We're Rich!!!

We’re rich!  I don’t know much about money because I’m a gardener and a teacher. However, I do know about woodchips, and I know that woodchips are gold. I’m looking out my tree library window at loads and loads of woodchips.  I’ve never seen this many woodchips in my life. I spent the last 30 years chasing woodchip trucks all over town and begging for a load or two. These chippers are usually willing to take a phone number or address and say that they’ll get you some, but few ever deliver.  It has always been beyond me why these guys would be so stingy. When I heard a chainsaw on the block behind me on a recent Saturday morning I had to go see what was up.  It turns out that I was witnessing the beginning of Detroit’s biggest deforestation in decades, maybe half a century. Somebody somewhere decided it was time to do something about the neglected alley trees that have grown to tower over the power lines.  The whole East Side is crawling with orange chipping trucks like a nest of carpenter ants opened from a log. It was useful that I speak a little bit of Spanish because these guys were from Cuba, Mexico, and parts of Texas where English is not spoken. It was fun to have these visitors from such far away places in our neighborhood. I had no idea what was coming, but I did find “el jefe” and ask for a couple of loads of chips. Based on my experience with brush offs and broken promises, I did not expect to get one.

I was wrong.  This crew was happy to deliver a load that day, over fifty loads of wherever I pointed.  Honestly, it’s a miracle. My mother would say, “see you have to believe in Jesus.”  It has been a dream come true. What I do believe is that the universe is lining things up quite nicely for an arboretum and tree nursery to be built.  We have never seen such a massive deforestation of the urban landscape all at once. Nor have we seen this many woodchips available.  And guess what, neither have we seen solid plans to build an arboretum in the city of Detroit. I am grateful to this one man, “el jefe” who could, and would.  And you know what, he has been grateful to us and completely transparent about their dumping costs and the favor we are doing them. I am thankful to the universe that we are holding onto all of the biomass that almost left our community for suburban lawns.  Because that is where it all goes- these crews pay to dump somewhere thirty miles out at a plant where they triple shred it, dye it orange, and put in bags for sale at big box garden centers.

This mulch is staying here to ensure that the arboretum we are planting stays healthy and happy.  We will be able to mulch every single tree for a square mile with enough to give them a relaxed couple of drought-free years to grow.  And then a large dose of fertilizer as it breaks down into humus. By catching the right crew at the right time we are keeping 100% of the biomass in the community.  These trees grew here and they will have an afterlife here, becoming the next generation of trees. Only this time, instead of being an unappreciated scrub thicket around some poles and lines, they will be a stately colorful arboretum.  We love those thickets too, but clearly that set-up is not ideal for longevity; an arboretum is.

When these guys started dumping loads in the community garden there was a bit of a concern on our neighborhood list serv.  “Shouldn’t we stop these guys? Don’t you think this is too many woodchips?” My response was obvious and came naturally, “I’m not sure what too many woodchips looks like because I’ve never seen it.”