Got mulch?!?

I was fortunate enough to find a tree crew, which I call my orange truck guys, who could deliver some wood chips for free!  Unfortunately, they couldn't get the trucks with the booms to the back of my property, they felt it was unsafe because the path to get there had an incline they had to ride along.  So they dumped them in my driveway.  Two loads and 40 yards total!  Holy cow it's a big pile of mulch.

(40 yards of free mulch)

I will have to move it with the tractor but hey it was free right?!?

So what am I going to do with all this mulch?  Well, I'm planning a modified Back to Eden garden of sorts.  A few posts ago I mentioned that I had expanded my garden.  It will now include a 60' x 60' bed along with the original 25' x 50'.  I share with my neighbor so don't freak out and think it's all mine!  LOL! 

I have already placed mulch from a previous load of free chips (sadly that pile is almost gone!) between my rows of strawberries and over my asparagus patch.  The rest are for the garden.  I'm combining square foot gardening and Back to Eden gardening methods.  Since my plot is huge and raised beds are just not in the budget I am going to have to compromise. 

So the plan is to plant my plants in the square foot method and then mulch around them creating a semi Back to Eden faux raised beds.  The pathways are going to have to remain uncovered unless I can be fortunate enough to get more wood chips.  The only things I won't be covering with mulch are the potatoes. They get their own special treatment of straw mulching.  I did this last year and it worked fabulously.  I never watered the potatoes, they stayed moist because of the straw, and digging them up only required pulling the plants and moving dirt with my hands. 

In the 25' x 50' plot I will be attempting the 3 sisters method.  I know, a lot going on in my garden but how else to learn what works!  I will have corn, Missouri Wonder pole beans  and pumpkin, cantaloupe, and maybe some other winter squash in here.  I may put some teepees with some cowpea variety.

So it's an experiment.  I have a ton of varieties to grow, just see my seed hauls!  I think a mix of these gardening style methods are bound to work.  It can't hurt to try, right?

Stay tuned, it's almost time to start seeds indoors.  I almost can't wait!