It's Day 187 in forest garden and want to share a chop and drop story. A story that proves "The problem is the Solution." (a Geoff Lawton quote)
This video is also helpful to understand the purpose of chop and drop in a more developed forest garden. You can chop and drop at any stage or even a lawn, but it's always inspiring to see a more mature system.
Every problem I have, I ask myself how it's the solution. I'm finally understanding it this time because I've hated these trees for coming back each year. My dad helped me cut the trees on the fence line down two summers ago. Because they grew in the fence, we didn't cut them down any lower than the top of the fence. I believe they were Hack berries, and didn't offer much more than shade, bird habitat and a screen.
The new growth is easy to pull or cut off and toss on the nearest garden bed. It makes for good mulch and will turn into soil soon. Like mulching turn composting. I should have done this sooner because some of the limbs were almost too think to cut. I usually do this on an as needed bases. You can see from the image below that I have one tree left.
It's almost too simple, but that's what's so great about permaculture techniques. Little effort and I'm still building soil. I'm planning to grow more cover crops in each bed so I can chop and drop even more.
Perhaps this was boring, but I write this in response to allllll the bags and bags of yard waste I see on the curb ready to be picked up for the landfill. Those are soil depleting techniques and landfill building. Call me crazy, but I'm into soil building and keeping as much as I can out of the landfill. AND this is just less work for everyone.
"There is no waste in nature" - Geoff Lawton
Labels: Forest Garden
