Wood chips provide wonderful organic matter even to fill up holes. If you live in an urban or suburban area, they are free from the waste stream. All you need to do is to contact tree service companies. They'll be glad to deliver them to you for free.
The Problem
There was a big hole caused by run-off rainwater on a slope in my neighbor's property right next to mine. All rainwater from his yard adjacent to mine would carve out a gully, rush down to the hole, make it bigger, then go under the fence to my property, and cause erosion whenever it rained.
My neighbor is almost 90 years old. I don't see him pushing a wheelbarrow and using a shovel to fill the hole. So I offered to help.
Initial Solution
The first time I used fill dirt to fill the hole. Dirt is heavy. I pushed about 6 cubic yards of dirt to fill the hole and the area caused by erosion. It almost broke my back.
To my dismay, the dirt was washed away by the next heavy rain. It didn't help at all. :'-(
Final Solution
Then I thought about wood chips. There are air pockets between the wood chips where the water can flow through without washing them away. In addition, they are much lighter and easier to work with.
To my delight, they did indeed fix the problem. :-)
Photo below shows where the hole used to be on my neighbor's property. Wood chips have slowly broken down into compost but they weren't washed away even after some heavy rain for a whole year! Weeds have started to grow. The yard worker who is hired by my neighbor to mow the grass lawn will start to spray herbicide. So I need to do something very quickly.
By the way, have you noticed I use wood logs to slow down rainwater?
Today I added more wood chips.
It will be good for another year. :)
The mango tree on my property as shown below grows its roots under the wood chips. It will continue to feed on compost broken down from the wood chips and it will not be affected by any herbicides. I am sure it will be happy. So am I!
Have you seen the mango blossoms all over the tree? It's going to be a great year. We harvested at least 500 mangos from this tree last year!
In summary, I am simply mimicking how nature makes soil. Nature uses organic matter and lets them slowly break down to compost to make soil.
