I'm so curious about this. I've gone to HD, to Armstrong, to several independent nurseries looking for "pine bark fines" also known as "pathway bark" for blueberry potting mix. Most of the time the people who work there tell me that its not available because its toxic and will kill my plants. What's the full story there? And why would it be a key ingredient in the mix if it's toxic? I thought perhaps the idea was to use pine mulch because its more acidic, It sounds like there is a legitimate toxicity issue -- is it perhaps that the needles are toxic and the bark is not? Calistoga can you shed light on this? Can anyone?

We have been putting up garden sheds since the 80's on various rural sites, and have nothing but good experience using gravel with a hardware cloth interface. The very first shed I put up did not have the hardware cloth, and I constantly battled critters getting into the base surface. I spent hours trapping and baiting all the animals that found the shed-covered area their perfect base. We have a number of sheds now, and all have been successfully protected from the many burrowing animals with a simple gravel and wire system. What I am most pleased with are two sheds, one about 10x20', the other about 20x30. One was built in 1993, the other about 1995. In neither case have animals been able to penetrate the barriers I put down, but they have sure tried a lot. We have a particular problem with squirrels, rabbits and mice. I have seen lots of places on the exterior where they started to dig, found my protection, and finally gave up. We have no nests at all under either structure. My method is to put down about a foot deep layer of gravel, with the wire mesh extending out from the runners about 18". I prefer to put the mesh an inch or two below the surface. This makes the whole installation look better, and also seems to be very effective at deterring diggers. Once the shed is erected, I attach the mesh all around the sides of the sheds to the runners. In one shed which uses the gravel as its floor I placed the wire mesh under the whole area of the shed. The mesh probably costs less than a singe trap I'd need to get rid of an unwanted critter, only takes a few minutes to lay down, and I find it works well. Even on the inside of the shed with the gravel floor, I place the mesh about an inch or two below the surface. This really avoids any trip hazards, and makes for a good presentation. If I put up another shed, I will definitely put wire down over the entire footprint. A 20x30' shed would need about 700 square feet of wire cloth, about the amount in one 7'x100' roll which only costs 25-30 dollars. I would put down most of the gravel, lay the mesh, then lay the rest of the gravel. If you already have the gravel down, I strongly agree with Ken above: take the time to put the mesh in; you won't regret it. Renais

Update: 12-9-22 The Picea glauca (spring of 2021), spoken about in the last couple of posts, looked a little off with about 1-1/2ft. of top main leader broken off from the compacted snow load from both residences piling on top all winter then melting and settling down like an iceberg, taking the main leader with it. It's very narrow between our driveways so the snow gets piled pretty deep there. Early spring of 21, I noticed one of the top branches that were left began to 'curl' upward, like it wanted to take the place of the broken leader. I've seen this before with damaged leaders on my Hemlock, but this would be a first for white spruce. (eta: added picture taken 5-17-21 below). Anyways, I took a 24"L. steel rod, 3/8" dia. and tied one end several inches below the old break and bent the volunteer branch upward to the top of the steel rod and tied it there too in several places. This picture is from August 2021 so the new growth is already hardening off. It really looked better than expected. Removed the stake for winter '2021-22 but then the unexpected happened. By now my neighbor caught on to the idea that they could blow their snow on top of my little tree to aid in having enough place for them to put their snow. :-/ By mid-winter it looked a lot like the winter before and in my mind, I knew it was destined for disaster again in the following spring. So, some time in February 2022, I took the time to dig around the tree in hopes of preventing further damage. You can see the tree was showing signs of bending over with two feet of compacted, frozen snow resting at the top of the pile. The property line is the center of the utility pole and the neighbor only has about 3-4 feet from the line to the edge of their driveway, so they really have no business putting much snow at all on my side of the line. I think sometimes they have friends do their snow removal they don't have a clue to what's going on. I did tell her why I was doing this, when she saw me shoveling and asked what I was doing and hopefully educated her about snow loads crushing my tree. Anyways, crisis averted; the tree grew normally season of 2022. Here it is today 12-9. I'll have to keep an eye on it this winter and possibly a few more (not every year we have this much snow). Big storm forecast for Tue-Wed-Thurs. 12+" possible. Bring it on! :^)

Hi Miriam,... ...just to answer your last questions... where I live a lot of the homes are made of wood construction, not brick... so wooden sheds are considered a fire risk... people put their freezers, fridges and electric lawn mowers in there, power tools... and with electric connected it presents a risk... mind you, my metal shed gets so hot in the summer I have to open the door... there is no ventilation as such, although it's not totally airless.. but I get concerned about something combusting on very hot days... probably worrying about nothing.. ...most gardens in UK have wooden sheds, usually a small one about 8 x 6 foot with a window and felt roof, which is inclined to leak before very long... ...we can also have brick sheds and plastic sheds... not sure what they're made of, something like UPVC... maintenance free, they look quite smart... I could have either of these if I wanted but I think they're more expensive... people also use their garages as garden sheds... I used to in a previous house... parking the vehicle outside and using the garage for gardening purposes... did all my shredding in there, had a big shredding machine too... only moving the car back in on occasions... ...some of the pictures above on this thread we would probably call 'outhouses' or 'summer houses' even, as they look good enough to spend some time in, sleep in even... we have those here but tend to see them in large gardens where the owners have spent time and money on landscaping...