Wood chips

I have been using a permeable membrane as a weed suppressant and this is covered with BARK chips in the normal way.

Some people use WOOD chips instead and I am thinking of doing the same on a new area of my garden.
Bark chips do, of course, have some drawbacks. I notice the local Parks Dept. now use wood chips not bark chips.

Has anyone any experience if using WOOD chips instead of bark chips on a permeable membrane?

 

I actually think they use wood chips simply to save having to get rid of them in any other way. What drawbacks have you found using bark chips please?

 

Mrs. S. is into orchids. She used to use sphagnum, perlite, charcoal mix. But I decided that a mix with bark chippings would not go amiss. So i spent �£7 on 5 litres on eBay. When it arrived it was identical to the 40 litres I buy for �£1 at my local sawmill. Just a word of warning to orchid growers. (Nothing really to do with this, but I am fuming -sorry guys)

 

Its all wood. I wouldn't have thought there was any differance. However the smaller the bits the quicker they will decompose into compost, that your weeds will really love. So big chips are better than sawdust.

As Sarraceniac has pointed out, the cost varies enormously according to the source. I suspect that the Parks Dept choice was driven by cost.

 

Is not there some concern that the wood chips will extract nitrogen from the soil as they decompose.
I have noticed locally that it is normal practice when felling small trees to chip it all on site and dump it in the undergrowth. This works OK in the woods, attracting insects etc. but it dont seen a good idea to me in a normal garden.
Therefore I dont think I would use wood chips as a mulch, I often wonder how good bark is, other than it looks good and smells nice, if its pine, that is.

 

My concern would be atracting honey Fungus. That said conifer chippings if left to decay slightly make a great acidic mulch for rhodedendron, camelia, heathers etc.

 

I think honey fungus would go for living wood, not bark or wood chips. Main problem i find is that it all looks very nice and neat. Then a day later the blackbirds have thrown it all over the lawn. You see them going along chucking the bits over their shoulder.

 

Here too - its routine before mowing the lawn, to walk round kicking the bits back into touch :D They seem to like the big back bits rather than the small bark I have on my garden path - but that rots down so quickly I'll stay with the big bits.

[ 15. October 2007, 12:07 AM: Message edited by: Fran ]

 

It makes one heck of a din when you run over the bits with the lawn mower doesn't it. I am afraid i am a bit lazy and don't get all the bits back.