Mulch!

The three most important elements of installing an agroforestry system are:

1. weed control during establishment

2. weed control during establishment

3. weed control during establishment

and we've been hard at work!

Thanks to the residents of Goshen who have been getting tree work done (and allowing their arborists to supply us with wood chips), the many visitors who have helped shovel those chips, and to the people who invented the plastic mulch layer!

At each tree, we place a bit of compost, a tree guard and stake, and some pea gravel to prevent voles from tunneling under the tree guard. If the row is straight, we have laid plastic mulch with the mulch layer, but if not, we use wood chips. The wood chips are more work, but add fertility to the soil over time. The plastic is more fossil fuel use, and requires a machine to troubleshoot, but we can mulch a large area in a relatively short time. Both are useful; we'll see how they play out over the next couple years.