Book review: The Woodchip Handbook

Who knew that a whole book on woodchips could be interesting. Here’s a short list of what I learned about using woodchips to mimic nature by protecting soil in your backyard, garden, or orchard.

• Don’t use woodchips as a soil ammendment. Digging or tilling in woodchips can cause their decomposition to reduce nitrogen available to shallow-rooting plants. Consider adding nitrogen at the soil surface (manure, compost, fertilizer)

• Mix in pumice or perlite to improve soil drainage and aeration.

• 2 to 4 inches of woodchips is ideal for weed control.

• Lay drip irrigation below woodchips to get water directly to roots.

• Sheet mulch can add nutrients to soil and protect soil from losing moisture. Onto soil add a thick layer of newspaper or cardboard to smother any seeds or roots in the soil. Then add mulch / woodchips. Finish with a top layer of organic material such as green compost, composted manure, mushroom compost, or composted woodchips.

• For pest control, treat woodchips with beneficial nematodes to attack any pest larvae over-wintering in the woodchips.

• You can also heal-in bareroot trees in woodchips before you have an opportunity to plant the trees.

• Hūgelkultur. Mimic mounds of soil in forests, such as where soil is turned up by the roots of a large fallen tree. Mounds should be three feet tall and can be used as no-till raised beds. Dig a shallow hole and place logs in the hole and progressively smaller branches and sticks on top. Then perhaps add leaves, a layer of compost, and a layer of soil on top.