Fantastic video, only critique I have is that sheet mulching is a technique that has hundreds of variations for different climates that need to be taken into account. I only use sheet mulching to establish a new bed. I inoculate my cardboard with king stropharia & wood blewit mycelium and cover with 6-8 inches of woodchips & shredded leaves. The cardboard is wetted when building the bed and never fully dries out thanks to the thick layer of woodchips on top. Because of this the cardboard is rapidly consumed by the mycelium preventing any hydrophobic or anaerobic conditions from occurring. And yes, I'm a practicing soil ecologist and regularly check my soils and my clients soils under my microscope for a healthy soil food web. I would love to see more scientific studies conducted on things like sheet mulching and lasagna gardening but a lack of research doesn't indicate inefficacy.
Thanks for this! I reclaimed a weedy part of my garden by sheet mulching with alpaca bedding and manure, seaweed, kitchen scraps and woodchips on top of cardboard. The cardboard broke down within 2ish months and I have a beautiful rose garden that is thriving without spraying or fertilizer. I added the winecap a few months ago! I have to disagree with the presenter as this area has been going strong for two years now with barely any effort
Just because something subjectively works doesn't mean it's actually good or the best method either. Also, she's talking about mulching not starting a new garden plot.
100% agreed. She is dead wrong about sheet mulching. Most of what she says is great information and its beneficial to hear her perspective. The problem is the way she describes sheet mulching is exactly how NOT to do sheet mulching. Preventing cardboard from becoming hydrophobic is not difficult to do, you just have to be aware of it. Also she seems to not understand how important it sometimes is to smother out grass when starting a new spot. Bottom line, if it works, it's not wrong.
I use shallow layers of grass. If you let each layer dry in between layers it doesn’t pack down. Then in the fall I layer leaves that I have mowed over. I live in East Tn.
Worms love the cardboard and when we lay cardboard down our cardboard doesn't last longer than 3 days underneath the mulch you're missing a big big opportunity of soil replenishment by trying to tell people to skip cardboard
There's also a huge difference in which cardboard exactly is used - pizza cardboard of course is the worst because it's covered by plastic or wax... Pure brown cardboard on the other side breaks down quickly and can help to suppress weeds, at least weaken them
The problem with cardboard, is the glue that holds it together. You never know what chemicals are used in the glue. Cardboard made domestically might be okay, or, it may not be. Cardboard made in other countries, like China, might be extremely toxic. You know China is trying to poison us with all the fentanyl they’re shipping to Mexico, destined for the US. They might be putting toxic chemicals in the cardboard they’re making, and shipping it to the US, just to get rid of it. I would not put it past that evil regime. Cockroaches like cardboard, too. They like to eat the glue in the cardboard. For me, I’m sticking with wood chips, which I get for free from tree cutting services. As for your cardboard lasting three days in your garden, I simply don’t believe that. Maybe you meant to say three weeks, or three months. That would be more believable.
Works like a champ when starting with quality healthy soil high with life. Yet has major problems working like we( no mouse in my pocket) have experienced ,when attempting to do this in poor to badly damaged soil lacking sufficient biology, without first attracting this life to the area first.
Agreed. I think it is an issue when people don't realize they need to soak the cardboard first. If soaked, it works well to retain moisture and breaks down quickly, while blocking weeds from light. When put down and covered dry, water runs off. It's perfect for starting new beds when done correctly, but a nightmare if done wrong.
incredibly useful information for me as a gardener! Thank-you so much! I dug trenches into pure clay soil, and filled the troughs with wood chips, and added straw and leaves to the high areas, then planted my veggies into that - amazing results, and a year later, i can't find any of the wood chips, as they've all been absorbed into the soil. Two years later, I keep on adding organic material to my top layer, and I am seeing better and better results with all my crops. This video just validates what I have been doing, so thank-you so much for that.
By far the best presentation on mulch that I've seen in five years of soil science study. I will be recommending it to all my friends. Thanks Dr. Linda.
Here we use wood chips from pecan trees, pine trees and elm trees. We have used them for about 8 years now and we do not use any chemicals on our land. We also use weeds for our fertilizers on our plants and trees. Thanks for your post. Stay safe.
Enjoyed the presentation and learned a lot. But in the UK there is definitely a place for cardboard as a mulch. Brown cardboard mulch with compost on top can provide a great basis for a vegetable bed.
I'm glad to hear that the practice of using ground up tires in playgrounds is ending! Around the time this video was uploaded I had been to a playground where ground up tires were used. Smelled terrible just as you mentioned! Worse, the pieces tracked far from the play area into the surrounding lawn. The heat emanating from them on a cloudy day made me concerned about children getting burns from them. Most concerning were the bits of metal sticking out from a number of pieces! All the way around, not a good substrate for anything!
Ive never mulched any plot even in our family acre in NW England where we grew family fruit and veg. We just cleared weeds every spring and hoed between rows during growing seasons. We grew all sorts of lovely and plentiful veg from roots to brassicas and peas and beans. I now live in S Spain and in fact in early spring I allow wild plants commonly called weeds to flourish in my planters in my small concrete patio. Some have leaves I can eat and all have flowers that insects feed on. I have tried stones nit as a mulch just to stop my cat toileting where I grow food.
I noticed that that was the easiest way. Weeds grow through everything anyway. About stopping cats toileting - i put chicken wire around and on top that they can not walk and dig. Once my cat crawled under. Pesky Menace. He has toilet inside the house but he just loves doing wee wee in nature
I have a compost pile that is thriving with earth worms, that I use as a supplement to the food garden and around trees. "It really is black gold." A compost pile does not have to be huge and take-up a lot of space, but it's well worth the effort to keep it composting. I compost almost all kitchen "scraps," and a minimum amount of cardboard after removing colored labels. My worms fight over coffee grounds and egg shells. I joke that my worms eat better than I do, but it's not really a joke! I have a lot of trees on my property and mechanically mulch the leaves (except pine needles), which are added to the compost and around garden plants. Under no circumstance do I use chemicals on my property. I deal with weeds the old fashinoed way, I bend over and pull them, which if seedless, go into the compost pile. I think of it as my daily yoga program, as I do for most of my gardening activities. The best part is knowing where my food cames from and how it is grown. Thank you for the information. There's always (a lot) more to learn, right?
Thanks mentioning egg shells. Because they said they do not decompose so i was not putting them into compost. Now i will. The same about coffee grounds - they said it was bad for compost i do not remember why. I usually put used coffee onto strawberries to keep slugs away and under plans which like acid soil.
I have been putting 8" of natural bark mulch around my fruit trees. H2O flows through it fine and it breaks down faster than wood chips. It makes fantastcally black soil as it breaks down. I have read that bark contains more nutrients than wood chips. I also use to cut logs for firewood and where the mostly bark plus sawdust piled up over the years it made black beautiful soil. Please try your own experiment using natural bark mulch. I use both bark mulch and wood chips and prefer bark mulch. Love your informational video.
Regarding cardboard, have there been any more research into this? We all know the "big" names in gardening who advocate for them (and I don't really care how big they are if the science doesn't back them up) but in my own experience trying them, cardboard gets soggy fast and don't block water then. Specifically, in my worm bins I have a layer of cardboard on top that is soggy from moisture and it holds water and lets it through slowly which is what I thought we wanted in the garden? In the experiment Dr. Linda discusses, I'm curious about how long the mulch materials were in the soil, how wet they got, and generally how similar to the conditions the "big name" gardeners had did they get the experiment at the time they measured it.
Nice tips for fighting blackberries with wood chips and tree shade. Thankfully an abundance of chips around Vashon island still with all the tree work. What a great October this year. Wood chips are spread and can’t wait for next year.. 😎
Awesome presentation! Tons of info! Thank you for sharing. I'm in Ontario, Canada. We have a "chipdrop" program here where you can leave your name/phone/address with one or more tree cutting companies and they will drop chips off right in your yard. Sometimes you get some fine branches and depending on the time of year, also leaves but usually good. They don't have to pay to dump them somewhere and we get em for free. Win/Win. I got a bunch a few years ago and broadcast winecap mushroom spawn. I have winecaps everywhere, very little weeds between my plants and a nice surface to walk on. No water pooling, no muddy spots, little grass to cut and I don't need to water often. My yard soil is terrible.. years ago the old house that was on there was torn down, basement foundation ripped out and everything backfilled with construction trash. (rocks, sand, cement chunks, ashphault chunks, boulders and gravel. It was packed down super hard and topped with more gravel. It was used for years as a parking lot. I bought the property, planted a bunch of cedar along the one side facing the street, built a bunch of raised beds from mostly upcycled wood, hauled in garden soil. In the bottoms of these raised beds I put tons of leaves, chunks of logs, branches, etc, then topped with soil. My gardens do well. I have trees in there now too and have had baskets of plums, cherries, hope to soon have apples, pears and peaches. Trees are a bit slower growing than normal because of the horrid dirt but I did the best I could. I think the chips leaching nutes around the drip line/roots will help. The trees won't get big which is what I want anyways. Been working on this for nearly 10 years and it is really starting to look good. The bees love it, I often have bumble bee nests which is really cool to watch them going in and out of their holes in the ground with bits of grass and such to make their homes. I get tons of butterflies as well. I'll be setting up a better watering system next year (winter is right around the corner here now) which will use rain water collected from my roof and gravity fed. Sometimes too if you can't get chips for free, you can get them for pretty cheap. The town where I live has a couple gravel yards where the tree trimming guys can drop off chips there. Ask the gravel pit owner if you can get chips. I paid $10 for 1/2 ton truck load a couple years ago. I do get a lot of squirrels, mice, chipmunks and a few rats but I live trap them and relocate em about 5 miles from my place in a nice wooded area.
I really enjoyed reading your comment. Sounds like some rewarding big efforts and you are happy with the progress. I like to regenerate and recycle the greenery clippings by chopping them up and making a pile of it in any hollow spots, and wet it down. Sometimes we spread it out then mow over it to really mulch it down. The pile shrinks and grows as time cycles along.
Also in Ontario. I've been addicted wood chips for about 10 years. It's amazing how fast they break down. I get a load every year. We also have winecaps everywhere!
Tammy-Lynn Stewart ~ What an enjoyable read I had from your posted comment! Thanks! I located in Toronto and just wondered what area of Ontario your garden is in? You should write more about this garden that you so dearly love, Tammy. Merry Christmas. 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
As a former Recycling Coordinator, I'd like to correct your comments on cardboard. Most cardboard is brown and has no wax impregnated or it wouldn't be recyclable. When the cardboard is coloured, it may contain clay, which is what glossy magazines are made with. There are some waxed cardboards, usually for specific packaging, such as for seafood. We had to remove waxed cardboard from the bins before they were emptied for transport to the recycling plant. The inks used on cardboard and newspapers are non-toxic soy based these days, but I wouldn't vouch for inks used outside the Western world.
You could do those extra layers, one would just have to build some air pipes into the design that would bring air and water down under the top layer. Still say no cardboard but layers of mulch will just turn into good soil eventually.
One would actually not need to worry about bringing air down... because her study did *not* show less air at soil level under cardboard. The diffusion rate was different, but the gas concentrations under every treatment (except plastic) weren't significantly different from *bare soil*. Just bc gas moves slower through an object, doesn't mean it's slow enough to affect gas levels on the other side - and it didn't in this study for anything but plastic! She is not accurately reporting the results of her own study here.
This is really interesting, especially the use in restoration. I will look into this more and test out chip use on some our local arid restoration plots. I would like alternatives to the herbicides that are being used. I do wonder though about the difficulty to transport large quantities of it, or to put it on hillsides where it might slide right down over a year. This is inspiring though.
I'm really glad to know that I'm not the only one that hates landscape fabric and plastic! Such an awful mess and a waste of money! But if we aren't supposed to sheet mulch or till, how do we go about making new flower beds? Wont 4" of wood chips smother out bedding plants along with the weeds? Especially low growers and ground cover plants. I'm ready to change how I install flower beds! I'm about to redo a corner of my yard in preparation for bees! So it will be completely xeric with lots of native flowers! I was going to rototill it and rake the grass and weeds out, but now I'm wondering if I should order a chip drop instead...
41:24 Reminds me of how the pros install epoxy floors- they "chip to rejection" basically pile plastic chips thick enough such that they don't stick anymore before adding the top coat; this adds to the strength and durability of the floor. Funny how there's a application-invariant way to create a durable surface covering 🤔
It should not matter. The pine wood chips are less dense and will break down faster than hardwood. You usually have to pay for hardwood arborist mulch where I am at so softwood it is :)
Card board can be useful for suppressing weeds and is cheap (free) but so is black plastic it is often discarded on building sites and can be used for many years.I find that water trickle s under the sheet and the black also warms the soil . Covering soils to suppress weeds and grasses does I think increase worm count I always have lots of voles and I assume they are eating worms.
This talk appears to be targeted towards landscaping/perennial rather than vegetable gardening. Four inches of wood chips isn't a practical method of killing off weeds or cover crop every year. If cardboard is perforated when it is laid down, it would probably improve gas exchange while still suppress weeds.
What about seeds in the arborist woordchips? Could using them spread invasive species? I am asking because I got some arborist woodchips and spread it out in my yard and hundreds of redbud tree seedlings popped up. Redbud trees are no problem but there is a lot of kudzu in my area and I imigined that I got really lucky.
What is your opinion of hay as a mulch, as famously used by Ruth Scout. It’s enjoying a revival in Europe after her books on no-work gardening have been translated into various European languages
Woodchips are great but not really scalable. I'm using woodchip on fruit trees and berry bushes but now I want to plant 5 acres with berries and I just won't be able to get the amount of woodchips that will be necessary and will have to replenish it every year involving lots of labour. I'm going to go with landscape fabric instead. Main drawback I see is that it'll shelter rodents from the foxes so I could be having more vole problems. Live in a humid climate so never had problems with cardboard under woodchips, it breaks down very fast, absorbs water and doesn't dry out under woodchips.
Awesome video thank you! Question though: am I the only person who won’t put cardboard in our garden? I actually consider it a synthetic material. 😂. I mean how do we know what chemicals or glues are left behind? It’s also quite polluting to manufacture. So I prefer to send it to the recycle. Even if it doesn’t get recycled, I’d rather it be in the landfill than my garden. For my veggie garden I prefer what I call “real” mulch - wood or leaves.
I agree, never liked cardboard we use hay as mulch and wood chips in the paths. Despite what some will say I have no more weeds than people who use straw. Also I dig my paths down 4 to6 inches down to subsoil and fill with the chips and the broken down chips make a great soil.
@A R the hay could be more toxic but probably isn't, the cardboard might not be toxic but probably is. I know exactly where my hay comes from and who grows it I don't know where the cardboard comes from or who makes it. Happy holidays
The only chemical is sulphuric acid and that evaporates at the cardboard factory as soon as the newly made cardboard dries. It's safe and even delicate earthworms thrive on it alone.
@@shawnsg I grew some potatoes in a cardboard box and the sides broke down after a couple of months , so I transferred the potato plant to a bucket and the bottom of the box was gone .
Cardboard is fine for a biological foodsource but she says because it's a big flat sheet it smothers the soil when soggy and when it doesn't rain it becomes a dessicant like charcoal drying out the soil.
I may have drifted...I understand wood chips good for regenerative agriculture but suppose I want sweet corn or snow peas, etc? How am I planting seeds or even started seeds in 6" of coarse wood chips? Can anyone help?
I don’t think she dealt with planting seeds- they planted plants. I pull back my mulch and add a soil/compost mix to fill that hole. Then I plant the seeds in the added soil.
I have 1/4 acor and filled with wood chips for about 8 years and I use a breaker bar about 2" and 4" long and I use this to turn the chips about every year or so and that also helps the chips to turn and rot and not mildue. Take care.
If the presenter will be turning their head a lot, a lavalier/lapel mic will do better if placed on the presenter's chest. They can be taped under clothing as long as it's not thick clothing.
No! Landscape fabric NEVER, never breaks down. I am trying to remove fabric the previous owner laid 25 years ago. It is killing the mature trees as water and oxygen cannot get into the soil. Also, I think fabric encourages voles as it provides them a Nice, dry, protected living space. Please do not ever use landscape cloth!!
You can’t plant seeds in any mulch, really. You must either move the mulch aside, or add the mulch later, after the seeds have become plants. I move my wood chips aside and also add more soil and compost where I plant.
Look for vidsof her talking about how science hasn't found benefits of compost teas over using compost itself. Compost teas are sacred cows to some people.
16:53 “I never quite figured out why [people put cardboard under woodchips]” Pintrest and Reddit. The reason is pintrest and Reddit. And then in 18:03 she does the scientist mic drop. Everything people do which aren’t based in science is because it is emotionally appealing.
It got popular on Pinterest and Reddit because it works for establishing new beds. It's never been "the" recommended method for individual tree establishment. You're supposed to wait 1-2 years before planting trees into a lasagna bed. Why does it work? The sugars in the cardboard glue attract earthworms, the cardboard smothers weeds while the new plantings are put on top, into the compost layer, and then covered with mulch. You're making a raised garden bed that will deteriorate over time and add organic matter into the topsoil, ultimately increasing water infiltration and building the soil sponge. You NEVER are supposed to place cardboard, then wood chips, and that's it. The speaker even said, in fact, "but like I said, this isn't measuring water, there's no research on this, it's the first study like this that's ever been done[...]", but there are many, many side-by-side comparisons. Science is GREAT, but a lack of scientific study doesn't mean something doesn't work; only scientific evidence SHOWING that something doesn't work Source: I am a certificated Permaculturist and Master Gardener (Travis County, TX and Pulaski County, AR).
@@mf5049 “permaculture” is a mumbojumbo term used by anyone to mean practically anything. The gardening space is infected with idiots with more opinion than knowledge just like all the rest.
She doesn't understand the use of cardboard cuz she didn't go back and check the cardboard after it was covered with mulch what she would have found is just the label left because worms don't eat the label and what they left in place was the richest richest thing you could drop on to your land to have things grow misinformation like she's leading out is what causes people's land to go sterile
The shade cloth works if you turn the edges under and pin them with lawn stakes that are made for that purpose. Then you cover it with organic mulch and wood chips -real, organic - not fake. If you do not do that - yes - the edges will come up and it will look look awful and get worse and worse over time and weeds will grow. I like to put pretty smooth small stone gravel over the shade cloth. It looks very nice and is soft to walk on. Then when you have finished that you plant living bushes (I like lilies and lavendar and snap dragons and such in the bare areas but again along the edges you must turn the shade cloth under all along and pin it down. I did that and it looks great with no weeds.
YesYesYessss to wood chips! we use them (friend is an aborist, they're free to anyone who asks, nearby) everywhere on top of soil in veg gardens, and also under trees/shrubs. However I wonder how long our friend will be able to cut trees & chip them, due to governments outlawing chainsaws, chippers, etc anything gas-powered is going the way of the dinosaurs. Hmmm I hear that Porsche has a successful artificial fuel, perhaps that is the answer? Certainly there are no good electric chainsaws or chippers (on the scale which our arborist friend uses for large mature trees). Time will tell. Hope we are all able to grow more of our own foods and eliminate the need for lettuce shipped 2,500 miles from home!
Terrible audio. Your voice keeps dropping off because you’re holding your mic in your hand and keep moving it around. Excellent presentation but bad audio. Please wear the lav!
This was a mixed bag. Yes woodchips are fantastic. She is wrong about lasagne beds, and sheet mulching (they are only used at the start for a reason and yes there are studies on it). And I was disappointed they didn't do a round up and woodchip bed. Without which makes that study pointless. Still it was mostly alright. I wouldn't use this as any good source of information tho.
You want to learn more? Than take her class and you will know more. This was to wake you up and with her words you can also apply your own study. She did great.
Half of this is a straight joke; 🤣 When science argues, "oh, no studies on THIS have been done, except for the ones WE did..., and the science has spoken negative on THIS..." that's not Science; This is misinformation; Mix in some true things in there, and they successfully confuse ya'll;
I agree interesting talk but you cannot generalize about soils compost even environment because they are so many variables . You have to experiment and share experiences with older folk and knowledge. I think?
I never expected to be this captivated by a lecture on freaking mulch!
Fantastic video, only critique I have is that sheet mulching is a technique that has hundreds of variations for different climates that need to be taken into account. I only use sheet mulching to establish a new bed. I inoculate my cardboard with king stropharia & wood blewit mycelium and cover with 6-8 inches of woodchips & shredded leaves. The cardboard is wetted when building the bed and never fully dries out thanks to the thick layer of woodchips on top. Because of this the cardboard is rapidly consumed by the mycelium preventing any hydrophobic or anaerobic conditions from occurring. And yes, I'm a practicing soil ecologist and regularly check my soils and my clients soils under my microscope for a healthy soil food web.
I would love to see more scientific studies conducted on things like sheet mulching and lasagna gardening but a lack of research doesn't indicate inefficacy.
Thanks for this! I reclaimed a weedy part of my garden by sheet mulching with alpaca bedding and manure, seaweed, kitchen scraps and woodchips on top of cardboard. The cardboard broke down within 2ish months and I have a beautiful rose garden that is thriving without spraying or fertilizer. I added the winecap a few months ago! I have to disagree with the presenter as this area has been going strong for two years now with barely any effort
Agreed. But she did state that her research was in wood chips, so...
I started a lasagne garden awhile back. I put cardboard on the bottom not sure when to plant on this.cos I also used horse manure
Just because something subjectively works doesn't mean it's actually good or the best method either.
Also, she's talking about mulching not starting a new garden plot.
100% agreed. She is dead wrong about sheet mulching. Most of what she says is great information and its beneficial to hear her perspective. The problem is the way she describes sheet mulching is exactly how NOT to do sheet mulching. Preventing cardboard from becoming hydrophobic is not difficult to do, you just have to be aware of it. Also she seems to not understand how important it sometimes is to smother out grass when starting a new spot.
Bottom line, if it works, it's not wrong.
You say you are cheap with money but I can see you are generous with knowledge thank you Dr. for this talk, I learned a lot
What a knowledgeable, engaging speaker! Well worth 51 minutes.
I use shallow layers of grass. If you let each layer dry in between layers it doesn’t pack down. Then in the fall I layer leaves that I have mowed over. I live in East Tn.
Worms love the cardboard and when we lay cardboard down our cardboard doesn't last longer than 3 days underneath the mulch you're missing a big big opportunity of soil replenishment by trying to tell people to skip cardboard
There's also a huge difference in which cardboard exactly is used - pizza cardboard of course is the worst because it's covered by plastic or wax... Pure brown cardboard on the other side breaks down quickly and can help to suppress weeds, at least weaken them
The problem with cardboard, is the glue that holds it together. You never know what chemicals are used in the glue. Cardboard made domestically might be okay, or, it may not be. Cardboard made in other countries, like China, might be extremely toxic. You know China is trying to poison us with all the fentanyl they’re shipping to Mexico, destined for the US. They might be putting toxic chemicals in the cardboard they’re making, and shipping it to the US, just to get rid of it. I would not put it past that evil regime.
Cockroaches like cardboard, too. They like to eat the glue in the cardboard.
For me, I’m sticking with wood chips, which I get for free from tree cutting services.
As for your cardboard lasting three days in your garden, I simply don’t believe that. Maybe you meant to say three weeks, or three months. That would be more believable.
Works like a champ when starting with quality healthy soil high with life. Yet has major problems working like we( no mouse in my pocket) have experienced ,when attempting to do this in poor to badly damaged soil lacking sufficient biology, without first attracting this life to the area first.
Yes the cardboard breaks down very fast & with water, the cardboard moulds to the ground & the chips stay on just fine.
Agreed. I think it is an issue when people don't realize they need to soak the cardboard first. If soaked, it works well to retain moisture and breaks down quickly, while blocking weeds from light. When put down and covered dry, water runs off. It's perfect for starting new beds when done correctly, but a nightmare if done wrong.
incredibly useful information for me as a gardener! Thank-you so much! I dug trenches into pure clay soil, and filled the troughs with wood chips, and added straw and leaves to the high areas, then planted my veggies into that - amazing results, and a year later, i can't find any of the wood chips, as they've all been absorbed into the soil. Two years later, I keep on adding organic material to my top layer, and I am seeing better and better results with all my crops. This video just validates what I have been doing, so thank-you so much for that.
By far the best presentation on mulch that I've seen in five years of soil science study. I will be recommending it to all my friends. Thanks Dr. Linda.
Here we use wood chips from pecan trees, pine trees and elm trees. We have used them for about 8 years now and we do not use any chemicals on our land. We also use weeds for our fertilizers on our plants and trees. Thanks for your post. Stay safe.
Those are useless - weeds grow through them
A vital documentary every human needs to be aware of:
"Poisoned Waters"
When you see it you will realize the gravity of this video. Thank you Dr!
Great info Doc, so so nutritious growing info!
If it lives, it eats.
Enjoyed the presentation and learned a lot. But in the UK there is definitely a place for cardboard as a mulch. Brown cardboard mulch with compost on top can provide a great basis for a vegetable bed.
I'm glad to hear that the practice of using ground up tires in playgrounds is ending! Around the time this video was uploaded I had been to a playground where ground up tires were used. Smelled terrible just as you mentioned! Worse, the pieces tracked far from the play area into the surrounding lawn. The heat emanating from them on a cloudy day made me concerned about children getting burns from them. Most concerning were the bits of metal sticking out from a number of pieces! All the way around, not a good substrate for anything!
Ive never mulched any plot even in our family acre in NW England where we grew family fruit and veg. We just cleared weeds every spring and hoed between rows during growing seasons. We grew all sorts of lovely and plentiful veg from roots to brassicas and peas and beans. I now live in S Spain and in fact in early spring I allow wild plants commonly called weeds to flourish in my planters in my small concrete patio. Some have leaves I can eat and all have flowers that insects feed on.
I have tried stones nit as a mulch just to stop my cat toileting where I grow food.
Mind you we all enjoyed working in the garden. So much so that my then teen son once told a neighbour I was playing in the garden.
@@helenamcginty4920 amazing! Have you heard about Charles Dowding?
I noticed that that was the easiest way. Weeds grow through everything anyway. About stopping cats toileting - i put chicken wire around and on top that they can not walk and dig. Once my cat crawled under. Pesky Menace. He has toilet inside the house but he just loves doing wee wee in nature
Pulling out weed fabric is such a hassle! Lots of weeds grow in it, too.
I have a compost pile that is thriving with earth worms, that I use as a supplement to the food garden and around trees. "It really is black gold." A compost pile does not have to be huge and take-up a lot of space, but it's well worth the effort to keep it composting. I compost almost all kitchen "scraps," and a minimum amount of cardboard after removing colored labels. My worms fight over coffee grounds and egg shells. I joke that my worms eat better than I do, but it's not really a joke! I have a lot of trees on my property and mechanically mulch the leaves (except pine needles), which are added to the compost and around garden plants. Under no circumstance do I use chemicals on my property. I deal with weeds the old fashinoed way, I bend over and pull them, which if seedless, go into the compost pile. I think of it as my daily yoga program, as I do for most of my gardening activities. The best part is knowing where my food cames from and how it is grown. Thank you for the information. There's always (a lot) more to learn, right?
Thanks mentioning egg shells. Because they said they do not decompose so i was not putting them into compost. Now i will. The same about coffee grounds - they said it was bad for compost i do not remember why. I usually put used coffee onto strawberries to keep slugs away and under plans which like acid soil.
I have been putting 8" of natural bark mulch around my fruit trees. H2O flows through it fine and it breaks down faster than wood chips. It makes fantastcally black soil as it breaks down. I have read that bark contains more nutrients than wood chips. I also use to cut logs for firewood and where the mostly bark plus sawdust piled up over the years it made black beautiful soil. Please try your own experiment using natural bark mulch. I use both bark mulch and wood chips and prefer bark mulch. Love your informational video.
Regarding cardboard, have there been any more research into this? We all know the "big" names in gardening who advocate for them (and I don't really care how big they are if the science doesn't back them up) but in my own experience trying them, cardboard gets soggy fast and don't block water then. Specifically, in my worm bins I have a layer of cardboard on top that is soggy from moisture and it holds water and lets it through slowly which is what I thought we wanted in the garden? In the experiment Dr. Linda discusses, I'm curious about how long the mulch materials were in the soil, how wet they got, and generally how similar to the conditions the "big name" gardeners had did they get the experiment at the time they measured it.
Fantastic lecture. Loved it.👍
This is AMAZING. Science! Finally! Thank you so much Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott and the Clackamas County MG for this talk.
“science finally” ...... nature explained by people that didn’t understand it growing up!!!! so they have to analyze it ..... but still don’t get it!
Great information, but no cardboard? How do you stop Bermuda grass? It will cume up from underneath 4 ft of leaf mulch.
Nice tips for fighting blackberries with wood chips and tree shade. Thankfully an abundance of chips around Vashon island still with all the tree work. What a great October this year. Wood chips are spread and can’t wait for next year.. 😎
I eat the blackberries! 😋
So good. This is the most impactful video I have ever seen!
Hello from Ireland. I love this video. You had me at mulch.
8:28 Dr. Chalker-Scott says that her husband is right. You ma'am are a fantastic woman!
Great information! Thank you for sharing your expertise.
I'm so glad I got a PTO woodchipper for the ranch.
Awesome presentation! Tons of info! Thank you for sharing.
I'm in Ontario, Canada. We have a "chipdrop" program here where you can leave your name/phone/address with one or more tree cutting companies and they will drop chips off right in your yard. Sometimes you get some fine branches and depending on the time of year, also leaves but usually good. They don't have to pay to dump them somewhere and we get em for free. Win/Win. I got a bunch a few years ago and broadcast winecap mushroom spawn. I have winecaps everywhere, very little weeds between my plants and a nice surface to walk on. No water pooling, no muddy spots, little grass to cut and I don't need to water often.
My yard soil is terrible.. years ago the old house that was on there was torn down, basement foundation ripped out and everything backfilled with construction trash. (rocks, sand, cement chunks, ashphault chunks, boulders and gravel. It was packed down super hard and topped with more gravel. It was used for years as a parking lot.
I bought the property, planted a bunch of cedar along the one side facing the street, built a bunch of raised beds from mostly upcycled wood, hauled in garden soil.
In the bottoms of these raised beds I put tons of leaves, chunks of logs, branches, etc, then topped with soil.
My gardens do well. I have trees in there now too and have had baskets of plums, cherries, hope to soon have apples, pears and peaches. Trees are a bit slower growing than normal because of the horrid dirt but I did the best I could. I think the chips leaching nutes around the drip line/roots will help. The trees won't get big which is what I want anyways.
Been working on this for nearly 10 years and it is really starting to look good. The bees love it, I often have bumble bee nests which is really cool to watch them going in and out of their holes in the ground with bits of grass and such to make their homes. I get tons of butterflies as well.
I'll be setting up a better watering system next year (winter is right around the corner here now) which will use rain water collected from my roof and gravity fed.
Sometimes too if you can't get chips for free, you can get them for pretty cheap. The town where I live has a couple gravel yards where the tree trimming guys can drop off chips there. Ask the gravel pit owner if you can get chips. I paid $10 for 1/2 ton truck load a couple years ago.
I do get a lot of squirrels, mice, chipmunks and a few rats but I live trap them and relocate em about 5 miles from my place in a nice wooded area.
I really enjoyed reading your comment. Sounds like some rewarding big efforts and you are happy with the progress.
I like to regenerate and recycle the greenery clippings by chopping them up and making a pile of it in any hollow spots, and wet it down. Sometimes we spread it out then mow over it to really mulch it down. The pile shrinks and grows as time cycles along.
Also in Ontario. I've been addicted wood chips for about 10 years. It's amazing how fast they break down. I get a load every year. We also have winecaps everywhere!
Tammy-Lynn Stewart ~ What an enjoyable read I had from your posted comment! Thanks! I located in Toronto and just wondered what area of Ontario your garden is in?
You should write more about this garden that you so dearly love, Tammy.
Merry Christmas.
🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
As a former Recycling Coordinator, I'd like to correct your comments on cardboard.
Most cardboard is brown and has no wax impregnated or it wouldn't be recyclable. When the cardboard is coloured, it may contain clay, which is what glossy magazines are made with. There are some waxed cardboards, usually for specific packaging, such as for seafood. We had to remove waxed cardboard from the bins before they were emptied for transport to the recycling plant.
The inks used on cardboard and newspapers are non-toxic soy based these days, but I wouldn't vouch for inks used outside the Western world.
I on my way to the garden shop to buy my Wood chips. What great information.
This was a great presentation. THANK YOU
Outstanding presentation . Thank you
You could do those extra layers, one would just have to build some air pipes into the design that would bring air and water down under the top layer. Still say no cardboard but layers of mulch will just turn into good soil eventually.
One would actually not need to worry about bringing air down... because her study did *not* show less air at soil level under cardboard. The diffusion rate was different, but the gas concentrations under every treatment (except plastic) weren't significantly different from *bare soil*. Just bc gas moves slower through an object, doesn't mean it's slow enough to affect gas levels on the other side - and it didn't in this study for anything but plastic!
She is not accurately reporting the results of her own study here.
This is really interesting, especially the use in restoration. I will look into this more and test out chip use on some our local arid restoration plots. I would like alternatives to the herbicides that are being used. I do wonder though about the difficulty to transport large quantities of it, or to put it on hillsides where it might slide right down over a year. This is inspiring though.
Excellent presentation,thanks.
I'm really glad to know that I'm not the only one that hates landscape fabric and plastic! Such an awful mess and a waste of money!
But if we aren't supposed to sheet mulch or till, how do we go about making new flower beds? Wont 4" of wood chips smother out bedding plants along with the weeds? Especially low growers and ground cover plants.
I'm ready to change how I install flower beds! I'm about to redo a corner of my yard in preparation for bees! So it will be completely xeric with lots of native flowers! I was going to rototill it and rake the grass and weeds out, but now I'm wondering if I should order a chip drop instead...
41:24 Reminds me of how the pros install epoxy floors- they "chip to rejection" basically pile plastic chips thick enough such that they don't stick anymore before adding the top coat; this adds to the strength and durability of the floor. Funny how there's a application-invariant way to create a durable surface covering 🤔
Thanks! awesome will continue to do as I am doing and thankful for the further education.
Would love to hear your thoughts on hugelkultur! Great video!! Learned a ton
Just excellent! I am a big fan.
Does it ,matter what type of wood chip? For example are pine wood chips ok, or are they too acidic? Thank you for an informative video.
It should not matter. The pine wood chips are less dense and will break down faster than hardwood. You usually have to pay for hardwood arborist mulch where I am at so softwood it is :)
So informative!! Thank you!
Cardboard is the bomb.
well, no more cardboard underlayment , and will be looking for arborist chips. A very educational talk. Thank you!
Card board can be useful for suppressing weeds and is cheap (free) but so is black plastic it is often discarded on building sites and can be used for many years.I find that water trickle s under the sheet and the black also warms the soil . Covering soils to suppress weeds and grasses does I think increase worm count I always have lots of voles and I assume they are eating worms.
The voles are after beetle grubs
Plastic will degrade and you'll be picking up minute pieces for years.
Did you actually listen to her presentation? Fairly certain she trashed cardboard and plastic except for limited use
This talk appears to be targeted towards landscaping/perennial rather than vegetable gardening. Four inches of wood chips isn't a practical method of killing off weeds or cover crop every year. If cardboard is perforated when it is laid down, it would probably improve gas exchange while still suppress weeds.
Yes you are correct some plastic is particularly bad at degrading quickly I will amend my practice.
What about seeds in the arborist woordchips? Could using them spread invasive species? I am asking because I got some arborist woodchips and spread it out in my yard and hundreds of redbud tree seedlings popped up. Redbud trees are no problem but there is a lot of kudzu in my area and I imigined that I got really lucky.
You see you got the predicted result: no weeds, but tree seedlings. BONUS!
What is your opinion of hay as a mulch, as famously used by Ruth Scout. It’s enjoying a revival in Europe after her books on no-work gardening have been translated into various European languages
Wonderful.
Woodchips are great but not really scalable. I'm using woodchip on fruit trees and berry bushes but now I want to plant 5 acres with berries and I just won't be able to get the amount of woodchips that will be necessary and will have to replenish it every year involving lots of labour.
I'm going to go with landscape fabric instead. Main drawback I see is that it'll shelter rodents from the foxes so I could be having more vole problems.
Live in a humid climate so never had problems with cardboard under woodchips, it breaks down very fast, absorbs water and doesn't dry out under woodchips.
Awesome video thank you! Question though: am I the only person who won’t put cardboard in our garden? I actually consider it a synthetic material. 😂.
I mean how do we know what chemicals or glues are left behind? It’s also quite polluting to manufacture. So I prefer to send it to the recycle. Even if it doesn’t get recycled, I’d rather it be in the landfill than my garden. For my veggie garden I prefer what I call “real” mulch - wood or leaves.
I agree, never liked cardboard we use hay as mulch and wood chips in the paths. Despite what some will say I have no more weeds than people who use straw. Also I dig my paths down 4 to6 inches down to subsoil and fill with the chips and the broken down chips make a great soil.
@A R the hay could be more toxic but probably isn't, the cardboard might not be toxic but probably is. I know exactly where my hay comes from and who grows it I don't know where the cardboard comes from or who makes it. Happy holidays
The "glue" in cardboard is corn starch.
Awesome! So glad I Watched this. What a cool woman:)
Tank you.😃
Are there toxins in the cardboard that might hurt the organic garden?
The only chemical is sulphuric acid and that evaporates at the cardboard factory as soon as the newly made cardboard dries. It's safe and even delicate earthworms thrive on it alone.
40:10: Won’t a wood chip mulch EVENTUALLY bring the ph of soil to a neutral 7?
Why do worm farms feed the worms cardboard ?
I drink water but I can't live under it.
@@shawnsg I grew some potatoes in a cardboard box and the sides broke down after a couple of months , so I transferred the potato plant to a bucket and the bottom of the box was gone .
Cardboard is fine for a biological foodsource but she says because it's a big flat sheet it smothers the soil when soggy and when it doesn't rain it becomes a dessicant like charcoal drying out the soil.
great info!
I may have drifted...I understand wood chips good for regenerative agriculture but suppose I want sweet corn or snow peas, etc? How am I planting seeds or even started seeds in 6" of coarse wood chips? Can anyone help?
I don’t think she dealt with planting seeds- they planted plants. I pull back my mulch and add a soil/compost mix to fill that hole. Then I plant the seeds in the added soil.
Exactly just move them and add a little seedling soil
I have 1/4 acor and filled with wood chips for about 8 years and I use a breaker bar about 2" and 4" long and I use this to turn the chips about every year or so and that also helps the chips to turn and rot and not mildue. Take care.
I haven't been able to find wood chips, just endless companies with bark dust.
Amazing video without watching this no one can justice with mulching
Then you haven’t meant a good permaculture gardener that does this
Great info. Wish it was shorter but I learned some new stuff. I like that it’s science based!
My grandparents knew all this and more without science. Science is for the people that have no clue and will never have a clue.
"The spores of everything are everywhere."
Here come all the internet “experts” flooding the comments
If the presenter will be turning their head a lot, a lavalier/lapel mic will do better if placed on the presenter's chest. They can be taped under clothing as long as it's not thick clothing.
Agreed. Good presentation but a major flaw in looking away to the screen all the time which affected the audio. This is quite basic really!
Not sure why landscape fabric can be worse than cardboard surely it's breathable ?
No! Landscape fabric NEVER, never breaks down. I am trying to remove fabric the previous owner laid 25 years ago. It is killing the mature trees as water and oxygen cannot get into the soil. Also, I think fabric encourages voles as it provides them a Nice, dry, protected living space. Please do not ever use landscape cloth!!
It's not.
Many so called weeds are actually herbs
the best mulch is mulched leaves. An enormous oversite here.
It’s also the best base organic fertilizer and best for microbial activity
What about if you want to plant seeds? How do I plant carrots or beets or even peas in a thick bed of leaves?
Leaves were covered under organic mulches in the first part.
You can’t plant seeds in any mulch, really. You must either move the mulch aside, or add the mulch later, after the seeds have become plants. I move my wood chips aside and also add more soil and compost where I plant.
@@maryfisher9888 I suspected as much, but always ask just in case someone has thought of something I haven't heard of. Thanks for your trouble
Look for vidsof her talking about how science hasn't found benefits of compost teas over using compost itself. Compost teas are sacred cows to some people.
The decrease to the volume caused by talking away from the mic makes this presentation very difficult to understand. A real shame.
what's this lady's gripe with horsetails lol
😂
16:53 “I never quite figured out why [people put cardboard under woodchips]”
Pintrest and Reddit. The reason is pintrest and Reddit.
And then in 18:03 she does the scientist mic drop.
Everything people do which aren’t based in science is because it is emotionally appealing.
It got popular on Pinterest and Reddit because it works for establishing new beds. It's never been "the" recommended method for individual tree establishment. You're supposed to wait 1-2 years before planting trees into a lasagna bed.
Why does it work? The sugars in the cardboard glue attract earthworms, the cardboard smothers weeds while the new plantings are put on top, into the compost layer, and then covered with mulch. You're making a raised garden bed that will deteriorate over time and add organic matter into the topsoil, ultimately increasing water infiltration and building the soil sponge. You NEVER are supposed to place cardboard, then wood chips, and that's it.
The speaker even said, in fact, "but like I said, this isn't measuring water, there's no research on this, it's the first study like this that's ever been done[...]", but there are many, many side-by-side comparisons. Science is GREAT, but a lack of scientific study doesn't mean something doesn't work; only scientific evidence SHOWING that something doesn't work
Source: I am a certificated Permaculturist and Master Gardener (Travis County, TX and Pulaski County, AR).
no, sheet mulching has been used in permaculture communities for a long time
@@mf5049 “permaculture” is a mumbojumbo term used by anyone to mean practically anything. The gardening space is infected with idiots with more opinion than knowledge just like all the rest.
She doesn't understand the use of cardboard cuz she didn't go back and check the cardboard after it was covered with mulch what she would have found is just the label left because worms don't eat the label and what they left in place was the richest richest thing you could drop on to your land to have things grow misinformation like she's leading out is what causes people's land to go sterile
No…… because it works wonders on my rocky clay soil
The shade cloth works if you turn the edges under and pin them with lawn stakes that are made for that purpose. Then you cover it with organic mulch and wood chips -real, organic - not fake. If you do not do that - yes - the edges will come up and it will look look awful and get worse and worse over time and weeds will grow. I like to put pretty smooth small stone gravel over the shade cloth. It looks very nice and is soft to walk on.
Then when you have finished that you plant living bushes (I like lilies and lavendar and snap dragons and such in the bare areas but again along the edges you must turn the shade cloth under all along and pin it down. I did that and it looks great with no weeds.
You didn't watch the video did you?
You obviously missed her points
Stone mulch is THE WORST. weeds grow through and then if u want to remove it it is not possible
YesYesYessss to wood chips! we use them (friend is an aborist, they're free to anyone who asks, nearby) everywhere on top of soil in veg gardens, and also under trees/shrubs. However I wonder how long our friend will be able to cut trees & chip them, due to governments outlawing chainsaws, chippers, etc anything gas-powered is going the way of the dinosaurs. Hmmm I hear that Porsche has a successful artificial fuel, perhaps that is the answer? Certainly there are no good electric chainsaws or chippers (on the scale which our arborist friend uses for large mature trees). Time will tell. Hope we are all able to grow more of our own foods and eliminate the need for lettuce shipped 2,500 miles from home!
there are some excellent electric chainsaws and chippers these days, but yes, they won't take down a mature oak.
Terrible audio. Your voice keeps dropping off because you’re holding your mic in your hand and keep moving it around. Excellent presentation but bad audio. Please wear the lav!
took me a while to realise this was a paid promotion disguised as science
This was a mixed bag. Yes woodchips are fantastic. She is wrong about lasagne beds, and sheet mulching (they are only used at the start for a reason and yes there are studies on it). And I was disappointed they didn't do a round up and woodchip bed. Without which makes that study pointless.
Still it was mostly alright. I wouldn't use this as any good source of information tho.
If this was a field experiment it would have more value.
You want to learn more? Than take her class and you will know more. This was to wake you up and with her words you can also apply your own study. She did great.
Half of this is a straight joke; 🤣
When science argues, "oh, no studies on THIS have been done, except for the ones WE did..., and the science has spoken negative on THIS..."
that's not Science;
This is misinformation;
Mix in some true things in there, and they successfully confuse ya'll;
I agree interesting talk but you cannot generalize about soils compost even environment because they are so many variables . You have to experiment and share experiences with older folk and knowledge. I think?
You don't use a semicolon at the end of a sentence in place of a period when you're just ending a sentence.
Why call it "10 Minute University" but then post a 51 minute video?
Quite a few claims in here that don't make much sense, or incomplete "truth".
My experience is most of this is just not true.
i have a ton of fungus gnats anywhere there is wood chips