Site Preparation - Stump Grinding
On 5/28/24, I rented the Vermer stump grinder (Stump Grinder Vermeer SC30TX) from https://www.pawpawrentals.com/ to take the remaining apple tree stumps to below ground level to allow for normal mowing in between the rows. As can be seen in the images below, the weeds got to mid-calf by the time stump grinding was finished.
Site Preparation - Weed Suppression
By 6/19/24, several passes with our John Deere 40 belly mower and followup walking/visual detection helped remove the large remaining wood pieces, allowing the grass to be maintained at a normal lawn height. The next step was to put down weed suppression mats or row cover. As can be seen below, we put down some fabric weed mat with cardboard underneath, the rest was accomplished with woven plastic, donated by Danny Hartmann of Hartmann's Plant Company <https://hartmannsplantcompany.com/>.
On 6/28/24 we rented a mini-trencher for burying the edges of the weed suppression mats (also from Paw Paw Rental). Burying the edges of the weed mat would keep it in place (a la Steven Sobkowiak at Miracle Farms in the film, "The Permaculture Orchard").
On 7/2 we began planting the kiwiberries into the rows. This process will be covered in a future post, but for weed suppression, the plastic sheeting was secured by burying one side and staking the other as the plants went in. It was melted with a soldering iron to go around the posts and over the tops of the plants so that it would not unravel. In the future, I would recommend trenching after the plastic sheeting is laid out so that appropriate spacing can be maintained between the trenches. It would also minimize soil exposure to time/rain/sun which can cause the soil used for burying to become hardened.
