Mulch - "The Earth is Meant to Be Covered"

    I know I keep referring back to this fabulous gardening movie, Back to Eden, but when you find something so Golden it is hard not learn from your mistakes and change what you're doing so you can see results.   

    As I mentioned in my "6 Rules of Gardening" Post, (click to read) Mulch is a key factor to a successful garden.  It also reduces the workload of the typical gardener after time.  Much of the information I will be sharing here is taken directly from "Back to Eden" so if you don't want to watch the film, you can learn some of the key principles here.

    "Everywhere in nature where man has not been, the ground is covered.  The ground is meant to be covered, it is a living organism. [It can be compared to skin for animals, feathers for birds, scales for fish, etc.  When you take the cover off, it becomes vulnerable]"

    I had never thought of dirt or soil before as a living organism.  But when you think about it scientifically, it most definitely is.  When we change our thinking to reflect that it is a living thing, it then makes complete sense to "protect it."  As soon as I understood this concept, I pictured in my mind all of the dead, non-fertile soil I have seen various places throughout my lifetime.  Most farms and large gardens that are cleared and tilled at the start of each season are empty, light colored, dull plots of land until the seeds are added and the soil amendments and fertilizers to make them grow.   Crops have to be rotated each growing season to avoid over-depleting the soil of nutrients.  But sadly, much of our soil is already grossly depleted.  This photo is a bit of an exaggeration since this particular land is also suffering from drought, but the compaction and lack of color are consistent with depleted soil.  

     Farmers spend thousands of dollars on soil amendments, fertilizer, and even pesticides, and year after year are facing the same problems again with each new growing season.

     Paul in the “Back to Eden” film, takes us on a journey, that leads our thoughts back to the Creator.  He talks about how God gardens the earth, and what we can learn to both improve our yields, and simplify our process when we mimic what nature is already doing.

     The next time you have the opportunity to walk through a forest, or field or any areas that are mostly untouched by man, kneel down and dig into the dirt, and explore what you find.   For example, in a forest you find leaves, pine needles, pine cones, twigs, seeds, etc. in various stages of decay laying atop the rich black composted floor.  This is because in nature all of these things drop to the ground and are left untouched to be broken down by the microorganisms in the organic materials as well as the soil.   Animals come through and crunch up the leaves and twigs, the wind blows and mixes things around, and the rain comes and wets everything.  All of this creates a natural covering for the ground.  Its what helps to keep weeds down, and give nutrients to young growing trees and plants.   In a field you will find the dead fallen grasses and rocks and other things covering the ground.  

     “The ground is meant to be covered.”  What can we learn from that statement when we apply it to our own corner of ground that we have the privilege of caring for?  The answer is Mulch.  Lots of Mulch.

According to Paul (Eden Film) the best mulch is wood chips.  But he also says that he has tried other things successfully as well.  Wood Shavings, Compost, and even Rocks, just so long as the ground is covered.   

     The reason wood chips work so well is because they act as a sponge, absorbing as much moisture as possible when it rains and holding it until the ground beneath needs it.  They also, amazingly don’t blow away in the wind, they stay put.  They never compact, are always soft, and always allow for air to be present.  You could even drive a truck on it and it wouldn’t compact.

     Mulching is not a new concept.  People have been using this idea for years and years.  What makes it so amazing to me, is understanding how it works, and then putting it into practice correctly and seeing the results.  

    I have an excess of Goat manure available at all times, as I’ve mentioned before.  So when I was at a loss for composted material, often I would dump loads of the fresh manure mixed with hay in many areas of my yard just to help keep the weeds down.   A few years ago we tore out the grass in one end of our yard to create a large garden area.   I covered the whole thing with the manure/hay mix to help mulch the area.  I was amazed the next spring at how few weeds I had to pull before planting my first garden in that area.   Plus having the nutrients from all that compost sitting on top of the ground proved to be another benefit.

    Paul explains that as it rains and these materials absorb the moisture, and then release it.  It actually releases a type of “compost tea” down into the soil below, carrying with it the nutrients contained in the organic matter sitting on top of the soil.   This is exactly what happens with wood chips.  They absorb all the rain like a sponge, and when the ground below and the roots of the plants call for water, they are getting the modified, improved water that is being release WITH nutrients from the wood chips, and decomposed organic materials above.  

    So last year we decided to put the mulching into practice properly in a couple of our garden areas.  We prepared the garden the way Paul showed to prepare a NEW garden area, just to be sure we kept the majority of the weeds down.   We lined our entire garden bed with 3-4 layers of newspaper, and then sprinkled a layer of topsoil over it.  Literally sprinkled.  Not much at all.  You could still see quite a bit of newspaper.  Secondly we did a thin layer of compost over that, and then finished with about 4 inches of wood chips.  The garden looked fantastic!   Then we proceeded to plant directly on top of the newspaper, by pushing the mulch out of the way with our hands, making a hole, and putting in the started plants I had grown in the greenhouse.  After planting, we put the mulch back carefully around the plant, and because of the season, we used the green Wall of Water Protectors to ad additional warmth and frost protection to our plants.

The kids helping prep the the garden area with compost and mulch.

     We had a beautiful garden, and most of it did quite well.  We had a few areas where an overgrown tree prevented enough sunlight from getting through, stunting the growth of some of those plants.  but everything else did really well.  

     So far I see almost no weeds, and because we had a very cold winter with lots of snow on the ground, the wood chips are holding the moisture in the ground, and composting the under layers.  I am excited as we come into year two to be able to continue to enjoy the effort we exerted last year. 

This is in July when the garden was in full force.  We had no weeds all Summer, and as you can see everything grew and produced beautifully!  I love having what I call a "mixed use" garden, so that there are attractive flowers as well as productive plants.