mulch v sawdust

Im writing for my sister who lives in ireland and has very mucky mostly waterlogged soil. her husband is a carpenter so she has access to loads of saw dust , can she use this as coverage ?
thanks
ro

Mulch is sawdust, and sawdust is mulch
Thing is with sawdust is it's really high in carbon,
and if it gets into the soil, the little guys down there will use loads of nitrogen breaking it down.
Not the end of the world, but unless you add huge amounts of nitrogen (urine springs to mind...)your plants will most probably be yellow and sad for quite a while.
I don't use wood-based mulches on annual garden beds as I'd dig it in, but anywhere else, I go nuts!
Trees love the fungal environment that woody mulch encourages.

ok so best to mix it with other compost material, old leaves etc ?
thanks you for the link also ; )
ro

Wood based mulches can work very well indeed, but you need to be careful not to dig them in to the soil. When I'm preparing beds now I throw down a layer of newspaper or cardboard to supress weeds. I throw a good layer of compost on top of that. then I top it all off without about 4 inches of woodchips.

You can use your sawdust similarly to the top layer of woodchips.

It will work really well around things like fruit trees, bushes and raspberry canes.

If you want to see it in practice take a look at

http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/