I would think you could rake out all the good crumbly bits and use directly as mulch or compost top-dressing. Or dig in if you’re planting something. I never put anything in compost bin that I think is already usable that way , just as a matter of using available spaces most efficiently. Then if there are rooty parts ( that aren’t viable invasive stuff), could add that to compost.

Thanks, marmiegard. I wasn't sure if it was too acidic, or had too much nitrogen, etc.

I added a few pics to my post. Had to share with someone, and no one at my house is nearly as excited over this as I am!

:)

Dee

It is basically all carbon and can be used as a top dressing anywhere so long as it is not too thick to prevent water or air from penetrating it. Good stuff.

tj

" I wasn't sure if it was too acidic, or had too much nitrogen, etc. "

If most of it looks like your photo - crumbly and not immediately identifiable as wood - then the decomposition process has already begun and the issue of acidity is moot :-) Composting is the great neutralizer!! And being OM, it will have relatively low levels of nitrogen anyway. The issue with applying raw wood to the garden - incorporating it into the soil - is that it ties up or makes nitrogen unavailable to the plants growing there, as it requires inputs of N to decompose and breakdown.

There are no concerns about using composted or partially composted wood anyway you like.

Oh, I get it all right! I get excited about sweeping up piles of dried oak blooms in spring ( well, it’s the silver lining in messy tree cleanup), finding a cache of partially rotted leaves (= already partially composted and moist) in a runoff , anything that can either go into compost bins or ok to compost in place. I love making dirt. Unfortunately can’t make everything I need.

Awesome! Thank you all! I am going to go sprinkle it over the tops of my beds!

:)

Dee

P.S. and thanks for being so quick! Thought I'd have to wait a day or so but I can go right out and now this now. Thanks!

Nice find, diggerdee. I think we can all relate to your enjoyment.

Our first house, outside Philly, came with exactly the same sort of woodpile. We used it as compost in a vegetable garden. Great stuff!

Oooo, that's pretty stuff.

Score!!

Thanks everyone! I sprinkled it on my beds and put a little extra in a long-neglected veggie bed which I'm hoping to revive next year. I still have probably two more wheelbarrows full in that pile. I was disappointed we never used the wood but this is a nice little consolation prize!

:)

Dee

I don’t know exactly what “sprinkle “ means to you but I often prioritize use of home- made vs purchased materials & when available. So I might put a significant layer of top- dressing or mulch in one area & call that “ done” for a season, then always still need to buy mulch and try to “ do” another area, etc. Or if have very mature lovely compost during a planting time ( now) will use it as soil amendment whenever digging, or to top dress a few azaleas and hydrangeas, then later in fall will use some shredded leaves directly as a mulch to save room in compost bin for more leaves later. I give out eventually on shredding and use a couple bins for whole leaves, which make lovely compost but slowly, as only use plant-cutting type materials as “ greens” out in open bins.

I wrote "sprinkle" to differentiate from "dumping" lol. I just meant that I would take shovelfuls and kind of wave the shovel back and forth over an area of a bed - think of a spoonful of grated cheese being "sprinkled" over a bowl of spaghetti lol. I didn't want to put it on too heavy.

I rarely purchase stuff for the garden either. I have about 40 oaks, so I have plenty of leaves for mulch, I do compost, although that probably doesn't give me enough. Occasionally I will buy bagged compost. For years I had a source of wonderful compost at a local llama farm but I no longer go there.

I used to give up on shredding my leaves after some time too lol, when I raked by hand and shredded using a leaf shredder. It took forever. Once I shredded what I needed for my garden and my customer's gardens I stopped shredding (that took long enough, trust me!) Then my husband lost his job and when HE had to do the yardwork (raking, shoveling) snowblowers and lawn tractors suddenly appeared at our house lol. So he can shred leaves in a fraction of the time it took me, so that is infinitely helpful!

I actually decided to wait on digging out the rest of that lovely organic material until AFTER our yard clean-up. No sense in putting it all down and then raking out the beds! I rake out the beds very carefully, trying to get the whole leaves that have fallen on top of the shredded mulch, but of course you still lose some, so I didn't want to be raking out all this nice new compost. Once the yard clean-up is done, by the end of December lol (thanks, oak trees) I'll put down the rest of this wood compost, and top off with more shredded leaves.

:)

Dee