Gardening help!

[Pete Jordan]

I am going to plant a garden for the first time in a while and I need help.

I have lots of curlies and am wondering if I can use them for weed control.
Someone told me the acid might harm the plants.

please advise.

Pete

[charlie knighton]

ya probably need to fence it in, bambi's like new gardens :D

[John Keeton]

Pete, when wood decomposes, it uses nitrogen - not a good thing in a garden. And, some woods, such as walnut, contain juglone, a toxin that will prevent growth of many plants, possibly some of the ones you desire to grow.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Pete I use grass clipping on the garden and leave the turning chips for the flower gardens. Walnut like John said will keep some plants from growing but haven't seemed to bother the flowers much.

[Nathan Hawkes]

Pete, when wood decomposes, it uses nitrogen - not a good thing in a garden. And, some woods, such as walnut, contain juglone, a toxin that will prevent growth of many plants, possibly some of the ones you desire to grow.


John hit it on the head. Nitrogen is much more an issue than pH. I have a giant compost pile of shavings and chips (NO WALNUT AT ALL!), grass cuttings, a little soil mixed in, food scraps, leaves, etc. I have to add a fair amount of nitrogen to the mix, otherwise nothing happens decomp-wise. After adding a bag of organic fertilizer high in N--can't remember which one I used--the pile got black and quite warm. I keep it pretty wet as well, which helps. As far as weed control, the shavings do work, but you need to supplement the nitrogen to your individual plants. This may be easy to do if you're a gardener; just watch the plants and they'll let you know. In beds that I can direct target nitrogen, I've used shavings to starve out everything else, then at the end of the season I add compost and till it all in.

[Joe Mioux]

ditto about the nitrogen.

I never use wood chips in any of my soil mixes.

composting the wood is fine.

PH can be affected by certain types of woods.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I moved here and joyously found I had an English walnut tree in the backyard.


I tilled the soil and planted a garden and it did well. That fall, I mistakenly turned the leaves from the English walnut leaves into the garden.


Even the weeds didn't grow in it the next summer.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

You certainly can use the shavings as a mulch, just don't mix it into the soil, as then the nitrogen used for decomposition is taken from the soil, keeping it as a mulch the nitrogen is taken from the air rather than the soil as it is breaking down over the year.
The good thing is that the first year the soil is shaded and kept cool and moist by the mulching, and the next year the nitrogen that has been taken from the air will be added to the soil as the decomposed material will add all the minerals and the nitrogen used by the bacteria for the breakdown comes free and is able to be used by the plants, just like if you add composted material to the soil.
Just don't dig the raw curls into the soil.

[Norm Zax]

...all covered nicely above so I'll just add: turn yourself a couple of planters (that long cone planters use to put the seeds at the proper depth and whose name escapes me). Easy turning and fun to use. Enjoy!

[Heather Thompson]

...all covered nicely above so I'll just add: turn yourself a couple of planters (that long cone planters use to put the seeds at the proper depth and whose name escapes me). Easy turning and fun to use. Enjoy!

Norm,

That would be a gardening Dibble, this is a link to show what you are talking about. http://www.rusticworkbench.com/product_pages/dibble.htm

Heather

[Pete Jordan]

Thanks everyone for the help!

Pete

[Mike Minto]

If you're handy with a crossbow, that will curb the Bambi issue...