Turning a MOUNTAIN of Woodchips into the PERFECT Garden Resource!

These days you hear a lot about woodchips, for good reason. Woodchips are a great resource in that they contain a lot of organic matter. Since the trees they came from are being removed anyway it makes sense to utilize woodchips to improve the garden. Recently I contacted a landscaping company and asked for some fall leaves if they were doing some leaf cleanup. They were happy to use our property to drop off some stuff and offered some wood chips too. 4 truck loads of woodchips later and we have a mountain of woodchips to use in the garden. Wood chips are great to use in the garden but there is one major thing to consider. Woodchips immobilize nitrogen which is essential for plant growth. Microbes do all the work of breaking down the organic matter and they use the nitrogen for that process. While they are busy working on breaking down the woodchips the nitrogen is temporarily tied up. Eventually their work is done and the nitrogen is released back into the soil among all the organic matter that has been processed. Woodchips are great for pathways to keep weeds down, a mulch around mature plants, or put in the compost bin. I intend to use our mountain of woodchips for all of these uses. I'll be putting them in empty garden beds and mixing with grass clippings and organic matter high in nitrogen to help process the woodchips and leaves that were dropped off. Don't use woodchips right away around annuals or seedlings as that may reduce what they need. If you do you can use a high nitrogen fertilizer to try to balance the situation. Website: https://www.GrowingTheHomeGarden.com