Wood Chips Underneath Vegetable Beds?

13 years ago

My husband and I have just moved to a new house and property and are making a large area ready for vegetable beds. The area we have for our planting site has a few large trees on it that we are having cut down and the site is unlevel.

We were planning on building raised beds, but before we do, we have to level the planting site after the trees are cut down. We thought that we could use the wood chips from the cut trees to help level the planting area and then build the raised beds on top of the chips. We would then fill the raised beds with good, quality soil/compost. The depth of the wood chip base would probably be about 18".

My question is whether this is a good idea. I know wood chips bind nitrogen if they are mixed with the soil, but would there be a problem if they are only used as a base underneath the planting beds?

Featured Answer

gardenlen

13 years ago

i can't see any issues in using resources close at hand, it is similar/same as hugelkultur laying woody material 1st.

yes of course it will break down and yes the garden bed will settle but all new beads do.

all our latest gardens using roofing as edging are piled with branches then topped with dirt, mushroom compost and raked slashed grass.

there will be no effect from nitrogen take up or down so long as you have around 6" or 8" of planting medium above the wood.

len

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Comments (11)

jonfrum
13 years ago
The chips will break down, but when they do they'll collapse down. So if you level the plot with them, you'll end up with a slope again. This will take time, but will happen eventually. They'll take nitrogen out of the soil right at their surface, but as long as you covered them with enough soil, it wouldn't be an issue.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
13 years ago
Those wood chips will decompose quite rapidly and disappear. For something to serve as 'fill', you need to find a good source of real soil. I'd stockpile the woodchips to be used as mulch.
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emgardener
13 years ago
Also heavy rains will probably wash soil into the chips causing sinking.

You might want to just till in the chips into the entire area and then shovel it level.

I had excellent results with digging in wood chips this year, they really improved the soil and worm population.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of roots growing in wood chip soil
gardengrl
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks everyone; I hadn't thought about the chips breaking down and ending up with a slope again over time. I'll have to get some fill soil to put down before building the beds.
jean001a
13 years ago
Consider cutting "steps" into your slope so that you have a stable footing for your raised beds. You know, like terracing.
Kimmsr
13 years ago
You might want to read up on hugelkultur. what you are proposing to do is like that.

Here is a link that might be useful: About Hugelkultur
mustard_seeds
13 years ago
the chips would make great paths between your vegetables!
ridalgo
6 years ago
How are those raised beds out of roofing working out for you?
Guia Avesani
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
HI there. I am so glad I found this post because I did the exact same thing and I was worried I made a mistake. Sort of a poor mans hügelkultur. My native soil was hard as a rock so I covered the entire yard with woodchips. then I built the beds and put about 6 inches of chips also at the bottom of the bed and left them there for a while. They were packed down pretty good and I think they had already started to bread down on their own, so I decided not to completely remove them when I built my raised beds because I didn't want to disturb microorganism and worm colonies. I then filled the beds with a soil compost mix, about 70/30 . Now I will plant my veggies and top the soil with woodchips for top mulch. So lets home for the best. My only worry is that the wood chips will cause like a clogging effect at the bottom of the raised beds and nothing will drain out at all. I hope they break down fast.
Ryan Jablonski
5 years ago
Guila Avesani how did it work out?