There’s a new method of garden maintenance in town. It’s known as “chop and drop,” and it can make your gardening life a lot easier.
We’re here to tell you a few things about chop and drop gardening – like what it is, how to do it, and why you’ll want to.
Jump to:
- What is ‘Chop and Drop’ Gardening?
- 1. No More Heavy Lifting and Carting!
- 2. It Feeds Your Soil
- 3. Saves Work!
- 4. Saves Time!
- 5. Saves Money!
- 6. Helps Reduce Pest and Disease Imports
- 7. It Protects Pollinators, Beneficial Insects, and Wildlife
- Chop and Drop – A Good Maintenance Method for Any Time of Year
- Are There Drawbacks to the Chop and Drop Maintenance Method?
What is ‘Chop and Drop’ Gardening?
Chop and drop is just what it sounds like.
When you’re out in the garden, and you’re trimming, deadheading, weeding, or pruning, you just drop the trimmings in place as you go.
No raking, no collecting, no hauling, and no secondary composting.
Let’s look more specifically at what makes chop and drop gardening and yard maintenance so great.
1. No More Heavy Lifting and Carting!
Here’s benefit number one.
You literally drop what you pull or chop in place. The stems and foliage you remove will dry down and compost, then eventually become part of the soil.
Which means, you don’t need to gather and lift large piles of garden refuse. And you don’t have to haul them away to a compost pile to be hauled back later as soil amendments, either.
2. It Feeds Your Soil
As that detritus breaks down, it will feed your soil and build up organic matter, just like it would if you did haul it off and compost it. What you drop becomes valuable, nutritious, moisture-holding hummus.
Your trimmings return to and replenish the soil. A very natural process and cycle of plant life.
It’s a lot like composting but without all the work of hauling, turning, finishing, and then rehauling back to the garden.
3. Saves Work!
All that not hauling saves a lot of work. How much easier would gardening be if you could just run through your pruning, trimming, and weeding and then not have to go back to pile and clean it all up later?
How much easier would that be on your back and muscles?
So much less work!
4. Saves Time!
How much faster would that make your garden maintenance?
Less work equals less time.
Maybe if you incorporate more chop and drop, you can find more time for gardening. Less stress to fit it all in?
Or maybe less time so you have time for more or bigger gardens, perennials, or landscape features?
Ot simply more time to sit and enjoy your gardens?
What more can we say? Chop and drop is a quick maintenance method. With benefits.
5. Saves Money!
Chop and drop can save money in a few ways, but two of the biggest are on fertilizer and mulch.
You’re returning plant material (which holds moisture, nutrients, and important texture and organic matter) to the soil.
As you do, those plant parts cover up and build a layer of material on the ground that helps to block out light and soil access that weeds need to grow.
It’s like up-cycling unwanted plants and weeds into money-saving mulch, fertilizer, and soil amendments that keep your soil replenished.
6. Helps Reduce Pest and Disease Imports
If you’re not bringing in things like compost, mulch, and even natural fertilizer from outside sources, you’re not bringing in anything those products might bring with them.
Of course, all of these are good things in your garden and in your landscape, but if you don’t need them, or don’t need as much of them, you also stop carrying anything that happens to be living in that mulch or compost to your yard.
Products from outside sources can be hiding things like
- Fungal spores
- Disease-causing organisms
- Insect pests
- Eggs or larvae that become insect pests
- Weed seeds or unwanted plant seeds (basically the same thing!)
- Rodents
- Chemical, pesticide, or herbicide residues
- Trash, contaminants, etc. (an issue to consider if you use services like free chip drop since a lot of that comes from roadside projects and cleanups)
7. It Protects Pollinators, Beneficial Insects, and Wildlife
How do chopping and dropping protect pollinators and other beneficial insects?
By giving them cover, food, and a place to hibernate in winter.
It also protects them because this a minimally disturbing method of cleaning up your yard and garden. That means, no tilling, no disturbing the ground, and no destroying overwintering hollows, stems, and spaces; no demolishing of insect or animal dens underground.
Chop and Drop – A Good Maintenance Method for Any Time of Year
You can use the chop and drop method of pruning and weeding throughout the whole year.
In the summer, the stalks and stems will dry out and break down quickly.
In the spring, they’ll start to feed the soil.
In the fall, they’ll be ready to spend the winter being broken down into accessible soil material and nutrients.
Even in the winter, even on snowy or frozen ground, the chopped pieces you drop can begin to break down (aided by freezing, thawing, and the processes of winter). They’ll be in a place where they can be accessed by new plants next year and begin to mulch your garden spaces before you ever start your spring season.
Are There Drawbacks to the Chop and Drop Maintenance Method?
Not many.
The biggest drawback is that it can leave your garden and landscape looking a little messy. This will be worse immediately after you prune, trim, deadhead, or cut back your plants.
Most stemmy trimmings will dry up and become unnoticeable in only a little time. Leaves and grasses, even less.
To overcome the messiness of the chop and drop method, instead of dropping everything in place, cut it and then scoot stacks of trimmings under the bottoms of larger plants and shrubs.
The shrubs or plants will hide the refuse, and it can work its magic, becoming one with the soil, mulching, feeding, and adding valuable organic material back to your garden’s soil.
One other thing to consider – and this can be a pro or a con – is that dropped plant stems give insects and wildlife places to hide. It’s not as much of an issue in a perennial garden, but if you find you’re having trouble with things like beetles and slugs, you might want to drop your choppings in a different location or be selective in where you use this method.
On the other hand, as we saw above, leaving choppings in place can be a big boon to beneficial insects and creatures, and that can turn that negative into a positive – especially if those good bugs are eating or beating out the bad.
The only other thing to watch for is this: If you are pulling and uprooting weeds and not cutting them off or trimming, piled-up root sections may have an opportunity to reroot.
Chopping and dropping on a dry stretch of days usually prevents this. You can also break the stem or take care of how you drop what you chop. If there’s no soil contact for the roots, they won’t really be able to reroot.
So, while there may be a few small drawbacks, they aren’t much of a drawback at all. In fact, even the messiness is really one of the benefits of its mulching and composting in place, which makes it one of the best reasons to do more chopping and dropping in your garden!
Leave a Reply