I can relate to the clay soil. I use wood chips for paths so I can walk around even when things are waterlogged.

I know this will generate some discussion, on several issues, but here is what I did with clay and wood chips. I made a new bed in clay/sandstone, and I dug in quite a bit of partially broken down wood chips. I first hired a backhoe to dig out the huge rocks. Lots of subsoil got mixed around in the process, but the "topsoil" was about as bad. I dumped about 8 inches of wood chips on top along with some non-organic fertilizer (It was what I had, and budget was limited) plus some chicken manure (free for cleaning out a chicken house.. next time will wear a good mask!) I turned it with a spading fork, a little at a time when I had time. Over the winter I double-dug it, a bit at a time. It was getting pretty well broken down. The next spring I spaded in some more manure and some bagged compost, and planted tomatoes in one end. I had to fertilize again with some non organic fertilizer, but I had a good crop. Over the rest of the area, I planted a buckwheat/cowpea mixture and turned in, several crops over the summer.

I planted a winter cover crop last fall (oats, vetch, fava beans, peas). This spring I turned it in, along with some homemade compost to the area to be planted in tomatoes. I have canned lots and lots of tomatoes already this year. The soil is starting to look like real garden soil.

In last year's tomato area, I have bush beans, blackeyed peas, and some peanuts just for fun. Earlier this spring I had snow peas with good yield. I have used no chemical fertilizer this year. I am finding earthworms, where there were none. I am not having drainage problems, despite heavy rains, in the former clay. All the hard labor is paying off, but I was not keen to repeat it. All that for a 12 by 30 veggie garden.

So.. I took a different tack for the next project. I had an area next to concrete and thick with bermuda grass. It needed a flower bed. I layered newspaper, wood chips, manure, and more wood chips. The idea was to have a nice bed in a year, free of bermuda grass. The bermuda loves it. Thick, lush... I am mowing it. I will have to resign myself to another winter and spring of hard labor. In the long run the soil will be good.

Another use for wood chips: "mulch trenches". I have a sloped lot. Heavy rain runs off, the clay erodes and what's left bakes hard. I have dug several trenches with the pickaxe, perpendicular to the flow of water. I filled them with wood chips, and overfilled one to make a raised path across the drainage area. The trenches trap the rain water. During wet weather, they provide some drainage and keep the area in between the trenches from being waterlogged. During the dry spells, the trenches are small "reservoirs" for what little rain we get. During the downpours, some silt washes into the trenches, rather than down the hill. When I do get ready to do something with this area in a few years, the wood chips in the trenches should be well rotted. I am already getting grass and wildflowers (OK, weeds) back in an area that was nothing but an eroded ditch.

I love wood chips. I get them by the pickup load free at the city greenwaste place. They usually save the good stuff (rotted, mixed, partially composted) for the commercial outfits that buy it by the truckload. I have learned that if I go on a Sunday morning, with coffee and homemade cookies, when the big trucks aren't there, the stuff they put in the pickup is a lot richer and darker.

squirrel_girl-

If you do option 2 or 3 take it one step further and do lasagna gardening. Starbucks for green (I'd go for the horse manure too, but that's just me). As long as your spreading the chips out, that's half the battle anyway.

tj

Oh yes, definitely take a truckload now, and as many as they will deliver once you're done shoveling the first one around. If you're not planting this year, you can put them as deep as 6-10 inches thick, and the rains will help them decompose and shrink. To get rid of weeds, I like to do some weeding beforehand, then cover with newspaper or cardboard before adding mulch. If you were going to plant this year, you could do 3-4 inches thick.

Be careful about putting the wood chips directly in contact with your house, though. Some people have cautioned that termites might like that.

the best tool I've found for moving mulch is a digging fork or manure fork. Shovels take too much work. A good metal rake is good for smoothing out piles, too. The only other tool is a wheelbarrow or red wagon or wheeled cart of some kind.

Thank you for your help. I was thrilled to get so many responses to such a long message. 4 1/2 cubic yards arrived at 11:30 this morning. The plans are to refill the current beds and create a Lasagna style garden somewhere. I'm leaning toward several 200 foot lasagna patches along the walkway, drive, and log seating to bring in some interest. We are also going to expand the "trail" area leading to the woods.

Squirrel

All of your ideas are workable. Here are a few things I can suggest for woodchips:

1. Mulch (flower beds, ornamentals, trees, some crops, and around mailbox and fence posts and other things you shouldn't be hitting with the lawnmower).
2. Lasagna beds
3. fill gullies and depressions you don't like
4. add to compost bin in manageable portions
5. make paths
6. make berms for runoff
7. throw on muddy areas to make them more walkable
8. leave them stockpiled for later use
9. trade them for something else you want
10. leave them alone and see what pops up in the pile (I got an oak sapling the other day).
11. Use for animal bedding
12. Use on dirt roads, driveways and parking areas.

We got a few free loads last year. One thing I did notice was that there were leaves mixed in and since we let the piles sit for a while they started to compost and they got hot. You may want to let it sit for a few weeks if you can, or at least not pile it to deep or close to live plants. I was told that the wood chips would rob some nitrogen in the soil. This year we foliar fed to head off any problems.

We used the wood chips to mulch beds and build new beds. We put cardboard down piled manure on top of that and mulched with the wood chips. Instant perrenial beds. It definitly worked the best the clay is now soil where we did this and the grass died underneath adding more organic matter the cardboard stopped the weeds. We also used some for controling water on a steep bank we just piled it there and it really slows down and soaks up all of the water that ran down and flooded our yard.

My advice is take all you can get you will find a use for it.
Good luck.