Kitchen Garden Forum

I have several bags of coarse wood shavings from chainsawing a lot of timber for firewood, I have mixed some of it into my various compost heaps. I was toying with the idea of using the rest as a mulch to keep weeds down between the rows on the plot, can anyone foresee a problem with this, I have heard that saw dust can cause and abundance of wirework? The consistency of the material is quite coarse as it usually is with chainsaw debris.....

CoMpO

I envy you all this natural mulch, Compo. As long as this comes from natural untreated wood, I can't see any problem with it. You might note that wood takes longer to rot down than green vegetation because of its content of lignin [derived from the Latin for wood], which is the substance which also causes leaves to take longer to rot down than greenery.

Wood Shavings should be well composted before being used direct onto the soil for whatever purpose. As the shavings/dust biodegrade they will deplete the soil of Nitrogen.
JB.

So by all accounts sounds like it is best left in a stack or mixed on the heap with some liquid gold, then spread it as a mulch or soil conditioner?

CoMpO

Morning CoMpO, one more thing i would be a little wary of is, the amount of chain oil that is mixed in with the chainsaw chippings.
I know when i'm cutting in the wet, you can often see the oil in any standing water.

Hi Compo,
Probably the best agent to use to biodegrade wood shavings and sawdust is fresh poultry manure. i) you biodegrade the shavings quite quickly and ii) you temper the chicken manure which is very strong and can afford to lose some of it's nitrogen content.
A combination between the two when biodegraded is really good compost.
Sadly chicken manure not that easy to get hold of though if you live in an urban surrounding. Here I could order 15 tons at 9.00am and it would be with me before noon.
JB.

If you have an allotment where people keep chickens you could ask them for the manure as they often struggle to get rid of it.

I have recently acquired some horse manure with very little straw in it so I will mix this with the shavings, and some original human compost activator and should get a good mix going I hope!!

CoMpO