Will Evergreen Wood Chips Work Fine For Back To Eden Gardening

OUR DEEP MULCH BACK TO EDEN GARDEN HAS TRULY BEEN AMAZING! IT NATURALLY CONSERVES WATER AND THERE TRULY IS NO WEEDING!

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After 25 years of vegetable gardening, I would like to say we have perfectly successful gardens year after year. But, I cannot lie.

Our very first vegetable garden was the summer we built our house 25 years ago. We just tilled up the dirt right outside the back door, threw in some seeds and it grew!

It was insanely successful, considering we didn't have a clue what we were doing. We didn't know how to fertilize, and we didn't know about seed starting indoors.

We just threw in the seeds and watered with one big rainbird sprinkler. And, we planted it all in soil leveled by a dozer and I'm sure there was no good topsoil left. But it grew…. and we were thrilled!

rows of potatoes growing under deep mulch — The potato patch is doing grand and we are just digging our first Red Pontiacs.

Two problems plagued my gardens through the years

After the excitement of the first season, I delved deep into vegetable gardening. The next year I read every gardening book and magazine (this was pre-internet days) I could get my hands on and designed a big garden plot.

Over the years our gardens have been very successful and we've grown and harvested oodles of veggies. But two things have always plagued me… weeds and watering. I tried many a method to solve those two problems, but have only found marginal success.

Watering Problems

If you have never visited south-central Washington state you probably wouldn't know it is a desert. Washington is known as the evergreen state after all!

Well, not all of it. Most of the eastern half of the state, everything east of the Cascade Mountain Range, is a hot dry desert. Here in the southern part of the state we get only 6″ of rainfall a year here in our valley. But, through complex irrigation systems that come from the Cascade mountains, our Yakima Valley is some of the most productive farmland in the world.

But, being a desert, the ground dries out quickly and has to be irrigated carefully to produce a crop. Keeping the soil at the right moisture level is always tough here.

Weed Problems

And the weeds! We have terrible weeds here. Land left alone here is not green and lush with grasses and trees. Even as dry and hot as it is the weeds flourish. They will cover the ground like a carpet in a short time. And they are not nice weeds, they are thorns and thistles and get out of control and throw weed seed quickly.

We've tried weed barrier, hoeing, tilling, and spent hundreds of hours of hand weeding. We even tried mulching pathways but never had real success. The only mulch we had access to was fine bark mulch. It was quite expensive so we didn't use much and it broke down quickly into the soil.

freshly harvested zucchini and snap peas — Zinnias, snap peas and our first harvest of summer zucchini squash

cilantro, parsley, purple basil and carrots in a raised bed — Foreground raised bed: carrots, purple basil, parsley and cilantro. Sweet Genovese basil in the bed in the background.

Deep Mulch Back to Eden garden…the real secret to a weed-free garden and perfect soil moisture

Over the last 2 years, I've read more and more about deep mulching. I decided it was time to invest in a LOT of wood mulch. Deep mulching promised to fix my two biggest problems…weeds and water.

A couple of years ago we found out about how to get semi-truck loads of wood mulch. There is a local company that grinds up old orchard trees in our area. And it is about 1/6th the cost of bark mulch. This was the mulch we needed. It is the 'dirty' mulch recommended for Back to Eden gardening.

deep mulch back to eden garden pole beans — After a very slow start and several reseeds due to earwigs, our pole beans are finally climbing the cattle panel.

onions and lettuce in a raised bed garden — Lettuce and sweet onions share space in a raised bed.

Why garden with the deep mulch Back to Eden method?

The deep mulch Back to Eden method of gardening is the practice of mimicking how soil is effortlessly built in nature. It is trying to emulate in our garden the process God does in the wild.

When leaves, pine needles, or dead trees fall in nature they naturally decompose and create layers of compost. The soil in nature is not tilled, fertilized or watered by man and yet it thrives under those layers.

Meanwhile, we have hoed, tilled, dug and sweat a lot in our garden!

So, now we don't till our garden. Instead, we layer on broken down compost and ground wood mulch. In this way, we are mimicking the natural processes God set forth in nature. Now I enjoy gardening more than ever! No brow breaking work!

We will repeat the process of layering each year as needed. With layers of nutrient-dense plant and chicken compost and mulch added it will get healthier with time.

Eventually, the soil will be light and fluffy and hold moisture like never before. It will have more natural fertilizers and compost available for plant growth and naturally deter weeds and pests.

tomatilloes husks on the vine — Tomatillo husks are starting to fill.

ripe yellow squash in a back to eden garden — Male and female yellow zucchini squash flowers are abundant.

How to use the mulch for a no-weed garden

So, how much mulch did we put down and where did we put it?

Mulch Basics

Before mulching, we prepared the garden by thoroughly digging all the weeds. You could also mow the grass and weeds really short, but then you have to cover with 8″ of mulch. That was more expensive than 5″ of mulch so we dug the weeds.

Once the weeds were removed we added a 1/2″ layer of compost. This was mostly fine leaves we had mown up in the lawn mower, mixed and composted together with chicken manure. We used a homemade hardware screen sifter to sift the compost before adding it to the garden . You can see how we did this at the end of the video in my spring garden post.

After this, we laid down a thick 5″ layer of shredded wood mulch.

This layering would best be done in the fall. Fall composting and mulching is more like nature. Trees lose lay down layers in fall and winter rain decomposes it.

Since we missed it last fall we went ahead and did it in the spring. This year, we will compost in the fall and layer on more mulch as needed.

Raised Bed Area

We initially mulched all the pathways between the raised beds and left the raised beds un–mulched. Once we transplanted all the onions, basil, tomatillos, and zinnias we mulched those beds. The other beds we were seeding so we didn't mulch those until they sprouted and we knew where to cover.

In the future, we plan to pull the mulch back far enough to seed or plant into the soil beneath. We will add new compost into those same holes when we transplant or seed each year. Once the seedlings are big enough we will pull the mulch back around them to prevent weeds and conserve water.

Open garden Row area

We have made 30″ raised rows in the past in an Eliot Coleman manner. This year we decided to save the time digging and shaping the rows. We just composted down a flat 24″ row where we have our drip irrigation lines. Then we mulched the rows and the pathways all the same.

We just pulled back the deep mulch wherever we wanted to transplant a seedling or plant a seed. When the plants were big enough to rise above the 4 or 5″ of mulch we pushed the mulch back up around the plants.

new kale starts inside a cold frame — New kale seedlings we started in the empty cold frame. We left the glass down at first to help retain moisture for germination. Now the glass is open.

zinnia bloom in a deep mulch garden — We love to cut zinnia bouquets!

pole beans and tomatoes in a deep mulch back to eden garden — Left: paste tomatoes on a wire and string trellis Middle: purple and green bush beans Right: Purple pole beans

Is it really a no-weed garden?

So, here we are 12 weeks into our garden. And I am excited to report that it really is a no-weed garden! Ok…maybe only 99% weed free. I think 100% weed free will only happen in heaven. But, I never dreamed we could have such a carefree garden here on Earth!

Usually, by now, we would have had to weed all the beds and the pathways. Multiple times. I'm talking at least 3 or 4 hours of weeding and hoeing a week.

I am delighted to report that we have spent maybe 1 hour weeding the garden since we put down the mulch 12 weeks ago! Really, I might pull two or three little weeds a day as I am harvesting and watering. It just takes a couple of seconds and I'm done.

With the thick mulch, and the soil that stays moist underneath, any weeds that do take root are easily pulled.

mixed beets in a deep mulch back to eden garden — Orange and red beets growing between the potatoes and the grape trellis.

harvesting snap peas in deep mulch garden — Snap peas have been a challenge this year. They were eaten by the earwigs and we had to reseed twice. Finally harvesting them when we would normally be harvesting beans.

Our deep mulch back to eden Garden update Video

My favorite gardening tools and resources

My favorite Back to Eden videos are about a man name Paul Gautschi, who developed the technique. Some are very long but so worth watching if you want to learn more about how our Creator gardens and how it works for Paul. Watch his Full Back to Eden Garden Tour 2018. Or search for more videos about his garden on YouTube.

Follow me on Pinterest and Pin this to your Gardening board

Thanks so very much for joining me here in the farmhouse today!

All the feedback you've given on facebook, instagram, Youtube and here on the blog has been incredible! I'm so glad you have joined me here. It is such a blessing to share our farm life and all the things I have learned through the years. Please let me know if you want to hear about anything in particular! Have a blessed day! Julie