This summer, I was gang ho on growing my own vegetables, so I got the seeds, soil, compost and garden divider.
I was SO happy to see my faithful watering was bringing up sprouts all over the place in my little garden. I just knew that I was going to get great things out of this little garden of mine…
…then we went on vacation…
…and July struck….
…and a colony of ants invaded…
I lost most of my plants. The watermelon plants only grew to about 4-5 inches long-they produced a couple of melons about a golf ball in size before they split. The cucumber plants flowered, then got eaten by the ants. My bean plants grew-but never flowered. And my 2 carrots-rotted out at the top. My basil is doing well, and I have been able to pick a lot off of it.
All in all, my garden was a failure. I know why…the barrier I used between the top soil and the ground. It didn’t allow for the roots to get deep and tap into the moisture below.
A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law posted what they have done in their garden. It is based of a film called Back to Eden. I sat down and watched most of it-I still have about 30 minutes to go. The last part of the film is about other Back to Eden Gardens around the country. I really liked what I heard, and thought if anywhere was going to prove what this guy says about the wood chips helping to retain water and crops growing even in drought-it would be here in Texas.
I knew I wanted to get most of the back yard used for a garden and get the soil ready for next spring. I started looking up tree trimming companies, but had not yet started to call them yet.
Today, when I was coming home from grocery shopping, there were tree trimmers trimming trees along the alley for the utilities. They just happened to be right next to our house, so I asked one of the guys what they were going to do with their chips. Then I asked if they could dump their load in my yard, so I could get a start on my own Back to Eden Garden. I cleared things away, mowed my back yard to start laying down the chips this weekend.
About 4 hours later…this appeared in my driveway.
If you want to learn more about Back to Eden gardening, head over to http://backtoedenfilm.com/ and check out their web page. If you have time, watch the movie-it is about 1 hour 30 min long, but worth it. Check back every so often as I document my own experience in my garden!