A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Wood Chips

A by-product of my stump grinding businees is wood chips. The nice part is most of the chips have some dirt mixed in.What I do is spread the mix over the ground about one foot thick and when the weeds grow through I add another foot of mix. My original concern was the PH but a wise old farmer pointed out to me that the PH will be neutral when the chips are completly composted. My dump truck holds eight yards and some days I make four or five trips. The thing that suprized me the most was how fast the stuff actually decomposes, within a year I can turn it all under and plant the ground. This fresh soil seems to grow great hay. I try to use a grass, trefoil, clover mix because of the nitrogen fixing of the clover and trefoil. After three years of hay I hope to plant other crops and rotate my plantings.
My other fertilizer producers are also organic. They take hay and grain in one end and put out round fertilizer balls out the other end. The problem is you have to shovel the stuff out of thier stalls. And weeds, horse manure sure does give you weeds.

Any time you want to get rid of an extra load or
two, I'll give it a good home...

I use the wood chips in my compost bins
in the summer time, when there isn't much "Brown/Dead~Wood" around to put in.
We did get a load of fresh wood chips from my sister and we left it on top of a tarp and used it as we needed it, the underbelly of the pile was filled with worms and was decomposing nicely!!

It's wonderful the way mother nature takes care of herself when it comes to that stuff.

Weezie

Now you have me thinking. My next door neighbour has started a small mill business. They only saw cedar, and the chips just linger about. Would they be o.k. for mulch and weed cover in between strawberry plants? If so I can have it for free by the truck loads. I also thought that the acidity would be to high.

Tamara,
I envy you, cedar makes excellent mulch. The only thing is that it is rot resistant and I would rake it off before I worked the soil in any area that I used it, if I were worried about the PH factor. Cedar is not favored by insects either a natural control, very earth friendly. As far as strawberries go I would try it around a few plants first as I have never tried it, but I think it should be fine. I use straw around mine, that is traditional and cost effective for me. Get a load of it I do not think you will be sorry. "The Accidental Farmer"

I too use lots of woodchip, shredded trees in my gardens. One thing to note is that if the mulch is green it is best left to age a bit before using as a mulch. This is because it will burn the nitrogen in the soil as it starts the decomposition process. You can, however, add extra nitrogen underneath by spreading chook poo or similar before spreading the mulch. All my citrus trees are mulched this way and thye crop is measured by the wheelbarrow. I wish i had a neverending supply. I pay up to $10 a cubic metre for it. (A metre is like a yard, only sensible)...

Tamara, I use cedar to mulch with...it is free and I have a never ending supply. I much my herbs, strawberries and garden with it. I also started last year trying to do some landscaping in the front yard and mulched around my hostas and Gardenia bushes. I tried it because I have always heard that bugs don't like it and we have a LOT of bugs. I can tell you that I have not seen a big difference in the bug population (except for fleas & ticks)...but it does make a good mulch. The ONLY problem I have had using wood chips fro mulch is that the termites love it...that can be a BIG problem. So I have had to treat for termites twice a year. I had put in a new strawberry patch last year and I could put in anothe 4 or 5 beds with the runners I have. It is also very pretty and stays in place very well.

Really great advice about woodchips.

I would just like to caution anyone.Know where they came from.I gave my blackberries a nasty fungal disease.I fought it for 3 years and finally gave up.

Free woodchips from the city are sometimes chopped up diseased trees.


Hey Longy,what is a chook?


duckie

Oh, the other thing I meant to add about the cedar wood chips....the CATS love it! They make it their bed and potty area

I get my chips from a personal friend that does cedar wood work and he cuts & planes all the wood himself so I feel pretty safe using them. He gives me all I can haul off. I try to keep 3-4 extra lawn bags full all of the time. It is wonderful!

Ooooo Vanessa, you are so lucky to have that friend.

I'll bet that cedar smells really good too.


duckie

Hi Duckie i looked up chook heres the defination acording to websters.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.

One entry found for chook.


Main Entry: chook
Pronunciation: 'chuk
Function: noun
Etymology: imitative
Australian & New Zealand : CHICKEN 1

just thought i would look it up i was wondering myself .your friend in gardening.mike57

Are youz fair dinkum or just bungin on about whats a chook? Strewth me old if i didn't reckon yuz never had a butchers hook at a chook id reckon yuz was barmy. So ere's proper captain cook at a chook'ouse init!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/m.longstaff/chookery2.jpg

SAAAAAY WHAT?????!!!!!

Longy,

You are wonderful.