A Time to Chip

April 17, 2026

On April 14 (Tuesday), Bruce put on coveralls in the morning for body protection to chip branches. I thought I might help him, so I put on coveralls as well.

Earlier this year, to create an in-ground garden bed, I put down cardboard and covered it with leaves. The plan was to let the cardboard kill the grass, use the leaves to hold the cardboard down, and to let the leaves rot to provide organic matter. It turns out that whole oak leaves don’t break down quickly. That part was a bust. The rest worked out.

Before heading to chip, Bruce helped me move the metal frame A-frame over the in-ground garden. I finally found a use for the A-frame we found in the barn. Once the A-frame was in place, Bruce helped me repurpose an old farm gate as a trellis. To hold the gate vertical, he pounded stakes through the cardboard and leaves into the ground. We positioned the gate the over the stakes and slid the gate onto the stakes.

Bruce took the mower, pulling the cart carrying a shovel and the chainsaw, to the back pasture. He wanted to do some chipping.

I started moving dirt to build the in-ground bed. To do this, I shoved dirt over the leaf-covered cardboard with the Bama Dirt Pro Mix.

Bruce arrived with a cartload of chips from the original chip pile. He wanted to know where to put the chips. I told him to put the chips around the new strawberry plants. Bruce parked the cart next to the strawberry garden bed and we shoveled the chips into the bed. The chips were a lot lighter than the dirt I had been shoveling. I made sure the chips didn’t cover the leafing out plants.

Bruce went back to fill the empty cart with the last chips from the old chip pile. I continued moving dirt. Bruce returned with another cartload of chips. I helped Bruce put the chips around the rhubarb and horseradish planted in D1( the tall perennial bed). Bruce used up the mound of chips from the previous chipping session.

Bruce hitched the chipper to the lawn mower and off he went to chip more branches. I heard him using the chainsaw to cut up branches that had been set aside. These branches were too crooked or too long to fit into the chipper easily. I heard the chainsaw stop and the chipper start up.

While Bruce was busy trying to discover how many chips a Bruce could chip, I was making progress the in-ground garden bed.

I heard the chipper stop. Bruce stopped by to let me know he was going to cool off and to get some water. After getting some water, on the way back to the chipping operation, Bruce stopped to give me some water. He helped me out by dumping three buckets of dirt. Bruce headed back to his chipping operation.

After I finished moving dirt, I planted beets underneath the A-frame trellis. Since the beets will take time to mature, I won’t need to harvest the beets until later. This will prevent me from crawling under the netting covered trellis for a harvest. Once the cucumbers and pole beans finish, we can move the trellis to harrvest the beets.

While I was wrapping the A-frame trellis with netting, I heard the chipper stop. Bruce stopped to let me know he had chipped all of the pile of branches that were ready for chipping.

I finished wrapping the netting around the A-frame trellis. I planted pole beans on one side of the frame and cucumbers on the other side of the frame.

On the gate, I planted several different types of melons: Crimson Watermelon, a hybrid of Charentais and Asian melons, a French Charentais. On the sides of the gate, I planted globe basil. I love how globe basil looks. At the end of the in-ground bed, I planted okra, bush squash, and basil.

That was enough work for the day!

Here are some pictures I took later in the day as we walked around Blackberry Homestead.