Orchard blackberry removal

We spent last Thursday morning at the KPU orchard at the south end of Gilbert Road.

There is a nice stand of winter wheat in among the garlic maturing at the orchard site. The wheat seed came with a straw mulch that was laid down when the garlic was planted. Both wheat and garlic appear to be thriving, creating an inadvertent polyculture. Researchers in China have reported that garlic mixed with winter wheat reduces grain aphid pressure. 

Sami is conducting an experiment just south of the garlic/wheat polyculture to test Canola Seed Meal and Enterra Natural Fertilizer as possible soil amendments to deter wireworms. He is using wheat as a trap crop to attract the wireworms.

The focus of the morning was blackberry removal. Blackberries had taken over a 20-foot (~6 m) swath along the north fence of the orchard. We want to use that space for flowering perennials. The city had just dropped off a green bin to haul away organic waste for composting, so it seemed like the perfect time to attack the blackberries.

As we beat back the blackberry vines we uncovered several compost piles that had been swallowed by brambles. It looked like people just kept building new composters as the old ones were engulfed.

We bundled the thorny branches in a tarp to haul to the green bin using the front-end loader. Over the morning we cleared about 100 square meters (1/40 ac) of blackberries, and deposited many bundles in the green bin. Now we can keep the brambles down with repeated close mowing along the fence.