RE: Thou Shall Not Rely on Woodchips Alone
I've a similar but slightly different problem - we put some redundant topsoil on the terraced beds at the back of the house and I've discovered it is full, FULL, of convolvulus roots and suckers, which are very happy to be watered and sitting in the sunniest part of the garden and are growing beautifully through ANYTHING. I'm busy with a hoe most days, but they need lifting out as even the tiniest piece regenerates. I guess one hope is that it enters into battle with the bamboo that has escaped from next door and they strangle each other. Good tip about the paper, although my favourite broadsheet has just started printing in tabloid size - not such useful coverage as double the joins and overlaps. Those fields next to your property are a problem, aren't they - such divergent practices from yours.
The farming that goes on around us is not at all in tune with our goals. I try not to get so worked up about it (i get much more enraged by cabbage moths)! There's not a thing that i can do about it right now. Our next home, our final piece of land (we hope) will be more in line with our visions. We have made several friends lately just thirty kilometers west of where we are now: they some of them are already not spraying their crops - the other, their neighbor a farmer of about 350 head of cattle has gone no-dig and is decreasing the amount they spray. Finding those types of people to live by would be amazing.
Would be great to have a community of people farming with similar methods. I hear you about cabbage moths, here it's slugs. One warm damp summer we had so many that national newspapers started writing articles about the value of slugs in the cycle of decay and decomposition. No one suggested them as a food source, though.
I'm they're 'delicious' somewhere in the world! Haha
I had a post that i resteemed a while back about snail farming that was pretty interesting!
We have had slugs, more at our previous residence, but not ever a problem with them. Do they destroy the garden? My understanding is that beer is the answer to slugs? (Not to mention a million others;)
*Source: Pixabay.com
They do destroy the garden. They seem to be very partial to any plants we grow as food. Beer is probably the best option for anyone (me) that's squeamish.