Mario Bautista
EDINBURG — It seems too easy. But Matt Culbertson, owner of Moon Gap Acres in Edinburg, swears by the ease — and benefits — of wood chip gardening.
Culbertson, who grew up using traditional till methods on his family farm in Bentonville, discovered wood chip gardening several years ago and embraced the practice, reaping bountiful, healthy rewards for his family and his customers.
“Wood chips do a lot of things. They decompose and put minerals and nutrients back into the ground,” said Culbertson, adding that creating richer soil and leaving root systems undisturbed supports stronger plant growth.
Wood chips also provide a protective coat for plants, he said, keeping the ground more stable in the winter and more moist in the summer.
“It conserves water because wood chips actually soak up the water and then, as it gets drier and stays drier, the water in the wood chips goes into the soil. It’s like a natural slow release watering system,” Culbertson said.
He has also found that the garden is much easier to work — the soil is softer, making planting and weed removal a breeze.
Culbertson, who also raises alpacas, pigs, and chickens on his 18-acre farm, has been growing everything from tomatoes, peppers, peas, and corn to potatoes, squash and cucumbers using wood chip gardening for the last six years.
“It’s more beneficial if people grow their own food, but a lot of people are busy. If you can find a system where you don’t have to spend a lot of time in the garden, but you reap the benefits, that’s what you want to do and I think wood chips give that option,” he said.
Learning from Joshua
He discovered the practice — as part of his journey to a new way of life — after his son, Joshua, was born with serious medical issues about 11 years ago.
Born with Down’s Syndrome and Tetralogy of Fallot, a heart condition that results in oxygen-poor blood being pumped through the body, Joshua coded twice, once for 24 minutes. Doctors predicted he would remain in an unresponsive wakeful state throughout his life.
“When Joshua was born, I made the switch from corporate life to being a homeschool, stay-at-home dad,” Culbertson said. “Since I had to hold him and take care of him really closely and both of my (other) kids were really young, we started watching Youtube.”
Culbertson was drawn to homesteaders and studied a variety of ways to farm and grow food.
“Since I couldn’t go out and work and make money for food, I thought growing food would be a great option. It was a natural idea,” he said.
Because he had three small children who required his time and attention, Culbertson said, “I needed a way to garden without putting all the effort into it.”
He was also looking for a way to produce the healthiest, cleanest food possible for Joshua, who was fed through a feeding tube.
“He started becoming more alert. He started watching me and he started interacting with us,” Culbertson said, noting that doctors had not expected Joshua to be able to do any of those things. “We had faith, but I knew that there were a lot of benefits just from the nutrition side of it.”
Joshua died in February 2019 at age 5.
“I learned a lot from Joshua. I changed a lot as a human. He taught me so much,” Culbertson said, noting that the change from his corporate job with Family Dollar Distribution Center to staying at home with his children was a tough transition. “Everybody looks down on you. I know it’s 2024, but people still think the guy is the one who is supposed to be out working. I was a part of that before. That was one of the changes that I made.”
Culbertson has continued to homeschool his older children, Logan, 14, and Averi, 12, both of whom help on the farm and at DL Community Farm Market where the family sells its produce and alpaca yarn.
“Joshua also got me thinking of eating healthier,” Culbertson said. “I grew up drinking Mountain Dew. I love those Nutty Butter things and cheeseburgers — very little vegetables, maybe fries. Joshua really got me into all different types of vegetables and compared to what I used to be, that was a huge change.”
“When we saw how Joshua was improving, we knew that the nutrients had to be helping and we just wanted to make us all healthy,” Culbertson said, adding that the family stays away from processed foods.
Getting started
Wood chip gardening is a natural way of growing food, Culbertson said, crediting Youtube creators Paul Gautschi and Michelle Norris with providing good content on the subject.
Culbertson said that Gautschi, a Vietnam Veteran who suffered from Agent Orange exposure and has limited mobility, was particularly inspirational in the early days.
Culbertson said that late summer or early fall is the ideal time to get started with wood chip gardening.
The preparation is easy, but varies depending on the current condition of your property.
If you’re looking to install a wood chip garden on a bare piece of land, simply add 8 to 12 inches of wood chips and leave it alone over the winter.
If your future garden area currently has grass, cut it low and then add 2-4 layers of cardboard — don’t use shiny cardboard because it contains chemicals and be sure to remove staples and tape — to the grass with 6 to 10 inches of wood chips on top. Again, leave it alone until the spring time.
Culbertson recommends contacting a local tree company to receive wood chips. Most will deliver for free. There are also apps to help consumers connect with wood chips.
“One of the big benefits to this is it’s no maintenance,” he said. “Another benefit to no till is that the roots, the ecosystem underneath the ground — it’s very complex and the roots communicate with each other — builds a very strong bond for plant growth. When you till something up, you’re destroying all that and it takes a long time for that to rebuild. Your vegetables actually grow better.”
Culbertson said he recommends using a mixture of hard and soft woods, typically what you’d receive through a tree service, as the softwoods decompose faster and the hardwoods decompose slower “so you’re covered short and long term.”
When spring arrives, the garden will be ready for plants or direct seed sowing, he said, noting that every situation will be different depending on how much cardboard was used and the state of the property before starting the project. Ideally, the soil should be soft and ready to plant.
“It builds the soil. That’s a huge benefit,” he said. “You’re talking about taking ground that could be very poor and in just a couple of years have it to where it’s improved so much that you can grow whatever you want to. It works in different types of soils. Earthworms love this stuff. The more they come in, it aerates your soil. You have all of nature basically working with you which takes a lot of the load off you, which makes it easier for you to garden.”
Culbertson said that the first year is the least productive, with yields increasing each year.
Now in his sixth year using wood chips, he adds another inch or two to the top of the garden in the fall to maintain it and help keep the weeds down.
“My dirt went from light tan to now it’s a dark, chocolatey rich looking soil and vegetables grow great there,” he said, adding that not only does he not have to till the ground, but he can plant with only a trowel. “It sounds too easy.”
