Back to Eden Gardening Method is MORE Than Just Wood Chips

The Back to Eden gardening method is great but some miss some key points to success. It's more than wood chips. Check out these resources below:
Paul & Carol Gautschi have a channel now! youtube.com/@Paul_CarolGautsc...
Back To Eden Documentary: • Back To Eden Gardening...
L2Survive Channel: youtube.com/@L2Survive?si=T5a...
Back To Eden Gardening:
youtube.com/@BacktoEdenGarden...
Chip Drop Guide:
• Chip Drop Tips and WAR...
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[@jaswas77]

Great video. I like your thoughts on forest vs non forest plant soil needs. I think the wood chips in Paul’s orchard have been there for many many years so now they are amazing. Of course you can’t plant into the wood chips when they fresh. They provide a covering and you plant into the soil. Over time the wood chips break down and add to the soil. Yes those chickens are generating the mulch he uses on his non orchard garden. I found putting a good layer of wet newspaper on the gras (cut short) then cardboard over that then 8” of wood chips really makes it hard for grass to grow through. I put would chips around my fruit bushes and perennials and compost on my garden plot. Everything is covered. No bare dirt. No tilling. Year over year it gets better. So much to learn.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

It can be simplified to no tilling, and cover the soil. People would be amazed how well even poor soils grow after letting them do their thing

[@ablacksquare]

Where I am from the utility companies also offers free chips. They have to frequently cut trees to clear power lines. Trees chips+ chicken manure+ compost= Back to Eden? I felt like he also went 4-5 feet deep with the chips. I watched the videos during the Pandemic and was very intrigued. I had some success with this method.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Im lucky to live in a wooded area so there's always chips. I like to get them when they come from trees that had full foliage so the piles get hot. I put chips down 2 foot thick without cardboard by some fruit trees. The soil is great now but the weeds are bad. The rhizome spreading grass enjoys running through the chips, not even into the soil

[@mikeschoolcraft21]

I put cardboard under the chips on my path and on my raised beds when not using them. The microbes love the environment and go into overdrive.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

I used cardboard under the rotting straw, leaves, and grass clipping I piled up last winter. It broke down faster than under the chips. The worms loved it. The soil went from compacted to fluffy with all the worms burrowing through

[@fyrerayne8882]

thank you

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Thank you for watching!

[@stacyrosa6672]

I searched Michigan Permaculture, as I live in Northern Michigan a mile from Lake Huron. Ive been establishing permaculture on my 2 acre property. You're a phenomenal resource! I wish I had found you BEFORE the tree guys brought the first gigantic load of wood chips, 5 years ago! 😅

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

I'm flattered that my name would come up with a Michigan permaculture search! It's truly a life changing way to grow food

[@VermiCast_Garden]

Just getting back to this channel after watching the fantastic chicken coop videos posted several months ago. I really like the practical, common-sense type approach this channel offers.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Thanks!

[@Mindy56743]

I loved the back to Eden garden movie but the one issue that most people don’t get it the garden itself was done from his chicken coop. He talks about the compost the chickens make and in other videos he is showing how he screened the compost for the garden. For me that goes a bit more into the “no dig gardening style”

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Every 3 years or so he also drives to a local compost facility. Hes got a really cool old pick up. I can vouch for the chicken made compost. The stuff works wonders

[@Mindy56743]

@@FastGardeningMichigan I love how he does it and his talks about the Bible and how God intended things to grow. He has been an amazing source of inspiration and knowledge!

[@dialecticcoma]

good stuff, seen a lot of rich insta homesteaders moan about using wood chips / cardboard, whilst not having too much issue with using plastics

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

To me cardboard is the most natural, unnatural weed barrier. I know it will eventually break down and feed fungi and worms in the process. Before it breaks down salamanders, toads, and frogs like to hide under it. Unlike plastic, soil can actually get airflow with cardboard. My cardboard comes out of a dumpster where it would be sent to a landfill. I think recycling it into something that makes soil life happy is a better way to dispose of it. I also shred it for the chickens who supply the nitrogen to break it down.

[@dialecticcoma]

right on mate. i think a lot of people get worried about chemicals in the cardboard, but easy enough to avoid if discerning.@@FastGardeningMichigan

[@TheSelfUnemployed]

Thanks for the video. Just signed up for Chip Drop and looking forward to my first truck load.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

I'm getting ready for another drop myself. I use them to get free firewood too

[@chadwickworrell-sv5hn]

I will say I’m going into my second year doing the back to Eden method. Of course first years grow wasn’t all that and I expected that. But I have to disagree about wood chips not being a good weed barrier, I had so few weeds it was amazing and that was one of the biggest reasons why I chose the back to Eden method. I also went thick with my chips. Thanks for the great video. Keep them coming

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

My main problem was rhizome grasses traveling through the chips. Go to pick out one blade of grass and next thing you know you're following a 4 foot long root 😂

[@DragonForgeStudio]

Really depends on the weeds/grass in your area, and your climate. I live in the subtropics with several rhizome grasses and very pernicious weeds. They have come through cardboard, wood chips, sugar cane mulch, it doesn’t matter. This year I’m trying weed matt on top of everything.

[@FurFeathersandFlowers]

Pro Tip: Do yourself a favor, get a long handle pitchfork, works so much better on wood chips. BTW Jim K's garden is two towns away from me. Quite the place.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Manure fork is working great for chips and compost now. Ever buy any produce from Jim? I love how small, but efficient his operation is

[@FurFeathersandFlowers]

@@FastGardeningMichigan Yes, from his younger protege at the Farmers Market in town. I drove by his garden when he was in it a few months back. Amazing place for such a small area. I didn't stop because he was working.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

@@FurFeathersandFlowers so cool!

[@DJ-lp6bh]

Another great video. Thank you.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Thanks!

[@darrenwilkinson4348]

I’ve been doing it this way for years now and only one on all the plots where I am in uk….so much easier…yes I get the odd weed..but I just pull them up…normally I put a good 6” in September and leave to slowly decompose… sadly we did get them free but the council sells it to a biomass company now…so this year I’ll be buying them for £35 a dumpy bag….its the best thing I ever did,,,my soil is so much better and my plants are the best.. When I move the woodchip I normally chuck in a bit chicken coop poop..a year old…then the plants go in…so on top of adding the woodchip I’m adding bit by bit more nutrients to ground…and I’m taking the soil to add to compost which in most part are rotted down chip.. Funny watching each year as I see all the plot holders turning over the plots… The thing is a lot of the plants love a strong structure soil to grow in ..not loose broken up soil… Since I got the chickens my compost production has enabled me to not have to buy compost for 4 years …and then any pots left over is reused as sowing compost… as I say RECYCLE REUSE…. Anyway great to see someone else using this method….looking forward to seeing more videos.. HAPPY SOWING HAPPY GROWING..🌱🌽🥦🥬🥒🌶️…IM IN THE SHED..KZbin…

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Everything you've said is strikingly similar to my situation. I used unfinished chicken compost, unsifted with big chunks in it, as mulch. My plants are going crazy! Been waiting for woodchips. I usually never have to wait.

[@user-xi2yq8ov2b]

The wood chips eliminate 90% of the weeds and i like how easy the weeds pull in the chips. You can not go wrong with the cardboard.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

The soft soil they create makes pulling a breeze!

[@Paul_CarolGautschi]

Every Monday, at 5 PM, Pacific time, Paul Gautschi is LIVE. You can ask him questions. Him and Carol are there for up to three hours. I'm not sure you knew about this, so I thought I would post here. We addressed the cardboard issue a couple of weeks ago. - Thank you for doing this video. Please tell others. kzbin.info/door/og231QtSPc4fa41OnRz7OQ

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

I have been telling everyone I can! I've been active on a couple of the LIVEs. I may make a video about it since my subs are BTE fans. My gardening methods are inspired by the wise words of Paul. It's amazing what we can learn just by WATCHING how growth and creatures interact to form a perfect system. It's naive to think that WE can do it better.

[@poodledaddles1091]

I was inspired by the BTE, you explained it well!

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Thanks! Paul Gautschi is LIVE every Monday on the BacktoEdenLive channel

[@derekharper7868]

cool video. subbed.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Thanks!

[@Crina-LudmilaCristeaAuthor]

Awesome stuff! I'm so jealous of your woodchip piles. Here in SW Scotland it's a challenge to get hold of lots. We're in our 2nd year here and still haven't managed to cover the garden. But the small long patch we did cover with woodchips is looking great already!

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

I'm waiting for more. I got to the bottom of these and those chips were almost completely broken down

[@Crina-LudmilaCristeaAuthor]

@FastGardeningMichigan I've been praying for woodchips!! I've planted several hundreds of hazel seeds weeks ago, and in time, I hope to grow trees and coppice some of them to make woodchips since it's so challenging to find them here. We'll see how many sprout and grow into saplings. Hopefully, many will because I want to have some stuff for our small nursery this year. I've filmed a few clips and posted them as well. Maybe it will help others to grow trees. I look forward to seeing how the wine caps will do this year. Last year, because I inoculated in February, they came up in early June. This year, they should come up earlier since the mycelium is established. We're having a very wet spring in 2024. The snowdrops came up early in the middle of January, early February, or so. It was warm. But then it started raining a lot. From the end of next week, we should have some 16° degrees (Celsius), and I'm hoping they will start popping out.

[@tacomaland1557]

Hey Man, great content! I'm just up the road in Highland building a very similar homestead. Would love to connect someday. Just moved up here a few years ago and still working on establishing a community. Keep up the great work.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

I'm going on almost 3 years now. That's right down the road. Maybe we can do some plant trades

[@chooseanamazinglife]

Thank you, this was educational. I’m still a little confused as to when/where you add compost to the wood chips. Can you do cardboard then compost then wood chips on top? I’m hoping to get my garden started soon.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

If you can do cardboard with compost on top you can plant into the compost then mulch with chips or any other material. I started by laying down thick layers of alfalfa hay, grass clippings, and leaves on top of my clay soil, then added cardboard followed by more hayz grass, and leaves, then topped that with chips. When I went to plant I'd make a hole through the cardboard all the way down and dig the planting hole in the clay. But I'd mix compost into planting hole to fix the clay. After time goes by there's new soil under the chips you can plant into but if you're in a rush just amending the planting hole works great. The other stuff will break down around it

[@EpsteinIsSeaEyeAyy]

Banger. What is the key to getting the compost pile hot?

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Big piles, lots of nitrogen, and turning when the temperature starts to come down to get airflow to reignite the microbes. The facility he goes to has a large shredder that chops everything up and they use heavy equipment to turn it a lot.

[@charlescoker7752]

Nick Agee was Paul’s helper. He also has a channel. His earlier videos are when he was still Pau’s helper. He has moved to Florida. Growing Back To Eden. Is the name of his channel. Nick said Paul no longer used the chicken compost. To many weed seeds.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

I am subbed to his channel. Paul and Carol just started their own channel a few weeks ago. I am super excited about it.

[@charlescoker7752]

@@FastGardeningMichigan Try to find it. can you provide a link?

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

@@charlescoker7752 its called "back to eden live"

[@charlescoker7752]

You heard of the Jadam growing Korean method? Number of videos on KZbin. Garden Like a Viking channel has been using the method for some time. Saturday mornings around noon time central time he as a live chat.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

I have not, but I will check it out!

[@Marigold-ip3gw]

I had blended up some veg and about 5 potatoes in my Vitamix with water and dumped across my garden bed. About an hour later I came across a JADAM vid and I laughed… synchronicity ❤

[@AaricHale]

You did a really great job explaining everything ! I think a lot of people missed out on Paul putting a lot of chicken compost down in his garden as well as the wood chips. I have had mine down for about 4 years now and still move the wood chips back and plant in the soil and I add fertilizer as well . I sure wish they would dump more because I was only able to get them once in 19 years living here . Thanks for sharing and have a great day !

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Have you tried calling local arborists? I try to time it during summer storms where I know they will be doing clean up

[@AaricHale]

@@FastGardeningMichigan I haven't called them I was hoping they would be out working this way again and catch them .

[@Jay-dn4uy]

Question for you I'm going to get wood chips delivered for the first time what are the steps I need to take to turn into topsoil? Any helpful information would be great

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Let them sit in the pile as long as you can. First the pile gets super hot then fungi move in. Getting chips during summer means more leaves for nitrogen to break down faster. If you can't wait they will still break down on the soil surface, just takes longer. To turn into true topsoil takes years. The real benefit is them being a soil covering. When the soil is covered the existing soil gets altered by worms and fungi. My hard clay native soil is now light and fluffy from the worms working under the chips

[@woodchipgardens9084]

Woodchips in my garden simply have to be maintained same as No woodchips, you pull weeds and rake the chips in piles before you plant and push the chips back in place.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

The weeds that make it through chips are usually vigorous like dandelions and docks. They make great chop and drop and chicken food. When I pull them I put them to good use

[@kelleclark]

Do you have any issues with the dreaded pill bugs when you plant in cardboard with drilled holes? In my garden any time I direct sow beans or peas, the get devoured as soon as they pop up and any hunk of cardboard I leave on the ground is covered with pill bugs on the underside :( HELP! p.s. I love your channel and have learned a lot :)

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Never had an issue with pill bugs and I have a lot of them. Slugs were a problem but by adding bird houses, a small pond, and piles of logs and bark it attracted predators. I also left some thistles for the slugs to eat so they'd leave my plants alone. They love eating thistle.

[@derekharper7868]

I've had terrible earwig infestations recently, and thr only thing I can figure is they are living in the compost/leaves/cardboard that I've added to the garden in the fall. So this year I left the garden bare for winter and will amend in sprint.

[@glennjgroves]

“The group that shall not be named” also say that you need a very thick layer of wood chips to stop weeds - at least 8 inches thick. Without a very thick layer I would expect weeds (if you are not using cardboard.) Their research from what I remember did not include vegetables or herbs, it was more based on larger perennials eg trees.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

I got weeds through close to 2 feet of chips and that was also with a thick layer or straw underneath. Some weeds actually root in the chips. Grasses that spread through rhizomes have no problem growing through. I even had Borage self sow with the seeds just landing on chips and strawberry runners root through them. Stuff like thistles, dandelions, and dock was able to break through even a thick layer of carboard. The good thing is the soil is so good that they pull right out. I'm learning that the ground is not just meant to be covered with mulch, but also plants. Even when the forest coats the ground with a thick layer of leaves by summer its covered with plant life. I'm working on my ground layer but it will take time.

[@glennjgroves]

@@FastGardeningMichigan I am very slightly changing the topic here, but at my previous home I lifted a lot of weed matting. I did not even know it was there before I started digging. Years of leaf litter on top, plus weeds growing first on top and then through the weed matting. It was essentially stapled to the ground below by the roots of weeds growing through it. Very hard work to pull up. I swore a lot at whoever put the weed matting down! Give me something that will decompose and improve the soil any day over weed matting! Both living and recently dead plants (including wood chips etc) seem to work well - and do not leave the mess of a layer of plastic that will some unsuspecting person will have to remove at great effort in the future.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

@@glennjgroves i had to tear some of that up before. It's terrible!

[@Andrew-sanders]

Seems most miss the compost part not only did it show him at a compost yard but in his chicken run sifting compost. His garden is compost the apple trees are mulched with chips

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Right on! A bunch of people are tossing arborist chips on the soil thinking they're gonna grow a great vegetable garden right away. The orchard is chips, the garden is compost and chicken made compost. The chips are good for plants but they need to break down a lot first. He burns a lot of the chips he gets and gives them to the chickens. A lot of people missed that part as well. Says its easier than chipping them smaller.

[@Andrew-sanders]

@@FastGardeningMichigan hell I had forgotten about the charred chips

[@austin2842]

Makes a lot of sense. I use wood chips over cardboard to mulch my haskap berries, and also a decorative shade bed where I have ferns and such. I innoculated that shade area with winecap mushrooms, and that mycelium helped break down the chips into rich humus that now feeds the plants. Never did fruit into mushrooms, though. I also added JMS to the chips, which might have helped. One other thing I do (that I don't advertise to the neighbours), is that I'll water some of my fresh wood chip mulch with "human-sourced" liquid nitrogen fertilizer diluted about 1:10. That seems to break them down quickly with zero cost and almost no effort.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

I add wine caps to all of the wood chips. They pop up everywhere. The mycelium seems to run everywhere, even into soils with non woodchip mulch

[@austin2842]

@FastGardeningMichigan I'm jealous. I don't know why mine failed to fruit. I thought maybe it was cue to bring mainly softwood instead of the preferred hardwood, but by the sounds of things they should grow just about anywhere.

[@marcuslewis5803]

Haha! Did you just do a Compost Bae?

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Haven't watched this video in a while but I might have 😂.

[@wes_tone_thinks]

Well understood. I’m creating an infographic that simplifies all this confusion. It is the basis for a KZbin channel I am working on. I am always looking for smarter people than I to review it for edits. Please let me know if you would be willing to give some feedback and I will send it to you.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Check out the "Back to Eden LIVE" channel. Paul and Carol Gautschi do live streams every Monday evening and you can ask questions in real time to the man himself behind Back to Eden

[@scoobydoo5447]

Why are you shoveling wood chips with a spade? Invest in a 4 tine manure fork and work the easy way.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Ive tried that and other shovels and forks. The spade cuts through them the easiest. Now I use a tractor.

[@user-xi2yq8ov2b]

A silage fork super.

[@ppss.6302]

Lol. That's gonna be very expensive veggies if you are not a niche kinda guy having access to cheap woodchips. Besides it does not scale up at all, imagine what would happen to the woods if let's say a tooth fairy achieved impossible and tenfolded # of gardeners in your area. There is nothing cheap about gardening from scratch, relying on woodchips guarantees that you'll never be in the black.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Woodchips are free.

[@ppss.6302]

@@FastGardeningMichigan Generally it is not true. There is entire woodchip industry that charges arm and leg for dubious origin chips. One cannot count on free chips just because a few guys allegedly got free chips in some areas. In most of the populated areas chips =$. Gardening is such a niche hobby, if a miracle will happen and more people will garden, there is simply not enough of woods standing to enable this sort of gardening on any significant scale.

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

@@ppss.6302 these aren't harvested for gardeners. They are arborist chips, a waste product of tree removal companies. They need to pay to dispose of them so they gladly give them away for free.

[@ppss.6302]

@@FastGardeningMichigan Free chips are a rare find not available for absolute majority of gardeners, as rare as those gardeners are today.

[@stevewinwood3674]

​@ppss.6302 where do you live? What country?