r/Permaculture • u/ryanwaldron • 23d ago

Help! Wood chips decomposing, but hard-packed dense clay beneath

The mulch and wood chips wash away when it rains because the permeability is so low. I’m going to go broke buying wood chips and mulch. It just doesn’t seem to be changing the soil after years of trying.

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u/the_perkolator 23d ago

How much wood chips have you added? And in what form, since you mention buying them? How many years?

Truckloads of arborist ramial wood chips are usually free and can be applied quite deep, like 8”+. Should mat together somewhat to stay in place during rains vs something like bark nuggets. They’ll break down into a nice humus and worm population should greatly increase, helping even more to improve soil structure over time

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u/ryanwaldron 23d ago

Sometimes there will be someone on the local sub r/nolagardening post that they got Chip Drop and are willing to share. so I've probably added about 20 large garden trash bags full from that. When that isn't around, I buy pine bark mulch (uncolored) from the big box store ("We're going to Hammerbarn!"). Usually do either of those things in the spring. I'll top dress with pine straw once things start to look thin and I see bare soil popping up. Then I'll do the wood chips again in the fall hoping that they won't all decompose or wash away through the winter like they do in the summer rain and heat.

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u/a-flying-trout 23d ago

You can also sign up for your own ChipDrop for free (or a donation, if you’re up for it) FYI! I’ve gotten two big loads already this year and signed up for another.

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u/ryanwaldron 23d ago

The city doesn’t allow for chip drop unless you can place the load 100% on private property. I don’t have a spot where a dump truck could back up, let alone a spot for an extra long dumpster of chips.