Chop and drop is exactly as it sounds – to chop a plant or tree, and drop the trimmings back on the ground. When the tops are cut the roots slough off adding carbon, organic matter and boosting soil biology. Short roots not so much – that’s why you should let your lawn grow long!
Use chop and drop to boost vigour in your food crops by chopping and dropping the companion plants that grow around/ beneath/ alongside fruit trees, vegies or berries.
Perennials: Once you get into chop and drop you’ll appreciate the vigorous plants that grow like weeds (including the actual weeds!) cos they provide lots of stems and foliage, and spring back after chopping. So many of our fav garden companions fit this bill – comfrey, alexanders, chicory, fennel, rhubarb, yarrow etc.
Annuals: i.e. the greencrops, herbs and flowers planted alongside your vegies.
Trees: e.g. tree lucerne, alder, buddleia, silverberry, poroporo, tree medick and more besides are valuable additions dotted throughout the orchard or amongst shelter. Choose ones that grow fast and provide loads of leafy branches and stems which can either be used as mulch, or put through a chipper to create garden gold – ramial chip.
How to chop and drop
Let plants grow tall before chopping them with a garden shark, scythe or weedeater. Leave a generous stub after cutting. Chop selectively – leave the plants that are producing or that you are enjoying, then drop the chopped stuff back onto the ground from where it came, or add it to a compost pile or use it to mulch another spot.
Chop trees one of two ways – limb them up, which is to remove all the shoots and branches on the lower trunk, or coppice them, which is to cut them back to a stump from where they will resprout. Not all trees will coppice, so choose varieties with care.
When to chop and drop
Do your first chop of the season in spring – mid to late depending on how soon growth gets going. Where plants are thriving, this one chop will probably be all that’s needed.
- More frequent chop and drop creates a more nitrogen-rich mulch because there’s more greenery and fewer flower stalks and seed heads. Use this to boost fertility of fruit trees, berries or vegies by chopping and dropping the plants around them more often.
- Less frequent chopping creates a more carbon-rich mulch because there’re more flower stalks and seed heads, and less greenery. Do this where plants are growing well and don’t need extra.
Do your last chop of groundcover plants in early/ mid autumn so as to leave lots of seedheads, flowers and stalks for habitat and food for birds and beneficials through winter.
Chop and drop has practical application as well. Use it to:
- improve airflow during wet periods or in damp gardens.
- improve light to vegies and fruits.
- clear the ground before fruit-fall for the fruits and nuts that drop when ripe like hazels, feijoas and passionfruit.
- create paths where ever needed e.g. to fruit trees or bulk crops like potatoes, that are ready to harvest.
- manage weeds – chop and drop before seeding.