I Built 12 Inches of Rich Soil Using Woodchips

Sometimes we start out with a garden ecosystem that is so depleted, importing fertility is the best option to kick-start the cycling of nutrients and fertility that will eventually be self-sustaining and form a closed loop.
My topsoil was nonexistent when we bought this house. It was sod laid on top of a straight, 100% clay subsoil riddled with large river/glacial rock deposits. There simply wasn't enough biomass on site initially, and so I have been importing free woody debris (a waste product from tree trimming) for over a decade to help build a thick, fertile foot of humus, rich with fungal and invertebrate life. Here's a look at how that process has worked for me, and how I inevitably need to move biomass around my property to tweak my design and improve fertility around my fruit guilds.
I apologize in advice for the sound quality on this video. I didn't have a camera stand with me and was covered in soil from working, so I just filmed holding my phone, and for part of the video, the audio is muffled. And then the wind kicked up, so for part of the video there is wind noise. I hope the concept demonstrated here is helpful to you, even if the sound isn't perfect!
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[@PegsGarden]

Hello Angela, I did the same thing with my small garden, we had nothing but sand and no life in our soil when we bought our home 8 years ago, I called the extension office in our small city and they offer free delivery of wood chips right to your door, it was a small dump truck filled half way which was perfect for my garden they just dump it onto your property and go, my soil improved so much since I did this last year, I have just been putting compost onto my soil to replenish it this year from kitchen scraps I saved in buckets this year, I love your garden so much you did such an amazing job with your property.

[@TheEmbrio]

Here are my observations in a dryer climate. Took about 2 years to see decomposition in my dry climate, 4 years for some (very little) gradual mixing with the lower clay/rocks ’subsoil’ i had, similar to your description. The first 2 years the chips contributed to dryness, now they seem to hold water. I know the mulching effect should have helped but it really didn’t seem to. Probably because some got mixed into the soil, making it too light. But, now, much better. I’d probably advise anyone to’let decompose some. Maybe watering the pile, perhaps using as a sponge for urine, or using it first only around well stablished perenials in a dryer climate (mediteranean)

[@Iris_van_Vulpen]

You are so lucky with free woodchips. They cost quite al lot of money over here in the Netherlands. What I do have however is horse manure. So that's what I use in the garden (witch is 100% sea clay because we're around 4 meters beneath sea level). Use whatever is available right?

[@eekisvreemd1986]

Hi Iris! Paardenmest is prima als je het composteert, en de paarden niet recent ontwormd zijn. (Ontwormers werken ook op bodemleven) Leuk om een dutchie tegen te komen hier! ☺️

[@haakmaaraan6075]

Hoi! Ik heb bij mij in de buurt een groenbedrijf/hovenier die houtsnippers verkoopt voor 10€ per kuub. Deze snippers maakt hij van zijn snoei afval, dus lokaal geproduceerd ook nog. Misschien kun je bij jou in de buurt ook een groenbedrijf vinden die dat verkoopt? Het is dan wel niet gratis, maar een stuk betaalbaarder dan zakken van bijvoorbeeld het tuincentrum of de bouwmarkt. Ps: mijn volkstuin is ook (zee)klei…

[@jerrysamuels8716]

Chances are you have a really beautiful garden?

[@tanyadraper7588]

I only started last year putting woodchips on my yard and I have already noticed one huge difference. Before when I had lawn there were ant hills all over my yard and I had a hard time finding worms. I was considering buying worms for my garden but this year they are everywhere and the ants are gone. My soil has not improved yet but I think the worms are a good sign.

[@jenniferholter7610]

Wood chips are magic!

[@oneacrehomestead1776]

Thanks for the chip drop info had no idea

[@randyland1000]

I've been getting wood chips for years, put them all around my plants and am filling in a big bank beside my garage... lots of work, but awesome returns!

[@dbbdeb2327]

Love your gardening journey

[@jameskniskern2261]

I love wood chips! They are amazing when they break down, and amazing when composted. And just, well, amazing!

[@compiticny1445]

We use chip-drop in the NE and love the service. I get a drop or two every year and create a compost pile where we add grass clippings, leaves, kitchen scraps, coffee/tea, etc. in the spring I screen the pile(s) adding to the "large" material to the "new" piles repeating the process every year. Because we get more than enough for the garden beds that we add to every year I have topdressed the lawn in the fall so that we do not fertilize the lawn and have found that the soil is improving each year. Great video

[@alyssausrey3043]

Thank you for the tips! I'm in St Helens and am working on my very first guild with a plum tree we found buried under overgrown hedges. Your garden is an dreamy inspiration! Do you ever allow tours or visits for new gardeners?

[@waykeeperfarmandnerdery]

Thank you so much for mentioning chipdrop!!!

[@blancaartgallery]

I’m assuming sawdust is the next level to wood chip and it would do a similar maybe quicker job. I have acces to the saw dust from a local small sawmill. I have used it in all the garden paths and between beds. It’s been so good.

[@jt1453]

You have a lovely yard. Many people have been using woodchips to help build up poor soil and keep the weed down. I am wanting to know what is the end game with woodchips. The elevation of our yard has raised 4" over the years and has built up along the wood fence,and is starting to rot out. Do we turn to only chop and drop?

[@TheRealHonestInquiry]

There isn't some formula that applies to everyone, you need to take into account your preferences and situation and figure out what is YOUR end game with woodchips. Having said that you have so many options... you could manage the height around the fence and build some mounds as she mentions in this video, you could use the extra soil to pot up cuttings/seedlings from your garden, you could leave it all alone and keep building fertility to support larger root systems and therefore more abundance in your garden, and look at lasting materials for a fence, such as a gabion rock wall, metal sheeting etc.

[@MaxSwedenAgroforestry]

Nice one!

[@fenoglios]

You're not worried about the street runoff containing motor oil?

[@holisticheritagehomestead]

Wow! Great video. This is motivating. We are working hard to amend our rocky clay soil. We recently bought a used wood chipper, and think it will be a good investment for our projects. Especially our new food forest project. Thank you!

[@goodvalueservices-ys4kg]

I have nothing but thick grass in my backyard which I already started adding fruit trees and want to convert into a food forest, but this year when I lay down the wood chips, I get nothing but weeds coming out the wood chips. What should I do?

[@paulmoschetti3453]

Considering that u live next ti a city road i would be conserion by the auto waste mainly the rubber components that u are collecting into your garden but over all im impressed by your project

[@permiebird937]

I love wood chip as a garden mulch.

[@debbiemcreynolds3892]

How often do you bring in woodchips and how thick do you layer them?

[@nateanderson5289]

I have added lots of woodchips to my garden in the past 2 years, but I’m currently working on moving the chips out of the garden beds and into the paths. I want to be able to seed plants in place and allow the self-seeders to spread, and woodchips make that difficult. I also found that the ground ivy pressure has increased as it is one of the only plants we have that spreads freely on top of the chips. Do you have thoughts on when the soil is “good enough” to stop covering with woodchips?

[@TheRealHonestInquiry]

You always want the soil either covered with plants or a mulch, it's how it happens in nature. Bare soil = intense evaporation of water and overheating in summer making it inhospitable to microlife. If the ivy is an unwanted ground cover then find something else, perhaps nitrogen-fixing legumes or the self-seeders. In certain areas you want to be able to easily rake the mulch back for seeding you could try using a lighter and smaller type of mulch such as dried leaves. If you run them over with a lawn mower a few times they will make an excellent mulch for young seedlings.

[@vonries]

I mix my wood chips with Starbucks coffee/tea grounds and they break down much faster that way.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Good tip! Our local Starbucks stopped giving our coffee grounds, but we can still get chaff from a roaster down the street.

[@pennythompson4790]

Great tip thanksx

[@gracewoods5322]

I am lucky enough to have had loads of mulch dropped by a tree company that was working on my road. I was thinking of planting potatoes in the piles that have been sitting about a year now. Too mushy?

[@annemcintyre9620]

Not at all. The mushier the better. You probably want to spread it out over the beds so you can still plant the potatoes in soil. With the rotted mulch on top

[@rubygray7749]

The potatoes should be laying on the soil so they can root down into it, with that lovely mulch covering them thickly. The potatoes will form above the soil layer, easy to pull up from the compost at harvest time.

[@mumbairay]

For the longest time I avoided wood chips because allegedly alliums can't handle it That is a myth Only chives got throttled a bit

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

I had not heard that alliums can’t handle wood chips although I do know lots of them don’t like to be buried super deeply. Glad to hear it has worked for you

[@SlackerU]

I ended up having issues with iron chlorosis b/c the high organics raised the PH too high & my water table was only 14 inches so my plants had very limited access to iron. If you look at a soil-nutrients-PH-availability chart you can see what I mean if you hold the chart with the acidic side down. My native PH is 4.9-5.3 & my mulch has a PH of 8, ideal nutrient availability happens at 6.3-6.8.

[@TheRealHonestInquiry]

I would research amendments like Crushed Oyster Shell and Dolomite Lime (only use until you hit your Mg # then the rest of the calcium can be from the shells)

[@hohaia01]

How do the neighbours feel about that ugly wooden structure in your front yard?

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

What are you hoping for with a comment like this?

[@hohaia01]

@@ParkrosePermaculture I don't mean to be disrespectful. It's a serious question. You must admit, it's not easy on the eye.

[@bettinaripperger4159]

@@hohaia01I’d love to see your videos… that way we can trash talk your property. Please post it. We are patiently 😊 waiting