wood chips uses

[mrshopeful]

Hi All

This is my first post so please be patient with me I'm a total novice

We've got a crazy amount of bushes grown wild in our front and back gardens so we've got ourselves a bosch shredder to help us get rid of all these branches I've chopped (got a 5 foot high pile of branches in the front garden, 2 foot high in the back and I'm not even half finished pruning). So I'm going to end up with an awful lot of chips but don't know what the best uses for them are and didn't want to just take them to the dump. I don't know if it's the right time of year for pruning but it's got to be done as soon as possible as they've taken over the garden.

I'm a complete beginner to gardening of any kind but have decided in the last couple of weeks to start trying to grow some veg so will probably be asking you all many questions and I'm in the process of digging out some beds along the sunny side of the garden (and realising how unfit I am in the process ) and wondered if the chips could be of any use with veg growing? Please don't ask me what type of bushes they are, the only one I recognised was holly, couldn't miss that

[Capsid]

It's best used as a mulch as branches will be well...woody and won't compost quickly. But using wood chips on the veg patch isn't very useful again because they don't contribute much to either soil fertility or condition. Most people seem to use wood chippings for their paths. If you have fruit bushes then they would be useful as a mulch around them, otherwise mix them sparingly with green compost in your compost bin and hopefully you can dig it in next autumn.

[mrshopeful]

Thanks Capsid, thats given me an idea where to use them. I was already thinking if I enjoy growing veg this year I might put in some raised beds next year so maybe I'll save them to use next year for the paths between the beds.

[Eyren]

Wood chips are very handy for making paths, if you lay some weed suppressing fabric under them. Our allotment site got a free delivery last year, courtesy of a helpful tenant and their neighbour's tree surgeon, and it all disappeared very quickly!

EDIT: Oops, Capsid beat me to it!

[crichmond]

I have just planted a row of new rasberry canes, and used some weathered woods chips as a mulch over the bed to help suppress weed growth and retain moisture.

[Sanjo]

I have put another path in today, around my new veg bed. I put down membrane and topped it with a good helping of shredded wood that my husband made for me yesterday. The other side of the bed was done some weeks ago and has proved its worth during the mucky weather. Go for paths - I would!

[mrshopeful]

Thanks all for your replies, I think I'll use it for paths. I was out digging up a bush earlier and found the chalk layer is nearer to the surface than I thought so looks like raised beds may be the way to go for me if I want to grow any root crops.