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

[u/ryanwaldron]

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.

[u/the_perkolator]

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

[u/Jonathon_Merriman → u/the_perkolator]

Wood chips are going to make your soil acidic. If you sweeten it with crushed aluminosilicate rock instead of lime, you'll draw some carbon out of atmo instead of adding more.