New Load of Arborist Chips. Mulching Young Trees and Borders for Next Year. 10.14.17

 We had a large, old, dead tree cut down.  The arborist had a truck load of chipped tree branches, including those from our tree, so I asked for them to use as mulch.

It will take several truck loads to haul all of them.  So far, I've mulched a major section of the woods edge border, which I spent the last 18 months cleaning up and planting with trees, shrubs, and perennials.  It was fairly clean already, but with about 4 inch thickness of arborist chips, should not need any significant maintenance for most of 2018.

Chestnut Tree, One Year Old.  Double-Fenced, Mulched, and Ready for Winter.  10.12.17

That's a major step in reducing my workload next year.  Many of the things that I planted there, were unwanted plants and shrubs that needed a new home.  Some were sizeable.  I didn't want to buy things that might not do well, or more likely, be eaten by deer.  Deer are the major limitation to what I can grow.  At this point, I just want to get trees growing above deer browsing height, and stick to the ornamentals that they don't like to eat. I know they won't eat the dwarf mugo pines, crocosmia, gladiolas, ferns, Helleborus, daffodils, or hyacinthoides.  Not sure about the Rhododendrons.  I'm watching for deer damage to the Dawn Redwood, but so far they have not taken a liking to it.

I also mulched the year old Chestnut trees.  They still need some hardware cloth to protect from rodents, then they too are set for the winter and for 2018 as well.

More Arborist Wood Chips. Bearded Irises. 2.11.16

Another pile of arborist chips.   2.11.16

 I heard the heavy equipment noise down the street and went to check it out.  An arborist was removing the top 15 feet or so from a long tall hedge of Leyland cyprus.  I offerred my driveway as a way to dispose of the chips, which he otherwise needs to pay to get rid of.  So here is another pile of chips.

We have a large area to mulch.  We'll get through them in a month.

I also weeded the bearded iris beds.  Weeds were minimal this time.  The irises have broken dormancy and are growing strong, although that happens each year, then there is extensive leaf spot and bacterial rot, which is frustrating.  Reading multiple sources, they state don't mulch them, that promotes rot.

Mulched Iris Beds.  2.11.16

But they were not mulched for years, and the diseases were a big problem.  I am experimenting now.  Last summer I applied an arborist chip mulch, and they grew very well with, I think, much less disease.

My working theory is the chips are open enough to prevent sogginess, they dry quickly.  Maybe - maybe - the evergrees contain substances that reduce fungal and bacterial diseases.  By applying on top of the soil, rains do not splash spores onto the plants.  If not, and they all die, that's OK - 3 years is long enough to try and be frustrated.  Darwin at work, survive or be replaced.

More chips will go onto the strawberries, and we have a lot of perennial borders and other places in need of the weed suppression and water retention effects during the summer.

Early Xmas. Chips. 12.14.15

Now and then I call an arborist in my neighborhood and ask for him to leave a pile of tree chips in my driveway.  Thank you!  That saves him the hauling/dumping costs, and saves me the cost of the wood chip mulch.

This batch smells really good.  Pine. 

Yesterday my neighbor was hauling a load of tree leaves to be disposed of.  I asked if I could load them into my pickup.  Thank you!  Those are now already spread on the garden bed for next year's corn / squash / sunflowers.  They'll keep the weeds from growing, plus be mixed in a compost in situ.

Based on past experience, this batch of pine chips will take about 6 or 8 pickup loads.  They should be enough to refresh the front garden borders, and most of the orchard.  I want to be as water-wise as possible next year, and avoid the labor for weed management.  This will help significantly.

Vegetable Gardening in Raised Beds. 5.11.15

Raised bed planted with bean seeds and protected with fencing.  5.11.15

 The former strawberry bed was weedy and the soil level sunken lower than I wanted.  I pulled what weeds I could, turned the rest over, and moved a few wheelbarrows of soil from a pile we keep for that purpose.  The pile consists especially of sod removed for other planting around the 2 acres.   Decomposition of the sod makes the soil a little better than it was.

In this bed, I planted Roma and Yellow Wax beans.  Also a small row of cilantro and some onion sets that were laying around already sprouted.

The cover is meant to deter deer and rabbits.

Tomato plants ready to set outside.  5.11.15

The fencing is not perfectly sealed and  birds may also get in.  Better than nothing.

Tomato plants in the sunroom were ready for planting.  That meant removing weeds from a second raised bed.  I had prepped it during winter but failed to cover to prevent weed growth.  The grasses were over 3 feet tall.  I pulled, then used weed eater, turned the soil over and raked somewhat smooth.  Planted tomatoes.  Mulched with thin cardboard food packaging.  Not pretty.  that gets covered with straw or grass clippings later and will no longer show.

Tomatoes started in raised bed, cardboard mulch.  5.11.15

Grass Clipping Mulch. 6.21.14

Creative Grass Mowing.  6.21.14

 Yesterday I mowed around the raised beds, and other areas of the second acre.  Most people in this area have tightly trimmed, golf course - like yards.  Some are more like pastures.  This area is on a 30 foot wide  easement that we anticipate will be paved soon, by a neighbor with attitude.  We don't know how much of the 30 feet will be paved, or when.  Meanwhile it's grass, organic, no chemicals added.  As a result, used for mulch, the clippings are coarse and dry to a nice straw-like consistency. dont mat down too much or turn sour.  The golf course-like lawns in the neighborhood get fertilizer, water, chemicals, the grass is green and lush, then they collect clippings and burn them.  The smoke is nasty.  Seems insane.

I cut "crop circles" in an attempt to be whimsical.  There is a lot of clover in the grass, now, for nitrogen and bees.

Peppers in raised bed with grass clipping mulch.  6.21.14

I had newspaper and food package cardboard mulch for the squashes, just compost for the peppers.  Now that is covered with an approx 4 inch thick layer of grass clipping mulch.  Will keep them weed free and not as dry for summer.  Like any organic mulch, they will break down to add orgsnic content and life to the soil.

Potato "well" with grass clipping mulch.  6.21.14

The potato planters also got a thick layer of grass clipping.  About 6 inckes thick.  That is on top of a few inches of aged maple leaf mulch.

Mulch also went into some flower borders and around shrubs.  I view cutting the grass more as a harvest of quality organic mulch, than as grooming.

Sunchokes.  6.21.14

 The sunchokes already had a generous mulch of weeds, pulled from raised beds.  I topped that with grass clipping for a cleaner appearance and better weed control.

We recovered these sunchokes from Ning's meadow.  He planted them there last year when I was in surgery.  They didn't do so well there.  I found 3 of the plants.  We ate chokes from one, and I moved the others to this location.  With some added organic nitrogen, and lots of mulch, they are flourishing.  The shorter plant is shorter due to local herbivores.  The taller had a screen.  The herbivores seem to ignore them now.  Although they like to surprise me.

Strawberry Raised bed.

Ning gave me 2 bales of straw. Not my birthday. Great present. With temps in 80s the plants will grow rapidly. The soil will dry out rapidly, too. A good straw mulch will help.

Back Pain Saturday

I was headed out to haul some bark mulch and pulled a back muscle while changing shoes. Oh the irony - didn't even haul one load.

Three days ago on my day off I DID get a truckload of medium bark nuggets. Spread some on one freshly-cleared and weeded border, so I hope that will be weed-free this year. It depends on whether kitty cat likes the medium nuggets for her "world's biggest litter box". I'm hoping not. Once she decides a garden bed is the world's biggest litter box, she has it dug up within a few weeks, not only destroying the neat appearance, but bringing weed seeds to the top so it is weedy - all doing away with the effort. I've thought about laying chicken wire on top of the old soil, then covering with mulch. Instead, this time, I got larger size bark, to see if that is less attractive to her. There are lots of spots with the smaller bark if she still chooses.

Frustrated about the back Sitting here with my feet up, ice pack on my back, and just took 3 ibuprofens. I hope it's tolerable tomorrow.

If I can get up later I'll take pics of the orchids in-bud. They are "promising" a nice show.

Garden Log, Sunday Jan 3, 2010

Other than the Burpee order, here's what I did today:

Got out the branch & leaf shredded, did some minor repair, and ground up all of the grape prunings. Also the wisteria prunings from yesterday, and about 1/2 of the rose prunings. These had a hay-like appearance when done. I made mulch-donuts around the 2 plum trees.

Yesterday I also dug out the rose that resulted from root stock of a tree rose a few years ago. The tree rose had died, but new canes kept growing from the old root stock, I replaced this with a Rose of Sharon, started as a volunteer seedling about 3 years ago, which last year had very nice white flowers with rose center. The parent is magenta with darker center. I pruned back the 3 ft Rose of Sharon shrub (basically a feathered whip) to 18 inches, to encourage branching.

Spring Garden Chores

Today (Saturday), I...

Weeded the rose bed. This bed now has almost as many fruit trees, brambles, and plants, as roses, but still contains about 10 rose bushes. I had moved one rose bush to accomodate the new Surefire cherry, and today moved a second one a little further from that new tree. I also moved a David Austin rose from the front yard, and a peony as well. It looks like I butchered the thick peony roots, even though I thought I was digging a wide distance from the stems. We'll see if it grows. It's interesting how few roots the roses seem to have - surprising that they survive moving. I pruned the tops further back to balance the reduced root mass.

Mulched the rose bed with bark mulch. It's now basically ready for Spring and Summer. I did not add compust to most of it this year, because the roses were too rampant last year and I don't want to overstimulate the fruits and roses. I did give some chicken manure to the roses that I moved.

Sprayed most of the fruit trees and roses with Neem oil. Not the peaches - the flowers are opening.

Moved one Orchard Mason Bee house to the front yard, since there are many fruit trees there as well.

Turned over the soil in the tomato patch.

Pruned the remaining rose bushes.

Stood around and stared at the results of my labors.

Grafted 3 fig scions onto the petite negri tree. Just to see if I can. According to most references, it can't be done. I hope they are wrong.

This time I used rubber bands to tie, and used plastic tape to cover and protect. The plastic tape was made by slicing a ziplock sandwich bag. Also used petroleum jelly as an antidessicant, as I did with the apple grafts. It's not just stubbornness - I really would like to see if they grow.

Added some petroleum jelly to the apple grafts - forgot to do that earlier, purpose is to serve as antidessicant.

Also mulched around this red-bark Japanese maple, that I moved to this location a few days ago. It was a seedling in the rose bed, among many others. I had never got around to pulling it up, and now will see how it does as a specimen tree.

Compost Mulch

Here is the rose and fruit raised bed after adding a layer of yard waste compost. this is about 1/2 of a truck load, but since it's heavy, there is less than a truck load of bark mulch. Cost about $5.oo for what is in this bed. Since it's black, it should help the garden bed warm up.

I've also sprayed twice with a double strength neem spray. The reasoning is that since I missed covering the peaches this winter, I'm hoping for some benefit from neem in controlling leaf curl. The peach buds are starting to swell, so it seems like now is the time. I have not seen that this will work, but I already sprayed once with copper spray, and after reading that copper can build up in the soil, I dont want to over do it.

This garden bed started out with just roses, but now it also has 2 miniature peaches, 1 cordon apple (North Pole), a strawberry border, Fallgold raspberry, a currant, and various Spring bulbs. With all of the food plants present, non-organic is not the way that i want to go.

More therapy. The last tomatoes. Crazy leaf guy (me). Last ginkgo leaf.

That crazy leaf guy (me). While walking Charlie & Baigo, I passed a lady packaging up her leaves. I asked if I could have them. Here they are. I spent a couple of hours spreading them on the driveway, running over them with the lawn mower, then spreading the chopped leaves on the borders. The mower works better than the chipper shredder, but either way it's hard work.

A few tomatoes still ripening in the window. Ning made a stir fry using green tomatoes. Good.


One final leaf on the ginkgo tree. Ning doesnt know it yet but I collected a quart container full of ginkgo fruits (from a tree in an East Mill Plain park) to clean for seeds. I dont know if I'll plant them or eat them.