rickg

So I've have a very good year so far and it's not over, but I'm thinking about next year and how to improve. Production is fine, but it ripening doesn't really happen until August and I'd like to bring that forward by about a month.

Info: I'm in the Seattle area and our springs warm slowly with the 50s and 60s lasting into May. May will see more 60s that not but 70s are still somewhat rare. Heat (mid-70s and low 80s) isn't really a thing until July. Because of this most advice has us waiting until mid-May to plant as night times are under 50 before then (and I really mean low to mid-40s).

I can enclose beds to make them a mini-high tunnel which will boost temps but this gets to the crux

Hey, I'm thinking of hiring folks to clear out a lot of ivy and blackberry from the back yard. I don't want to do the 'hire guy from home depot' or 'get some high school kids' bit and my back is messed up enough that it would take me a LOONG time.

Any have recs for a good, reliable place in the area who does this?

Folks in my other post on renting goats are split about their usefulness and cost-effectiveness, which is making me reconsider whether to hire folks to come do this. If anyone has recommendations based on their experience, please post them below.

NOTE: Please no "you can get some guys at Home Depot/hire some kids/just call around/spray it all with herbicide" replies. I know I could call around - what I'm after are recs. Same with the HD/hire some kids thing - I don't want to manage random workers. And finally I'm not using herbicides (there are veggie beds in the yard).

The blackberry is starting up again and I still have some ivy. I'm considering renting goats to come in and decimate this. Anyone done this? If so, how was it? I'm in the Greater Seattle area, fyi

A question for you all. I just put in a new bed - new soil that's well balanced (a mix of sand, loam and compost from last year). Then I topped it with some zoo doo (compost from the animals Zoo here) and 1lb or so of chicken manure.

Worked that into the top of the soil and then... I remembered that beans don't really like high nitrogen soil. Ooops. 1) would you still plant the beans? If not... 2) what other veggies would you plant given that I have greens already covered elsewhere?

So I need to mulch a fairly large area, but not so large that Chipdrop makes sense because they can deliver up to 20 cubic yards of chips where as I need 5-7.

Has anyone worked with a local arborist to get chips from them? They have to pay to dispose of chipped wood so I'd assume dropping them off at my house when they're in the general area would be cool but I don't know which ones might be open to this.