I'm Kaye, and I'm a late bloomer.
(whistling logo music)
After I spent the first six months
digging up my hard clay soil
four years ago,
I learned about no-till gardening.
And everyone said, "You've got to get...
a truckload of wood chips for your garden."
So, every time I hear the wood chipper
in the neighborhood, I run out...
and I say...
"Would that be good for my garden?"
And they say, "Oh, no...this is ficus,
no good, no good for the garden."
So, okay, okay....so,
Well, I got some shavings
from my neighbor's stump of his
uh, acacia tree.
It wasn't the same, but it was
it was okay... but, it didn't have the,
the tree mulch.
But, let me tell you what happened this week.
Oh, my gosh!
Ha, ha, ha, ha,
That's okay...
Does that open any more
on that side? No. Okay.
Uh, oh.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Uh...
(he yells in Spanish)
Oh, boy!
I need...I need to get Eric over here.
Ha, ha, ha.
(he yells in Spanish)
Oh my gosh.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Well, I asked for wood chips!
Ha, ha, ha, I got wood chips!
Tell me your name.
Jerry. Jerry? Oh, okay.
What's your name?
Manuel.
Manuel?
Nice to meet you, Manuel.
Thank you for my...oh, my gosh...
Where are we going to park the car?
Ha, ha, ha.
That's a good one, right? It's elm?
Yes. It's an elm tree?
Once it dries, it's going to be
good for the plants.
Oh, that's great! Awesome!
Thanks, guys!! Ha, ha, ha.
The idea of no-till gardening
certainly appealed to me
after spending countless,
backbreaking hours, digging up
my hard, clay soil
and screening it, that first yearo
of converting my lawn
to an edible garden.
I got the idea from the tree service guys
who took down my neighbor's
dead acacia tree in 2014,
that fresh, cut chips were too
nitrogen-rich to put on plants
right away.
They kindly loaded up my wheelbarrow
five times and dumped the
ground up tree stump chips
on my driveway,
which I left there for a year! Ha, ha.
Rain just washed all that
nitrogen run-off to the storm drain,
instead of going on my garden.
Next morning, we discussed what
we were going to do with it.
As it was, there was no room
for a car in the driveway.
(background voices) (soft guitar music)
The reason that
this mulch is so great
for, uh, breaking down,
is because there's leaves,
there's twigs, there's bark,
there's wood chips, and
that presents a lot of air
in between, uh, the pieces
for... worms, and, you know,
it's much healthier for the soil,
for your garden, than bark,
as mulch. But,...
you've got to let this rot
and break down.
So, that's thing, it's going to
be sitting here for six months unless
I move it. Where am I going to move it?
My garden is already at a
higher elevation than the, uh,
sidewalk.
Three days later,
it was trash pick-up day.
I had to shovel enough chips
to create clearance
to haul the city cans
out to the street.
Ten days after the wood chips arrived,
Rene moved half of them
down the driveway
to make room for one car to park.
Now, it seems like even more!
It took him all day.
It's looking good, though.
A week after that,
I decided it couldn't hurt
to layer some chips on the
cut vetch on the parkway.
I shoveled up five wheelbarrows worth
while Eric spread the chips.
He spotted a lizard skin.
Lizards are good guys
in the garden and dine on ants,
aphids, beetles, grasshoppers,
wasps and spiders.
They have a detachable tail
they drop, if threatened.
It must have been,
because I spotted its stub
sticking out from the cut vetch.
Anything that eats aphids
is welcome here!
We left it alone.
Eric was back the following week
covering the wood pile
with black plastic
to protect my neighbor's fence,
and to speed up decomposition.
He hosed it down
before sealing up the plastic.
While we were working,
we got a glimpse of the lizard again,
this time, the head.
Eric told me that reptiles
carry salmonella and we should
be careful not to touch it.
News flash!
I just learned today,
that I can use the wood chips
fresh...and, so I don't have to
leave them on the driveway
for a year...ha, ha.
So, I'm going to start
putting some of those
on the garden today.
I was told by Nikko on Facebook
the fresher, the better.
Oh that's, that's cooking!
So I shoveled up four
wheelbarrows full of wood chips
and loaded up the Back 40 raised bed.
Well, I know exactly. It was four
heaping
wheelbarrows full.
So four to six inches of wood chips
on my six tomato plants.
Surrounding the six tomato stems,
up several inches
and topped with biodynamic compost.
I watered that in
which acts like a compost tea
filtering down.
And I also decided to
put it on top of my potted peppers.
We'll see how that works.
Today, Eric is back,
and we will distribute
what's left on the driveway
all over my garden.
No till,... no dig,
here I come! Ha, ha.
The Back to Eden no-till
gardening method
is all about mulching
with wood chips.
Once you put them down,
you never disturb the surface.
It saves water,
protects soil from exposure,
it doesn't disturb Earth's
natural tillers, earthworms,
and other critters.
Most importantly, it saves time
and energy!
(soft guitar picking)
If you have ideas about
how I should use this
ton of wood chips,
please let me know.
And if you enjoyed this episode,
please give me a thumbs up
and share with a friend.
I'm Kaye, I'm a late bloomer,
thanks for watching, and
I'll see you next time!
(whistle logo) (bloopers begin)
Now, I've got it together!
(sound of jet plane)
Okay, when the sun gets this high,
it's non-stop planes.
I think they've changed the flight pattern...
That was not...two minutes.
That was like one minute
behind the other one.
(whistling logo)
(high-pitched duck quack)
Wait...wait....ah-choo! Ah-choo!!! Ha, ha.
Uh, oh, I'm allergic to my woodpile!