Initially the amount of bacteria and fungi, which break down the wood is very small in the pile. In order for the populations of those oranisms to grow they need nitrogen in order to make proteins/enzymes, to make new "bodies". The mass of a living organism is mostly carbon, but the machinery that carries out the chemical reactions of growth and metabolism are nitrogen containing proteins/enzymes. The nitrogen is not an energy source, it is a building block source. The wood-carbohydrate is the energy source for population growth. "Greens" are somewhat high in nitrogen from their formerly living cellular contents. Alfalfa (hay or pellets) is higher than most. Manures are high in nitrogen from animal urine. Commercial fertilizers are the most concentrated source of nitrogen. Nitrogen content is the first of the three numbers on the package. You do not want to add a 18-18-18 vegetable fertilizer or a 5-50-9 flower booster fertilizer if all you want is the nitrogen. Lawn growth fertilizers with a very high first number are usually mainly urea-nitrogen, but may have ammonium and or nitrate salt sources (also good). Sometimes you can get ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate as a nitrogen source. A "Salt" is a chemical class, and has nothing to do with saltiness (sodium build up) harming plants or the soil. Plant roots are designed to take in ammonium and nitrate salts, which are more prevalent in nature than urea, but they do fine taking in urea too. Fungi and bacteria use it all too. Organic fertilizers are usualy low concentration fertiizers (5-5-5 organic vs 20-20-20 chemical) so are more expensive for the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium they provide. The easiest way to get a pile of wood chips composting is to add 1-2 pounds of high nitrogen fertilizer (high urea lawn growth fertilizer) per cubic yard (3ftx3ftx3ft)of damp wood chips. An equal part of sugar (easy energy) in the mix can jump start the population growth of the decomposition organisms, and a little dirt/unsterilized compost mixed in will act as a starter source for those organisms. Beer has negligable amounts or protein/enzymes, and what little is there are not the type that break down cellulose and lignin(wood). The alcohol and carbohydrates act the same as sugar to the decaying organisms (energy food). Hope this helps.

I have a 1.25 acre lot and have been creating hundreds if not thousands of square feet of new garden beds via an assortment of lasagne and smothering schemes since the fall of 06. I have also dug many more hundreds by hand, before I discovered lasagne (still dig sometimes). I've also had major tree work done in the yard (Fall 05 and Fall 07) and have two BIG piles of wood chips, so I've worked with lots of chips. Tell your friend you would love some wood chips. Have him dump them in a pile on your lot to age for at least 6 months, up to 2 or 3 years is better. Think carefully about where you want them dumped, because they are unsightly, but it must be convenient to a large dump truck and to you with your wheel barrow. When they've age in a pile they stay nice and moist, start to break down a bit, turn darker, and will make an attractive mulch for your garden and especially pathways - once your beds are defined. Personally I find them a pain to garden around before that. Because I transplant stuff around A LOT, they get in the way, get mixed in soil, and have to be neatened again. They also break down very sloooooowly. The trees in your picnic area are probably maples. Gorgeous trees, but notorious for thirsty surface roots that dry out the soil and they are difficult to grow under. Go ahead and use the fresh chips in your area under the trees - no cardboard or plastic necessary, but you could lay down cardboard for additional weed suppression. For the future garden beds, definitely DO NOT USE black plastic or landscape fabric. I tried both years ago to suppress weeds and ditto the problems already outlined on this thread. They are nothing but a future headache. Also, part of the way lasagne works is that the worms, other soil critters, and the freezing/thawing that occurs in cold climates help to work the decomposing lasagne bed into the existing soil. For the new beds, the easiest albeit slowest way to go is lasagne. I always start with a paper layer. Newspapers work, but they are a bit of pain - they blow around easily, are fussy to spread, and when they break down, they break into peices which can become visible with shallow lasagne beds. Cardboard is easier to spread and tidier. I collect cardboard from everywhere, and it's pretty easy to find. Pizza boxes work great too. Remove all plastic tape and plastic labels and put the brown side up - looks prettier if part of the cardboard pokes through the mulch. If you have decent topsoil already, you don't need a deep lasagne bed! I have successfully killed weeds with two inches of organic matter. My pathways through the gardens are usually terribly weedy by the time I've gotten around to mulching them. I use cardboard and just enough wood chips to cover the cardboard. Voila! Sorry for the novella, but what can I say, I'm addicted to gardening, and to garden you need garden beds! Hehe. Here's some pics. Lasagne bed in process - first layer cardboard, next coffee grounds and kitchen scraps, then topped with leaves. This one will sit for about 1 year. Garden path being mulched. Note that this is crabgrass growing in the path. Important note - don't wait until your crabgrass has gotten big and gone to seed. I had to mow and trim the edges because of all shoots going out sideways with lots of seedheads! Laid down cardboard - Then aged wood chips -

Just thought I'd update this in case somebody else comes across it wonders what I did with it... Decided to fill the gutter with mulch instead. Well, actually... I didn't decide that, it decided for me. I left the dirt even with the gutter, and the mulch kept going into the gutter. I kept trying to keep it cleaned out. And then realized how stupid that was. The gutter is mostly blocked on both sides anyway - something I don't have control of. So may as well have mulch there to soak up the water when it comes, and then it'll either dry out over time, or get wicked back up into the yard possibly. Rainwater harvesting the permaculture way?

Im finding out bermuda thrives on hills. I too live on a hill with red clay soil and been doing alot of yard work over the last 4 yrs. Taking down unwanted trees and spriging about 15,000 of bermuda to put my lawn at around 25,000 sq ft now. All 100 % bermuda with no weeds in front, side and back yards. Grass seed doesnt like red clay in the very hot summers like we have here so it will probably struggle for you too, untill you mend that red clay soil Ive used mulch like you buy in bulk as a top dressing over the spriged areas. It seemed to make the bermuda to fill in faster. I did have some washout because we had some very hard rains here this past summer. Putting it thin means you will get some washout, especailly on a incline. If you mulched it like a bed(3 inches thick) it would absorb a hard rain and not have wash out but you wouldnt get nothing to grow because of how thick the mulch is