August Jobs in My Forest Garden

My forest garden in August is a busy and abundant space. Those of you who have your own gardens will likely understand that this is a busy time of the year but also, excitingly, a time when much of your hard work will be paying off in the form of several fruit harvests.

One of the main jobs that I have been getting on with this month is chopping and dropping.

Chopping and dropping is something that I will tend to do repeatedly throughout different parts of the year. But late summer is a time when many herbaceous plants in the garden are chopped and dropped, including the comfrey, for the last time this year.

As the name implies, «chop and drop» involves simply chopping off organic material and dropping it as mulch around nearby plants–most commonly around a fruit tree in a fruit tree guild or forest garden–though also in other garden systems. 

Learn more here: Useful Plants to Chop and Drop in a Forest Garden

I find it beneficial to chop and drop at this time to neaten things up a little after the boom in plant growth over the last few months. It allows me to make sure that I can access all areas easily to manage the top fruit harvests that are to come.

Chopping and dropping in August also helps to ensure that the soil does not dry out—though this year here, where I live in Scotland, we have had an extremely wet summer with far more rain than we would usually expect.

Chopping herbaceous plants and dropping them as mulch is also accompanied by pruning some trees and shrubs.

Another reason for chopping and dropping, and pruning for mulch is to spread nitrogen-rich material throughout the garden. I have a pile of Elaeagnus prunings, for example, awaiting shredding once we manage to get the garden shredder repaired.

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