How do you turn black gumbo clay dirt into something that grows vegetables? You add chips, chips and more chips. Wood chips are one of the best kept secrets to successful gardening in the area.
My husband and I wanted to plant a garden to provide fresh produce for Christ’s Kitchen, Victoria’s only daily soup kitchen. Our goal was to help them offer their clientele more well-balanced meals.
However, the only property we could find had terrible dirt for gardening. It was black gumbo clay and not conducive to gardening. We researched different ways to make it work and found a wonderful video titled “Back to Eden Gardening” by Paul Gautschi. This video explains how to use wood chips to improve the topsoil of your garden.
We purchased our little one acre and began using wood chips. Three years later, we have beautiful topsoil for growing different types of vegetables.
The wood chips decompose and help to improve the topsoil. The chips also provide a natural weed barrier and decrease the need for water by at least 80%.
You cannot do this type of gardening with a tractor or a tiller because the machines will interrupt the decomposition of the chips.
You cannot turn your land over once you have put the chips down. The chips must stay in place so they can decompose and enrich your topsoil. The chips can go right on top of grass but you must put them on 3-4 inches thick and keep the chips wet to make them work properly.
For an extra weed barrier, you may want to put cardboard down first and layer the chips on top of it. This work is hard and time consuming but well worth the outcome.
Something else that has greatly improved the yields in our garden are bees. Dr. Cary Voss brings bees he removes from other areas and sets them up in a hive, which improves the pollination of our garden.
We have no electricity on the property so we had a water-well drilled and began by connecting it to a generator to water the garden.
However, this plan proved to be costly over time. After some research, we purchased a windmill from TexasWindmills.com. The windmill has greatly reduced the financial burden of watering.
We now use the windmill to water the garden, but with the chips, we don’t have to water very often. The chips retain water and allow for proper drainage so the plants don’t die from overwatering.
We are able to grow squash, cushaws, purple hull peas, okra, zucchini, and different types of greens. We chose these vegetables because they grow best in Victoria’s summer heat. After harvesting, we donate all the vegetables to Christ’s Kitchen, and any leftovers the kitchen doesn’t use are given to the community.
The first year we used the chips, we were able to provide 1,000 pounds of vegetables. Last year, we were able to provide 15,000 pounds of fresh produce from our one-acre garden. The chips improved our soil so much that the yields greatly improved.
We are always in need of volunteers to help with the planting, fertilizing and harvesting. If anyone is interested, you may contact us at 361-465-2428 or grimeswc@msn.com. We currently do not have a mask mandate in place because we are able to keep volunteers six feet apart. If the situation changes, we may ask volunteers to wear a mask.
We pray Christ will continue to bless our garden and the chips will keep coming. We want to continue to give our vegetables to Christ’s Kitchen and help the community have more balanced meals.
May 28, 2021 at 03:00AM
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Gardeners' Dirt: Wood chips provide bountiful harvest | Home And Garden | victoriaadvocate.com - Victoria Advocate
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