The Tail-end of our Mulch Inventory

We've talked at length before about Back to Eden Gardening where we use wood chips (4 inch layer) in the garden.  I won't bore you again with the details, but by doing this, you never need to till.  You hardly ever need to water.  You hardly ever need to weed the garden.  It makes gardening so easy.  Additionally, the chips decompose and become topsoil.  Each year you add another 4 inch layer and let nature take care of itself.

I don't even want to speculate as to how many loads of mulch we've gotten delivered to the house for free by right-of-way cleaning crews eager for a place to drop their loads of wood chips.  I stopped by a crew I saw working about 5 miles down the road the other day and left our address and contact information.  I've not heard back from them.  It is a new crew out of Texas that must've won the contract.  

We need more chips!  We are on our last pile and there's a reason we saved this one for last.  Normally the wood chips heat up and decompose quickly.  This last pile did not.  The reason for this is that it is largely made up of pine straw.  Pine straw is coated with a shiny, wax-like layer that contains high amounts of lignin.  This makes it resistant to decay, bacteria and fungi.  That's kind of counter-productive to our goal of mulch in the garden.

But we found a use for it!  The walkways/borders on either side of the garden have a dual purpose.  In addition to being walkways we use, they serve as a border or protective barrier for what's outside the garden.  That would be grasses and weeds, namely bermuda grass, bahai, and nutsedge.  These grasses are persistent, relentless and determined and require constant effort to keep them from encroaching into the garden.  You can see some of the grass on the eastern edge of the garden.  It so desires to get into the garden.

The grasses had invaded, filling half of the walkway with grass that we had mulched a couple of years ago.  That ended yesterday.  I removed all the weeds from the garden path on the interior eastern side of the garden and used a wagon and pitchfork to unload a 5 inch layer all the way down.  It's so nice and clean now - free of grass!

I did the same thing on the western edge of the garden.  It is so clean and in order now.

But it will require vigilance.  Those grasses send out rhizomes that climb through the fence and try to get a foothold in the garden and creep forward.  Someone has to guard the wall.  Almost like Colonel Nathan Jessup in "A few good men" in calling the Code Red, ha ha.  We'll keep our eyes on any encroachment and put more mulch on top.