Obsessed, mulch?

Strawberries plants are often mulched. Mulch keeps the berries clean (no direct contact with soil), it also acts as a temperature buffer and reduces moisture loss from the soil to the sun. Best of all for the farmer with a bad back; mulch suppresses weed growth!

Strawberry beds kept tidy with use of mulch

My little field has been fallow for at least seven years. That's seven years of grass growing and dying. Mulch can be expensive for the organic gardener, but for me it was only a matter of raking for 10 minutes to get enough old grass together to cover one bed. 40 minutes later all my strawberry beds were mulched!

Blueberries mulched with pine needles and grass

The result was so good (particularly on the weed side) that I figured I should do this for all the plants on Eden's rise! The blueberries have a mixed mulch of pine needles (to increase acidity) and grass. All trees, bushes, and vines have a small circle of coconut coir mulch from planting day that has now been covered by a larger circle of grass mulch. I am grateful that I began this little project after the first full week without rain. There has been very little rain so far this summer and the field is in the full sun all day when the temperature is frequently above 30 Celsius. The mulch keeps the weed competition away for the base of my plants so when I waddle over with water for each tree I know I am not wasting that water on weeds. Thanks to the layer of mulch the hot sun also loses much of its opportunity to steal the water and the soil does not bake. 

Those are the often praised advantages of mulch, but I enjoy mulch for another reason. Bare soil, as the soil would be if I managed to keep it weed free, is subject to erosion. Anyone who has ever had a passing interest in sustainable agriculture knows that loss of topsoil is a serious problem in areas that are routinely cultivated. Erosion from wind and rain can hit hard on fine soil particles (like my clay soil). Since the soil depth on my hill is only about 1.5 feet to bedrock, every bit of soil is precious. The mulch will eventually rot down and be incorporated into the topsoil with the positive effect that in this case agriculture adds to the topsoil rather than depleting it. 

Two rows of asparagus, mulched around the edges with plastic
 and mulched in between with grass

There is always work to be done on Eden's Rise, I will leave you at that! Have a lovely week.

The grass looking fairly well combed after a raking session to mulch the apple trees.

Paradise or Junkyard- the fine line

I don’t know if there’s a word for people like me. People who hate to see things wasted. People who recycle, upcycle, shop in charity shops, garage sales, flea markets, and who start and participate in clothing exchanges. People who unashamedly stop to pick up stuff from a stranger’s garbage that’s been put out to the curb.

Cheap?

Environmentally conscious?

Thrifty?

The word hoarder definitely does not apply to me as I love giving things away as much as I love collecting them. It is the knowledge that something that was destined for the trash has been rescued and given another life with someone who can appreciate the item’s worth that makes me happy.

What people who aren’t addicted to re-using don’t realise, is that it is actually quite a lot of hard work. You may call me ‘cheap’ because I was not willing to go out and spend $200 on a new computer chair, but you could also call me ‘patient’ for instead making do until one in my neighbourhood was put out for the trash. You may call me a ‘garbage picker’ for rescuing the shitty chair covered in chalk and paint, but you could also call me a ‘hard worker’ for spending over two hours cleaning it until it was a beautiful black computer chair. And you could call me ‘clever’ for then selling that chair many months later when I had to move.

Old tyres aren't widely recycled, but at Eden's Rise
they can live a second life as flower containers.

The problem with using the word cheap is that I am willing to spend large chunks of money on things I love. But when it comes to material goods, I know how much stuff is circulating in my rich country and how likely it is that what I want is sitting in someone’s basement somewhere waiting to be given a second life. Re-painting an old beige dresser, rescuing picture frames, getting a whole new wardrobe from the unloved clothes of a friend, these bring me so much joy and pride.

Eden’s Rise is an extension of this drive inside me. Raised beds made from old pallets, a flower bed made from old tyres, a rain barrel purchased second hand online, trellises made from the sides of an old crib found on the side of the road, mulch that was once a growing medium in a local greenhouse, and plastic mulch made from the growing bags. None of this is easier than just purchasing things new. Most worryingly, it is a fine line between a successful re-use and having the orchard look like a trash pile.

Old pallets used to make raised
beds for strawberries

Even the dead grass on Eden's Rise
gets a second life as 'straw'

The field itself is a prime example. Unused and vacant, now I am trying to give this little acre new life. Among my own trees and gardens are tall grasses, self-seeded trees, and weeds weeds weeds. Why don’t I just chop them all down? Good question. Partly because native wildlife depends on the little environment in the field, partly because I think if I removed all those distractions the wildlife would target my trees (which are still little more than twigs), and partly because I don’t think it’s necessary yet. I am looking for a second hand mower to keep the middle path trimmed down, but otherwise I keep a large enough circle of mulch around my trees and weed this diligently so that at least there is not competition for the water and nutrients at the base of my trees. I’ve also cut back the self-seeded tress that were shading my plants.

Asparagus hates competition-
here old grow bags are being
used as plastic mulch.

To come: the whole asparagus
patch will be framed with
recycled pallets. 

Ugly, or original beauty? Again comes the patience aspect of being a person like me. You don’t expect what you want to fall in your lap the second you conceive it. You wait. Now it looks like a disaster zone, but little by little I will transform it into a gem.

I want my orchard to be a beautiful paradise, fruit trees and bushes with an under story of wildflowers. 

Though for now it does look a bit like a hoarder’s back garden.

 Have a lovely week!

Eden's Rise- weedy mess or young paradise? Here are the edges of the crib I found in front of a neighbour's house, now painted white and added to the top of Eden's Rise to give the illusion of open gates welcoming you in. Hopefully we'll have some Nasturtiums climbing up these someday soon. Also in the picture is the second hand rain barrel that's often used for emergency watering needs.

Water on Eden's Rise

Let’s say you plant an orchard and then the rain doesn’t come. Your orchard does not have a well, and it is far from the main road. How do you cope?

The Eden’s Rise solution has been to carry water through the woods to the back acre slice that is the orchard. It’s not an elegant solution, but a working one until I can convince the sky to drop some water down into the field and find a way of collecting it.

We are expecting rain today, at last. All the plants are trembling with excitement (or is that the wind?). As you can probably see from the picture of my plum tree, the leaves are hanging a little low and look visibly dehydrated. Carrying water back in a large barrel is all right if you just want your trees to survive, but I am convinced had they had proper water this past month they would have grown twice as much. Every day I’ve been worryingly watching the forecast, rain kept disappearing further and further away. I know that I can’t hope to have my trees strong and healthy if I cannot deliver a proper soaking at least once a week. The weather for the past two weeks has been hot, dry, and sunny.

Today I am holding my breath until the rain comes, then I’m counting each drop of rain like a blessing.