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| Hi Folks.
I just cut down 75 arborvitae, cut down other trees, prunned and removed bushes and, well, just basically did MAJOR YARDWORK! The chipper shredder did a great job.........I now have 15 yards of much in the driveway. Some of this has started to decompose already (I wish I could store it there until it finished cooking..........). However, I need to park my car in the driveway (the dilemma). I don't want to give this stuff away, but I have no place to store it. I need to rototill the yard anway, can I just spread this around and till it into the soil? Will this help my soil? Or, should I try to store this stuff and let it cook and then put it as a top dressing? I don't know, it has some pretty large sticks (branches) and I want to plant a lawn in the bakyard. I want to plant a lawn, and that is why I thought it would be nice to mix it in with the soil, which seems kind of clay like. Not sure, I am new to this. My last house only had flower beds. I have never planted a lawn before. Any tips? Thanks. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| If you till this mulch material in to your soil then it will be a soil amendment and while wood chips are ofetn used as soil amendments they can create some short term problems with plant growth such as tying up Nitrogen so it is not available to the plants. That does resolve itself in a few months depending on how active the Soil Food Web is in your soil. You have no planting beds to puit this mulch on? |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Thu, Jun 9, 11 at 8:46
| I assume from your screen name you are located in OR :-) Unless you are laying sod, in our area it is advised to wait until fall (September/early Oct) to put in your lawn. If you were to incorporate your pile of wood chips into your soil now and keep the area moist, you should have a pretty decent seed bed for a new lawn by the time it is recommended to plant. I would try to make sure any large pieces were not included or chipped to make smaller. I'd also apply a starter fert after seeding just to be on the safe side (re: the N issue). 15 yds is a LOT - use only what you need to improve the soil in the new lawn area and use the rest to mulch planting beds or to help prepare new planting beds. |
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