I use wood chips for the ornamental beds. The risk of walnuts is too small to panic and lose sleep. Straw mat for veggies.

Dan

I like the whole idea of using a wood chip mulch to keep the weeds at bay (as so many sources have recommended)

Mulching? Yes. Straw, hay, compost, grass clippings, leaf mold, shredded fall leaves, even cardboard and/or shredded papers, etc. But wood chip mulches in the vegetable garden? No way. Far more problems and minimal benefit.

What "many sources" recommend wood chip mulches in a vegetable garden?

Check out the many mulching discussions below and you'll find even more over on the Soil & Mulch forum here.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Mulch discussions

This year one of our neighbours had some trees taken down. We knew what was in the mix when we asked the tree cutting company if they would like to get rid of the wood chips. They were happy to unload them at our drive way. If you can find the tree cutting company at work, it's a pretty good way of knowing what's in the mix. (However we use pine straw for mulch in our small vegetable garden.)

not to hijack but i did use the colored nature scape mulch from the box store. what are the problems? I guess I read on the package and it said safe for veggies and that was good enough for me. And I was wondering how they would incorporate into my soil as I believe in no till...help?

Hi regaldozer,
I don't know anything about that particular product, but if you don't till it in, it won't incorporate enough to cause problems, if you tilled it in, it could then become a nitrogen sink and you would have to add nitrogen to counteract the process of its decomposition.

regaldozer - all the problems with wood chips are discussed in more detail in all the previous discussions linked above.

But a few points are jamming tillers, contributes little benefit to the soil and then only over several years, can burn plants as it decomposes, encourages slugs, provides minimal weed control, minimal moisture retention, and until it decomposes it binds up nitrogen in the soil and changes the pH of the soil.

Dave

Digdirt: I suspect OP might be confusing chips thickly in ornamental beds with mulches like straw or grass clippings in veg beds.

Dan

I use a lot of pine straw because we have pine trees. I also use wood chips from our shredder when we trim our trees. But, I'm really starting to like rice hulls. I use it as bedding for my chicks and horses. It is such a nice size particle and absorbent, without getting soggy or sour. If I were to buy something, I'd buy rice hulls.
You can find them at feed stores under a brand name Perma-stall bedding.

Straw is my favorite mulch & if I don't have enough I use the other materials & top with a light layer of straw for a uniform look as my veg. garden borders the gravel driveway out front for all to see and keeps the strawberries & lettuces clean.

What you get on your paths now will become your vegetable mulch next year. Seems like once you start the process you'll gather enough up, but it's hard when you're 1st starting out. I also reuse the black heavy duty plastic bags, so it's not expensive from year to year.

Here are some of the ways we've managed to find free mulch:

Spoiled hay can't be used for horses, so you might get some that way off Craigslist.

Tree trimmers often have mulch available free if they're in your area or if someone gets too much they list it on Craigslist. Some have more wood vs. green. All of it works as pathway material that next year can work as veg. garden mulch then after another season into the the soil.

Most feed stores let you have the sweepings from their barns after they load hay for customers. Ours puts it in a separate dumpster & you can fork it out into bags or bins during business hours.

For next year straw is often free after Halloween or Nativity displays, so check Craigslist.

Collect bags of freshly fallen leaves in fall from landscapers at work as you drive past on an errand. (If they've been on the ground awhile you may have slugs & weed seeds, so beware.)

Used coffee grounds from St*arbucks. Call 1st & have them save some for you then do rounds.

Snip & drop your spring planted summer harvested crops for mulch OR even faster & even mulch throw on the lawn before you mow & collect afterward to spread out when dry as mulch
(radish tops, slug holed lettuce leaves, pea vines, etc.)

Many spring blooming perennials create a lot of material to be cut back after blooming & can be added to the mix as mown on the lawn above for mulch. English primrose, hardy geranium, sweet woodruff, pansies, etc. in my climate.

Let all your friends know that if they don't use weed & feed you want their grass clippings the same day as they mow, so you can dry them on a tarp to use. On a dry day as long as you're home to turn the thin layer several times & cover at night to prevent dew the grass is ready to use in 1-2 days as a 1/2" layer. If the clippings are wet & pile up a bit you can still dry them before they don't get slimy & they'll work. In spring, I try to get a garbage can full of them dried & ready to use until fall.

In late summer and fall in our area it's not hard to gather loads of horse manure + bedding, spoiled hay, and even chicken manure + bedding to apply when the plants aren't growing & won't be burned.

In fact that's how we started mulching because the kids raised chickens & ducks for 4-H & had all those dirty shavings from the brooder, coops, & traveling show crates. The no turn compost bins became full quickly with raising fryers, so they began to spread thin layers around smothering the weeds between the fruit trees along the driveway. It did the trick & now 10 years later we have created a huge garden edged with concrete blocks in front of those trees going back between & behind the trees. Near the trees we have perennial vegetables, herbs, fruits, & flowers as accents, so we don't dig much around them, but away from the trees are the rotated permanent vegetable beds.

LATE LAST SUMMER PHOTOS to show you what is possible with gathering materials over time. We're not gardening experts, but have learned a lot over the years in our limited sunshine space.

The found rocks as edging have since been replaced with free concrete blocks the entire length. Behind the fruit trees the north side of the garden is forest & understory plants are cut back regularly or they'd over take the garden.

Fruit trees were planted bareroot in the loosened pit run native soil because we were given them & that was the only place with sunshine. I had a container veg garden prior to the trees, so we've transformed this area quite a bit.
{{gwi:71806}}From 2010 flower garden

Shows the driveway border of concrete blocks filled with herbs, zucchini on left, bare soil from recently harvested potatoes, & straw mulch to the side. Containers of herbs near the chairs & barely visible wooden raised beds behind. Neighbor's home & shed in the background.
{{gwi:71807}}From 2010 flower garden

Poor black walnut--it is so maligned yet such a beautiful tree with tasty--though hard to get to--nuts. I do know the issues with juglone, as my neighborhood has numerous bw trees. Luckily I have a great neighbor who trimmed his so the nuts don't fall on my house and car!

But I agree with those who said wood chips in the garden would be problematic for many reasons. Have you checked with your county to see if they offer leaf mulch? I just got a load for only a delivery fee.
If you are just mulching paths, then I really would not worry too much about the bw possibly being in the mix. When I purchased bags of mulch for my ornamental garden, the mixes were labeled "pine", "hardwood" etc.

I guess it depends on your garden size, but I did not find straw overly expensive when I saw the results.

Lots of black plastic and lots (I mean lots, like 500 bags in the fall of 2009, and about 200 some last fall) of leaves. Oak leaves are the best, IMHO, taking the longest to break down. Free for the hauling in the fall, except for the cost of gasoline.

Try baled grass hay, it might be cheaper, esp if you can save the owner time and labor by collecting it right out of field after baling.

YES, I know people are always warning against it, but if you use it correctly, you shouldn't have problems. If you can use weeds as mulch, you can use hay. You just have to use it thickly enough to prevent sprouting.

There's nothing wrong with wood chips in the paths, if you have dedicated beds. They do keep the weeds down, and you can use your higher-quality mulch for the beds, which should cut down the expense.

Sue

ok so now....beds have wood muclh and paths have straw. nice.

so at season end I plan to rake the wood chips into the paths, add horse manure and compost to the tops of the beds and do better next year.

4 more thoughts about mulch that might help. I am enthusiastic about using it in the garden, so want to share how you can get it free or cheaply & make it work for you.

Try:
1. wood shavings
--sold at feed stores & the compressed bales around here are about $8 or so for white or pine shavings. Cedar is $1 or so more. Don't buy at a pet store because you'll pay too much! Once opened you really have a lot of material that doesn't decompose quickly. We've used them as bedding for chickens & applied as mulch (manure + bedding) in fall-very early spring. Then once no more smell, we go ahead & pull back a bit to plant. Some gets mixed with the soil, but doesn't matter too much because soil is rich with manure.

If the bags get torn you can purchase at a discount. Ask if they're not marked down. Now & then I'll buy a damaged bag of cedar for perennial veg & fruits because it lasts so long, smells great, & looks nice, too.

2. spoiled hay or straw bales or sweepings from the feed store work fine because once the seeds sprout they don't sprout again... Wet the bales or sweepings to encourage sprouting before you open & spread. Once mulch is in place stir up a bit by hand or with a hand trowel once a week & pull the taller sprouts letting them fall in place to add to the mulch... eventually all the seeds are sprouted. Our March planted raspberry bed mulch is all done sprouting now & looks really nice now that the sun has faded it all a uniform color.

If you leave it be & let the sprouts get too big it's more of a problem.

3. used grass hay with manures...
Now, used goat hay (manure & they're grass hay bedding) is a bit more weedy, so wouldn't use in veg. garden w/o composting because of the manure as well. A couple is bringing their used goat hay about every 6 weeks instead of paying $10 to dispose of it at a recycler who is piling up as compost just like I'm doing. I've had 3 loads now since late March. The 1st I picked up & spread as the bottom lasagna layer in an ornamental flower bed & the other 2 she's brought me. It's a bit of work to turn that long pile now, but I'll be using it as a feeding mulch when ready.

4. alfalfa hay doesn't sprout at all
In my area horse owners are very eager to get rid of spoiled hay as they need the storage for their good hay & don't want it around for the horses to get into.

5. County fair used animal bedding
Find out when your fair is held & offer to pick up the used bedding. Livestock, horses, rabbits, & poultry go through a lot of bedding during shows. In our area they're all using the pellets of sawdust except for chickens. The fairgrounds might be eager to let you come get it that last evening of fair or the next morning. They may have to pay by the pound to haul it away. We used to put it all by the horse barn at our fair & it was a mix of all the different animals. If you're willing to come pick up when the rabbits are released you can have all the rabbit bedding + manure you want and that manure can be used straight away.

Hope that helps,
Corrine

Hay is not a problem if you use spoiled hay or old hay. Hay that has been cut too late, so it's full of seeds, IS the problem. I've been using hay on my gardens for almost 40 years. No seeds, no problem.

Thanks all, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your posts. I'm really looking into no till gardening in the future and so wasn't too worried about tilling chipped bark and shredded branches into the garden. I'm a minimalist so I'm looking for something good long term where I don't need to be reliant on someone or something else for a good garden. Now, I do have a very shady yard so I will collect leaves this fall. It just sucks I have walnut trees to worry about. Are black walnut leaves a severe or minimal threat in the garden? Or something I shouldn't be as concerned about?

Black walnut leaves, even after they're composted, can cause the same issues. Corn and tomatoes are both particular affected, becoming stunted at a few inches tall.

If you gather roadside bagged leaves, its easy enough to spot walnut leaves, stems, and nuts or hulls and avoid them. If nothing else, check out the yards from the roadside, generally easy to spot black walnut trees once you learn them.

"Black walnut leaves, even after they're composted, can cause the same issues. Corn and tomatoes are both particular affected, becoming stunted at a few inches tall."

This is interesting, most places Ive visited say corn and walnuts can coexist, along with beans, onions, beats and carrots.

"This is interesting, most places Ive visited say corn and walnuts can coexist, along with beans, onions, beats and carrots."

Taken from personal experience about 15 years ago. I've got mature black walnut trees in the back yard. I decided to compost the leaves one year with a mix of ash and maple. Next spring, I put it on the vegetable garden, believing that any toxic effect would be neutralized by the composting process. Where it was applied, corn and tomatoes grew only a few inches tall the first year. Things took about 3 years to really get back to normal.

I now grind them with the mower, gather them, and use them ONLY under the black walnut trees as mulch in the "tree rings."

Years ago I used loads of wood chips from the municipal tree trimmers, but in 2005 and 2007 I had major tree work done int he yard and was left with 2 huge piles of wood chips. The first pile was mostly pine, the 2nd one was mostly Norway maple. The chips have lasted for years, and just get more crumbly and attractive every year, but I use them mostly for paths, and in a couple gardens in front that are more formal. Not in the veggie garden.

This year I did put a very light layer of the pine wood chips over newspaper for small paths in the veggie garden. Not worried about them getting mixed in the soil, as these have been decomposing for 6 years.

Straw is my preferred mulch for the veggies, it keeps them nice and clean.

I noticed that no one mentioned salt marsh hay. It's really good! No seeds at all, either.