Anyone using wood chippings as fill material for landscaping

[rocco490]

Anyone used wood chippings as fill material for landscaping? How much does it settle? Best practices and recommendations for using it for fill material?

I have used quite a bit of wood chippings to soften the slope on part of a hill and planning to put a thick cap of dirt on top of the wood chippings that have been compacted and spread with a tractor and then seed with grass. Hoping it works......
Would like any recommendations from anyone else who has been there and done that as its my first time using wood chippings for fill material. I will say the stuff would probably do great for making a path to drive over slightly wet soft ground. I drove truck on it after alot of rainy weather no issues gives alot of traction kinda like the big wood mats I see used for equipment to drive on accessing wet areas.

 

[huskihl]

Anyone used wood chippings as fill material for landscaping? How much does it settle? Best practices and recommendations for using it for fill material?

I have used quite a bit of wood chippings to soften the slope on part of a hill and planning to put a thick cap of dirt on top of the wood chippings that have been compacted and spread with a tractor and then seed with grass. Hoping it works......
Would like any recommendations from anyone else who has been there and done that as its my first time using wood chippings for fill material. I will say the stuff would probably do great for making a path to drive over slightly wet soft ground. I drove truck on it after alot of rainy weather no issues gives alot of traction kinda like the big wood mats I see used for equipment to drive on accessing wet areas.

If it’s covered up with dirt, it’ll settle to probably 1/4 the volume it took up as chips. Not a good idea for anything permanent. But it’s great for making pathways through wet areas on the cheap

 

[ElevatorGuy]

I actually did this with mulch from an old bed I was changing. I filled a natural u shaped runoff area that was about 5’ wide and probably a 1’ deep in the middle. Once filled I leveled it with 6” or so of top soil. That was about 3 years ago and it hasn’t settled or washed out yet.

I also know my tree buddy has been dumping in his neighbors ravine for years and it’s added a lot of useable space. I’m sure in that quantity and various types of wood the break down is more considerable. I certainly wouldn’t expect to build anything on it but for general leveling that could be free material wise I would do it.

 

[Wonkydonkey]

It’s a great way to add volume to any garden. It will be acidic, burn things you want to keep. So keep it away from trees and stuff you want to keep.
It will also want nitrogen to help break it down so will take it from the sorounding area unless you keep peeing over it or find a few horses .

and when the worms think it’s time to eat it, it will be a lot less than what you put down. And get less because chips have a lot of airspace volume..

but it the end it’s good stuff..just look in the woods where a trees rotted.

 

[Woodpecker]

It’s a great way to add volume to any garden. It will be acidic, burn things you want to keep. So keep it away from trees and stuff you want to keep.
It will also want nitrogen to help break it down so will take it from the sorounding area unless you keep peeing over it or find a few horses .

and when the worms think it’s time to eat it, it will be a lot less than what you put down. And get less because chips have a lot of airspace volume..

but it the end it’s good stuff..just look in the woods where a trees rotted.

There is some misconception here that I often have to correct gardeners and homeowners on. If your willing to have your mind changed this is a good place to start:

https://puyallup.wsu.edu/lcs/

Woodchips is about halfway down the list under mulches, but the rest is fantastic too. I keep copies of the wood chip pdf on my truck because usually the best place for woodchips is the site where they were produced.

Now green woodchips will burn plants as they decompose like any green compost, but as far as adding acid or acidifying soil that's not likely to happen.

As far as tying up nitrogen the contrary is actually true. Wood chip mulch increases soil nutrients including nitrogen. If you really want to dork out on it, some of the many study's that have been done on the subject are referenced in the above material.

 

[Wonkydonkey]

I had a good read

 

[rocco490]

I will try to update from time to time with what's happening with my little experiment. I left one side uncovered/exposed but covered the top/and section I wanted to grow grass on for yard. Not planning to build anything on it just used to change the level on one area of a hill and I used a fairly large volume of chips, at the far end the chips are probably 7 or 8 feet deep. So far so good. I expect settling we will see how fast and how much......