Hi Angela! Thank you for visiting my site. If you wander around, you will find lots of photos. I am also trying to update the Garden Gallery pages. I should do an update of the orchard. The post in which I describe how we covered the ground with cardboard and wood chips got shared on Pinterest and caught a lot of traction. Spoiler alert: The grass grew back! I have since planted quite a few shrubs and plants like currants and other things that can tolerate part shade. Groundcovers I have tried have not been able to out-compete the grass. However, I let the grass grow tall and then cut it down with a scythe, and it makes a good “hay” mulch.

Thank you for your comment. Maybe I should do a post on the idea of a “food forest” and how that meaning has evolved for me. The garden has definitely been a lesson in succession and how things change.

Wow! That’s fantastic! Yes, I am on the “Chip Drop” list, but they rarely get out to the Olympic Peninsula – I got a delivery (not as large as yours, but most helpful!) a couple of years ago. Would love to get another! Thanks for the reminder. I went back on the website and renewed my request.

Yes indeed! Are you close by?

Hi Wendy! It is definitely a process – always changing with the seasons; always evolving over the years. One of my biggest challenges has been efficient irrigation. I keep applying more mulch, and that helps a lot, but I have a tendency to scythe through the drip lines, and I find that a little emitter does not spread out far enough around the tree. The younger shrubs need a little extra attention for awhile until they can get better established. I continue with adding some compost around them, grass mulch, and topped with wood chips – sometimes encircling with cardboard topped with chips where the grass is particularly aggressive. But I haven’t done another layer of cardboard and wood chips around all the apple trees like before. I just pile up the grass cuttings around them. Every year, I add in a few more plants that I grow from cuttings. It is all helping! Best of luck to you!

Hi Phyllis – I am no arborist (and Paul definitely is), but I, too, was very inspired by the low-hanging fruit. I cannot really advise you on a new young tree. My only experience is with untangling old neglected trees. My understanding is that you have to decide (or maybe the nursery has decided for you) whether to have a tree with a central leader, an open center, or something in between. You can train the main leaders outward using spreaders. I would consult an expert on training a very young tree, other online sources, or a good book, like Michael Phillips’ “The Holistic Orchard.”

Once the tree is older, you basically cut off anything growing straight up (water sprouts) or straight down (bad angle; likely to break) and let the ends continue growing. (Of course, also prune out crossovers and anything dead.) Every time you do an end cut (or “head cut”), it stops the growth at that point and stimulates side shoots. So – minimize head cuts and focus on thinning cuts that take out the shoot all the way to the main branch. In doing so, the branches grow quite long and gracefully arch downward, some all the way to the ground. (It is Paul’s theory that this might even add extra support.)

Of course, on a young tree, you might *want* to do head cuts to establish lateral branches – so it depends on the tree.

I have been experimenting with Paul’s approach. In the fall, I can step inside the circle of branches and be surrounded by a wall of apples. I have lost a few apples to rodents with this method; they can just reach up from the ground and take a nibble – but I’ve had plenty to spare – and it was totally worth it for my 4-year-old granddaughter to be able to pick her own. This last year, I noticed a lack of leaves on several of the ends of the lower branches. It took me awhile to realize the deer had eaten them. Easy access. The other thing to think about is whether the branch gets so long that it can’t support the fruit and might break under the weight. If a branch looks a little too spindly, an end cut might be in order to help stiffen it up (or some pole support.

Some will argue that a tree naturally wants to reach upward. Others will say that a tree pruned to grow downward will release hormones that stimulate more fruit production. Paul’s trees are supposedly dwarf varieties, but you’d never know it. They grow amazingly well under all that mulch. It allows the roots to spread out into an intricate network. At this point, they are growing in total compost. If you are in the area, he often welcomes visitors on Sundays. You could give him a call and arrange a visit. As noted in the blogpost, I went there with a class. The tour was inspirational on many levels.

Thanks for visiting my website. Hope this is helpful! Best wishes!
~blythe

Hard to believe it’s been almost 6 years since I first laid down the cardboard! That was a lot of work – and I just couldn’t keep up with putting down woodchips every year. The scything is always a work in progress. I don’t get to it as often as I’d like. And this is key: I often don’t get to it before the grass goes to seed, because everything is going to seed all at once, so there is a lot of grass seed in the clippings. Which means, because I don’t compost it separately, I need to be careful about where I use it and how. I usually just pile it in a circle around the trees. Grass continues to grow; I’d like to think not as thickly. But I will say, the soil does, indeed, seem to be improving, and it most certainly conserves moisture. I also rake the leaves around the trees in the fall to give them a bit of added insulation for winter.

Last year, I did a little experiment. On one of the trips through with the scythe, I piled everything into huge piles off to the sides. After awhile, the piles settled down. I left them there all winter.

So – because of your good question, I just went out to check on everything. The clippings around the trees are very flat. The grass beneath is smothered, but I am sure it will grow up through it. Still, the layer on top offered protection from a winter that was at times unusually warm and then switched to cold and more snow than we’ve seen in more than 15 years.

The great piles look like small mounds now and I seriously doubt that anything is going to grow up through them. They are very dense. In digging in, some of the grass is still somewhat green (no light to fade them) and dry (perfect winter housing for rodents!) – also, there are tons of seeds, which I am sure would sprout if I spread them around. The piles did not turn to compost. However, the ground beneath is moist and rich and semi-composted. The grass here is dying if not gone already (yay!)

So – in conclusion – it’s a slow process, but we’re seeing progress. I am no longer mad at the grass. I am working toward a more fungal environment (a la woodchip base), but at least for now, the grass provides me with lots of mulch for building the soil, conserving moisture, and moderating temperature swings. The piles seem to be a good way of killing the grass, and placed strategically, could be good spots for new plants (more comfrey? a berry shrub? something early blooming to attract bees at about the same time the trees bloom?) Otherwise, though, I think I prefer spreading it around the trees to keep the moisture in where it’s needed.

I continue planting more things here and there. Lemon balm, in particular, is doing quite well under the trees, competes well with the grass, and doesn’t get in the way. Daffodils are planted near the trunks and are beginning to bloom. I have planted more shrubs around the perimeters.

I love the scythe for keeping the assorted garden paths open. It would be very difficult to get a lawn mower in and about (and I wouldn’t want the gas fumes). We also scythe one area of the field for the mulch. Can’t ever seem to get enough mulch! It keeps on disappearing wherever I put it down, so I keep putting more on top. And we go ’round and ’round. 🙂

Thank you, Barbara, for asking!

Blythe, it has been 1 1/2 years since your post. How have your efforts been with the technique of scything the grass to use it as compost?

Oooh! That sounds beautiful! Annuals are a great way to fill in areas until the trees grow larger, and perennials tucked in here and there just get better and better. Have fun with this! Thanks for your comment. YOU are inspirational, too! I need more wildflowers!

Thank you for the inspiration!

I will definitely have to look that one up! The problem is undoubtedly the solution. Thanks, Kelly.
Update: I think I found it: The Living Planet BBC Seas Of Grass, David Attenborough. It’s about an hour long and looks excellent. Thanks again for the tip, Kelly. Will watch it tonight. 🙂

Hi Anastasia – I know exactly what you mean. It seems like we need to apply a lot of mulch to really suppress the weeds (and apply it often), but we have to be careful to keep it away from trunks and stems, and also be careful that we don’t suffocate the smaller plants. In Paul’s case, after years of applying the woodchips, they have decomposed to the point where it is like planting in compost. Any weeds that manage to try to get a foothold are easily removed. How much he still applies every year, I am not sure. In my garden, though, which spreads out over about an acre, I can never seem to have enough mulch, and I am always battling invasives. I am trying to plant more perennial groundcovers, and perhaps eventually they will reign supreme, but in the meantime, it is difficult to keep adding mulch around them without covering them up! I think it can be done, though, and in time, all will become a rich soil. I do not have a lot of woodchips, though – and those I do have, because they are rather coarse, I like to put in pathways or around the more established shrubs. My mulches around other plants tend to be whatever I have on hand. So maybe I am just planting more weeds! Either way, the mulch has to be strategically applied, and in some places, only a thin layer will work, which is still better than bare soil. Hope I’ve been some help. It’s like you say, you have to apply it every year to make a difference. Good luck!

Guten Tag, Anne! I should post an update to this – it has been 5 years already! I have since planted a lot of comfrey, currants, gooseberries, and herbs around the orchard and wherever I can squeeze them in but where they won’t interfere with pruning and harvesting. I have also planted more sun-loving plants around the outside edges. I thought the cardboard and bark mulch would keep out all the grass, but no! It all came back! I should have been more diligent about weeding it out when it first started appearing. Now, the grass grows as tall as me if I let it and is as thick as ever – maybe more so – and I am simply amazed at its tenacity! I think this cardboard method could still work (although I have mixed feelings about cardboard), but it takes a lot of cardboard and the key, I think, is to keep applying more mulch every year. I think ramial woodchips (which contains both branches and leaves) would be ideal because they support fungal communities, but I have not yet found a reliable cheap source. So – what I do now is allow the grass to grow tall and then cut it down with a scythe and pile the grass around the trees. The soil is improving, it better retains moisture, it still supports microbial communities, and in the process of scything, I create a path through the trees to get in there. It is quite beautiful!

Nice to hear from someone in Germany! Would love to see what you are doing. Thank you for stopping in to my blog, and best of luck to you on your orchard and other gardens! ~blythe