Turn Clay Into Perfect Garden Soil with Woodchips - Tips for New Gardeners

Using woodchips in your pathways and garden perimeter is a great way to passively build soil in otherwise unused space.
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[@suzannestack7784]

I needed to transform my free wood chips fast as I'm getting older and only have a few good gardening years left. I created my garden with two truckloads of wood chips and 50 lbs of urea. In the fall I spread out the chips 2' deep, water soaked it and scattered the pellets of urea throughout. Watered again. Winter covered it with a good 3 months of snow and freezing. In spring I hired a guy to dig it in. The urea and water did a good job of breaking down the wood chips. With my heavy clay soil and these broken down chips I had a great start. I started building my raised beds. I filled them with this new mix and topped them with my own compost. Planted and got a very nice return. Spring is coming and this will be year two and I can't wait!

[@Leeofthestorm]

I think that if you broadfork or spade fork those super clay rich paths before initially adding your wood chips, then you will get a lot more soil building when those chips break down into loosened soil. Also, a layer of cardboard between your clay and your fresh woodchips goes a long way to make earthworms happy, especially if the clay and cardboard, and lower layer of woodchips are moistened. This will greatly increase the speed of your soil building for a small amount of extra work

[@abdul-hadidadkhah1459]

Cardbord is only for weed supression, but if it's clean of weeds, like Diego's, then worm will still be present.

[@FreeAmerican-mm2my]

@@abdul-hadidadkhah1459 My worms like cardboard.

[@benthere8051]

I have used that technique for years. Wood chips and pine needles make for good materials for paving paths. And they do decompose while performing double-duty. One thing that astonished me was the effect that freezing has on clay. My soil was black clay gumbo. It was miserable to work with. One sunny winter day after a hard freeze I noticed the effect that frost had on my soil. The ice crystals had broken the clay into an incredibly fine-grained soil. I took the opportunity to work peat moss into the clay in a way that would have otherwise been impossible.

[@aenorist2431]

The problem is that frost that improves tilth (i.e. on exposed soil) also kills most of the microbiology in that same soil, making it little better than going through it with a tiller.

[@ASVProductions]

That gives me some hope. I had “black dirt” delivered (cheapest stuff) to fill my beds thinking I would add a bunch of organic matter to enrich it through winter. It was ok but some of it was clay like and compressed into small boulders as hard as rock. I had a whole dump truck delivered so maybe that led to compression but really hoping both organic matter and a Canadian winter breaks it up like you say.

[@carlostorrelio8099]

Peat moss and clay are both acidic, how do you balanced it out? I am using sand and a bit of lime this year.

[@machinemaker2248]

Beware of pine needles. They can make soil barren for years.

[@johnsheppard8102]

yes the winter frost and snow freeze the ground in dig or no dig gardens and it is amazing to see that effect, it blows me away to see my leeks and onions coversd in frost , totally white and still survive and i will eat them soon , get a garden and you will interact with nature like when you pick your runner beans or pole beans and a bee is next to you , it dont care about you its just doing its job and it wont attack you so see the beauty in nature , its amazing

[@cherylanon5791]

Currently digging out my old woodchip paths & adding to beds! Then I stumble across this video 😂😂😂 the pathways have awesome soil as I discovered last summer, planted 8 extra tomato plants into one path...crossed my fingers...and got huge beautiful plants!

[@jeffreydustin5303]

You do great gardening videos, my friend, you deserve more views.

[@VastCNC]

Keeping mud off the boots has been one of the best benefits I've had for woodchip pathways

[@davesones965]

Lol I literally just did this yesterday to two large gardens and today I find a video showing exactly what I did . Did you watch me do this and then go back in time to make this video ? Lol 😂 Great idea

[@nbroachful]

Pretty solid method. I will be incorporating this into my system.

[@honeycaffena4897]

Yes, love it! 😊Here in MI, in the fall, I put 6 inches of dead leaves on my raised beds, which are wooden frames. The snow packs it down, then in spring the raised beds warm up quickly, & I use wood chips to cover up the muck dead leaves. Now in summer, I have free leaf mold for my plants! Life got better than buying stuff at Home Depot ! Love watching you

[@stephaniehenderson6631]

Great video, just found your channel. I use Autumn leaves and layers of cardboard or newspaper too.

[@RominaJones]

Enjoying your content, I appreciate and relate to the no-nonsense approach. Be practical, use what you have and don't be in a rush is how I like to garden too and the amount of great hands-on info on KZbin on soil health and life is truly incredible. Glad I found your channel.

[@SkyeRiv]

This is by far one of my most favorite genius video!!!😂

[@BennyPino]

So practical! We love mulching our pathways and are excited to get some free soil in a few years

[@RichardRoy2]

Great idea. From what I understand of clay, it is rich in nutrients, but it is extremely reluctant to A, absorb moisture, and B, give it up. But if you can amend it with material that breaks it up, you give the particles more surface area for bacteria and fungus to work on. The chips in the pathway also creates a kind of cistern, I think, for holding moisture for the plants during drier periods. Something else I've heard of recently is hugelkultur. A system used to break down logs and branches, often done in raised beds, these days. It looks pretty interesting. I'd be interested to see if you'd heard of it.

[@elisabetk2595]

Another benefit is that walking on deeply mulched pathways doesn't compact the clay soil. We've been doing this primarily so that it is possible to pull the weeds in our hot Texas summers - bindweed and bermuda are almost impossible to remove from baked, compacted clay. Many of our interior paths are filled with leaves, not woodchips, so we have a source of partly broken-down leaves when we need a little extra mulch. Whole leaves tend to blow off the beds so walking on them first really helps even if they haven't composted much yet.

[@shaungarbry88]

This is a really good idea, Diego. It really gets me thinking about how to use those "unused" areas. Thanks for putting this video together.

[@wudangmtn]

I just created six swales, on my property, in order to create an orchard/food forest. I think this would be a good technique for covering the swales; then I could place the composted chips on the berms. Same principle, just a slightly different application. Thanks for the idea.

[@JAYNEmM1962]

I love your explanation makes 100% sense.

[@rodneyjackson622]

Wow! Thank you for helping me to collect more information on how to make better soil for my raised bed garden, and I do have lots of woodchips on my pathway or walkway in my garden. Thank you for sharing.

[@MK-hs9pl]

This is a fantastic idea. I really like this concept!

[@TheRebelmanone]

yep, good ideal, that is similar to the way i do it. I use 3ft wide beds and 3 ft wide wood chip pathways, this way i have enough room to move and harvest, and it allows things like zucchini and squash to occupy some of the walkways. Also this allows me to do the same thing you talk about, using the organic matter in the path for growing in after it breaks down. But instead of doing extra shoveling after the walkways break down, i simply rake the very top layer of wood chips off the walkways and onto the beds, and now the pathways become the beds and the beds become the pathways. I plant in the old pathways(new beds) now and walk on the old beds(new pathways) now, with fresh layer of new wood chips on top. Then i bet you can guess what comes next, yep, after the wood chips in the old beds(new pathway) break down, i simply rake the top layer of wood off the new pathways and onto the new beds, and now i am back to planting in where the original beds were, and walking where the original paths were. And i just keep flipping back and fourth after the wood breaks down, i keep the walkways relatively level with beds this way i can flip back and fourth using only a rake, no tilling, no shoveling, just a little raking. But the whole time in the beginning, i use compost added to the beds, where ever they are. Note: You don't even need a screen to screen the compost(broken down walk ways) because you don't shovel it out in the first place, it will disturb the life and kill them off, leave it in place. Just be sure you rake back the top layer that isn't broke down, and be sure to plant in the compost that is broken down. You can even put a layer of your own compost on top to plant in, but try not to disturb anything you don't have to, the plants if they want it and need it, they will send roots down into it, you don't even need to loosen it, it is already lose enough, it is wood compost, like a sponge. Note: i use a mix in the wood chips, it is not just tree trunk wood. It is sticks, twigs, limbs, leaves, needles, debri of all kinds, grass, weeds, etc...and the tree trunk wood, everything shredded, even the twigs, leaves, needles. This way i won't need to add anything to it when i use it after it breaks down, it will grow perennials like nothing else. Plant perennials first if you want to help the soil.

[@xyzsame4081]

Very interesting.

[@matthewfarrell317]

The whole end bit about this year people getting in is so true. Before winter started with 5 sq metres of space, now we just added another 8 sq metres, with a potential another 2. Oh and turned the front yard into an orchard lol I like the idea of the wood chips, but for us not as easy to get, plus I can get lots of straw, mostly pea and sugar cane for pretty cheap, so the beds are covered in that, under the hydroponics and the orchard lol. The only problem it breaks down so fast, the winter garden beds are already on their 3 covering.

[@SlackerU]

10/10, it's a perfect garden.

[@derrick_builds]

Great concept. Keep making great videos.

[@18Rhapsody]

Love it This is how we did our beds with the added benefit of some lightly composted horse and goat manure from our animals It makes for a neat and tidy garden area which is nice for us as it's at the front of our house

[@altkagesa3495]

Excellent video and ideas thanks for sharing.

[@TheJunkyardgenius]

Good video diego, very useful and informative

[@khadijahdavis1572]

This my beautiful brother is genius, i thank you for this video i just purchased property in NC and we have that red clay dirt and I've been researching ways to improve the soil so that i can grow in the medium because that's the whole purpose of me getting the property, as a newbie i had no idea that there was clay soil and how it's not ideal to grow in

[@melissagoodwin2602]

Thanks for the idea.

[@SARJENT.]

Basically composting in place. Makes sense.

[@hildachacon001]

Awesome video!!! Thanks Diego!

[@RideAlongside]

I was just thinking about doing this to our big garden at Highland Homesteading. Will post up a video of it and give you credit in the video description. Love ideas like this. Thank you friend. - Nick 😃👍

[@curiouscat3384]

It works - I've done it. Just be prepared for the woodchips to take several years to completely decompose, depending on how much moisture you can maintain in them.

[@mfreel2112]

Another great video. The info is very good but your attitude and experiments are the best. Thanks for sharing.

[@rrbb36]

Way too many people mispronounce fungi as “fun-guy”. What a genuine pleasure it is to find SOMEONE on this planet (other than myself) who actually knows how to pronounce “fungi” correctly. My ears thank you Diego 😘

[@FreeAmerican-mm2my]

Wow. You are so smart.

[@rickeycarter1413]

Very good idea I am going to try this

[@LauraLea1978]

This is really helpful, thank you for sharing :)

[@deinse82]

While your reasoning makes a lot of sense, and I'm sure this approach works well, I would offer one counter-argument: there's a lot of digging involved, which is a lot of work and it disturbs the fungal net (among other things). You say that the composted wood chips sitting in your walkways don't do anything, but they do: biology thrives in undisturbed, organic rich material, and it spreads into the beds. So, if you leave them alone, the pathways will produce more biology than the beds. Not just fungi, all types of soil life, including larger creatures, like worms, which are capable of transporting nutrients into the beds. So the pathways aren't wasted, the massive amounts of biology they produce doesn't just stay in the pathways, it keeps the whole garden in balance. So an alternative approach would be to just dig out the parts of the path with heavy clay as a one and done deal (something you never have to do again) to address this one specific problem, and leave the rest alone. Simply spread an extra layer of wood chips on top of everything that's there from time to time, to keep it looking nice and put all that wood chip to good use. I'm confident that all that compost in the pathways will still contribute every bit as much (if not more) to veggie growth, and it's less work.

[@earacheselbowsenoch6251]

Your very good at what you do...

[@leetravathan]

I soooo feel ya. I am in AZ (CA transplant) and have sand and clay soil. Wood chips have helped me create a good food forest in a subdivision. Still working on it as I dig out and re-work my scrub desert clay land.

[@xyzsame4081]

Have you considered Bio char ? It holds water (so helps with sand) and it also seems to be good with clay. Count your blessings, imagine you would have clay with standing water because of frequent heavy or long rains. (David the good has interviewed a woman in a Southern state). She built height but her plants stop growing into the clay layer, she spoils them with good compost and mostly they cope and give decent harvests. But from time to time they get wet feet.

[@xyzsame4081]

Daikon radish, Chicory and maybe a little gypsum. - Cautious ! use of gypsum could also help. (I would test it, some clay soils get worse). - It can cost you fertility (something about exchange of ions = electrically charged particles of minerals, the nutrients that your plants need), so it can't be a constant fix - but using it once to get a boost and soften the clay could work. The effect is not lasting and you should not overuse it. Then using temporarily improved soil conditions to grow things like Daikon radish (deep tap root, an annual) or Chicory (deep roots that allegedly even go through bedrock * ) it is a perennial, so you would have that for 2 years on your bed. And it really goes deep in the second year (of course I do not know that it would stand hot AZ summers, but maybe in the rainy season). * Coltswod Seeds UK sell seeds for cover crops and green manure to farmers (and hold seminars and webinars). Chicory must be great, I think it is related to endive salad. The woman with the occasionally soaking wet dense clay soil also knew the Daikon Radish trick. Well the radish did the same as other root vegetables, it grew well and then stopped when hitting the difficult zone and some them (also carrots but even pioneer Daikon radish) continued to grow in a 90 degree angle. Or they stopped growing at mediuzm size. (Which could be another strategy) harvest them as prime baby veggies (they are not growing beyond a certain size / depth as long as soil is not better) and defining he bug as feature, and squeezing in the next planting. It may have been a result of cultivating the top layer really well - that the Daikon radish did not work for her. The plant "figured": I have a medium sized bulb already which I grew with relative ease in excellent soil and good water and nutrient supply. Is it worth the investment to venture into the very wet layer and beyond that into hard clay ? or should I continue growing horizontally now ? Or call it a day and start producing seeds ? As you do not have the problem of standing water (I am making wild assumptions about Arizona) Daikon radish might work well for you. Chicory might be worth a try (not necessarily to get something edible but as green-manure / soil-improvement-by-deep-roots scheme). I think you can leave the radish in the soil over winter (if you rest your beds) and it will decompose and be fodder for soil life, and create nice big holes for rain and air to enter. So soil life should be comfortable going deep and pushing the frontiere right into dense clay territory. If the clay is very sandy too (so not as hard) and it only needs humus to glue it all nicely together - then green manure would be the solution. Growing some plants not for food but for the soil. The soil life gets all or most of the biomass to turn it into humus. Trees would be good at supporting the creation of humus (liquid carbon pathway, Dr. Chrisinte Jones) - but I think in a garden earth worms are really good in creating the glue like substance. They eat bacteria and the bacteria need bio mass, air and moisture, and some entryways (as created by roots that shrink when they decompose).

[@lovethegarden.kumariyeline4835]

Good information.

[@7Risen7Phoenix7]

My dad cold composts. His backyard, where he gardens, is about 1/4 clay, and early last year (about March/April) I dug out that area about 10" down and filled it back in with a mix of store-bought compost and what he'd already prepared. (Store-bought because he didn't have quite enough of his own to completely fill that area.) Now, that area is just as strong as what he's done on his own. Since I work in the produce department of the local retailer, I'm able to provide both greens and browns so he can stockpile for continued use.

[@MANI8835]

Very informative. I am thinking to use bamboo leaf instead of wood..

[@michaelsallee7534]

Trading time for input...consider a modified hugel bed. Dig a trench in the bed, fill with wood chips...then return soil over the chips

[@AshGreen359]

I wish my clay was as easy to dig as that

[@DiegoFooter]

No one said it was easy. Do the work. 👊

[@anthonyrstrawbridge]

Really great points. It's like I can just let Mr. Footer think for me. I used wood with success but now there is no wood. Chopped hay is plentiful though. I'll have to usd chopped hay. No other choice.

[@carolparrish194]

Because of the seeds in the hay you are going to be overcome with hay growing everywhere. Straw would be better..

[@markus_selloi]

Genious idea!! Looking forward to applying it!

[@marcusdosh408]

Great idea basically like compost bin which is getting used and path....

[@jimlyons4972]

We are doing this very thing on scale on our farm.

[@rufia75]

@Diego Footer, after reviewing Paul's Back to Eden documentary and reading lots and watching lots of videos about it, I am pretty positive that Paul actually uses MOSTLY COMPOSTED woodchips, not fresh arborist woodchips on vegetable beds. And he uses alot of chicken bedding/manure inputs as well. Rewatch it or watch it for the first time and pay close attention to what he's DOING, where he goes, and the material on the beds (especially the non-perennial beds), rather than just listening to him. An alternative strategy is to collect a lot of coffee grounds from local coffee shops and spread an inch or so on beds and then wood chips, to speed up the decomposition a lot. You could also sprinkle coffee grounds on after. Sounds like a lot of work to go to coffee shops? Maybe. If you can find the right starbucks with a green bin out back that they leave accessible, you can get alot. This past month, I've gotten about 50 gallons of coffee grounds (not exaggerating) for my beds and my composting setup for free just stopping by starbucks and local shops. One starbucks has provided about half of the grounds because they leave their outside compost bins accessible.

[@chantallachance4905]

Excellente idea you are a cool interest gardener 😘

[@Matrix2458]

I put down some rye under the woodchips to create a covercrop/mycorrhizae builder. It also doubles to create lots of green matter than can be chop and dropped, which also has the effect of root dieback, which fertilizes where the plants need it. The roots are better at breaking up the soil than the woodchips imo, but the woodchips are part of the formula I use and they're union is powerful. The mycorrhizae also produce a glue called glomalin, which breaks even heavy clay into chunks, made up of smaller chunks etc to the microscopic level to allow for drainage and aeration for very cheap.

[@russellsmith3825]

@Steve Slade, flax is also very michorhizal

[@Matrix2458]

@Steve Slade good to know!

[@xyzsame4081]

+ community produce: Interesting advice, I have never heard of the special powers of rye or flax. As deep tap root pioneer Daikon radish is well known (also to be left in the soild to decomposte) and perennial chicory seems to be even better. (the effect shows in year two). I knew that rye can be treated as perennial, it can be cut back in year one (so probably a part of the stems left standing), and be used as fodder (for animals) and in year two it can grow to maturity. Sepp Holzer does that, that way the rye can be grown to maturity in year 2 on marginal land (in the mountains, the plant is ready to go in spring of year two as soon as the soil thaws, so the short growing season is long enough).

[@danielfatone3994]

Okay good stuff man!!!

[@user-te7zz8mv3x]

great ideas thanks

[@SARJENT.]

I appreciate your videos. It's all about makin that (CEC) cation exchange capacity. Anyone remember NWA!? It's all about makin that GTA. HAHA!

[@jerrybessetteDIY]

Additional benefits of wood-chip rows are (1) they keep your feet clean in wet weather, (2) they cushion your footsteps to prevent compaction, (3) they help keep the ground from drying out.

[@naimedwards1422]

Brilliant!

[@johnfitbyfaithnet]

Agreed

[@harleyv1969]

Smart....subscribed

[@catfunksfabulousfinds]

Add wood chips to path, at least 2-4 years later( depending on where you live and how much rainfall you get. Make your path where you plant and make the beds your path for 2-4 years.

[@chuckstahn2696]

Will it work on sandy soil in some what the same way?

[@deepalib3096]

Nice video

[@jodi9295]

Do the decomposed wood chips (like at 10:14) still sap nitrogen from soil? Could you till that into the garden? How long until the carbon isnt a problem?

[@donbaker3993]

Good questions.

[@milkweed7678]

So, if I add top soil on the very bottom of beds, the cheap stuff, I can put plant roots right in that soil? So I assume as long as the wood chips aren't in the top few inches hurting seed germination that will be ok? Thanks for sharing! Great videos!!

[@DiegoFooter]

In general the higher concentration of wood chips the harder it is for seeds to germinate. I think you could also generalized to say the larger and fresher the wood chips the harder to get good germination.

[@milkweed7678]

@@DiegoFooter Ok, thank you!!! Keep up the good work!!

[@emergencyremedialtruth8593]

exactly except I would put the decayed wood into a compost pile before adding to the soil in the beds.

[@WirelessDesigner]

Funny is I enjoyed the clear good English of yours more than the content, still informative. thanks

[@VastCNC]

Have you been trialing any Johnson Su style bioreactors? I'd like to build a few this season and I'm very curious to hear your thoughts and strategies.

[@DiegoFooter]

I built two. Video next week. 😉

[@growsoilbiology]

The bioreactors have been propagating beneficial microorganisms that haven’t been seen in agricultural lands for many thousands of years! It makes fantastic compost. Try adding worms after the thermophyllic phase to take the heap to the next level. Average overall time needed 8-12 months for the good stuff!

[@xxpowwowbluexx]

@@growsoilbiology, how did anyone observe microorganisms “many thousands of years” ago?

[@marianchicago4002]

Mice and Rats LOVE wood chips, drove rideshare before pandemic, couple years ago, it was either January or February 2 or 3 years ago, temperature in chicago hit 75-80 degrees on a weekend, it was crazy, bartenders told me it was like a supoerbowl, new years eve and st particks day rolled into one, everyone went out, business was good, had a bunch of pickups that I had to wait around for a couple minutes, so would look around for safety and boredom, so when chicago plants trees or makes businesses plant trees in front of buildings, they will fill the area with wood chips, often rough ones, so it takes couple years for them to decompose, that weekend, I would see mice and rats go in and out of them, some of them would literally jump 2 or 3 feet into the air and dive into the woodpiles around the trees, after that I paid attention if those things were a regular occurrence and when the weather imprived, I would see mice and rats come in and out from the piles of wood chips around the trees. I wouldn't be surprised if that transferred into garden situation.

[@dannyhughes4889]

I like the open top metal fire container safely burning away providing a heat source. Something like this would be ideal for just throwing dry branches etc. on, leave alone and let burn down to ash or make Bio-Char if one has the time to look after the process. One thing I have done in my 6 meter long beds is to make a narrow walkway at the half way mark to allow me to sneak across to the other side without having to do a Cooks Tour to skirt around half the entire full length bed..........I lose a bit of production space but to me it's worth the loss.

[@KeikoMushi]

Diego, have you watched some of Patrick Dolan's (OYR channel) videos? If you haven't, you might be able to compare notes. ::thumbs::

[@mykimikimiky]

1.5 x :) thanks, Diego

[@charlescoker7752]

BTE. used the wood chips around his fruit trees. Trees love the wood chips. Garden soil does not like as much . He uses a lot of chicken manure in his garden as well.

[@bradnz3258]

Add gypsum too!

[@matthewmcconaghy-shanley144]

What wood chips are the best? Pine? I live in Tasmania

[@DiegoFooter]

Whatever you can get.

[@DEADYASSASN]

Damn I didn't know that was clay at first, thought he was showing me a potato lol

[@huotlor255]

Hi Diego, you are in Southern California but your surronding area look beautiful but not mine, I am in Lakewood. Thank you for your youtube, my soil is pure clay, most of plant ware failed.

[@Chris-op7yt]

those are massively wide beds, with permanent walkways that will compact. 2-3 foot wide you can step over them during planting and early growth, for easier weeding. also much easier to plan crops. once you have several rows per bed, it seems like saving space but, all work becomes more complicated. i dont use any mulch whatsoever and sometimes hoe the temporary walkways to relieve compaction, allowing air to get into soil. when you dont have walkways with materials such as woodchips, you can readily mix and dig soil in rows and walkways to heart's content, to mix heavy clay subsoil with typically loose topsoil.

[@theoriginalchefboyoboy6025]

he sounds like a super villain giving gardening tips...

[@dinosanchez8528]

Doesn't seem to be audio, its muted

[@emtpwanabe]

Anybody ever tell you you sound like Casey Casem?

[@lpgfamily5]

Guy, if you want clay, you should see Texas. It’s so difficult!

[@helenachase5627]

I watched a man on you tube and he piles up bark mulch and says in a year or 2 it turns into his propagating soil. If it were me I would use bark mulch instead of wood

[@sight1666]

I had saw plant with hard tap root like dandelion and some type of plant like it break through the hard clay soil in a field, then they loosen the soil and turned it too soft soil, it takes 2-3 years for break and loosen soil, and now other plant can grow easier a bit, With help of Earth worms and others weeds has different type of roots in 2-3 years, every inch of soil is loosen and cover with organic stuff from plant previous years, And that how nature turned hard depleted clay soil in abandoned field after many years mass plow, fertilizer, pesticide, weeding, fungicide to live once Again.

[@donaldleggett]

Pine chips? Good or Bad?

[@honeycaffena4897]

Don Leggett Here in MI, I have had no problems with pine needles mulch

[@donaldleggett]

@@honeycaffena4897 Thanks. I have concerns about the pine pitch from pine tree chips. West Florida here. Plenty of pine chips.

[@DiegoFooter]

I have some in this pile. I haven't noticed any issues either.

[@smhollanshead]

Pine bark mulch is considered a good amendment to the soil. It’s also a lot cheaper than potting mix.

[@MD76MAC]

I just got 6-5 gallon buckets of pine mulch. I can get more if I want it

[@xxpowwowbluexx]

All you have to do is add good compost or a good compost tea and planting in it. Then mulch around the plants. Always keep the ground covered with either mulch or living plants. Never mix the mulch into the soil; just place it on the surface. You can do the same with the compost you add: just add it to the surface before you plant and/or mulch.

[@carolparrish194]

I just put wood chips in the paths and leave them. It helps keep the weeds down and I love the idea of not having muddy shoes. Your idea is sound but it is a lot of work.

[@xyzsame4081]

11:00 Back to Eden does NOT mean putting fresh (unrotted) woodchips on _vegetable garden beds_ - that misunderstandting comes from a film of amateurs _about_ Paul Gaucci *. HE did not _make_ the film, or control the editing. He uses the woodchips as they are in the _orchard / for bushes_ and puts them on top around them (careful not to TOUCH the stem that can promote rot, he is in Washinton State, in a dryer region, but still !). These plants like the soil to resemble forest soil (fungal dominated soil developing from carbon rich material on top). Else he uses the woodchips as _bedding for the chickens_ and LATER that already somewhat broken down mulch comes as mulch layer onto the beds. * The film of 2 young women (that may not be gardeners themselves, at least not with any longer experience) created a lot of hype. Many fans did NOT have good results and the method is not well explained. Some (if they were first time or inexperienced gardeners) even misunderstood it to the point that they mixed the chips UNDER the soil. Well, more experienced gardeners were usually saved from that mistake, but it is never _said_ in the documentary not to do that and to avoid getting fresh wood chips INTO the soil - by accident when planting for instance. A lot of "praiseth the Lord" and bits of information. Many people said they watched the documentary several times to distill the relevant information from it. it is of course possible that it was haphazard editing and Paul had been explaining it more fully in one setting, but the rookies making the film, later cut it out.

[@xyzsame4081]

Paul Gaucci later gave other interviews where he reacted to the confusion and clarified things. If the woodchips mulch for the garden beds ! already had some time to rot (as chicken bedding) they will not lock up nitrogen - and in the area where the layers meet some of that could happen, especially if the plants are still small and have still shallow roots they may end up in a depleted top layer. And likely the "pre-rotting" in the chicken coop is sped up by the nitrogen from the chicken manure. So the woodchips have gotten extra nitrogen from the manure (the fungi that dominate in carbon rich material will lock up nitrogen, else they take it up from the soil and starve the plants for it. That is the reason not to mix woodchips UNDER soil in which plants are growing - that means the soil layer into which roots should be going and all soil above.

[@xyzsame4081]

People give wood logs and thick branches at the bottom of (slightly) raised beds, but that is deep(er) down and the wood at the bottom does not gobble up the nitrogen from higher up, unless some is washed down and then it is not available for the roots higher up anyway, it can as well - for a while - serve the fungi. I am not sure if the full nitrogen is released again once the fungi are done with their work and / or if some of that nitrogen gases out and returns to the air as part of the decomposition process. Of course if the gas works its way up through the pores it might encounter bacteria or other soil life that can draw it in and it is caught before it can escape. Which is another reason not to till and plough to not help with the escape and give soil life the chance to capture at least some of the goodness. Good soil is ground down minerals and some _stable_ carbon rich molecules (humus - the long complex moluceles are mostly made from C, O, H and some N). Plus nitrogen. C and N only a few percent each. Plus of course the air and water that soil holds, and a few other elements like P in small fractions. So over millenia _some_ C and N (and a few other elements) could be diverted from the normal cycle. Where plants absorb CO2 for their growth from the air and later that carbon oxydizes to CO2 during decomposition. Nitrogen that bacteria in the roots of some plants can absob (or it is in manure) also goes back into the air. That reaction of C and N with oxygen is certainly promoted by tilling and ploughing, then the bare soil is exposed to fresh air and the not so stable C and N can react with O. The surface is much larger after tilling / ploughing - in the pores of the soil it is a little (stale) air at a time, and the critters and microbes use the oxygen of that air too, so molecules containing C and N that are eager to oxydize are not the only ones with a claim to oxygen. That limits how much can oxydize and threfore is in danger of being lost to air (if no soil life can capture the gasses fast). As long as the roots of the plants do not reach down to rotting wood logs in raised beds, that works, it even works in only slightly raised beds (Marine Gardener, I guess he did not plant veggies with very deep roots, ) - The layers CAN be different as long as the order is correct. Nitrogen richer on top where the plant roots are, and the nitrogen poorer wood decomposition zone. It is possible that wood (chips) can decompose even without drawing nitrogen from somewhere. (Reports that wood chips in clear bags drew some water and broke down nicely within ONE Iowa summer. Well there wasn't any suplus nitrogen in the bag unless there were fungi than can get some out of the air (not sure if that exists), the fungi got plenty of solar radiation (the clear bag was a greenhouse) and had moisture, but nothing else. But also no competition from soil life (other fungi) that NEEDS nitrogen for their processes. So my assumption is that If there isn't nitrogen any fungi (and bacteria ?) that can make do w/o it prevail, but it is possible that it slows down things (the clear bag in Iowa seemed to have lucky conditions, enough warmth but not too much, and moisture and maybe by sheer luck the ideal fungi for the job present). If there is N available other fungi will outcompete the self sufficient type of fungi and also the plants, if there are any roots - and gobble up the Nitrogen IF there is any to be had. One could of course also fix that (and speed up things) with easily soluble nitrogen - be it in form of urine or blood meal, fish meal / water solutions. The rotting time deep down (can be 3 years or even longer) does not matter in a raised bed. The rotting wood logs and thick branches get a sponge like consistency and they are very good at absorbing water. One advantage of a raised bed is the convenient height, and wood logs are an easy filler to build height w/o a lot of costs for bought material and no good home made soil or compost must be devoted to get that height either. The rotting wood ALSO serves as water sponge (wood chips could also be used preferably in misture with old soil and branches to get some structure, but lager chunks of wood can be used if people do not bother or do not have the equipment to shredder wood). The rotting wood sponge layer buffers too much or too little rain. If the soil gets dryer in the top layers there will be capillary effects that bring the water up even if the plants do not send their roots into the N depleted zone. Or they do send in roots but only for the water. If the logs need 3 - 4 years to break down, that is O.K. It also means your bed will lose height more slowly, that is not a bad thing. If compost is put on top it will go down quickly, and you replenish that from the top at least annually, but the whole bed will have considerably lost volume when the decomposition deeper down is finished. Have you ever seen a fairly rotten piece of wood ? It holds the former shape of the log quite long, it is quite spongy, if it is water soaked and in the soil that may even give it some "pressure resistance" - so for a long time the volume may not shrink a lot. But at the late stage you can crumble it with your fingers, and when it finally disintegrates it loses volume. Fast. It "breaks down". Then you will have to set up the bed from scratch - or fill up more from the top (which will have to be plenty of good compost / soil and you cannot use inferior material on top). Marine gardener did not have enough compost and did not intend to buy soil or compost - so he put the the top layers aside, filled in logs at the bottom (his beds are only slightly raised) and put the top layers on top again. He tried not to disturb the layers too much while also restoring height that he had lost in the recent years due to decomposition. The soil from the carbon rich material will be fungal dominated - which some plants like more than others: Blue berries really like it. Great for trees and bushes. For vegetable beds it can be mixed with compost which is bacteria dominated, most plants thrive (or can cope well) with a 50 / 50 mix.

[@supermojo9672]

3:52 is a good start 😁😁

[@JohnWKerr]

Could those paths of wood chips be made more productive, in terms of production of soil conditioners, by planting them with a, shall I call it, "expendable cover crop"? For instance, sprinkle millet, chia, wheat, rye, sunflower, mung beans, or other seeds across the beds so they will sprout where-they-will, and send roots into the wood chips. The root penetration will help decomposition of the chips, and the above ground growth will add nitrogen and organic matter to the mix. These expendables will be walked on, and likely killed or stunted, but their short lives will make the path more productive, in terms of soil improving organic matter, and help speed the decomposition of the wood chips.

[@DiegoFooter]

Sure, but it may be more trouble than it’s worth. It will also require additional water - a problem in arid areas.

[@JohnWKerr]

@@DiegoFooter "more trouble than it's worth" is good answer/question. The seeds I mentioned don't take much moisture to germinate, and the rotting chips will hold all the moisture they need once they do germinate. If the chips aren't moist enough to support the growth of them, it isn't moist enough to rot into humus for the soil.

[@dollydiddums7889]

For everyone watching these countless American vids on clay ! Dig trial holes and add worms and blocks , cover surface in manure and mulch .... Wait Plant and Grow 👍

[@bluejay3945]

You need to be a little careful on terminology. Decomposed wood chips is not soil. It’s compost. Soil by definition is composed of various particle sizes and materials such as sand, clay, loam etc. You act like decomposed wood is comparable to a suitable growing medium and I’m fairly certain you do not intend to plant anything in pure decomposed wood chips which will continue to steal nitrogen to continue to break down I have for one quick fix that tends to really be a game changer is to hit the clay with a heavy dose of humic acid which really causes soil aggregation. I’ve tried really heavy doses and haven’t seen any negatives. The level of soil loosening was extremely noticeable to the point where I had worm activity in a really compacted clay area where I run heavy equipment over. Humic is easy to apply and requires zero thought Thank you for great content

[@cooldaddy2877]

Fun-Jy ?

[@TheRealDonLayton]

I think you're working too hard. Put a layer of chips down, allow them to break down naturally over 6-12 months and keep building your soil from the top down as nature does it. When the chips haven't decomposed on the top, just pull them back gently with a rake, drop the seeds and gently cover them with a light covering of soil. After the plants are strong enough to handle it, rake back the rest of the chips. Easy.

[@f135ta]

haha.. Say "fungi" again for me... Please...

[@greensnapper1602]

Footer, Can see why plants and yourself don't like the CLAY ... Looks like Elephant Shit !! Each season you should ADD the right Soil to your Plot ... & as always Thank You for your Time..

[@socratesraramuri5040]

:-)

[@philipmontgomery5626]

Too much on paths

[@sgrdpdrsn]

Too much talking - too little action.