When Should I Use Wood Chips?

Q: I am having some trees removed and would like to have them chipped up and spread around my plants and flower beds. Is this a good idea?
A: Arborist wood chips are an excellent landscape mulch! Unlike other mulch material such as pine straw, bark chips, and shredded wood, arborist wood chips are a mixture of leaves, bark and sapwood. As these constituents slowly decompose, they release nutrients to the shrub and tree roots underneath. And, like other mulches, wood chips suppress weeds and keep the soil moist.
You can apply a layer two to four inches deep. The only caution is to keep the mulch three inches away from the trunk of the shrub or tree, to prevent potential damage to the bark. More at bit.ly/GAwoodchips.

Too much mulch!
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Walter’s Bookshelf
Browse and purchase gardening books by Walter Reeves, plus select titles by other authors.
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name that plant
Post your puzzlers and help others with theirs.
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January calendar
January is typically the coldest winter month. Still, you can accomplish such garden tasks as sharpening...
Get The Checklist
-
-
Popular topics
Soil Spring Summer Seed Winter Fall Flowers Weed Fertilizer Disease Shade Temperature Pine Pots Oak Mulch Pruning Watering Container Maple Compost Herbicide Birds Moisture Tomatoes Azalea Poison Pears Hydrangea Glyphosate Cherry Caterpillar Pests Roundup Irrigation Pre-Emergent Stone Pesticide Dogwood Peach Pine Straw Spider Greenhouse Magnolia Squash Beans Squirrels Poisonous Travel Lemon
-
Trending Posts
-
1
Hydrangeas – Pruning
-
2
Stinkhorn mushroom – Identification and Control
-
3
TifBlair Centipedegrass
-
4
Pine and oak tree trunks can’t graft together
-
5
Crabapple tree – Lifespan
-
1
Hydrangeas – Pruning
-
2
Stinkhorn mushroom – Identification and Control
-
3
TifBlair Centipedegrass
-
4
Pine and oak tree trunks can’t graft together
-
5
Crabapple tree – Lifespan
-
-
Walter’s Bookshelf
Browse and purchase gardening books by Walter Reeves, plus select titles by other authors.
View books -
-
January calendar
January is typically the coldest winter month. Still, you can accomplish such garden tasks as sharpening...
Get The Checklist
-
-
Popular topics
Soil Spring Summer Seed Winter Fall Flowers Weed Fertilizer Disease Shade Temperature Pine Pots Oak Mulch Pruning Watering Container Maple Compost Herbicide Birds Moisture Tomatoes Azalea Poison Pears Hydrangea Glyphosate Cherry Caterpillar Pests Roundup Irrigation Pre-Emergent Stone Pesticide Dogwood Peach Pine Straw Spider Greenhouse Magnolia Squash Beans Squirrels Poisonous Travel Lemon