Tired of mulch

Well, at least my legs are. Tired of mulch that is. That huge (approximately 10 cubic yards) pile of wood chipping on my driveway finally got shifted this past weekend...

...at least partially. Last year I moved the entire pile myself (64 wheelbarrow loads!) over two days, but this year I had a friend helping me for the first day. He loaded while I wheeled, which gave me a short rest in between trips into the back yard. So nice!

***

My goal was not to clear the driveway of mulch, but to make enough room for the car to comfortably fit in the driveway again without blocking the sidewalk.

So the "junk" mulch -- and I call it that since it's not made from one type of wood, nor is it hardwood mulch -- got spread all over my back yard.

The first thing I did was refresh the path that leads downhill from the driveway to the pond:

(I really should have taken an uphill photo of this, as you can't really see the mulched path well from this angle.)

I dumped some in the bed nearest the house, where I keep large pots of plants and have trouble with weeds coming up between them:

(One interesting note: I covered up a chipmunk hole with that load. I don't suppose they'll mind having to dig through a few inches of wood chips -- they probably appreciate the extra privacy.)

I focused most of the mulching on the very back of the yard, where it meets the wilder common ground. You know, back in front of the bamboo:

And in front of my compost pile:

Also around the pond, where the bench test is still going on:

There was some put into my fenced veggie garden, where the chips make the area around the raised beds so much nicer to walk on, and almost weed-free:

I'll have to spread that out of course as standing on 18" (46cm) of mulch defeats one purpose of raised beds, but there's time for that later. With dozens and dozens of loads to distribute, you don't waste time with precision!

When my friend wanted to take a turn wheeling, I just had him dump it in a pile on the driveway in back:

I don't want to use all of the mulch right now -- it's good to keep some in reserve just in case, and that's what this pile will be: my reserve.

After two and a half hours or so, I decided that we'd done enough for the day. Obviously there was still quite a bit of work left to do.

Even though it takes a lot of effort, I'm really thankful that the local power utility offers this service. My plants thank you -- even though my legs (still sore days later) do not!


Note that I spent time on Sunday spreading 20 or so more wheelbarrow loads of this -- in the much colder temperatures -- but there's still a good-sized pile left.

.