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Mulches
littlered 85
Posts: 2
Hi.
After lots of reading around I had come to the conclusion that I would be able to use wood chippings straight from the garden/ wood yard as a mulch for around the garden. But now a garden professional has told me that you can't put wood or bark straight down without it being composted first?
Can anyone clarify for me please?
Thankyou from a novice doing her best ????
0
Posts
I use it straight away. No harm yet, 25 years. Don't use anything that's been treated with preservative though.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Fab, thanks!
At college we were told that the decomposition of fresh wood chippings could actually deplete the nitrogen in the soil. Not sure how big of a deal it is if you avoid mixing it into the soil. Presumably not a big one since the whole point of a mulch is it sits on top of the soil, not under it!
But that's where your garden professional has probably got his idea from.
Last edited: 18 May 2017 22:35:01
I use fairly fresh wood chip too, and have had no problems with it. In fact I find it helpful to not only deter weeds but also slugs due to the roughness of the chips. I am sure gravel has the same effect but it is much more expensive and to my mind looks less attractive on a flower bed.
I've found absolutely no evidence that fresh woodchip ,when used as a mulch, depletes nitrogen from the soil. The air we breath is 78% nitrogen, it's readily available as part of the decomposition process.
Fresh chip dug into soil: I've seen evidence that it does, and that it doesn't. In short, inconclusive.
I visit both Nutcutlet's and Hostafan's gardens fairly regularly - both beautiful and full of healthy plants - I would have no hesitation in following their examples.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
You'll make me blush Dove.
I think it's one of these things that's said so often, without proper scientific evidence , it just sort of becomes accepted as fact.
I've yet to be convinced that double digging is any better than single digging. I know all the theory of how it's supposed to be better, but have never found any " double blind" evidence to support it.
I find that with gardening as in so much of life there are no hard and fast rules ... context is everything.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
and, like politics, if the same untruth is repeated often enough , it becomes accepted as fact.