How Much Wood Can a Wood Chipper Chip?

About a month ago, we showed in THIS POST how we were embarking on a new gardening method.  We wanted to give a brief update of where we are in the process.  As of our last posting, my wife flagged down some workers chipping up limbs on a power line right of way and had two loads delivered to our house.  The price was right.  It was free!  Well, we bartered and gave the men some fresh eggs in exchange.

Since then, we've received many loads of wood chips - I've lost count!  We were running out of space to dump more loads in the yard closest to the garden, so the gentlemen began dumping the wood chips off to the side.  Unfortunately, they dumped two loads on the neighbor's property!  I'll have to apologize, get busy, and quickly move those piles.  That's on the agenda for this weekend.

We actually had them back up and empty a load in the pasture close to the garden fence, and that was fine, except for the fact that it blocked the path we use to walk to the barn each day to milk the cows.  We also pull a wagon through here with cattle and chicken feed each week.  Tricia promptly went to work with a pitch fork clearing a path.  She's not afraid of a little work.

Our old garden forks bit the dust.  It was a cheap tool that I think I bought for $5 at K-Mart before they closed.  I purchased a better pitch fork at Tractor Supply Company and and after blazing a trail through the wood chips, Tricia gives it the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

These boots were made for walkin'....

She also went to work with a shovel.  When the guys backed in the pasture to dump the load, they got stuck in the mud and rutted it up.  They had to call another truck to come pull them out.  Once out, Tricia shoveled dirt back in the ruts and leveled the ground. 

Our project now is to make room for more.  That means moving the existing piles into the very back of the garden.  I'll pile it high and use this area as a staging ground for the decomposing wood chips.  It is slow going.  Each afternoon after work, I've been spending 45 minutes to an hours loading wagons with wood chips and moving it to the garden.  I'm covering up grass and a row of buckwheat.  Over the next week or so this pile shown in the photo below will grow.  "Free" wood chips aren't exactly free.  There is a lot of hard work that goes along with it.  One must be patient.

Some of these piles have been sitting for about a month.  It is 90 something degrees outside.  When I dig into the pile of wood chips with my pitch forks, the pile is very hot in the middle and is smoking.  Amazing!  The bacteria is in the process of decomposing the chips and converting them into soil.

I'm planning to plant the fall garden shortly and then once the seedlings are up, I'll begin mulching around them with the wood chips.  It'll be a first for us, but as we understand it, it makes the process of weeding almost obsolete.  If not obsolete, a lot easier.  I'm actually pretty excited to see if that comes to fruition.  We'll keep you posted.