This video was incredible, and as soon as we can, we will be changing the way we garden.
Click image to watch the full film for free at Vimeo
Note: The movie is quite faith-based. There are many, many references to God, praying, and Biblical quotes. However, even if you are completely irreligious, (and interested in gardening, sustainable permaculture, world-saving, tree hugging, etc) the science of this gardening method will fascinate you. No pesticides, no fertilizing, and no watering. Seriously.
The movie skips / halts a lot for us, though I had friends watch it without trouble. I had better luck once I turned off ad blocker, my virus program, and shut down all other programs / closed other tabs.
If you watch it (or have already seen it) let me know what you think!
I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but the intro reminds me of a couple of books by Joel Salatin that I’ve read, “Folks, This Ain’t Normal” and “The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer.”
We love Joel Salatin!
My husband saw it while I was out of town and told me we were going to buy fruit trees and mulch them that way. I’ve not had time to watch it, but I’ll take his word for it. :) (As for the trees, I’m praying we’ll be moving in the next year or so, so I’d rather wait!)
I hear you – I want to order up a ton of wood chips THISSECOND to get them decomposing for next spring, but WHERE WILL WE BE? (@Karen, I’ve been infected by your ALLCAPS).
Oof. It’s a good movie, watch it sometime when you need to lounge around doing nothing. Very low budget…
I wish I knew scripture like this guy does. Of course, I could if I’d read more … I should get on that …
This is so opposite of what we did growing up. I remember going with my mom to get horse manure and tilling it into the garden. And weeding. And watering.
This is genius. I’m doing a garden for the first time this year and I plan on using this guy’s genius. Thank you for posting this!!!
Pretty amazing, he’s like a walking Bible, no? Love that, when someone so obviously has taken it into their heart. It’s in my heart too, I just can’t pull scriptures out like that willy nilly, but yes, probably if I could read more than a verse or two a day, right?
Even growing up with the relatively weed-free method of Mittleider, this is such an amazing, huge change, just in the non-watering alone! Can’t wait to try it. Hope you post about it!!
I’m so glad you posted this since I’ve been reading all your Mittleider posts (did I spell his name right?) and trying to convince my hubby. This is amazing. I noticed the Back to Eden guy he has test farms in PA and CA and I found some others on youtube in other areas like UT and TX, so it looks like it works in a variety of climates.
Can you share what value you’d be taking away from Mittleider and even others like Salatin you’ve already studied? (Don’t mind me, I’m just relying on your strong research gene to help me sort all this out and present a good case to the hubster.)
Hi Jane,
I think what Jacob Mittleider was trying to do was to compensate for the poor state of our soils. I really admire his work; it did a lot to overcome the difficulty of trying to just plant in the compacted, depleted ground and helped (and continues to help) lots of people all over the world grow their own food.
It can be overwhelming though; we had a tough time trying to find the right materials to mix to make the soil mixture and even though the minerals he advocated for plant feeding are natural, in order to be self sustaining in say, a world disaster, you’d have to store a ton of it, and then what happens when it runs out?
Joel Salatin – I’ve read almost all of his books, and while he’s usually talking about changing large scale farming, he does mention their own personal gardens and farmer’s markets. What he’s taught us about “layering” the benefits of livestock (eg: grass fed beef pooping all over the field, then sending the chickens and turkeys in after them to scratch through the manure, etc) to build up the soil, up the worm population, etc. fits right in with this. I love how it works together.
We will probably be leaving most of our Mittleider practices behind in favor of Back to Eden methods, but it’ll mesh well with our Salatin-like dreams when we can get on a farm.
Wall of text! Sorry!
I watched this video today. I have always wanted to garden, but my attempts were always way more work than anything they produced. This seems like a good solution. Thanks for posting it. We too are trying to sell our house right now, so I might wait until the house sells, but that could be a really long time, so maybe it would be worth starting anyway.
I’m torn too – wondering if we ought to just get some wood chips delivered and if we’re still here next year, well they’ll be that much more decomposed, right?
So, I watched most of it. We’re “square foot gardeners” (http://www.squarefootgardening.org/) because we’ve never had space for a big garden or have been renting (which is the case now). There are a lot of similarities in the methods– no fertilizing, no tilling, minimal watering, just good organic matter in your soil, mulching, and adding in compost yearly as you make it. I wish I had chickens to speed up that process!
I was a gardening failure last year, but I blame it on my big belly. This year I’ll have a 4×4 square foot salad garden and pots of tomatoes scattered throughout the sunny spots of our yard. I have dreams of being able to grow most of what we eat in the summer… someday.
We were incorporating more of that this year, seeing if we could steer more-clear of the mineral supplements and feed solely with compost. I didn’t really want to store an endless amount of minerals, you know? Even though they were natural and the plants really seemed to love them.
Anyway, saw a youtube vid on someone who tried the Eden methods with their existing containers. Really tempted to try that here, even though I’ve got everything in and ready. Might be worth it if it really does let you avoid watering.
So glad you watched the film!
How do they do it without watering? Yes, I’m too lazy to watch the video.
As the layers of wood chips and compost break down (protected by a dry layer of wood chips on top) it creates heat and moisture. The soil underneath is really wet, and the plants are some of the juiciest I’ve ever seen. I thought my plants were award winning, his slay mine. The leaves of his chard practically squeaks with how full it is of water. Most pests drown after one bite, so he doesn’t have to fight pests. It’s pretty full of total rad.
Jessica,
I just watched this on You Tube & Paul from the film talks a lot about raising chickens…..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWlwxtCA_KA&feature=related
Thanks! I do that too, love recycling our garden waste through the hens. Turning weeds into delicious eggs :)
I am considering adding some of this to my methods. I don’t water much here in Canada because I am forgetful and lazy. Now if I can only get the city to change the bylaw on chickens. They are not allowed here. The next step would be convincing my husband.
Oh those bylaws make me see red. So ridiculous. Do they disallow ducks too? Or could you sneak one in? Muscovy ducks are quackless and don’t need a pond. They love to waddle around the yard and eat their weight in bugs. Great pest control. They lay double yokers almost every time, and you can cook and eat them just like they were chicken eggs. They are also a much more delicious meat (non greasy) if you raise them to eat as well.
I think its all “live stock”that is banned. I know a few people who had chickens before there was a big bylaw todo a couple of years ago. They still do and are flying under the radar. I’m too chicken to do that. Oh and sorry for all the fowl puns, they were unintentional.
We loved the video! We have 9 o clock church so it made for great Sunday afternoon entertainment/extra Sunday school lesson/gardening knowledge (oh and it put my kids to sleep, yes!). My husband is sold, he looked up where to find the wood chip compost locally and we’re going to start it for next year. Thanks for sharing!
Oh my goodness, I love this man. He is so knowledgeable and so humble at the same time. And he’s right! I grew up in the woods and nature certainly utilizes everything within it to make the most amazing soil. We had a huge garden that supported us when I was growing up, and my parents used newspaper, wood chips and straw for “no-weed gardening,” and the soil was beautifully rich and full of nutrients. This seems even easier – just keep raking on the chips (and compost or manure every so often). I also love the way he sets out how renewable it is and how you can (nay, should) do it from local sources rather than buying bags of the stuff. I am definitely going to try this in my tiny urban garden, both for the (horrible, anaerobic) soil in the front and the container gardening I have on my back deck.
I also wanted to say that the open and friendly way he has opened his garden to strangers reminds me of Scott and Helen Nearing. My parents knew them and visited them in the 1960′s, and they were the same way (although Scott was quite gruff compared to Paul’s friendliness!). My father helped Scott Nearing build a stone wall and then they had lunch from the garden. I just think that Paul is wonderful. Thank you so much for introducing me to the movie!
Fantastic! I hope you keep me posted on your Back to Eden efforts – I would love to see what you do!
I think it’s great how he’s opened himself up as well, what better way to let people come visit and taste and ask questions. So great :)
I have watched most of the video (and forwarded the link to my husband and posted it on FB) and it’s so intriguing. We’ve been doing SFG because our backyard is in the middle of the block and gets a lot of drainage into it and during the spring it gets flooded at least once so we needed something a little above the ground. I wonder if I can just put mulch over the top of our current beds? We’ve spent a lot of time and money into SFG and I can’t just throw that all away! :) I am having a hard time believing the no irrigation bit here in Utah though, we almost never get rain in the summer…
Kim, I watched a video on Youtube by a guy who had Paul on for a radio show (or a podcast?) not sure. Anyway, he asked him if it would work in existing above-ground boxes and he said absolutely; utilize what you have.
The watering, amazingly isn’t reliant on any rain. It’s the heat and moisture of the decomposing process and the protecting of the soil. Go dig out a rock in your yard, even in the hottest, dryest summer months, it’s damp under there and there’s usually a worm or some bugs hiding out. The ground cover protects, keeps, and utilizes that damp earth and builds it up. I can’t wait to try it!
True, I am just so ingrained that water from above means moisture. :) I grew up near Seattle where it rained a lot, then to move to almost desolate Utah is a HUGE difference. Now to find mulch that is not just bark.
Me too, which is why I remain skeptical until I see it. Oh the faithless, ha ha!
I watched this video and loved it. I’m not religious but the religiousness of this did not put me off. He is just so passionate about it and really inspiring. Thanks for linking to it through Pinterest.
So glad! I love how passionate he is and hope others don’t immediately tune him out because of all the Biblical quotes.
I’ve been very interested in incorporating permaculture or no-till gardening on our newly bought acre of land. I’ve mostly been using Eliot Coleman’s books as a guide, which are great, but his cover crop suggestions require tilling. So this was helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much Jessica for posting this. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned so much. I will be implementing this in our future garden.
I’m so glad you posted this and I watched it before I bought all the stuff to fill our boxes. This is amazing! I’m going to fill my boxes with 3-4 inches of compost then 3-4 inches of wood chips and about an inch of some kind of manure. I heard there is a good place to get chicken stuff in Rexburg. I’m so excited! <3 <3 <3
thank you so much for sharing, this is amazing. I was always interested in permaculture, but never quite got it, but now I do! Can’t wait to try.
It is quite amazing that if you create the right conditions then nature takes care of the rest- true for normal (undisturbed) birth, unschooling, gardening….