Problems with Woodchips, and Reframing Problems

[@desertdwellingflamingo200]

I started crying 😭 when you said something to the fact that everyone has trauma. I cried because I felt your compassion for people, people just like me, and your compassion for Mother Earth and Father Sky.❤️

[@SWEAR2CARE]

I appreciate you being real about something that's free. Nobody else seems to want to mention the imperfections, as if they were trying to sell It to me.

[@zeahlessley6108]

I love the concept of being frustrated but working to reframe the situation as an opportunity to repair and grow ❤️🌹🥖✊

[@TheRealHonestInquiry]

Another option, call local arborists and work out a deal with them directly. I really like the way you described the goal of permaculture, thanks for keeping it real.

[@sweetpeasbackyardgarden1236]

Totally understand your viewpoint. The reframing is necessary. I live in Northern Calif and we've had really hot temps. Signed up for wood chip drop for the 1st time. I heard good, bad and everything in between. So, I braced myself. I actually received a text and email that I would receive the delivery in 48 hours. No garbage in it thus far. Delivered to my driveway. Overall, a lot of mulch with various layers. Not certain if I have anything invasive. But, a great resource for my garden and a perfect opportunity for me to engage with my neighbors and share the wealth aka mulch with them.

[@GeordieMilne]

I learn so much from Angela and I share these wonderful videos with many! but mostly I come here for her calming voice.

[@MonoiLuv]

What a mindset. Great that you shared this

[@adultpersonman4612]

Love wood chips! Few things provide as many opportunities as a huge pile of wood chips. From meeting new people, to cleaning up the garden, to huglemounds and compost towers, I find new uses for them all the time.

[@charlesbale8376]

Thanks for sharing, I use Chip Drop every other year. The chips have been fabulous, my only quibble with them is the loads tend to be on the large side.

[@SWEAR2CARE]

People that constantly get to touch the ground have grounded their daily dose of indoor EMFs. Electro-magnetic Fields that come off of everything pluged in where we live and obsorb it as static cling that messes with our zing. Getting my mind off myself long enough to see I'm not the only one who is hungry. For the light as it comes through me, just by paying some attention to little things coming up out of the ground that are so lovely.

[@lacidelong907]

My last drop from Chip Drop I also order no coniferous wood. And I donated to try to sweeten the deal. 100% coniferous was delivered 😥 I feel your pain!

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Ugh, I'm sorry :( Yeah, I got flack on FB from a person who said I was "shaming" ChipDrop...I just want folks to know that they're getting a really imperfect resource and to adjust their expectations and roll with the punches. The homeowner is the product that ChipDrop is selling to the arborists as a dump-site for chips. We are not the customer, so it's good to set our expectations accordingly. I still use them, but I expect issues with every load.

[@rivergate950]

email them and complain and they will refund your money

[@my_food_forest5106]

I live in Austria. Here you pay between 20 to 30 € per m3 woodchips, depending in the source. Getting them for free, seems to me like a pretty pretty nice thing. Even though they arent perfect. Thats maybe one thing to consider before complaining. No offense, just sayin. Wish u all the best for ur upcoming projects. Greetings from Europe 🐜🌲🌳

[@aurorawhite3359]

Thank you for sharing. we all get frustrated at times, thanks for reminding us to make the best of it and be compassionate

[@colorcodedmusic4932]

I use a pitchfork to get my woodchips into the wheel barrow. I find it easier to move them.

[@CarissaWyles]

I always love the way you reframe things 🙏💛

[@melcro65]

I always appreciate the information in your videos, but the perspective shared in this one was especially valuable. Thanks for your generosity in sharing your knowledge.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you!!

[@kathryngibbons8157]

I just want to say thank you SO much for your wise council, you really help me get out of my negative spiral and look for the positive side of things! I love your videos and always learn something new 😁❤

[@jaquit.7738]

I'm so glad to have found your channel! So many others are in different zones that it can be hard finding inspiration for our location and info on our more unique native plants. Last summer we started sheeting and woodchipping our yard more heavily. The buttercup was out of control and my child and I are allergic. You've touched on every plant I had researched and wanted to add from goji to thimbles (wonderful memories growing up near the woods with them wild) to red huckles to currents. I had been on the fence with honeyberries and you helped me decide to invest more in our blueberries. I look forward to your next videos!

[@davemiller3947]

I've gotten probably 20 loads of wood chips over the years. I got a load about a month ago (Camas, WA) and every time I shoveled some, that night and the next day I had an annoying cough (not covid, I got a test). That has never happened to me before. The chips seemed to be a mix of fir and birch, pretty typical stuff. They were of course steaming and I'm sure some of the steam was actually fungus spores, but that is normal. The only thing that was different was I've never shoveled chips in the middle of winter before. Anybody else had a "wood chip cough"?

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

my partner got a cough that lingered for weeks after shoveling coniferous chips this past fall. I don't let him do it anymore, and his doctor said it was definitely airway irritation from the mold spores. Super important to be careful with our lungs, and shoveling just aerosolizes the heck out of those spores. I hope you're feeling better!!

[@TheRealHonestInquiry]

Yes I've gotten the cough while moving woodchips... will definitely wear a mask and goggles next time!

[@Fragrantbeard]

Yep, got a cough, but mostly felt it in my sinuses. I finally started wearing a mask.

[@rivergate950]

wear a respirator they block all stuff like that

[@philgordon381]

Thanks for the video. I love wood chips. I try to keep 3 piles working on my 2 acres. The freshest I use for paths and bedding in the coop. I have two breaking down. I use to broken the down stuff to mulch trees and in hugel beds.

[@davidmissak3653]

I love wood chips and I use them extensively, but there is another major problem with them and that is potassium. Usually that is not a problem with trees and berries but it is a major problem with annual veggies. Permaculture and regenerative agriculture tends to overestimate biology over minerals but minerals are just as essential for healthy soil and nutrient dense food. Woody debris are very high in potassium which can throwing the mineral profile way out of balance which is

[@rivergate950]

well considering that they used to make potassium fertilizer by burning trees and then using the ashes as fertilizer with a 95% reduction of volume, not sure I'm too worried about it. potasium is not a huge part of wood, only when burned and concentrated into ashes does it become high percentage wise

[@tgardenchicken1780]

Can you speak to how perennials may deal with/react with the wood chips and a soil that may be fungal based?

[@barbarasimoes9463]

I am just learning of this type of gardening and am enthralled! I've watched so many videos and am trying to learn all I can. I had gotten some paw paws last year, and along with a Serviceberry "Autumn Brilliance" they are about six feet away from the sidewalk along the front of my property. The problem is that most of the rest is lawn. Can I get wood chips dropped along the front, and would that be enough to kill the grass and weeds below? We're talking at least 150'x10' that I want to convert to a food forest. A friend suggested black plastic covered in mulch, but I have an issue with using plastic. I have some cardboard, but not enough to cover such a span. Appearance matters; it is the front of my house on a scenic highway in Vermont. Thank you for any advice you can offer.

[@TheRealHonestInquiry]

A layer of overlapped cardboard covered with a good thick layer of woodchips or other mulch is all you need to smother the grass and weeds

[@marthadoelle7585]

Check with local stores for corrugated cardboard, then cover the cardboard with chips. It works well in our climate.

[@dmcdonell3062]

I started using wood chips around the house in the garden but I was concerned with attracting termites. What do you think?

[@mwnemo]

I saw some in mine, would not recommend next to the house anymore 😕

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

todayshomeowner.com/does-wood-mulch-attract-termites-and-other-insects/ I thought this was a good article on the subject. Where I live, termites are not really an issue for homeowners, and I do not put mulch up against my foundation. I have lived in places with termites, and making sure there is space between your foundation and the beginning of woodchip mulch is important for keeping termites away from the home.

[@kitdubhran2968]

If you ever want some speedwell it’s pretty evergreen here in the Willamette valley. Might get a little to cold up where you are but I’d be willing to bring up a few bits of it for you to try if you want.

[@SWEAR2CARE]

I live in the third floor apartment in vista, California. I watch permaculture videos because it has inspired me to believe in the future of the human race.i want to be in you all picture this level of cons ciousness but all i have is my hands. Telling your stories as if off grid ? which grid? Through an awareness of soil as not dirt. I feel so hopeful. Feeling the fulcrum of balance move away, very slowly, from the brain washing effects of egomaniacs Who have fooled the lonely niave so much. What my generation has embedded In this land. Run run if you can. I.e. Mercury in our teeth.

[@jwysass]

I appreciate the wood chip theme videos. Do you let your dogs run through the garden? With my dog I am concerned about dog pee and poop on vegetables.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

I do and I diligently pick up dog poop and bury it under my fruit trees away from low-growing edible plants and annuals. My boy dog has a penchant for peeing on plants in my rain garden and burning them. I haven't found a perfect solution there...Parts of my yard are fenced to keep dogs out (mostly away from chickens and out of my shade garden where Apollo killed multiple delicate ferns by peeing on them). My dogs are surprisingly good at staying on the paths, for which I am grateful...my kids? not so much...

[@seedylee]

our load was just leaf mulch. not really what i wanted, and i had to tarp it on my driveway before i could move it all to the back, but yeah, it's free. the invasive species would bum me out.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Yes, I've gotten loads that were 80% small twigs and leaves. The best solution I've found is to order chips in the winter when deciduous trees won't be leafy. Thankfully, I have places to stash leaves and make leafmold, but I bet someone wanting nice chips for their paths would be bummed out. I definitely don't want folks to have unrealistic expectations of what they might get from these companies.

[@ichymcgee2315]

what about Artillery fungus and Termites? have you seen a problem with either of those?

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

I am very lucky, neither of those are an issue where I live. I would design differently if they were.

[@reddeer1758]

I live in New Zealand. I can't get free woodchips where I live and need to pay $65 per metre square, plus $40 delivery. I totally understand the problems you're dealing with, but I'm also immensely jealous you can get it for free.

[@leeivey8328]

i've gotten 7 loads from chip drop, one was all palm that i refused, one all conifer(mostly needles). each drop has had some trash in it(shingles, food wrappers, plastic bottles, etc). the worst one, they shredded a tarp. i'll be picking those shreds out for years. not sure how or why you'd shred a tarp.

[@Michael-pe4cr]

I don’t know what your code is where you live, but you have to keep them 18 to 24 inches from the house fire code

[@wagroforestry33]

That's interesting - Paul Gautschi says the better his soil is (the longer it has had the wood chips on) the slower the chips break down - his rationale being because the soil doesn't need the fertility/repair as much.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Wow that is interesting! I will go check that out because I’ve never heard that before. I feel like the opposite has been true for me: early on woodchips lasted longer because I had almost no soil life to speak of so nothing to consume it all. Now it feels like I need to apply chips three times a year because they break down super fast and I’ve got a good rich layer of humus under the chips and I’ve inoculated my soil with tea made from soil from multiple thriving natural areas to try to re-seed good microbes. I’m super interested in his difference experience and look forward to reading up on it! Thanks for the heads up. :)

[@davemiller3947]

I have found that the wood chips i acquired in winter last longer than chips acquired the rest of the year. I believe this is due to having fewer (or no) leaves in the winter loads. So when I need chips for paths, I get them in the winter, and when I need them for mulch or composting, I get them in spring or summer.

[@davidmissak3653]

Can throw the mineral profile off causing a lessening of the nutritional value of food.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

If you till them in, they definitely can bind up nitrogen. I have not found a reduction in fertility of my plants as long as I use it as mulch on top of the soil and plant through the chips into the soil below.

[@STEAMLabDenver]

The load that was just dumped smells like cigarettes. It’s so weird. I have not seen any cig. butts. This smell is permeated through the whole thing though. So weird. I’m hoping that after I spread it it will get rained on and smell better. I am really excited to not have mud pit paths in the backyard though!

[@barbarasimoes9463]

When I had some Norway Maples cut, the smell was foul. I thought that the dogs from next door were sneaking over and pooping. Finally, I zeroed in on where the smell was coming from. It lingered for months. I'm wondering if it might be something like that.

[@suzannebonham583]

Say we have alder chips coming out our ears - reach out - great mushroom fodder. We'll bring to you. It would be nice to meet you!! Furniture building detritus.

[@SWEAR2CARE]

Nothing is free in this world of reality. There's always a payment on some level of consciousness. Physical, mental, astral level.

[@huffster6344]

There is another option to use when your wood chips are less then stellar and it has worked very well for me. Simply compost the gnarly bits just like any other garden residue. It may take more time, so if you are low on patience, maybe gardening might not be for you! ; )>

[@flatsville1]

Woodchips never breakdown into soil. Soil is some percentage of sand, silt & clay. The parent material is rock. Woodchips are organic carbon material. The parent material is trees. When wood chips break down partially they form compost. When broken down completely they form humus. Both beneficial & add to tilth, but NOT soil. It's impotant that growers know this & realize the difference. Common defintions & language is essential for communication. You can grow in straight compost if it is finished, but why bother when there is perfectly good soil (dirt) just below? Growing in straight compost does not build soil life if the plant roots never contact the soil. That root to dirt contact is essential for the process. You must then constantly supply finished compost if you get hooked on that method. (It's like crack cocaine. The first bag is "free.") A neighbor took his garden out of commission for 2 years because someone told him broken down woodchips was "soil." He couldn't grow anything for 2 seasons. His chips were either completely green in some parts or had the ashy look of anearobic decomposition in other parts. The dump was bad & too thick. He actually paid $$$ for the dump. I finally convinced him to pull much of it back & plant into the real soil (dirt.) He was able to get some vegs the 3rd year. Oddly, he had a fairly productive garden before this happened using mostly rough mulch as a covering on an annual basis. His plant roots were reaching the soil & making the connections to build soil life. He didn't realize it.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

I respectfully disagree with your semantical assertions here. Soil and dirt are not interchangeable terms. If you notice, I use the terms soil and humus and topsoil interchangeably. Woodchips and other organic matter absolutely do breakdown into soil. They don’t break down into “dirt” which is the inorganic clay, sand, chalk etc subsoil and below. When your landscape is devoid of any organic topsoil whatsoever like mine was, bringing in biomass is crucial to building soil. I think you are misunderstanding multiple points I made. I’m not hooked on finished compost? When there is NO organic matter because erosion and poor land management for 100 years has stripped away all of it, you can’t just grow in the depleted dirt and expect good results. The soil must be regenerated to create a healthy fertile landscape. Wood chips are ONE tool in the toolbox for regenerating depleted landscapes.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Again, this is the issue with how language is ever-evolving and words are used differently in different locales. You are making a semantical argument, when I disagree with your definitions to begin with. Yes, organic matter decomposes to become humus/tilth/compost. I never asserted anything different. But it DOES build soil because it is the primary crucial ingredient in topsoil. Adding back depleted trace inorganic minerals is also part of soil building, as I discuss in other videos. It feels to me like you’re getting bogged down in a semantical disagreement and missing the forest for the trees here. We are talking about the same processes but using slightly different terminology. It reminds me of how recently I saw a woman share a meme in a regenerative agriculture group and it said “dirt” and she got ripped to shreds by dozens of pedants telling her she meant “soil” while they completely missed the entire valid point of her meme because they got very very hung up on her using the word dirt when we all clearly know the concept she was talking about was building healthy soil ecology. But I appreciate you taking the time to so diligently explain your understanding of “soil”.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

As to your friend, someone gave him very wrong information. I address this in the video and say it a LOT on my channel. Woodchips are MULCH, you have to pull them back and plant into the soil below. I will repeat this endlessly because I’ve seen folks be misled a lot and I want to give accurate advice that leads to success for gardeners. As my 12 yr-old would say. Scrambled eggs aren’t poop. They’ll become poop when you eat and digest them. Woodchips arent soil. They’ll become soil when the decomposers and detritivores digest them and turn them into humus. But at the moment they’re woodchips and MULCH.

[@flatsville1]

@@ParkrosePermaculture It's not my definition of soil. Check any first year college geology, agriculture or horticulture text. They will all explain the parent material of soil is rock (some mention a smattering of dead organic material as a side note.) You can also web search soil pyramid. The sides are sand, silt & clay. Compost/mulch is an O Horizon (organic) component which sits above top soil. To build soil life, you only need a living root in the ground to produce root exudates which then establish & grow the mycorrhizal & other microbe relationships. A mulch covering protects the plants that need it. Weeds generally don't. It's why we call those plants weeds. The best example is a lone dandelion in a "dirt" patch needing no compost or mulch. In reality the dandelion is a pioneer plant building microbial soil life along the road to forest succession. I think you beleive "dirt" or "bare dirt" is devoid of microbial life. That "soil" is somehow different. The dandelion knows better.

[@flatsville1]

@@ParkrosePermaculture I think you need to listen from about minute 1:08 & then forward a bit. You discuss active soil ecology then say: "...the more quickly your woodchips are going to be returned to the earth and become soil." This is where the problem arises for new or inexperienced gardeners like my neighbor looking for a solution to a perceived problem or a better method. Woodchips can never do that...become soil...They will act as mulch, when innoculated become compost & when fully depleted, humus.