Elisa, the premise of BTE is that tilling destroys the soil structure and bio life. Tilling removes the covering; the soil rapidly dries out and top soil erodes. The "magic" in the wood chips is it is a covering that first retains moisture, and secondly feeds the plants as they decompose. It's why a mulch of smaller nutrient rich branches with needles and leaves is necessary and not just chipped trunks or bark chips only. The fungi that develop in the wood chip mulch help feed the plants. The mulch develops a helper system of organisms and other plant life that assists your fruits and veggies. In turn, your plants feed them. If you till composted organic material into your main garden, I'd suggest another experiment. Set aside a small section of your MG (maybe as small as 5x10 feet) for no-till. Still don't use wood chips, but layer your organics on the top (composted manure, yard waste, etc). Paul is very specific that if you don't have wood chips, just use whatever organic materials you have. (You can even use rocks) The most important part is to create a covering and not mix it in. Layer on top. When I tilled, I had virtually no earthworm population. Now, by not tilling, I can't dig a 4 " planting hole anywhere without killing several earthworms. And my soil (mostly red clay) is always damp and soft I destroyed a small tiller in two seasons trying to break up the clay. I then rented bigger tillers that beat me up for 6-8 hours trying to a 12x40 garden in which one half barely produced b/c of the rock hard clay. And it was back just as hard in the fall as it was in the spring. So it wasn't getting easier with time. Now with the wood chips, that area stays moist and soft. Everything grows there and I save the expense of renting, tilling, and fighting the soil every season. The fact that you got 25% more production is huge. You can get that in your MG using BTE principles but without adding wood chips. Paul no longer adds wood chips to his main garden b/c of his difficulty in walking. He uses them everywhere else. But in his MG he uses compost from his chicken pen as the covering.

We lost a giant old Spruce a few weeks ago and I had the tree removers leave the chips in a pile in my yard. I've slowly been using it around the garden, but I can tell you that the green areas of mostly needles and twigs has been composting super-fast, whereas the areas that were mostly actual wood chips aren't composting at all. We have had record amounts of rainfall over the past month until the last few days. I didn't add anything to the pile, but I did add some yummy (for microbes) fungus covered needles to my compost bin a few days ago; the rest has been going towards amending my clay soil and a good layer on top of a raised bed that should be ready for next year. Boy does this forum make me jealous! Everybody gets all this free stuff - free wood chips, free poop. Not here in NY - you must pay for EVERYTHING! I was actually surprised that the tree removers didn't charge me for my own wood chips (they probably would have if it was cedar). When they removed the stump (using a giant front-loader that totally cracked and smashed a big gully into my driveway) I asked about buying topsoil to fill in the hole - $50 a cubic yard. I'm now filling it with clay that I dug out of my backyard to create a drainage well mixed with leaves and wood chips. I hope my wormies love me :) We actually paid the tree removers $100 to cut up the top 40 feet of an old Sassafras that fell in the backyard (because we had no power and our chainsaw is electric and the trunk was caught in the fence and on top of our birch tree); we still have to cut it smaller and split it, but at least we got some firewood out of it. Removing the remaining 30-40 feet of tree that is still in the ground is going to cost a fortune because it is too close to my neighbor's garage (and now I want to wait until next year because a nice raccoon has already moved in). Most people around here pay to have all this great stuff removed - just watching all the giant tree trunks drive down my road in trucks made me sick; I kept thinking half pine (wood chips) half maple and oak - that's at least $2,000 worth of firewood that people PAID to have taken off their property just so the tree removers can charge those of us with wood stoves $200 a cord (some places charge up to $500 a cord around here). We actually had our Spruce removed for $350 as opposed to other removers who averaged $500 (for an uprooted tree not on a house) because we get our firewood from them.

Playsinthedirt, there are some precautions that need to be taken with mulch, just to be on the safe side. The problem with subterranean termites is that we don't see them, oftentimes, until they have set up housekeeping. ;-( Termites can live in the soil, and will take advantage of the nice environment that mulch makes in order to build large underground chambers. From there, they seek out their feeding sites (trees, buildings, fallen logs, and even mulch). Because of this, it is not recommended that you use wood mulch right up against a building. And it's best to keep the layer of mulch to 2 or 3 inches. Don't pile mulch up against the trunk of a tree (which is bad anyway, regardless of termites). I've used wood chips as mulch for many years and will continue to do so without reservations. But understanding a bit about this 'foe' and how to prevent possible infestation is important. Cedar mulch is derived from the eastern red cedar (actually Juniperus virginiana), and only the relatively rare heartwood has proved to have any termite (or other insect) resistance at all. The sapwood, which comprises most mulch products, is termite food just like most other woods. ;-)

Im finding out bermuda thrives on hills. I too live on a hill with red clay soil and been doing alot of yard work over the last 4 yrs. Taking down unwanted trees and spriging about 15,000 of bermuda to put my lawn at around 25,000 sq ft now. All 100 % bermuda with no weeds in front, side and back yards. Grass seed doesnt like red clay in the very hot summers like we have here so it will probably struggle for you too, untill you mend that red clay soil Ive used mulch like you buy in bulk as a top dressing over the spriged areas. It seemed to make the bermuda to fill in faster. I did have some washout because we had some very hard rains here this past summer. Putting it thin means you will get some washout, especailly on a incline. If you mulched it like a bed(3 inches thick) it would absorb a hard rain and not have wash out but you wouldnt get nothing to grow because of how thick the mulch is