From wood Chips to Potting Soil

I have been getting large piles of Wood Chips delivered for free.  The tree service drops them off the way home.
I would let the pile sit for a while and after some rain I would flip it over.  Saw steam coming out most of the time.  
After a while ( 2 to 3 years)  I noticed the chips were breaking down with out the addition of any greens.

I was very surprised to see the amount of nutrients in the soil.

I've been doing something similar, just on a smaller scale. Pile of chips from a neighbour's tree surgery sat for about two years and when I finally dug into it the bottom layer was this gorgeous dark crumbly stuff. Didn't add anything to it either. I mix it into raised beds now and the worms seem to love it.

Beautiful!  Thanks for sharing happen to wood chips as that is just amazing.

I love this idea! I was thinking of putting down wood chips as paths along my garden beds in the hopes that it would eventually degrade and I could rake the result into my gardens, and from this, it seems like it would work well! I only wish I had more space to make a nice big pile like that.

Dennis,

Outstanding work there!  I, too have had good luck at turning wood chips into dark, rich compost, but in my case I have to use Wine Caps as waiting on bacterial decomposition will take far too long.  I would have to guess that your hot and humid climate contributes to more rapid decomposition than what I can typically count on here.

Did you do anything special?  Did you turn it?  Did you add anything?  I see that some things grew in the pile and they had a fairly deep taproot.  Were they legumes?  I could believe that a legume growing in wood chips could eventually add significant quantities of nitrogen to speed decomposition, but I can't say if 2-3 years is sufficient time--or rather I am pretty certain that 2-3 years would be insufficient for my climate.

But in any case, job well done!  Do you have any specific plans for all that bedding material now?  Do you know how you will use it?


Eric