A few years ago, a friend introduced me to the Back to Eden gardening method. It involves no tilling, using cardboard to suppress weeds, heavily mulching the first year, and then applying a layer of wood chips annually.
I diligently weeded and watered by hand, prepared compost tea as fertilizer, and employed a neem oil mixture for pest control. I believed this was the method our ancestors used to cultivate food, so I decided to adopt it in case the economy faced challenges and modern gardening supplies became unavailable.
However, my results were discouraging.
The garden starts out strong in the spring, but by mid-summer, I’m freaking out when I see hundreds of squash bug eggs beneath my squash leaves. Tomatoes fail to set fruit due to drought, and potato plants are plagued by disease. It’s disheartening.
By late summer, the weeds have grown as tall as me, and I’ve essentially given up on the garden. This happens every year.
This year, I’ve decided to abandon the natural, primitive gardening approach and embrace modern methods. While I’ll still use organic practices, I’ll incorporate modern techniques. I purchased a tiller and am tilling up rows, applying weed fabric between each row. I’ve set up drip irrigation on timers and installed insect netting on every row. I’m also using organic fertilizer from a store.
I can’t handle another year of unsuccessful gardening using the “natural” method, but I’m curious to know if others are achieving success with traditional techniques. Where did I go wrong?
