Laying out the cardboard on the newly-mown plot.

Step 1: Newspaper or Cardboard

To set up a new Back to Eden garden, Paul Gautschi, who stars in the documentary, recommends applying 3-4 sheets of black and white newspaper on the ground. (No slick color ads, please!) If the weeds or grass are tall, mow or weed-whack them down first. I used cardboard because it’s what we had (we had just moved in to a new house) and it was in a VERY weedy, rocky, overgrown area. DO NOT TILL! That is the most important thing I will say here!

Laying down the horse manure over the cardboard.

Step 2: Compost or Composted Manure

Next, lay down 3-4 inches of organic compost or composted manure. Our first year, we used composted horse manure because we live next door to a horse farm and can get it for free. It was probably not aged enough, but we didn’t have our own compost pile built up yet, and as a trial year, it had to be a nearly-free experiment. This year, as we now have our own animals (chickens, goats, and meat rabbits), we have plentiful composted manure.

Step 3: Mulch

Finally, add 3-4 inches of mulch. You can use a combination of dead leaves, weed-free straw, or wood mulch. We used wood mulch because we live in the woods and cut our own firewood, so we can produce it self-sustainably and in large quantities. But if you don’t, call your local tree-cutting services. They are often HAPPY to drop it off at your property instead of PAYING to take it to the dump. We have some HUGE piles at the front of our property that we’ve been using to line trails and parking areas – dropped off free from local tree services! I know a lot of people love the deep bed method which grows veggies in hay, and I’d consider that if we produced our own. But hay is already something we have to buy and bring in for our animals, so beyond the composted hay/manure combo, we won’t spend money on it. As far as tilling? Our soil here is 90% clay, 10% big rocks, and 5% clay. Yes, I know that’s more than 100%. That’s because there’s so much clay. In other words, amending the soil would be a years-long process. I really need my garden to be productive THIS YEAR!  By the way, I worked this Back to Eden garden in tandem with the Grow Biointensive method taught by John Jeavons in his book How to Grow More Vegetables. It’s a great guide to creating amazing compost and close-space planting.

You’ll notice that 3-4 inches or organic compost plus 3-4 inches of mulch means a tall bed! We got tons of cinder blocks very cheaply through Craigslist to build a sort of raised bed for our garden so all our compost and wood chips wouldn’t wash away (we live in a high rainfall area in the Ohio Valley). We decided against using wood frames for our beds, as we find that untreated wood breaks down very quickly in our wet climate, and we won’t use treated wood near our food source. An added bonus of the cinder blocks is that I let the children fill the holes with compost and plant bee-attracting flowers. It was effective, and also quite charming!

Last year, we built a 14 foot by 26 foot bed with a stone path in the middle. We’re going to remove one side and triple the size of the garden this year, adding layers in the exact same way as before.

Looking over the messy plot (which will become this year’s addition) to the finished, but unplanted Back to Eden plot.

Step 4: Planting

To plant your transplants, you simply pull back the mulch, pop the plant in a little soil, and replace the mulch. Seeds are a little different. I found that large seeds like beans did wonderfully when I planted them in the manure and put the mulch back over them. However, tiny seeds, like lettuce and carrots, did not. I think soil plus 4 inches of mulch was simply too much cover before they had germinated…so most of them never did. When I realized my mistake, I tried a second round with the mulch pulled back, and they did great. This year, I will rake the mulch off the areas with very small seeds and replace it when I see the seedling has germinated.

Be sure that you do NOT plant directly into the wood mulch. It is a covering. You must plant in the compost and then re-cover with mulch, either immediately, or after a seedling pops up. In reading Back to Eden garden stories online, I see this as perhaps the biggest mistake new Back to Eden gardeners make. Planting a seed in mulch will not provide the plant with the nutrients it needs, and even if it germinates and comes up, it will be sad and deficient.

What the soil looks like after winter – worm-filled, loamy, and gorgeous!

So how did my trial garden do?

Well, for starters, I did not weed it — because there were NO WEEDS. Not a single weed, all spring, summer, and into the fall. I was amazed. Today, I went out to inspect the plot, and found that the initial mulch had begun to break down very nicely (as it does in nature!), and there were a few weeds here and there. It took this very pregnant mom all of four minutes to weed the patch and feed those goodies to the chickens. The weeds pulled up with no resistance, the soil is black, loamy, and not compacted a bit. There were worms galore! It was simply gorgeous.

What the garden looks like today – only a few weeds, and wood mulch broken down well. (The chickens have been helping themselves to bugs in there!)

Our Plan For This Year

Our plan for this year is to rake back last year’s mulch, lay a thin layer of aged compost over the existing soil, and replace the mulch, building it back up to 3-4 inches. We’ll build the new beds in the same way. Gautschi says that over the years, the top layer of mulch will break down more slowly and you will not have to build it up so high. That may be true – but honestly, putting down mulch for one afternoon a year and then not weeding for the rest of the year is a perfectly fine trade-off for me. I don’t mind.

I also never had to water the garden last year. That is supposed to be a big benefit of Back to Eden gardening, as Gautschi lives in a fairy arid area of Oregon. However, I didn’t have to water my garden because it rained here on the homestead for about three months straight. Now, I’m not complaining. I know much of the country was in a drought, and our well didn’t even think about running dry. But not watering the garden was not really an issue for me. I will say this, however: My neighbors’ gardens were soggy, weedy messes and many plants drowned. Mine did not. So the claims that the wood mulch cover on Back to Eden gardens regulate the water both in keeping the soil moist AND in preventing the drowning of plants may be true. The mulch, apparently, works like a sponge, giving the plants water when they need it and holding it when they do not. It certainly held true in my plot.

Image from Pixabay via skeeze

Production?

I know what you’re really wondering, though: “What about the food, Heidi? Watering and weeding are all fine and good, but did anything actually grow?” Boy, did it. We had incredible yields. Everything (with the exception of those early lettuce and carrots — lesson learned!) was incredibly prolific. Tomatoes and zucchini and melons, peppers, cucumbers, and eggplant were coming out our ears, and filling our bellies, freezers, and canning jars. We grew heirloom sweet corn that was – literally – ten feet tall.

The old-timer next door leaned over the fence one day and asked, “What is that tall plant?”

“Corn!” I hollered back.

“That can’t be corn,” he spat. “The corn is all short this year [because of the heavy rains].”

“Not in my garden, it’s not!”