This week on your market garden minute: how to use wood chips in the garden.
Questions answered include: can you till wood chips into the soil, can you mulch with wood chips, do ducks eat slugs, where to use wood chips, wood chipped pathways and more.
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25 Comments
Great content. Would adding a nitrogen amendment like bloodmeal along with wood mulch be ok if tilled in?
I got free wood chips from Chip Drop umm about 2 years ago…. I still have a pile. If your'e not there they will dump a lot and I mean a lot. My neighbors come by and take some but it's barely a dent in that. But hey they are free and you can share if your neighbors garden too. By the way someone is spamming your channel with telegram or something to that effect.
I use wood chips in the pathways and compost but I realized that I was getting quite Ill every time I worked with wood chips. I started using an N95 mask which helped a lot. There is a mould that grows in wood chips that I am allergic to. I now have my own chipper and as long as I spread the wood chips when freshly chipped,I don’t have a problem. Does anyone else have this problem?
When it comes to shuffling through the myriad of opinions on the web, you are my go-to guy when it comes to actual tried and true knowledge.
You've done the hard work for us. Thank you for that. Currently reading your book.
Haha so glad you mentioned the child entertainment value. We have "mulch mountain", a 150ft windrow at our place and its always a hit with the kids and their friends. They make paths in it, carve out chairs and stairs, find mushrooms.
Beautiful, everything you needed to know but was too afraid to ask ❤️
Thank you for making this video! We're huge fans of the channel – and the book! – but have come to somewhat different conclusions about the use of woodchips both as mulch and (gasp!) a soil amendment.
I've been experimenting with using arborist chips as a potting mix ingredient for improved structure and drainage and in my native clay soil with good results, but have failed to find much in the way of peer-reviewed literature on how much nitrogen is bound, for how long, and the actual net impact to the plant weighed against the beneficial increase in microbial activity. In other words, I'm not actually positive it's working as well as it appears to be. For us, it *seems* like the very mild pH decrease is a pro and it's reasonably easy to balance the temporary nitrogen dip with fertilizers.
I'm wondering if you have any good sources and/or researchers who are looking into this topic?
Short vid 😢 😔….lol thanks farmer J!
A contractor mixed in all our wood chip mulch to the soil when they filled in the hole, despite being sectioned and raked away. What do I do to help those as I had to get the shrubs back in the ground that I dug up to be out of their way?
I had tons and tons of woodchips delivered to a 2 acre lot I own. Last year, I had a pile (around 30 yards) that I thought that was already somewhat composted and was an idiot and incorporated it into a few beds and then planted many different types of plants. They all suffered. I read that putting some lime may help decompose faster. Is this true? I am afraid of putting lime unnecessarily.
chickens, turkeys, and all birds really love wood chip piles. i age my huge chip mountains for 3yrs before using them for mixing my own potting soil. they are also outstanding for keeping the orchard floor weed free and eliminate most watering in the orchard if you lay a foot or more of the 2yr chips. do not touch tree trunk… i use old metal roofing made into a barrier around the trunk to keep chips away and allow good airflow for the trees.
Yep I’m stopping using chips this season because of slugs. They devour my spinach and chard.
@1:10 FACT! Don't till the wood chips under the soil. Ever… I've been using wood shavings from a mill in the walk ways of my no-till rows and it does great. I love the weed suppression and have not had an issue "yet" of N robbing.
What about fresh branch chippings from fruit trees? I have such a lot of them and they can't be stored at all, go mouldy. I just put them this year on a field area I'm not planning to use for at least a year. Might cover later with green waste, hoping that will be like an in place Hügel idea. Otherwise it's just paths I guess, but I would hate to waste nutrients. I used a mix of this and fresh conifer branch chippings as mulch on one potato bed last year, it did much better in the dry summer and the plants preferred to grow out and under the mulch and even paths!
Ducks do destroy everything in the garden. I like to let my chickens out in it but every time I put the ducks in, they dig into the soil and pull my plants out. It seems as though they are more interested in eating the plant and destroying the garden then the bugs or slugs.
I have different piles on wood chips I have gotten through the years how old is old enough for mixing into the garden. Some is just wood chips other piles has chicken manure or sheep manure mixed in from being used as bedding
Thanks from Sweden 😁
Just watched a harvest video from last year…Let me just say your gardens are beautiful. Just plain a delight to behold.
4:20 videos are where it’s at
Woodchip mulching tomatoes works great. Helps regulate moisture and keeps dirt from splashing up on the leaves
Thoughts on using wood chips at the bottom of a raised bed? They’d be topped with cardboard and compost and soil. Will it cause the same nitrogen loss issue?
Beneficial nematodes can allegedly control slug eggs
Thank for the information you are great
How do you feel about wood chips thar are several years old and starting to turn into soil? I've got a source from a arborist that has just been dumping them in his property for years and letting them break down.
I am glad I watched this before purchasing wood chips to use as mulch!