"lwhaley" wrote in message
oups.com...
wrote:
My yard is 30 x 50 feet. Right now it is heavy clay (mixed with chunks
of brick and other crap left behind by my friendly neighbourhood
builder) and covered with a layer of extremely unhappy sod. In the
spring it is a mudhole, but seems to be drying up now (finally.)
I was thinking of putting down a thick layer of wood chip / mulch from
the recycling yard, and tilling the whole mess under (including the
sod.) If I do this, what kind of results / problems can I expect? Any
better ideas?
Wood chips decompose slowly and use soil nitrogen to do so. They are
good for mulch but do not mix them into the soil. Finished compost is
a better material and is sometimes available for cheap or free.
Is this a poor idea for the area under the hardscape? (I plan to put
in a decent gravel bed under the flags...)
There is no need to amend the soil underneath your flags. Just
excavate the area to the necessary depth, add stone and compact well.
Are you going to pave/landcape the whole and remove all grass? If so, you
don't need to put anything in to the soil to improve it. For the paving you
will need to prepare a proper base for it that will drain well. If you are
putting in gardens you can raise them up and dig compost and manure in to
the soil you are going to use in the gardens. This will take care of many
problems. The pond won't care what the soil underneath is like.
If you are going to reseed a lawn or grow anything at ground level then I
agree that good finished compost or animal manure is far better than wood
chips. Depending what you mean by mulch, compost can be used as a mulch.
Anything woody and raw should be avoided, anything formerly woody that is
now well rotted will be ok (apart from treated timbers). Rotten wood
shavings/sawdust, rotten leaves, finished mushroom compost, used potting
mix, rotted animal poop can all be combined and dug in to the soil.
rob