My front “lawn” becomes too difficult to maintain. It is covered with low height closely planted fruit trees. Mowing it is a challenge right now and will be almost impossible in couple years. I am thinking about converting the lawn into mulched area. I know how to do it, my question is in on a different topic.
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Will all that grass rotting under cardboard and woodchips create a nitrogen boost that will badly affect the trees? I have an older peach, sour cherry, European plum, and several young apple trees that only had few (or even 0 ) apples so far.
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Will constant mulching create a problem over years by creating too much organic and raising soil level? May be it makes sense to put heavy duty landscaping fabric on top of the grass and mulch above it, so roots do not grow into woodchips? This way, when woodchips rot I can collect them and use in compost and put fresh woodchips on top of the landscaping fabric. (I have a serious landscaping fabric that will stay in the soil without degrading for few years. ) (Note, trunk circles are already mulched with woodchips and will stay just mulched, without landscaping fabric)
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No. Not even close to enough N in a few inches of grass to impact your trees.
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No. The wood chips are going to decay aerobically, which means that nearly all the carbon in them is going to go into the air as CO2. If you limit yourself to maintaining a constant level of mulch, the actual addition to the soil will be negligible over the lifetime of the trees.
I would not mess with the landscape fabric. It does not prevent grass growth. It is the perfect invitation to voles and other rodents - literally creates a roof over their tunnels, and they will take full advantage of that to dine on your tree’s roots. Kill your grass before you switch to mulch, and go with straight mulch. Even straight mulch though is tempting for rodents, so you’ll have to keep an eye out for them.
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Shouldn’t hurt anything…unless you live in community that has a HOA and a bunch of picky rules. Could create a place for mice or something I guess. Shouldn’t hurt trees…might even help.
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You are correct about rodents, but landscaping fabric - a good one - does the job suppressing the grass growing just right. Even if seeds germinate in half rotten woodchips on top of the fabric, it is much easier to pull them out - the roots do not go trough the fabric and just covered with 2 inches of woodchips. May be landscaping fabric is not the right name. This is what I have: Weed Barrier, 20 Year (4.1 oz)
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I was smart enough not to consider ANY community when picking the house, I am a solitary creature 
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The mulching sounds fine, no problem with adding too many nutrients with it. I wouldn’t mix it in, but layering it each year or adding leaves is more like forest floor. I would not put anything on top of the fabric. I use that type, and a farm I worked at used it for row crops. Any part of it covered with soil or mulch did get roots growing though it. Not as much an issue when pulled every year, very much an issue if left.
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Have you thought of using something like comfrey or other living mulch over the area? It would die back out of season and keep weeds from taking over.
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Definitely not my experience. The hardest labor I have ever done in an orchard was removing mulched-over landscape fabric that had grass growing through it. Grass roots will grow through anything that is water permeable in my experience. But if you are going to weed it regularly, so nothing really gets established, I guess it may not be a problem - although in that case, I don’t see what good it’s doing either.
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Simple answer: dandelions… Even young ones never removed from the soil with full root attached. And it grows from the piece of root. At least I have all my paths in the garden made this way - weed barrier + woodchips and it works very well.
Had to google what comfrey is… Not sure I understand how it will work.
Comfrey is a shrub that grows in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. It can grow up to 5 feet tall.
My whole “orchard” is 30’X 30’. The trees there are 7’-8’ tall. lower branches start 2 foot from the ground. In order to work around the trees I need to be able to walk there bent and squeezing between branches. not sure how 5’ high bush ground cover will work in that condition…
I meant the sterile Russian Bocking Number 14 and Number 4 comfrey. They are often used in permaculture plantings, for chop & drop mulching, or to add to compost, or to make compost ‘tea’ in water. I know some people use cultivars that runner or seed, depends on where they use it if it becomes invasive. Once you plant -any- type, it is hard to get rid of from that spot. New plants grow from root parts, but they work to keep out weeds well, and bring up nutrients from deep in the soil. Less watering than if comfrey was what you were growing alone.
If your trees are that low, it’s probably not the best thing to plant. I have heard of it growing tall, but for the most part I see knee high, up to maybe 3 feet. I suppose it depends on how often you would chop it, but still too tall for you. I have areas downhill from what is usable for my trees, closer to neighbors yards and walnut trees. That is where I am planting comfrey, herbs, and have kept my ornamentals.
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i mulch around everything i have growing on what used to be only lawn. i add fresh wood chips 3in deep every spring and never have problems with weeds. breaks down to nice rich soil. havent had issues yet with too much vigour and have been adding chips yearly for 7 years. just dont fertilize unless they really need it. love walking on woodchip covered paths
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True. I don’t use fabric under mulch (except if the mulch is rocks).
Exceptions are upon special request of a customer.
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I have two fertilization machines that fertilize twice a day, they even have names - Maya and Bassy! Good thing they try not to use the same spot twice - this is why I have a perfectly bald strip of lawn along the paved path. So fertilization is not avoidable 
. But I hope woodchips will be using some of the nitrogen up…
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get mine from a local arborist and this year it had some white cedar in it. the whole yard smells of cedar now. 
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I got my pile from a local company… Looks like they had a dull blade - half of the pile is long strips and sticks… When I am done going trough it, I will have to take probably a yard of sticks to the trash station.
it will but once the wood chips rot it will dump it back in there. might want to reduce the fertilizer sometime in the future if you use chips regularly.
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i leave the stick,s bark and everything in there just bury the unsightly pieces in under the chips. problem solved.
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They are difficult to deal with… Some like few feet long… It is a front lawn in the city, I want it look decent.
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