Ellen Wallace
Here is this weekend’s garden chore: putting down woodchips. I use them at the base of several bushes and trees, with great benefits. Our 1,000 mtre-high garden sits in one of Switzerland’s driest patches and the woodchips held keep in moisture.
I learned too late, sadly, that it’s not a good idea to put them around raspberry bushes, which don’t like too much water around their roots. And I quickly removed them from the roses, when I was told by a couple garden experts that they could kill the roses (they haven’t).
By now you have guessed that my enthusiasm for woodchips has led me to put them everywhere. Here is what I have learned:
- don’t put them around any flowers
- put down a layer about 2-3 cm thick and top it with another 3-5cm a few weeks later
- the cheapest ones are very cheap: CHF2.60 for a 60-litre bag at Hornbach in Etoy or Villeneuve, in Vaud, and they are fine around tough plants like most shrubs and trees. Better woodchips may be needed for other areas: the difference lies in the nutrients and byproducts they leave in the ground
- under-gardeners who accept mowing the lawn as a garden chore are not always enthusiastic about bagging woodchips.
My big project this weekend is cleaning the little chipped path which divides my semi-wildflower bed on a steep slope from my more cultivated day lilies and various other midsummer blooms.
The rocks and woodchips slide a bit every winter and need tidying, with a fresh layer on top.
Once down, this keeps the weeds down beautifully, so it’s worth the effort.
GenevaLunch, 21 June 2008.
Filed under: Garden
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