Its mid March in Ontario and I, like a kajillion gardeners, am dying to get started on my yard.
But it’s too early. So I decided to request a truck load of wood chips from a local arborist. I assumed it would come in the spring. Of course, it came the next day.
Free wood chip mulch from a local arborist
Now I have a steaming, towering hill of aromatic wood chips on our driveway. It’s too early to spread around as mulch because the frost is still in the ground and I can’t quite remember where each perennial planting is.
So, I can only dedicate my time to planning and day dreaming what to do.
When we first moved to this property in 2004, I had spied a tree removal company across the street and asked for their wood chips because the lot here had a sharp decline and needed a berm to anchor it visually. More than a ton was mounded, to which, I experienced some ridicule at my choice. It didn’t faze me because I had known of some obscure wood chip gardening techniques. I also knew, that the mass would eventually compost down into beautiful, humus rich soil. The plan was easy, I thought. I couldn’t quite afford new foundation plantings for a while and the mounds of wood chips would merely be an in-between stage, it looked better than nothing at all. By 2009 there were no traces of wood chips and the newly planted areas were quite robust and beautiful.
I’m a kinda a “make do” gardener. I have used and promote, leaf collection mulching. I sprinkle our fire place ashes over garden beds in the fall and hand pick insects only if they bug me. I feed birds, grow moss and believe a natural garden is all about using native species and doing away with lawns.
One of the tasks I’d like to do is establish a new berm and fence line that prevents my neighbour’s japanese knotweed from spreading into our yard and create more privacy. I would have liked to have educated them that planting trees – that will expand and have huge canopies, within a foot of the property line is not the same as the shrubs or cedars I have planted – because hedges have thin profiles and can be pruned and their row of trees – do not have thin profiles and cannot be pruned. We now co own a literal forest of their planted trees.
But back to the wood chips. I have other plans for it too. Have you seen the video about “Back to Eden Gardening”? Admittedly very religious in context, it does present valuable information regarding wood chip gardening. The jest of it is; use wood chips around soil planted plants and you won’t have to fertilize, weed or water. So that’s what I’m going to do.
Personally I think wood chip gardening is a pro active solution to combating climate change. Global warming is a thing. We’re going to have to safe guard our soil, reduce water consumption and grow more trees to compensate for carbon gas emissions.
What seems like unorthodox gardening to those who have “too tidy” lawn obsessed yards today, will be acceptable practices for green enlightened gardeners ~ tomorrow.
CAUTION: wear some kind of facial filter mask. Wood chips have a naturally occurring mould that, if inhaled, can bring on flu like symptoms.
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