MAKE RICH GARDEN SOIL - I'LL SHOW YOU HOW
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.พ. 2022
- As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases. Want Rich Garden Soil, but don't know how to make it? Well, you're in luck. Let me show you how I transformed my hard, red clay soil to this black, composted goodness. It's easy to do. It just takes a little time. Let Mother Nature do the work for you!
Using methods learned from the Back To Eden Film, ANY soil can be changed.
Check it out...
alan
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Totally agree, Every One needs to plant a garden. The times they are a changing. A calorie dense garden.
Agree with you both
I'm still amazed when a little seedling comes up
And yes, the times are a changing :(
Everyone is watching the shiny object that is the Ukraine/Russia battle.
rutabaga/potato/sweet potato - year around growing rotation, loads of calories, all hidden in the ground.
I haven't tried sweet potatoes in a long time... this might be the year!! :)
@@BIGALTX I think I'll actually switch to true yams this year. I plant alternate narrow rows. The rutabaga are about ready to come out, the potatoes will need to be hilled at the same time. When they come out in May, I'll plant the yams.
Love your style man. You deliver a good clear message that is easy to understand and listen too. No need for drama like the other channels. Thanks and happy prepping from Somerville.
I appreciate that! 👍🏻😊
Hi. Im in NC and I used both the same way you explain. I sign in online for free wood-chips in a local company and got a huge truck full; a neighbor had a tree service company cutting and chipping trees in his property and I just ask the supervisor and they dump the chips in my property; the electrical company was also chipping and I ask and they dump it also; and finally I have a guy that those a lot of work in my neighborhood cutting grass and cleaning the dry leaves during the fall, his machine mulch the leaves very well which prevent from flying with the wing and he dump them in my property; all works perfect. I just have a home small tractor with a trailer and I do all the hand-labor to move everything into my planting beds. I have amazing soil, and enjoy doing it.
Wow... you've got a LOT of great contacts.
Keep it up.
Thanks for the comment and confirmation!!
Happenings today remind me of what my parents said about planting Victory Gardens in WWII. We talk about purchase limit signs in stores. My parents had ration cards. They couldn't go to 4 stores and get 8 if their ration card was for 2. Wish I were young enough to plant gardens and preserve foods, as I once did here. Yet, doing what I can to preserve what's still available in other ways. Hope more younger folks will take your advice now. Planning & planting time in the northern hemisphere is NOW!
We have heavy red clay in this area - NC). What you've recommended is exactly what works to help amend the soil. It needs organic matter tilled into the soil. If hardpan layer is broken up, and not re-compacted, even better.
Thank you for sharing and for teaching others. God Bless.
Thanks OT.
You have a world of wisdom :)
Awesome thanks and yes we had all better start a garden. Agree
👍😎
This is basically what I’ve started to do in North Central TX. Pretty much the Back to Eden method. When I had a tractor, but hey get a lot of good exercise with the wheelbarrow. Should have listened a little longer for you to talk about Back to Eden. Yes everyone needs to be planting a garden! The Lord put this on my heart in January of 2020 and I haven’t looked back since! So glad I found your channel!
Thanks for sharing, so glad you found me too!! 👍😎
Thank you for your advice! I have lived in Texas for over 15 years and I’m finally going to start gardening again. I’m from Ohio and this dirt in Texas had me stumbled til now. Thank you
Yes, it’s going to get bad.
You can do it!
In east tx, the leaves are abundant and people bag them for you! Totally free and make excellent compost. Layer the leaves in with a little existing compost and green material so they wont blow away. We make 10 yards or more of high quality leaf mold compost every year for almost free.
Great tip... Thanks for the info!
I live in North central Tx and have the red soil as well. My garden soil is now almost black and very rich. You are 100% right on the wood chips and the hay. I do the same but a bit differently as I use both every year. Each year I let the old hay the cows drop around the hay ring just set until the next year. Hay ring is next to garden. When It's time to work the garden soil in January or early February, I scoop up old hay and pile up. It is always well on its way to breaking down and is already mixed with cow manure from where they stood and ate. I then spread on garden followed by wood chips and till in. There is a great amount of organic material in the old hay and the wood chips help hold moisture in garden soil and break down adding even more organic material. Wood chips also keep the PH levels in soil from manure in hay from getting to high. I would add for those looking for wood chips to check with their local electric company or co-op as most of them have companies trimming the trees around power lines in your area and are looking for a place close to where they are working to unload each days wood chips. Really enjoyed your video.
Great way to do your garden.
I also use the old hay, but I pile it up in piles and let it compost
It's good stuff
Great tips on how to get some free chips, thanks!
This year I plan on adding about 3 tubs( large totes) of rabbit poo.
Rabbit poo is good stuff.
I don't think it will burn anything.
I've heard of folds planting veggies IN a pile of rabbit poo ! 😎
I’ve done something similar in the Houston area. My thoughts are that if you get rid of leaves and grass clippings , you’re shipping out nutrients of your area.
It’s great to see other Texians into prepping and gardening.
So true.. thanks for sharing!
I have a large backyard garden in North Texas. My soil is black, heavy clay. By turning in straw and dead plants without the seeds for about three years I got loose fertile soil.
You bet... good for YOU!!
I also agree with you. The time for another " Victory Garden " should be NOW!!.
Amen!
Yes sir we had a lawn service and we had a little low spot that we dumped grass clippings and leafs for some time and it made some of the best soil. Full of earthworms plenty of bait plus great potting soil win win
Oh wow… that’s great!
Nice soil. I placed leaves in my empty compost bin last year. The bin is huge. Each trip I would walk on them and compact them. I didn't shred them. The pile was chest high when the bin was full. I thought it would take a few years for them to break down. Turned my chickens loose and they loved it. Just cleaned it out the other day and has the best looking black compost ever.
Amen! 👍🏻
I compost leaves year round. It takes longer to compost oak leaves than any other, but it's worth it
Absolutely... and FREE!
They are tannic and acidic and bad for compost
@@pilsplease7561 do you have data to back up your statement?
Garden in the woods! whoo hoo!
👍😎
Yes!!! Same here! Beautiful soil. We LOVE mulch
👍😎
I do container gardening up north in zone 5A and make my own homemade potting mix.
I start by using clay dug from my backyard I let it dry in the sun on my driveway then I crush it into a fine powder then sweep it up.
I used to use the topsoil as part of my base ingredients instead of clay, but found that the clay has way more minerals than the native topsoil in my backyard.
Basically I mix the clay, compost, worm castings, coconut coir, plus inoculants and amendments together by hand. I made six batches total for this years new grow containers.
Per wheelbarrow (1 batch):
10 gallons coconut coir
10 gallons of crushed powdered clay
10 gallons of locally-sourced earth worm castings
10 gallons of my homemade super compost
This is the bulk of my soil base mix. Then I add these inoculants and amendments to the base mix listed above.
(1)Bat Guano
(2)Bone meal
(3) blood meal
(4) rock dust
(5) alfalfa meal
(6) kelp meal
(7) seaweed meal
(8) chicken manure
(9) green sand "mineral deposits from the ocean floor"
(10) feather meal
(11) mycorrhiza "a type of fungus"
(12) microorganism mix "multiple different types of microorganism bacteria"
(13) course garden perlite
(14) red wiggler worms about one dozen per flower pot depending on the pot size
If you had X-ray vision my soil would look like a tangled web of millions of white spider webs in the soil mixture.
This is the holy grail of the home gardener, it's known as "soil hyphae" a type of mycorrhiza fungus network that has a beneficial symbiotic relationship with the vegetable plants.
If you're able to achieve this hyphae network magical things happen like absolute ridiculous yields from one plant 👍.
I basically make a living soil and let the soil feed the plants (happy soil microbes happy plants)😁.
The only time i actually feed the plants is maybe for the first 5 weeks. I might occasionally mix some fish emulsion with water depending on the growth rate.
Basically if you build your soil properly in the beginning, there's really no reason to feed your plants in my very short grow season 🤷.
Happy gardening all✌️
WOW!!!
You're soil mix sounds incredible... congrats!
Our city has huge leaf compost piles from the leaves they pick up off the side of the roads where people rake them in piles. They compost and the city gives them to citizens for free, in my younger days gardening I'd go get a pickup load bring home dump on my gardening area.... Check with your city street dept see if they have free composted leaves .....
Great tip, thanks!
Great info Alan, people can really benefit by doing this without spending a fortune.
Soooo True. Thanks for sharing!
I'm in Texas and this video was very helpful, thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
You're 100% right!
Thanks, Wade!
Great video and content. I could and have done this many years ago in the 1970s when we had a sawmill, but in my part of the country, SW Louisiana it would be termite heaven. Definitely have to be out away from the house and barns like you said.
True, but the chips compost down so quickly, they don't seem to attract termites,
At one time, I put some in a flower bed next to the house... bad idea... that WILL draw termites
Your soil looks amazing. I had three small beds that I didn’t plant in for the fall/winter; however, I used , mustard, turnips and collards seeds that I broadcasted over the beds as a cover crop. I am hoping that my soil will be as amazing as yours. New subscriber here. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos.
Sounds like you've got it going on!
Thanks for the Sub and for watching 👍😎
@@BIGALTX you are welcome.
Yea no comments thks for the content appreciate your time and effort
You bet... thanks for watching, James!
Looking good Brother! I love that carbon!
Thanks, PH! 👍😎
Great information thank you for sharing 👍
You bet... thanks for watching!
Thank you. I'm inspired.
So glad! 🙂
I put my woodchips a foot deep. I year later, no woodchips. It all broke down in less than a year. The awesome thing is weed are super easy to pull.
It's amazing as to how quick they break down!!
Thanks!!!! Agree for the tree cutting service, they do give away the mulch. I just asked and they brought me a truck load of mulch and said to call them if I need more 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
That is awesome!
Hello Alan, I live up here in south west Missouri on a rock pile lol. I’ve used wood chips in the past and the Bermuda grass just over takes it a matter of a few months. Now I just container garden so much easier and less maintenance. Great videos watch them all, happy gardening this year and great success.
Ive had the same issue in north Texas. But it does still build soil and the grass keeps it in place at the very least.
True... the grass LOVES wood chips.
When it rains, the water filters through the chips as compost tea.
The grass RUNS toward it!!
It sure does build soil.
There are good and bad aspects of using them
@@BIGALTX That is for sure.
The nice part is after some time of using wood chips the soil is loose and it is easy to pull weeds and grass out with little effort, roots and all will come up.
Love the video. THanks.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent advice
Glad it was helpful!
Got seeds sprouted already brother! Garden on! 😃
Nice 👍
Tfs, still learning 👋 planning on container gardening, practically no back yard.
Containers work great.
I LOVE containers.
Check out my Container Gardening Playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLutBw50GI1zyPhjUaC7W54BReOBtrVjyb.html
I just use leaves and my food scraps. Works wonders. Now i plant everything that way
Yep... that works too.
Anything that will compost down should make great soil
There it is! We all need a neighbor that runs a tree mulching service so we can make that awesome soil!!!
Yep... find one! 😎
Our local landfill runs a chipper shredder and sells the results by the truck load. A neighbor had several loads delivered a few years ago. While there was a few bits of stray trash, it was surprisingly clean. Garden results proved it was worth the investment in soil improvement. Depending on how tree trimmings and such are handled in your area, checking with the county (in our case) may be a usable idea.
Excellent advice!
Check out ChipDrop... it's free! Hopefully it is available in your area :)
Thks so much fo Great advise have poor soil will work at it.
You bet!
Call your local dump/refuse outfit, in the PNW local dumps have garden waste recycling where they grind up bark and branches and leaves and pile it up outside the "dump" gate for free pick up.
Absolutely, thanks!
New Subscriber!We love doing our big garden and are thinking about do a back to eden garden next year.
Thanks for subbing!
I did BTE for several years, then realized that the mulch was making my OWN soil much better.
So, I don't plant in chips anymore (as a rule) but DO still pile them on to make the soil better.
Wow, that is dandy !
Thanks!
Maybe this spring if the contractors that trim trees for the power pole for the right of ways see if i can get a load of mulch.
I've heard of a lot of folks get them just by asking a crew if they will dump.
Might have to give them a few bucks... but it's worth it :)
When i ordered this years seed last fall, i made sure i would grow large Harvest crops, long shelflife crops, dryable crops and crops that can be canned.
Ordered multiple species of each seed. So i can try wich one does best on my soil and save seed.
I guess i made a good call last fall.
YES YOU DID... good for you!!
Good job
Thanks! 😎
Recently shared this video in my area's local gardening group. It's hard in Texas to plant an in-ground garden without knowing how to make the soil ready for the job!
Wow... Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful plot ,
We are doing that with
30 ft x 40 foot area was gifted 11 bags of 30 gallon bags of leaves , plus up the road they cut down Beautiful trees to put in a store & waiting to see someone their to get some ,
We had 2 have several trees cut down & stump grounded out , used all that Wood chips last year to cover my plants here in Montgomery County, Texas- Beautiful savings also , kept my dirt moist in this Texas Heat also .....
Now, want some for the plot .
Thank you, Allen
That looked Great - you can forsure plant u some Corn there ,
Mine doesn't look at all like that but I'm putting a good 10 rows of corn & other stuff ....our Dirt/ Soil isn't clay tho
It's thick but black ???
God bless you
Josette Tharp Montgomery County, Texas 🙏🏻
Thanks, Josette!
Sounds like your garden will really be nice this year.
Been doing this since we got on our property a couple years ago. It’s going to make some awesome rich soil. Good stuff man!
Yes it WILL... you'll be amazed :)
Hey Texas Prepper Man, thank you for sharing. I think you'd make a good neighbour! from 🇨🇦
Thanks 👍
Wood chips are the bomb!! We use on our farm religiously!!
Excellent! 👍😎
My municipal recycling station has wood chips and leaves. I run those chips through my chipper to make the pieces smaller and then spread them on the garden and till them in.
That's a great idea!
Allen have you ever went in there after you till them in a hung a breaking plow in the soil and turn all that under. It would break down quickly if you cover it in the soil.
No, but sometimes the tiller gets a little too deep and I see clay
I really don't like bring up the clay underneath.
Makes it harder to plant, cultivate, etc...
@TexasPrepper2 that's what you want to do is mix the clay in with it and it will make the clay not clay and turn it to good soil. That's what I did with mine. I brought it all up and mixed the cotton seed hulls in with it and change the composition of the clay. That should be the final result. It's like walking on the moon in my garden now and it doesn't compact anymore I've changed the clay.
Thanks for the info, Joel !
Or do bunches of Hot Compost and have a garden ready to go within 2 - 3 MONTHS. :D
Best to go around collecting leaf bags during fall or spring like this guy said at one point in video.
Thanks for the tips!
12 years ago I layered cardboard and coffee grounds 6 layers thick then put 9 inches of woodchip on top . The worms under neath multiplied. To plant I simply pushed the woodchip aside take a plug of soil out the same size of the pot grown plant that is subsequently placed in the hole. No weeding needed ,little watering , and the plants and trees grow exceptionally well. Some plants don’t like it like cabbages.
I’ve done that also in years past.
Back to Eden gardening they call it.
Works pretty well.
I used the deep mulch method to transform my hard clay soil.
😇yes, up to you how you use or put principles to practice...blessings to all
Absolutely!
sawdust is one of the best soil conditioner when it is desolved in the ground, i have actually did it, because it produces good bacteria like micorriza which inhance the roots of the plants...
Good to know. Thanks for the comment!
My PH is high from all my yard-waste so I'll be purchasing pine-hardwood-mulch this year as it's the only bulk item, besides sulfur, I can purchase locally for the need. This year I dug up the entire garden all the way down to the top of the water-table (10-14 inches) & through to the drainage swells to ensure my Ksat rating is as high as possible for the most well-drained soil available in my area.
Wow, that was a lot of work!
@@BIGALTX In my situation it didn't take more than two hours using a compact-tractor. Top dressing the garden just didn't move materials down quickly enough for the benefits my landscape has.
I'm south of Houston and we have horrible black gumbo clay. I've been doing the same thing for several years. I even added a bagger to my zTrak mower so I could layer on grass clippings. And my neighbor lets me mow her pasture from time to time to collect material. It works great. That said, I've also started using granular humic/fulvic acid which does an amazing job of aggregating the clay and making it much easier to grow in.
I also bought a bed shaper implement from Buckeye Tractor this year. Total game changer for hilling the garden beds. I guess I really need to start posting some new videos . . .
I've thought about a bagger myself, for my Hustler
What kind of bagger do you have?
Does it do a good job?
@@BIGALTX I have a Deere zTrack with a Deere bagger. It has a PTO powered assist blower. It works great as long as things are dry. It usually cuts and bags at full speed. No complaints.
@@JeffsAquaponics Good to know, thanks!
Man I'm on Florida's gulf coast. I garden in beach sand basically .... sugar sand. Same remedy for us both, lots and lots of organic material
Thanks for sharing
I have hay mixed with goat poop. Extra goodness!
Hahaha... you BET... good stuff for sure!
If you mix in some bokashi with your wood chips and soil, it will increase microbial activity and break it down even faster. Theres a product called Recharge that can be watered in and it also increases microbial activity and makes nutrients in the soil much easier to uptake by any plants.
Thanks for the tips!! 👍
Yep Recharge is the best
@@timpage5021 Thanks!
@@BIGALTX very welcome
To aid the composting process is to put a silage tarp on that spot and shorten your compost time by 1/2
True... I wish I had one.
@@BIGALTXusing black poly rolls
Hi. Thanks for great video. How can we turn 20 inch. Rotavator may only rotate 5 inch or maybe maximum 10 inch in multi pass method. Thanks for your help. 👏👏
I don't "turn" the chips into the soil
Just let them lay there and decompose
Takes a couple of years, but worth the wait
I love wood chips also. Waiting for tree trimmers to come back in my area. I also use leaves and it has made a difference. I compost also .
That is awesome!
I haven't used leaves in a while (since i got access to the chips) but leaves really work great for this!
I got a huge load (2.5 miles worth) of oak and cedar mulch from contractors installing a new power line near my house. It's chunky and ugly but once sifted a bit it's pure gold. As a plus the biggest chunks of oak are perfect for BBQ.
Edit: I just talked to the guys working and they were more than happy to cut out a 30 min one way drive to pay the dump to get rid of it.
Wow... that's FANTASTIC!!
Live in Ohio where it’s got a lot of clay . Used wood chips leaves sand rock dust gypsum mushroom compost and dozen other things.
I double dig turning over the garden end of harvest and end of winter before planting. I feel double digging instead of tiling with a rototiller Is less destructive to the biological life.
Sounds great!
Great Video! It is nice to see the progress of the chips and tilling. What do think about wetting the plot down a bit and covering it with a silage tarp ?? Thanks again!
Sure, that would work if you're worried about weed pressure.
I don't have a tarp or I would do that myself :)
Have you ever used biochar on your soil? I watched a documentary about terra preta the other day and the possibilities seemed very exciting.
I've studied it a litle, but never tried it
That looks like mine here in NE Texas
Excellent!! 👍😎
Keep planting too.
Landfills have piles of mulch an compost
Normally 20. A load.
Dairies give away cow manure and load it too.
Free normally.
Thanks for the tips!
Looks great. Maybe you can also use some "Liquid Waste Decomposer" to speed up the process in few months instead of waiting that long
Great tip, thanks!
This is call "compost in place", among other names. One key thing is to be sure of the wood species in your chips as there are many that will inhibit plant growth. It's also a good idea to out down a sun blocking (water permeable) tarp between growing. Tarps and mulching (composting in place) are both valuable for different reasons. Obviously compost adds nutrients and microbes, tarps will help encourage microbes and beneficial insects habitation but it doesn't add any nutrients. I find tarps best for short term weed & soil moisture control whereas mulching is best for over winter or longer when resting ground.
Yep, a tarp would be nice!
Thanks!
Tarps? Like one of them plastic thing you might use to cover vehicles or mopeds with??
Watch your Hay, a lot of Farmers spray with Grazon ,
That’s true.
Thanks for the tip. 👍🏻
Y’all should research “food forest”, “Johnson sue bio-reactor”, “fungal composting/mushroom composting” and “drunken compost”. The combination of these methods speed up the process and if you use perforated pvc pipe for air flow with drip irrigation on top it will greatly speed up the process while not requiring turning the piles over. However, if you can flip the beds and mix them up regularly it will hot compost. But this isn’t needed with the bioreactor method.
Good info, I'll check it out 👍😎
Have used wood chips in my garden for years
They DO work wonders!
Thanks
If you still want to plant, but do want to do the same thing over time. You can dig the soil out, then fill the hole with plant matter. Then put the soil back on top. Next year when you turn the soil over all the plants will have decomposed. It also helps keep water in the ground and feed worms. Once plants start growing you can spread mulch on the places plants are not growing. After the first year you can really see and feel the difference in the soil.
Thanks for the tips!! 👍😎
Hi, We have large pine tree that drops pine needles all the time would you recommend wood chips on top for better soil? Thanks.
I’ve never seen anybody put wood chips on top of Pine needles, so I’m not sure. But I don’t know why it would not work. If it was me, I would rake up the Pine needles and put wood chips down. But I don’t have any pine trees where I’m at now so I really don’t know.
Wish I could help more.
I love tractor tillers way better than disking.
Me too. They do a much prettier job.
Alan, in reference to the wood chips, I had a tree trimming company drop me off 12 loads a few years ago. It has since composted down to some really good material. Still have a few sticks in it, but most of it has broken down really nice. My question is, I have 16 raised beds that I garden in, can this material be added to the beds now? Should I work it in the present soil or just put it on top? Again, many thanks for the great videos you produce. Sure, helps out and answers a lot of questions.
Not a bad idea
In the past, I've topped off my raised beds with chips
They will compost pretty quick
The only problem is fertilization... You'll have to move the chips back to apply fert... but not a big deal
Not an expert here but I just read a site that sells blackberries. They say don’t put pine chips with blackberries . Good to know
@@cynthiadeg9206 Sorry I did not specify, but the chips I had were from oak trees.
Well, I know I had lots of pine (and everything else) on my blackberries when they were in the ground and they did fantastic.
Here's what they looked like: th-cam.com/video/rcJI94b96Nc/w-d-xo.html
Video is a little shaky, but you'll see they are mulched heavily (i'm sure a LOT of pine was in there... this is ETX) and the BBs look great
Thank you for your videos, question… the wood chips take a while to breakdown… could you use saw dust from saw mill to speed this process up?
My understanding about using sawdust is no.
It is so packed together it doesn't allow a lot of aeration.
However... I think you CAN make compost out of it if you pile it up and turn it frequently...
But I wouldn't just lay it down on the garden
@@BIGALTX Love to see someone teaching about soil building. I've been working on an area for several years to turn an area that had terrible soil quality, lot's of grey clay from the bottom of a dug pond, onto soil. I burned some trees (a lot of big ones) on the area, spread out the ash and harrowed it in, I have spread leaves on it and had a tree trimmer drop several loads of power line trimmings on it and spread it out. Then harrowed it in and bottom plowed it. I also used a box blade to drag a lot of the mulch from a nearby woods out into it and harrowed it. It has taken about 4 years but the soil is now soft, and black. Gonna try to plant it this year.
@@royparker7856 From what all you've done to it... it should be amazing!!
My forest does this naturally, I just scrape away the top layer of pine straw and there is lots of rich composted top soil.
You bet…
Composted leaves make great soil !
@@BIGALTX saves a lot of time making it but it’s hard work dragging it all up lol
Soul
I do this on Florida sugar sand. The issue here is that a foot of woodchips disappears entirely into the sand in three years. Just completely gone. I've started charring the chips where I can. I just set a fire on the spread out chips and put a sprinkler on it after an hour. Charcoal lasts longer. I learned that gardening directly in wood chips would only work for me if I had fifty pounds of slug poison to go along with it.
Wow… I never thought of the chips embedding in soft sand. Interesting.
Thanks for sharing.
@@BIGALTX It doesn't embed. It breaks down into small enough particles to be washed through the sand by the summer rains. You can find a dark band of organics just above the water table, which for me is 26 feet down.
@@nonyadamnbusiness9887 wow...
3 basket living channel. He tilled wood chips in to convert his clay soil faster.
Tilling them in can also deplete the Nitrogen
But... it probably WOULD help them break down quicker
What did you think of Howard Garretts using Corn Gluten meal Tea as a preemergent herbicide?
Not sure...
I used to follow him a few years ago.
I tried corn meal, dried molasses DE... lots of things, but it just never worked for me :(
Have you considered composting them in advance? Might speed up the process by a year or so.
I do that too: th-cam.com/video/ZmabDvbdc-o/w-d-xo.html
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Thanks for watching!
Just composting every thing first and use that compost
I do that also: th-cam.com/video/ZmabDvbdc-o/w-d-xo.html
Did you not use your manure from the cattle? We mix saw chips from the firewood business with cattle manure, compost it in 4 months great stuff, adds the nitrogen back that is needed to break down the chips.
I don't, but I need to do that.
I have compost piles that would make much quicker if I would do that.
I DO rake up all the old hay (with pee and poop in it) and compost that
white deer tx sir
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another option is to plant tress to generate biomass
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How about adding lime?
Probably wouldn’t hurt. Our soil is pretty acidic. I do add lime from time to time. A soil test is always best practice.
So I have a question. I see all the use of cardboard being used as a mulch or a brown filler for compost... can I just shred it in a paper shredder add it too the soil and till it in too speed up decomposition? Or would I NEED to use it as a mulch and let it break down over time??
I think laying down the cardboard sheets is more of a preventative measure. It prevents the grass and weeds from popping up through your garden. Yes, it does break down overtime, but I think weed suppression is the main reason.
Does it matter if the wood chips are from hardwood or softwood?
I've never found that it made any difference, and I've gotten loads of just about EVERYTHING :)
You would NOT want any wood that will not rot, like locust, bois d arc, redwood, etc
If you have crapy soil check out the No Dig Gardening.
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I consider taking others leaves or grass clips but I know neighbors use herbicides or roundup. I just wood chip like hell instead
Yes, you do have to be careful about adding grasses that have been treated.
Why not just buy compost, till in and plant?
Simple... Compost is expensive and these wood chips were free
Compost would be quicker, but more $$
I'm cheap :)
Would pine wood be ok? That’s mostly what we have around here.
You bet.
A lot of what I get is pine
Most any wood except wood that won't rot (bois 'de ark, locust, redwood, etc.)
Cedar seems to be ok to use too.
Could this be done on a larger scale like 35 acres?
Sure, it will just take lots and lots of wood chips.
I have used this method in my pastures before to improve pasture quality.
The deeper you till the chips in The deeper the topsoil will be created . You want have to wait years for nature to slowly do it. Have seen other videos. They say to add compost to keep the soil leaning toward a bacteria dominated soil . Wood chips work great around an orchard. Fungi for trees Bacteria for veggies. But having some fungi will not hurt.
Thanks for sharing, Charles.
I used to have deep mulch around my fruit trees.
It's decomposed now... I need to replace it
@@BIGALTX It does not get over 75 degrees > Where Gautschi lives. chips don't break down like in The deepsouth