It’s Time to Purchase Woodchips for Your Yard.
The streets in my neighborhood are littered with piles of wood chips every few houses as everyone prepares to “hibernate.” Me too – I always try to get a Chip Drop this time of year; Last week, four yards of fresh maple were thrown into a huge pile in front of my house. Now is the perfect time to deliver wood chips, and understanding how wood chips work as mulch will help you understand why.
Chips are the perfect path
Wood chips break down over time into rich, well-aerated compost, full of worms and mycelium, and improve any soil it is added to after composting. Before they break, they make a great base for a runner, which is why I use them between all my beds. Unlike grass or clover, wood chips are still easy to walk on even in the wettest weather without damaging the wood chips. While grass and clover are certainly nicer on your feet, wood chips definitely don’t hurt your bare feet like gravel or rocks do. As a landscaping tool, changing the color of wood chips against green grass, wood or cement is a good solution. Although wood chips will compost over time, you can top them up as needed.
Covering vegetable beds saves water and plant roots.
As wood chips decompose, they require nitrogen to do so. If these wood chips are in your soil or garden beds, it means they are actively robbing the soil of nitrogen, as well as the vegetables and plants growing in that soil that need nitrogen. However, if they sit on the surface of the soil, they do not cause this problem. For this reason, wood chips make an excellent mulch in garden beds. As summers get hotter and water becomes scarcer, it’s more important than ever to use mulch to reduce watering and protect plant roots. A few inches of mulch spaced away from the plant stems is sufficient. Just get the chips out of the way when you need to plant something new. Wood chips are much more stable than, say, straw, which can often cause grass to form in beds when it shouldn’t. Once the wood chips are completely decomposed, they will become part of the compost layer.
Also mulch all beds with flowers, shrubs and trees.
Even the most established trees and shrubs need watering and root protection. Use the woodchips as a deep mulch, protecting it from very cold winters or very hot summers. Remember: the deeper the roots, the more moderate the temperature. Lay down a few inches of wood chips to create the desired depth, being careful to stay away from tree trunks and plant stems. Just create a circle around each one.
Autumn is the right time
People cut down trees twice a year: in the fall, before winter snow and rain weigh down the branches, and in the spring, as part of spring cleaning. Meanwhile, I am always suspicious of why trees are taken down (disease?). This makes now the perfect time to get a great drop.
Mulch now before the cold weather hits. The best part is that any wood chips you don’t use can usually sit and compost all winter and be in great shape come spring. Although garden centers do stock wood chips, I usually use ChipDrop – it’s free and I can specify which types of wood I won’t take in my request.