Wood Chippings

Jarrad, one of volunteers from Australia, got a part time job at Keya Golf Course, which is managed by an American called Andrew, who is in fact the only foreign greenskeeper in Japan. Every year they cut down trees at the golf course, hire a big wood chipper and shred them up, resulting in a large pile that they needed to do something with. So, I offered to help them out, or rather they helped us out. I hired a tipper truck for the day and Jarrad and myself ran several trips back and forth all day long collecting as much as we could. We got 9 x 2 tonne loads in total! In a race against time. At the golf course end there was a front loader which Jarrad was able to use to load the truck up. I can operate a digger myself, but I had not used a front loader before, so Jarrad gave me some instructions and I had a few goes. I wasn’t as good as Jarrad, who is good at everything practical, but good enough, so I can do it myself in the future.

Once back at base, the volunteers spent several days spreading the chippings over the tea fields, blueberries and kitchen garden. For the tea fields and blueberries it will act as a mulch, suppressing the weeds, retaining moisture, and it will also lower the ph levels of the soil a little as it breaks down, which is what the tea fields and blueberries needed. As for the kitchen garden it is just to keep the weeds down in the pathways and make the area look a little more attractive.

Things always look great when they are first done so it will be interesting to see how long it lasts. At some point it will all turn to soil and more will need to put down.

The great thing is, we didn’t have to pay for it! Just a few beers and an offer to stay in our guest house for Andrew.

Thanks to Jarrad for organising this for us.