Path made with woodchip/bark

[Laurasanford111]

Hi all
Does anyone have woodchip in Thier garden? We have new raised beds and want to put woodchip around them instead of pea shingle, we also need a path leading up the garden and want to do that with woodchip to, we have toddlers and don't want them eating the gravel, or it getting on grass when we lawnmower it, I read online woodchip will need replacing every two years or so which seems fine, just wondering how anyone else finds having it in Thier garden
Thank you

I use it between our raised beds and I think it looks very smart and it does suppress the weeds. You do have to pile it on really thick though, and it disappears quite quickly. I would say you have to top it up every year if you are walking on it regularly to tend the beds. I do put mine straight on the soil though. If you put a membrane underneath it should be longer lasting.

We have our own huge pile of wood chip from when we had a whole load of leylandii cut down a couple of years ago. It might end up being quite expensive.

Bark is so cheap that I'd just use it direct on a layer of cardboard /newspaper. This is what I have at the allotment, and it does just fine.

At home i had it done 'properly' using weed membrane and I really wish I hadn't as it doesn't look nor wear any better. Actually it looks worse in fact as the plastic bits unravel, birds peck at them, it unrolls, sticks up at side and I really wish I'd not bothered at all with the plastic. I'm going to remove it but it will be a fiddly job.

I'd save money on membrane but use paper and card. And use the membrane money to buy extra bark! I top mine up a bit every year or so but I'm just adding more to the top in high traffic areas.

My bark has been down for over 4 years, and is now very much needing to be topped up, but it lasts a lot longer than 2. I did apply it thickly, it really does work to keep the weeds down.

You can get biodegradable plastic free weed membrane btw.

I use woodchip on top of a double layer of cardboard. Highly recommend it, though it does need topping up every now and then. My last batch came free when I spoke to the team from the council who were clearing up fallen trees, they were only to happy to drop a load off for me instead of taking it away for disposal.

I have pea shingle on the drive and it's a hassle, always getting bits stuck in my boots, falling off indoors etc - none of that happens with the woodchip.

Love woodchip but find all the neighbouring cats use it a lavatory. All of them, all the time as it's much easier than digging a hole.

Thanks all! Going to look at where I can bulk order some! :)

Oh, yes sometimes cats do use it for shites. I have 2 cats myself so that doesn't phase me too much tbh.

Another downside though no different to gravel - is that it can sometimes travel onto the lawn. I don't actually have a barrier/border, I just heap it up where I want it, so it's not too much of a big deal for me. Before i mow, I do check that there are no chunky bits that have escapedthat could hurt the mower. But gravel would be worse!

Not sure about bulk, but for top ups i tend to grab a couple of bags from Lidl which is the cheapest I've found and has been for years.

I have it in my garden and love it. I top up a bit every year and it seems to work well that way, B&M often have it very cheap.

Mine is just on top of bare soil as eventually it rots down and acts as a soil improver (very heavy clay soil here.) What I wish is that I'd first put down a layer of cardboard on the soil and then added the bark on top just to add some extra weed suppression. But if you layer up the bark very thickly it should be fine!

We're about to put it in between raised veg beds too, but not straight onto earth, we've got weed membrane and type 1 sub base down as it's an extension (albeit around the side of the house) of our driveway which we prepared in the same way but with pea shingle on top. We were going to take the type 1 up before putting down the wood chip but have been told it'll help the firmness under food and the weed membrane will stop the mud coming up into the wood chip paths (and weeds too of course) although will still not last forever.

I think it'll look nice. We've just laid a brick path alongside the raised beds, and gravel/pea shingle) the other side of that.

Having said this, I can't remember having a problem with either of my children eating gravel. Won't they just eat the wood chip instead?

Hi @whichwayiwonder that sounds lovely and a good idea 😊 yes they might haha but I was thinking that at the end of the garden at the back I'd have the play area for now with woodchip as we might get a summer house in future so the path will lead into the play area which will be woodchip so it will flow. We had a container garden in our old house and so was just a gravel garden and to be honest I want to try something different haha, it drove us a bit mad in the end

As a rather nice bonus, you’ll get lots of blackbirds sorting through it for worms.