How to Lay Wood Chips in the Garden

Using wood chips is an excellent type of mulch for many different types of plants including perennials, trees and vegetables. Lots of areas have free wood chips available for anyone who can collect them which also makes them a very cheap form of mulch.

Wood chips are wonderful because they prevent weeds from growing and they also keep the soil nice and moist. As long as the wood chips are deep enough they will have the desired effect.

Step 1 - Getting Wood Chips

First you will need to find somewhere that you can get your wood chips from. These are normally available from garden centres and are pretty cheap. If you live near a park or forest then you might also be able to get wood chips for free. Find somewhere close to where you live which has wood chips because they can be quite bulky. A garden centre may also be able to deliver these wood chips to your home on request.

Step 2 - Moving the Wood Chips

To move the wood chips you need to use a wheelbarrow or garden cart. Without a wheelbarrow this job would be impossible. If you have a large bag of wood chips then shovel them out and put some into the wheelbarrow. Make sure that it's not too heavy to handle though.

Next you need to move the wood chips to the area of your garden where they are needed. Wheel them down to your vegetable plot, roses, or shrubs. Wherever need the wood chips you can get them there.

Step 3 - Spreading Wood Chips

Once you have gotten your wood chips to the right place in your garden you are then ready to start spreading them out. To do this you should use a shovel and put a shovel full of wood chips on the garden at a time. This may seem time consuming but it's actually much easier than you might think.

You need to leave a space of a few inches around each plant so that the wood chips don't affect the plants you want to keep. For the maximum effect the wood chips should be laid to a depth of 3 or 4 inches. This depth will be able to prevent most weeds from growing while also keeping the soil underneath nice and moist.

If you are ever laying wood chips around tiny and young plants you will need to be much more careful. It would be far too easy to accidentally cover the young plants with a shovel full of wood chips.

Step 4 - Using Your Hands

Now you need to fill in the spaces around the plants that you left however you need to be very careful when dong this. Instead of using a shovel full of wood chips, grab two handfuls and place them carefully around the plants. Move them around so that they are level and do not cause your plant any harm.

Step 5 - Caring for Your Plants

Wood chips are a natural product and will rot down in the soil naturally, however as they rot they will use up nitrogen in the soil. You should fertilize your plants with nitrogen fertilizer to ensure your plants aren't robbed of these necessary nutrients.