Sometimes they are called groundcover bark, mulch bark,or fine-sized nuggets. On the East coast they are usually pine, here on the West coast they are usually fir. My current bag says "softwood". Whatever they call them, here is the size I like to use.

Didn't know how familiar you are with a US coins, so I put another reference in the pic. ;-)

-Babka

{{gwi:1047540}}

Also look for Pine Bark Fines.
You may have to do some calling around. Try explaining that you want the bark to not be any larger than your thumbnail.

Thank you very much for taking the time to provide me with a reference pic - that helps. Your quarter and our Canadian quarter are the same size and of course, who doesn't know the size of a wine bottle cork??

So...those small pieces of bark are called FINES?
Well, heck! I could have gotten that from Lowes when I got the silver dollar sized bark pieces. They called it something else....I saw it spilled, looked sort of rotted, so that is what you use to mix in your pots?

Duhhhhhh....I'm having a moment here....sorry. But I really like the crushed crab shell, which helps control the bad nematodes in the soil by helping feed the good bacteria that eat them before they eat your hosta leaves. If the bark small pieces are readily available, I've learned a very helpful lesson.

Just in time too, since tomorrow I pick up more POTS, more MiracleGro, and now several bags of the bark fines/small stuff. Even orchid bark was bigger than what you showed us.

My Lowes,and The Home Depot in Georgia,has been carrying a pine bark mulch that is just the size for pots,if that's what you are looking for. I use them for mulch around the plants,as I don't do pots. Phil

I have yet to find a supply around here, but small bark nuggets (easily found at Home Depot or Lowe's) a small sledgehammer, a big rock and voila, pine bark fines.

Jon

Jon, you are more into heavy labor than I am. Were it myself in your project, I'd be enlisting the teens who come by in the summer wanting to "do your yard." It would be a solution they and I benefit from.

You know, I sure do miss having crew to keep busy. :)

Moc,

The last time I hired teens to do some work was when I wanted my lawn cut. I went out to check on them and one had the mower tilted back while the other was reaching under the spinning blades clearing grass on the ground.

I paid them off and finished it myself. I would have liked some help shoveling the drive as they used to, but I have been forced to buy a snow-blower. It's really not hard to mash the amounts I want, and it doesn't take long at all....and it avoids anyone being tempted to start shoveling dirt in my face.

Jon

Don't use large pieces of bark, because slugs will hide under them.