#9 - Aug 2017 - Garden Stuff - © Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz TREE CHIP MULCHAugust/September: Late winter/early spring. Days lengthening, soil warming. It’s late to prune but better late than not – even for grapes that bleed sap - no serious harm done if your favourite novel is not underneath (choose dry weather for pruning). Now’s still the time to plant new trees/shrubs (choose top-quality plants). Tree chip mulch pile: After three years, the area by the RSA has become unavailable for Eastbourne’s famous pile of free tree chip mulch. I’ve got Hutt City Council permission to continue the project from a site 200 m south of the bus barn. There’s a pile there now. Help yourself. It’s free. House rules: This stuff was originally for Eastbournites but supply has risen and people now come from miles away for it. •Tell your friends. •Keep the pile tidy. •Don’t reject twigs (snip them up). •Don’t be greedy (max one trailer per week per household). •It’s for our homes and schools. •It’s not for commercial use. •It’s not for on-sale. •If you see abuses tell me - trucks loading, vandalism, rubbish dumping, green waste dumping ILLEGAL but some sociopaths still do it...! Goodwill: The tree chip is provided free by Armes Tree Solutions and by Downer and by TreeTech. It’s goodwill. It’s not a fund raiser. But DO consider these companies if you need tree work done… What & why: It’s a chopped-up mix of fresh leaf, twig, bark and wood. Spread it around trees (5 or 10 cm deep), on veggie and flower beds to form a natural blanket. It’s all good. The blanket will: •Buffer soil temperature extremes, •Suppress weeds, •Conserve soil water, •Increase soil organic matter •Increase soil aeration, •Increase soil drainage.Most of us are on sand with very low soil-water storage and very low soil-mineral storage. •Tree chip mulch will gradually increase both. Ratios: The ratios of leaf, twig, bark and wood vary from batch to batch. •Choose leafier stuff if you want faster breakdown and more minerals. •Choose woodier stuff if you want slow breakdown and longer blanketing.___________________________________