There are many ways to garden, but using lots of raw wood chips is not compost. The process of fresh wood breaking down burns up the calorie fuel it isn't really benefiting the garden short term. Eventually it will break down, but it would take a few years to start to get normal. Sounds like the area has already been worked, you don't need such extreme measures, till the grass. Don't buy any paper. I don't see why you can't have these gardens started next spring.

My lazy stepfather did that with the shredded wood from the electric utility, and bragged for years about how "smart" he was. He didn't have to pull weeds, not much grew in that inches deep wood chips.

Thanks, Robert. I edited my answer to hopefully explain better I want to use the wood chips as mulch. The paper is to help block new grass/weeds growing. I didn't think about the chips inhibiting new growth, though. Would it help if I pulled the chips away from the plants?

I have used wood chips for years, despite hearing from some gardening sources about the risk of it using up nitrogen in the early stages of decomposition. My reasoning is that a lot of woody debris falls in our forests (we are in the Pacific Northwest), and the soil in the forests is the richest and best we have locally. The forests do not compost the debris first, and the plants thrive. Later I read a biologist's report that the area of depleted nitrogen actually occurs only at the minute microscopic interface between the wood chips and the dirt, and in such a small amount that it will not interfere with regular plant growth (although it could potentially interfere with seedling growth?).

Here is what I do for ornamental beds: Cover the ground with cardboard. Add 3 inches of composed manure and 6 inches of wood chips on top of that. Cut holes in the cardboard to plant the plants. This works really well and the soil becomes lovely over time.

With regards to the vegetable bed, I have been hesitant to use wood chips due to the very small size of vegetable plants. Will you use only transplants next year? Even large seeds like peas and beans may have a tricky time growing up through a thick layer of wood chip mulch. I did heavily mulch my squash area after planting my transplants, and they did very well, especially considering that our soil is basically plain beach sand with no nutrients. I mulched my tomatoes this year with grass clippings, which worked okay, but not nearly as well as straw.

Happy Gardening!

I have built vegetable beds using the lasagna method. It starts out by spreading wet layers of newspaper or carboard on top of existing soil. In my case it was weedy lawn. You build layers now to compost over the winter. In the spring I top with aged horse manure. This year Maine's organic farmers Common Ground Fair lectures are available free. Go to mofga.org for the sunday, 9/27 lecture on no till farming by Daniel Mays. The YouTube lecture by him starts around 5:00. His book will be out in November. He explains how they don't need to do much weeding. You might start small seeds indoors so you can plant plugs in soil that doesn't have a fine tilth. Large seeds aren't a problem. He also tops beds with compost. I agree that too much wood chips is not a good idea plus I see 3 inches as a barrier that's not going to decompose easily or quickly. I did not like using cow manure that contained a low of sawdust from the barn because it dried like slabs of concrete. Lasagna beds are built with alternating layers of greens and browns and that includes kitchen scraps. I used a lot of grassing clippings. In the spring I had beautiful looking soil with lots of earth worms. I get the sense that you are trying to avoid weeds which I think the video will help explain methods of doing that.

I use a lot of wood chips mostly in pathways, compost, flower beds, perennial plantings and some vegetable beds. For pathways and compost they are excellent. They work well as mulch in the vegetable areas also but I tend to use mixed mulches not exclusively wood chips. In my experience the only issue I seem to have is sometimes the beds that have had wood chips seed germination can be inhibited.

Thanks, everyone! It seems the main concern is to not die shall seeds. I will wintersow and/or buy all my tomatoes and peppers. I will sow bean, corn, and squash seeds (and winter sow), though...sounds like big seeds are ok. I am pretty good at moving mulch out of the way, having had to do it a lot this year for strawberries, roses, hydrangeas, and salvias.

My current thinking is to do 3 inches for fruit plants and then only 1-2 inches for vegetables, but move it away for any transplants. I can add grass clippings, which will help with nitrogen. I am purely interested in using wood chips for mulch...not as garden amendments. Grass clippings (and maybe leaves) will be used for amending the soil.😀

I appreciate everyone’s help!

Re: Tilling grass

Good plan, as long as it is the type of grass that only grows from seed. Tilling will take that out. However if you have Bermuda grass or another type that spreads through roots and/or rhizomes, then tilling will just spread it around for next year. That stubborn stuff has to be physically extracted from the ground to prevent it rising from the dead like a vampire next summer.

Re: Wood Chips

Wood chips make a great mulch - probably the best material for mulch because it is so good at both shielding the soil and preventing seeds from sprouting. The reason you see it more in perennial rather than vegetable and annual beds is because we often grow annuals from seeds so the weed stopping property becomes a liability rather than an asset at that point. But as long as you are willing to push it out of the way until the plants get bigger, there is no reason it can't be used.

However, don't overlook the best use of wood chips for vegetables and annuals - which is to simply let the chips sit in a big pile and compost for about two years into a great soil conditioner. You can make the process go faster by turning the pile occasionally and keeping it moist.

Thanks, Richard, for explaining that so well! I can probably get another pile of wood chips sometime in the next few months, and I have a place they can sit around. Hmmmm :)

Armour, seems to me that the wood chips would have good reason to like your reasoning. :) Thanks!