Back To Eden/ Wood Chip Gardening (My Beginner Experiences)

For folks located in many parts of the world, creating or modifying a garden and/or orchard area with wood chips seems to provide great ideas, inspiration and results.

I haven’t personally modified my garden Back-To-Eden (BTE) style exactly, mostly because I don’t have the space.

But I have used wood chips for creating a lot of pathways, and as a less deep mulch (maybe 1″-3”). I’ve also started to include wood chips in the compost and have seen good results with some added soil that’s very luscious.

Disclaimer: I am just learning about this style of gardening – and I haven’t created a true BTE-style garden. But I have been very inspired by it (and permaculture-style gardening).

Also, please double-check any info on this page before applying to your own garden!

Benefits of Wood Chip Gardening (in the right climates/situations)

1. You can walk around the garden without getting muddy & the pathways are extra comfortable to use.
2. Holds water/moisture in the ground in a dry climate/times of the year.
3. Helps insulate the roots in the hot summer and cold winters.
4. Protects beneficial soil microbes from the sun’s UV rays.
5. Wood chips absorbs water when it’s wet (but probably not in a monsoon), and then will slowly release moisture.
6. As chips break down, they slowly fertilizes the soil & plants with minerals, nutrients when it rains – much like a compost tea.
7. Reduces “weeding” but eventually increases the need to prune extra-health plants and trees!
8. Helps provide spacing in the soil to allow gases to reach further down the roots (mostly carbon dioxide and nitrogen)

The Original Back to Eden Gardening Movie

Please check out the original film that popularized Paul’s style of gardening.

Also, there’s a bunch of videos showing the yearly summer tour of Paul’s garden/orchard at the end of this page.

My Experiences with Wood Chips and Gardening

1st Wood Chip Experience

My first experience with adding wood chips was in an urban backyard area where grass wouldn’t successfully grow. I eventually started adding pine bark chips each year (which are different than the composted arborist wood chips recommended in BTE) and have been very happy with results.

The pine back nuggets/chips really helped improve the walking areas of the backyard.

So after a few years of covering pretty much the whole (urban) backyard with chips, I decided I’d like a food forest/garden.

Unfortunately (and concurrently), I didn’t monitor the ivy on southernly-located tree. The tree died and after it’s removal, the yard went from being almost completely shaded to something where you garden successfully (8-10 hours of sun).

So, I decided I wanted to start a gardening in said urban backyard, and from there I did a soil test.

Urban Backyard with High Lead Levels

At some point a few years ago when I started getting into gardening, I decided to do a soil test .

The soil test results (from a state university Ag Extension) came up pretty good in general – except for high lead levels!

The easiest remedy for my personal situation was to cover all the soil areas with wood chips/ wood nuggets and/or ground cover.

And that’s what I did.

The cost the remediate the soil would have been very high, and not within the parameters of my circumstances.

Potted Food Forest in the City

I then went on to plant fruit trees in big pots and bags (40+ gallons).

I didn’t use wood chips to create the soil. But I did use wood chips to cover everything that had been planted with about an inch or 2 of mulch.

I’d say the main area was about 25’x20’. I really packed a lot of fruit trees in pretty tightly.

Midwest Suburban Garden – Wood Chip Pathways & Mulch

That was 2019. In 2020, I started working on a different garden.

I did use some wood chips that had been somewhat composted. These worked out great for. It was exactly BTE-style. But it was inspired by them.

I also started (at this point) adding the older, composted wood chips from the garden and side yard to the planting beds.

Then I’ve added the newer wood chips to refresh the pathways.

It seems to be working pretty well.

While not BTE, per-se, other famous gardeners have done similar mulches. Geoff Lawton says that at Zaytuna Farms, they cycle the chips in a similar fashion – they use the old wood chips from the path in the garden (also see PRI article about wood chips).

Another big proponent of wood chips is Jean Pain from France, he developed a way to heat his home and greenhouses with composting wood chips. Then (much like BTE’s method of composted wood chips) he used the composted wood chips for his garden.

Important Aspects of Back To Eden (BTE) Gardening

BTE uses Ash, Chickens & Compost

Paul, the discover/inventor of BTE, found great success using arborist chips. Arborist wood chips include the green leaves, etc. They are wood chips that you’d get after a tree service trimmed or cut down a tree.

Though remember – ideally you want to use composted (for about 6+ months, it seems) arborist wood chips.

It sounds like he originally put down a lot of fresh wood chips, then has over the years added more composted wood-chips.

Paul also creates super rich compost from his chicken pens.

Moreover, he uses wood-powered stoves for heating and cooking. The ash (from the wood heating & stove), plus wood-chips and organic scraps get put in the chicken pen. (I’m actually not sure if he puts ash in the chicken pen or directly into the garden, but you get the idea).

When the levels of soil/compost/wood chips get too high in the chicken area, he sifts the compost and adds it to the vegetable garden.

More info about Ash

Check out this wiki article about the mineral properties of ash – basically when wood is burned, the minerals remain in the ash.

Another great source of minerals content supplement (for gardeners), is azomite. Of course, many soils have great mineral content already.

Also, Paul mentions Joe Wallach. Here’s an interview did.

Starting a Garden BTE style.

Depending on one’s time frame & climate, starting a BTE can be a great way to start.

Basically, put down 12” of well-chipped wood chips that include leaves and branches, etc. These are the type of wood chips you’d get from a tree service truck.

If you don’t have as many wood chips, you can lay down newspapers. Also, when starting, most people seem to put down a 1-3” of compost and/or manure.

Planting BTE style (in the first few years)

Basically, you plant into the soil underneath the (un-composted) wood chips.

If you don’t have any good soil yet, you may have to add some in the spots where you want to plant. For veggies, you could maybe add 1/2-1 gallon of potting soil for each plant. Or you could wait until you have more composted soil.

For planting fruit trees (in a new garden), you could also just add a lot of good (imported) soil and plant the fruit tree in this area. (You could also create a guild of other edible plants underneath nearby this newly planted fruit tree).

If you have composted (or semi-composted) wood chips, you can basically plant into this.

Over time, the wood chips should compost into soil. And hopefully your garden will start to look more and more like Paul’s!

Keep Adding Soil Amendments Until Your Soil has Improved Drastically

Paul (of BTE) says that many people will need to amend the soil for the first few years (compost, fertilizers & mineral & water). But once the 12” layer of wood chips has broken down enough, you should be good to go!

Every 1-2 years, it looks like Paul tops off his wood chips and super chicken-farmed soil.

While it’s hard to say what works in one spot will work in another, anyone with access to a large amount of wood chips should have a great start on a really successful garden!

Chickens – the BTE soil creators

Paul has a dedicated area for his chickens. Besides the composted wood chips, he employs chickens to really create great soil. This is a key aspect of super high-level gardening, BTE-style. Without chickens or other similar creatures, a BTE gardener will probably need to devise other methods of creating amazing soil amendments.

Listening and learning from Nature, the Bible & God

Paul attributes a lot of high gardening innovations/discoveries to observing, following and “mimicking” natural patterns in his local area. He also reads the Bible to learn what the Bible says about gardening. And he prays to God for many of his most elegant gardening solutions.

PH levels & Sun/Shade requirements

Paul’s garden has an amazing 7.0 PH level. He shows some of the guests how a lavender plant will grow right next to a blueberry bush. This is significant because the two plants supposedly need significantly different PH levels.

He believes this is because his soil is so rich that plants that need different things can all find what the need in the soil (if the soils is rich enough).

Pests, etc

Bugs and diseases don’t bother super plants (in Paul’s garden), but other sorts of “pests” might.

For example, groundhogs and deer – even super healthy plants will not be protected from these critters. Paul has dogs, some of which help to scare away deer.

In short, healthy plants (and gardens) will better protect themselves from certain diseases and insect pests, but things like birds and other larger critters may still munch on the garden if it’s not protected in other more classic gardening styles.

BTE – Growing Veggies with Fruit Trees

Paul’s BTE garden has amazing fruit trees with tons of veggies growing around the fruit trees.

I think it’s important to note that it seems (from looking at the videos) that veggies underneath the fruit trees receive a fair amount of sun.

Paul prunes his fruit trees so that they are only 6 feet tall. And they have lots of air/space between the branches. This always a lot of sun to fall beneath the fruit tree.

This may or may not work in situations with bigger/taller fruit trees that cast a bigger shadow. I truthfully don’t know. With taller trees, some people grow perennials near the trees, but not underneath like Paul. This may be a personal preference.

But it is heartening to know that with pruning, you can grow smaller (yet super-healthy & productive) fruit trees with good pruning techniques. This means a gardener can grow great veggies and fruit in a much smaller space that one might originally think.

BTE – Watering

Paul waters the seeds he plants until they sprout, then he doesn’t water any more.

While never watering might work in many more (relatively) humid climates, in some drier climates this may or may not as well (in respect to never watering – it will certainly probably help reduce watering, at least).

To put this in perspective, where Paul lives, he doesn’t ever water (except to start seedlings). He lives in a microclimate in Washington state that only receives something like ~17” a year. Not desert-like, but still pretty dry.

Not watering for decades – that’s pretty amazing!

The BTE theory, basically if you have created 12”+ of super crumbly, absorbent soil, the soil will hold all the moisture any plant would need.

Understanding Fungal & Bacteria-based soils

Depending on what you’re growing, you may to lean towards a more fungal or bacterial based soil.

More woody-based plants (fruit tree, berries, nut trees) may prefer more fungal based soil. Annual veggies may prefer bacterial based soil.

But truthfully, Paul plants his veggies and fruits together (in a wood-chip based soil) in basically full sun. So if the soils is rich enough, everyone will probably be happy. In other words, great soil will have both fungi and bacteria.

What I’ve Learned Using Wood Chips in the Garden

Even if you don’t use 12″ of wood chips, you can add an inch or two of wood chip mulch and it’ll probably improve most temperate and dry climate gardens.

Overall, even without the full Back to Eden style of gardening, I really enjoy being in a outdoor area that has a nice padded layer of wood chips. It really looks good (and natural), and is a great way to create a beautiful landscape!

Here’s what Justin Rhodes learned:

Back to Eden Garden Tours

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Thanks for stopping by!

All the best! Enjoy gardening and hope this helps!

Other ideas about gardening and growing plants:

• Why planting trees helps the world