What do I do with a big pile of pine wood chips? I put some on my paths in the garden but there's still a lot left over from 4 big pines we had cut down. Can I use them for mulch?
Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow... David Mallett, "Garden Song"
Posts: 183 | Location: northern New England, zone 3-4 | Registered: March 09, 2007
Sure can. Just don't dig them INTO the soil. Put 'em on top.
I don't recommend it for anything that you replant every year - but someplace that once you lay the mulch, you won't be messing with it. (Because you don't want to get the wood chips worked into the soil before they've decomposed on their own.)
Cat has it right, but I would add that you should add grass clippings to them as you mow so they can break down faster (from the added nitrogen of the grass clippings).
Bill Griffin
Even Ham Radio operators love organic food. Especially here in SW lower MI.
Posts: 1598 | Location: Edwardsburg, MI Zone 5/6 | Registered: December 08, 2004
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LAUS DEO, Where ever I go, there I am. ..... major at nwi dot net ..... Zone 6a, Eastern Washington, sagebrush high desert, Columbia plateau.
Posts: 2511 | Location: Eastern Washington State, zone 6a. | Registered: December 13, 2004
A mulch is never dug into the soil, when whatever is dug into the soil it becomes a soil amendment not a mulch. Wood chips make an excellent mulch, and if properly applied can reduce your work level considerably by eliminating much weeding and trimming. A mulch will also help conserve soil moisture, aid in keeping the soil the mulched plants grow in cooler which makes them happier, and will, eventually, feed the soil. The only time a mulch would present a problem is if the soil is so bad that the soil bacteria have nothing to eat and leave your soil for the mulch.
The sign of a good gardener is not a green thumb, it is brown knees.
Posts: 2124 | Location: Central Michigan along the Lakeshore | Registered: August 28, 2004
Hi Mainebird and welcome to the forums! (Despite my name, I'm a brand new resident of the Pine Tree State.)
I've used many truckloads of wood chips as mulch over the years on both perennial plantings and on veggie beds. Great stuff!
The advice is correct that you shouldn't dig it into the soil, but especially on my veggie beds, some invariably get worked into the soil during normal weeding, harvesting and when I have to rake it off to warm the bed in the spring and to replant.
The few that do get buried are not the kiss of death for your garden and won't "rob all the nitrogen" from the soil, at least not to any noticeable degree. (The other overblown claim is that they will "attract" termites.)
I've also mounded large amounts of chips mixed with manure and poor quality soil in trenches where I planned to expand a garden in the future. In a year or two the material was completely broken down and ready to plant.
With all the logging trucks and mills I pass every day over here in the western hills of Maine, I expect to be hauling a lot of chips again soon. (As soon as I find a new home with garden space.)
Wayne
Where there are gardens and bicycles, there is hope.
Posts: 1368 | Location: Zone 4a, transplanted to the hills of Western Maine. | Registered: October 07, 2005
Just an add to all of this, if you have room to do so, you can just leave a pile of the wood chips to use next year or the year after. I've had wood chips sitting for a few years after getting a couple of semi loads, they do break down slowly and don't have to be used right away. I would just put a new layer over the old layer of mulch every year.
Plant seeds in the sunshine, dance in the rain
Posts: 1162 | Location: zone 3 MN | Registered: September 05, 2006
