I have switched at home to mulching everything with finely shredded leaves.For me it creates effect similiar to forest floor with no hard pan created by a thick layer of wood type mulches.I scratch in supplemental fertilizers around bulbs,azealas etc. and apply more mulch from leaves collected during winter every spring.I have attractive 3-4 inch thick mulch after 3 years which breathes and absorbes water very well.

Since it was donated by the electric company, I'm assuming what you received was wood chips from powerline trimmings. They make a fine mulch but perhaps not my first choice for a perennial bed - I prefer something of a finer texture and a faster nutrient source.

There's a couple of possible explanations as to why you experienced the 'hardening' of the soil. The first pertains to the thickness of the mulch - too thick a layer prevents a free flow of rainwater or irrigation through the mulch and into the soil and it may just be dry. It also prevents oxygen exchange, which can lead to clumping as well. The second is that wood chips, while still considered organic matter, are so slow to decompose they provide very little of the benefit that other, faster decomposing sources of organic matter provide. And OM is what improves soil texture and tilth.

There's all kinds of mulches and not all mulches will act in the same way or produce the same results. I like wood chips for shrub beds and with other woody plants, but not so much for perennials and other shallowly rooted plants. They also have a higher nutrient demand than most woodies and so something that provides faster benefit to both the soil and plants may be in order. My mulch of choice is compost but many other types of OM will work well also. Shredded leaves are a good choice and usually available in quantity and for free.

All mulches regardless of material will provide some similar benefits of weed suppression, moisture retention and soil insulation. Not all will provide OM or nutrient contribution. It's just a matter of selecting what you prefer and works best for your plants and is easily and/or cheaply available.

Here is a link that might be useful: all about mulch

Shredded leaves sounds good, but I dont know where I would get them. I am sure I could find leaves to get (even tho we have none here at the home) but how would I shred them? LOL can see me sitting there with a pair of scissors shredding leaves.

Yes, it is wood chips I am using, and they're pretty big wood chips too.

The soil didnt seem dry underneath, it was good and moist... just hard....really compressed.

So it sounds like I need to pick all the mulch out of there by hand then, and aerate around the plants, then find a better type of mulch?

Picking out mulch that's large chips is a big job. I once hired a couple of kids to do that for me. Might be easier to put compost on top and it will fall down thru the chips with rain and watering. This might attract earthworms who will do the job of loosening the soil for you.

I've been using fine wood shavings for mulch but I mix them with compost, alfalfa tea, and whatever other amendments I have available. Colors the wood shavings nicely and feeds the worms as well. Last year I also mixed in some fresh grass clippings and left it to steam for awhile. Made very nice mulch/compost combo.

"I notcied last year when I was adding in a few new plants that the soil beneath the mulch was getting....hard. Like when you dug it, it came out in chunks. In the gardens of my youth, my grandmother fixed that problem by aeration using a little garden fork. But with the mulch on it, I've not been able to dig into the soil much. "

These are perennials? Ignore it. What you are probably seeing is soil held together by roots and fungi.

To shred leaves, put them on the driveway and run over them with a lawnmower.

Mix this into the wood chip mulch and you should see an improvement in a year or so.

The soil didnt seem dry underneath, it was good and moist... just hard....really compressed.

Usually "compressed" and "moist" are mutually exclusive states of the soil. It takes moisture in the soil to grow the beneficial microbes needed for the soil to become naturally loose and fluffy. Unless you have over watered and the soil has been saturated enough to prevent air circulation. How deep is the mulch?

You could put some compost in or some organic fertilizer on top and then water it in.

Yes, they are all perenials. The mulch is in most places about 2-3 inches deep...not very deep. The garden is doing really well actually. Was just that the soil looked weird when I dug into it. As long as they are doing good, maybe I shouldnt mess with a good thing huh? lol.

Sounds like a good plan- if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Many perennials aren't particular about the soil they grow in. It probably would be a good idea to topdress them occasionally with compost, though. Rain will wash it through the mulch.

Do you walk on your beds? That will compress the soil, especially if it's wet. Stepping stones here and there help that.

Karen

If I had hard soil, I'd do something about it.
Wood products have become synonymous with mulch. When I was young, my father called our compost pile our 'mulch' pile.

I am not a fan of wood chip mulches for the reason you mention. How do you amend the soil if it needed it, if it were hard or hungry? Unless you rake the mulch away, you're sort of obliged to use a liquid fertilizer or tea. I like a perpetual mulching system. Even the lowliest shrub on my property gets a mulch contribution now and then if, say, I have some scruffy compost or some seaweed that got gross because I left it in a plastic bag all summer. I heave it near the plant somewhere.

So, if my soil were hard, I would rake the wood mulch away, either under the plants or between them, and mulch the soil with something that nourishes, as my time and organic materials presented themselves.

You can then replace the wood chip mulch, rake it back over. That's what I would do here, anyway. And weed control? Throw six layers of newspaper under your wood mulch, on top of your amendments.