Wood chips in the garden

[Tania]

We started this topic while discussing no-till in another thread (http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=33607), so here it is.

I think it would be valuable to discuss merits of using wood chips in veggie garden and orchards.

We use wood chips in our veggie garden and love it so far. We have 1 arce with tree trees, medicinal herbs, and vegetables growing everywhere where we get at least 5 hrs of direct sun. All the other areas are shade ornamentals.

The best thing that I love about wood chips is that it is a very sustainable option for our area. There are many tree services in the city that are charged for recycling their 'by-products' (chipped wood), and they are usually happy to deliver a load of fresh wood chips to you for free or a little charge to cover the fuel cost.

We got about 85 cu.yd. of wood chips since this spring to refresh our mulch in the garden and cover the new orchard area, the new garden area, and new herbs beds. And I am very happy I have some leftovers to experiment with composting and hot beds using wood chips!

I will start saying that the main benefits of wood chips in our garden are

- watering is greatly reduced
- weeding is very easy
- no more mud in the garden, even after heavy rains
- no soil erosion over winter
- worms love it
- ramial wood chips store so many nutrients and while they are slowly decomposing on top of the soil, they release the nutrients and help to feed your plants.
- sustainability! The waste (wood chips) is converted to treasure, and water usage is greatly reduced.

The cons:
- wood chips mulch needs to be moved away from the beds in spring, otherwise it will keep the soil cool longer. Gardeners in cooler areas may not need that! The good thing is that it is easy to do, and you'd need to move mulch back over the plants are in the ground.
- it will take several years for the wood chips mulch to break down. It is a great thing for mulch, but may not be a good thing if you are looking for a quick build up of organic matter in your garden.

Wood chips should never be incorporated / tilled into the soil - if you do that, they'll tie up all the nitrogen (micro-organisms will use nitrogen while they are breaking down the chips). They should stay on top of the soil and used as mulch.


Tatiana