Back to Eden (Film) Method
Back
to Eden Film (1 hour, 40 minutes long). "It's all about the
covering." Paul Gautschi, who lives in Washington, uses woodchips
to grow plants. This method:
- Prevents topsoil from blowing away
- Prevents weeds from growing
- Doesn’t require maintenance
- Doesn’t require watering
Paul likes wood chips the best but he has used grasses, rocks, and
animal manure as coverage. For his wood chips he likes to use branches
with green leaves that have been chipped. Luckily these are often available
for free through local tree services looking to get rid of the chips.
He also suggests that you can prune and mulch your own trees. Basically
his method involves laying down a good soil level of compost and then
spreading wood chips over it. He lays down compost every 3-5 years and
finds that the longer it’s there, the better the soil gets and
less often he needs to lay down compost. One thing that’s interesting
is that you can’t till the wood chips into the soil or it will
actually rob the soil of the nitrogen to break down the wood chips.
You want to leave the wood chips on top to form the protective layer.
And you let the leaves fall and go back into the soil which means that
there’s no need for fertilizer because it’s not being taken
out of the ground. And another benefit is that weeds can’t take
hold in the wood chip cover because when their seeds blow into your
garden they can’t get down to the soil level. It is the soil that
provides the nutrients, and the woodchips that provide the cover.
He plants new seeds directly in the soil and waters right after. But
once the seeds are up in the form of little seedlings, he stops watering
and just lets nature take over. He believes that using woodchips you
can reduce water usage by 95-99% since the moisture stays underneath
the mulch, even in summer. The woodchips create a blanket and rain water
will slowly work its way into the soil and will be retained there for
use in dry periods.
How to start a Garden of Eden
You can use any plot of land, including a grass lawn. Your steps would
be as follows:
- Newspaper- lay down newspaper over the whole area you want
to garden. Four sheets thick seems to work best. This is used to suffocate
any grasses and weeds.
- Soil (compost)- Lay down 2-3 inches of rich composted soil
on top of the newspaper.
- Wood chips- Lay down about 3-4 inches of somewhat composted
woodchips on top of the soil. They should have different shapes and
sizes of chips and should include wood and green leaves in the mulch.
In a garden it is 3-4 inches of wood chips, but in an orchard he
plants 12-16 inches of wood chips to suffocate grasses and weeds.
Remember to plant new seeds directly into the soil level (below the
wood chips) as they won’t grow well in the wood chip layer. Water
right after seeding and then basically just let it be. If using raw
wood chips, apply this layer in the Fall to allow the Fall - Winter
to break down the raw wood chips.
- (Optional) Manure- sprinkle on top a light dusting of slightly
composted manure.
References
|
