An Update on Our Mulching Project (When the Chips Are Down)

In THIS POST FROM JULY, we posted about getting wood chips to start experimenting with the Back to Eden gardening method.  Here's a little update.  The wood chips keep on coming.  So far we've received 16 truck loads of mulch.  It is stacked high and deep in the side yard.  We probably won't win any "Yard of the Month" awards with all these piles on the property!  We're almost out of room, and I've been moving it as fast as I can with a pitchfork and a Gorilla Cart wagon.  Just as soon as I have a pile moved, two more piles arrive to take its place!

Below is a 45 foot garden bed in our side yard that I plant purple hull peas in during summer months and potatoes in the spring.  The purple hull peas just completed producing and I figured it was time to apply an 8 inch layer of wood chips to the bed.  I used a wagon to haul them from one of my many piles, dumped it out and used a pitch fork and a rake to spread the wood chips evenly.

In early February, I'll scrape back the mulch to plant Irish Potatoes.  The soil underneath will be soft and easy to work.  I'll plant the seed potatoes in the soil, adding some compost.  As the potatoes grow, I'll cover with wood chips, and the potato plant will grow right up through the chips

The wood chips are chipped up pretty good.  The pile is hot.  The bacteria is breaking down the chips into soil.  Oh, another way we are using the wood chips is to mulch around trees in our yard.  I do not like weed-eating.  The roots around our live oak trees make is near impossible to get close with the mower, and that leaves a lot of weed eating to do.  Mulching around the trees (hopefully) will cut down on the weed eating.

I have a few more trees to mulch around and then I will begin stacking the mulch in the back of the garden again.  From there I'll move it to the garden as we get things planted.

When the chips are down, we'll see how this experiment works out!