It was 10 years ago that Mark McOmber installed a wood chip demonstration garden for the documentary BACK TO EDEN. During the last decade, Mark has grown his own vegetables and fruits while practicing the Back to Eden Gardening method. Today, Mark is launching his own YouTube channel where he will be uploading videos about "Living Life" and resting with God in the home and garden! Watch the first video uploaded by Mark that shows how the soil has completely transformed in the last 10 years. Personally, I got goosebumps! Trust me, you have to see this! In this 25-minute video Mark also shares a plethora of gardening tips that he has learned over the years -- from DIY planting tools to teaching what wood chips are best to use in your garden. If you have any questions, contact Mark McOmber who will answer any questions you may have!
Now that mid-August is here it's time to start planning your fall garden! Although the timing to plant fall crops varies depending on your climate, now is the time to start preparing your fall starters and gathering your fall crop seeds to plant for an abundant fall harvest. In late summer while filming Back to Eden, Paul Gautschi showed us how he plants his potatoes, garlic, cilantro, spinach, beets, carrots, lettuces, kale, and other fall crops. Paul allows many of these crops to "overwinter" meaning to plant them in the fall and harvest them in the spring. Specifically, he taught us that beets and carrots get sweeter with the cold weather and potatoes and garlic love staying put during the long winter growing season in Back to Eden Gardens. Where should I get my seeds to plant for my fall garden? This year, many of our trusted heirloom seed suppliers are running completely out of stock of seed for many crop varieties. Shortages in some food and seed supplies are expected to continue this coming year. Fortunately, the Back to Eden Organic Farmers that founded ARK Heirloom Seeds has got us all covered! ARK Heirloom Seeds has worked tirelessly all summer to maintain a high-quality supply of heirloom seeds to provide for the Back to Eden Gardening community. Their kits were specially designed to sustain your food supply in times of food scarcity and disaster, lasting for 10+ years. We have been keeping busy planting their seeds and enjoying their abundant harvest all summer with incredible results! The ARK ALL-IN-ONE SEED KIT includes a wide assortment of seeds for all growing seasons. Growing your own food from seed saves the an average of $3,000 per year in grocery bills! The seed varieties that are highlighted in green below are good seeds to plant now for your fall garden: THE ALL-IN-ONE HEIRLOOM SEED KIT INCLUDES: 1200 4‐7 Dry Bean Varieties, 300 Field Corn, 100 Sweet Corn *, 200 Snap Peas, 200 Dry Peas, 100 Butternut Squash, 50 Hubbard Squash, 50 Zucchini Squash, 50 Sugar Pie Pumpkin, 200 Sugar Baby Watermelon, 50 Cantaloupe, 50 Honey Dew Melon, 50 Bell Pepper, 50 Habanero Pepper, 50 Cheyenne Pepper, 1000 Parsnips, 300 Beets, 500 Yellow Onions, 200 Red Onions, 400 Spinach, 500 Radish, 1350 Turnips, 1000 Mustard, 200 Pickling Cucumbers, 50 Eggplant, 900 Curled Kale, 100 Dinosaur Kale, 5000 4 Lettuce Varieties, 500 Arugula, 1000 Broccoli, 1350 Cabbage, 2500 Carrots, 200 Swiss Chard, 200 Brussel Sprouts, 500 Rutabaga, 200 Leeks, 600-800 8 Tomato Varieties, 30,000 16 Varieties of Culinary & Medicinal Herbs 50,000 TOTAL SEEDS! ARK Heirloom Seeds is offering a $20 discount code for their All-in-One Heirloom Seed Kits to Back to Eden subscribers. Click the button below. Add the kit to your cart. At checkout, enter the coupon code "woodchips" to redeem the offer of a $20 discount!
Happy fall gardening Back to Eden Gardeners! Share this article with your friends and family to bless them with the gift of learning to grow their own food today!
How to Hand Pollinate Squash for a Superior Harvest
Hand pollinating summer squash is easier than you might think. It's vital to have the flowers pollinated for a productive harvest. Typically this will be done by bees, butterflies, and other insects. However if you are finding that your squash are not growing well, rotting, or falling off small you might have a problem with pollination. The easiest way to pollinate squash plants for having the highest yields is by hand. The first important step is to understand that there are male flowers and female flowers. The male flowers are the ones with the long skinny stems that will not turn into fruit below the flower. Only the female flowers can bear fruit. When you look at the female flowers they should have a small tiny fruit growing below the flower and a stigma inside the center of the flower. You can pick the male flower, peel back the petals and simply touch it to the female stigma a couple of times as if you are brushing paint. Do not remove the female flower. The goal is to transfer some pollen from the male flower onto the female flower, it really is just as easy as that! The positive results you will see in your garden include more fruits per plant and an earlier harvest.
No matter if you are a beginner gardener or an experienced gardener, you will find that Back to Eden Gardening is easy one of the easiest methods of gardening with the best results. What is Back to Eden Gardening?Back to Eden Gardening is a no-till, regenerative agriculture method and made popular in the documentary Back to Eden featuring Paul Gautschi. This means if you are tilling, using toxic chemicals (chemical herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers), you are not practicing the Back to Eden Gardening method. Back to Eden Gardens respect that every plant, animal, insect, and microorganism has a beneficial purpose and works to achieve balance and sustainability in the soil. You will see amazing results in the fertility and health of your soil! Healthy soil is the essential key to growing vegetables and fruits that taste amazing and have a greater nutritional value. Unlike conventional gardening and traditional farming methods Back to Eden Gardening requires less and less input over time with a higher and higher yield every year. GARDEN SUPPLIES to Start a Vegetable GardenSoil, Mulch, and Fertilizer1. GET MULCH FOR A VEGETABLE GARDEN Wood chip gardening is the practice of covering your vegetable garden and fruit orchard with wood chip mulch. Wood chips will improve your soil and regenerate the natural life in the soil instead of the use of toxic chemicals that deplete the soil and create soil loss. Back to Eden Gardening uses wood chips that are 90% needles, leaves, and branches that have been chipped from tree trimming waste. It is important to understand that the leaves are a source of nitrogen and the branches are a source of carbon. This ratio creates an ideal mulch gardening material when the wood chips have composted. Paul Gautschi has multiple gardens and orchards in which he utilizes both raw, composted, and screened wood chips. Learn more about the best type of wood chips for your garden by clicking here.
Composted animal manure is a clean, natural fertilizer that can be used in a vegetable garden. Let animal manure compost or you may be planting grass and weed seeds!
If you are going to turn a lawn or weed infested are into garden plot smothering the weed seeds is a must! We recommend that you apply at least 4 sheets of paper that overlap. Then, wet down the newspaper so it adheres to the ground below and doesn't blow away. Garden ToolsWhen installing a no-till vegetable garden, the number one rule is to always avoid disturbing the soil, mimic the design of nature. How do you prepare the soil? You always add layers of compost, and composted animal manure and cover the soil with mulch. The most commonly used mulch in Back to Eden Gardening is wood chips. However, find whatever resource is local to you. For example, straw is also a popular mulch. There is almost always a FREE option when it comes to Back to Eden Gardening. 1. WHEEL BARREL If you are a beginner gardener you may feel overwhelmed at thought of moving an entire wood chip pile but moving wood chips is not as hard as you'd think! Using a wheel barrel makes moving wood chips a low stress work out. If you get the help of a few friends of family members you can move a mountain of wood chips in just a few hours. Or take your time, move it little by little! If you live on a larger property or have access to a Front End Loader Tractor this will be a more practical way to cover a large scale garden or small farm. 2. MULCH SHOVEL & MULCH FORK A mulch shovel and mulch fork make scooping the wood chips easy. Using a regular shovel is very challenging due to the chips and twigs getting stuck or jammed and the scoops not being large enough. 3. GARDEN RAKE A garden rake allows you to spread the wood chips easily on top of your garden without disturbing the soil. It also helps to make rows when planting! 4. GARDEN HOSE & SPRINKLER Back to Eden Gardening reduced garden irrigation needs up to 90% ! That is because the mulch layer retains moisture that would otherwise evaporate and the wood chips retain water they release slowly into the soil even after you stopped watering. However, to get your seeds germinated you should water them every day until they germinate! Make sure to use a hose head sprinkler that allows you adjust the setting to a light mist or shower spray. It is a common mistake to loose seeds in the mulch by planting too deeply or watering too heavily and therefore they won't germinate. OPTIONAL: Add a water filter on to your garden hose to reduce chlorine, VOCs, herbicides, and pesticides. Garden Maintenance1. GARDEN GLOVES It is a great idea to invest in garden gloves to protect your hands while maintaining your garden! 2. PH SOIL TEST KIT
How To START a Vegetable GardenIdeally we recommend starting a Back to Eden Garden in the Fall (September-December), mimicking when nature covers the ground with needles, leaves, and branches. This is beneficial because when you lay down your covering layer of newspaper, compost and wood chips in the fall the organic matter has time to break down with the rain and snow during the winter, giving your soil more time to improve and decomposing the wood chips, leaves, newspaper into composted material.
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