Bill Oliver wrote:

I had never heard of that. Is that so? Does mulch have to "age?"

If you plan to use wood chips around actively growing plants, it's best to
let them sit for a year or so. The surface area of the raw wood chips
begins to decompose and the microbes that do the decomposing need nitrogen
to do their job. The nitrogen they use is not available to the plants.
After a year or so, most of the surface area has a layer of decomposed
material and decomposition proceeds more slowly.

Some people have had luck with mixing some nitrogen fertilizer in with the
raw wood chips. I prefer to let nature do the work.

The more finely ground the material, the greater the surface area, the
greater the problem. A certain highway department on the East Coast lost
hundreds of thousands of dollars of trees and shrubs along highways when
they used green-tinted pallet sawdust for mulch. Between the fine texture
and the chemical preservatives, their plants were toast.

I find most people tend to use too much mulch. Mulching deeply may
suppress weeds and conserve moisture, but it will also keep any but the
heaviest rain from penetrating down to the root zone where it's needed.
In areas with plentiful rain and poorly-drained soils, mulch can
contribute to root rot and fungus problems.

-- Karen

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