Hardwood Chip is a Neat, Clean Cheap Option

Hardwood Chip is our featured product this month, and it is a firm favourite for many purposes.

Hardwood chip is a terrific and affordable way to dress up your garden. It is comprised of neat, clean chips of hardwood, and is especially handy for bringing a tired looking garden bed up to speed in preparation for a sale, or to tidy up garden beds following a renovation.

Because it is such a budget friendly product, it is fantastic for large areas. Hardwood Chip is much used for garden beds in investment properties because it is incredibly durable, and takes some time to break down.

There are a few important tips though, to maximise your mulching efforts:

Apply fertiliser to your garden bed before you add the hardwood mulch. This is because mulch removes a little of the nitrogen from the soil when it is fresh and only starting to break down. Fortunately, after the first stage, it begins to replace nitrogen back into the soil, and is extremely beneficial to your garden.

Always weed thoroughly before you apply the hardwood chip, because there are many varieties of weed (such as nut grass, oxalis and wandering jew that will not be controlled by the mulch).

If it is dry, break up the soil slightly with a garden fork first. If it is extremely dry, add a wetting agent and give the soil a good soak with water prior to adding the mulch.

Spread the mulch around evenly, but leave at least 3cm around the base of trees and other shrubs to prevent rot in the trunk.

The best time to mulch your gardens is right now (once the summer rains have stopped). The reason why this is the best time to mulch is because it locks in the precious moisture we have just had, in preparation for the typically drier months ahead.