redwood bark chips

redwood bark chips (post #17916)

APonKP on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 15:11

General Gardening

Hello all,
We have a few Firs and many Oaks around our house in No. CA and use bark chips instead of grass for coverage. It is time to renew the chips and the only ones I can find right now are redwood. We used fir bark before and I am wondering if redwood chips will harm the plants. Anyone have first hand experience with this? Also the local supplier wants $80 a yd. for the redwood chips which seems expensive to me.

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. A.A. Milne

Redwood bark as mulch (post #17916, reply #1 of 4)

by KimmI in reply to APonKP [original] on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 02:52

That price does sound quite expensive, although shredded wood waste around here is going for around $55.00 per yard right now.. I have seen some reports the redqood might suppress plant growth more so then other materials but other sources indicate that is more in the roots like the Black Walnut.

The sign of a good gardener is brown knees, not a green thumb.

80 dollars a Yard? (post #17916, reply #2 of 4)

by Noel-in-England in reply to KimmI [original] on Fri, 10/08/2010 - 12:19

Begging your pardon -but do you mean square yard? And - how many inches deep?

Dollars per yard for mulch (post #17916, reply #3 of 4)

by KimmI in reply to Noel-in-England [original] on Sat, 10/09/2010 - 03:53

The usual way mulch is priced and sold is by the cubic yard, even thoough most of us talk about it as if by the yard.. We drop the cubic part.

The sign of a good gardener is brown knees, not a green thumb.

Sounds a bit steep. (post #17916, reply #4 of 4)

by Noel-in-England in reply to KimmI [original] on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 10:14

Thanks, Kimmi - yes ,on the face of it IT DOES sound pricey !

And I'm now going to assume that the depth you want to use it at - is going to be about 2 ~ 2.5 ins.

I supose it being Redwood , it would take a right-long-time to rot-down ( and so have to do it again ) - say 3 /4 years, depending on how moist your ground is.

Of course, the rotting-down actually improves the soil by opening-it-up & adding good bacteria & keeping it loose/fraible .

If you use a softer conifer - I gues it would take a shorter time to do all that - but you won't get the nice color of the Redwood.

What I'd do - is look in your Telephone Book "Yellow Pages" for 'Woodmills'or 'Sawmills' and have a chat to see if you could get some chips - direct. Sorry I don't know if that's feasable or not . But hey they might even grind some wood specially for you, especially if you asked for a pick-up truck full. Maybe your neighbors want some too & you could split costs ?

Anything NOT bagged-up is going to work-out cheaper, especially if you buy a fair volume. If you can't use it straight away & have to store it - store it DEAD-Dry, under a Tarp. or something.

Check for it getting warm, though - it might create heat itself, I dunno.....

redwood bark chips