As a gardener growing stuff on sand you must be opportunistic. You never know where the next load of good organic 'stuff' will come from. Paper. Lawn clippings. Animal poo. Seaweed.
So when I heard the noisy whine of a wood chipper in the neighborhood I had to get immediately on my bike and go investigate .
The offshoot was that I got roughly three cubic metres of chipper much for $50, dumped on my front nature strip.
And all I now need to do is move it somewhere useful.
Already the bowels of the mix is composting big time and steam rises when I dig in.
Wheelbarrow work isn't my favorite pastime and pitch forking mulch in the drizzling rain doesn't a pleasant Sunday make.
But someone has to do it.
I've spread the stuff over a section of garden I've ear marked for perennials --- initially pawpaws and bananas but I'll also add ramblers/ creepers like Pepino. Pumpkins and chokoes already grow, in their fashion, on the patch but they have suffered because the soil is so poor. At least the new layer keeps a lid on the moisture...
'Tis new territory being colonized by chlorophyll one plant at a time.
I've also thrown a thinnish layer of this chunky wooden mulch on my junk mail paths.
Much neater than metres of dead newsprint. It's like a sealant. Carpeting. Dress up.
Oh the joy of mulch! It's all about staying one step ahead of the rot. And as the French say in French :"everything passes, everything changes, everything dies. "
My paths are now at a height to almost match the level of the garden beds they criss-cross. And where yesterday was a jungle path, I now have a yellow chip road (and I'm off to see the wizard of Oz upon it).
