My strawberries grow right through the wood mulch and the mulch keeps the weeds out!

I was shocked that the stawberries would spread but they do very well in mulch. They not only grow, but will throwout runners that just push through the mulch to keep spreading.

Ditto - I mulch my strawberries with wood mulch every spring. At the same time I fertilize with holly-tone. Make sure the mulch is well-aged (all dark colored through) or you may have under-composted mulch which will suck the nitrogen out of your soil.

Scott

the wood chips are brand new. In fact, they were a living tree 2 weeks ago.....should I not use it?

Although I agree with Scott that wood chips can pull nitrogen from the soil, I don't agree with him that it will happen when used as mulch on top of the soil.

From my understanding, nitrogen is used to break down wood and it sucks it in from soil if it's berried, but now when sitting on top. shreaded mulch purchased from stores isn't broken down. Most cheap wood mulch is just shipping crates that have been through a wood chipper and some dye added to give it color; which is what I use.

My suggestion to you is to just use what you have and not worry.

That Back to Eden guy Paul Gautschi covered that subject on one of his tours through his gardens on Youtube. He just covers the entire strawberry bed all winter long bc they look brown and ugly anyway. The young ones push up through it, and the old ones die out and become compost for the others. It's a brilliant idea. If it starts getting too hilly he just moves them under his trees. Yep, in full shade they grow fantastic. Keep in mind he's been using home grown vegetable compost in his chickens for a long time and he throws the sifted compost out over the gardens. So his mineral content is unbelievable. A dead stick would likely root in there.