Several years ago, I came across the Back to Eden documentary. Immediately I was enamored with the idea of using free woodchip mulch. A few years of experimenting has taught me some lessons which I will share.
Free Woodchip Mulch: My Story
Since woodchip mulch offers many great benefits, and it is such a low cost option, I was gung-ho to try this Back to Eden gardening method.
When we moved into our current location, I called a tree trimming service and asked them to dump a load of woodchips in our driveway.
Innocent, naïve little me.
The tree service came, and dumped an entire dump truck’s load of woodchips in our driveway. Needless to say, I was shocked by how much “mulch” we had and slightly overwhelmed with how we were going to use it all.
I filled up the front garden with a pretty deep layer of the fresh woodchips, about 2-4 inches. Then I covered a mini no-dig garden bed (about 2 1/2 ft. x 4 ft.) built out of cinderblocks, topsoil, and manure, with more of the woodchip mulch, as well as a small raised box.
Well, I had more woodchips, so I filled in the areas around some shrubs with mulch, and I still had a ton left.
I took some to my parents’ house and mulched the garden beds around their house with more of the fresh woodchips. And there was still a big pile in our driveway.
After posting on Facebook Marketplace, and having a guy from church take a couple truckloads, we finally got rid of our woodchip pile. Phew!
Results of Using Woodchip Mulch: My Story
So, how did the woodchip mulch work out for me? My perennial flowers have thrived from the very beginning. I have tea roses, salvia, and irises, and the irises are especially happy.
During my first year with the woodchip mulch, I tried growing beans, tomatoes, zucchini, basil, onions, and marigolds. This was not the most productive garden. That could have been due to using fresh woodchips, but likely there were some other issues at play (such as WEEDS, overplanting/poor spacing, and inconsistent watering).
During my second year, I had an okay cherry tomato harvest amidst a very weedy patch, but gardening took a back seat to being pregnant and caring for a newborn.
Now we are in the third year of this Back to Eden experiment, and I will say that my soil is beautiful where the mulch has been at least a couple inches deep. Currently in May I have thriving lettuce, broccoli, kale and peas, all of which I started from seed. I also have some nursery transplants of basil, lavender, oregano, chives, tomatoes, and marigolds that are doing well so far.
I was late to planting garlic this year (in early spring rather than last fall), and in one place it is thriving, but in another it is not doing so well. (Confession time. In the area the garlic is doing poorly, the ground was still frozen when I tried to plant it, so I planted them in composted manure. Bad idea. Oops.)
Unfortunately I have been fighting off weeds in my mini no-dig garden bed from the beginning. Make sure to use a good weed-blocking layer if you want to try no-dig!
Why Use Woodchip Mulch?
There are many benefits of using woodchip mulch in a garden.
- Water conservation: Like other mulches, woodchip mulch helps to conserve water in the soil by slowing evaporation. The woodchips also act as sponges by holding and slowly releasing water back into the soil as needed.
- Fewer weeds: Mulch reduces weed growth by keeping the soil covered. While it doesn’t completely prevent weeds, the weeds that do grow are easier to remove in an area covered with woodchips because the soil tends to be looser.
- Soil protection: Covering the soil helps to prevent soil erosion and actually helps build up soil.
- Increased organic matter: As the woodchips erode, they add new organic matter into the soil. This feeds microorganisms, worms, and other insects in the soil, and creates a beautiful loamy texture.
- Temperature control: The woodchips act as an insulator for the soil. They help to keep the soil cooler in the mid-summer heat and warmer in the fall. However, in spring, it can take a little longer for soil under woodchip mulch to warm up. You can rake back the woodchips until the soil warms up.
- Accessibility: Woodchips are easily accessed for free or very low cost as “waste” in many areas. Many tree services are willing to dump their woodchips at someone’s house if they are in the area as it cuts back on their dump expenses.
Challenges with Woodchip Mulch
While woodchip mulch is a great, low-cost mulch option, it does come with it’s own challenges.
- Cumbersome planting: In order to plant in an area that already has woodchip mulch, you need to rake or pull all of the woodchips away from the planting area. Then you must be careful that woodchips don’t fall into the planting hole, and spread the mulch back over the area, but away from the plants.
- Difficult seed starting: Again, the mulch needs to be removed from the sowing area as woodchip mulch is not a good medium for starting seeds.
- Waiting for quality soil: Although woodchip mulch can improve soil in the first season, you really see best results after a few years. This method improves over time.
- Hosting pests and diseases: Termites are not attracted to woodchip mulch, but they can find it quite habitable. Also, because woodchips rot as they break down, fungi, (some beneficial and some not) often thrive in woodchip mulch more than other types of mulch. Also, if the woodchips are sourced from diseased trees, that could affect your garden.
- Acquiring very large of quantities: As mentioned earlier, many tree services will dump a load at someone’s house for free. However, they dump a whole truckload at a time. That amount of woodchips can be overwhelming to use. Sharing with a few neighbors can solve this issue.
Best Practices for Using Woodchip Mulch
Top-dress; don’t mix the woodchips into the soil!
Unless your woodchips have broken down completely into compost, you don’t want to mix them into the soil. Mixing them in will cause most of the nitrogen in the soil to be “locked up” into decomposing the woodchips instead of feeding your plants. Top-dressing the soil, even with fresh woodchips, will protect and insulate the soil, and help regulate water.
Use aged woodchips
One of biggest “mistakes” I made was using fresh woodchips. Though my gardens were somewhat productive, I think some of the nitrogen that the plants needed went to decomposing the woodchips instead of feeding plants. Using woodchip mulch that has aged at least a year and has already started breaking down will yield better results.
Leave space around the plants
If mulch touches the base of the plants, they can become rotten or diseased. This goes for all plants: vegetables, shrubs, flowers and trees. Leave a few inches of bare earth around the base of the plants.
Now it’s time to get your hands dirty. Happy gardening, Friends!
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