Are Ornamental Wood Chips Often Placed in Flower Beds?

Applying a thicker layer of large wood chips provides optimal results.

Gardeners often add ornamental wood chips to flower beds as an organic mulch, adding to the interest and texture in a bed while improving overall growing conditions for the plants. They work best in perennial flower beds, where less annual digging occurs. The wide variety of sizes and colors makes wood chips a versatile mulch choice for flower beds.

Types

Wood chips come from a variety of sources, both hardwood and softwood. Examples of these include pine, cedar and arborvitae. They range in color from dark brown to reddish to a light tan, with color generally fading significantly over the course of the growing season. The size of wood chips also varies, with common options including large pieces, small rounded chunks and finely shredded types. True wood chips decompose faster than other similar mulches, such as bark chips.

Benefits

Wood chip mulches provide several benefits, in addition to their aesthetic value. They reduce weed growth in flower beds, leading to healthier plants that don't have to compete with weeds for water and nutrients. Mulching also increases water availability in the soil. Mulch keeps flower roots cool in the summer and warmer in the winter. This reduces problems with heat, drought and winter damage. Wood chip mulches also reduce soil compaction by attracting earthworms to the area.

Considerations

Mulch must be at least 2 to 4 inches deep to see many of its benefits, with larger wood chips requiring deeper layers. Putting landscape fabric down before putting mulch in the flower bed further inhibits weeds, though it makes planting additional flowers in the future somewhat more involved.

Warning

Wood chips left to decompose into the soil create a lack of nitrogen for plants in a flower bed. Removing the bottom layer of wood chips every spring and replacing with new mulch prevents this from occurring. The finer the texture of the wood chips, the more difficult it is to keep this from happening. Provide adequate levels of nitrogen fertilizer for your specific plants and test your soil nutrient levels annually to ensure a proper nutritional balance for your flowers.

References

• Iowa State University Extension: Organic Mulches; Richard Jauron, et al.
• Colorado State University Extension: Mulching With Wood/Bark Chips, Grass Clippings & Rock; David Whiting, et al.
• Cornell University: Mulches for Landscaping; Donald A. Rakow; July 1989

Resources

• University of Minnesota Extension: Mulching the Home Landscape; Susan H. Barrott; July 1999