What did you do in the garden today?

[Beekissed]

I don't want to poop on your parade, but I suspect those leaves won't decompose enough by spring. But I'll say this: When you rake them into a compost pile in the spring, the lower layer will be full of worms. Leave some of that in place and till it in. The rest you will have to pile up in a corner somewhere, and let it compost through the summer. You'll get a lot of worms in the raked pile too, and the results will be magnificent.

As the summer progresses, you can start using it as mulch around your tomatoes and corn and other larger veggie plants. It will be heavy and wet, so not suited for mulching smaller stuff, but your tomatoes will love it. My corn always thrives with heavy mulching, and stuff like that is super for that. By next fall it will be perfect to till it all in.

What you have done is the best investment you can make for your garden!

Actually, we won't be tilling these in at all...they will just be left to decompose in place. We are building a new layer of soil over my hard pan clay underneath, starting with wood chips in the spring, which have already composted down a good bit to form a thin layer of rich, black soil next to my clay. Now it will be the leave's turn to compost in place and I'll be planting in that thin layer of soil on top of my own and these leaves will make for wonderful weed suppression as they compost in place, just like the wood chips have done all season.

I'll never be tilling again, just using the garden as a huge composting pile, adding more material as time goes along until I've formed new top soil that never gets turned in. This is a method first popularized by Ruth Stout, though she used straw, and later by a guy named Paul Gautschi, who coined the name Back to Eden for his gardening method of using a thick layer of wood chips on the garden and just adding material over the years as those compost in place.

This what my soil looked like in May of this spring, after tilling it well 5 times in a row, followed by a few rains. I had to put all my weight on this fork to get it barely 4 in. into the soil....



In just 5 mo. time my top soil looks like this...a thin layer, to be sure, but it's loamy, rich, moist and black.



Little clumps of grass were allowed to grow here and there, just so I could see how easy they were to pull later on when they were well established....and they pulled out like a knife from butter. In my regular soil one would have to chop them out with a hoe and even then it would require much effort. These came out without any effort at all and they had this moist, black soil clinging to their roots. New soil...not the same soils I've been dealing with for over 20 yrs now.

And this pic was taken in one of our most dry spells of the season...the soil was still moist as could be.




I'll let y'all know how much composting has occurred by spring...should be interesting.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'll also be sure to post my soil tests: Both in the orchard, on orchard soil that has not had BTE applied, as well as the same soil that has sat under 14 cu. yds. of wood chips. Same with garden.

 

[FridayYet]

That will be great to see LG!

I'm getting a slow start, with only a few inches built up so far: Peat moss, grass clippings, alfalfa,& compost. There are elm trees all along our back fence, but they haven't dropped many leaves yet. Hope to keep adding until I can get some wood chips in the spring.

Most of the cottonwood leaves have been shredded and are making a great base in my chicken run!

 

[beginnergirl]

I planted an Indian Plum. It has teeny plums (very pretty colors) but is great for wildlife. Also dug up a wheelbarrow of grass and planted an azalea and high bush cranberry.

The girls accidentally got into the front yard for the first time so I decided to see how it went. They quickly began scattering all my piles of leaves I had raked. They really did a great job on the slugs and grubs. Two girls were right by my side grabbing anything they could. I kept trying to put a few earthworms back into the beds. But the girls got most of them. Made working in the yard so much fun! Happy they have no interest in escaping over the low fence in the front yard. But they thankfully hid when the neighbor got his blower going and a snarky dog charged the fence.

 

[3goodeggs]

That is fun isn't it? There is a joy to watching that, that most people will never know.
It is nice to have people here that get it.

 

[beginnergirl]

Love having chickens! The girls have been pretty gentle with my garden. Here is a picture of 2 with my dog:

Too many leaves but I do save them for compost in summer.

 

[Guvnah]

Actually, we won't be tilling these in at all...they will just be left to decompose in place. ...

Aha. Now I got it.

Where I work we put in a community garden as an employee project, with all produce going to the local food bank. Some of the beds we started with this technique, and we plan to keep adding layer after layer in the same way. Lasagna gardening.

 

[lazy gardener]

After a fashion, yes. But... the major difference is that lasagna gardening works with "soft stuff" that composts down within a single season. But, the wood chips are a permanent application with much longer life span of coverage. Yes, they need to be renewed now and then, but... it takes years for them to compost down. The very first load of wood chips that I had, years ago, (I used it instead of the costly bark chips that we'd pick up from the landscaping company) lasted for 4 years. I had it dumped on a tarp. By the end of the 4th year, the tarp had semi rotted, and the remainder of that pile still had discernible chunks in it, but those chunks were black and spongy. And when I walked on the pile, it felt like I was walking on a mattress.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree. With the wood chips there are so many different size particles and rates of decomposition that you can have the smaller, faster stuff forming good compost underneath the bigger, more dense material and then use the slower composting material for weed suppression around the plants. You can even drive over this stuff over and over and not compact the ground underneath because it's a good bit deeper than typical garden compost(6 in.) and seems to be more of a matrix, absorbs more moisture, retains more moisture, etc.

With the leaves, I expect them to decompose pretty quickly over a year's time and be integrated into that top soil starting under the chips...the worms and rain will pull them under that top layer of chips eventually. At least, that's what I hope will happen...this is all new to me, as I've never really went deep with wood chips on the garden before, nor have I applied leaves on top of them, so I'll let you all know how it turned out~good or bad.

All the while I'll be adding composted deep litter from the coop, small applications of old hay or straw, grass clippings. Sort of just like building my deep litter in the coop...I also used a cart load or two of those wood chips this season under the roosts and they are phenomenal!

Eventually I'll have to add more chips...I've got a free source and a truck and utility wagon, so it's just a matter of taking the time to go get them and apply them.

 

[lazy gardener]

I went out to run errands today, and stopped in to visit the lady with all the leaves. She spied my truck, and came running out in her slippers to say hi. Asked me what I'm using them for, gladly accepted the contractor bags I gave her to recycle. I have a feeling that, like most elderly folks, she doesn't get much company, so enjoys what interaction she does get! Brought back 16 bags. Total count up to 28. Hope to get a cargo net when I go out on date with hubby. Bee, I don't have any fencing around my garden, so don't want to put leaves on top of the chips. Hoping to dump a bag of leaves, and immediately dump a WB full of chips on top of it to keep the wind from blowing the leaves away. I think that if I'm careful opening these garbage bags, she'll be able to have them recycled at least one more time. I'm all for saving her some money! Gave 5 bags to the flock this morning. They're happily rummaging through them. Not much for goodies there. Just maple leaves. Was hoping that there'd be some oak leaves, but none yet.

Tarps came today. Plan to p/u some electrical tape and gorilla tape to protect the rough edges of the cattle panels so the tarps don't wear. Bee, did you put anything under your clear tarps on your hoop coop, or just put the tarps over the hoops? Anything to cover the welded edges? How are they holding up? Did you put any thing over the top of your tarps to keep them from billowing with the wind??