What Did 5 YEARS of Adding Wood Chips Do to Our Garden?

In this video, we talk about what adding 5 years of adding wood chips to our garden has done to our ability to build soil and produce nutrient dense food.
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[@Nurk0m0rath]

It's nice to see someone who actually understands rough soil. So many times I see people complaining about how poor their soil is but I see thick, verdant sod around them. I've been working a patch of nearly pure sand for ten years with my mother and just yesterday we were marveling at the sod we've managed to build in spots. I don't remember ever being able to cut a big chunk of ground and have it stay together before. Wood chips, manure, and autumn leaves are a big part of how we made that happen. Cheers, and keep spreading the good word.

[@Buddlibubbli]

i got an old vineyard, where most of the soil is just clay with a high content of lime. its perfect for fruit trees but for planting vegetables and other stuff i would be so grateful to have a soil that has a higher content of sand or basically got a better drainage. In fall and winter you basically walk on mud and theres many spots where moss grows instead of grass.

[@Nurk0m0rath]

@@Buddlibubbli And I'd love to have a little more clay mixed in lol ... we can get a downpour that lasts for hours, flooding all the drainage canals along the streets, without ever pooling water in the garden, and the next day it's so dry you'd think it hadn't rained in weeks. But I've lived in the clay muck as well. Tried to dig a hole once in mud so thick you had to use a shovel to clean the shovel with every scoop. Makes me wonder though if you could refine some pottery clay out of that soil and replace it with mulch to get that drainage.

[@theoriginalkeepercreek]

Before moving to Wisconsin, we lived in Central Florida and had the same exact problem as you - all sand. That is where we discovered wood chips - took a year or two to get it going well. Nearly 25 years of experience and we swear by this method!

[@Honda-wing5811]

I've been using wood chips in the garden for 40 years and it's the best black dirt ever. Put Lime on it once in a while.

[@mariesheppard3750]

But I don t see worms, I had a hen when she saw me with a shovel she came running I was looking for worms for fishing , dam she got some of the best fishing worms at times . still love your video, Yup you need to work your yard and have a good garden with the price of food today,

[@Christopher-be1qc]

May need more time for worms, not sure

[@dhollongstreet4725]

I started using wood chips after a month and a half with no rain. At first I just layered between the rows, then I plowed them in before the next planing. Now when we get a period of no rain the soil is moist and my plants look alive and healthy.

[@A.E.Lanman777]

As a line clearance arborist I thank you for the shout out, we are always overflowing with wood chips and are constantly on the look out for free places to dump. I have added about 4 loads into my little garden. If you have a compost pile it will eat these chips for lunch and be asking for more by dinner. Seriously I could add 12 cubic feet give or take a bit, throughout the compost flip and in two days it was soil!

[@DovidM]

Another way to make use of chips in quantity is to dig trenches a meter deep, and backfill them with chips. I did this for a property that my Aunt bought because the HOA she belongs to does not allow a ground level compost heap or a permaculture swale.

[@joewilde.]

​@@DovidMVery smart, thanks for the tip...

[@joniboulware1436]

Chips do not break down very fast at all. Perhaps in a commercial hot composting operation with frequent turning, you could break them down faster.

[@farmyourbackyard2023]

Bought a broad fork from a craftsman in North Carolina at the beginning of the lockdown, when my thinking changed about where I purchase most of my necessities. It has much longer handles than what you have. Have you thought about moving the coop once a week during the time it's in the garden area? That will resolve that issue and keep a healthier envoriment for the chickens with less parasite pressure.

[@James_Hande]

My wife and I are 65+ years old. A few years ago she wanted a veggy garden. So I bought a rear tine tiller and had at are hard backed soil, mostly clay. That first year some plants did great while others not so good. She was watering by hand with a hose and for the most part the water was just puddling on top and the weeds were crazy. A couple of years ago she bought six light Brahma chickens and I built her a coup and run similar to Carolina Coops - American Coop. She would go to the wood mill and buy a bag of pine shavings for the hen house. We would clean it out every spring spreading it on the garden. I'd till it in with some aged cow manure, re-roll the heavy duty garden fabric and call it done. All the plants have been doing great with this process so far and the soil has been becoming fluffier. This year I'm installing irrigation lines and drip emitters to make it easier and better for watering.

[@TonyField]

Sounds great 👍

[@James_Hande]

@@TonyField Thank you! Trying to make things easier.

[@TonyField]

@@James_Hande yeh sounds definitely like it's worth giving it a try this coming year .

[@alfonsomunoz4424]

I live in the desert. Sandy soil, it's not terrible, but not a lot of organic matter. Last year I got a large chip drop from an arborist (pine tree). I capture rain water and use that in the garden and to moisten the compost pile. It's done wonders for my soil. I'm ready for another drop this year.

[@BS.-.-]

About 8yrs ago I got tired of the mosquitos in a seasonal swamp in my front yard. Over the corse of about 2yrs I had about 400cuyrds of wood chips delivered for free. I have since put my garden on this area and the amount of worms is amazing. Some areas of this was covered in 4ft of chips.

[@watermelonlalala]

I get a seasonal swamp in my backyard., too. Clay. Everybody told me don't put wood chips down, but I did a couple of years ago and I hope to get a bunch more in the next month. I have my raised beds where the horribly ugly mud puddle was. I use soil from the fence line for my containers. I also have a lot of oak leaves I compost in wire bins in that area. My neighbor came over and asked why I don't have standing water in my yard and he does. However, my lawn was completely destroyed by leaf mulch and wood chips (and moles and voles). I am going to try to get it back next spring.

[@danwilkinson2797]

Plant caster beans to get rid of those little moles they will stay far away and make a diluted lactobacillus using whey 2 tablespoons per gallon of water and water that into your chips it will protect your chips from getting taken over by something . It promotes healthy biodiversity witch is what you’re garden needs more of always and protects your plants from powdery mildew and many others diseases. I learned this method from JADAM natural farming. Good luck my friend

[@DovidM]

@@watermelonlalalaDid they give a reason for not putting wood chips down?

[@watermelonlalala]

@@DovidM Because organic material holds water, so maybe it would make a swamp problem worse. But while the chips were on the ground, to me it seemed like they were a sponge, soaking up any water. "More swampy" was not a problem.

[@paintedwings74]

@@watermelonlalala you're dead-on, you don't see swampy areas stay swampy as they fill in with sediment and organic matter. You can add some sand to the rotting wood and it should help to stabilize the wood-fill into a permanently filled, deep bed of perfect soil.

[@flyingpigpreserve8562]

Great Soil there now. Chickens and Wood Chips go hand in hand. Peace from Mineral County WV So glad we don't have Red Clay Soil here

[@davidpeckham2405]

I started the "Back to Eden" Gardening method about 5 years ago. 4" of chips year after year and I went from hard sand to 11" of great soil. Each year gets better and better. I have chickens now and hope this will help over all. The chips were the best for weed control. I am adding "Electroculture" this year to improve things even more.

[@mrantnation]

Any results with electroculture?

[@davidpeckham2405]

@@mrantnation Still working on it. I have 6 poles with wire and coils on them. Our growing season is long gone and this year has only been average at best. Will know better next year. Still reading on it and trying stuff.

[@bob_frazier]

I'm waiting for delivery of 50 yards of chips later today. You've eased my mind that I'm on the right track.

[@scottshawn70]

This video is deceptive and not a "controlled" test. Adding wood chips.. and chickens.. is not the same as adding wood chips. Ive watched several other channels and they conducted tests where they put wood chips on one side of a garden and not the other and did soil tests several years later. The decaying wood chips robed the soil of all the Nitrogen. The side without wood chips tested high for Nitrogen and was still good. The only difference was the woodchips. The fact he added chickens providing a layer of natural fertilizer is going to give you skewed results. Furthermore he did not do before and after tests of the soil nor did he have a separate area without chickens so he could judge the results based off just the wood chips alone. Bottom line is if your going to add wood chips you may need to add nitrogen (and possible other nutrients) to your soil.. or maybe get some chickens?

[@bob_frazier]

@@scottshawn70 Thanks for your input. I ended up with 72 yards of chips, but I can add nitrogen as needed.

[@scottshawn70]

@@bob_frazier No problem.. not trying to be a Negative Nancy.. just pointing out this guys methods were not quite scientific.

[@threeriversforge1997]

If you get a chance, look up Edge of Nowhere Farms here on youtube to see how successful they've been with wood chips in the middle of the Arizona desert! You can't go wrong with chips. That said, I use Autumn leaves almost exclusively because they're free and abundant around me. Both will get your soil activated. The key to remember is that it's about cooling the soil temperature, retaining moisture, and protecting the ground against UV radiation from the sun. Those three things will allow the microbiome in the soil to kick into high gear, and the nutrient from the mulch is their food source. GrowIt-BuildIt did a great video documenting what just Autumn leaves did for his heavy clay soil in three years time. Like Edge of Nowhere, the results speak for themselves. Give it a try and you won't be disappointed. Leaves, grass clippings, wood chips.... you'll soon have a garden putting out more veggies than you know what to do with!

[@bob_frazier]

@@threeriversforge1997 Hey nice comment, thanks. I ended up with 72 yards of mulch, but very little leaf litter. We should trade some, ha ha. Yes, around my trees cool and moist.

[@Northernman68]

I use leaves and cow manure in my sandy soil and it's getting blacker every yr.with excellent results.

[@Budvb]

The forest and all its critters been doing this for a long time… wisdom from nature.. even if you use leaves in the fall, can build you good soil as well. Good knowledge.

[@mikereynolds9228]

If you take care of mother nature, She will take care of you. Nice content.

[@victorsr6708]

Best part was the “coupe de ville” as a car guy and gardener I got a kick out of it

[@swatisquantum]

For the small garden I have, it helped the soil ALOT. We are sitting on hard clay, and my guava tree has fruits this year. I dropped a 5” layer of wood chips on the bed.

[@inquisitive_stranger]

I bought my house in 2019 and that summer I started adding woodchips to my 1/4 acre backyard...... A total of 18" of woodchips and my soil, now, is amazing! I will be moving soon and plan on doing the same thing....

[@priayief]

That soil looks great! Can't wait to see the crops that are produced.

[@good-timeshomestead2183]

Great video, works well in my area too. Wood chips are great. We use them in the walkways this year and in the beds next year. Meaning for many years now we scape the walkways clear each spring and use it as a top dressing on the beds. Then we use the new mulch to replace the walkways. By spring we found that the chips are broke down really good, mostly fine soil like base. So far we haven't had any issues in the beds. When we first started the beds I did the same thing and dumped piles of chips and chicken house cleanings over an area and waited till next year to grow. Every year since has only got better. I just knew when you forked the soil that the chickens would be right in the middle of it. LOL Happy Homesteading

[@lizlucey3812]

That’s a great idea

[@paintedwings74]

I've been adding logs to my clay and suddenly have so much beautiful soil, and it's because of the cooperation between logs, fungi, and wood-eating insects like stag beetle larvae and carpenter ants. The insects are AWESOME partners for soil-building using wood!

[@StoneyRidgeFarmer]

Great video showing the progress buddy! We've been using our old Amazon boxes! Vid coming soon!

[@RedToolHouse]

Excellent! We have a large pile of those too!

[@robabob420]

Just use what nature provides! She is the ultimate composter and provider

[@DeanFamilyAcres]

We’ve been on chip drip for almost a year with two renewals. No drops, next step is checking with the local power company. Great video Troy!

[@mrantnation]

I got mine out of the blue after about 7 months and it was a lot more than I expected. Try to contact a local arborist as well.

[@urkiddingme6254]

Yeah, I signed up several years ago for chip drop. Never heard a peep from anyone. I get my chips free from the company chopping easement trees under power lines. It's not the best stuff - kinda chunky and has a lot of pine needles -- but it's free, and it helps with weed suppression.

[@mrantnation]

@@urkiddingme6254 you have to renew your chip drop subscription every other month or so. Might be why. Glad you found an alternative

[@charleswise5570]

Adding any and all clean organics to your ground is beneficial. Leaves are also a fantastic source, with exception to oak leaves. They take considerably longer to break down, versus other species.

[@cekfraun]

Great video, Troy. I enjoyed seeing how excited the chickens were when you were broadforking in the garden area. Makes me want to get outside and start digging in the dirt!

[@rikiray3370]

Im going on winter #3 and man o man is my ground dirt amazing as well. Wood chips are where i started and im so glad i did

[@BallBusta]

I've been mulching my back yard for years and every spring the plants grow back like crazy. The ground here in florida is almost entirely sand, so throwing on that mulch really goes a long way for retaining moisture after a good rain as well as supplying nutrients to the ground. We've got a neighbor a few streets down that just tons of mulch dumped (full dump truck sized loads) on his extra half acre and we're pretty sure he's going to have one of the best gardens around in a few years time.

[@michaell1665]

I love the name for the coop - "Coupe De Ville"!!! I just mulched quite a bit of my suburban garden in finely shredded pine bark chips. They looked aged to some degree and fine enough to break down quickly... not absolutely sure. I'll see as the 2024 growing season progresses.

[@curiouscat3384]

Yup - after 5 years of adding a tandem dump truckload of woodchips (lucky for me mostly Oak, Maple and Elm), I've gone from solid packed red clay to deep rich soil in my half acre garden and chicken yard. I'm in the city near some affluent, historic neighborhoods so at least a couple times a year I see a free ad on Craigslist and have it dumped in my driveway :) The chickens love to hang out in a large chip pile :)

[@jimbox114]

About a year ago we bought some land and sadly the majority of our dirt is the hardest clay you can imagine. Tried gardening in it this year and as expecting nothing really grew that well in it. This year I have been going around the property and gathering up trashcans full of fallen leaves and dumping them over the garden area. Plan to take the brush hog and cut them up a little finer and then plow them into the ground to compost over the winter.

[@sammydiamond6115]

I think a tiller that goes 6 inches in and compost on top is the best way to go . Your top soil is looking good . Great job

[@eventhisidistaken]

According to a professional plant guy I know, you need to go 50/50 with compost in the top 12 inches.

[@kevinrowbotham545]

The trouble with a tiller is the hard pan that gets left just below the tiller tines.

[@TracyTsVideos]

I tried the back to Eden method when I first started this homestead. I was excited, till after my first year I wanted to add compost to the soil. I had to scrape all the wood chips half rotted aside, add compost, then move the chips back, then add more on top. 🤦‍♀️I produce a huge amount of rich compost here. I switched back to shallow tilling so I can add to the soil each year more easily.

[@suzannebinsley5940]

I had to buy and add manure to jump start my wood chips. The local place that had the most now charges for them. I had trees cut down and bought some and it helped a completely dead zone like yours to start to grow weeds. If I had more I could have a shade garden.

[@TEPO--]

Awesome! Love it, coupe de ville plus wood chips and wahla ! I live in a high elevation, heavily forrested mountain environment. I used to be surrounded by strictly decomposed granite, sand along with boulders of coarse and after 30+ years of wood chips and manure we're surronded by lush garden beauty and aboundand rich soil...... Enjoy the journey and i live the coupe de ville and your broad fork too.

[@urkiddingme6254]

I'm in Colorado on that same journey toward building soil from ground gravel. My neighbors keep asking why I have all those piles of wood chips.

[@kopasdupas]

This is a very nice soil you have there, mate! I'm building my soil for a few years now by using compostable materials from my kitchen, since I do not have access to the wood chips, and I have a similar results. A the beginning my soil was almost pure sand, but now it's nice and dark.

[@KaleidoscopeJunkie]

Thanks for showing this progress. I avoid private tree companies that chip diseased trees. Troy - I LOVE that broadfork ! It's always appreciated when you share the purchasing links. -KJ

[@skinnyWHITEgoyim]

Tree disease will not affect vegetables and vegetable disease will not affect trees.

[@Stickerstacker]

I agree, a few years back a load of mulch I bought, infected a maple tree and it took 3 years for my maple to recover.

[@urkiddingme6254]

Similar horror stories from people using straw to mulch their gardens -- if the crop was sprayed with herbicide, it'll be in the resulting straw. One way around that I found is to buy barley straw from brewery fields. They stay organic -- can't have that stuff in their beer. @@Stickerstacker

[@BusbyTreeSurgery]

i have been putting tonnage of wood chips in my garden for at least twenty years. the soil is amazing the plants love it i am lucky i get as much different wood as i want. the firsts loads were long dead elm this was like putting stone chips in for a couple of years but soon it disappeared under the newer stuff. chem free fertiliser free best thing i have ever used in a garden.

[@markwalker5152]

Been using wood chips, for over 5 years in garden..wife actually screens it also..every year… garden is approx 50’ by 50’, it couldn’t be more perfect!

[@dustyflats3832]

I just had a fantastic idea! We were given a small trailer and I’m going to make a moveable hut for the hens!👏🏼👏🏼 We have been blessed by several arborist with loads of chips! I read a lot of comments about diseases, too much this or that in them. Well, I haven’t had that in the past years, nor now. We have sandy soil and we never had worms anywhere in this acreage-We have worms! Every year I find more and Dona happy dance! Past owners disturbed the soil so bad that there was no topsoil. I actually have a broken down pile of wood chips that was better than bagged potting soil. Oh, I’ve had concerns about diseases or juglone from black walnut trees, but the piles generally heat up pretty good, the chickens go through it and I’ve read juglone is not a problem from the wood or leaves of black walnut-it’s from the live roots. I have not had a problem with PH either. We have oaks and cedars and our soil is not acidic. Pine needles are only a bit acidic when green, not dried. Thanks for giving me the idea to use our small trailer to transport hens. We let the roosters free range and keep separate from hens and didn’t have a way to get the hens to our fenced in gardens and still have laying boxes. Then get them back in at night. This will be Great! I see you have an easy fence to put up also and will need to figure a bit higher one here as those silly roosters I think would jump a low one.

[@DovidM]

The hulls, buds and roots of the walnut trees are what contains the toxin, and only certain plants are susceptible to the toxin.

[@theoriginalkeepercreek]

I am not sure where you are located but we share simular issues with you. We are in northern Wisconsin and the soil is either solid lay (until it rains), or so many rocks (basket ball to table size and bigger which make one think you cannot grow anything so not worth the effort. But like you, we KNOW it is worth it! Woodchips! And it is FREE! We have put in 1-2 loads chipper trucks per growing season for the last 7 years. Our garden is only 14' x 40 ish feet yet, folks stop by and talk to us about our gardening techniques and are leave amazed. We rarely need to water, we grow completely organic, our harvest every year is amazing (to the point I get sick of canning), and the best part? Our terra cotta colored, hard packed soil, is nothing but super rich, loamy black (yes, black) - all because of wood chips. As a bonus, we also have a bumper crop of earth worms! But despite sharing this secret with so many people, no one does it? I have not idea why not?

[@fjuedes]

I'm using woodchips in the duck-run that is attached to the duck's house and they have 24x7 access to the run. These chips break down within three month to a state where they can either be run through a screen to separate the earthen portion (used as growing soil this spring) or distributed as is onto raised or ground level beds. My neighbors are telling me that i have to move my potato patch because potatoes are leaching the nutrients from the soil… Guess what, i add a wheelbarrow or two of that woodchip soil every year to the potato patch and my potato harvest is increasing year after year: 2019 i harvested nothing, in 2020 it was½ wheelbarrow, 2021 a full wheelbarrow and last year more than two wheelbarrows. All from a spot just 4x6 meters (12x18') in size. I started with what is called »fill-dirt« here in 2019, a yellow loam, mixed with gravel that turns into concrete during dry weather and is slippery like soap after rain. Yes, i whish i had a pickaxe in 2019 when i broke the ground open.… Now the soil is soft enough for a shovel, it keeps the moisture in and never turns into concrete. I'm planning on adding some charcoal (made from woodchips!) next winter.

[@CrossroadToCountry]

Wood chips add a ton of potassium to the soil. An overabundance of potassium actually. Potatoes are potassium loving plants so yes, they should be doing well in a wood chip bed.

[@thomasreto2997]

“Chipdrop” great resource. They brought us huge amount…..BUT……when they were in the area. It was months before they came and also don’t expect any particular grade of chips. They gave us fresh pine which we did not put in our garden

[@novampires223]

Beautiful soil!

[@W1ldSm1le]

Potatoes are typically moved every year because of blight spores. As long as you're feeding the soil and removing every scrap of potato from the soil in fall you should be fine

[@fjuedes]

@@W1ldSm1le I found it impossible to remove all little pieces of potato from my potato-patch, there will always be a couple of grape-sized potatoes that survive the fork (harvesting), the spade (digging), the frost in winter and the tiller in spring… For the same reason i won't be able to really move the potato patch, tried that and the potatoes overgrew the cabbage plants very quickly.

[@RocketPipeTV]

6:48 nice! Same as in my really compacted clay within 2 years, even without the chickens. I could hardly penetrate the ground with a shovel starting out. 2 years later I could just stick my hand in the ground up to my thumb (about 5-6 inches) without any effort. But farmers will insist that you need a 60’000 tractor, all kinds of poison to kill the “weeds” and so on.

[@coloradoprofessionalinspec720]

When I created my garden I used a ton of wood chips. It was pretty hard clay. I dug raised beds and during that process I dug 16 in trenches in between the rows. I fill these with wood chips. They act as sponges to collect water. They have mostly broken down and turned into excellent soil. The rest of the garden I covered with a thick layer of straw. It's my second year and I had an amazing first year.

[@SOCORROGM]

I got a truck load of sand and put it on the garden an flower beds it's helped keep the soil good an loose plus the leaves 🍃 every year as well

[@dustyflats3832]

That’s exactly what I have down several years ago. We have sandy soil. I threw the path soil on top of wide rows that had a ton of leaves. It works great.

[@civiprepper]

Looks great. Wood chips, poop and an annual till after harvest works great. I like also a composting rotator and I make compost tea. Chickens are doing a great job and look very healthy in their mobile coupe. I bet you get some lovely veggies.

[@BairdJeans]

I get this excited about soil too!

[@chadkline4268]

Great work. I love people like you. People that work the earth develop in a very down to earth manner, and seem to be much more mentally sound throughout life. So it seems to me. This is what setting a great example for following generations is all about. What problems would we have in this world if everybody was busy working their own land? Probably not much worth mentioning. It's a peaceful satisfaction that money can't buy. 100% blameless.

[@TheTomBevis]

I suggest getting some Azomite or green sand mineral supplement. It doesn't make the plants much bigger, but it lets the produce develop better flavors. It takes surprisingly little.

[@wyoodrifter1811]

Suggest you move your coup more and buy a rotor tiller

[@maxwang2537]

Your chickens 🐓 deserve a medal 🏅.

[@kevinrowbotham545]

Nice to see the progress you have made with your garden soil. That Vevor broad fork's handles are too short and at the wrong angle. It is going to work you harder because the short handles take more force to lever the forks in the soil and you have to bend nearly to the ground to lift the soil. Someone short might find it useful but I am over six feet and it is far too short for me to use comfortably.

[@lelandshanks3590]

We just got loads of chips, cant wait to load up our garden. We have clay also.

[@sarcasmo57]

Yep, all looks pretty good.

[@EASTSIDERIDER707]

The clay subsoil benefits from worms moving through to feed on decaying wood chips. It allows oxygen and water to permeate and extend the root zone.

[@scottsmith8880]

LIKE YOU SAME PROBLEM . THE TREES THAT I FELLED I USED TO MAKE RAISED BEDS 27 OF THEM 4FT X 30FT . IN BETWEEN THE BEDS I PUT THE WOOD CHIPS .WHEN CHIPS DECAY I PUT THEM IN THE BEDS

[@richardnolan27]

I got the tree guys to dump wood chips on the property so they didn’t have to pay to dump them somewhere else then went to Starbucks a bunch of times and they give away free coffee grounds lots of them, and I let my chickens play on the mounds and now it’s pretty decent soil instead of white sugar sand 🌎

[@grdelawter4266]

I also enjoy the use of wood chips! I build soil for the future, not for use in the next 2 years! I live in a very rural area. I’ve found that the guys that run the wood chippers won’t bring you some without a $20 tip! Too many people have learned the value of wood chips.

[@helenebennie3961]

The tree guys I phoned here in Australia wanted $27 per cubic metre and $200 delivery fee. Fortunately I got some delivered for free.

[@rrittenhouse]

The vevor broad fork broke when using it on my soil before I tilled the first time. I upgraded to their model with rebar for the forks and it worked great.

[@douglasthompson2740]

Many years ago when I was making soil (we have glaciated land with almost no topsoil and extremely high rainfall leaching away what there is) for a garden, things came together when we had a local sawmill with sawdust available, some people who were trying to raise horses, and local beaches for gathering seaweed. I would mix them and let them compost over the winter turning them as I had time (not much) and tilling into the soil that next spring. The mixture made wonderful soil and a great base to add the seaweed to. The manure was not as hot as chicken so it didn't need two years so that it wouldn't burn plants. The sawdust gave bulk (manure and seaweed don't leave a lot after they have composted). The seaweed added nitrogen, growth hormones and a huge number of trace elements. By adding a bit of sand and mixing this year old compost before tilling it into the garden bed it made a garden out of an area that had been barren. I wasn't doing this on a large scale at a pickup load at a time. I would also find roadside ditches with cutbanks consisting of large amounts of rotten trees that were nature's compost as well as deposits of topsoil. This mix worked quite well. Very labor intensive, though. I think the finer sawdust as opposed to chips decomposed faster (more surface area) with the nitrogen rich components. It had to be balanced to work well which I regulated by watching the temperature and number of worms working the compost pile (they really liked the used coffee grounds from restaurants).

[@urkiddingme6254]

I'm trying to picture where you are to have both bare soil and heavy rain. Nova Scotia?

[@douglasthompson2740]

SE Alaska, Ketchikan

[@urkiddingme6254]

Lotta trees! Beautiful. @@douglasthompson2740

[@patrickkinney4998]

I didn't have wood chips. But what i did have was lots of banana trees. Then i cut and prune them in the winter it gives me loads of compost material.

[@urkiddingme6254]

Interesting and successful experiment! I have piles upon piles of woodchips, mostly free from the electric coop cutting pine trees under power lines - work they're doing every year following our 2013 wildfire. Sometimes I pay to have them delivered from the local slash/mulch pile where people bring their brush to have it ground up - fire mitigation. Chips are free; trucking and the bucket loader are not. I'm in the process of rebuilding my very gravelly bare soil. Not sure you'd even call it soil. I think my chips are breaking down a whole lot slower than yours, because this is a semi-arid mountain area of Colorado, but even here I can see the height decrease to half the original size within 3 or so years. I hoping for some nice rich spots to plant seedling trees as the years go by. Since I have no farm animals to help me, I'm experimenting with other ways to break down the chips faster. I put fertilizer on one pile - some leftover miracle grow liquid - not organic, I know. Theory is the nitrogen helps break down the lignans in the wood. Come spring I'll try inoculating a pile or two with mushroom spawn. Some I have in my research notes as being more effective at eating wood than others (sapotrophic) are oyster, shitake, lions mane, and reishi mushroom spawn.

[@PawsAndKeys]

Anyone burning leaves or wood chips: throw those on your garden bed! Your neighbors will thank you for less smoke, and your worms and garden will love the fresh material! You could also get rid of spare boxes and grass-clippings, make little sandwiches of grass piles and cardboard boxes, a couple years on my pile is really nice additive for the garden.

[@elfwoodadventures2103]

I think the Harbor Freight woodchipper is a great investment! It surprisingly really works well for the price. Another idea is if you get a group of people together and gather together all the branches etc that everyone has and chip it all at once. This way you know the chips are chemical free, and if you rent a chipper, it ends up costing less in the long run by everybody "chipping" in...pun intended! LOL

[@vladimus9749]

What about the termites? Every time I see wood rotting in the soil, it's been chewed by termites. Huge liability if your house is nearby.

[@RedToolHouse]

I see termites in rotted logs and large pieces of wood. I have yet to see them in a pile of woodchips.

[@chadkline4268]

Wood should have a good balance of NPK. Just guessing, but it seems logical 😊 one related tip is to take grass clippings and place them in barrels or pools or other big containers and fill with water, and make a big stew that just ferments. After a year or two of rotting and fermenting in water, it is an excellent fertilizer and conditioner.

[@birdviewer3429]

This doesn’t breed mosquitoes?

[@chadkline4268]

@@birdviewer3429 I suppose it's possible. For some reason, I'm not seeing many bugs anymore in the last decade or two. The idea is that grass is normally acidic when it begins to decay and it is not good to just mulch grass into dirt. But if you let it ferment, the microorganisms sort everything out, and so not only do you end up with nutrients, you also end up with the organisms that break down the minerals and organic matter in dirt. So, it is like adding nutrient creators to the soil. Like eating yogurt. It's a probiotic for your soil. It adds life to the soil. And living soils are more productive than dead soils. So, depending on various factors, you will notice great results, you just have to be careful not to over fertilize. I can't really comment on mosquitos because I don't know the problem in your location. Birds need them for food 😁 I guess you could use a cover to contain them, in a barrel for example. P and K are found as minerals, so they are usually not a major deficiency problem. But nitrogen is not so easy to create in soil. But grass has tons of it, and the microorganisms take it out of the grass and return it in usable forms.

[@richprich]

We have had a tree services in the area for over a year. We have gotten 22 Xtra giant loads of wood chips in one year.

[@ryanarmstrong6056]

Sheet mulch and tiller chickens. Paul Gautschi and Harvey Ussery would be proud.

[@jacobbrizammito7187]

Intend of a rototiller i am utilizing a rooster-tiller.

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

i chipped shrubs when I moved in, creating piles a metre and more high. In mid winter they were steaming thanks to fungi and bacteria generating heat during decomposition of the wood. I don’t know if it’s best to pile it up, or spread it out on the soil. Obviously when composted you spread it out and your soil will be amazing. My heavy clay soil is now very friable and full of nutrients. In fact clay is a very good soil once organic matter is added.

[@WanieB]

Black gold looks great!

[@0anant0]

The wood 'chips' I got from chipdrop had more than 50% of chips of size 4 inches or longer. I put them in my backyard on top of my soil; it'ss almost a foot deep layer. Unfortunately, almost none of those long chips have composted after almost a year -- I have even added some compost/manure on top of them/mixed with them from time to time. Location: Bay Area, Zone 9B. What you say about getting them in growing season makes sense. I got mine in the dead of winter.

[@Godisincontrol325]

😃🎉 Excellent I subscribed to your channel 🙏

[@denislosieroutdoors]

Love using wood chips has been doing for at least 6 years. Great results... now incorporated biochar that has been inoculated by my roosting chickens... check out my making biochar video there eh! Thanks for sharing

[@TonyHopkins-ok2ve]

we have a local mushroom farm that has blocks on a weekly basis....we can get up to 100/ week

[@SwannOG]

Great educational video about composting with wood chips and using small animal manure to make a great garden space.

[@urkiddingme6254]

Thanks to everyone for all your comments. Sometimes I learn as much from the comments as from the video -- sometimes MORE.

[@LWYOffGridHomestead]

Love wood chips ❤

[@isabelladavis1363]

No doubt you need the two factors…chickens being the catalyst for the wood chips…certainly looking great

[@RedToolHouse]

As mentioned in the video, we did not include the chickens until after year 3

[@philthy8150]

If you like your wood chips leafs are even next level. I put 2’ minimum each year. Nothing can replace live soil

[@MrAries67401]

Add some grain spawn of your favorite mushroms and they'll be all over youre garden

[@MickyBellRoberts]

Your video is absolutely awesome, very educational. I believe in using woodchips, used them at our previous home garden and was very successful. Trying to find some to use out our new homestead. I just subscribed to you.

[@jamesalanstephensmith7930]

pH, soil test?

[@threeriversforge1997]

I couldn't agree more. I would only point out that all the leaves that drop in the Autumn are gold in terms of free soil amendment. Pile them on a foot or more deep, and let them start breaking down just like they do in the natural cycle. They keep the weeds at bay and because they are more easily eaten by the "micro herd" in the ground, you'll see amazing returns on your investment in just the first year. Wood chips are great if you can get them, but leaves are everywhere and free for the taking!

[@stewartthomas2642]

Great video.. Love your stuff kick on love it 👍

[@Herculesbiggercousin]

Awesome video, thank you for the demonstration sir!

[@markp6062]

Very insightful.

[@wolf52eagle]

Thanks for sharing, Troy. I always appreciate your videos.

[@guloguloguy]

WOW!!!!.... THANK YOU, FOR SHOWING US HOW SUCCESSFUL YOU HAVE BEEN, AT REGENERATING YOUR HEAVY CLAY SOILS!!! THIS IS MIRACULOUS!!!🥨

[@TonyHopkins-ok2ve]

try innoculating with oyster mushrooms....organic mushroom farming and mycoremediation has a great chapter on king oyster and chicken runs!

[@danskibo]

I saw an article by a prepper that suggested using charcoal which had been charged with nitrogen(don't ask how :) ), and burying that as a source of fertilizer

[@honthirty_]

Biochar charge? Piss on that!

[@kathynix6552]

Charcoal soaked in chicken manure perhaps

[@Practicingpreparedness]

@@kathynix6552 they usually suggest pee

[@izzzzzz6]

I decided against making a broadfork. I use a long arm 3 or 4 pronged fork with a right angle head. I can swing it like an axe, then lift the soil then remove in a very fast movement. Within 30 seconds you can do a decent sized area, if your fairly fit then it's an easy fast way of aerating the soil.

[@urkiddingme6254]

I think I have something like that - from A.M.Leonard. It's great for spreading wood chips, but kind of narrow. As expensive as it was I thought I could maybe take a pitchfork to an iron monger and just have the times bent to a 90 degree angle - and have a bigger tool to boot.

[@Trav-m1m]

Is there a good cover crop you could put in those sections with the chickens that they wouldn't necessarily destroy!? Will you have a good one in Texas I don't know for that purpose or not but I love this grass we have. Is reminiscent of four leaf clovers to get up to about five or six inches high however they have thousands of tiny like purple and white flowers that bee's love!!!!! You will see far more bees flying around in this grass tan with nice flower plants! I think it would be a good compliment to your wood chips

[@unclereefer37]

Great looking dirt, you said it !Carbon and Nitrogen. As I see it wood chips without poop becomes a massive nitrogen vacuum. Need lots of Ammonia or poop to feed the carbon. Gets you 95% of the way to amazing dirt

[@mattbuszko]

scheduling my chipdrop now

[@billpetersen298]

We have access, to a lot of fresh horse manure. Should we pile it up, mixed with leaves, to break down over winter? My wife wants to spread it over the garden beds. Is it too raw for that?

[@charlescoker7752]

You need to check out the 3 Basket Living channel. He tilled in chips for 3 years. When he finally reach the depth of his tiller he stopped. Where he grew plants that were high nitrogen feeders. He added more nitrogen. Had no problems. He also use the Korean JADAM Gardening Method.

[@jbbrown7907]

Another good post.

[@expat2023]

From 🇷🇺 with ❤️!

[@DovidM]

Fresh wood chips will draw nitrogen from the soil but this is in the immediate interface of the individual wood chip and soil. Wood chips don’t draw nitrogen from soil that is, say, 3 inches away. Many gardeners place fresh wood chips in their paths between rows of vegetables, and they do not need to apply extra nitrogen to their vegetables to compensate for the fresh wood chips in the walkways.

[@pandadecapitator2333]

you got this big dawg