Wood chips, compost, and compost tea. Oh My!

We are gardening in the middle of Alabama. Like it or not, our soil is a heavy clay soil that compacts into a hard brittle soil.
 

Here is what our soil looks like uncovered.

    Up until this year I have battled this soil with a rotor tiller.  She has been a good tiller for the last nine years. I have spent many hours behind her. But this year I tried something totally different. I broke down and ordered a Treadlite Broadfork. I was skeptical when it arrived. And it was a challenge on the hardened clay soil. I have since learned that it works much better to use when my soil is wet. I can drive the broadfork deeper when the soil has some moisture.

My new baby.

This approach allowed me to greatly reduce my tilling. I still continued to use the tiller for some jobs for a while. But that is another story.


    Many years ago, I read Dick Raymond's gardening books. I walked away with an understanding of the importance of mulch for a garden. I have tried buying hay, scavenging bags of leaves off of the side of the road, Lasagna Gardening with cardboard and scrap paper, all with limited success. 

    I read David the Good's (yes that is how he refers to himself) book,
 Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting

     One of the things you realize in reading David's book is that there is no such thing as enough compost or mulch. He has an interesting alternative to stretch your compost. It is his own compost tea, swamp juice, or that nasty smelling 55 gallon drum at the edge of the garden. Here is the link to his video about his compost tea. 

That which should not be disturbed.

    David's approach is an anaerobic compost tea. You toss in greens, browns, water, urine, any thing not banned by the EPA mainly. You cover it securely. This is an important step. The lid I originally used did not fit as snugly as my current one. I think a new fly mutation has developed in there. Any way, I initially placed some around my early tomatoes in the back and the main tomato crop in the front. (They are doing quite well I might add. Details coming in a future post.) As life gets crazy, special projects fall by the way side. Until today.
 

Oh My, My, My!!!

I celebrated the 4th of July by emptying the swamp juice. 
 

The sludge was placed around the latest corn crop.

 

  
  I used the liquid to fertilize most of the newcomers in the front garden as well as the sweet potatoes in the back garden. I will update you on the results. The aroma of the front garden dwarfed the chicken pen today. Fortunately, I had a shower and the garden got a good shower.

    I had watched the Back To Eden film a couple of years back and was intrigued by it. Basically, he recommends initially throwing loads of labor into placing around eight inches of wood chips over your soil and and not tilling it any more. I had reservations because of what I had heard others say. Many rightly stated that working wood chips into the soil would cause a short term depletion of nitrogen as the wood chips were broken down.  I revisited the film this year and some others that discussed the Back to Eden method. It seemed that what I missed originally was that the wood chips were not tilled into the soil or planted in. They were simply a compost/mulch layer. 

    At this point, I was game to try it. There is just one problem. We live a ways out from the city. There are no tree service companies that drive by our area. I proceeded to attempt to find someone who would be willing to bring us some wood chips. That task turned out to be a lot harder than I had expected. But then, we stumbled on a tree crew from Florida that was trimming trees for the power company in Leeds. Before I knew it, I had three truck loads of wood chips dumped on my property. 

Manna for the garden.

    After some 100-150 wheel barrow loads, I now have 2-4 inches of mulch over all of my gardens. I still have one load of mulch laying out there to spread. I could use some more but that is a great start. 

Here is what my garden looks like these days.

It is so nice to begin to take control of your garden back. Usually by July, the heat and the weeds have taken me out of the game and it is time to dream of next year. Not this year. Second plantings are happening. The tomatoes and peppers are coming on strong. The pole beans are winding down after canning 40-50 pints. The pole butter beans are just beginning. Southern cowpeas will be in season soon. This has been a good year with consistent rainfall. I have actually pulled off winter squash this year that are about ready to harvest. I followed David the Good's recommendation and planted Seminole Pumpkins on the back hill. They are growing gangbusters so far. One day they may think about producing fruit when they have conquered the greater part of St. Clair county. I started another one in the front garden this week. 

    Anyway, my garden is not finished for the year. I usually get burned out and give up on a Fall garden. Not this year. All it takes is a little effort each day or so. I hope you continue to persevere in your gardens as well.

MM