Back to Eden Gardening and Hugelkulture and other non-conventional garden methods

[drewskimac]

I was just directed to this concept of BTE yesterday (thanks to lazy) and wow, I watched the film and it gave me a whole new perspective on a lot of things. This morning I went out into my woods and collected some of this from a rotting log, am I on the right track? Is this something I should use to "cover" the bare soil in my garden? it is very spongy, obviously retaining a lot of moisture.

 

[lazy gardener]

Absolutely. Awesome stuff.

 

[Kiki]

I was just directed to this concept of BTE yesterday (thanks to lazy) and wow, I watched the film and it gave me a whole new perspective on a lot of things. This morning I went out into my woods and collected some of this from a rotting log, am I on the right track? Is this something I should use to "cover" the bare soil in my garden? it is very spongy, obviously retaining a lot of moisture.

Can you point me in the direction of this "FILM" please.

 

[lazy gardener]

 

[lazy gardener]

Click on the blue Vimeo sign.

 

[drewskimac]

You can also find the full film on youtube for free.

 

[drewskimac]

Great!

 

[DesertBrahma]

Can I have some of that? Lol. I live out in the middle of the Tularosa Basin in NM. We have nasty caliche clay soil. I've been working on trying to get a BTE garden going. I have a small bed right on the east side of my porch that I've had Rosemary in for about 3 yrs. I got some alfalfa grass mix hay, and composted horse manure from a friend, and a bunch of mulch from our county dump. I put a layer of hay, a layer of manure mulch tgen hay and a sprinkling of manure on top. My usual PH is 8.5 I just checked it after having this stuff on for a month and my PH is sitting at 7.2 ish. I was shocked. It's staying moist, and even the dirt under it is looking better. Instead of looking tan and cracked it's a mid brown, and moist. My NPK are low, but it's usually very very low. Even adding organic matter and mixing it in doesn't work. The heat and arid climate just kills organic matter here. I've planted a Cherokee Purple tomato plant, some cilantro, and a jalapeno pepper plant in it. It smells rich and wonderful. The wood mulch is breaking down, and I'll have to add more after the plants grow more. The tomato plant was barely above the mulch when I planted it and it's growing great. Even with us having some nasty cold fronts that brought wind, and light freezes with it. I even have tomato seedlings coming up in my garden that has had a lot more exposure to the nasty spring west winds, and even chillier light frosts. I put down comoosted horse manure, cardboard, and mulch with a light sprinkling of homemade chicken manure compost out there. It's been slower coming up out there, but I have sruff coming up I was prepared not to have yet. I haven't watered my main garden for a week. My little bed has been a month. Just remember to get below the mulch to plant seeds. I'm lucky ( or stupid lucky) that I put the cardboard between the manure and mulch. That way I know I'm not planting in the mulch. So far so good. I've been thinking about going into the mountains and getting a bit of decomposing log, and leaf litter. We get so much heat I'm afraid of the fungi dying. I'll be headed out to my garden this afternoon to "play" some more lol. If this works here it can work anywhere.

 

[lazy gardener]

Can I have some of that? Lol. I live out in the middle of the Tularosa Basin in NM. We have nasty caliche clay soil. I've been working on trying to get a BTE garden going. I have a small bed right on the east side of my porch that I've had Rosemary in for about 3 yrs. I got some alfalfa grass mix hay, and composted horse manure from a friend, and a bunch of mulch from our county dump. I put a layer of hay, a layer of manure mulch tgen hay and a sprinkling of manure on top. My usual PH is 8.5 I just checked it after having this stuff on for a month and my PH is sitting at 7.2 ish. I was shocked. It's staying moist, and even the dirt under it is looking better. Instead of looking tan and cracked it's a mid brown, and moist. My NPK are low, but it's usually very very low. Even adding organic matter and mixing it in doesn't work. The heat and arid climate just kills organic matter here. I've planted a Cherokee Purple tomato plant, some cilantro, and a jalapeno pepper plant in it. It smells rich and wonderful. The wood mulch is breaking down, and I'll have to add more after the plants grow more. The tomato plant was barely above the mulch when I planted it and it's growing great. Even with us having some nasty cold fronts that brought wind, and light freezes with it. I even have tomato seedlings coming up in my garden that has had a lot more exposure to the nasty spring west winds, and even chillier light frosts. I put down comoosted horse manure, cardboard, and mulch with a light sprinkling of homemade chicken manure compost out there. It's been slower coming up out there, but I have sruff coming up I was prepared not to have yet. I haven't watered my main garden for a week. My little bed has been a month. Just remember to get below the mulch to plant seeds. I'm lucky ( or stupid lucky) that I put the cardboard between the manure and mulch. That way I know I'm not planting in the mulch. So far so good. I've been thinking about going into the mountains and getting a bit of decomposing log, and leaf litter. We get so much heat I'm afraid of the fungi dying. I'll be headed out to my garden this afternoon to "play" some more lol. If this works here it can work anywhere.

I do believe there is benefit to simply laying the material on top of the soil instead of trying to till it in.

 

[politicalcenter]

I sure hope you are right LG. I just spread out 16 rows of horse manure on my top, hard as a rock garden. I am going to plant corn in it. The rows are about 25 ft long.