Chippings - can the be used as mulch ?

[LarryS.]

Daft question number 36 - I've just started using my new PT for the first time and have produced more chippings than I could have ever imagined. Girlfriend is a keen gardener so am wondering if she could use them to spread over the flower beds to prevent weeds ? Otherwise I am guessing its down the tip and into the wood bin

Its oak by the way

Will post some progress pictures on what I am doing in the next few days (making slats for an old garden bench)

 

[tenpin]

iv'e got the same problem....

14 black bags of maple chippings :shock: :shock:

luckily i have an open fire and bought a little tool off ebay for making burning parcels....works a treat...although now summers here i was considering bagging them up too sell on ebay for people as BBQ smoking chips....... 8)

as to garden mulch..mmmm...don't know...what iv'e seen they could go horribly slimey before being broken down....

 

[sooty]

I have been using chippings from woodturning on the garden for about two years now they help keep slugs & snails off my Hostas.

I have heard that the woodchippings rob the soil of a little Nitrogen?
(I think they need Nitrogen to help the chippings rot down).

But so far I have not seen any adverse effects from using chippings and will continue to use them.

 

[Digit]

Yes! and yes the process does apparently rob the soil of Nitrogen, but if that bothers you scatter a Nitrogen rich fertilizer over the chippings and let the rain wash it in.

Roy.

 

[Gill]

Would it help to grow legumes, which fix nitrogen?

Gill (the worst gardener in the world)

 

[woodbloke]

You can also add a bag or two of chippings into the compost bin as a bit of 'brown' waste which should be mixed more or less equally with 'green' waste...it'll compost very :shock: rapidly - Rob

 

[Karl]

I put mine in the recycling bin for garden waste - the council haven't complained yet, and it was once 1/2 full of chippings.

I might invest in one of those compressors to turn them into fuel blocks tho - we've always got the bbq on the go in the summer, and I reckon they'd work perfect for some evening warmth (along with a few bottles of Hoegarden....).

Cheers

Karl

 

[Digit]

Would it help to grow legumes, which fix nitrogen?

Should do. But the easiest way to control weeds is to use one of the weed suppressant membranes then scatter your chippings on the top.

Roy.

 

[OPJ]

At my local tip I've been told to empty the bags in to the Green bins along with all the garden waste, no the wood bin (which is generally almost completely full a lot of the time anyway).

Composting should be fine as long as you don't add Walnut to the pile as I understand this to be one of the very few timbers that can damage the plant life around it.

And I'm sure there are some people that do it, but I wouldn't advise you to use it as bedding for any small animals any shavings you produce will contain a harmful, unseen amount of dust. That's why companies like Mendip Wood Shavings sell bags of the stuff as "dust extracted". :wink:

 

[PowerTool]

At my local tip I've been told to empty the bags in to the Green bins along with all the garden waste, not the wood bin

Same here,if there is any bark in amongst it (with me ,that's tidying up after the chainsaw..) but can put it in the woodbin if it is "clean" shavings.

Andrew

 

[Slim]

The organisms in your soil require nitrogen in order to make proteins. It is important that you either lay a fertiliser down with a suitable carbon:nitrogen ratio, or redress the balance by adding a nitrogen based fertiliser as well.

In this case the fertiliser is woodchips, which have a C:N ration of approximately 300:1. The optimum ratio is 11:1. As such, the micro-organisms will be overloaded with carbonaceous material, a source of carbohydrate. They need nitrogen to metabolise this, and as there is not enough in the wood, they must get it from elsewhere (ie. the soil). This is how nitrogen is lost, as once it has been used by the organism, it returns to the athmosphere as a gas.

So, by all means lay woodchips down. They are great for suppressing weeds. Just remember to mix in a nitrogen rich fertiliser with it. (Osmocote is good). Or as Roy suggested, put down a barrier between the woodchips and the soil. Landscaping fabric is cheap and will suppress the weeds in it's on right.

Oh, and Walnut contains a natural herbicide, so don't ever put that down.

PS. Incidently, the best fertiliser with an optimum C:N ratio is urine. Diluted of course.

 

[Tusses]

luckily i have an open fire and bought a little tool off ebay for making burning parcels....works a treat...

cool - tell me more !!!

 

[Tim Nott]

I've been doing this. Last year I spread ash and oak chippings along some paths I'd hacked out of our wilderness. It doesn't seem to stop the grass but it seems to retard the other stuss and it's like walking on vewry deep carpet. This year we started using it as mulch on flower beds. I was told to use ammonium sulphate with it which we did. Oak is, I think, acidic, so azaleas etc should like it. In any case our land is very calcareous (sp?) so a little acid probably won't hurt.

 

[Harbo]

I have been using my shavings for a few years now without any ill effects so far?
I spread them as a mulch, mix it in my compost bins and occasionally store them in black plastic bags to rot down a bit.
I only have about 4 to 6 inches of soil on chalk so every bit of humus can only help. I do spread some chicken manure pellets as fertilizer as well.

Rod

 

[selly]

If you leave them on the surface and let natural processes take them down when the soil needs it you shouldn't need to use nitrogen.

 

[LarryS.]

thanks for the replies guys. I had visitors on saturday toour barbeque that were up for using them fro their rabbit hutch but now I read the comment about fine dust that is out of the window. Have mentioned the nitrogen thing to my girlfriend - she wasn't up for that either.

In the end we had a barbeque and chucked it all on the chimnea, job done !

 

[Anonymous]

I put mine in the recycling bin for garden waste - the council haven't complained yet, and it was once 1/2 full of chippings.


Karl

Same here


i seem to remember that only certain species of wood chippings are OK to compost/put on garden as mulsch?

 

[bugbear]

You can also add a bag or two of chippings into the compost bin as a bit of 'brown' waste which should be mixed more or less equally with 'green' waste...it'll compost very :shock: rapidly - Rob

Yes - I have far too much "green" - lawn clippings; some "brown" would work well for me.

BugBear

 

[Digit]

Mowings can of course be composted and during the summer rot very rapidly, provided something like wood chippings are added to keep the mowings from settling into a compact mass.
If you have too many mowings Bug try using them as a mulch.

Roy.

 

[Benchwayze]

thanks for the replies guys. I had visitors on saturday toour barbeque that were up for using them fro their rabbit hutch but now I read the comment about fine dust that is out of the window. Have mentioned the nitrogen thing to my girlfriend - she wasn't up for that either.

In the end we had a barbeque and chucked it all on the chimnea, job done !

I offered my planer chippings to the local pet shop for free, but they told me the authorities (Whomever they are) wouldn't allow them to be used unless they have been sterilised and washed first. Hence the plastic bags of chippings you can buy at the pet-shop!.

I suppose you could wash them, then dry them in the m'wave?

regards
John