Mulching is one of the best agricultural methods with which you can protect the soil from waterlogging in the rainy season or, on the contrary, excessive evaporation of moisture in dry weather. Owners of household plots often use straw, mowed grass, sawdust for these purposes. But nevertheless, wood chips are the most popular - soft and environmentally friendly filling, which, in addition to excellent quality characteristics, is decorative, and therefore it is widely used in landscape design.
Chips are not just an element of decorating a site. The secret to the popularity of this type of dumping is that it has a number of undeniable advantages, the main ones of which are:
- Environmentally friendly material. Wood, which serves as the basis for the production of wood chips, has no chemical impurities and is absolutely harmless to plants and soil, as well as human health.
- Reliable soil protection. Mulch helps protect the soil from sudden fluctuations in temperature, seasonal weathering and rainfall. Chips inhibit excessive evaporation of moisture, so that in the hot season, plants do not need such frequent watering.
- Providing fresh air. The surface of the soil covered with wood chips, does not settle and does not stone, remaining soft and loose. The soil "breathes", creating optimal conditions for the development of the root system of plants.
- A variety of color schemes. Thanks to a wide selection of colors with the help of filling, you can create spectacular paintings that, in harmony with plant compositions, emphasize the unique style of the site.
Separately, it is worth highlighting the possibility of updating without removing the basis. The chips are practically not clogged and therefore do not need to remove the old layer of mulch to fill the new one. To preserve the decorativeness of the filling, it is enough only once a year to update the coating, adding a new layer.
Decorative wood chips - a versatile material that is used as a powder for decorating plant compositions by both professional designers and amateur gardeners
Wood Mulch Technology
In the manufacture of wood chips on an industrial scale, the so-called wood waste is often used as a source material. This, in turn, contributes to waste-free wood processing, and in essence is an environmental and also beneficial process.
The primary processing consists in grinding on a chipper, and then cleaning from fine fractions and sifting wood chips. Subsequent - represents the grinding of the material to the required size and re-sieving. As a result of such a two-stage processing, a high-quality homogeneous raw material is obtained, which can only be painted in the desired shade.
A special installation, referred to as a “colorizer”, is used in the industry for coloring chips. Decorative wood chips painted with its help have uniform coloring and saturated shades.
Hardwood and, less commonly, coniferous wood acts as a starting material for the production of wood chips.
Painted and thoroughly dried wood chips are packed in plastic bags and sent to shopping centers
The wood chips produced at the factory are resistant to aggressive environmental influences: it does not leave traces of paint on the hands and does not fade when wet. Wood chips retains the saturation of colors for 2-3 seasons, after which it naturally decomposes, becoming an organic fertilizer.
Options for using bark and wood chips in landscape design
Wood chips, which was originally used as a material for mulching, due to its decorative properties, is now widely used in landscape design to decorate the site. After all, she, like a brush in the hands of an artist, is able to create pictorial paintings on the site: geometric compositions, wave-like elements, thematic drawings.
Method # 1 - design flower beds
Any beautiful flower garden needs a decent frame. Colored filling, bordering plant compositions, emphasizes the charm of flowering plants with variegated colors.
With the help of flower chips, designers successfully combine disparate plant compositions into a single pictorial picture
Colored decorative wood chips can act as a link between plants in the flower garden. Possessing the ability to smooth or enhance the color effect, it will perform the function of a smooth transition from the variegated colors of one flower to the delicate shades of another.
Wood chips look equally beautiful both when designing rose gardens, mixborders, conifers, and arranging multi-tiered plant compositions. She also established herself well as a coating of row-spacings in the arrangement of decorative vegetable beds.
Any plants against the background of crushed wood chips or bark look more neat and expressive, making the appearance of the garden neat and attractive
Mulching of the near-stem circles of plants promotes the appearance of earthworms and beneficial microorganisms in the soil, thereby increasing their fertility. Wood filling reduces the time spent on maintaining the garden, and significantly improves its appearance.
Method # 2 - arrangement of playgrounds
In addition to decorative qualities, wood chips are primarily safe material for health. Wood filling created from soft natural species will not cause any harm to the health of the child's body. That is why it is often used in the arrangement of playgrounds.
With the help of color chips right on the ground, you can lay out a picturesque pattern or a fancy ornament that will become a bright decoration of the playground
A chic colored carpet will delight others with its appearance and protect against small abrasions, bruises and injuries of little fidgets during outdoor games. Indeed, from decorative chips there are no scratches or splintering.
Method # 3 - decorating garden paths
Wood chips are an ideal technical material. Garden paths, covered with wood, remain attractive throughout the year. And running and walking on such a surface is incredibly nice even with bare feet. A coating layer with a height of 5-6 centimeters can perfectly retain moisture. No weeds will break through such a barrier.
Even in rainy and dirty weather, the paths remain clean, providing comfortable conditions for moving around the site
In areas where the dog contains wood chips, it helps to reduce odor and facilitate cleaning of the territory.
Method # 4 - filling as an alternative to the lawn (video)
Self-made decorative wood chips
A wide range of decorating materials is available in many horticultural centers. A variety of colors of filling allows you to create rainbow paintings on the site, made in bright colors. Since the manufacture of decorative wood chips is not such a difficult process, do it yourself and do it yourself. The main thing is that the source material was initially of high quality, and the paint does not react actively to water, remaining as bright even after getting wet during seasonal rains.
To make wood chips, we need:
- Hardwood;
- Woodworking Machine;
- Water color solution;
- Wide capacity for coloring;
- Surface for drying wood chips.
It’s good when there is an opportunity to chop wood on a woodworking machine. The easiest option to do this is to go to a plant for the production of wood products or to a sawmill. In this way, two tasks can be solved at once: to obtain high-quality homogeneous material and save yourself the hassle of cleaning the home workshop from garbage, which in essence is chopped wood chips.
If in the household there is a woodworking machine, you can completely save by chopping the wood yourself
In the absence of a woodworking machine, a garden shredder can also be dispensed with. However, it is worthwhile to be prepared for the fact that the crushed material will be somewhat heterogeneous.
Instead of coloring for coloring, it is convenient to use the usual stain for processing wooden surfaces. To color the crushed wood chips, it is necessary to dilute the color solution in water in a wide container, and then immerse the wood chips there. For uniform staining of the material, the solution must be constantly mixed.
Some craftsmen use improvised means to give wood chips the desired shades. In order to obtain a woody powder of natural, but more saturated brown shades, they use onion peel. Wanting to obtain emerald-green material, they use ordinary zelenok, and give violet and pink shades using a decoction of beets or a solution of potassium permanganate. However, it is worth noting that the above methods do not guarantee the quality of coloring of the finished material. The saturation of colors under the influence of sunlight and precipitation gradually fades, by the end of the season becoming more faded. Chips painted in this way have to be renewed annually, adding fresh layers.
Painted wood chips can only be dried thoroughly, sprinkling on an even surface with an even layer. Using colored wood mulch, you can quickly and without special expenses find original solutions, bringing beauty to the landscape of the site.
