2003-12-19 - 7:48 a.m.
Started doing some mulching this week. I have a friend who runs a tree service and he brings me wood chips from time to time. We use these to mulch all the rows in the orchard and some in the garden. By the time we're done we usually wind up using about 10 of his truckloads of chips. Each truckload has about 2 tons or so of chips so by the end of the winter we have shoveled a lot of chips. They help an awful lot though and in the drought years we had the chips made what could have been a disaster into some pretty good seasons.
The chips block weeds from sprouting and help hold moisture in the soil. They also help shield the soil from temperature extremes and protect it from erosion. Pretty good benefits from a waste product.
When I was a county agent we were taught that growers should keep a strip of soil free from weeds down the orchard rows. This was accomplished by spraying herbicides. The result was a strip of totally bare ground with only the fruit plants growing in it. This system is still in use by most large fruit growers and after watching the results it mystifies me that the practice continues. I still remember the first u-pick farm I visited that was using this system on blackberries. I bent over and tried to push my finger into the bare soil. It was as hard as rock and almost devoid of any organic matter. I would have had about as much luck putting my finger in the asphalt parking lot as in that soil. At the time I was considering using this system in my orchard but seeing the results made such an impact on me that I started looking for another way.
Over the years we have used lots of things to mulch with including hay, leaves and grass clippings. Wood chips may not be the best but they are abundant here, easy to work with and they are durable. After mulching for 15 years the soil that's been mulched is dark, full of organic matter and worms, and so soft my finger goes in as easily as it would into a tub of butter. I just believe thats gotta be better for everything. So every winter, as long as the Lord keeps me healthy, I'll drag out my mulch fork and go to putting out chips. It's not a glamorous job but the results are beautiful to me.
