5 Virtue Mulching Mistakes to Avoid in Your Garden

Mulching is a common practice in gardening that has many benefits, such as retaining moisture, preventing erosion, and suppressing weeds. Wood chips are a popular mulching material because they can also decompose into organic matter. However, there are several mistakes that gardeners can make when using wood chips as mulch that can harm their plants. In this article, we will cover five virtue mulching mistakes that you can avoid now.

Mistake 1: Using the wrong kind of wood chips The first mistake that gardeners make is using the wrong kind of wood chips. You need to make sure that your wood chips do not contain any modified, treated, or painted wood or any wood that contains nails or other foreign matter. These can be detrimental to your garden. The best place to get your wood chips is from your local arborist.

Mistake 2: Getting wood chips from diseased trees The second mistake is getting wood chips from diseased trees. If you are getting your wood chips from your local arborist, it is possible that you could end up getting wood chips that come from trees that had some sort of fungal disease or other disease. Make sure you ask your local arborist some questions regarding the source of the wood chips and make sure your wood chips don't come from any diseased trees.

Benefits of Woodchips As organic gardeners, we love using wood chips. There are many benefits of using wood chips, including retaining moisture, preventing erosion, suppressing weeds, and most importantly, decomposing into rich organic matter. But, there are some mistakes that you can make using wood chips, especially as mulch, so it's important to know how to use them correctly.

Mistake 3: Keeping your wood chips in a pile and letting them age The third mistake is keeping your wood chips in a pile and letting them age. Some people do let their wood chips age and decompose before they use them. If you do, make sure your wood chips don't contain any bugs. Keeping your wood chips in a pile can also cause earwigs to make a home in the pile of wood chips, which can eat the leaves of your trees. Make sure to use iron sulfate to get rid of the earwigs if they start to eat the leaves of your trees.

Mistake 4: Volcano mulching The fourth mistake is volcano mulching, which is just piling up wood chips right around your trees, right up to the trunk. This can cause crown rot and also introduce fungal diseases as well. You must always keep at least six inches of space between the trunk of the tree and the wood chip mulch. Keeping this space will ensure that your trees are disease-free and they grow healthy and strong. Also, when you're mulching around your trees or your plants, make sure you don't mulch more than three inches deep. Too much mulch can also smother your plants.

Mistake 5: Mixing wood chips into the ground The fifth mistake is mixing wood chips into the ground. Wood chips are mainly carbon, and carbon needs nitrogen to decompose. If you bury your chips into your garden and mix them with the soil, it will lock up the source of nitrogen in your soil, and your plants will strive to get nitrogen. So never mix or bury your chips into your garden.

In conclusion, mulching is an essential part of gardening, and wood chips can be an excellent choice for mulching. However, it's important to avoid these five virtue mulching mistakes to ensure that your plants stay healthy and thrive in your garden. By avoiding these mistakes, you can make the most out of your wood chips as a mulching.