At my last house I used wood chips on the paths between the rows of the garden. Fearing the wood chips and soil would get horribly mixed together, plus the dreaded nitrogen stealing, I put barriers such as bricks and boards between the wood chip paths and the garden rows. The next year I applied more wood chips. The third year I was going to do that again, but instead I wound up pushing around the top layer of wood chips and scooping up the LOVELY fluffy black rich soil that the underlying wood chips had become, and putting that on top of the garden rows. Then I put fresh wood chips down on the paths. I tried to mulch around my current raised beds with wood chips over cardboard, but it always rots fast and weeds grow in it. So recently I just go with cardboard, as the wood chips make it rot faster. My wood chips always seem to rot pretty fast, maybe because it rains a lot here so they are soggy a lot? I put shredded branches into my compost because we get them from our chipper-shredder and have copious amounts of green that need some brown to balance it. I do use leaves mostly, but I like to use whatever I have and the branches are from my own property and organic, and the leaves I take from other people. Marcia

I'm just surprised you talked him into giving it to you it if was supposed to be reserved for the parks and recreation board. Where you use it depends on how you use it. If you are going to put it directly on top of the ground, then yes, I think stuff will sprout in it. The only way to avoid that would be to put down a layer of something between the ground and the soil/mulch mix. That "something" could be newspapers laid 12-20 pages thick, cardboard, or woven (not perforated) landscape cloth fabric. That layer will keep anything that sprouts in the soil/compost mix from rooting down into the soil underneath up to a point, but you'll still have to pull up whatever sprouts because eventually the roots can work their way down through the newspaper, cardboard or woven cloth landscape fabric. Mulch in and of itself, of course, never means that you'll never have weeds--just that much of the weed activity is suppressed, weeds that sprout in the mulch are easier to pull than those that are in the ground, the ground is kept cooler and the bed has a more finished look. Mulching never stops either. The mulch breaks down and continually replenishes the soil so you keep having to add mulch on top of old mulch. I add mulch to one garden bed or another almost every week during the growing season. I'd go ahead and use the stuff I picked up as mulch immediately because, if you don't, then you run the risk that rain and wind are going to start blowing/washing away the soil in the soil/mulch mix. Wherever you use it, it will keep weeds down somewhat but weeds eventually will sprout and, at that point, you can pull them up before they get big and then go back and get plain wood chips to lay on top of the wood/soil mix. I hope your husband can just relax and tolerate the piles for a while. Creating a nice landscape takes time and all those piles that might seem a little unsightly now are an investment in your yard's future beauty. That's why I call my husband long-suffering...because he tolerates my piles and my experiments and, whenever there is a crisis, he drops what he is doing to shoot a venomous snake, rescue a guinea from the talons of a hawk, cover up tomato plants in the face of an impending frost, repair a fence that a deer has crashed into (but not sailed over!), etc. Sometimes I think non-gardening spouses have to be the most patient people on earth. Of course, he gets to be the "good guy" too, carrying tons of excess produce to work to share with his co-workers, which makes him a "hero" in their eyes. Dawn

On the other hand, wood chips (along with leaves) are the #1 ingredient of great compost. (That's what makes up the forest floor.) True, they break down slowly using fungus in a process that can take a couple of years. Mixing some of the wood chips with coffee grounds sounds like a great idea. You will end up with a great soil amendment and more worms than you can imagine. Just don't add it to the garden until you have a crumbly earthy humus.

first.. its her garden.. and if it makes her happy.. good for her ... wood chips are a weed suppressor ... and she is putting basically soil.. over it.. whats that all about .... sorta defeats the purpose .. imo ... next.. by adding what is a fert on some level.. only around the plants .. one might speculate.. that she is calling the tree roots.. to her plants ... been there.. done that.. not a great long term idea ... so ... all you are left with.. is if you want to destroy her happiness with your opinion about it all .. i say.. smile.. nod.. and keep your opinion to yourself.. lol ... unless she asks ... ken