Why woodchip at all?
Before you go chasing down the street after a tree-trimming crew, consider if woodchips are going to suit your needs. Woodchips are not the one-size-fits-all garden hack that YouTube would lead you to believe. They can be a hideout for fire-ant colonies, they are laborious to apply, and they can lock up nitrogen in your beds when used too fresh, too deep, or with the wrong plants. If your garden has some of the following criteria, then they are well worth finding:
• Youhavelargebedsofestablished herbaceous perennials
• Youhaveextensivepaths
• Youhavethetimeandspaceto explore another fungally-dominated composting method The purpose of using woodchips as a mulch is to encourage plentiful mycorrhizal fungi growth. Research suggests that the fungi’s function in a woodland setting is that of a network or interface between the soil, its stored minerals and nutrients, the microorganisms living in the soil, and the plants growing in the soil. Healthy forest-floor fungal networks have been observed carrying traceable nutrients between trees that produce them and understory plants that consume them, or viceversa, over considerable distances.
Consider a wild blackberry hedge in the margin between woods and field, growing sweet and juicy berries with no additional inputs of compost, just the undisturbed fungal network beneath the forest floor delivering ample nutrients to the berries from deeper within the woods.
Woodchip Basics
When you see a tree-trimming crew clearing branches from power lines down the street, find a safe place to park and approach carefully. It is dangerous work and the crew remains in constant communication. Find the guy by the woodchipper truck who should also direct traffic if necessary and ask if they will bring you woodchips. To make it easy give him a note with your address and phone number. Some trucks have a number you can call to request delivery advertised on the side.
Climb your freshly dumped coneshaped pile with pitchfork or compost fork in hand and knock it down to have a flat top. The ability of a woodchip pile to remain dry internally when left conical is unparalleled. Making it cheesecake-shaped allows the rain to penetrate and break the chips down faster. When left undisturbed for six months or longer they should become completely inoculated with observable white strands of fungi.
In your annual vegetable garden you can mimic the woodland floor by constraining woodchips to paths. This effectively mitigates nitrogen lock-up in your beds. The roots of your plants will access the nutrients generated from the decomposition of the woodchips under the paths when they want, and your paths will develop a pleasantly firm yet cork-like feel underfoot over time.
Apply as a mulch under perennials Until next time, Your Eatonton Gardenerd This week’s jobs: Lay out new beds – Compost – Sow more cilantro