The basic idea is to use a thick layer of fresh hardwood chips on an area of ground. Over time (about a year) the wood chips decompose and turn the ground into a fertile growing area with minimal work.
It took persistence but he finally found a tree company who would deliver wood chips to our property. He marked out an area and spread out the wood chips. He also added some cow and chicken manure and also compost from what we had in our compost bins.
It's great that y'all were able to get that company to haul those wood chips out there, especially if it was free. But, how will you keep the grass from growing up through the mulch? It has been my experience that grass will grown up into even the thickest pile of wood chips. It has taken me years to get the grass in my garden under control and I still have some that tries to pop up in various places. We add a 2-3 inch layer of wood chip mulch every year and it definitely helps keep the weeds and grass down, but I have to be diligent at pulling out anything that pops up. If left unattended, it wouldn't take long for the grass and weeds to take over. In fact, if I have to leave the mulch in a pile for a while before I can get it spread out, I have Tom pour it onto a tarp so that the grass doesn't grow up through it.
ReplyDeleteWell, it wasn't free. But cheaper and easier than doing it ourselves, especially when it was a bit of an experiment. Yes, the weeds are popping through already and we've done a second layer. Apparently you can put a natural barrier layer down - newspaper (turned out to be too fiddly) or cardboard (flattened boxes which we ran out of) - so we'll see if that helps.
DeleteI save my paper feeds sacks all year, then split them open and lay them flat. There are three layers of paper in each sack and you can split them up to cover more area or lay all three in one spot. I don't save boxes because they're too bulky, but I do use them if I happen to have them at mulch time and they work well.
ReplyDeleteUsing your feed sacks is a great idea. We usually just use them for trash around the property. So far the mushrooms are liking the wood chips.
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