If you have read through our blogs and watched our videos, you would know by now that we love to keep our soils mulched at all times, and our preferred mulch is wood chips. We are often scorned at by those who perceive wood chips to be a very expensive mulch.
The truth is that for us wood chips are free! It is because we have planted over 5000 trees at Aanandaa Permaculture over the years. Every year, these trees need pruning, cutting and trimming, and we generate so much wood from our food forest that we produce upwards of 100 Quintals (10 Tons) of mulch each year.
Between October and January, when the weather is cold and the trees are dormant, we undertake a large tree trimming exercise: we cut the fruit trees for shape, prune the smaller ones for better fruiting, and cut back the large native and flowering trees to let the sun come in. This has the dual benefit of allowing other plants to grow under these trees, and producing large amounts of wood for mulch.
The cut branches are collected and sorted based on thickness. Anything bigger than 6 cm in diameter is kept aside for poles, pillars and bridges. Everything else, including the leaves, is taken to the wood chip machine, which is similar to a Toka machine used to chop fodder for cattle, but with a much stronger blade, a conveyor belt, and an outlet that throws the output straight into the trailer.
Here is a glimpse of how the wood chips are produced. This machine is very similar to a Toka machine - the ones commonly used to chop fodder for the cattle. Except that it has a much stronger blade, has a conveyor belt, and an outlet that throws the output straight into the trailer. As can be seen in the video below, it is quite powerful and chops the material very fast.
The wood chips are piled up in a convenient location close to the walking path, so we can fill up the wheelbarrow and make trips to our raised beds or wherever needs mulch. In 2020, we invested in a wood chip machine at Aanandaa itself, saving labour and transport. 
For us, this is pure gold. Honest, organic and fresh mulch, made from our own biomass - nutrients being returned to the same place they were extracted from. In 2019 we made almost 6-7 trips to the wood chip processor. In 2020, we invested in a wood chip machine at Aanandaa itself, as it saves us the labour and transport. Take a look at the video below to see how it works!
Finally, just remember. The only way to better the quality of your soil is to mulch, mulch, mulch!
