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Nice job. I have an area in one spot where my GS put down chips without the cardboard underlayment. Lots of weeds popping up through. I plan to layer some cardboard over those chips, and then add more chips or leaves this fall.Try calling your electric company. They usually contract out to tree companies to trim their electric lines. Mine contracts to 3 different places. I called my rural electric and they put me on the list for all 3 companies. So far, I've gotten 2 loads. I still need a bunch more, but it's more than I had.
I agree with LG. If you use fresh poo, it would be too hot for your plants. If you could compost it a few months first, that would help a lot. Have you tried liquid fish emulsion? That might help.
I've wondered about the round up. Around here, the state usually sprays their right of way along the highways with some kind of weed killer. It kills all the grass & trees, so they don't have to mow/trim as much. Thankfully, the counties don't do that. They get tree companies to do the trimming. I have noticed that some of the companies when chipping the trees just shoot it back out on the ground instead of into a truck bed.
I throw my coffee ground into the run along with everything else. I had a compost pile, but took it down to expand my garden. I decided it would be much easier to let my chickens turn it for me. That compost gets heavy and hard to turn at times.
Thanks for starting this thread LG. I try to read anything I can on the BTE method.
I started my BTE garden last fall. I wasn't able to get chips, so I used leaves. I put down cardboard, composted cow manure & leaves/pine straw. I left it all winter & as long as I could in the spring to give it time to cook. I did end up planting late due to a lot of rain we had during the spring. I started out small since this would be my first garden I've done by myself. We did have one several years ago that did really good since it was planted where we had our horse corral. Lots of horse apples in that soil.
I finally got everything planted and it slowly grew. Then it really took off. I thought I had everything spaced far enough apart. But it turned into a jungle.
I finally got a load of chips, so used part of the first load to expand my garden. My chips had lots of leaves & twigs.
I used the rest of my chips to put on my new orchard. I don't know if I like it or not. I have grass growing up everywhere!! I have no desire to get out there and weed my orchard. I'm seriously thinking about pulling most of it up to use in the garden. I did not put down cardboard or paper. I would put it deeper, but I don't know when/if I will be getting any more chips. I could leave it and then just pile leaves on top this fall. I really don't know what to do.
I'm finding that it's very important for me to put down cardboard to exclude the weeds from coming up through. Those weeds are persistent, especially the shrubby ones. The orchard is mostly covered with those. My dump stopped separating the recyclables, so my source of cardboard disappeared overnight. I hit pay dirt at Sears. Picked up a bunch of boxes one Saturday in the tool department. One fellow said I could come back and get more any time. So, the following Saturday, I called the manager, and was able to back the truck up to one of their receiving bays and load the whole bed with huge broken down boxes. I pull all of the packing tape and staples off each box before putting it down.
