Leylandii chippings

hi i've just had an enormous pile of woodchips delivered, they are the dreaded Leylandii, my intention was to use them for my paths in veg patch, but i'm worried now as its leylandii, that that will impair the beds which are next to the paths, the roots from the beds will grow under the paths. Help bit desperate as nothing else really that I can do with this mammoth pile of wood chip. so really hoping someone has been in this situation and can provide some advice. many thanks in advance.

 

Can't think it would matter myself I'd use it.

 

When we had an allotment we used wood clippings for all the paths. These were the waste from several local tree surgeons and often contained leylandii and other conifer bits. We never noticed any problems. In fact sometimes they had a lovely delicate scent when I was crouched down weeding, am assuming that was maybe Thuja

 

ok, maybe i've gotten confused, i thought i'd heard nothing grows under leylandii...and maybe i've wrongly assumed that they emit a poison are inherantly poisonous.....am i making stuff up??? this is very possible.....lol....i've just seen that they are very hungry shrubs/trees...maybe thats why nothing grows under them, does anyone know if i could use these chippings for the brown in my compost? or is that going too far?

 

nothing grows under live growing Leylandii because it uses all the nutrients and blocks all the light. No worries with dead stuff

 

We don't have too many problems growing near leylandii here, but it's certainly fine to use the chipped material for paths - in fact, it's a really good use for it.

I wouldn't use it in a standard compost bin though, unless it was really, really finely shredded. Better as a mulch for hedging or anything shrubby/woody, or for your paths.

 

They also have lots of shallow fibrous roots which make it difficult for anything else to establish.

I think they could be very slow to rot down in your compost, but as they are already chipped that will help, best way might be to try some and see. I can’t imagine it would do any harm?
Am trying to remember how long they lasted on our paths, from memory where we had a higher level of green (leylandii leaf etc) in the load I think we did have to top up the paths sooner than the woodier deliveries so that would suggest that they did compost down fairly quickly. But I’m not sure where they would sit on the green or brown continuum?

Our best source of year round brown is paper - newspapers, cardboard, post etc

 

Basically softwood chippings I would say.
I vaguely remember something was said about some bark can have lots of tannin in it but but just chippings should be alright.
As it rots down it can use up nitrogen so I wouldn't put too much in the compost bin.

 

If they don't support growth that's good for the paths.
Unlikely to affect the veg in the veg bed, any roots would probably be lower than the woodchip so not bothered.

 

i practice no dig so the soil for beds and the paths are basically on the same level. if that makes sense.

 

While its not the best, leylandii will rot in time. A problem with it 'fresh' is that its slippery so due caution on paths. It takes several months to weather/compost, longer than woodchip from deciduous species. If you can stack it for a few months before spreading, it will heat/breakdown more quickly. (Avoid high heaps, for they may self-combust!) You will find a goodly selection of fungi will appear, as if by magic. Almost any woodchip is better than none.

 

We were no dig and initially our beds/paths were the same level. Beds did get higher over time with added mulch etc over the years but most roots will quickly be deeper than the neighbouring paths as your crops grow

 

We didn’t have problems with it been slippery but I guess that depends on how finely it’s shredded and the balance between wood and green? Our plot was vey open and sunny, but I guess any mix could be a bit slippy if in shade

 

One thing to bear in mind is that any strongly growing plant will grow into the woodchips fertility; hedges and shrubs will use this to bridge the path into your raised beds. Its the use for a spade in no-dig: to sever this incursion periodically by cutting along the edges.

 

We get lots of leylandii chippings at the allotment. I have put it on fresh over paths and under the fruit bushes and apple trees, I've also filled a couple builders bags with it to leave it to rot down a bit with the intention of putting into my compost. It's been going a year and there's lots of mycelium when I dig into it, but i think I'll leave it another year before thinking about adding it to the compost.

I've not noticed anything negative about it when using it on the paths, I also do no dig