You are not the only person who misunderstands what mulch is.

Mulch is anything that you put on top of your soil---whenever you put it on top of your soil. Mulches keeps weeds from germinating, keep soil cool, keep soil moist. Drop an old shoe on your garden---if it keeps your soil cool, moist and keeps weed seeds from germinating, you can call it mulch.

Mulch doesn't need aging---mulch only needs one thing---it needs to be on top.

You'll probably want to wait a bit into the spring for the soil to warm up until you apply it, otherwise you can keep your soil cold for longer than usual (Since mulch is insulation too).

Cheers,
Kyle

If you put too thick of a layer down on your soil the pine may heat up! A live and learn mistake I myself have made, by piling up fresh chips and killing plants from the composting of the chips.

I am sure that big pile of pine chip is going to heat up!
If this tree was cut down in Jan (as in 2 months ago) it is very fresh.
I personally would let it sit until fall!
Teresa B

Thanks for the replies! Yes, that's mainly what I was asking about, wondering if it would be safe to use now or if I should wait for it to decompose some first. The tree guy said I would probably want to wait a YEAR before putting it in the flowerbeds, but I sure wish I'd been home to direct where they dumped it! It was a huge tree and this is a HUGE pile of mulch-to-be that's not in a good place in my yard!

I would use it now.

I've had huge piles of wood chips dumped in my yard before. I know they can get hot!!!!! I expect that a live tree chipped up will heat up pretty quickly after being piled up. Once it has cooled down, there is probably no danger of a 2 inch layer heating up again without any extra additions of high nitrogen materials. That said, You may want to wait till the soil warms up and the plants are up before piling on the mulch. That way you arn't as likely to over bury the crowns of your plants and you can still get the moisture saving benefit of the mulch for the summer.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Compost

It's mulch right now if you want it to be. I have used fresh and aged wood chips from a large variety of tree species as mulch for flower beds, ornamentals, shrubs, trees and paths. In a thin layer (1 or 2 inches) any heating should be minor if at all -- especially right now when outside temps are still fairly cool and will dissipate what heat a thin layer will create. I usually age my wood chips for a few months before using but that is as much a factor of my limited time as preference. I do prefer to age the wood chips for a few months or longer but I can't think of any great reason why you can't use a thin layer right away as mulch. Pine should not be a problem. Incidentally, I used dry old wood chips soaked in water for a few minutes in a wheel barrow to mulch flower beds in the height of summer and it worked out very well. Wood from Norway Maple or Ailanthus, which are both alleopathic, might be another story but not because of heating.