The Back to Eden gardening method is a way to garden that recreates natures intended growing environment.
It also meant that with just 2 hours of bed prep and planting time, we yielded over 300 pounds of food in the fall! All without any watering or weeding!
Last year we left our jobs, started making real money blogging, and moved to the country. It was a dream come true and we were thrilled to finally be working towards a real homestead!
Of course a big part of that dream was the ability to grow our own food. So we started researching just what kind of garden we wanted to have.
I’ll admit when I first heard about the Back to Eden gardening method I had two thoughts…
1. This sounds perfect! No weeding, no tilling the soil, and no watering?? I’m in!
2. Wait, I live in Texas. It’s hot here. This will never work.
And oh friends let me tell you, only one of those thoughts turned out to be true.
What is the Back to Eden Gardening Method?
I would just say “it’s magic” and leave it at that… because that’s totally true… but you probably need more information than that 😉
Basically the Back to Eden gardening method is all about recreating the environment in which plants already thrive in nature.
For example: if you have some wild berry bushes that you harvest every year, you probably aren’t going out and watering every day and weeding around the plants right? And yet the plants grow and produce berries every year.
Likewise, our huge fig tree produces 100s of pounds of figs every year without a single inch of water or help from us at all? How?
Well, they are growing as God intended them to grow, by using the resources that they should have as provided by Him; ground covering to protect the soil quality and water from rain. That’s all they need.
But, since we are not 100% foragers at this stage of the game, we need a way to recreate those resources when and where we need them for the plants that we want to grow.
And that’s what the Back to Eden method is all about.
Setting Up a Back to Eden Garden
When I tell you about how simple this is, you’ll likely think me insane. I’m not, I promise! Just wait till you see our results at the end of the post!
Steps for Putting in a Back to Eden Garden Bed
Step One
Decide where to put your bed. You can do it where you have an existing bed, or you can do it where there is grass, dirt, rocks, or whatever. You don’t have to till up the soil for this method.
Step Two
(optional) Cover the ground with newspaper. Make sure there are no gaps as weeds/grass will make their way up through any gaps. Cover with at least 3 sheets over the whole space. We did this the first time but have since found that if we cover the ground with at least 6 inches of wood chips in step 4 then we don’t have anything coming up through. We contacted our local newspaper and were able to get about 100 old papers for free which covered the whole space!
Step Three
Cover the spot with 3-4 inches of compost (we bought organic mushroom compost that also had composted chicken poop in there too. It was $3 a ton and we used 1 ton). Make sure whatever you get contains nothing you would object to your food growing in…
Step Four
Cover the compost with 4-6 inches (6 inches is best) of wood chips. Be very careful about what you get for this step! You don’t want lumber chips from treated lumber, and you don’t want wood chips that have been composted and are very small. You need the results of entire trees with their branches, bark, and leaves included being put through a chipper. We found ours through the city dump. They take care of all the trees in our area that are cut down during construction or road work. It was dark brown, had large chips 2-3 inches long throughout, and only cost $8 a ton! We used 2 tons for our 15×20 garden spot.
Step Five
Start planting! We scraped back the top layer of wood chips and planted about 1-2 inches deep. If you want to prep the beds early and let them rest for a full season, then the soil will be amazingly rich when you go to plant! We didn’t want to wait so we planted the same day we finished the beds!
>> Looking for heirloom seeds? Find out how we save 90% on ours!
Review of The Back to Eden Gardening Method
So, like I said at the beginning, I had two thoughts when I first heard about this concept…
First, that it was awesome and I wanted to start as soon as possible! And then second, that there was no way it would work for us in Texas where the temperatures reach 113 in the shade and rainfall is few and far between during certain times of the year.
But one I realized that Texas provides enough rain for all our native food producing plants I decided to give it a try. And I’m so glad I did! This one 15×20 garden gave us over 300 pounds of food without a single drop of water from us, and when temperatures were well into the 100s!
If you’d like to watch the actual Back to Eden documentary you can grab it here!
I’d say the proof is in the produce with this one… check out all this food! And this wasn’t even a quarter of the harvested! This was just what we got on the very last day of our garden right before the first freeze… at which point I finally thought “hmm, I should document this!”.
Tips for Success with Back to Eden Gardening
Since we have a few seasons under our belts now there are a few things we’ve learned that make prepping the beds and planting even easier.
Tip One
Don’t take more than a few days to finish the beds. So start small and make sure you can finish the area in no more than a day or two. You don’t want the paper to fly away, or the compost to dry out.
Tip Two
Finish your beds about 2 days before a good rain. This will help solidify the bed and will get everything prepped for planting.
Tip Three
Don’t agonize over perfection. Likely you will not have the perfect 4-6 inches of coverage over the whole bed. That’s ok! If it’s 3 inches here and 7 inches there, it really is fine! Just get it done and move on.
Tip Four
Be careful as you mow around the beds. Make sure that you aren’t throwing grass seeds into the beds when you mow by mowing with the side that throws the grass positioned away from the garden.
While this method keeps weeds and grass from growing up through the compost and mulch it’s great for planting in, so those seeds will take root and you will have to weed! Avoid that!
Tip Five
This is a learning process. Take it easy on yourself and keep at it. This method is the most amazing gardening method I have ever seen, it’s worth it to keep trying. Even in Texas 🙂
Tip Six
Make sure you have good seeds to begin with; we like to use seeds that are heirloom, non-GMO. This is because we want to be sure we can harvest seeds from our crops and use them again the next year, without worrying whether or not they will produce food (and not just plants without produce!).
>> Find out where we get our heirloom seeds for 90% off!
More Homesteading Posts to Read Next:
This was actually started by Patricia Lanza in the late 90s, and called Lasagna Gardening. 🙂
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/lasagna-gardening-zmaz99amztak
Hi Vee!
It’s a little different from Lasagna Gardening in that the composting of the layers doesn’t happen as you garden. With this method there is no layering really… I mean, yes, there’s a layer of newspaper, compost, and mulch… but with LG there can be as many as 15 layers of composting materials.
I’ve done LG several times on a few different pieces of property (this move was my 33rd move in as many years) but I found the Back to Eden method to be much easier and effective at growing plants without having to weed or water.
It really does simply try to recreate the conditions in which plants thrive in nature, and I love that! I hope you’ll give it a try! Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Best,
Victoria
It’s more like Ruth Stout’s ‘no-work’ gardening method back in the 50s – she used spoiled hay mainly, but also used sawdust and in fact advocated using any type of organic material that would decay.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/ruth-stouts-system-zmaz04fmzsel
I’m in Texas and would love to know where you got your compost and mulch!
Hey Amy! We got the mushroom compost from Monterey Mushrooms in Madisonville and the mulch from Twin Oak Land Fill (city dump)!
Where in Texas? It’s a big state after all!
I was wondering if you planted seeds into the mulch or if you were using transplants you said you only Dug 2 to 3 inches into the mulch? I Live in Ohio and I am about to try this method on a 20 x 40 garden plot
Hey Ashley! Great question! We always plant from seed, so the 2-3 inches down into the mulch is for seeds the way we do it.
However, my mom transplants in her back to Eden garden and she just goes down enough to cover the plug, so 3-5 inches.
20×40 plot is going to be awesome! Send me pictures when it’s up and going, the Facebook page would love to see them and so would I!
Did the mushroom company deliver or did you pick it up yourself?
Hi HP! Great question!
We actually picked it up ourselves the first few times, until we knew it was something we were going to continue. After that we had them deliver a large load.
That does increase the cost of course, but if you are planning on putting in a large bed or mulching an entire orchard (what we ended up doing that needed a large load), I would save your back and have them deliver if it’s an option!
My first back to eden garden here central Texas has been fun and fruitful. I planted over grass and used newsparers before applying mulch. However, the grass continues to poke through. I’m pulling it and keeping ahead of it. What do you think of covering the garden in late September with black plastic to kill out the grass and then add 2 inches of chips a couple of months later. Your comments are truly appreciated.
Hi Jim, I’m so glad to hear that another central Texan is having good luck with this method! We love it!
We also planted over grass, and one of our beds had a bit of grass coming through. What we did was just add another 6 inches of mulch on top over the winter and it worked like a charm.
However, I think your idea for black plastic would also work. You’d just have to build back up that mulch layer over it to make sure you could plant in it once the spring came around, like you said.
Your site takes too long to load properly because it’s full of distracting advertising. Also, your social media strip is bothersome. You need to put an arrow on it that allows you push it out of sight.
Hi Jim, thank you for the feedback! I’m always looking for ways to make the site better!
I’m sorry it loads slowly for you! All the tests I’ve done show it loads in less than 4 seconds. I will take another look and see what I can do!
I live in South Africa – Noordhoek in the Cape. Can I do back to Eden gardening here and what about watering??? We have a harsh South Easter wind that blows in the summer and it dries out everything???
Hi Jeanette! Greetings from Texas! Here we have extreme heats, but not so much dry wind.
Basically the soil needs to be damp under the mulch layer, which in your climate you may need to water a bit to achieve.
Other than that it should work for you!