Mulching the Upper Orchard

Several years ago I had a student for a private course “Survival Intensive 1” who was a fascinating man. He was (and probably still is) a nationally known python breeder. Well, if you are in those circles you would know him. He was also a arborist. He knew all about trees. He told me my fruit trees would do much better if I mulched them. He also told me to mulch them well beyond the drip line and to mulch them at least 3” deep. He was a professional in his field and I like advice from professionals.

So, we took his suggestions, mulched our trees and man, did they start doing better! Now, we free range chickens and ducks and Guinea fowl and they have access to our orchards. They like to scratch. They spread the mulch a bit out into the grass and every year we need to add a bit more to keep up.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day at High Prairie Acres and while I was out attending to other things, my wife went to the county dump/transfer station/waste disposal place to pick up some mulch. When the county picks up grass and brush and limbs and trees they put it all through a grinder and out comes a beautiful mulch. They load it into your pickup for you for $10 a load. And people in this county still run to the various box stores to buy their mulch for about $5 a BAG. Silly sheeple.

As you can see from the photo, our work truck is in pristine condition and we don’t want it scratched or dirtied – I mean, we paid $800 for it so we want to take care of it! My wife laid a brand new tarp in the bed and had the men at the station fill the bed with mulch. That was a mistake. We unload it with a potato fork because a shovel just doesn’t work and a dirt rake does not have long enough tines for the job. My tarp now has some holes in it. Live and learn.

We cannot back the truck up to each tree in the upper orchard so we have to get close and then offload. We could use a wheel barrow I suppose but we really like using those plastic toboggans to haul stuff around HPA. We just place it on the ground under the tailgate, fork the mulch in, drag it to where we need it, dump it and rake it nicely. Ta-da!




We want to mulch out a bit farther from the trunk but our goal yesterday was to just get some fresh mulch down.



My wife and I had a good time working together. It made the job easier and more fun. We would have had even more fun and the job would have been that much easier if we were doing it as a community though. We have been meeting regularly with a group of Believers investigating what living in an intentional community would look like. We do stuff together and it is awesome. It will be more awesome when we get CiC off the ground and onto the land…another blog entry for another time.

Spring is in the air – I’ll see ya out there!

And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. – Isaiah 65:21 - 23
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