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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.ย. 2024
- I did a Paul Gautschi, Back to Eden wood chip garden. And it failed miserably. The problem is-without thinking-using a system developed for one climate in a totally different climate. Learn how to fix the main problem with the Back to Eden gardening method.
You can watch a free documentary about Paul Gautschi and the Back to Eden gardening method here: www.backtoeden...
I'd highly recommend the documentary with the caveats I mention in the video.
I also live in Georgia and the first year we ran into this same problem. As the wood chips breakdown, stay persistent with pulling the runners and as it breaks down and get a little more compact the grass literally stays out of our garden. Our back to eden garden is AMAZING compared to our normal red clay gardens around here. I wished I can post pictures.
Agreed. Its a process. Bermuda is my archnemisis in Nashville, TN, but i slowly pull runners (all the way down) and plant or allow other native groundcovers to take over. Bermuda does not outcompete my native "weeds". Slow but steady wins the race.
Amd I just heard that weeds and such are just nature opening the ground with their root system
I love such videos, they're so rare. People usually are afraid of talking about the serious negative nuances of something that is mindlessly revered by the masses.
That sounds like a rather negative way of putting it 😏. Rather, everyone needs to investigate their area to see what works best for their location 👍😊
@@adailydaughter6196 They under-report the negative effect of woodchips on N in the soil.
@@georgecarlin2656 I heard that was a stance adopted but never actually tested by the USDA.
@@georgecarlin2656wrong. Studies show the opposite.
Just watched, Back to Eden, and got super excited about starting a garden in my backyard. Then I came across you video and before watching became discouraged. But after watching your video tips all the way through, I am super excited 😜 again! 😂
If you haven’t already find Charles Dowding and Richard Perkins videos on TH-cam ,you’re gardening life will become much easier ,it’s simple it works
@philipanthony the comment above was for you ,hope it helps !
Just like any other garden method you have better results if you stay on the weeds as they come.
Mulch is a more complicated topic than it first seems. It's always a good idea tp cover the ground. What\when differ by ecosyatem and the goals of your garden. Like how Charles Dowding uses compost in England because of slugs.
The bermuda is doing very well in my raised beds, thank you. We put boxes down, in just a few months it grows right though the boxes. But our tomatoes thrive in it just fine. :)
I was looking for this comment, and wasn't disappointed.
Hmm... Lawn mower is quicker than garden hoe. Check ✔️
LOL, That Bermuda grass came through plastic n in between my patio blocks. It’s some wicked stuff! It got in my raised beds n I don’t know how it did it. But it’s easier to get it out of my beds than out of the ground. It’s more invasive than the ants n aphids! I tried peppermint n ground covers to take over patches of the Bermuda grass but it’s worse than the peppermint n ground covers.
If only Bermuda grass were gold, we would be rich!
Same here in lower middle Tennessee. Bermuda loves cardboard and paper!
I’m so glad I ran across your video today. I live in Missouri, and I have been gardening for 50 years. As new information has come out, I have tried different methods. Last year I did a new no dig garden. The Bermuda grass has just about killed my soul. I feel your frustration. Thanks for the excellent tips. You may have given me the will to continue on.
The premise of your video is wrong, Im in BC Canada, above Washington state and we have grass like that everywhere.
yeah, i'm in washington state and we have bermuda grass everywhere. always a struggle to deal with, even in our raised beds with heavy duty landscape fabric.
You did not start it out correctly. Don’t call it a Back to Eden Garden.
Believe it or not all grass is edible. Just found that out about a month ago. So in a survivor situation, eat the grass!😁
Ha!......I suppose I'll just leave Him alone.........Or maybe not. I'm glad to see you guys correcting him on this vid before I did....not that he's going to listen but at least he's been told. ;)
Yep, in Germany also. 😄
I always heard that you should start the Back to Eden garden in the late fall, so that the dormant weeds and grass dies before they can break through the broken down cardboard layer and through the mulch. Also, the cardboard goes over any compost that you put down. It worked for me here in TX.
True, manure first, then lots of cardboard, paper, cotton or wool rags, etc. Leave for as long as you can before planting so you can uproot pernicious weeds.
Bermuda grass never dies! You just force the underground runners to move somewhere else.
@@gerdaho1 so if I'm planning to start a garden this spring I'm to late?
Never thought this would be so overwhelming lol
@@jajatus2002 You can start your garden all through the season. I changed my comment, sorry about that. Some sections of my garden have lots of weeds and they come through in spring mainly, and then I dig them out and add another layer of cardboard under the woodchips. So I know to put in only a few plants in those sections and to fully plant once I have had a whole year without weeds in that space. Good luck
@@jajatus2002 If you live in the south just till it! Then put down weed/landscape tarp (is that the name?) l have used no till method for 2 years now covering w/ tarps and cardboard for months to kill grass and unless you do it 2 or 3 times it will not work: Tilling will not kill it either, but you'll be 2 or 3 months ahead of the game. Then try the cardboard, wood chips for next season
Thanks! I live in the Sacramento Valley and am just starting to convert my backyard Bermuda lawn into a vegetable and fruit tree guild garden. I was so impressed watching the Back to Eden movie that I was going to try the 12 inches of wood chips - but thanks to you I now will be placing some cardboard paper over my soil and then making beds on top of that which will exclude the Bermuda. I think you just saved me a *ton* of work!
Hey Jeff, Yost here. I was surfing YT and was delighted to see an old friend. I'm no longer even close to the south, so Bermuda isn't an issue. Last year we moved to northern Michigan where the growing season can be up to several hours long. I'm mainly planting trees and making furniture from reclaimed wood. PM was my 9th startup to crash and burn, so I've hung up my cleats and retired from software. I don't miss it a bit. I'm loving life these days. Best to you and yours. -Mike
WHAAAAT??! 😳😳
Mike, you were literally just surfing YT and you actually KNOW the man who's channel this is?😯?
😆 This has got to be one of THE absolute coolest things I've run across while on the net, it's just so serendipitous! 🍃✧◝⁰๑˙❥🍃˙๑▿⁰◜✧🍃◍•ᴗ•◍✧*。*✨˘︶˘*.｡*🍃♡๑˙🍃❥˙๑🍃●’♡ε`●
And growing a forest in Michigan sounds like a hard but absolutely rewarding life... kismet yeah ✨
"...up to several hours..." cracked me up 😂
We use those bricks that you can make borders out of. Completely burying the first layer, adding 2 more layers for looks, and all we have to do is run the weed-whacker when we mow 😇
What I learned from Paul was to lay newspapers or cardboard down before the chips. So that is what I have done, a few weeds pop up occasionally because I did not overlap the cardboard proper.
👍
Great tips!! We live in Georgia and I lived exactly what you described in this video. 😊 year one was a nightmare! I took small sections at a time and dug it all up. I laid old rugs on top of the areas that I wasn’t working on to keep it under control till I got it all done.
We recently moved to Alabama from Michigan & started the back to Eden with one layer of cardboard and 6-8 inches of wood chips, but the Bermuda Grass came up through it like crazy, so the next section we did we put two and three layers of cardboard overlapped really well and then 12 inches of Wood chips thinking that would work, but it had no effect on the Bermuda grass. I just can’t hardly believe how crazy this stuff is! Our plan now is to put down the woven landscape fabric that they use in gardens to kill it off. Hopefully after it’s all dead, we can go back to the wood chip garden, because the looks of the black plastic isn’t as attractive for the neighborhood. Thanks for the good information!
Black plastic is the ONLY thing I know to work. You know, "solar bake them out".
Tell the neighbors, it is only temporary. Would they fall for "a new kind of solar panels?"
Linda- this is our plan. Landscape cloth does not stop quack (couch) grass, this I know. It grows right through, then it is a nightmare of a mess. Our extention office recommended silage tarps (we got billboard vinyl) to block the sun and starve it out. In hot climates, clear plastic works even better due to more trapped heat.
Bermuda is a survivor. The rhizomes can lie dormant for years or through a drought, and then with the first sign of water they will reanimate. After years of fighting it, we started covering parts of our garden with a deep (more than a foot) layer of leaves for a couple of months or more, then using a broad fork to loosen the soil deep and pull the bindweed and bermuda rhizomes (and the rocks). Dug a lot of the composting leaves in and then covered with a thick bed of leaves again. Then wait a couple more months, watering it to keep the soil damp, pulling any stray grass that comes up. Then uncover, spot dig again if needed, and plant. Doing this we were able to gradually increase the "good" parts of the garden little by little. Meanwhile, perimeter control is absolutely imperative. Even if you can't get everything, getting what you can see will prevent the underground parts of the plant from getting new energy. Eventually they will run out of energy stores and be done. So don't think that if you can't dig it all up, hoeing or burying it under mulch is pointless - even if it's not sufficient it helps. Bermuda seed is everywhere but it's super easy to deal with if you take care of it before it spreads. Minimizing bare soil makes all the difference.
I too have found that using a broad fork if soil is soft too pull up runners, great idea. I use that same idea for morning glory which is like a bindweed
I had the same issue with the bermuda here in Arkansas. I ran a 2' wide strip of old carpet around the perimeter of my garden. It did a great job of preventing intrusion
Haha that’il do it ;)
I don't know, but does it keep out the Carpetgrass? lol
I lived this!! Back to Eden in Virginia a few years ago. We bought a bank-owned property that had 3 foot high grass at the back. Apparently, before that property was turned to residential it was pasture, so bermuda grass was intentionally planted. I laid out cardboard and then had almost a FOOT of woodchips over it. With every year the bermuda grass got worse. We could almost see it grow in July/August when it was so hot everything else died. That bermuda grass had the deepest rhizomes I had ever seen - some went 18 inches down or more. They were THICK too - like the size of a McDonald's straw - or a pinky finger. (hmm.. just read someone else's comment. I wonder if we had Johnson grass too. We probably fought them both....) Wood chips made it easier to pull them out, but every year our garden got smaller because we were losing the battle despite weeding every day for hours. We were talking about burying a metal barrier or something at the edges to keep out the rhizomes. But in the end, we moved north, to Ohio, where I am in love with the fact that my most evil weed is the wild violet. :) This is such a necessary video - glad you shared it. Evil, evil Bermuda grass almost killed our love of gardening.
I've been gardening for almost 40 years in Illinois. I've always used wood chips, even before it was called The Back to Eden method. It's nice to know it finally has a name. Lol. Creeper grasses are always a problem. I also dig a trench around my garden which helps keep the grasses out, but I have found a better way to get rid of them in the garden. Offer your friends free produce if they pull weeds a few times a year. You really have to sell this idea. I tell them they get a great workout, fresh air, organic veggies and they can work on their tans... Absolutely free! This method works so well that next season I'm considering charging a membership fee.
@Seamus That woman was Ruth Stout.
All good points and it’s especially smart that you mentioned what I call maintaining a defensible parameter to keep the dreaded Bermuda grass from creeping back in. Unfortunately that can be even more of a challenge when it’s creeping in from under the fence from neighbors’ unkempt yards. 😖
Even well manicured lawns are a problem when they constantly fertilize. You're lucky if they aren't spraying herbicides every month!
I love Paul Gautschi teachings, he is is the best in the world. You obviously got listening difficulties.
I tried woodchips....you are perfectly right!...yours advices are precious! Thank you
Thanks for this. I've been thinking of starting a plot with this method in Central Oklahoma. Bermuda grows everywhere except where I want it. It's even found it's way into my raised beds. Hate that stuff.
Omg, have I had this problem!! A0nd you're right, wood chips alone are not the answer as we've been told. Plus, here in Florida we have lots of creeper weeds. You're the first to address these problems. Thank you!
When I used cardboard and then wood chips in Fl the dollar weed loved it!
I have used back to eden for the last few years and I have today I love it :) They do break down over time and make lovely compost, they have improved really terrable soil
My battle in Mississippi would be Kudzu vine, St. Augustine grass, Bermuda grass AND Bahaia grass. I'm buying the.property next door specifically to do a food forest/BTE garden, and so glad your video popped up. Thanks!
Kudzu is edible in a pinch, so you're lucky in that way. I understand you don't want it in the garden.
I don't know what kind of grass grows where I live but:
It will send a runner down under that trench.
It can send runners up to three feet underground before poking up a blade. Then, when you pull that tuff of grass, you break the runner which sends up 4-5 other shoots. making the problem worst.
Cardboard don't smother it
You need an edging shovel to cut a line 6" into the soil periodically. Then remove grass from the beds. That way, the runner has it's life force cut from both ends.
Wow, thank you! We are on year 2 of our back to Eden garden in TN and the Bermuda grass is a major problem.
This was a fantastic video. I appreciated all the laughs!!! Appreciate you sharing the tips you learned along your journey 🙌🥂
Instead of the ditch, try adding a living rhizome barrier in that same area. Comfrey would work great and once it’s established it will be less maintenance. Also gives the added benefit of stacking functions- pollinator attractor, medicinal use, you can also use it to make various forms of liquid fertilizer (compost tea, Jadam method, etc.)
Comfrey will spread and take over. Just be careful!
Bermuda can travel under a 2 car drive way...a ditch or barrier doesnt do shit...if your try a living barrier....u will loose your barrier...u have never gardened with it..im pushing 80 and i have....u can only slow it down..it is worse than kudzu..literally worse...it is every gardeners bane.
@@sislertx ain’t it the truth😭
How about a Roundup barrier…
Lol, "lost my soul to Bermuda" I know the feeling after digging out that Bermuda, kept my soul but threw down my spade
Bind Weed in UK, Ground Elder and Nettle.
@@johnmainwaring6556 and horsetail
got to be a song title
Been doing this method 3 yrs now, living in Tennessee. Still learning little things here and there but overall. So much less work on pulling weeds. I typically add more mulch in the fall or early spring before the grass start poking through here and there it takes upkeep just like everything else. But still the garden gets better every year.
Free chip drop off! Adding it every year.
That trench may help, but landscaping guy told me the Bermuda roots can go 3 feet down and a block away underground! I fought Burmuda for years! Deep grass clippings mulch helped but it was always there at the edges in no time
I moved to Tn a few years ago and made over 15 raised beds. Never had a problem with these weeds until this year. I only use chips in the paths I put down plastic or some other cover. Working well. Glad for your tips I know now a little more. Up north everything dies off in winter down south nothing dies. I never saw a red ant until I moved. They are killing me I could use a video about them. LOL. Thank you
You could also over-seed with clover to out compete the the grass and embrace your green top garden.
Most native groundcovers will also outcompete the bermuda. Slowly pull new runners all the way down as you go, and plant or allow natives to take over. Thinking its gonna work.
Am I glad that I found your presence here!!! Bermuda Grass is not my friend neither. Western North Carolina here!!!
Thanks for the info!
While I haven't yet done it myself, I think Sean from Edible Acres has success by creating a rhizome barrier around the garden with a row of comfrey.
It would seem that a densely planted line of rhubarb would also thwart the spread, in the right context.
There are probably others, but those are the two that jump to mind.
I appreciate your insights and experience with this!
The comfrey will move into the garden. Rhubarb might work.
@@robertdouglas8895 But comfrey is both more helpful and easier to remove then Bermuda grass, so it would still be a win even if you have to pull it a couple of times a year (comfrey makes great compost, or mulch, too).
@@MirrimBlackfox You are probably right about that. I once worked on a new golf course in Venice Florida and we "cut" Bermuda grass into the sandy soil and it took easily. In the North, quack grass is like that. I've heard of comfrey that doesn't spread by rhizomes. I'll look into that because I could use it in my worm beds now that the grocery store has quit giving out their culled veggies.
rhubarb doesn't grow well in the south, at least not in the hot areas of the south
Have you discovered Growing Back to Eden TH-cam channel? It is done by Nick who lives on site and helps Paul. He is doing a great job of getting deeper into all the little details and pieces that are missed and skimmed over in the other videos and the film. He also does live chats with Paul answering peoples questions every now and again.
Ericca with 2 C's ...I have been waiting for new videos but it’s been awhile. Do you know what’s up?
We’ve done a Back to Eden and hacked it by using landscape cloth. We actually talked about it in a recent video. We’ll pull the cloth at the end of the season, the replace it next spring and remulch. But we are in the northeast and don’t have Bermuda.
I live in the capital of California and I can tell you this grass is a big problem here too. And yes it grows up into my raised beds
I’m in eastern Washington state and dealing with Bermuda just as you described. I will get the cardboard and chips idea this spring. Thank you.
I’m in Georgia and we have plenty of Bermuda grass here. I seriously thought about doing the back to Eden garden with wood chips and you saved me a whole lot of time and energy. Thank you!!
Yes we do have creeping grasses in the north. Yes I am battling it. Your tips were good. I'm finding that maintaining the edge is most important.
Amen, brother! Every time I see one of these wood chip garden videos I wonder if these people ever heard of Burmuda grass. I have fought it from Cprpus Christi to I-20, and victories have beeen few and fleeting. I am using hay now. Tried cardboard for a few years, but the Burmuda just turns yellopw and keeps growing under the cardboard. And our frequent HIGH winds send the cardboard flying, There are not enough bricks in Texas to hold it down. These days I'm concentrating more on fruit and nut trees and doing most of the vegetables in raised beds. Best of luck to yoiu and all gardeners.
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The same applies to many other creeping and invasive weeds in other countries and locations. I have had to abandon the wood chip idea as we have couch grass, Elymus repens, common in most of Europe. This thrives under a woodchip cover and the suckers and runners go everywhere and cannot be removed without digging. I have even covered areas with black polythene and cardboard and the stuff still comes back. Of course, the more fertile and rich your garden becomes, the more the couch grass thrives.
I think the advice you give about Bermuda grass also applies to this, though but I find it a constant battle even in small beds lined with concrete blocks. The grass is always finding its way underneath.
Bermuda always wins the battle. I put down cardboard and a heavy mulch for three years in my garden. Now I am still fighting Bermuda grass.
I just found your channel. So glad to find another Southern with the struggle with Bermuda.
After living in Oklahoma, this is 💯 true. The grass was so bad, only the Okra survived.
Great for cows, not so much for growing gardens as it was a losing battle.
Hay is the Ruth stout method! Wish I had known about it then.
I live in the Pacific Northwest now and it’s SO much easier to garden here. I use both the stout and Eden method here and love it!
Thanks Jeff! Here in northeast Iowa we have quack grass, it also spreads by the roots. Somewhere I read that you should attempt at least 3 layers of cardboard on problem spots. I only did one layer last year, and still have a few areas. I also strategically placed a compost pile over a problem spot for a year, not sure if that was a good idea or not. My grandmother had gorgeous flower beds all over her property and she always trenched a moat around them, now I know why!
thanks for the humor. Gotta have a sense of humor when gardening.
An interesting video. I live in England and we don’t have Bermuda Grass but we do have something similar called Couch Grass which also spreads by creeping roots. I am trialling wood chips in two raised beds, one growing brassicas and the other grew dwarf beans which have just finished and so far so good. I find that although wood chips do not stop all weed growth and weeds that appear are easily pulled out, including the aforesaid Couch Grass.
Thanks for that(UK), just about to card and woodchip my beans and brassica beds before I plant up, scarred and excited all at the same time.
So this is what i did: I covered all the grass in my backyard with weed liner, I bought a big roll, I think is like 100 feet long by 6 feet wide. I did this like in October and let it over the winter to kill all the grass, then the following spring I applied a 2 foot deep layer of wood chips. I never had an issue with grass. Thank you LORD.
From what I understood from the Back to Eden Garden, what he said at the beginning was that the soil need's to be covered with something, hay, wood chip, corn stalk, anything it could cover the soil so that it will not remain bare.
I have a 1/4 acre yard in South Carolina. I used the back to eden method with high success.
I used zero manure. You don’t need it.
But like you said, it’s the cardboard. I went heavy on the cardboard. And I went 18 inches on the mulch. I have 18 chip drops on my 1/4 acre suburban garden.
The Bermuda was hard to fight the first year. But now it’s gone completely. And both of my neighbors have Bermuda lawns touching mine.
The biggest problem with back to eden is that when the woodchips break down into beautiful soil, they need to be covered again. If not eventually you’ll have mud again.
I haven’t been able to get a chip drop in a year and I need it because some places are nothing but exposed woodchip compost now.
I’m not into living ground covers at all. Because down south you’ll have snakes all over the garden
Here in west Texas, we have a VERY hardy (Alisha) bermuda grass. It's a blessing for live stock but a curse for a garden. I tilled an scooped out the garden area a foot deep with my front end loader to clear the grass and put a sheet metal fence around it. Your idea about the ditch was excellent! I enjoy your videos.
Great advice on dealing with creeping grasses. They aren't found everywhere, but I have come across them from time to time. I especially like the trench idea - a physical barrier separating the gardening area from the grass area. Of course it needs to be inspected periodically, just like the garden itself.
Very very true, have a serious issue with the bermuda grass, its like a demon weed. I did pile up a lot of mulch and have rich soil with lots of the invasive grass. Very good tips!!!!! Thank you
I'm a market farmer in Tennessee and I had a lot of bermuda grass. I torched it with a weed torch and then covered it with heavy cardboard and then put straw and compost on top. It's been 3 years since I did the first bed and the bermuda has never come back.
Do you think that would work for centipede?
@@icie1504 I would try it. I don't think centipede is as invasive as bermuda. A lot of these plants that people consider invasive, really aren't. I grow a lot of plants on my farm. I grow kudzu and it's easily controlled. I grow bamboo and it's easily controlled. It's the same with stinging nettle and autumn olive. People need to get in touch with nature. It's amazing at how eye-opening it can be
@@jerrysnelling3698 kudzu is very healthful (macrobiotic diets recommend it)
Before i knew about back to eden we used cardboard. Worms love that zone on top of the soil and cardboard. You appear to have very thin woodchips. You are warmer than SW Missouri. Our Bermuda at least gets stunted.Appreciate your experience. The perimeter trench is definitly good if you are plagued with constant invasive bermuda. BEST Wishes!
I tried to subscribe. , but , TH-cam says I have too many subscriptions !!!! Thanks for posting garden videos !!!! I'll keep watching !!!!
Thank you for affirming and explaining what my gut was telling me. I live in western Maryland and between the creeper grass and the deep rooted perennial weeds like dandelions and dock I knew that cardboard and mulch wasn’t going to stop the weeds. Doing the hard work of weed removal up front will save me a lot of work in the long run.
Ty for this.. everything you have suggested is everything I have done the last 3 yrs.. this is the 3rd year gardening and it’s been better this year.. last year I was ready to throw in the towel 😂 but I kept going.. this year it’s June now and I have done a lot less weeding.. my issue now is morning glories everywhere 😳🤨🤦🏻♀️
Thanks for sharing about your experience. I've heard of a concept of creating and edge for spreading roots by planting a hedgerow of deep-rooting plants to sort of create an underground fence. Maybe with a non-spreading variety of comfrey...
I’m dealing with it now I’m Minnesota. Previous owner decided to grow Bermuda grass. One more tip. In the beginning once you dig the trench and expose the wall torch the roots. Then cardboard with chips plant something that has extensive roots like comfrey or sweet potatoes. I’m even having success with rhubarb and sunflowers.
I'm doing this in the center of my front yard. I'd removed my lawn decades ago though, because there was a bit too much shade overhanging branches from the Maple, and from grapes we used to have trailing around the arbor, and the grass simply wouldn't thrive. The only thing I get sprouting now with the shredded wood mulch I laid down is bird seed that my husband insists on hanging around the arbor. All I do is take the edge of my sharp hoe once a week or so and uproot and turn them over. I leave them there to decompose. When I started doing this around mid June, the soil in the central area of my front yard ( about 9'X9') was hardened and dusty gray in color. Now I'm getting some rich loamy soil out of it, and by next spring I'm going to start gardening in that section too. It's working out pretty well for me. Put down the shredded wood thick enough and it's hard for such seedlings to establish much of a root.
Square foot gardening helped us crowd out the Bermuda (along either cardboard 👍). We are in the south too and found the square foot garden method to be the most efficient.
Just one important tip about Back To Eden method: only use wood chips directly on top of newspapers or cardboards. Do not put manure beneath the woodchips. Pull out large weeds before the process. Perhaps by doing it this way, bermuda weeds would not have a chance to send out runners.
Best regards,
Subscribed as soon as you said …”okra that looked like trees” 😂
I've never done a whole "Back to Eden" before, but I use a lot of woodchips. In my experience, the Bermuda (which is my predominant summer grass) doesn't eat or drink much. Just put down new chips next year, tear out what gets in your way (careful in case one of those runners is under one of your plants) and it'll be ok. Besides, what you do pull out is good chicken food. They love the fat runners
Please allow me to comment on another thing I heard the owner say. He talked about gardening on a smaller scale and the wood used for the raised beds will help to prevent the spread of Bermuda. Well, before taking this as 100% Master Gardener info, please talk with your local county agriculture people to help you manage Bermuda. The beds will NOT stop the Rhizome type of plants. Also, a good book folks can read is one by Mittleider on raised bed gardening/farming. Raised beds can grow 10 times the amount of the open field methods. Raised beds can sequester soil or pest issues. Raised beds take less water.....etc. Get the book if still in print. Oh, BTW, using raised beds is a great method to use the back-to-eden thought process of heaping up forest products and then growing directly in the bed....but don't turn it over because then you create a compost bin. Just put it on top and let it decompose and filter downward. It will filter downward because the bed is above ground and the soil does not have the compaction forces as does the same amount of soil in situ. Oh, another very cool nuance to raised beds. When it rains...torrential rains...the excess water just runs out the bottom of the beds. The nicely blended organic humus soil in your beds will retain the moisture your plants need. So, raised beds are GREAT for large gardening or market farming!
Thank you so very much! I just moved to Tennessee, and was going to try it. Worked great in California.
Whoa, I’m in school. So glad I watched. Thx
Back in the 1950'sMy wife's grandfather, and his wife planted bermuda grass in their yard. One day they noticed it growing toward their cotton field. So they dug up every sprig of it out of their yard.
Thank you. We call it Couch grass here.... South Africa. Excellent video. Valuable info before doing Back-to-Eden gardening.
Just a thought..... On the edge of the garden I'd run a shallow concreted ditch with shallow 1 brick high wall on top .... less effort to maintain once in place.
I’m sitting on a new construction lot in AL that has heavily compacted clay soil (from the build) and Bermuda sod on the entire lot. Sigh. I decided raised beds and containers are the only way I’m going to grow anything this year, but I’m also going to try to begin prepping one in ground bed to eventually be an asparagus bed. Thanks for speaking truth, man! I need to not let my little idyllic dreams lull me into delusions about the Bermuda battle.
Amazing video!! Thank you so much!
Another thing that could work in regards to tip 6, less work but more expensive is a barrier. They recommend them for bamboo because bamboo is an invasive grass. For Bermuda grass the rhizomes are usually about 6-8 inches deep, so using a 15 inch tall barrier will help prevent the rhizomes underground, and hinder the stolons above ground if you leave the barrier exposed above ground. Just don't trip on it!
This is basically no dig - down goes the cardboard, then the compost, then the mulch. Can't wait to try it!
Thanks for addressing this. I’ve started my BTE garden and this is absolutely an issue. Also, lots of pine here that isn’t addressed in the documentary.
I have helped someone in Florida build a massive self sustaining garden. We build the mulch beds on top of cardboard and build them thick..up to a foot.
And then we use edger on beds and rip the running bermuda grass from beds easily
I will tell you some things here that can take away a bit of the muddy waters of confusion for gardening. #1--If you use "composted" horse manure you should understand that some seeds that horses eat will survive digestion. Just because the horse manure was thrown into a heap and left to "compost" for a period of time, does not indicate that the heap/pile reached a sufficient temperature to kill seeds and various soil diseases. Most compost piles only facilitate the breaking down of the plant structures in a mostly attempt to return the plants to basic elemental structures we know as "dirt". If this "composted" horse manure is sourced away from your home, then you can never be sure what rhizomes the tractor operator scooped up from his garden/farm and put into your truck. For the type of grass shown in the video, it only takes one of those tiny nodules where you see leaves emerging to contaminate the entire "composted" product. #2--Some seeds will geminate and grow even when covered with 6" of wood chips. Some seeds will germinate at a level of about 8" under mulch. Mulch is much denser than wood chips, so 6" of wood chips is not deep enough to prevent some weed seeds from germinating. (BTW: weeds are any plants that are growing where you don't want them to grew.) As you can see, the garden owner found out the hard way about rhizome grass and wood chips. Rhizome grass absolutely LOVE wood chips. Those grasses will tunnel through the chips at an alarming speed. The owner of this video and garden created a nightmarish scenario. Lack of knowledge perhaps? Maybe putting a lot of emphasis on the Back-to-Eden approach without full knowledge of composting, natural plant propagation, site contamination issues and weed management? Wood chips are wonderful because they decompose and their decomposition products are what many plants need to flourish. Use them!...with an understanding of the aforementioned inherent gardening considerations. #3--Newspapers are wonderful weed barriers when used as the first layer against the native soil. Layers of 6 or more pages are wonderful! Newspapers were put head-to-head in a study several years ago against many products including the manufactured weed barrier products found at your local garden stores and hardware stores. Newspapers were found to be superior to everything tested, which was every type of product on the market at that time....which is more or less the same type of products manufactured today. So, the general rule of thumb is that "you cannot make chicken salad out of chicken poop". If you wrongly use any product or method, your results will be wrong. The first year using the horse manure showed the fertility of the decomposed horse manure. (Horse eats it--primary decomposition; compost pile with bacteria and fungi--secondary decomposition). Then the second year showed the missteps of more than one aspect of gardening. But a big KUDOS to the garden owner for giving insights into his not-so-successful garden adventure using "composted" horse manure.
Here in the Pacific Northwest we do have quack grass, which is spread by rhizomes. Key is to sheet mulch with paper of some kind ( cardboard, newspaper, etc.)so as to smother anything that might try to come up. You may still need to keep track of the edges of the sheet mulch for any rhizomes trying to grow their way out. Please be aware that, while cardboard last longer, it can also create an environment for rodents to thrive under, so keep an eye out.
I have experienced both quack grass and bermuda grass. Bermuda grass is WAY worse. Sheet mulching with cardboard and newspaper and putting a foot of woodchips on top did nothing. That grass LOVED it and just filled in every possible space. No other weeds survived, but the bermuda grass just got thicker and stronger.
I live in Oregon. I have Bermuda, or some other type of rhizome grass. The cardboard was not deep enough. The grass was growing underneath. I have landlords. They planted it. Aren't they sweet?
We live pretty close to Paul here in western Washington and I did have a huge problem with the grass growing through. We have several different kinds of grass and some of them absolutely love the wood chips. But I wasn't ready to let this method go despite having to shovel my 12" later of wood chips aside and lay 2 more layers of cardboard, section by section until I had gone through the whole 13 x 30 foot garden bed. It was a summer's worth of work. Now, for new garden sections, I lay down 4-6 layers of cardboard first to be sure that grass is choked out. And monitor the edges every spring and fall. It sounds like a lot of maintenance, but it doesn't take that much when you keep a layer of cardboard around the edges weighted down with landscaping blocks, or rocks work. Any grass that pops up in the middle of the garden and hasn't gotten very established doesn't have a widespread root system yet.
It's just another weed and you take it out when you do your weeding (which are generally pretty easy to pull from wood chips). Pull them out when you walk by and notice them. It takes a few seconds.
Wood chips provide a phenomenal environment for soil biology to thrive and balance everything out.
Just starting. I have a ton of that super strong crab or Bermuda grass 😓 thanks for the tips! I hadn’t found too much info on how to deal w it it I found this video. 🙏🏼 thanks
Thanks for a great video! Bermuda grass is a gardener's arch enemy in the desert southwest. -Tucson Terry
New sub here. I use thick wood chip mulch sometimes but not exactly back to Eden.
Did you lay down newspaper or cardboard? That’s step 1 in back to Eden gardening. We live in the south with all the creepee grass too and haven’t had issues with it.
Thank you for all the tips. I think the trench around the garden may help with my creeping charlie issue in WI.
Thank you!! I just moved from WA to the south and am about to start my garden! I would have made all the mistakes! 🤦🏼♀️
You could and should address the Southwest in this regard. We've got more than one kind of creeping grass out here on the coast. It wasn't that many years ago that I realized the gardeners that haul their lawnmowers around the neighborhood are probably one of the main reasons that these grasses are everywhere. I don't know the various genus/species of these grasses; Bermuda is one, and a very coarse textured one called St. Augustine. I'm gratified that I've been doing some things right according to your video above.
Yep. Arkansas here. Raised beds do not stop the burmuda. It still finds its way up.
I HAD 6 DUMP TRUCK LOADS OF WOOD CHIPS. TOOK ABOUT 2 YEARS FOR THE BERMUDA GRass to completely cover the chips and take over. 8 years latter the chips have all decomposed and gased off 6' tall mounds now about 3" tall. amazing
I had already decided on my solution for my BTE garden i plan to start next year. Chicken Moat!
Chicken moat or smaller chicken tunnel should do the job.
I am in Oregon and we have rhizomous grass. I am battling it daily in my elderberry orchard. I feel your pain.
Any idea how to defeat bindweed?
Ugh, Bermuda grass is such a scourge. This video helps a lot!
Thanks so much. Yeah enthusiastic start with huge effort but bindweed and Bermuda came happily under the mulch even with cardboard fairly thick.
I was getting a little depressed because I love back to eden gardening, and now live in the south and Bermuda grass is a devil. But thanks for all the tips I especially love the trench idea
I live by the east coast and had this problem from dollar weed. I found a flashing made of plastic at Lowes. I buried it 1 and a half feet around my garden and sticking out about 5 to 6 inches above the soil. It took some work but it keeps everything that sends runners out of my garden and we have several weeds that send out runners. It solved my problem permanently.
Good to hear. I'm about to take on the battle with quack (couch) grass. My garden area runs right up to a fence where my neighbors have also let it run wild, and I wondered how to prevent it from coming back over. That fence line is only about 40 feet, so this should do the trick.
I use wood chips and they are great. USED THE RIGHT WAY IN THE RIGHT PLACE. They have to be 4-6 inches thick. Certainly not is a garden that you want to grow seed crops. They are good under trees and perennial bushes. I also love them in my wide paths between my conventional gardens.
Starting a new garden, put down cardboard and compost and then wood chips thick enough to stop things from coming through!!!
I did cardboard at first.. until I realized I’m laying down glue, ink, and who knows what else that is in cardboard.. just keep that in mind.
Bob B A lot of cardboard does not have glue.
Yep, cardboard works on Bermuda grass. My front yard has been covered all summer... looking good now.
@@bobb4237 Plain cardboard is wood pulp, starch glue, and printing made of soy oil and carbon black.
@Larry David Termites certainly think so. It
We have started digging a trench between the garden plot and the grass, putting down cardboard, and then filling it with wood chips. We have a level path to walk on, and it is super easy to pull the bermuda and the bindweed that are thick in the grassy area. Bindweed spreads much deeper, so just a trench doesn't stop it in our experience.