J Blair

marco - thanks so much for your description. I have been trying to figure out how to use cover crops.   I have access to lot of wood chips, and have been wondering about using them on the annual veg beds - just on top.  It sounds to me like your nitrogren fixing cover crops offset any "nitrogen deficiency", yes? I am trying to figure out how to start - if I put wood chips on the beds first, do I need to wait until they break down a bit before cover crop seeds can germinate?  

garlic - great idea,thanks!
thanks also for the links

this year I was diligent about cover cropping, mulching (with cardboard, and some very weedy/grass areas with black plastic) in an attempt to not have bare soil.  One unfortunate result was that voles have found the cover to be quite convenient.  They ate all my brussel sprout plants almost as soon as I set them out.  I also think they are eating the stems of my squash - not the squash, just the main stem which of course kills the whole plant!  At first I thought it was gophers (which I continually trap), but I have found pathways under the mulch, and I saw a vole running through the squash, so now I think it is probably voles.

I don't want to leave the soil bare!  Anyone have advice for having mulch and cover, and also not losing plants to voles?

thanks mike for your description of what you are doing. I have a lot of old cotton t-shirts I have been saving -  I knew they would come in handy some day.  Do you plan on doing anything to the top of the trees to keep their height "low"?  I have trees drafted on semi-dwarf rootstock, and I am hoping to keep them at a height that won't require much ladder work, but I am not sure how to handle it (I have ordered the book you mentioned, maybe that will give me the info)

I had the same question after watching the DVD, wondering if training as is described in the DVD is a good approach for harvest results, and taking less time.   I read through replies and seems like most are talking about what to use to train the tree (wire vs rope etc).  Ignoring the material used to train the branches - does anyone have feedback on the shape that the DVD described?  One big quesiton for me is what to do with the top of the tree- bend it over too?  thanks - I tried to research the french authors but I don't speak french

great ideas, thanks everyone

Is it ok to leave fruit tree prunings on the ground around the tree that the prunings came from?  I don't have a chipper, sometimes I use loppers to cut them into smaller pieces, but by no means are they "chips". I group them under the tree (in my "walkway" that I use when accessing the interior of the tree, in other places under the tree I have groundcover plants).  I was hoping eventually they will break down and provide the conditions that trees like (I can never remember if bacterial or fungal, I just remember wood chips).  Someone told me that leaving the prunings would create the condition for pests to overwinter, so now I wonder what I should do.  I have apple, pear, prune trees.  Thanks