Would you like to grow more organic vegetables and fruits with no digging or tilling and minimal weeding or watering? If that sounds too good to be true — it's very assuredly not. The back to Eden gardening method delivers all that and more. This beginner-friendly guide will teach you everything you need to know on how to start your own back to Eden garden and why you should.
It doesn't matter how hot your climate is, how short your gardening season, or how little water you have access to — in fact, it was severe conditions and a lack of rainfall that led American gardener and arborist Paul Gautschi to his lifelong journey learning how to get back to the garden of Eden.
Who Is Back To Eden Gardening For?
- Everyone (seriously, read the entire article and watch the documentary to understand.)
- Gardeners with no access or very little access to water, or those of you looking to conserve as much water as possible.
- People who want to work less and weed less.
- Anyone interested in no dig and no-till gardening methods and regenerative farming, gardening, and agriculture.
The truth is that this is just one of the many techniques that promote regeneration and no-till gardening methods like heavy mulching.
Back to Eden, while fully beneficial and a great method to every gardener, will especially benefit those lacking water access and in areas prone to drought.
This method truly allows you to grow food anywhere.
What Is The Back To Eden Gardening Method?
The back to Eden method is a form of completely natural and organic no-till gardening that uses a heavy layer of wood mulch to protect the soil, reduce or eliminate watering, and suppress weeds, so that your vegetable or permaculture gardens can thrive and flourish.
It is a form of regenerative gardening that gives back to the earth what it takes — often giving back more than taken — as this way of growing food can sequester carbon in the soil where it is actually useful.
And it starts with the simplest premise: cover your soil.
This is a complete departure from industrial farming methods with its synthetic fertilizer and herbicide-laced bare fields stretching out for thousands and thousands of acres devoid of any life.
For too long home gardeners have emulated these destructive methods, decreasing their yields while increasing their work.
There is a different way: become an Eden gardener.
Back to Eden is an ecosystem, one where pollinators and wildlife can coexist and thrive side-by-side with the very necessary activity of growing food for humans and animals alike.
And it's easier than conventional gardening.
Origin Of Back To Eden Gardening
Paul Gautschi grew up gardening the old-fashioned way with his family.
He diligently dug and tilled the soil, watered regularly, and toiled ceaselessly to grow food.
And he loved it! Gardening as a hobby or for self-sufficiency is one of the most rewarding activities we can do.
But when Paul moved to a different state and started a new garden plot, he found that the environmental and climactic conditions of his new home simply did not allow him to garden in the way he always had.
Specifically, he had next to no water and no easy or affordable way to gain access to it.
That led him to start questioning why we garden in the ways that we do and whether they were the best and most efficient ways.
Observing nature and forests he noticed some remarkable things that led him to start experimenting with recreating nature and forests in his vegetable gardens and fruit and nut orchards.
Think about it — nature doesn't have humans tilling, fertilizing, applying herbicides and pesticides and yet the berries and fruit trees produce each and every year.
In my home country, untended fig, olive, and pomegranate trees will be laden with fruit each year.
So will the numerous wild raspberries and blueberries.
In a nutshell, the back to Eden gardening method is about recreating the environment in which plants already thrive in nature — and then applying that to your vegetable garden too.
Why Wood Mulch?
Why wood chips?
Why not any single one of the other types of mulches that other regenerative and no till gardeners use?
Well for one, wood chips are potentially the best mulch for permaculture food forests, orchards and fruit and nut trees etc, and even perrenials.
But even in the annual vegetable garden, there are certain advantages to wood over other organic mulches.
Wood chips soak up water. They then release that water slowly, meaning that in times of little rainfall or even drought, your soil might be very moist and your plant roots completely fine.
When it rains there is only so much water that the soil will soak up — a lot of that water becomes excess run-off, lost to your soil and thus your plants. The sun comes out and a lot of it is further evaporated.
Wood chips keep water in place where you need it to be.
Have you ever gone into a forest in the heat of summer and found a lush, moist environment? That's what wood chips can do for you in your gardens too.
The 4 Key Principles
Keep these simple principles in mind. Once you see how they work together in practice, you will never go back to conventional gardening.
No Bare Soil
I've written extensively on the benefits of mulching in the garden and the uses of wood mulch (along with doing some myth-busting) and this is a firm foundational principal.
No bare soil, ever. Eden gardeners use a thick layer of wood chips as mulch in their vegetable gardens and permaculture projects, fruit orchards, etc.
This conserves moisture while protecting the soil and suppressing weeds.
No Till
The principles on no-till agriculture (also called no-dig) are firmly rooted in good science — there is absolutely no need ever to dig or till into your soil.
Put the rototillers away. Stop mixing compost into your soils every year. Stop "loosening up" compacted soils.
All you're really doing is creating more problems and ruining the complex and delicate microbiome of the soil and the vast network of mycorrhiza fungi.
No-till gardens are healthier and more productive and require much less work and outside inputs — this has been shown repeatedly.
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Beyond Organic
A back to Eden garden is not just organic — it goes beyond organic to be a regenerative form of gardening.
That means no synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, or genetically modified organisms (GMO's) as a start. The goal is to give back to the earth instead of constantly taking and to sequester carbon in the soil where it fuels healthy plant growth.
Permaculture
The word permaculture is a contraction of the words permanent and agriculture. It is usually applied to more permanent forms of gardening such as food forests, fruit and nut orchards, and perennial crops and herbs.
But permaculture principles go beyond that and they can absolutely be applicable in an annual vegetable garden.
Back to Eden gardening is based on nature itself and was borne from the observance of trees, forests, and how they work together without any human inputs.
This includes things like composting, mulching, and cover cropping.
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Back To Eden Documentary
I'm going to be honest with you: this documentary is long and a bit meandering.
And if you do not already understand the power of no-dig/no-till gardening methods it can be difficult to sit through it.
But I promise you that it is worth it.
I wrote this article to have a comprehensive document explaining the back to Eden gardening method in an easy to understand fashion that I could share with other gardeners.
I wanted to provide a step-by-step guide so that the beginner or expert gardener alike can understand the benefits and start using the techniques straight away.
Once you're convinced, go back and watch the free documentary which I'm linking directly below:
Setting Up A Back To Eden Garden (Step-By-Step)
Choose Your Site
It doesn't matter how poor quality the soil is or if it's rocky or clay or compacted.
The important thing is to choose a site that gets full sunlight for most of the day and is not prone to flooding.
Prepare Your Site
There are a few simple steps to prepare your garden site for the back to eden method.
And by the way, do this sooner rather than later. The best time to start a no dig Eden garden is the season before you plan to actually plant.
Why? Because disturbed soil is never as good as soil that has been left alone.
Sheet Mulching
Eden Gardeners will typically use layers of newspaper (color print is fine as long as it's not glossy, never use glossy paper or cardboard) as their base.
But I prefer cardboard. Two layers of overlapping cardboard placed on the ground where you intend to garden.
You can also use whole leaves or even a mixture of organic materials. Just discard any staples and tape.
See how we prepared our own annual garden raised beds in my article what should you put at the bottom of a raised garden bed?
There is no need to remove grass or sod. Jut mow it down — although that step is optional too.
This sheet mulching layer will kill the grass, compost it into a nitrogen-rich fertilizer which will feed your soil (and plants) and suppress weeds and weed seeds.
You can wet the layer to speed up composting, and if you plan to continue on another day, you should wet it down to avoid the wind from scattering your work all over he place.
Add Compost
Next add compost.
Cover the sheet mulched area with up to 6 inches of compost with 3-4 inches being adequate.
Homemade compost from mixed sources is best, but use whatever you have on hand or can obtain.
Use my useful compost calculator to figure out how much you need.
Your city might have free or cheap compost so make some phone calls or post in online gardening forums specific to your area to find the best cheap resources.
And don't forget horse barns, mushroom farms etc.
For perennial gardens, permaculture food forests, berry bushes, this is not strictly necessary as they prefer a fungal dominated environment. The soil is likely sufficient when paired with wood chips.
Mushroom compost or leaf mold/compost may be the best option for adding fertility.
Water Deeply
If you did not water at the sheet step, now is the time to water deeply if you plan on planting immediately.
If you're preparing this Eden site for planting next year, this step is not necessary.
Add Wood Chips
Now you add your final layer in the back to Eden gardening method — wood chips.
You want to add a minimum of 4 inches and ideally 6 inches of wood chips.
Do not till the wood chips. Leave them on top as a protective mulch layer.
Make sure you're not getting any treated wood chips or composted wood chips.
Your city dump and gardening groups will be a great resource on information.
And check out my handy mulch calculator to figure out exactly how much you need.
Get FREE Wood Chips
We've gotten many dump trucks full of high-quality wood chips delivered directly to the homestead — for free.
Call your county; they will frequently be able to deliver.
And get yourself on the list for Get Chip Drop, a free service that connects arborists to gardeners who need chips.
Since arborists pay a fee for dumping their wood chips, it's easier for them to give them to you for free.
Start Planting
So, how do you plant into wood chips?
It's easy — push them aside, either in specific spots or by creating a trench — and plant directly into the compost below.
Water the seed or transplant. Keep the planted section uncovered. With the wood chip pushed aside, the actual compost acts as mulch.
That's it. That is literally it.
Everything and anything can be planted like this.
And just like it's a total myth that wood chips tie up or "steal" nitrogen from plants, it is also a myth that you can't plant directly into compost.
Planting directly into compost is one of the best choices for a healthy and productive garden.
Watering Schedule
Paul Gautschi doesn't water his garden and only relies on rain, but you may want to keep a close watch on your vegetable garden, especially during the first year or during drought.
Make sure you test the soil underneath by sticking your finger to check for moisture.
Fertilizer
An Eden garden doesn't need fertilizer, but in the first year, you may want to add some simple organic fertilizers as your soil settles and becomes more biologically active and alive.
Remember that compost itself is not a fertilizer, but as the compost gradually breaks down further, it becomes one.
Harvest
In a no-till/no-dig garden, leaving the roots in the soil as much as possible is best.
Obviously that doesn't apply to root vegetables, but for everything else, harvest the leaves and fruits and then snip the plant off at the compost level, leaving the roots alone.
They will decompose and feed the soil, leaving air channels behind that keep the area from becoming compacted.
You may also consider not cleaning up your garden until the following late spring as many beneficial pollinators and insects will lay eggs and overwinter in the dead plants.
Keep An Eye Out For Weeds
The layers of newspaper/cardboard, compost, and wood chips will not completely suppress all weeds, especially persistent perennial ones.
But they will be weakened. And as they emerge, snip them off at soil level and chop-and-drop or compost them.
Replenish As Necessary
Your wood chips will take a long, long time to break down.
Years really.
Replenish them slowly and as needed.
Why & How Back To Eden Works
The Back to Eden gardening method works for several reasons:
- Moisture retention: The mulch layer helps to retain moisture in the soil by reducing evaporation. It acts as a protective barrier, preventing direct sun exposure and wind exposure, which can dry out the soil. This moisture retention is beneficial for plant growth, ensuring a consistent water supply to the roots.
- Weed suppression: The thick layer of mulch inhibits weed growth by blocking sunlight from reaching weed seeds. This reduces the competition for nutrients and water between weeds and desired plants, making it easier to maintain a weed-free garden.
- Soil temperature regulation: The mulch layer acts as an insulating cover, moderating soil temperatures. It keeps the soil cooler in hot weather, preventing overheating, and warmer in colder weather, providing a more stable environment for root development.
- Soil improvement: The organic mulch gradually breaks down over time, adding organic matter to the soil. As it decomposes, it enriches the soil with nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are essential for plant growth. This improves soil fertility and enhances the overall health of the garden.
- Soil structure preservation: By avoiding tilling or digging the soil, the Back to Eden method preserves the soil structure. Tilling can disrupt the natural soil ecosystem, disturb beneficial microorganisms, and lead to soil compaction. The undisturbed soil structure allows for better root penetration, air circulation, and water absorption.
- Reduced erosion: The mulch layer acts as a protective shield against erosion caused by heavy rain or wind. It prevents soil particles from being washed or blown away, helping to maintain the integrity of the garden beds.
- Environmental sustainability: The Back to Eden method promotes the use of organic materials, such as wood chips and compost, instead of synthetic inputs like chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This approach minimizes environmental pollution, preserves soil health, and encourages a more sustainable and ecologically balanced gardening practice.
It's important to note that the success of the Back to Eden method can depend on various factors, including climate, soil type, availability of organic materials, and the specific needs of the plants being grown. Adaptations and adjustments may be necessary based on individual gardening conditions.
Back To Eden Raised Beds
Can you follow this technique in raised beds?
Yes — absolutely.
I plan to do a test Eden garden bed along with a different organic mulching material in each raised bed I have next year to see how they perform.
Follow me along on Instagram to see my gardening journey unfold on our new homestead.
Get 10% or MORE on the metal raised beds I use in my garden.
Final Thoughts
The Back to Eden gardening method offers a natural and sustainable approach to cultivating a thriving garden. By emulating the processes found in forest ecosystems, the method promotes the use of organic mulch to retain moisture, suppress weeds, regulate soil temperature, and improve soil fertility. Its emphasis on minimal soil disturbance, water conservation, and reduced reliance on synthetic inputs aligns with environmentally friendly practices.
While the effectiveness of the method may vary depending on individual circumstances, it serves as a valuable inspiration for gardeners seeking to create healthy, low-maintenance, and sustainable gardens.
Experimentation and adaptation to local conditions are key to optimizing the benefits of the Back to Eden method and achieving successful results.
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