Life is all about our systems and processes or to put it another way, habits and routines, or even another way – our patterns. We’ve all built up our own personal mesh of habits, routines and patterns – which have become a sprawling interwoven mesh with everyone else’s…
This post is about another good habit to get into which will hopefully fit nicely into your routine. Chop and Drop. Although it sounds like something more akin to Bruce Lee than gardening it is a great tool to maintain the mulch layer, which keeps the soil moist, which keeps the plants happy. If you choose the right plants to chop it will also actively fertilise the soil and the surrounding greenery.
Essentially all we are talking about here is trimming back a plant, and without moving your feet, chopping it up into small pieces so they create a layer of mulch right in front of you. It couldn’t be simpler and has the added bonus of being time and energy saving. You don’t have to cart everything to the compost, turn the compost, or bring the compost back to the garden beds. Just chop it and leave it where it is. A point to note is that if you have compost available put this down first, and then chop and drop on top of it. The mulch will keep the bacteria in your compost moist and happy.
The art is growing plants that suit your purpose. Essentially you want perennial plants that grow quickly and produce lots of leafy matter that will break down quickly. When I started gardening I found that pineapple sage was very easy to propagate, smells nice and is a bee magnet. In the interests of not having bare soil and a lot of space to cover I planted quite a few of them. This year they are growing to head height and taking over. They have a habit of growing tall and spindly stems which fall over and then root away from the parent plant. So a week ago I trimmed one to half its height to see if it would bush out, rather than get all leggy. Success! All the stems have leaves forming at the node below the cut. My pineapple sage now has another purpose in life – in situ mulch.
Some other plants that were born to chop and drop are:
- Comfrey – the ‘poster boy’ plant of chop and drop. In spring it really takes off – you can get two or three chops out of the warmer months before it retreats for the winter. Its large leaves are full of nutrients and essentially plant food. Each time you chop it, it’s roots release nitrogen into the soil feeding the surrounding plants. Also a joy to propagate. In Sydney’s climate this is the most useful non-edible plant there is. Grow lots.
- Green Manure – it depends on what season it is as to what plants are in the green manure. Generally, you purchase a packet of mixed seed (or make your own). But the purpose of growing it is to chop just as you see flowers forming. It is full of nitrogen fixers and will rejuvenate your soil.
- Yarrow – not as prolific growing, but easy to propagate and another accumulator of nutrients.
- Silverbeet, lettuce and parsley – let them go to seed and they get very big. Chop and drop when the seeds are mature and you have next seasons leafy greens already sown.
- Pidgeon Pea – a fast growing tall shrub that loves to be trimmed, and like comfrey, it’s roots will release nitrogen.
- Cape Gooseberry – this is another perpetual, prolific grower which gives you quite a bit of volume, and will self seed readily for next years chop.
- Cherry tomatoes – I can’t stop these growing everywhere and they sprawl up and over everything, so I put the annoying ones over the path to good use.
- Warrigal greens and Baby Sunrose – these ground covers spread all over the path in bulk. If you put them down directly on the soil they will likely root and grow, so if you don’t want this put comfrey leaves down first and these over the top. They are more likely to decompose before they resprout.
Weeds (I hate that term, but I’ll explain at a later date…) deserve a mention here too. If they aren’t the type of weeds that will root at the drop of a hat (eg. trad, turkey rhubarb) and aren’t full of seeds, then you can include them in the mulch. I usually put the weeds on last so that they have maximum opportunity to get baked and killed by the sun.
My preferred method to chop and drop is to use the shears and start at the outer parts of the plant and chop it down bit by bit. The downside to this method is that the young tree growing right next door might accidentally get more than a haircut, so exercise caution! The other method, which is more time consuming and relevant for woody stems, is to chop at the base and then just dice with secateurs.
The pictures show a couple of examples.
The Yellow Sapote was drowning in salvia, fennel, comfrey and pineapple sage. The trim will increase the amount of sun getting to the soil, so the mulch will do the tree a favour. The mix of mulch species also means a variety of nutrients are going back in to the soil.
The macadamia needed a feed, so I have put a bucket of compost around the base, then chopped a nearby comfrey and thrown the leaves around the base of the tree. There is nothing fancy about my methods!
You can start to see that if you are growing enough of the right plants, you can lessen the need to buy/ bring in products and create a more self-supporting system. All it takes is to tweak a few habits and weave them into your modified personal pattern.
