Chop Wood Carry Water Plant Seeds is a blog about Self-Sufficient Homesteading. How can we live by creating a sustainable bio-diverse world, instead of by consuming and destroying the only one we have? What kind of teaching have you got if you exclude nature?

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Gathering Wood Chips

I walked my dog the other day through a near by shrubbery and discovered 3 piles of old seasoned wood chip. Someone duped it there. So I motivated myself to move as much of it as possible.

I will use wood chips and hay to cover the soil around my kitchen garden veges, berry bushes, apple trees, perennial plants and herbs. I even plan to cover the soil in our green house with this black seasoned wood chip covered in Mycorrhiza :) Wood Chips introduce Mycorrhiza to the soil which in turn feed the plant's roots with nutrients from the chips. Wood Chip is also known for its ability to keep the soil moist minimizing the need for irrigation. When there is too much rain it sucks it like a sponge. It encourages earth warms and myriads of microorganisms which in turn balance each other. This keeps the pests at bay. The wood chip turns to compost with time. One thing is important to remember; NEVER dig the wood chip into thee soil because it will deplete the soil of Nitrogen!!! Just apply a 5cm layer on top of the soil and let the microorganisms do the rest.
 Lovely Black Gold :)
 As you can see it is covered in shrubbery and I will need to keep an open eye to remove any roots from the wood chips
The white stuff is Mycorrhiza
Gathering like a Hamster ;)

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