31 May 2017 Mulching

[Durgan]

http://durgan.org/2017/May%202017/31%20May%202017%20Mulching/HTML/ 31 May 2017 Mulching
A ten yard (~70 wheelbarrows) load of wood chips were delivered to my driveway and over a few days will be used to mulch all areas of my garden. Cost of chips was $10.00 per yard plus a 30 dollar delivery charge. The chips are transported by wheelbarrow to the area required. If the plants are small the chips are placed by hand otherwise raked in close to the plants. My main purpose of the mulch is to retain moisture by reducing evaporation by the Sun heat. All weeds were removed prior to mulching. Wood chips are ideal for mulch, since rain water can permeate, and the chips are heavy enough to stay n place under normal circumstances.

 

[headfullofbees]

This method also builds soil structure, feeds the soil, and helps to kill weeds by allowing the seeds to germinate, then starving them of nitrogen, in a very thin layer where they meet, as the woodchips sequester nitrogen as they decompose, but net, add nitrogen to the soil.
I absolutely recommend this excellent method, and along with Durgan's obvious expertise, would suggest that it's one of the biggest reasons Durgan has success with his garden in an area where others don't even try, because the soil is so poor.

 

[Durgan]

Actually the soil js excellent in most of the parts that hangs down into the great lakes on a map. The problem with growing gardens (vegetables and fruit) is there is no market of consequence. Within driving distance I can purchase almost anything fresh in abundance during the peak of the season. Our season is short but the growth, quality, and abundance is outstanding. Nobody has a garden in my neighborhood. Often large lots growing grass.

The big issue is preservation. Nobody practices it, and simply buy all from a supermarket. Our supermarkets have almost anything all year around. Not quality that I appreciate due to often growing my own of superior quality.

Even on the internet there are few if any forums dedicated to preservation. Most are the same old, same old. There are many modern pieces of equipment that have removed most of the miserable labor of preserving that is simply not used. And much of the advice is faulty and simply plagiarized from an original thesis. I started from scratch in earnest about ten years ago and am basically self sufficient almost without trying in food preservation.

 

[Beth_B]

Glad to hear! Last year I used straw. But earlier this year I had a very large dead tree taken down and I had them chip it into wood chip mulch. Now I have a giant pile and am trucking it over to the vegetable garden.

 

[Durgan]

When first starting to mulch the garden, a concern was what to do in the Fall after the crops had been removed. To my joy I found the chips had almost all been composted so I simply rototilled the remainder into the soil.

My first attempt at vegetable garden mulching was with straw bales but I found this unsatisfactory, since it matted and moved and did not decompose and clogged up the rototiller.

Now I cannot imagine how I grew a garden without mulching. The constant need to loosen compacted soil was the biggest headache. During a dry spell the soil would be very hard almost like cement.