Advice for wood chip to cover lousy weedy grass and dirt hillside

Googling, I found that each truckload was probably something like 5 cubic yards, so I have roughly 15 cubic yards of these pine wood chips.

That web site also says one truckload covers about 625 square feet at 3 inches deep. So, I guess I can cover 625x3=~1800 square feet.

I'll google for how we're supposed to keep the chips on the ground on slopes, in the rain, and in the wind - but any advice you have from your experience would be welcome, as always.

Drat. This web site says a typical truckload is 8 to 10 cubic yards, which covers about a thousand square feet:

You are asking for trouble. The wood chips will invite bugs, termites, mice, and it will rot in time too. Some will erode, blow away, wash away.

Look for some sort of low growing ground cover. It will keep the dirt in place, look better, need little to no care.

Danny,

Why do you want to cover your lawn with wood chips? It won't last. It won't look good. It will cause erosion. Most of the weeds will grow through it. It will make mowing difficult. What are you thinking? This is not a low maintenance idea.

Dave M.

A few hundred SQUARE feet, or a hundred by __? Might work if the hilly part is not too steep, but then what? Weeds will grow through them and mowing will be more difficult. It would be far better, IMO, to plant something other than grass and then mulch with the wood chips. If you planted shrubs and perennials and kept the area mulched there would be far less work.

We bought a home last fall that had about 75x100' lawn in back yard. It was either buy a riding mower or put the money into perennial flowers and shrubs/small trees. We are well on our way to reducing the amount of mowing (about 20%). We have a septic field to work around, but I have a yard full of flowers, increasing privacy from shrubs, less work, and more places to put leaves and grass clippings. We usually mow with the mulcher, but grass clippings are wonderful mulch in flower beds to keep weeds down.

I used shredded cypress mulch in Florida in shrub beds...it was great for keeping weeds down (not completely eliminating), preserves moisture in the bed, and easy to clean even with leaf blower. If watered and compacted, it stayed in place very nicely. I would never use bark chips, lava rock, or pine needles for mulch.

Your local extension service can probably recommend native flowers or other landscaping for the area more suitable than grass or plain chipped wood.

Biggest pieces of info are missing -- where is this located, what is the rest of the lawn/yards, how much slope/wind is actually present, what's intended as a long-term result and on and on and on...

Iff'en this is a small problem area on a urban lawn I'm w/ the others it's probably _a_bad_idea_ (tm); if you've rural property in some parts of the country it might possibly be a reasonable alternative if there's nothing else planned. It's just not possible to know anything definitive imo.

Now you tell me!

I've got at least 15 to 25 cubic yards of the stuff in my driveway to get rid of now!

:)

Out here, in landslide country? Dunno. Chaparral mostly. Oleander too. (But I already have tons of that.)

Silicon Valley.

The lawn is in sad shape. It's grass that hasn't had a drop of water from rain since sometime around May, and won't get any for another month or two.

Sprinklers are sporadic (only work manually - gotta fix that but don't know how yet).

Some slopes are 45 degrees, others are only 10 degrees, some areas are flat.

Maintenance free lawn is the intent. Or as close to maintenance free. It never rains for most of the year here, and we all have wells, so, I consider it a primo waste of water to water something that can't grow without artificial watering.

It's rural. Nobody will see it unless/until they walk onto my property. Nobody is within earshot.

Listen to Ed. He's telling you right. Shop carefully for ground cover. Something that needs little care *and will spread rapidly.* Dymondia is supposed to be a good choice, but not cheap.

Luck!

HB

Danny, I noticed part of the problem is a 45 degree slope. Terracing that p ortion wouldn't be too difficult unless the ground is iron hard, and you co uld make a very attractive "hillside" by planting each terrace with either tough flowers or bushes, or ground cover.

HB

Figure 3" deep, so a yard will cover about 100sq.ft. That looks like, maybe, 20yds. It will have to be done every year or two. I'd be careful of the tree species, too. Some are carpenter and magnets.

No problem. It's not a hard job.

Figure 3" deep, 27cu.ft. per cubic yd., so that's 4x27 sq.ft, per yd. A pickup truck is about a yard (Ranger) to a yard-and-a-half (F150). A

I'm all for low level ground cover that spreads on its own. But, unfortunately, I don't have a green thumb.

I failed miserably with this one, for example:

Some cute gal in the nursery talked me into this stuff, which, she explained, would take over the entire hillside.

Well, it stayed put. Didn't move a micron, whatever it is. :(

Do you guys, when you *do* use chips, put that gray thin water permeable ground cloth under them?

Or do you just put the chips 3" deep on the ground, like I did, here?

The fire hazard out here is extreme.

But, I don't think wood chips on the ground are a fire hazard.

At least, the insurance company never said anything about that. (And they do tell me to clean the brush 100 feet away from the house.)

Funny you should say that because I bought a cultivator to do just that. So, the slope that is steep *will* be terraced (eventually).

But, for now, I think I'm gonna dump 10 cubic yards of wood chips on it.

I *am* worried though that it will all end up in the pool.

Thanks.

Would you put the ground cloth under the 3 inches of chips?

Or just forgo the ground cloth?

Does it work?

Sometimes. It's preferred.

I use landscape fabric under the red cedar mulch I use in an area behind the house that gets essentially zero sun.

It keeps the weeds away for a few years until the wood and leaves break down, leaving a great growing medium on top of the fabric. By then there is hardly any mulch left, so we start from scratch. It's not a large area, so it's not a big deal. Maybe 3 cu yards, 3" deep.