Siberian Peashrub aka caragana hedges for mulch?

Hi, I'm from Montana zone 4 and am going to do a back to eden garden using wood chips.  
I have a lot of caragana hedges around my home and they need to be cut back which means I would get a lot of wood chips from them IF they are useable in the garden.
I have searched for an answer and found none.  I see no reason why I couldn't use them.   Does anyone know about caragana hedges?
Thank you!

Hi, Dawn

Since they are a legume, I know of no reason not to use them as mulch.

I added the common name that we usually refer to them here on the forum so maybe that will get some more answers.

I use autumn olive in similar ways - anther legume shrub. I would recommend for best cover, another nonlegume shrub as well because the legume will degrade very fast. I use mulberry mostly. This is a really nice mix, and mulberry should be fine in most of the US. This is not a complete mulch just more as a bug habitat and eventual fertility.

Other trees and shrubs would be possible too. I know Mark Shepard uses black locust as a pollard plant. Willows tend to root, and I’ve had issues using crepe myrtle for the same reason.

My two year old caragana is almost 6” high. Everything else seems to grow like crazy so I’m giving up even though it’s a great plant. I just pollarded the autumn olio last week and I can do that twice a summer. Same wit the mulberries. I let it regrow for a couple months befor winter leaf drop.

Thank you, Anne and TJ!  I appreciate your help 😊👍

Hello Dawn, welcome to permies :)

The shrubs themselves, along with the top soil beneath them (which turns into a sort of "peat-moss" from leaf and seed debris decaying over years), are full of nitrogen which might be a nice boost to help you develop your eden garden a bit faster.

As TJ says, even when not chipped Caragana wood will decay quickly, so you may need to compensate that with another type of wood chips. Then again, if your yard is similar to the ones around here, you may have an endless supply to restock with. I' rent 2 lots in a small village and have about 400ft of caragana. I think I've cut them twice in the last 7 years, so it takes them about 3-4 years to grow back to full height again. Even when everything else dies from winterkill, they just keep coming back,

I like to think of caragana as the poor man's bamboo of the prairies - or at least a different kind of fast-growing shrub with other valuable uses. It also makes good kindling as it catches fire quickly and you don't have to chop it up with an axe because it's already the right width.

Have fun! :)

Bamboo is a really good idea! I use pampas grass as a mulch as well, it is a good border. Stays in place and easily propagates.

I cut the Pampas grass (it’s 3-4’ high) in fall and it’s a good once a year mulch. I’m experimenting with it on the west side of some winter gardens this year, hopefully it will be a good windbreak. I haven’t seen the seeds make new plants I suspect it is sterile.