Starting your garden and working on it is enjoyable as it enables you to produce and enjoy your harvest. It surely has some involvements like preparing your soil, watering, weeding & fertilizing; however with new systems this all can be drastically reduced. Paul Gautschi developed a method ‘Eden Gardening’ which functions in a natural environment reducing the watering cycle as well as the weeds.

Fruit plants, vegetables & also other plants would always grow & thrive in the wild on their own. Nature takes it course & the ecosystem flourishes neither do we need to water nor weed, similarly Eden gardening enables plants to grow as if in the wild requiring no human interference or help. In this practice a garden bed is prepared in form of a heap or stalk on which fruit plants or vegetables can be planted. These garden beds is made in layers, each layer provides the required life support to the plants grown on these beds. The mound shape ultimately helps in retaining moisture and avoids sprouting of weeds. This helps in avoiding frequent watering & weeding. The medium layer in these garden beds is organic material which gradually breaks down in time & provides nutrition to the growing plants hence making this method self-sustaining & easy to maintain.

The preparation of Eden gardening is simple & as discussed further. The first layer is two to three inches of newspaper or cardboard, it will prevent contact of the above layers to the ground which will reduce the growth of weed and drain of nutrients to the soil below. The second layer is three to four inches of compost, you can use store compost or can simply make some at home with kitchen scraps and waste. This layer will provide nutrients to the plant above & boost its growth. The topmost layer should be around six inches wood chips or dust, this will completely keep away weeds & help retain water for many days. The wood chips used here should be small and not be chemically treated or exposed as that will severely hamper the plant growth. Untreated wood chips can be easily sourced for very cheap or free of cost as it’s mostly a waste while cutting or trimming trees.

You can design your Eden garden in four simple steps which wont consume much time. Its advisable to complete your garden on the same day as that would help prevent wastage & mess. Planting seeds may follow immediately or within a couple of days from preparing the beds.

The first step would be to finalise the shape of your garden such that it is exposed to ample sunlight. The base of the bed may not be touched or prepared specially as the layers will make any base ineffective. Grass, rock, untilled and uncleared all bases are fine.

The first layer of newspaper or light cardboard should be shredded & spread around 2 inched thick. This layer needs to be watered and overlapped filling all gaps so as to prevent weeds.

Spread around 4 inches compost on the base layer properly. Its better to use light wet compost as it settles properly and aids in self-digestion.

Finally spread 6 inches of wood chips on top and water evenly making the garden bed damp and ready for plantation.

Once the bed is ready you can plant seeds in the top woodchips layer right away or wait for a couple of days whichever you feel appropriate. As you plant seeds and watch them grow you will notice the less work involved therein, the watering will be minimum & so shall be the weeding. Eden gardening is a successful method and works very well for food gardens as it reduces lot of daily work and increases harvests.