Hi Merla - Putting wood chips on a roadside for weed control?
Well, if you have a very special roadside patch that is just outside your farm and you plan to landscape it for roadside beautification, then wood chips come to mind as a mulch and for the aesthetic look. But I can't imagine putting wood chips on a roadside for weed control, in general. When you spread a 14 cu. yd dump truck load, it covers so many square feet..... an area of 20' x 50' or some such figure which I'm not going to spend time looking up. The point is obvious, you can't spread chips all over the county.... mile after mile, 2 miles, 5 miles, 20 miles, 100 miles of roadsides as you drive across the county... can you? A dump truck driver may charge $100 a load to haul. So pretty quick wood chips are not too economical or practical accept for specialized plantings like orchards and vines and landscape beds and garden pathways. Well, the tree timmers working on electrical power lines will dump loads of wood trimmings on your property, by special arrangement, and that is a low cost way to obtain this valueable material. For roadside weed control, in general, you can rely on the vegetation control obtained with the Waipuna or the Atarus. I've seen results and it is damn remarkable to see steam / hot foam in action as a viable alternative to herbicides. But steam weed control equipment is really expensive. If the people managing the budget are visionary and realize the progressive nature of steam weed control and how that fits into the big picture of vegetation management in a county.... for roadsides, for schools, for institutions, for parks, for athletic fields.... then they can see how the equipment can be used for multiple purposes and reduce the use of pesticides in the environment. Otherwise..... it ain't going to happen any time soon. Besides, budgets for governments and organizations are limited and very real; it can take multiple years to "move" in a direction. Yet, if you plant the seed and provide positive encouragement for a sustainable future, it might just "grow on them." The other thing you can do is focus on establishment of native vegetation, grass species, and ground covers that occupy roadsides and therefore tilt the vegetation in balance of low-growing vegetation with lower maintenance costs in terms of mowing and "weed control." Idaho is a far away land, so it is not easy to visualize what sort of weeds and vegetation and roadsides you are dealing with. But when I read you stories about the weed control board, I can tell you where to get practical and focused, from my perspective. Well, if you are looking at a roadside patch like 100' long by 10-20' wide, you can put in a geotextile mulch and plant some perennial flowers and shrubs. Look into the DeWitt Sunbelt Weed Barrier.... it will last 10 years in the open sun. Yet keep in mind we are talking about a very special roadside flower bed. It will also cost hundreds of dollars to buy plugs of perennial flowers, herbs, and native plants. Yet, I can guaranteee results and the public will *love* your roadside beautification project. It will become a multi-purpose flower bed that provides habitat for butterflies and lizards, it will become a seed factory for the pretty flowers and functional plants, it will create a bioenergy field of beauty and Nature and color and patterns and designs. A 15' x 300' roll will cost around $250-300, to give you an idea. Vinegar is the other method that comes to mind. It is relatively cheap. You can spray it on. Spray technology is familiar to the county workers used to spraying on herbidides. Vinegar is a natural herbicide. It works, but it might now work on all species so it will also be an experimental situation. The workers need to have an open mind with a pesticide-reduction goal in mind.... and play around with vinegar and related alternative natural herbicides and extracts. Here's another tip.... before you put down wood chips as a mulch on bare ground.... put down layers of newsprint as a "sheet mulch." The difference in long-term weed control is tremendous. But do not put wood chips on top of the geotextile mulch, because it creates a moist organic media, a haven for wind-borne weed seeds to germinate and send their roots down and "peg through" the mulch and become established. Just leave the geotextile mulch exposed to the sun, and rely on the plants to grow out and cover the weed barrier with foliage. Best wishes, Steve Diver
