Adventures in Homesteading - The Back to Eden Garden

We are putting in our first fall garden & decided to use the "Back to Eden" Method.  We had originally planned to have the garden area tilled and then the mulch delivered, but the man I found on craigslist appeared to have a drug problem and that did not work out.  So we went to plan B.  The rail road ties (30) were delivered on a Thursday & 75 yards of finely shredded mulch were delivered on Friday. 

We originally thought we could spread all 75 yards by hand.  We were wrong.  We spread out a paper that helps prevent weeds.  After some further reading and since we were waiting for the man to come and spread the mulch we sprayed the majority of the weeds with vinegar.  This took a lot of time and it 1/2 way worked.  I think it works best on walk way areas, and actual weeds, not grass.

The day came and we eagerly watched them spread our mulch.

The guys were very nice and worked much faster than we ever could have

We shortened the garden from the original size we had planned on, we decided this was still a REALLY BIG garden.

Over the next few days we watered the mulch to get it good and wet.  The back to eden idea is the much holds more water.  And its fine shredded so its a mixture of wood and organic material

Micah is an expert water.



I planted beans, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, radishes and turnips.  Everything has sprouted except the carrots.  When it cools a bit more I will plan the lettuces.

So far I am pleased with this method.  I have noticed:

1) The grass that grows up around the sides (that wasn't fully covered with dirt)  is mostly dead at the bottom and pulls out fairly easily, I pull a bit each day.

2) the fresh grass that grows in the mulch pulls up very easy from the root we pull about 5 or so pieces a day when we go out to check the new growth.  

Originally posted on September 23, 2013 on my other blog ~ From this point on my Adventures in homesteading blogs will be here.