What did you do in the garden today?

[LittleLakePhil]

I was digging potatoes today....Good year for potatoes...Big black barrels in my greenhouse extended my season almost a month so far...(warm weather helped).

 

[Stuffedcritter]

Getting our Fall rain and their talking a little snow this week. Just be bring in the potted plants for winter figuring out how to kitten proof them (knocked over jade and aloe this week) once it freezes mulch and trim rosebushes. Then gardening be done into Jan.-Feb. when I start winter sowing. Enjoy the day.

 

[Beekissed]

Finally cleaned up the garden and it was really enjoyable, for the first time I could ever remember...usually it's an anticlimactic time of year and full of the labor of removing dead and dying things, taking down a huge fence and tilling the rows to reseed to clover.

I had a lot of weeds to remove, as I had pretty much neglected one huge corner of the garden where the wood chips were very thin and the weeds took over and where the crops had done very poorly, so it was easy to ignore all season.

But was overjoyed to see, even in the areas that had thin wood chips and exposed soil in some places, rich black soil starting to form...and all the soil was loose and moist. I was just thanking God all the time I was pulling weeds~unusual, I know~because they came up like a knife out of butter, even the joint grass, crab grass, Johnson grass or whatever the various forms of that close, clinging, runners under the soil kind of grasses are called....and underneath? That loose, dark soil, moist and loamy!

When before it was hard pan clay that compacted down after one rainfall, after being tilled 5 times in a row....

Now, I have this...after a spring and summer under wood chips...

The weeds pull up easily and attached to their roots I find this...

Here's that corner before I started....a mass of joint grass, crab grass and any other kind of grass you can imagine, along with burdock, and many unknown weeds.....

and weeds galore....just look at how tightly matted these grasses were!

After completing that corner and the rest of the areas where the chips were too thin, I took three of these out of the garden before it was all over with....

That corner is now covered well with wood chips....

The rest of the garden plants were either removed to the coop with the rest of the weeds to be composted there, or were left to finish ripening of fruits...like the tiny squash above and the cherry tomatoes below...

I left all the flowers for now, but I expect the hard frost we are expecting this weekend might end them anyway.

I deposited the three barrows full of weeds and garden waste in the coop...

And removed two barrows full of composted litter to return to the garden....and that's the beauty of this system!

These chickens are invaluable to me in all aspects when it comes to gardening...bug and grub removal, recycling of food and garden wastes, composted litter to return to the garden.

Right now I couldn't be more thrilled about what I'm seeing below these chips and am wildly excited for spring, when they are finally composted enough for me to actually plant and receive the full benefits of this method.

I'll be spreading the pile of chips already in the garden and adding two more piles I have outside the garden there(already partially composted), until I have the desired depth in all areas of the garden. I'll also be adding leaves to the garden, all that I can glean this fall after storing some for winter bedding in the coop and also placing a good many in the coop right now.

I now have a source of free chips that I can access and a utility trailer to use to do so, so I will be hauling as many as I will be needing to get to the depth I'll need to keep good composting going.

Come spring I'll not have to wait for the soil to dry out in order to till...won't be tilling...ever.

That means I can get things in the ground earlier than I ever have before. I can also place a plastic tunnel this fall over my tomato trellises in order to plant some winter greens and also to be able to get my tomato seedlings out earlier than I ever have before.

If the good Lord wills it and I'm still here in the spring, this might be the best garden I've ever planted....it will definitely be the best soil I've had for many a long, long year. Next year I'll have enough chip covering to prevent that excess weed growth and I'll be more vigilant about that, as I will have more actual vegetable plants growing in that space.

I thank God for the day He led me to the Back to Eden film and follow up information!

 

[lazy gardener]

Bee, thank you so very much for your vivid description of what you're doing. I predict that you'll have a wonderful work free bounty in your garden next year... that is after the work of hauling those chips! I'm seeing similar benefit in my little orchard. It's laid out in a straight line, traveling somewhat East to West along the tree line at one edge of my property. The soil there is NOT orchard worthy. Heavy clay subsoil with many boulders and rocks. I had to use a pick axe to dig every single hole. In the summer heat, I did well to get one hole dug in a single day. The water table is very high here, and any of the boulders that I pulled out of the ground left a hole that filled with water, that would not drain. I fear for the root systems of my little trees. But, it's the only land currently available, and I didn't want to winter those trees in pots, so... in the ground they went. I then put down a layer of cardboard, and about 6" of wood chips. My plan is to cover a strip about 20' wide and the entire length of the orchard. I think it's about 150'. (currently it's almost 1/2 done) At the back, along the stone wall I'm building (guess where all them rocks are coming from!) I'll put plants that are natural beneficial attractants. Also helpful that most of them are aromatic or have pretty flowers! Have planted garlic and Daffodils around the base of the trees (reported to repel mice and voles. I also think the garlic repels scab.)

Any how, since mulching those trees and spreading the wood chips, the trees looked pretty poor. Until later in the season, when the roots must have finally established. New growth! And the 5+" of rain that we got a few weeks ago? No standing water in the chipped area. I think that this system will work just as well for overly wet areas as it does for overly dry areas.

Still have the remainder of the 1st 14 cu yd. load, as well as 2 untapped loads. It'll be a pain to move them about 200' to the garden, but... that's the plan. For now, the chickens are working on cleaning the garden up. They started digging potatoes yesterday! I've put some chips in the new run (when I feel like I need some exercise, I grab a wheel barrow!) And like your idea of tossing the garden debris in the run/coop as well. Let the chickens remove the weed seeds and then put finished compost back in the garden.

 

[Stuffedcritter]

Bee:
What a peaceful spot you have there, burdock growing is sign of health fertile soil

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Guess I'm lucky we got all sand here. Years and years of adding cow manure and dead leaves and all kinds of other organic matter have given me awesome soil with good drainage....

 

[LittleLakePhil]

This is what I'm doing today....carrots tomorrow supposed to snow this weekend

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, thank you so very much for your vivid description of what you're doing. I predict that you'll have a wonderful work free bounty in your garden next year... that is after the work of hauling those chips! I'm seeing similar benefit in my little orchard. It's laid out in a straight line, traveling somewhat East to West along the tree line at one edge of my property. The soil there is NOT orchard worthy. Heavy clay subsoil with many boulders and rocks. I had to use a pick axe to dig every single hole. In the summer heat, I did well to get one hole dug in a single day. The water table is very high here, and any of the boulders that I pulled out of the ground left a hole that filled with water, that would not drain. I fear for the root systems of my little trees. But, it's the only land currently available, and I didn't want to winter those trees in pots, so... in the ground they went. I then put down a layer of cardboard, and about 6" of wood chips. My plan is to cover a strip about 20' wide and the entire length of the orchard. I think it's about 150'. (currently it's almost 1/2 done) At the back, along the stone wall I'm building (guess where all them rocks are coming from!) I'll put plants that are natural beneficial attractants. Also helpful that most of them are aromatic or have pretty flowers! Have planted garlic and Daffodils around the base of the trees (reported to repel mice and voles. I also think the garlic repels scab.)

Any how, since mulching those trees and spreading the wood chips, the trees looked pretty poor. Until later in the season, when the roots must have finally established. New growth! And the 5+" of rain that we got a few weeks ago? No standing water in the chipped area. I think that this system will work just as well for overly wet areas as it does for overly dry areas.

Still have the remainder of the 1st 14 cu yd. load, as well as 2 untapped loads. It'll be a pain to move them about 200' to the garden, but... that's the plan. For now, the chickens are working on cleaning the garden up. They started digging potatoes yesterday! I've put some chips in the new run (when I feel like I need some exercise, I grab a wheel barrow!) And like your idea of tossing the garden debris in the run/coop as well. Let the chickens remove the weed seeds and then put finished compost back in the garden.

LG, that Paul dude that first got notice for this method uses 15-18 in. of the wood chip in his orchard....but he hasn't had to add any to that for all these many years. Will you be going that depth there? I wonder if he did that because the tree roots mine for nutrition so deeply that he would need more composting above them for that reason?

I'm so very glad someone else is using this method along with me on our forum so we can compare results and tips! Don't you just love seeing results this quickly??? I was despairing at times this summer due to the chips not being composted enough for me to use the method effectively, but this fall I see hope....and I can't WAIT until spring to try this garden out again!

I'm going to be doing some lime on this stuff this winter....the Paul guy didn't say anything about that but I'm wondering if his clay soil is alkaline and that's the reason his compost is now so perfectly balanced? Mine is very acidic, so was wondering if I would need to try and balance that...I'm thinking of messaging their site to see if they will answer that question.

 

[Beekissed]

Bee:
What a peaceful spot you have there, burdock growing is sign of health fertile soil

Is it??? I'll have to check that out! Thank you! It is indeed so very peaceful back here...I just walk around this place thanking God for that all the time. The older I get, the more I crave peace and quiet. Guess that's with most old folks, huh?

 

[politicalcenter]

Yes I can see the heat being a downfall, all climates have there pros and cons.
One day Id like to try some sort of passive heating system, something a bit more sofistacated than barrels filled with water, though it does work alright. Most people use wood stoves here so that is also worth looking into down the road.

I faced mine east to west and the north side is covered in wood with vents at the very top. The south side will be covered in plastic. The door will be on the west side.


So...east and west side clear....south side clear and north side dark. I read years ago in a solar greenhouse book that the north side only loses energy.

I do get sun throughout the house but the sun is still south in the sky. It will begin to move north after the next solstice.

It is still a work in progress.


A wood fired boiler might be just the thing for your climate. You could probably build one out of an old wood heater. Or have one built by a friend.

Just make sure you have a safety valve for pressure.