It's Time to Clear Things Up... The Truth about the Back to Eden Method
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 มิ.ย. 2024
- Why am I not growing my veggies in wood chips, and am I still using the Back to Eden method?
Thanks for the kind words and support 😁🐕❤️
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Hi Jim! This is Carol Gautschi Paul Gautschi's wife. We just watched this video and we are 100% agree thanks for the summary! "Nice job!" Paul... (By the way I have bought your merch! Cool stuff!)
LET'S GO!
👑🐕
This made my morning! I love seeing one of my other favorite channels supporting another favorite! You both ROCK!!!
Post Covid, I would love to see a joint post with both of you. You both have so much knowledge to share and are both so good at doing it. Thank you to you both!
Yes! Lol love that gets me pumped everytime! Love you Kevin and James! U da best!❤🌱🌻🐛🦋
@Ra - I know things, I sew things, I grow things
Who hurt you? You can say you don't take it,but why are you trying to give it? Totally uncalled for.
@@I_know_it_I_sew_it_I_grow_it you’re just a jerk James isn’t phony
Hey James, don't know what you do for a living, but you would be a great teacher! We love seeing little Tuck. Great video as usual.
He is a teacher!! (certificates don't mean everything :~})
@@jett888 So true!
@@jett888 he's a freemason too
@@jayadams2801 Huh?
Slight correction. He IS a great teacher.
Hours & hours of extensive knowledge condensed into 7 minutes & 49 seconds! Excellent! You're the bomb James thank you! ...and say Hi to cutie pie Tuck for me :)
Let's Gooo!! Thank you for the kind words my friend, and I'll send Tuck some "good boys" from you my friend 🐕😁❤️
Great video! I completely agree with your analysis and recommendations. Your soil discussion is spot on. Thanks, James.
Thanks Scott! Glad to hear your years of experience backs up what I talked about in the video, it’s reassuring to me. 🙏😁
I watch the both of you religiously! You two do a great job explaining to novice gardeners.
Tina Click Agreed Tina! James and Scott do a wonderful job helping all of us understand the nuances of soil and plants.
I agree.
Shout out to Charles Dowding-- mulches back to eden style but with straight up compost instead of wood chip for his organic matter since slugs are an issue in his wet area... also a great channel.
Charles Dowding is the best !! He has helped me tremendously in my gardening experience. Charles started out using straw like Ruth Stout, but as you said he had a very bad slug problem, switched to compost has been growing and teaching others ever since.
This past summer was my first year using the BTE method. It was a pain in the butt raking away the wood chips to seed things, but after about 6 months I now have a 1 or 2 inch layer of beautiful, high in organic matter, soil. I expect seeding to be much easier in 2021 due to that loose top layer of soil.
If you’re still having a difficult time with the mulch falling over your seedlings and seeded areas, instead move away the mulch and fill with compost and plant into that. Works 👌
BTE method works. The compost under the wood chips is the key. Once you have that set up, it's just add more wood chips as needed.
Tuck's little paw (hand) on the carrot! He's so smart ❤
Excellent content! It needed to be said. The understanding of the fungal dominance verses bacterial dominance has changed the way I garden over the past three years, and you have been a part of that. Good work James!
Thanks for pointing this out. I gathered this much from watching Paul himself. I feel he made it clear enough for most people to be able to know. He explains that he uses compost from his chickens to grow his veg. Many I feel are just trying to be controversial and gain more followers by criticizing Paul and his method for his Orchard since he started popularizing it.
I noticed you have changed around many things from when I first began watching but you learn as you grow with anything.
Yup! It's all a growing process 😁
Not only do we there learn as we gain experience, but there are stages between a lawn and a mature growing area. What was best (and desired) in year 3 may not be the best in year 5 or 7.
Look to the middle
I was worried because I couldn't see the puppy.,,
It’s nice to see you eating vegetables healthy,,,
We cheer from far away from Korea!^^
Yours is one of a dozen or so gardener/homesteader youtubers that i watch religiously. My husband likes yours the best, all because of tuck. What a sweet little cutie!! What breed is he?
Haha, Tuck is the best and the king of carrots! He is a Yorkshire terrier 👑🐕🥕
Thank you for continually adding value to the community. Cheers to JP and Tuck!
You're welcome my friend, and thank you for the kind and encouraging words ❤️
James, Love your channel. I have raised beds because I live on a hillside. Thank you for all your info. I don't have a dog but a garden cat. Thanks again)
Also Paul has started to grow vegetables in the orchard and the results are amazing
Please hug Tucky for me. Adorable garden guardian.🐶❤
Will do my friend! 🐕❤️
I've never even heard of the "Back to Eden" Method
I love my soil, but i have chickens and horses, lots of wood chips (slippery elm, jacaranda, and other woods). My chickens LOVE the grape leaves too. They also eat any weeds, nasturtium, and mallow-(which is a demulcent to their intestines). thank you!!
Great video, James! Excellent clarification for those need it. About a year ago, I spread about 40 cubic yards of fresh arborist wood chips in my backyard to get a food forest started. Here in warm, humid florida, it started breaking down really quickly and it's almost half gone, leaving a great layer of compost underneath. Now, when I rework a bed, I sift the mixture, and use the compost
Oops, Hit the send button too quickly. I mix the compost back into the bed , add any other amendments I think are needed, plant my veggies, and then put the remaining wood chips back on top as a mulch. Bottom line - the wood chips are a great source of compost and a great mulch. Just have to be patient and let nature help you out.
James, you definitely cleared a lot up for me. I was very confused when you announced a few months ago that you were not using wood chips in your veggie gardens. It all makes sense now. Thank you.
A man with a brilliant mind♥️I literally can’t get enough of listening to what you have to say, kinda have my own bedtime stories🥰♥️
You’re too sweet Natya! 🍓 ❤️
@@jamesprigioni I know😀♥️and I do really have Prigioni bedtime playlist😁it helps me with my beauty sleep😏🍓
You have mastered the art of gardening, James, and of communicating your knowledge base to laymen and women. Well done.
😁❤️
What kind of sexist and self aggrandizing comment is that? I enjoy James’ videos so wondering why he would like such a patronizing comment.
@@christinabachman8361 Probably didn't have time to read it all. Beto is clearly a sexist butt head. James P. is not.
@Christina Bachman
You're confusing inclusive with sexist.
@@christinabachman8361 what was sexists about it?
James
Thank you for taking time to put this video together, you’re much more patient than I am.
I’m only sorry you felt compelled to offer an explanation in the first place. I toured Paul’s farm in 2017, and it’s evident even before the tour starts, Paul works hard at being a good steward of the land. I think that’s the underlying message and not so much about wood chips and soil amendments. Look at what diligence and hard work have done for your garden and food forest.. IMO. Gardeners, my self included are always looking for the next magic bullet..but it doesn’t exist....it’s called hard work, patience and then..some more hard work! This method’s worked pretty good for you IMO.
Stay Well and Be Safe!
Paw Bumps to “Tuck”
Isn't that the truth... the good steward is essential!
Thank you very much for the clarification. Living only a couple of hours away, I have enjoyed a tour of Paul’s garden. Fascinating place! After 30 some years of growing with wood chips his soil is about 30” deep. I have personally found that if I use wood chips to mulch in my annual garden it is a challenge to get them raked back enough to keep them out of the soil as I plant. I know when Paul got started he did pull back the wood chips to plant in the soil and then push some of the chips back as mulch as the plants grew. I have been using wood chips for my very sandy orchard and berries for nearly 20 years, and the soils is now about 10” deep. Lovely stuff. But doing what you said, and using the compost for mulch works great. Thank you again.
Love the videos....my wife got me an awesome sweatshirt for my birthday.....love seeing tuck on it
Thanks again for the clarity.
My miniature schnauzer also loved our garden and hiding under the laurels. When we couldn’t see him we’d peek under there and he’d be in the cool shade surveying his little kingdom. He loved smelling all the “fragrant” fertilizers and composts. Many times I would find him with a bit of white bonemeal on his nose. No matter how well I concealed it under the compost. Your podcasts are so wonderful and hope filled. Thank you from Arkansas!
Hi James, in a previous video you mentioned mimicking natural processes. Are you aware that that is exactly what you are doing with these two methods? In a natural setting, woody plants and trees will drop leaves in the fall, twigs and branches will litter the ground and an occasional tree will fall down. Fungus breaks this down returning nutrients back to the plants and trees. For annual plants their soft leaves are broken down at a faster rate than fungus can accomplish, by bacteria, enriching the soil for next years seeds. Annuals and perennials evolved through these processes, that are these two mulching methods. It is standardized mother nature, to get the best growth out of your plants.
My food Forrest in southwest Florida garden continues to thrive. Many fruits, blackberries, mulberries, many vegetables. Thanks James
You sound like a Fun-gi James, keep up the great work 😊
I study nature use from this autumn and I like your work and your garden very much. ☀️🌸☘️
We moved to the desert and using wood chips greatly improved our soil. I do find that wood chips don't work for young plants in high wind because I would go out to find my tiny plants covered and damaged by the wood chips which ripped them to pieces. They worked great for trees and the rest of the yard which is pathways between trees. We have such extreme heat and sun here that dries out the soil that we needed to use wood chips once the vegetables and herbs were established. Now that we have plants and not just sand we have switched to using leaves for mulch around vegetables whenever we can.
James thank you so much for constantly inspiring us to grow our gardens, and the knowledge you share!
Hi James quite right woodchip is suitable for perennial fruit bushes and fruit trees annual vegetables fare better in compost and manure sometimes lots of it specially for squash and pumpkin. A friend of mine pointed out woodchip has to thoroughly rot down to work in a veg garden. In my experience tomato grows well in wood chip and they can be grown in the same spot the following year but I do add very good compost to the root ball.
Wow!! Thank u so much for breaking down the Back to Eden method ..I know now what I am doing wrong ....😁👍... 💖 Tuck !
You make things so easy to understand. Thanks, James. Hugs to Tuck!
Love the clarification about Back to Eden...I found Paul G difficult to understand at times...I watched countless times trying to make sense of it and here comes JAMES PRIGIONI and TUCKIE...and all is well again...you are such an amazing inspiring gardener...thank you
Found about you recently and watched like 15 of your videos. Loved them all. Thanks.
Like You, Woodchips changed our life, not just saving money on buying soil, but creating the best soil for Plants to grow a ton of food for us all year, and create more soil back to the ground, be it in the ground or container gardening! We have spoken to Paul, a great guy to know, thanks James! Take care, Robbie and Gary
I just discovered it myself ❣️
I love it when my favourite youtubers comment on each other videos! xx
Thanks for the explanation!!
I'm absolutely going to be continuing with expanding my woodchip garden. The chips I get are already half composted so its an accelerated process for me, I have had great success with everything I have planted under the chips in my first two years. I like my raised beds too, and plan to continue adding them as well, but for the price and ease, woodchips give me so much more gardening space quickly.
I’d like to suggest some good reading to help support and explain the back to eden method and how and why it works. David R. Montgomery has written several books, with the most applicable being The Hidden Half Of Nature, followed by Dirt and by Growing A Revolution. While Jarad Diamond doesn’t write about how to garden, he has some profound observations about the effects of misusing agricultural resources in Collapse. The more I learn, the more humbled I become in the face of the vastness of my ignorance.
Excellent explanation of the nuance between woodchip-loving and fungi-loving trees or plants. Also cool that you feature Tuck in the videos and let him lay on your kales. Thank you for all the great content.
Thanks for the kind words David! The little guy deserves the best, he is such a sweet pup 🐕❤️
@@jamesprigioni He does seem like a magnificent companion though. Lots of respect to Geoff Lawton whom you referenced and Bill Mollison (you'll be missed). I bought Bill Mollison's manual and love their videos together.
A great explanation. Paul does explain about his vegetable growing medium. His chickens are in a deep woodchip mulch bedding. He throws most of his excess growing material into the chicken coop. The chickens eat and poop and turn this material into compost which he sifts and spreads over his vegetable area. It was once mainly woodchips but now bacterially inoculated by chickens. The fungal content is reduced by the chickens scratching and oxygenising the medium.
Chickens are great little compost turners. I always throw wood chips and leaves in my coop. In a few months I dig out a 4 inch layer of the coop and put it in the compost pile to cool down.
Paul's emphasis on a "covering" is key to understanding the method. The thick water canopy that existed over the earth before The Flood filtered out a lot of the harmful rays of the sun. Mulching serves the same purpose for your plant's roots. The great value of woodchips is that they are a mulch that ALSO provides nutrients slowly, and regulates moisture better than other materials. So, it is about a covering; not about woodchips.
Adapting and applying in the context that makes sense. Your videos have taught me so much James. You made my garden successful this year man, 3 years of near flopping and this year has been a transformation. Watched a lot of L2’s videos as well, Edible Acres, Canadian Permaculture Legacy, Epic Gardening, and Stefan Sobkowiak. Huge inspirations, and educational resources! But to be fair you kicked me off to it all brother 🙏🏻🙇🏽
Hey Tuck, my Penny loves to watch you and Whiskey chews on the carrots also.
I live here in Louisiana and we went through 3 hurricanes and was able to get about 800 cu yds of woodchips. In early june after our first one, I decided to spread a test plot 24 x 35 with about 8-12" thick on top of soil of woodchips. This fall I moved the wood chips aside just enough to plant my broccoli transplants into the soil below. This is the best looking plants I have ever had with hardly any watering or fertilizing. I think next spring I will do another plot and plant my squash and cucumbers and see.
Totally agree James.. I've started this method 2 years ago when I moved to my new rental property. This year I added the chickens to help speed up my compost production and the change is so insane.. I hardly have to water my garden..love the video.. LET'S GO!!
The guy at L2Survive is working on another video session with Paul. I can't wait to see it. I follow you and Self Sufficient Me and love getting tips and tricks you've gained from experience. Burying my strawberries the way Paul does has proven to turn 12 barely surviving plants the previous year, into a bountiful, thick strawberry patch this year for me. Our house came with 9 fruiting trees and we plant to plant 5 or 6 more this winter. Chipdrop has delivered four loads over the past few months and it has been fun to spread it out and watch the soil start changing.
Can you make a video on how to prep your raised bed for winter? Do you pull old plats from the roots or jus cut the stem and leave the roots?
This seems to be the case with our experience so far. We started our B2E garden a year ago. Our peach tree and lemon tree are doing amazing but some of our veggies suffered fungal issues and the produce was poor. I think our next step is making a few raised beds in the long run and starting to make our own compost. Thanks for clearing it up!
Thank you for the great information.
Great explanations on wood chips gardening. Thanks.
Tuck the Boss ❤❤❤❤❤❤to James I look forward to seeing all those amazing fruits and vegetables God bless you both
Tuckie is super precious. LOVE HIM!
Thanks for clearing this up. I see so many videos that say "the Back to Eden method doesn't work!" I really liked your explanation.
Hi, I watched a ton of these BTE vods
Paul put the wood. Chips in thd chicken pen as well
He puts the ashes in there
He put the lefy overs there
After the chickens brake it down
Then he goes sifts and puts it in his annual garden.
Always a good explanation J. Thanks for the videos. Always watch you, and Self Sufficient Me, as well as MI gardener. I love watching these videos. My garden is huge this year, about 300sf of in ground and about 8 raised beds now. Keep up the videos! Thanks!
Thanks Bryan, those are great channels full of info!!! Let's Gooo!!!! That is huge my friend, I bet you are pumping a lot of food out of that!
@@jamesprigioni just the raised beds at the moment. I put the garden to sleep for the winter. Right now I have a few beds full of 3 types of kale..,beets, carrots, turnips, Swiss chard and I just pulled up my German butterball potatoes.
I’m looking forward to spring, I didn’t get to do cabbage this fall. I’m in zone 9 Northern California. So I have a nice long growing season. And 5 acres to grow it all lol.
I don't know why but watching you dig in the dirt is fascinating. It's so rich and complex!
Love your channel and always look forward to the Tuck cameo ❤️! Great explanation of the back to eden method. We bought our property 2 years back and did a “ modified version”. We did: one layer of vermicompost with egg casings, next a layer of “spent duck hay”, contractors paper, and finally the layer of woodchips with king stropharia spawn. Occasionally we dig up the chips and bury bokashi solids in to overwinter. Essentially, the worms and fungi are doing the hard work. We found that transplants do much better than direct seeding. As always can’t wait until the next video thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!
That sounds like an excellent approach Meg! I am with you on the transplanting too ❤️
I had my first garden this year. Made 6 4x8x12 raised beds. Planted into the soil then covered around everything with 3-4” of medium/fine bark mulch to keep water in and weeds out. I had amazing results. Thanks for all of the knowledge you pass along to us.
This makes so much sense. THANK YOU SO MUCH! God bless you!
Tuck is so cute.....🐶🥕nom nom nom~!!😄
Haha, the king of carrots! 👑🐕
@@jamesprigioni I have 3 dogs,one of them LOVES carrots~and what's funny is her very first toy,when she was only 6 weeks old,was a plushie carrot kinda thing with a squeaker. She carried it around like it was her Baby lol......for years😄She's 14 yrs old now,,and I STILL have that carrot,,kept it for sentimental reasons
💕🥕🐶
Thanks for the clarification and honesty! We are all learning and growing with you! I also still grow my tomatoes under wood chips because it just seems to work so well with disease prevention and water retention!
Wood chips were a great resource for me this year so i didn't have to weed so much!
Cute dog. I use woodchips and soil from woodchips in plastic pots of all sizrs as I rent. The only problem with this is the pots do dry out and I am guessing that's because the pots don't have the depth that a garden bed does. So to o er come this, in the warmer months I put a saucer so the water stays around. I grow veggies in the woodchip soil and they grow fine. I only use my worm castings as a liquid feed for everything. No more buying fertiliser for me
Awww precious pupsters crunchin on a sweet carrot!!!!
Well done James and Tuck! Thank you couldn’t be explained any better! This seasons grow if finished here. Looking forward to next season! 🌱
You need to do a wood chip dirt raised bed. And like you are doing now. Do a exact planting, and fertilizing. And see if there is a difference.
You are a great teacher James
Thanks Jackie, I can't take the credit though Tuck taught me everything I think I know
Thank you so much for the clarification!!😊
James, another amazing video! I get so excited when I hear “Let’s go!” and am entertained waiting for Tuck’s photo bomb and carrot eating. 🥰. I learn so much from you and feel my gardening skills have increased ten fold. Thank you for all that you do!
Really great job clearing this up for folks, thanks James !!!!!!!
Grandios erklärt! Ich habe auch stundenlang Paul's Videos geschaut. Meine Sträucher und Bäume und Stauden waren wundervoll aber das Gemüse noch nicht. Aber ich will keine Hühner. Vielen Dank dass Du die Rätsel löst, die ich in meinem Garten habe!!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩
Great content. Thanks James! I love when I catch the local tree companies in my neighborhood for a free load of mulch. So helpful!
Thanks Anita! Me too! I hear them cutting and I hop in my truck and search them out lol
I'm glad we're not the only crazy gardeners chasing down the tree company trucks for their chips. We even have a neighbor who calls us when he sees them in the area so we can get the woodchips from them!
Tuck is so precious. My dogs love carrots, too. I’m finally growing some of my own. Can’t wait to try them (the pups, too)!
❤❤❤❤ For Tuck. Thanks for sharing
What a good little garden buddy. Such a nice little dog. Love your videos.
Thank you so much for the explanation. Can you please do a video on what other things can be used for mulch instead of woodchips please, for those of us who find it difficult to get them. Please give adorable Tuck a hug for me ❤️
Most important rule: make very sure that you do not get compost raw material, manure, comppost (free or bought even !) straw and hay or grains that could be contaminated with the long lived herbicide aminopyralide .(farmers have lost the harvests of a whole season because they used soil / manure etc. that was contaminated. Likely they did not know initially what was the reason the seeds would not germinate and the seedlings not grow, and if you have it in the soil there is nothing what you can do. Only a few crops can tolerate it and it takes at least one year to break down.
Cartons, newspapers, wood are safe options no aminopyralide. Just do not use the glossy stuff (magazines or certain cartins) with a lot of color, or the coating that makes them shiny - normal newspaper with some color prints on it - like images, or for ads is O.K. Remove tape, stickers and glue - soaking / wetting the cardboard, helps to remove tape.
Many say the staples can be left in, even the larger in the cartons - if it is moist they will rust away quickly. Wood chips, bark chips. Saw mills have material incl. the first cuts of the trees that can be used als material for building raised beds.
Branches from landscapers, dense inferior soil (you can elevate it, if you have the space for a pile, and adding it gradually to raised beds, worm composting bins and compst heaps.
Be careful with tree stumps unless someone dug them out with a powerful machine. People often use all kinds of chemicals to "break down" the wood. Bleach, diesel, motor oil, glyphosate, a comibination of such poisons, ...)
Because fungi didn't work the last 2 billion years or so.
Saw dust -in small quantities.
Restaurants, some starbucks already keep the coffee grounds for urban gardeners (good nitrogen source) if a person picks them up reliably. Fruit bars (where they sell pressed juices) would be great. Office building where they drink a lot of coffee.
Deli shops / departments and restaurants have often food delivered (by the industtry) in smaller buckets with a tight lid. Potatoe salad, pickles, .... and they have to get rid of them. These are great (and free) containers for collecting nitrogen rich material (the carbon rich material is easier to come by, theere ar always newspapers and carton). The platic material is food safe, and because of the lid they are good to transport and there is no stink, ants, fruit flies that would be attracted. They are also small enough to not be a nuisance ina small office kitchen.
One can buy such buckets in hardware shops, but they cost at least 2 dollars I think and who knows if those are food safe. if you have a route with 10 suppliers every 2 days and 10 others the other day, you need 40 buckets and a few spares and will handle 10 empty and 10 buckets with content every day (that could be one office building, because you likely need a bucket for every company that is in the house, or one for every floor if it is a large company that occupies the whole building). But I would try smaller companies, in large companies you do not even get in w/o security and w/o a pass.
If that is an option in your area and for your schedule you could establish a route where you pick up buckets every day (Monday to Friday just give them notice if you can't pickt hem up, sickness, out of town, ...) and give them an empty, fairly clean bucket and lid in exchange. if you give some newspaper pages into it, they soak up fluid and even if there should be mould or the waste being gross the plastic will not be soiled (I know that from experience, a few pages of newspaper help, think 2 pages of a large format (the first 2 and last 2 of the newspaper), that stuffed into the bucket makes all the difference, even if there are mouldy coffee filters and rotten apples, and some extra liquid - so cleaning the bucket is easy. 'the lining is a matter of seconds, normally the bucket will not be full you if half the bucket has some paper lining you are good.
You can wipe them out with balls of newspaper, put them into the sun for drying and "disinfection" (if possible that is good to do from time to time), it is the UV radiation, the sun bath also helps with smells. That way it is not much work, you do not have to wash them and have acceptable buckets for your food scraps suppliers. If it is not easy and icky people will not do it for you. If it is a lot of work to handle the buckets _you_ are not going to do it.
Then you need to identify the sources where you get a lot of good material with little time investment. You can tell former sources (that are not a good fit for your route, or they deliver bad raw material or the effort does not justify the material you can get from them) politely, that you have enough now (at least from the kind of material you need), you thank them - so they will feel good about it.
It is possible the workers there will pick up the habit. All the better the less wet materal in the garbage dumpster the less anaerob activity = less methane. If they burn the waste they do not want wet ingredients. Usually such muncipalities have a green ton for bio mass, encourage composting for home owners, and promote recycling for glass, metal, and paper etc.
They may even sell compost, although often of mediocre quality. That would not matter (it can be a good building block for you or good enough as filler material) but you have to test it before using it (for the herbicide aminopyralide). The test is done with seeds and seedlings of sensitive plants. Only then you should spread it in your garden. On a heap it will not do damage, but there is always the chance that you or some helper by mistake adds it to the safe heaps.
Soil bacteria (think "green" nitrogen rich waste / compost: grass clippings fruits, veggies and their roots and leaves, and also coffee) break it down, maybe it would also work if that heap would sit for several years, normal composting in the normal time frame - half a year to one year - does not help though.
Coffee ground are especially good to collect because they are not too moist, do not develop mould so easily (so you could pick them up every 2 days even). They do not rot like fruits, and also do not attract fruit flies etc. Sometimes fruite flies develop IN the bucket, if eggs were on some fruits scapes already. or they get in and start breeding. That can go fast. And the good lid does not help against that.
If the buckets are empty you can staple them, try to get some that staple well into another, you can get more over time and give the ones away that do not staple well, they are good for storing a lot of things. If you wash them and let them dry in the sun they are as good as new.
Of course you also need to have newspaper at all times, but as they are dry it is easier to get them from neighbours, if you have too many you can always use them to smother weeds if you prepare new beds. You can get them in recycling centers. A surplus is future composting material, it counts as brown (carbon rich, little or no nitrogen). The inks of non-glossy normal newspapers are soy based and allegedly harmless, even if they have some color onthe pages.
But if you get a lot of fruits and coffee grounds your compost heap or worm bin can do well with a lot of newspaper. Only make sure: no dairy, meat, cigarette ash - citrus peels in moderation.
And make very sure that you do not get material that could be aminopyralide contaminated.
Wood chips in a clear bag, add some moisture and let it stand in the sun, not standing water but half soaked. Was a lucky accident for a gardner in Iowa (lots of sun but also good rain in summer. coarse pine chips broke down in 2 months). She got her chips in clear bags and did not ned them all. It was hard to find organic wood chips so she bought more than she needed and thought they would keep in the bag but had them outdoors.
Maybe the bags were made of material that breaks down over time (company being into organic / sustainable products and all). They let in moisture into the bag captured the heat of the sun. In that case no depletion of nitrogen, that happens (temporarily and locally) if fungi break down wood in _soil._
I guess IF there is nitrogen to be had, fungi prevail that draw it from surrounding soil, which makes their job easier and they are faster than their competition. There must be fungi that can make do w/o or they draw it from the air if they must.
The lack of nitrogen was compenasted by more energy - higher temps in combination with moisture. And a clear bag is likely better - you can also see what is going on (too much water standing. I would have a little opening so that air can get in and out.
I guess one could try with branches, mixed with sawdust and newspaper and wait what happens. It is not nitrogen rich soil most likely but fluffy water holding substrate that offers pores and niches for soil life.
Try growing mushrooms. Oyster is said to be beginner friendly - even if the harvest should fail - the fungi still work the carbon rich material (wood, saw dust, likely also carton and paper).
Harvesting stinging nettles if you are lucky enough to have them in the wild (making liquid manure, or if you cannot deal with the stink (small plot and neighbours object) you can make fermented nettle tea (with brown sugar and leaves, no water added, so it ferments and does not stink).
Asking neighbours for grass clipping or their leaves so they do not burn them.
Electricity companies must chop down a lot of trees or branches. The residue of fermented sweage (if they produce biogas from it). If you live in an country or state where you can be sure the lack of regulation will not tempt industry to release toxins. Either you are in a rural area with no industry, in Germany, Switzerland etc. you would be safe they test that residue, I would not trust the sewage plants in the U.S. though.
Check out the book humanure. At least urine could be used. you are not supposed to give litter from pets into the compost. For once the litter material depends on what it is (and if you can find out) - and then worries about the extrements, spread of diseases, runoff into water.
If you want to handle that you better know what you are doing. Is is possible but authorities will not risk that ignorant people spread bacteria etc.
Geoff Lawton showed a system with compost toilets and letting that mature and be broken down in wheely bins (garbage tons with a lid, the standard models).
Be cautious with everything that originates from grass - green grass or grains ! (muncipalities, even companies seling compost, _manure_ for instance cow, or horses ! when straw is contaminated) Unfortunately more and more damage to gardeners / regenerative farmer happens because of the herbicide aminopyralide, another herbicide from hell. See Charles Dowding's channel.
It kills all but grasses (grass on the meadow) - or other grasses like wheat, rye, corn, barley, oats .... and kale, cabbage, and the like can tolerate it. But most plants (incl. many flowers) suffer, or do not grow at all, some are very sensitive to even traces and that substance is NOT broken down by digestion or fermentation (in the stomach of a cow, it stays in cow manure)
Nor is it broken down by drying = straw, or even hot composting. Only soil bacteria break it down - eventually but that can take at least ! one year, or much longer. Looks like the conventiaonal farmers rely on the regenerative crowd here because their soils are not rich in life and consequently have less capacity to break down aminopyralide.
Allegedly (more intense) sun light breaks it down too and within hours (or so they say) I guess on a hot weekend you could spread out material on a tarp in a thin layer if you have tested it positive and expose it to solar radiation. If the material is compost, after that you would try to infuse some life again with compost teas. Maybe adding a moist and shaded rescue zone for worms so you can collect them and they are not all killed by the heat and sun - like most of the other soil life if exposed to the heat and light.
it is very convenient for conventional farmers (dairy, beef and those who grow grains and corn). Will only last 6 - 10 years then some weed mutations will pop up that can cope well with the extreme chemical. They will take over in the grass / wheat / corn monocultures. Either they will massively increase the dose then (causing even more damage to regenerative gardeners and farmers) and using the humans and animals as guinea pigs. They say it is harmless for animals and humans. They said the same about glyphosate. and then there is soil life and insects that could be impacted.
The forces of evolution hitting back if humans try to eradict all but one species happened with glyphosate, they call the survivors "weeds from hell". Actually these are fabulous hardy plants, some of them are even protein rich fodder. Goats would love it, maybe also pigs and cattle. Farmers had to give up such fields (for their usual way of farming), but one does not know whether there are still remnants of the poison they used in the past. Else travelling goat herds could restore the fields.
OMG tuck is so cute. Id like to know more about this raise bed and the cover in the video.
You are definitely gifted in your ability to clearly teach and inform your listeners (students). I never fail to take away applicable information and the best part is your videos are fun and sweet spirited.💖 2 Tuck!
Using woodchips around your trees and compost mulch for your veggies basically combines Paul and Charles Dowding :-)
I absolutely LOVE, love love your videos! I’ve been watching so many and am learning so much from you. I’m starting my own homestead, organically growing my own food, and learning how to be more self sustainable. Making videos now to show everything I’m doing on the land. Thank you for the inspiration! ❤️🌱✌️ Hope to see more of your videos soon ☺️
I’ve really enjoyed your videos for some time, you have been a real inspiration for me at home. I’d like to invite you to our compost facility in CT.
Thanks James for the clarification.
Thanks for the clarification on the wood chip method.
Hey Tuck.
For some reason I got what Paul was doing from the first viewing on his movie. Maybe because I have studied this or maybe it has to do with listening clearly to his words and the actions of video.
Took me awhile to see this too. I started Back to Eden gardening in 2016 and followed Paul G. Also I watched all his videos and don’t have Hens either. I do compost everything. Buy in some veg mix. Totally agree with you thanks for making it clear to people. Great job. James.
I use a wood chip mulch on my raised beds, but it is a mulch, and I pull it back and plant into the soil. By the end of the season the soil is really rich and black and ready for another layer of wood chips. I always start my seedlings and then plant them out, but I keep a bed without any mulch for direct seeding things like carrots and radish. I thinks the secret it to remember to plant into the soil, and not into the chips.
James is a national treasure.
The way i look at it the woodchip mulch is a distributor of essential nutrients over distance to keep balance throughout its connected pathways of micro fungi. Having pools of bacteria dominated soils (garden plant beds) increase the diversity of the living system making it more robust.
Paul Stamets taught me how to climb trees while tripping balls on psilocybe cubensis magic mushrooms! Bless Paul! 🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄
That sounds... dangerous.
Two great Pauls...and both deal with mushrooms and mycelia
I have started a small garden area in wood chips and struggled with the concept. I loved watching Paul Gautschi films but I always felt like something was missing. Thank you SO much for clearing this up for me! It makes a lot of sense now.
You probably watched the film _about_ Paul Gautchi which was made by two young women - who may or may not be gardeners and had a religious agenda (or their financiers had). Less praising the lord and more details on the issue would have been helpful. The religious folks should not need the constant reminders and the others only care for the garden / compost / mulching / growing related content.
Paul was an experienced gardener before but the tilling and weeding got to him (he is in a wet state, in the drier part of the state of Washington for sure - but still plenty of rain compared to other states). With so much experience it is sometimes hard to put yourself into the state of ignorance of a rookie.
He is maybe one of the intuitive masters that are good at what they are doing but do not even always know WHAT they are doing, resp. not good in explaining it even IF they are fully aware of ALL the details that are clear to them when they do their thing w/o even thinking about them.
Plus we do not know what has been edited out of the footage - because the young ladies also did not realize this would have been crucial info for the unexperienced or conventional gardeners.
Watch the other videos that he gave since then, there is a channel L2B or L2Survive (I guess it means learn to ...)
I think after the movie a lot of questions popped up and he realized he had to streamline and complete the information.
This video is so informative and inspiring!
You made a very clear presentation of your soil mulch analysis.
Thank you.
🙋🏼♀️💕🌴☀️ Have a great weekend- I’m still repotting and potting up plants... it never ends 😄😂🤣 💫 🌈 🍅 🥑 🍋 🍓 🥒 🍌 🌶 🍠 ☀️🇦🇺 😘
About to use this method. Thanks for explaining
Great video. Perfect explanation of the Back to Eden method.
Thanks Anna! Me and Tuck appreciate the kind words