This Back to Eden backyard garden is a perfect garden for beginners and experienced gardeners, as well. A Back to Eden garden is an all organic, no-till, no weeding, no watering garden that you create with compost soil, raw wood chips (that eventually compost over time) and chicken or horse manure. This is a great garden for a beginner. There is no weeding, no watering, no-till, just a great high yield organic garden. Sounds simple enough? The Back to Eden Garden is a method of gardening of recreating the environment that plants thrive in nature.
This garden was created by Paul Gautschi, who made it his lifelong journey in getting back to the simple, organic gardening methods of sustainable provision that were given to man in the garden of Eden.
Steps to creating your Back to Eden Garden
Step One
Construct a 12-inch high wooden box to contain all the garden materials. I decided to buy cedar wood instead of regular wood. I found the cedar wood at the local home improvement store and bought cedar fencing. This only costs $1.48 a board. Cedar weathers the outdoor elements much better than most other woods. The tops of the wood were slightly dog eared and I left them that way. I bought a couple of extra boards to make our stakes.
My sweet pup, was very curious with this new cedar box, that I couldn’t keep her away from the box. Also, if you notice, I did not till up the grass, I just laid paper and cardboard boxes.
Step Two
Select your area that you want to plant your garden. It can be in an existing garden area or a brand new area. Your area can have grass, rocks, sand, whatever, it will not matter.
Step Three
Cover the ground with newspaper, making sure there are no gaps. You can save newspapers throughout the year. We used newspapers and cardboard boxes. Make sure your newspapers are 3 to 4 layers thick.
Step Four
The first layer was organic mushroom compost soil. I bought this at our local landscape and garden store. I bought 4 yards. This garden is big (18 feet x 24 feet), you will not need this much with a smaller garden. Initially, this was our biggest investment. I added 3-4 inches of compost on top of the newspapers/cardboard boxes. In hindsight, 6 inches of compost is ideal.
Step Five
Cover the compost with about 4-6 inches of raw wood chips. I got the wood chips free from Chip Drop. These were a lot of wood chips. There are specific guidelines in receiving these wood chips so read over them carefully and watch their films. This method of delivery may not be for everyone. I went for it because, although it was a lot of wood chips, more than we could use in our garden, I could use them in our landscaping beds around the yard.
Be careful where you get your raw wood chips, you do not want wood chips from treated lumber. You want entire trees with bark, branches, and leaves that have been put through a chipper.
Step Six
You are now ready for your fertilizer. Preferably, you will want to use organic chicken manure or horse manure. You will only need a dusting or 1-2 inches thick. This will be your last layer. I used approximately 2 inches of manure.
Step Seven
I created rows by using twine and stakes. This is very helpful because you can mark your rows with stakes and label your vegetables.
Step Eight
Now its time to plant your seeds. I bought organic, non-GMO seeds from Seedsnow. Scrape back the top layer of manure and wood chips and plant in the compost soil. Leave the layered mound up until the seedling start to grow, then you can push your raw wood chips and manure around it and lightly tamp it down. This type of gardening does not require frequent watering, however, you will have to water when you initially plant your seeds until you see your seedlings begin to grow.
Organic Back to Eden Garden
You have now successfully planted an organic garden with rich soil full of back to nature nutrients. Your vegetables will thrive and you will be pleasantly pleased with the high yield in your garden.
I will continue to post the progress of the garden and lessons learned throughout the process on my Instagram and Facebook pages. I invite you to follow along and ask questions too.
Have fun and enjoy your garden!
XOXO
Connie
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