Evan and I watched the film, “Back to Eden” last year and we were immediately struck by the difference we could make to our environment in our own backyard.

Back to Eden gardening mimics the natural way the forest grows. We hope that by using this method we can support insects, sequester tons of carbon (and I mean, tons), and of course, grow healthy things to eat.

Before we can get to gardening we have a lot of work to do with the soil. Like, we gotta get some. While we could ship in 10 yards of dirt tomorrow… what’s the rush? While it will take time, our compost will have an unmatched quality to anything we could buy and also: free.

I chose hogwire (you know I love my hogwire) for the compost rings. This is a common composting practice but new to me …. with a whole lotta YouTube and reading it wasn’t too hard to get started.

There were plenty of leaves to work with in the fall but those quickly ran out. We formed a relationship with our neighbor to take manure and some hardwood chip horsing bedding.

She was glad to get it off her hands. Our Bichon Maisey is not sure about her tractor though. Reaching out for something like this is on the edge of our comfort zone, but naturally, the back-to-Eden process calls us to come together and it has been fun to connect. So glad we did.

It took us about three tries with the rings to get the formula of carbon and nitrogen just right. Adding our neighbor’s animal product was the secret sauce. It’s incredible how quickly the composting is heating up. If you want to know more about how to do this I’m happy to share my resources with you.

Keeping up with turning compost piles is a highly laborious job. We were going to need some backup. I mentioned we weren’t ready for last year’s snows (dug out by another gracious neighbor.) Anyways, we are going to be prepared now!

It’s a good thing because there are other big problems looming. While I don’t think the photo does it justice this tree has been threatening the life of everyone around it and our home so it was time to get going on that.

I cannot count the number of issues this tree has caused. We hoped we could inoculate a few branches for mushrooms but the tree was already covered in another fungus. Adding other spores would compete and likely lose.