Can I bury wood chips under soil

Elmroad82

Hi,

I have a lot of foliage / bushes which I’ve cut down in a section of overgrown garden, and to save me hiring a skip and lugging it up my garden, I was thinking of hiring a wood chipper. I also have an uneven garden so I was thinking of filling in the sloping garden with chippings then spreading soil on top (I have a big mound from previous building work). Will there be any issue with me doing this? The chipping/ soil will only be used as flowerbeds so it’s more to infill a slope rather to completely flatten ground. 

Thanks 

FreeBear

The wood chips will draw nitrogen out of the soil as it decomposes, but long term, it shouldn't be a problem. You'll find that wood chip is often sold as a weed suppressing mulch.

Elmroad82

Let’s say there’s a fair amount of chipping buried under the soil… can I dig nitrogen supplements into the soil to replace?

Elmroad82

Also the chippings will come from quite a few brambles/ ivy. Will this cause them to spread? Even if they’ve been chipped? Thanks 

FreeBear

Plant peas, beans, or clover, and that will help fix nitrogen in the soil when you dig the roots in. Or you can use a general purpose fertilizer rich in nitrogen.

Eldi_Dos

Elmroad82 said:

Also the chippings will come from quite a few brambles/ ivy. Will thismight be  cause them to spread? Even if they’ve been chipped? Thanks 

I would think if you leave the chippings on the surface over winter you "might" be ok but if you put soil on top of chippings there would be a danger of them spreading.
What I would do is get a incinerator bin and burn the brambles and ivy once they have dried out a bit.The ash can then be incorporated into the soil.

Sarahspangles

FreeBear said:

Plant peas, beans, or clover, and that will help fix nitrogen in the soil when you dig the roots in. Or you can use a general purpose fertilizer rich in nitrogen.

Seconding this. There is a self sufficiency trick where you put compostables in a trench, backfill, and plant beans and peas on top. By the time the compostables have rotted down the roots can reach them and resolve the nitrogen depletion. Then the next year you plant potatoes in that patch.

Sarahspangles

Elmroad82 said:

Hi,

I have a lot of foliage / bushes which I’ve cut down in a section of overgrown garden, and to save me hiring a skip and lugging it up my garden, I was thinking of hiring a wood chipper. I also have an uneven garden so I was thinking of filling in the sloping garden with chippings then spreading soil on top (I have a big mound from previous building work). Will there be any issue with me doing this? The chipping/ soil will only be used as flowerbeds so it’s more to infill a slope rather to completely flatten ground. 

Thanks 

You risk growing a bramble patch, any section with a growing eye can root and they’ll come back from quite a depth. But you could separate those out.

In theory your plan would work but the area filled will settle significantly, meaning you’ll likely have to rework it, possibly around what you’ve newly planted. Also if you’ve got woody material in the mix that you bury, then some of the longer lived fungi may move in. Often they take several seasons to complete their cycle, so you could lose new plantings as they’re vulnerable to fungus when recently planted.

The classic approach would be to use the soil you have to top up beds, and compost the clippings as future top dressing. Note that if you leave topsoil stacked for too long it loses its topsoil ‘status’, in that the soil microbiome dies back, so its value to plants as a growing medium falls.

Elmroad82

Ok, so I think the plan is to
a) separate the brambles/ ivy and burn it one evening to avoid hacking the neighbours off 
b) take the branches less than 70mm thick / non weeded undergrowth I’ve cut, chip it and spread it, cover with soul and grow nitrogen generating plants on top
c) take the thicker wood to a skip
d) give the big logs to neighbour

FreeBear

I cut branch wood of 50mm and bigger in to ~300mm lengths and stack them for the fire. If your neighbour wants the big logs, be as well to ask if they want the smaller branch wood.