How To Use Wood Chips in a Garden

Wood chips can serve your garden very well. They can work not only to decorate the whole area but can also double as a mulching compound for the flowerbeds. This is not to mention yet that wood chips can prevent weeds from growing around a plant or tree and can even strengthen any fragile root of any plant. Here is a guide to help you in using wood chips in your garden: Take note of the different options of wood chips ready for your use. There are different sizes of wood chips available today such as mini-nuggets, nuggets, and a lot of even finer chips. There are even wood chips made from cedar and cocoa that offers not only a lot better look but also a better aroma. Also, this kind of wood chips is known to prevent insect infestation in the garden. Prepare the soil of the garden first prior to using wood chips. It is important that the soil you will be covering with wood chips is very well ready for the chips. Use a steel rake or a cultivator to start preparing the soil. Then, make sure you clean it off with dirt, weeds, branches, rocks, and other debris. Make sure that the soil is smooth and even. The secret towards the smooth distribution of the wood chips is the level of the soil underneath them. Hence, after cleaning up the area, make sure you smooth down the soil using a tool or your hand. You can also consider layering out landscape fabric on top of the soil prior to covering it with wood chips. The landscape fabric can very well prevent weeds from growing. Pour the wood chips on the soil. Cover the ground with wood chips and make sure they are evenly distributed. It is important that you observe covering the soil with only enough chips. If there are too many on the soil, the oxygen reaching the roots can be limited. In most cases, it is best and enough to have around three inches or even four of wood chips on the soil. Observe the plant or tree that is surrounded by the chips. There are times that you will see cankers around the plant or tree after you have covered it with wood chips. If this happens, it means that there is not enough oxygen reaching the roots. Hence, you must reduce the layer of wood chips on the soil. You can also compensate this by adding fertilizer on the wood chips. Maintain the freshness of the appearance of the wood chips on the soil. Stir the wood chips during spring so the fresh appearance of the chips can be maintained. If needed, you can add a new layer of newer wood chips. Take note that it is not practical to change all the wood chips on the soil year after year as this will just be a waste of money.