The main purpose for sealing the cuts is to keep out the vector that caused oak wilt. Any disease requires at least three things to occur simultaneously... the right plant, the right pathogen and the right environment. Any one missing and the disease can't manifest itself. In the case of oak wilt, the pathogen is delivered to the plant by an insect vector which is attracted to the sap of fresh cuts. The pathogen itself is a fungus. In the winter time, you are very unlikely to have the right temperature for either the insect or the fungus to be active. On the other hand, it's not going to hurt to paint your wound except that it might slow healing slightly. In zone 8, you might have winter days that are still quite warm and, if it's been warm for a while, there's a chance that you could have the right conditions for infection. I recently pruned my live oak and I went ahead and painted the wounds because it had been warm up to that day. Brad

Moss is an opportunist, and doesn't compete well with any other plant. However, in an open spot with sufficient moisture and good shade, moss tends to run rampant. The permanent solution is to open it up to sunlight, which will permanently get rid of the moss. That's not always possible, of course. Any good iron-based moss killer on the market will take it out, and render the surrounding grasses dark green and lush. You can also use good ol' ferrous sulfate (monohydrate or heptahydrate, whatever's handy) at about 2 pounds per thousand square feet. It'll do exactly the same thing to the moss (dead) and grass (darker green and healthy). I don't recommend the use of copper-based moss killers, nor chemical ones, as moss isn't that sturdy and both have side effects. Iron is an entirely reliable (and reasonably cheap) way to get rid of it.

I have only seen some comments now, so I should, let everyone know that my bush never recovered and never grew any more over another year, so I had to dump it. I see only "Like" and "Save" tabs here, so then no way to reply individually. Help me out if I am wrong. So, Lars I got it from East London, on the South East coast of Africa and took it home to Windhoek, Central Namibia, which has a very dry climate, especially in winter with a relative humidity normally less that ten. Angie G I fear yours looks just like mine did, only mine was a much smaller bush .

Is this intended for commercial purposes? I was assuming it was for the OP's own garden use. If it's commercial it might be better to look into a composting operation rather than chopped mulch. Sale of organic mulches other than compost or woodchips isn't widespread in the U.K. even if it's used privately by individual gardeners. I don't recall ever seeing such things for sale here.