OYR Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening
5 minutes
Wood-Chip Mulch Ties Up Nitrogen Only Where Chips Are Dug Into Soil
Chips run about 100–500:1 C:N, so fungi decomposing them pull in nitrogen, but on the surface that happens only in a thin layer where chips touch soil. Dig the same chips into a vegetable bed and seedlings yellow as microbes take the root-zone nitrogen.