Great source!
However, I thought using "green" (i.e. fresh) wood as mulch is not recommended. Can someone confirm that for me?

I use water-soaked newspaper between the mulch of wood and leaf chippings on my beds. I have a limited budget, so this is a good way to save money and still have some kind of mulch for our vegetables. Our summers are deadly and can cook plants in a short amount of time.

Get ahold of the pastor at the local church: especially the suburban ones, which tend to have huge properties, mostly unused. Nobody objects to the 'unsightlyness' of a dozen piles of wood chips in the back corner. Yes, a dozen: three dump truck loads each year. But the four-year piles, while quite small (compared to the first year piles) provide enough mulch for all the gardners in the congregation to come get, with those plastic orange five gallon paint buckets from Home Depot.

Freshly chipped wood, Ramial wood, is very high in Nitrogen, especially if the green leaves are chipped right along with the wood. There are large numbers of people that contrary to good, solid research will tell you that wood chips will "rob" the soil of Nitrogen which will not happen unless the wood chips are used as a soil amendment instead of a mulch.
Several years ago I had some fresh wood chips and plunked them around some shrubs that were not growing well and after the wood chips went down those shrubs leaves turned darker green and the shrubs grew 2 feet very quickly, partly because the wood chip mulch helped hold moisture in the soil but also because of the nutrients made available from those wood chips.

I use wood chips all the time. They are usually aged before I get to them however. But I have used them fresh without any problems.

One thing to clarify about Kimmsr's post is that ramial wood is wood that comes from branches up to about 4 inches in diameter, not from the large trunks and so forth.

I'd add - keep it away from direct contact with the base of the plants.

Dave

I googled Ramial and got some good info, but would like to know your experience with this. We had some trees trimmed last week and I now have a huge pile of chips/leave in a field. The chips are quite roughly cut though -- not the neat bark mulch size that I have used in the past. I don't think I will use it on my flower beds -- it's just not attractive, but is it ok to use as is in the veggie garden? I am making new lasagna beds all the time -- should these chips be used as a bottom layer with grass clippings on top? Or should it be mixed? or? My soil is quite clay and dries out like cement so I appreciate advice as to the best way to use these chips.

This is just my opinion as a long-time gardener and as a Master Gardener, that combining the grass clippings and wood chips/leaves is the best bet. Anything that is organic that is used a mulch is better than top soil with no mulch at all. Although it may be unattractive, the wood chips will decompose fairly rapidly. At least in my experience and in my zone.

Just remember that this is a MULCH, not a soil amendment.

Wood chips when used as a soil amendment (something mixed into the soil) can cause a temporary Nitrogen displacement, the soil bacteria utilize all available N to digest the, generally, high carbon wood chips, that results in the plants suffering from N deficiency. This does not happen when those same wood chips are used as a mulch (something layed on the soil surface to aid in moisture retention, weed suppression, and to cool the soil) because the soil bacteria will not be in a big hurry to chomp on the wood chips there.
If you have them it is better to utilize them anywhere they are needed then not to.

Oh my God, Kimm is correct, use that stuff!!

Pookie you're right IMHO, wood chips, leaves and grass clippings all mixed together equals..... GARDENER"S GOLD!!

In fact I'm a little jealous of your home delivery of wood chips. I get mine from a forest a few miles away where a huge pile has been sitting for a couple of years now. Man is that stuff good! (It's a mix of hardwood chips. Just perfect for my environment.)