I mulch my perrenial beds with bark chips and like the look of it. Can I use it for vegetable and herbs too? I saw in a forum once someone said wood chips killed his potatoes, but I don't know why that would be. It seems a lot of people use straw for their veggie beds, but is there any reason I couldn't use bark chips?
Mulching veggies wit bark chips
I use pine needles. They are easy to remove after the season is done and they don't change the PH of the soil.
I love my veggie soil to be soft and fluffy ... maybe if you use bark chips you will have them in the middle of your soil ...
But I really dunno ... I love pine needles. Easy to put on and to put off.
Do potatoes spread by underground runners?
Bark chips are heavy and thick. The intention in using bark or mulch is to retain moisture and to keep down weeds. If you put heavy stuff like this around plants that spread by rhizonmes, underground sprouts, roots, even plants that tend to re-seed themselves, plants will not be able to spread freely and come up through the mulch.
Also - i would speculate (since I am mostly a flower child) that too much moisture around vegetables' base/roots might encourage harmful bacteria or fungi to grow and/or could encourage root rot from too much moisture.
Dunno - these are off the cuff from a flower girl. I am starting vegetables in containers this summer. Usually my BF grows the vegetables. It's been a while...
A.