Homemade Woodchip Mulch

Reader Contribution by Aaron Miller
Published on January 30, 2014
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I have been fantasizing about woodchips for the better part of a year now. This may strike you as a little odd but if you love gardening and understand the benefits of woodchip mulch as much as I do, then it probably sounds just right. Woodchips as mulch and ground cover has been shown to be more effective than other material (i.e. grass clippings, leaves or straw) at soil moisture retention, temperature moderation and weed control while also preventing erosion and compaction. It improves soil structure and increases gas transfer, nutrient levels and biodiversity of beneficial organisms. The myths that woodchips leave the soil more acidic or could spread disease from tree to soil have been busted. If you don’t feel like doing the research but do want to be inspired, you can watch a free documentary online called Back to Eden.

Wood for Thought

Yet with all this wonderful knowledge we have, it still requires us to get woodchips and lots of them. My approach to things like this is different than most people I know. My whole approach to everything is “What if there was no Home Depot (or mom and pop for that matter)?” What if I couldn’t just drive into town and buy whatever I needed? Not that I am a purist of some kind, but I do like being resourceful and using what I have in new ways so I don’t have to go buy things if I don’t need to. Once I have exhausted all means, I will use outside help. After all, even the first European colonies in the new world relied on regular shipments of supplies before they got on their feet. Being reluctant to change for sustainable purposes is silly because it doesn’t even have to include much change. It just requires new ways of looking at what you already have.

For example: My next door neighbor has a wood burning stove. It’s great for a heat source but living on ¼ acre lots all piled next to each other in suburban Olympia as we are leaves most people buying their wood supply to cut at home. My neighbor is one of these and certainly with no judgment here because this isn’t my point. Instead I’m focused on how days after Christmas their real Christmas tree is outside on the curb waiting to be picked up by the garbage man. Let me rephrase this, they buy wood labeled ‘firewood’ for heat but throw away wood labeled ‘Christmas’. You bought that tree, why not use it all? I keep all my Christmas trees and I have a pellet stove. Once they are dried I cut the limbs off and split the tree into logs for our fire pit. I may not use the logs for a year or so after, but when the power goes out on a cold night or we decide to have friends over for a campfire and watch the stars, we have everything we need on hand.

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