Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Can I use shavings as mulch for the strawberries and pepper plants?

Yes you can, BUT, they will dry out the soil and take out nitrogen as they break down,
straw still preferable, but if you can live with the "side effects" wood shavings work too.

What about wood shavings on top of landscape fabric?

Well I went out and bought a bale of shavings, I'm going to use it to mulch the whole garden.

Been using pine shavings , llama & horse manure here in sand soil surrounded by blk walnut trees & in growing pots for years . Stuff we were told wouldn't grow here does . Luck

i use all my used chicken bedding (shavings) in the gardens. i figure there's enough added nitrogen from the chicken to negate the nitrogen being taken out of the ground by the shavings when they compost. they also look nice and bright. LOL.
i would use new shavings in the vegetable garden too except i have 3 old big bales of rotting hay....so i use that instead.....because it's here and free.

This is an argument every spring at our place. I live with someone who grew up predominately in what is now Iqaluit, Nunavut so I don't know why he THINKS he knows anything about "farming". I used straw once and dealt with oats growing everywhere. And straw sure isn't cheap anymore!
I just flat out refuse to weed this year since he flat out refused to use any mulch lol. We'll see how that goes. I have a huge pile of used and decaying shavings and wondered how that would do in aisles thrown over a layer of landscape fabric.

Lol I just went to submit and WLLady's post appeared above so I guess there's my answer!

Happy wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 06, 2017 1:25 pm

I just flat out refuse to weed this year since he flat out refused to use any mulch lol. We'll see how that goes. I have a huge pile of used and decaying shavings and wondered how that would do in aisles thrown over a layer of landscape fabric.

There is considerable difference in new shavings and some that are somewhat broken down or mixed with manure.
I personally wouldn't like to encounter a chicken while I was collecting lettuce for lunch, but rabbit droppings not a problem, just a question of what we are willing to tolerate
Woodshavings on top of landscape fabric even the cheep one from dollar store, might be just the ticket, and by the end of summer they would be broken down enough, the landscape fabric could be pulled out and the shavings incorporated in to soil.
Happy if your shavings have been sitting around for a while, if you can mine the ones from the bottom, I wouldn't even bother with landscape fabric.

Water takes care of all kinds a crap on the veggies . New gimic called organic food charging more haheeee love it . Squeeze a bovine over the tomatoes . Lol he said tongue in cheek .

Woops I noticed I said I was getting shavings, no I went out and bought a bale of straw. I put it around the pepper plants, beans, strawberries and tomatoes. Will it be alright around the tomatoes?
I'm going to put the used shavings around my trees for mulch, hoping the chicken manure will help with the nitrogen.