thanks for showing us the way you farm, with all the successes and fails.

I am loving this video AND the informed comments. I gently dig anything in my garden with a pitch fork if I must, to protect the worms and structure of the soil. But initially we used a bobcat to create the slightly raised bed 50x15 feet. Don't even think about it! It was a critical operation to restore a storm damaged yard full of fallen trees, and some damaged poultry shelters. Toward the end of the day I suggested using the left over graded soil and manures mixed with some debris to make a large garden bed. At least the garden has a nice mix of topsoil, lots of composted goat and chicken manure, rotted hay, dry leaves, some branches and a few stray pieces of trash which I pick out when I find them. No rocks. We have a magic glacial deposit of sand without a single rock for 50 feet down. What horrified me was learning that lawn seed now is GMO and can sicken or kill young livestock if eaten. At least we know. Don't let it go to seed, or it will infect your good grasses. Happy gardening! PS If you have hardpan it is worth it, I think, to break that up deeply and then start with your kinder gentler farming methods without tractors in the future.I would never rototill. Any grass roots are cut up and distributed for growing all over the garden. And it ruins the soil structure. and kills worms.

I did something similar I tilled my garden the first 3 years before learning about back to Eden gardening so last year I just mulched heavily along my pathways and around my plants. I left my chickens in my garden all winter and this year I plan just to plant and mulch to keep building up the soil. I also got rabbits a few months ago and I have been dumping there droppings all over my garden. so hopefully we will have a great season.

I agree with a first time tilling n then wood chips. Looking forward to seeing your fruits of your labor.

Now that it's fall (October 19th, 2017), you should strongly consider spreading a cover crop of Red Crimson and Hairy Vetch. They will grow and put nitrogen in the garden and keep winter weeds down. When they die of in the late spring, you can push the living, but now dead organic mulch aside and plant within it. It's like spreading wood chips but without spreading wood chips - but getting the bonus of the dead roots carbon mass underground and the nitrogen fixed into the soil. There's time yet to do it.

I think you've done the right thing by just getting started. My beginnings were some neglected plant pots and seeds from the veggies at my grocery store. I started a compost pile right away. All this was on a large concrete slab surrounded by cinderblock walls. The next spring I found potato bugs and earthworms in my compost pile along with centipedes. I could understand how the potato bugs and centipedes got there but not the worms. I think there's a blessing associated with tending the Earth God entrusted to us. I have gotten to transfer my plants into the earth but it started with rock hard ground but so far the fruitfulness and number beneficial insects has increased. I was noticing a growing colony of aphids on tomatoes and became worried about what would result but almost before I could act on it or pray seriously about it, I noticed young ladybugs who cleared up the problem in just a few days. Remember that the farmer has to be patient for the harvest. Patient and thankful.

I looked into the back to Eden but found I liked Mittleider gardening method better. You could do the raised beds without the wood boxes and if you wanted to you could just build them one by one over a period of a few years. I love their books. You can watch their videos on RU-vid. I like the "Ldsprepper" I think I like watching his backyard garden beds he built from scratch. It makes the whole process simple. A bag of lime, a bag of fertilizer, your choice , I'm going with 17-17-17 , and all the minerals in a bag for $13. That's it! It will last you quite awhile and you just. fertilize your garden once a week. You mix it all together and that fertilizes 30 ft beds. Adjust as you have more or less. It's all in the nutrition. Even if you don't do it with raised beds I would still do the fertilizer down the rows and plant and use the weekly fertilizer. It's simple, you know it's getting the nutrition it needs per square foot and you are getting those vitamins you need in your food. Then, you can put your effort into doing it one at a time and you will have a greater yeild and a longer growing season. Where your at you should be able to grow all year. I would put a green house up and possibly grow 30ft of your vining plants, tomatoes, cukes, melons. Start your other things like kale, carrots, leeks, underground crops outdoors from seed. Spinach and kale can handle a snow so can plant those early or in the fall. Transplant from the green house the rest that need to be started earlier . Things like broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, etc... those you. Can put in a warming box in your greenhouse so you don't have to heat the whole tree house in the colder weather. I'm in the mountains in upper Michigan so I know you can do it where your at. I'm a zone 4 and you already have leaves and blossoms on your trees. Ours haven't even budded yet. Good luck and I can't wait to see what you do. I spent the $13 and got the vitamins I needed for mine already. Just a wait game while I'm getting things ready now. Good luck!

This is exactly what I've done this year. We just moved in December so we had no time to prepare a B2E, but we tilled, and I'm mulching over it. I will keep adding manure, compost and mulch each year with no more tilling. I can't wait to see how it turns out this year! I'm also going to be doing some true B2E to expand my current area, so it'll be interesting to see how it works for future seasons.

Also, Paul tilled and amended most of his soil for years before he started heavy mulch and no till. So he had years invested before he stopped tilling.

Tom is an amazing blessing to y'all! In this first year of large scale gardening, I think your decision to till was perfect. Your land hasn't been farmed in a long time so it's important to start this way. Everything is coming together so nicely.

A one time till to add compost (and other amendments) is a great idea. Especially if you are starting w/ terrible soil. clay takes a while to change in my experience

We're right there with ya Art! This is our first spring at our new place and we don't want to wait to have a garden. We plowed and tilled up our garden spot a couple weeks ago and have seeds in the ground today. We'll get the mulch on there as we can get ahold of it. GREAT VIDEO!!!

We use raise bed with a weed barrier . I do have a ground garden but don't do back to Eden. But we do throw our chicken straw on it in the fall. Then rotate it in come spring time.

What a wonderful neighbor!! Many blessings for him.

I grew up on a farm we always ripped the soil Ripping Ariats the soil Top dressing with manure that has sat for a year will give you all the nitrogen you need or at least 3 or 4 years That'll give you enough time to get all the wood chips going Great video way to incorporate old with new farming techniques

I sold my Roto Tiller, bought a a Home Owners Dump Trailer made by Sure-Trac Trailers , and I haul horse stable waste and compost it into a usable soil, I build on top of nasty clay dead dirt in the garden. Also adding as a weed suppressor a thick laying of winter wheat straw. So far has been a fabulous garden. The tool is a category one three point hitch subsoiler .

That implement is a "ripper" it is used to break up what ever you rip through, you can also use the ripper to bury cable behind the ripper, but the ripper is digging trenches under the tilled top which is OK it will help distribute water. Another implement similar to the ripper is a cultivator, it has 6 smaller rippers called tines, there are 3 tines behind each wheel at the back of the tractor, farmers normally use the cultivator to rough up weeds or rough up the soil, kill or bury the weeds. But the cultivator will rip down to a level and break-up or fluff as it passes through the soil.You are better off to loosen your soil like with a plough and a tiller, or a cultivator and a disc harrow, especially if it is new soil with sod etc. but be aware that a rotary tiller compacts the soil also, if you were to use that rotary tiller for 4 or 5 years it will harden the soil underneath the depth of the tiller. Those tiller tines spin at a high speed and work like a hammer down as far as they spin, the tines impact and compress the soil on the underside of the tiller's reach, you can dig down and see beyond about 8 inches it is flat and harder and as you do more tilling it gets harder and harder, this is why most farmers went no-till, and instead went with a disc harrow, it works like a plough, but the disc harrow cuts into the soil and shifts the soil over a few inches but does minimal compacting below the disc as they are so thin and being pulled through not hammered down like a rotary tiller.One other thing is the back to Eden method or the layering method or lasagna method are all methods of building the soil food web, without tilling or disturbing the soil which will work once the soil is worked, its too hard to plant in sod you need to be able to get the plants and seeds into the garden. The problem with the rotary tiller besides the compacting discussed above is that you are preparing your soil to grow weeds as well as what you planted or seeded so you will get weeds. So I did as you did but as I went on from the last year tilling I started adding wood chips, instead of hilling up around the plants I added the wood chips to hill up around potatoes, cucumbers, and between the tomatoes and the peppers and so on until I had the garden including the middle of the rows covered. I also live in a rural area and have trouble getting chips most trimming companies just blow the chips in the woods where they are working. But I can get leaves and I use them, I collect them and put them to compost and I also put them right on the garden and I cover the leaves or leaf mulch with chips when I can get them. But now to build the soil web below no more tilling or ripping you need to let the roots of the plants stay in the soil even after your plants are done for the season leave the roots and cut the tops off at ground level, do not disturb the soil this is how you grow the soil food web, you keep layering mulch, chips, straw, hay, grass what ever organic cover you can get and just keep laying more layers on top, if you see a weed cover it with a shovel load of mulch, when you plant the next year put the spacing in between last years plants (tomatoes, Peppers, etc.) And the micro fungi part is better explained by " I AM ORGANIC GARDNER" but the fungi is not what you are seeing right at the layer under the chips I belief that is mold, I don't think you can see all of what's working under there with your eye, you need a microscope or go visit " I AM ORGANIC GARDENER" and check out his video's, his site has the technical basis for what is happening in Paul Gautschi"s "Back to Eden " garden. For your starting garden I think you are doing it right, but no till is the way of the future as I get older I am looking for the better and easier ways to do things and this layering / back to Eden / lasagna method works for me. Good Luck Happy Gardening!

Art that ground is harder than a brick batt, I can see your logic in the tiller. I have a tiller and worked our garden area for a couple years and now I go just down the road and bring home loads of horse manure. By doing what you are doing is great. Got chickens just a couple of weeks ago and will be adding them to the mix.

During the first half of the video I was thinking, "I understand the challenges with mulching everything, but no-till is still the best long-term choice". I was glad to see at the end that you're aiming for no-till. It can be done without wood mulch. A generous compost layer can suffice. Two leading no-till veggie growers are Charles Dowding in England and Paul and Elizabeth Kaiser of Singing Frogs Farm in California. They plant in beds without edging.

We were putting in Florida cherry bushes last week. Took forever to dig the holes...kept hitting coral rocks. We feel your pain! Looks like you have a sensible plan going for the orchard and garden. Thanks Tom, good neighbor!

The constant compost tea being created over the years cannot be overstated. Since you didn't have the material to start, keep grabbing it and piling it up in one pile for a while. One of the benefits Paul has is a place for chips to break down and compost in piles before application. After the large pile starts to break down throw some organic floor collection stuff in there to sprout as you turn it, add water then turn a bunch of chicks in to finish it out, then apply strained compost to garden. Take two years to do before adding to garden, repeat the process every two years and you will have Eden soil for veggies too.

I bought a wood chipper and have an almost endless supply because I have neighbors bringing trimmings to me. Also I am often paid to remove brush or tree trimmings which I chip and dump at my place. Generally I have the Bobcat to move the branches so it's an easy process.

We have the same issue with acquiring wood chips. We're very rural too which I definitely think is a big factor. We had an existing garden plot when we moved here fall of 2015. Last summer I didn't til but heavily mulched the space mainly with straw and grass clippings and was so happy with the results! Already now a year later the soil looks amazing and loose and I don't even feel the need to til it - I'm planning to continue with straw mulch this year but eventually I'd ideally like to get enough wood chips to mulch my permanent paths around the perimeter and through each quadrant

The best element of a good garden is patience! I used to care for my beloved Grandfather's 16 acres - forest, 1/4 acre of gardens and bunches of heritage apples and pears. Now Grandpa had tilled the ground for 30 years before I became involved. All organic with leaves I burned on the garden in the late Fall and manure and straw I spread from our 250 show homing pigeons - really nasty work cleaning out the coops in February and spreading it out. Then 300 to 500 lbs. of lime because the wood ashes and pigeon manure are very acidic. The Fall coop clean-out went into the compost pile which was VERY active. Grandpa shot a skunk in the head (no time to spray) and I buried it in the compost pile, marking it with a stake. That was the Fall; in the following Summer I dig in that area and only found about 4" of tail. WOW!I turned over that garden, Grandpa planted and then I mulched. 60 years ago we called it organic gardening and Rodale's magazine was the handbook. It worked. No fertilizer as such. If we needed calcium we could get pulverized sea shells etc. No pesticides, when the birds were free to fly they made short work of the bugs. Not only are pigeons beautiful to watch fly but they come home; they call them homing pigeons for a reason.The point is, work with what you have. PATIENCE is the best ingredient. Now that I have my beds pretty well dug in our retirement home, I am going to try plant some veggies in with the flowers. I'll let you know next Summer how it works out,

Tom is a great neighbor - kudos to you, Tom!!

Call your county, and city municipalities. Is where I get my wood chips. My little town has had a huge wood chip pile for years. Nobody has touched it. I called them, and now get it free. Is really nice. Has been there so long, that half of it is already composted. I screen it, then use half for compost, then spread the wood chips. I've been hauling it for a year now, and still need more than I've hauled. Is going to take 50 to 60 pickup loads, I've hauled around 20. Love the back to eden. Lay cardboard, or thick newspaper down first, and you won't have a weed problem. Thanks for your video.

BTE is great, but I think everyone has to do what they are comfortable with and what they have the ability to do. This is our first year gardening on our property and we are doing some of everything to see what works best here. Some traditional, some no-til and some raised beds. I've had trouble finding wood chips as well.

We're not doing the Eden gardening, but I think it's important to keep the soil covered against erosion and to maintain moisture. We've used hay from our field and other material, like finely ground pine bark that one can purchase.

Great video. Like you helper. CUTE. Takes longer to get thing done, but he is learning also. GOOD STUFF. Thanks for sharing.

It's really fun to see your garden and fenced pastures come together so beautifully! It's looking amazing! What's also amazing is how much pertinent information you share on your videos. Very cool, informative, educational, and fun! Anyway, great job on everything. Looking forward to whatever you have planned for next time! -Trent

Tell your neighbor I think he is awesome. What a nice gesture.

Loved this episode....well I love all of them, but this one answered a question I was having in my mind. This is my first year of ever having a garden, but I didn't see how I could start a Back to Eden garden in the hard dirt in my yard, so I tilled it. I have planted my seeds and when they begin sprouting, I will mulch around them, and then next year, I plan not to till again- hoping the mulch will keep my soil soft and of course, fertile. Thanks for explaining what you are doing in your garden. It was helpful!

I'm trying to get a deep mulch garden established. I've run into them same problem as you... finding enough mulch. I'm using old hay, which I know has tons of weed seeds, but it's all I have to work with at the moment. I put a deep layer on several months ago and let the chickens run on it for a couple months and have added more mulch several times. In some places it's working and in others I've got tons of weeds coming up. l I'm hoping to just keep adding mulch and covering the weeds as I can and see how it goes. #thestruggleisreal

I have done back to Eden gardening. Biggest problem is the need for constant supply of chips. Chips do break down. I live on a dirt road in a rural area where lots of power lines cross, but they have only chipped once in the last 5 years. I have a Comercial chipper but physically unable to run it, kids grew up and moved away. So have switched to a hybrid method.

Oh yes...I sure wish I had a neighbor like Tom! What a great guy, with a kind, helping spirit ready to pass on his learned experiences!

I have somewhat the same problem. I do not have my own access to a large quantity of wood chips or other organic materials. So , I have placed an ad on Craig's list for landscapers and tree services to dump their wood chips and cut grasses at my place. I have established apple trees that are growing right next to the fence line so I can not mow around them . So far, only two piles of wood chips. It's a start ! I have placed a circle of 1/2 " hardware cloth around the apple and peach trees to protect from rabbits and also keep the wood chips away from the trunks of the trees ! A little grass grows up there but not much.

Thank you for introducing yourself....glad to get to know you ...wish you the best

Mulching works really well for perennials that are in the same place every year. However, we've found that it's not worth the time and effort with short-term annuals in a vegetable garden. If practicing proper crop rotation, you'd have to remove mulch every time you replant. Also, it's impossible to hill potatoes or corn if mulch is covering the soil.

We did a similar thing last year with our garden: Tilled it up and planted a cover crop in the fall... This year we are putting straw, wood shavings from the chicken coop, and yard waste. I planted some perennials last fall where I didn't put the cover crop... I'm not totally sure I will plant it (with annuals) this year... But, I have a feeling I'll get the "itch" ;)

Ok, at first I was really curious how you would say this is better than back to eden, and found out this is exactly where we are and has been frustrating to try and figure out how we would do this the right way! Our soil is extremely rocky so plowing first makes sense, thank you so much for this video! :)

Have you ever heard of a tool called a corn dragger? It's like a pitchfork but with three or four tines bent down 90°, and it's used for corn put up on the cob in huge cribs, to help it flow down onto whatever they catch it with. "Dragger" is the part I named it, but I was told about the corn part. You would find offloading easy if you had something to claw and drag it off.

So nice of Tom to come back and use that deep digging tool. I don't know beans about gardening but it stands to reason this deep digging alone is going to allow your garden to absorb more rainwater and maybe you could top your planted areas with leaves. Didn't you rake a bunch of leaves last year into a big circle of wire netting? You could probably get free bags of leaves all through the city as you drive home from work. Have a Blessed day...I always enjoy your channel...

Hi Art n Bri, great channel! love the time spent with your beautiful family. when I told a friend to watch they responded that your family is one that makes you just want to be part of it! Wish life worked that way :-) Really appreciate your efforts and hope that the future brings your family happiness and good fortune. Thanks for sharing, Bill

I watch a bunch of homesteaders on youtube and I know my friends would have no clue why since I live in an apartment in the city. Homesteading is my dream. One day I would love to own a place where I can have my own garden and animals and not have to worry about going to the grocery store every week to buy things that we need.

For really good results the first year, start in the fall. First put down cardboard, and wet it thoroughly. Make sure it overlaps well. On top of the cardboard, apply a good inch of manure. Layer about 3 to 4 inches of woodchips on top. The cardboard will kill the grass off. Next spring, there are two ways of planting: seeds and started plants. Seeds: first, pull back the mulch where you want to plant. Then, using an old butcher knife, slice down through the cardboard where you want to plant the seeds. Make lots of slices through the cardboard, to allow the roots to penetrate. You can plant in rows, or in "hills" (just evenly-spaced spots.) Atop the sliced cardboard, put about 2 inches of dirt, old compost, or potting soil. Plant your seeds in this. As soon as the seeds are 2 inches high, pull a bit of the wood chips up close to the plant. As they get a bit taller, you may wish to wrap cut-worm susceptible plants with newspaper, to above the top of the mulch. Started plants: (You can start these early, in flats, or in a section of garden. If starting tender plants before frost date, you can make homemade wall-o-water greenhouses by lining up 2-liter plastic bottles of water on both sides of a row, and on each end. Then put plastic over the entire thing, and bury the edges outside the bottles of water. The water bottles will protect your seedlings down to about 15F.) To set plants out, just pull the wood chips back, and cut a 1 or 2-inch hole in the cardboard. Set the plant directly in that hole, and pull the mulch up around the plant. Wrap your vulnerable plant stems with newspaper, to guard against pest damage. This method gave me the most fantastic tomato harvest I have ever had. After canning all I could handle, I was selling bucket after bucketful of the most perfect tomatoes I ever raised. And it was on new ground, with woodchip mulch.

Get a digging bar to loosen the soil for fence posts. Pa. Is rocky and a good heavy bar will bust through the rock and the post hole digger will take the rock out. Then you can use the rock to pack the posts. (From my husband who has dug hundreds of posts).

I read my first Ruth Stout book over 30 years ago. The last one, was last month. She never said she invented it. It was just her method. And she always encouraged people to try things a little different. She would have enjoyed "Back to Eden" and "No to Back to Eden".

Beautiful family. Love your earthiness and what your trying to accomplish. Thumbs up for the video.

You took a while to get to the point, but when you got there I agreed 100 percent.

We are doing the exact same thing this year! I want to plow it this first year as well then transition to BTE. We have a property that has a super old barn with years and years of horse manure that has turned to BLACK BLACK dirt so we will be putting that on top and then layer on wood chips!

I lucked out and found a local resource for well composted wood chips. And I think that they will be fine for gardening in the first year (trying it now!) I am in the same place, in terms of new wood chips. I offer the tree service people a little money for fuel compensation and that seems to make them more willing to bring them out. They are not entirely free, but they are still a worthwhile investment.

Oh boy, tilling the ground? Soil blasphemy.

thanks for all the wonderful videos Art, and family!

I miss not being able to garden. I love that your sharing your dream. What a beautiful family.

Another good video and information. Everything looks so pretty, so green.

You should just do what you can. There isn't just one way to grow your food. I have switched to growing in large horse/cattle tubs, because I am older now and have problems getting up and down due to arthritis. I can sit on the edge of the tubs and do my gardening. I combined the compost in place method, huglekulture and back to eden. I place kitchen and garden scraps, in the container, cover with wood chips and cardboard etc., then soil/compost and plant. Once the plants are up several inches high, I mulch with either leaves or wood chips (whatever I have on hand). I water weekly with worm tea. This works very well for me. I get wood chips and leaves when I can and let them sit in my side yard until I need them. My plants are very green and productive. Biggest problem I have is the humidity and the fire ants (hate those little buggers). So many people seem to make it so complicated and have a rigid mindset. In my 65+ years, I've probably tried every gardening method at one time or another. I just do what I feel like and what works for me in my situation and what I can. Enjoyed your video. Thanks for posting. BTW, one resource for wood chips in some areas is chipdrop.in a website where you can sign up to get wood chips for free or at a very minimal fee. Check it out. I live in the country myself and was surprised that I was able to get wood chips delivered for free via this site.

I've thought the same thing in regards to back to eden: garden maybe 75% success now, or 100% in 3 years lol. I decided I would create the "Halfway to Eden" method, because there's an angel guarding eden with a massive flaming sword anyways....I laid cardboard everywhere, threw the smallest woodchips on top (to weigh it down), then made a little "template" piece out of 2x4s that was 4ftx10ft and these would be my "garden beds". In the garden beds I would add compost, and then just regular wood chips on top, not caring about the size, just wanting to cover the compost. The compost will decompose the smaller, fine chips, that will decompose the cardboard. So now you basically have this flat woodchipped garden with little mounds everywhere (if viewed from the ground horizontally). I then went around and dumped about 4inches of regular woodchips everywhere along the pathways. I recently got a nice drop of cedar so I went around the pathways and added those for pest control. There you have it, "Halfway to Eden"

What a blessing, Tom helping with your garden and grinding flour for you. That's super amazing! Your garden is huge and looking great!

An awesome educational video on BtE gardening. Thanks for taking the time!

The back to eden method as taught by Paul Gautchy (not sure about the spelling) combines wood chips AND chicken manure otherwise it won't work since fresh wood chips take nitrogen out of the soil during the decomposition phase. I think that happened also to Justin at some point and they had to add some fertilizer. After you transplant your stuff you can use wood chips as mulch on pathways but it would also be helpful to have some other dried stuff as mulch around your plants. Less weeds and less watering.

Horse stables normally have no use for their manure/bedding, and will gladly give it away, even loading it for you. This is an excellent source for nutrients, humus and soil building of poor soils. Green manure cover crops such as hairy vetch, a legume which fixes nitrogen into the soil. The roots help break up the soil, the greens are excellent fodder for goats, cows, and chickens. The dense growth chokes out weeds and when turned under provides additional nutrients and humus. While in theory "back to Eden" is natural, in fact forests tend to have thin, frail layers of top soil. This was evidenced in your own little wood lot. You dug through the thin layer of rich mulch and exposed the poor, dense, clay layer underneath. When you add 4 inches of wood chips on top, perhaps the bottom 1 inch will begin to compost, with the same poor soil underneath. You now only have 1 inch of nutrient rich, humusy, loose soil on top of a couple of inches of dense, nutrient rich soil which vegetable roots will have a hard time penetrating. It can take multiples of years to create a deep, rich garden soil, and still have a hard pan soil underneath it all. Your soil sits on top of this hard pan. When I had my farm, I employed the double dug, French intensive, bio-dynamic method to my garden. The soil was poor quality, fine sand. With the same effort as your mulch building, I added several inches of horse manure bedding, tilled it in deeply and practiced crop rotation, including one entire bed of green manure. Initially for two weeks every year it was intensive work prepping the garden. Once planted the density of the crops, along with crop rotation, their was no weeding, and my garden thrived. Companion planting, for instance planting your beans amid your corn, benefited both crops. Fine seeds, carrots, parsnips, radishes, onion sets, garlic, greens, and the like follow the green manure in rotation, that's year two. Year three that same bed becomes corn, beans, peas, tomatoes, etc.. The last year are squash family plants, then back to green manure. Ultimately it really was no more work than I see evidenced with the back to Eden method with better, faster results. In two years I had a full 12 inches of rich soil below the original soil surface, and an additional 10-12 inches above. The entire time I had this rental farm, I never had to move 66 truck loads of mulch to build my soil. My garden measured 50 x 100' and provided more than enough for the six occupants of the farm, and plenty left over for market and gifts to friends and neighbors. Individual beds measured 6' by 100' densely planted. I still see so many that are row planting instead of densely packed beds. Corn in a rich soil needs to be planted no more than 6 inches apart with a bean or pea plant between each corn plant. The beans provide additional nitrogen for the corn, the corn provides a "pole" for the beans to climb. That is one of the ideas behind companion planting. Crops can benefit each other, aromatic crops like garlic, onions provide protection to soft crops like root crops and greens. Just some thoughts on alternative methods of achieving your goal.

I saw the title and was thinking you didn't want to do it all because you didn't think it works haha. What you are saying makes sense to your current situation. If you need a garden now do what you can and improve from there. Thanks for the video.

Looking forward in seeing the gardens.

I post an add in the free section on Craigslist...I've had hundreds of trucks of brush and mulch brought to my property... sometimes even concrete...great material to build walls from

You are such a hard worker.....you will do well with your BTE. It will all happen as it should

after some thought, I figured out that the idea of "back to eden gardening" was we would never plant in the soil unless planting trees or something deep rooted, and like you I needed to plant now not five years from now, I have a small garden and use a tiller and shovel to hand make my rows, I make a mound row( looks like a tractor did it, I till the middle again making the row where I am going to plant pretty high, I then use a garden rake to level off the top until it is wide enough to support the plants, this usually leaves a deep middle row, I then fill the middle row with fresh woodchips until level with the row I am putting plants in, the wood chips rooting in the middle are usually about a foot deep, excess water stays in the middle and helps root the chips, the only place weeds grow is around the plants, the middle row area is weed free, I have done this for three years now, I had mostly hard clay, I now have about 8" of black rich top soil, the woodchips have always rotted out before the next year, in spring I till (my choice) everything together and start over

Tom is such a wonderful man to do that. I love your family, it just warms my heart when I watch your videos.

You need a fencing crow bar to break up the soil for the fencepost, then use your twin-blade, post-hole shovel to remove the loose dirt. Thought it might help - better tool for the job, if you have more fencing to do.

Your garden looks about the same size as ours. It'll be fun watching yours growing right along with us.

Excellent perspective on your soil preparation. You are a such a hard working family, yet you do all your work with a bounce to your step and a sparkle in your eye. Great job!!!

Regarding wood chips on the garden, we came to the the same conclusion as you. While we like the weed free idea we agree with JM Fortier that a large garden is easier to to intensely plant if you use methods similar to his. Weed control is a planned endeavor and if handled consistently will reduce and even eliminate weed problems. We feel your pain with starting a garden in a spot that has not been previously gardened. Getting the soil ready is hard and breaking it the first time labor intensive.

Keep your farm and when kids grow up they well help each other In your farm and they protect your Animals safe

That is an awesome awesome neat neighbor. Hard working man and woman.

Nice..here in sikkim (INDIA) also we are practicing pure organic farming of vegetables....

You'll probably want a really slow drip irrigation system this year, since the rototilling messes with water infiltration in a big way. Even with that deep soil ripping, the pulverized top layer just sheds water. So be conscious of that this year.

At the beginning of this video my husband said, "he reminds me of Mr. Rogers." Then at a couple points and the end we smiled at each other, "yup!" It's a good thing :-)

You could start by using leaves, county compost and saw dust from a mill....which will break down so much faster. I consider myself lucky as I can get all of the Composted horse manure I want.

An added idea would be to lay down a few layers of newspaper, or cardboard, onto the weeds before spreading the mulch. The weeds will be suffocated and not bother you again. Otherwise, if the mulch isn't deep enough, those healthy weeds will pop through the mulch and pester you for years.

I practice the no dig on my allotment garden and get a lot of questions from the other plot holders.

this is a very informative hands on gardening video. thanks for your vlog

What a wonderful gentleman

Art, About those stones .... When we lived in CT I knew that shade grown tobacco but I soon learned that the real crop was stone! Every year four or five wheelbarrows full of stone. I was so thankful for my Troybuilt. No Back to Eden! In those days Rodale's Organic Gardening ruled. I used composted horse manure - free. Well I did have to deal with the weeds but the harvest was great!

as far as the wood chips are free, it's good to put them on! here I had to pay $140 for 2 cubic meter!!!! but since I put them on, my gardenias are much much happier and a lot more flowers, smell good, which makes me feel still worth it...

We are lucky, the city dumps two loads of mulch in a local park twice a year for residents to pick up and the local dump has a separate are in the landfill for green waste and have mulch year round for free pick up. If all else fails call your local landfill

Like your plan. I'd cover the top quarter of the area (the worst of the worst soil) with wood chips this season for a fall or early garden next year. You could run some chickens on it too.

Try to plant a few things in your orchard and see how that compares to what is in your tilled garden. Though i know nutrients wont leach out from mulch for about 2-3 years you may benefit from the added moisture and weed control.

WOW!!! Your family is very blessed to have such a wonderful neighbor.