MAD for the MULCH - Using WOOD CHIP to SHEET MULCH FRUIT TREES | PERMACULTURE FOOD FOREST FARM

We planted quite a few fruit trees and bushes at the start of the year and today we are sheet mulching a 15m row of forest garden in the market garden. This row of cherries, plums apples and autumn olive really need the weeds knocked back by applying layers of cardboard, bed sheets (cotton) and any old clothes (again cotton, wool, natural fibres) and then a thick layer of woodchip to really suppress the weeds. We use our two wheel tractor/BCS and trailer to move loads of woodchip up into the veg garden with help of our two volunteers. Our crazy farm dog loves to help in his own special way! We also make another bundle or two of tree hay from our willow hedges that border the organic veg gardens.
About Tap o' Noth Farm:
Hi, we're James and Rosa! Welcome to Tap o' Noth Farm, a quarter acre Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) market garden and 8 acre permaculture designed forest garden farm/homestead in Aberdeenshire, NE Scotland. We practice home scale to small farm scale agroforestry and regenerative agriculture methods to produce organic fruit and vegetables, raise dairy goats for all our raw milk needs, Shetland sheep and geese to graze our silvopasture and coppice systems and laying hens, moved around in a Chickshaw, for an abundance of eggs.
Patreon: / tapfarm​​​
If you're looking for even more content from James and Rosa then you can become a patron of Tap Farm. It takes James between 5-10 hrs to edit our vlogs, let alone the time it takes to film and farm at the same time! Your support will aid us greatly in producing our FARMVLOGS, enabling us to take the time needed to craft a beautiful film and to help fund the licences needed for the vlog soundtrack. We will list your name at the end of each vlog episode so everyone knows how brilliant you are! We will also keep you updated on our farm work/life by posting exclusive video content that is not available on KZbin such as FARMVLOG outtakes, behind the scenes footage, hints & tips and more in depth videos discussing the many permaculture systems to be found on the farm PLUS the odd photo from Rosa and James.
INSTAGRAM - @TAPFARM
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#permaculture #woodchip #mulch
mulch your garden, no dig

[@Mandy-cn5cl]

Also what a gold mine a tree surgeon as a neighbour !!!

[@TapoNothFarm]

Totally!

[@gardeningperth]

Love the drone shot at the beginning!

[@TapoNothFarm]

Cheers!

[@juuritarha]

Thank you kindly! What a joy to see. Enjoyed the way you implemented that "disclaimer" about natural materials as mulch haha!

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you Julia!

[@myacreagegarden]

This was great to watch!! We use cardboard in our no dig beds and that keeps the weeds out for a decent amount of time!!

[@garywwess1]

i should get a life, but nothing will get as good as yours, so i wil just sit here & watch jealously.. awesome vid..

[@TapoNothFarm]

Aw, thanks so much!!

[@Angela152half]

The garden is looking so good.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you!

[@sylviabradley7355]

The gardens are looking great💥

[@TapoNothFarm]

Many thanks!

[@Supwiyaman]

Epic man

[@cchambers8632]

In the USA, Autumn Olive is considered an invasive species. Much time and money is spent trying to get rid of it. It is interesting how the same plant is viewed in different countries.

[@Mandy-cn5cl]

Great lovely to see ..I put 12th he's with no sheet mulch & still got creeping buttercups & docks 😣 but it's okay the blackcurrant survived ☺

[@nenemaria-cornfieldsgarden]

Oran seems like an endless source and entertainment (and nuisance, I imagine 😉).

[@TapoNothFarm]

oh yes!

[@emct81]

This was so interesting. I have some towels that need replacing and I was unsure if I could use them as mulch, but I am now convinced. Also good to see that you keep the labels on your delivery boxes... the hours I have spent peeling these off...!

[@TapoNothFarm]

Yep, so many things can be used...we always strive to use non synthetic materials, but we also have to be practical, work with what we have and not spend too much time on things...hence why we don't always remove labels etc...though always try and remove the sticky tape! Thanks so much for watching.

[@yeagerxp]

Awesome 👍👍👍Thanks for sharing

[@TapoNothFarm]

No worries, thanks for watching!

[@zorrochilla]

always a great vlog!

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you!

[@kathleenthow5321]

Oh an after thought--What has taken you guys so long to grow rhubarb? Such a versatile veg! So many delightful tasting varieties out there and recipes -sweet and savoury.--A wee spoonful of jam has so much less sugar than a chocolate bar!!! Vast majority of Scottish farmhouses always had a rhubarb patch- such an undemanding plant--only well rotted cow manure needed and that's it!!!

[@TapoNothFarm]

Hahaha....we do actually have a sneaky rhubarb or two in our front garden, just no bed space devoted to it in the market garden.

[@kathleenthow5321]

@@TapoNothFarmThe Blacksmith there at one time would be so pleased to have stewed blanched rhubarb for dessert after the long winter. One of first signs of spring.

[@kathleenthow5321]

Wow you sure grow a great variety of quality fruit "n" veg. but how do you keep snackers away from cherries???? That must be a difficult task. Hah! Hah! Had a chuckle at the helpers transporting two empty barrows at once-- a new one on me!!! Must try it out here at home. My winter kale has been attacked by pesky flea beetles. Masses of 'em. So got out a dusting of diatomaceous earth ==made 'em scarper --non toxic and safe to use near food--rain will later wash it off . Copied the cardboard "n" wood mulch (rough sawdust from power saw) on a grassy pathway and it worked so well going to do more this autumn. I chopped straggly lookin' comfrey plants back mid July and now have beautiful bushy plants for going into next year! The comfrey chop went on to the carrots and they are now a bountiful crop --waste not want not!! The wonders of comfrey. Have a great week.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Yeah it was a new one on us too (the wheelbarrow technique)! Sounds like things are all working well for you...GO COMFREY!

[@breaker-one-nine]

Good call on the rhubarb. 👍 Just canned a load of stewed rhubarb for winter. 😄

[@TapoNothFarm]

Nice!

[@DE2borknot2b]

This would be my lazy way of emptying your cart full of wood chips (awesome getting wood chips!)...I couldn't quite tell if there was room to drive around all the cardboard, etc. on the ground but I'm so lazy I would have driven that cart where the wood chips would be dumped on the ground. My husband often shakes his head @ me as I will find the short cut to do anything ....😄😄😄

[@TapoNothFarm]

Ha, yes that's true, but there wasn't enough room to drive alongside the tree row due to not wanting to compact the veg beds.

[@mydanishgarden3112]

First minute of the video you're thinking to yourself, who does all the work on the farm? 🤔💭😂 Such a great idea including rhubarb, we added more rhubarb into the garden this year. Great effort, would love to visit you one day if we fly across to Scotland.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks so much! We offer farm tours so if you do ever make it over, look us up!

[@mydanishgarden3112]

@@TapoNothFarm thank you so much, you guys will definitely be on my list of things to do and places to see 😊

[@pauleaton6908]

Nice work guys, why lovage and fenel amongst the fruit trees? And do you have any concerns about the willow roots competing with your veg? I'm planning a similar wind break around my kitchen garden so great to see what you guys have achieved. .

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thank you! Lovage and fennel as they are umbelliferae, so great for bringing in beneficial insects (and we enjoy them as herbs!). No probs with the willow though I wish we had planted them further away from the pathways and beds, more to allow better access. We have a row of willow, then perhaps 2 m of grass path before the first veg plot.

[@pauleaton6908]

@@TapoNothFarm thanks for the advice guys, I'm putting my willow in in a couple of weeks so I'll leave myself plenty of space.

[@ricos1497]

Great job, it'll be interesting to see how long those trees take to take up that space. Is it not possible to grow other annual crops around that area instead of using mulch (obviously, that'd be within the mulch layer now!)? Or would that significantly hinder the growth of the trees? I'm thinking of something like the methods of Syntropic farming (Ernst Goetsch). I'm guessing that the mulch has similar effect.

[@TapoNothFarm]

Thanks! Yeah, it would totally be possible to carry on growing annual veg below the trees...but we just wanted to phase that out in that part of the garden (also the weeds that are there are pretty bad). Once we establish the rhubarb and plant a whole bunch of comfrey, they will perform the same task as the woodchip mulch.