Back to Eden gardening method

[Pitbull]

Moved into our small holding last week.

Wife decided she wanted a veggie garden. After we cleared a piece of land that's in the sun about 90% of the day light it turned out to be a damn plantation and not a garden... I laid plumbing to water it and now to still do the beddings. Will upload a photo soon and will also post progress and feedback. Be warned though... it's back breaking work

 

[Zarkon]

Moved into our small holding last week.

Wife decided she wanted a veggie garden. After we cleared a piece of land that's in the sun about 90% of the day light it turned out to be a damn plantation and not a garden... I laid plumbing to water it and now to still do the beddings. Will upload a photo soon and will also post progress and feedback. Be warned though... it's back breaking work

View attachment 351297

That is AWESOME. I can imagine it is a lot of work,it's going to be like a mini farm,but it will be worth it. Just keep at it even when its going to feel like it's too much to handle. U can always get a garderner once every 2 weeks to clean and maintain the bedding.

There is a youtube channel growingyourgreens ,u should check out what he did with his backyard,the amount and different variety of things he grow in such a small area is amazing. U can learn a lot from that channel.

One thing u should do is get a compost heap going with leaves etc etc,since it is a small holding i can assume all the clippings and leaves will be usefull.U can even take those blue swimming pool,the wire that is the skeleton and make a smaller circle and heap in it. Or something similar to keep it compact and a little raised ,then every summer u will have nice compost to work into the ground. For such a big patch u dont want to buy a spend thousends everytime on soil,when u can make your own soil better and better with your own compost heap.

Since winter is aproaching,i would only plant a few things and not to much and rather work on getting your soil better this next few months,for when spring is near u can plant everything and u will have good soil.

U should get some worm farms goings,works 100's. And u will have plenty of worms u can put into the bedding since they multiply so quick.

Long msg i know sorry,i got excited. Lol

 

[Pitbull]

That is AWESOME. I can imagine it is a lot of work,it's going to be like a mini farm,but it will be worth it. Just keep at it even when its going to feel like it's too much to handle. U can always get a garderner once every 2 weeks to clean and maintain the bedding.

There is a youtube channel growingyourgreens ,u should check out what he did with his backyard,the amount and different variety of things he grow in such a small area is amazing. U can learn a lot from that channel.

One thing u should do is get a compost heap going with leaves etc etc,since it is a small holding i can assume all the clippings and leaves will be usefull.U can even take those blue swimming pool,the wire that is the skeleton and make a smaller circle and heap in it. Or something similar to keep it compact and a little raised ,then every summer u will have nice compost to work into the ground. For such a big patch u dont want to buy a spend thousends everytime on soil,when u can make your own soil better and better with your own compost heap.

Since winter is aproaching,i would only plant a few things and not to much and rather work on getting your soil better this next few months,for when spring is near u can plant everything and u will have good soil.

U should get some worm farms goings,works 100's. And u will have plenty of worms u can put into the bedding since they multiply so quick.

Long msg i know sorry,i got excited. Lol

Thanks for the encouragement. It was a massive endeavour just to get the damn thing going. It's just about there. Kids started making beddings yesterday so we have 3 as it stands. Will do more over the long weekend. We bought a bunch of seed and most of them are for autumn season so will get them in by the weekend too and give an updated photo. Getting the water there was damn hard work, but most is done. I have already started putting the leaves and stuff on a concrete slab and dousing it with water every now and again to get the rot going. Will work it into the soil after we harvested the first batch. This first one is to see the quality of the soil. So holding thumbs

O yea, we also have baboons coming down from the mountain in the late evenings... Will have to put up a bigger fence...

 

[Zarkon]

Thanks for the encouragement. It was a massive endeavour just to get the damn thing going. It's just about there. Kids started making beddings yesterday so we have 3 as it stands. Will do more over the long weekend. We bought a bunch of seed and most of them are for autumn season so will get them in by the weekend too and give an updated photo. Getting the water there was damn hard work, but most is done. I have already started putting the leaves and stuff on a concrete slab and dousing it with water every now and again to get the rot going. Will work it into the soil after we harvested the first batch. This first one is to see the quality of the soil. So holding thumbs

O yea, we also have baboons coming down from the mountain in the late evenings... Will have to put up a bigger fence...

Baboons eating the crop,now that would be a bummer. Advice i can give u is,start with a small patch not too much vegetables if this is your first time don't over do it,just get a few vegetables going,less to maintain and less water to use. So get a small patch going while u work on building the other soil throughout the winter,grass clipping,leaves all of it u must keep. Lots of reading will ensue the next following months on gardening,but nothing can beat feeding your family with fresh produce u have grown.

Get those worm bins going,it's super cheap,about r200 to make one bin,put one bin near the kitchen/backdoor to easily put the food cuttings in, and u get free compost and worm tee which works wonders,and when the worms start to fill the bins ,u can take half of them out and put it in your vegetable patch.Just dont put the bins in the sun or in the rain. Do u live in the western cape

 

[Pitbull]

Baboons eating the crop,now that would be a bummer. Advice i can give u is,start with a small patch not too much vegetables if this is your first time don't over do it,just get a few vegetables going,less to maintain and less water to use. So get a small patch going while u work on building the other soil throughout the winter,grass clipping,leaves all of it u must keep. Lots of reading will ensue the next following months on gardening,but nothing can beat feeding your family with fresh produce u have grown.

Get those worm bins going,it's super cheap,about r200 to make one bin,put one bin near the kitchen/backdoor to easily put the food cuttings in, and u get free compost and worm tee which works wonders,and when the worms start to fill the bins ,u can take half of them out and put it in your vegetable patch.Just dont put the bins in the sun or in the rain. Do u live in the western cape

Nope, Pretoria

 

[KDZAR]

Thanks for the encouragement. It was a massive endeavour just to get the damn thing going. It's just about there. Kids started making beddings yesterday so we have 3 as it stands. Will do more over the long weekend. We bought a bunch of seed and most of them are for autumn season so will get them in by the weekend too and give an updated photo. Getting the water there was damn hard work, but most is done. I have already started putting the leaves and stuff on a concrete slab and dousing it with water every now and again to get the rot going. Will work it into the soil after we harvested the first batch. This first one is to see the quality of the soil. So holding thumbs

O yea, we also have baboons coming down from the mountain in the late evenings... Will have to put up a bigger fence...

The Back to Eden method makes use of a few unused methods. The no tilling method is the main focus, other is the cover using wood chips. I sure hope you try a small portion and cover with mulch and wood chips if you have any. Would be interesting to see how it compares to the other parts of your garden.

 

[avaish1]

Hi KDZAR,

I am in Cape Town, which dumps still provide free woodchips?

 

[avaish1]

He explains how nature prepares soil and how we can benefit from this method. In short nature layers the ground each autumn with leaves, it decomposes during winter and summer all that nutrients is available for the plant. How we would do it is to layer with wood chips, under no circumstances work the wood chips into the ground, only fertilise with compost on top whenever you want to. Water almost never. Layer each year with wood chips and high nitrogen compost like chicken manure. Do not till the soil, do not work it in any way.

Here's another guy that adopted this method, (no religion in this video). It is a very good watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So4_ybD76f4

I've done some research and i've noticed WC is the best place for this method just because the garden refuse dumps has government owned wood chippers and u can use it for free or go get wood chips for free. In Gauteng where I am the system is broken and everyone wants to make a profit it seems. Wood chipping machines is really expensive like R15k 2n hand.
Lets do this method.

Hi KDZAR,

I am in Cape Town, which dumps still provide free woodchips?