My friend who owns a large (and extremely attractive!) mobile home development has asked me to take some of the mountain of wood chips he has on the back lot. It's a lot closer than driving "up the mountain" to the Township Transfer Station. Plus, the township has been selling it's product to some company that then resells it, which I think is patently unfair since residents give their tree trimmings, brush, etc. for free to the township and have always then had the option to get back the resulting ground up mulch for free. But I digress.
The only problem is that Jerry did not want to unchain the gate into the backlot and told me I could drive around it. Which I did, but it's a slightly hair-raising, white-knuckle experience. 
Had to wee-jee the truck between a massive concrete pylon, a No Trespassing sign, and a giant boulder. I can do it, but I have to fold the exterior rear view mirrors back flat against the truck. Then there's the tall grass on the other side. Fortunately, nothing terrible hidden in it, no boards with nails or rusting bedsprings. But that first pass thru was pretty scary.
I made three hauls. The first was just a few buckets that I took because I wasn't sure what I'd find.
The surprise was that it's not all wood chips. The first big pile is what locally is called "stump grindings"...that mix of wood chips and dirt that results when a stump grinder is used. I hauled in one enormous load of that because it is the best fast start to making new good soil I know. I spread it thickly on some spots that I've been trying to build up in the Woodland Garden. I also used some on the lower part of the Below the Deck Garden, where the soil is clay.
The third haul was a big load of well-aged wood chips and that's going onto the Below the Deck Garden. I'll need at least 3 more truckloads to finish this one garden area. I'd also like to get mulch on the Front Border, which is scheduled for a big re-do this spring; I'm estimating another 2 loads for that.
It's not easy work, but it's not back-breaking either. I don't shovel directly into the bed of the truck. I fill up whatever big buckets/containers I have and lift them into the bed. The average 5-gallon bucket of mulch weighs about as much as a bag of groceries, so although repetitive and tedious, not too exhausting. It's also a lot easier to unload containers than to shovel off a full load.
I also moved all my hardy flats back into the greenhouse, planted second carrots, some old sweet pea seeds that I doubt are going to come up, and seeded chives into pots in the greenhouse. Very excited to see that my penstemon seeds that have been kept in the greenhouse under cold conditions have germinated and are coming up nicely. In the house, my pelargoniums have germinated as has the basil seed. A bit concerned that I'm not seeing a lot more growth on the coleus and petunia seedlings despite being on a heat mat and getting a dose of Miracle-Gro; they are probly sulking because the air temps in the house aren't into the 80s, which these plants adore.
Worried about my peas; I planted them on March 14 and I surely thought I'd see some signs of germination by now. I wonder if those intensely cold nights we had killed the seeds? It doesn't seem likely, peas are pretty frost hardy, but I like to worry.
Asparagus is starting to send up little sprouts; I'm hoping for a harvest from that bed this year, even if it's only a few spears.
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