Mulching...what a wonderful discovery. Having crisply mulched walkways and beds saves time, excuses me from handweeding/hoeing in the hot sun, and gives the land an aesthetic uniformity that proves it is well loved. There are many mulch mediums, the most common being hay, straw, plastic, and compost. But, of course, the farms I visited are not ones for convention. Alison didn't use mulch, and although I never asked her why, I assume her reasoning would be something along the lines of "ehhh, don't really need it." Pitchfork Farm had a live mulch, placing sod in the walkways for grass to grow. (Yes, they would cut the grass between beds when needed and no, I failed to take a picture). And a plastic covering for the beds, with little holes for the plants to grow.
As for Sky Meadow, Miles and Cella had a little mulch experiment going from earlier in the season. They placed cardboard around the squash mounds and down a few rows to see what happened to the weeds beneath. Fast forward a few months, and a relatively weed-free path remained. So now they not only have beautiful garden, but a way to recycle those cardboard boxes they receive from buying food in bulk.
OK, it looks a little ugly. And they're running a retreat center with paying guests wanting to get back to nature n' all. So efficiency is a priority, but aesthetics isn't too far down the list. In comes my job for the afternoon: raking up the cut grass after Miles mowed a field, hauling it into a wheelbarrow, and scattering it onto the cardboard to conceal it. The results: efficient AND pleasing to the eyes. Who knew.
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