One of the reasons I’ve been lax on posting lately is because I’ve been working crazy-mad in the garden. We have new ducks (which I’ll post about later), and we’ve been hauling in wheelbarrows full of gravel (for the duckyard) and wood chips (for mulch).
Have you heard of the Back to Eden gardening method? If not, you can watch the film for free here: http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/
Basically, you use wood chips for a mulch, and it provides incredible benefits for your soil and plants – including not needing to water anything other than new seedlings. After last year’s drought, I’m very attracted to this concept! Plus, if you live near a tree-trimming service, you can usually get their chips delivered to your door completely free.
Which we did. Two of these piles.
After shoveling dirt and gravel, it’s surprisingly pleasant work to haul chips. They are light, and they give such instant gratification.
We put a layer of chips over all the dirt areas of the garden, and a few small areas, like below, where we had grass, but found it awkward to mow such small spaces. In the future, I may plant a green groundcover here, or I might leave it chips. I do like the woodsy effect of the chips.
I also put it over the entire vegetable garden.
The chips that appear brown in the pictures are from the first load, and have had time to decompose a little. The greenish chips are from the second load, and still fresh. Lots of evergreen needles. It smells like Christmas!
Perhaps because of the smell/prickly nature of evergreen needles, I’ve noticed that slugs are keeping away from my plants. Slugs love marigolds, and for awhile I had some planted with chips around them, and some with just a straw mulch. The ones in straw were being eaten; the ones in chips weren’t. Nice.
Also, did you notice my espalier pear tree? It’s doing so well!
No blossoms yet, but hopefully next year?
After we spread the chips over all the dirt areas, we decided to continue on, and put chips on the gravel pathways, too. Gravel pathways are somewhat difficult to keep weed-free, and I’ve never been hugely attached to the look.
It’s only been a few weeks since we spread the chips, and already I see a difference. The earthworms are very active underneath, and I haven’t had to water, and the soil has, indeed, stayed moist. The real test will be later this summer, but I have high expectations.
Out of Eden 