I turned my clay into premium soil with wood chips.

[William Egan]

Anyone ever use wood chips in the garden? I really love my back to Eden Garden. The wood chips have added so much organic matter, worms and microbes that its totally different soil. I also recommend adding a good source of trace minerals like Azomite. If any one has seen the first Back To Eden Garden video (Paul Gouchi ) I think is his name showed a pile of rocks he piled up out of his garden and said it's a memorial to his hard work but I noticed that the rocks looked like river rocks. they are round and smooth, They must be glacier rocks and that would likely mean that he also has lots of minerals in his soil. Minerals are important and tree roots grow deep, where the minerals are and the chips also feed the microbial life which also feed and keep plants healthy. You should not till very often and only when the wood chips are almost completely broken down for two reasons 1 is fresh wood chips use up a lot of nitrogen to break down, they are not using it out of the soil by laying on top in fact they help hold it in . And 2nd reason different microbes and mycorrhiza live at different levels in the soil, if you turn your soil its like taking your fish out of the pond and throwing them up on the bank.
Plus the veggies, I grew a turnip the size of my head, I wear a small hat but my wife says I still have a big head. I grew a cabbage at least 12" across. The flavor you get from good home grown veggies are something that cannot be bought from the store. Packed full of vitamins and are a must for staying healthy.
I have a video if you would like to see what a transformation it has made for my garden. I show how good black and crumbly my soil is next to the clay that it was only three years earlier. here is the link



And feel free to check out my other videos if you like, stay healthy and God bless.

 

[Patchouli]

Some say, like you, tilling is not a good idea. That it also stirs up seeds that you otherwise would hope died, weed seeds, grass, etc.
Nice looking soil.

 

[Weedygarden]

My property was mostly clay when I purchased it 29 years ago. It just killed so much of what I tried to grow. I have added many things to my garden beds, manure, peat moss, compost, and lots of leaves. A number of years ago a community had been re-developed and some areas looked like they had been mulched with chipped dimensional lumber. It was sliver material and people were quick to replace it. People worked together to remove the mulch, pile it in a particular area, and replace it with a mulch that worked better for them. I lined my trunk with a tarp and filled it many times. I put that mulch throughout my yard. In a matter of a couple years, it was all broken down. I have been working in my yard and notice that the soil is much richer now. I keep adding wood mulch for moisture purposes and to help improve the soil.

 

[William Egan]

My property was mostly clay when I purchased it 29 years ago. It just killed so much of what I tried to grow. I have added many things to my garden beds, manure, peat moss, compost, and lots of leaves. A number of years ago a community had been re-developed and some areas looked like they had been mulched with chipped dimensional lumber. It was sliver material and people were quick to replace it. People worked together to remove the mulch, pile it in a particular area, and replace it with a mulch that worked better for them. I lined my trunk with a tarp and filled it many times. I put that mulch throughout my yard. In a matter of a couple years, it was all broken down. I have been working in my yard and notice that the soil is much richer now. I keep adding wood mulch for moisture purposes and to help improve the soil.

Weedygarden, I'm thinking it may have an advantage over other mulches do to it's ability to hold moister and give cover for the worms more so than other mulches, like having one big board over the entire garden, but definitely because roots and symbiotic fungus's go deep and bring nutrients up from down deep.

 

[William Egan]

Some say, like you, tilling is not a good idea. That it also stirs up seeds that you otherwise would hope died, weed seeds, grass, etc.
Nice looking soil.

Thank you, Yes it also stirs up weed seeds.