How to Keep Wood Chips From Blowing Around
For years, master gardeners and scientists have said not to use wood chips for mulch because they are too acidic or rob the soil of too many nutrients. Recently, though, scientists have changed that recommendation, according to Linda Chalker-Scott, Ph.D., an Extension Urban Horticulturist and Associate Professor at Washington State University. Wood chips, in numerous tests, have been found to perform "with the best of all possible mulch materials for moisture retention, temperature moderation, weed control, sustainability and enhanced plant productivity," she said.
Wood chips do tend to blow away in high wind and wash away in heavy rain. These steps will help you use wood chips efficiently in your garden and flower beds without losing them to the elements.
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Things You'll Need
- wood chips
- edging bricks or other preferred material
- newspaper
- straw
- cardboard
Instructions
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Replace any landscape fabric you have underneath your mulch or in your beds with newspaper or cardboard. A couple of inches of newspaper used as your "landscape fabric" will keep mulch from washing away into the yard. Cardboard works the same way. You can cut a hole directly in the newspaper or cardboard and plant your plant through it and then mulch around it.
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Dig a trench. Get a flat-edged shovel and cut into the edge of your bed about 4 inches, then go back and about 4 or 5 inches from that first cut (toward the bed), slice into the ground at a 45 degree angle creating a trench. Spread your wood chips around your plant or tree as you normally would, but don't fill the trench. As you water your plant, the wood chips will naturally flow into it. This is good as it will provide a base for other chips as well as show that your trench is working.
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Build a border. Edge your plant beds with an edging material of your choice. Home and garden centers often sell all types of borders from bricks to wood to plastic. Combining this type of border with a trench will prevent wood chips from both washing out and blowing away.
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Make a collar of straw or hay. For further washout prevention, place a "collar" of hay or straw around the border of your plant bed. This can be done on its own or in combination with the other steps. Hay or straw will allow for drainage of water but will act like a filter and prevent your mulch from floating away.
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Wet down your wood chips before a windstorm. If you know it's going to be windy ahead of time, weigh your wood chips down with water by spraying them. You can also spread wet newspaper or cardboard on top to prevent major wind damage, but this is only a temporary solution.
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