woodchips

by Dolores
(USA NY)

I just had 2 tree stumps ground, maple and box elder. The woodchips are pretty chopped up and do contain some soil I was told I could not use these on my garden for compost as they would take the nutrients out of the soil this year. can I use them next year, safely? Also can I bury my kitchen scraps in the pile? Thankyou in antisapation of an answer.

Doug says that woodchips are fine as mulch. Just don't dig them into the soil. Let them sit on top of the soil.

They also compost well if you add an equal volume of green or high nitrogen waste to them. Equal parts by volume not weight. Can you bury your kitchen scraps in the pile? Sure, but don't expect a few scraps to decompose the chips very quickly - it will be a slow process (several years) to get those chips into fully decomposed compost. Getting enough nitrogen or green material to them is the key to faster compost.