Sunday, July 20, 2014

Wood Chips and Alfalfa





Well I finally got the big pile of shredded wood spread out over the area where I want the next batch of fruit trees to go. I don't know if you all remember the huge pile about 8 foot tall by 40 foot long and 20 foot wide I had of fresh wood chips last year or not.  I tried finding the old pic of the pile but can't remember which folder it's in. Anyway working a pile of still kinda wet woodchips with a front loader is a very interesting experience. It's kinda like spreading out big rocks held together by almost dry glue if you can imagine such a thing. The pile had actually shrunk down to about five foot tall over the Winter and Spring and had finally dried out enough I could kinda get it pushed where I wanted it.

I had to use the Massey with the front loader and I am not afraid to admit a few times I was at an angle that scared me a bit as well.

I have been slowly spreading and leveling the whole mass down with a rake now as the blade on the tractor just bounces off this stuff. Once I get it about level more or less I will run around on it with the tractor with maybe a roller a bit and then allow it to dry some more now until next Spring. After another Winter of decomposing this covered area should be perfect for putting in 12 or 15 various fruit trees and should fertilize the ground under it too . That's the plan anyway.




The Alfalfa pretty much came back fast and managed to choke out the weeds and Clover that had been growing in it. There are a few bare spots here and there but nothing of any real size. The next cutting in about another two weeks should yield some nice pure Alfalfa bales for next years lambing season. That is going to save us some serious feed costs and should really up the margins on keeping the sheep for next year.




Here is the same patch of field after I had it raked a little over two weeks ago. Amazing how fast it grew back and we haven't had that much rain since then either.

I also found another great use for wood chips. They work wonders as rut and hole filling material.




This little section was a huge rut last year partially filled with some of the 3 inch base rock you see on the RR tie. It was so deep and the rocks stuck up so far I couldn't mow over it with the garden tractor but had to brush hog it. I filled it in with wood chips over the Winter and now I mow right over it. The wood chips decompose of course and sink so I have added a layer twice over the top but eventually the grass starts growing in it and breaks it up. In less than a year already it has become almost like soil. Another bonus is that as it rotted and intertwined even when wet it wouldn't push back out like dirt would have, it more formed a solid mat. After I put it down you could actually drive over it and not make the rut reappear. I have used these wood chips to fill in several holes and ruts already and also put them around the horses water tanks to cut down on the mud that forms there during the wetter periods.

So that's how I spent my day. Spreading out wood chips and tying up Tomato plants to their trellis. I had neglected the poor garden almost all week and it needed some serious love today. I had about half a dozen blown over Sunflowers and a bunch more Squash Bugs to spray. So far I have killed thousands of them but there seems to be no end to their numbers and they have now began attacking the Cucumbers and Watermelons. My bet is those plants will not hold out more than a couple of weeks tops.

Oh well next year I am going to start the Squash Bug buffet way off in another location and maybe at least make em travel a ways to find their food. I was talking to the daughter of a guy who used to plant acres of Pumpkins every year and she told me he had to rotate or the Squash Bugs would kill his crop. I kinda figured that was about the only way to control them I just hope I have enough space to make a rotation work.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!




12 comments:

  1. Not an untoward use of one's time.

    I have some weekly leftover wood shavings from the guinea pigs ever week. I might try your suggestion of filling in some low spots or ruts.

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    1. TB - I don't know how fine it has to be but the course stuff I got works wonders. It would be worth a shot I think.

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  2. Just a thought for your fruit trees. Espaliered trees are really easy to take care of and to pick. Young guys don't think about maintaining their trees 20 years down the road, but espalier trees are easy to maintain.

    When I lived in Europe, I saw hedges, fancy designs, borders around gardens and all sorts of other uses for espaliered trees. It was pretty cool and after after a few years when the tree has its shape, the trellises aren't needed.

    http://www.pallensmith.com/articles/espaliered-fruit-trees

    http://www.finegardening.com/espalier

    http://www.bhg.com/gardening/trees-shrubs-vines/care/how-to-espalier/

    Dave

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    1. Dave - Never heard of em before but I will certainly look into it since you always seem to be filled with useful and good idea. You haven't let me down yet!!!

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  3. buddy - i sure wish we had that many wood chips here - they are useful for so many things! but getting them down now when you plan to plant some fruit trees next year is a really good idea! also great idea for filling in ruts! jam has his handy-dandy home-made mulcher but i am really thinking that we need a wood chipper - there's just so much to do with them. and we do have so many dead and fallen down trees on the property so it would make sense for us to get a chipper. great post and i am glad that you, at least, are really trying to be a proper sustainer and setting the way for the rest of us to follow!

    your friend,
    kymber

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    1. Kymber - Thanks!!! Someday I need to get chickens though to be proper :)

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  4. I remember your wood chips from last year, those guys just kept bringing more and more. Those chips should rot and make the ground good for trees after all they were trees so should have what trees need. Of course most of the carbon in wood comes from the air. Oh wait the government says that CO2 is a poison but that is where wood comes from.
    Why didn't you just put some of the tractor girls to work on those chips, they could have cleaned the area up while you were in the garden?

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    1. Sf - The tractor girls have a union and the bylaws state they only work as hard as government employees. That means they are only for show I think, and they think too.

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  5. Wood chips do lots of good things, but the rotting process uses up nitrogen in the soil. This is easily compensated for by using fertilizer, but it is not a one shot process.

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    1. Russ - Yes if you till them in. Basically what I am doing is the Eden garden method and as long as you don't till the woodchips into the soil it doesn't use the soils nitrogen. I determined that there was absolutely no way I could use this method in the garden because of the morning glory, bindweed and johnson grass threat but with trees it just may be viable as I can plainly see any weeds that pop through. Plus I can put a thicker layer down and maybe stop those root weeds from pushing through as well.

      Maybe. It may fail too.

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    2. My mistake, I thought you were tilling them in. The loss of nitrogen to surface placement of wood chips is minimal from what I have read. I like wood chips, and I like 10-10-10, so working them into the soil isn't a big deal to me in any case.

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  6. Jealous of your pile! I snagged a load from the road crew here a few weeks, and wish I could have gotten more.
    XaLynn

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