How to use sawdust in your garden

If you have a woodshop or even if you just have a lot of dust from some projects around your home, dust disposal might be an issue. Dust accumulates quickly and can be a hazard in the shop that must be taken care of. A lot of people will bag it up and throw it in the trash or maybe you burn yours with all of your wood scraps. There is a better way. Unfortunately, the way I reuse my sawdust might not be available to everyone.so, how do you use sawdust in your garden?

The garden

I am an avid gardener. Growing food is not only relaxing for many people but in these economic times we live in growing your own fresh fruit and vegetables can be very profitable for you. You would be amazed at how much money you will save growing your own food. Grocery prices are getting out of hand. The food we buy in stores has no nutrient density and next to no taste. Anyone who has grown tomatoes and then compared them to a store-bought tomato knows what I'm talking about. My garden has expanded to encompass most of my yard. Now that it's so big I need a product to help keep my pathways covered with something that breaks down over time and helps with water retention. I typically use straw or woodchips but straw is expensive and woodchips are sometimes challenging to come by. This is where all of the sawdust I create comes in.

How I collect my sawdust

I currently cannot afford a large dust collection system, so I use a dust stopper, which is an affordable alternative to an industrial system. I talked about this in previous articles. The dust stopper is convenient because all you need is a five-gallon bucket and a shop vac. The more powerful the shop vac the better the dust collection. If you don't use a dust stopper and only use your shop vac, your shop vac filter will get clogged constantly and you will lose suction relatively quickly. Many companies sell different types of systems but they all do the same thing. They catch all of the larger dust particles before they get to the vacuum. If you start collecting dust, you will end up with large amounts of it and soon find yourself wondering what to do with it. I have found that reusing dust is a helpful way to keep more material out of landfills.

How it works

Weeds in your garden can be a constant nuisance. You constantly rip them out of the ground and it seems like the next day they are back. I wish my food crops would grow that fast and be so resilient. You don't want to poison your garden with pesticides or chemicals to get rid of them. Most gardens have lots of weeds because there is an imbalance of some kind. Your soil is too compact, too much clay, the topsoil is non-existent, the ground is exposed to the direct sun which causes the topsoil to get dense and compact, and many other types of issues. I had huge weed problems when I first had my garden. I couldn't get rid of them and covering my pathways with sawdust has been a huge help. Weeds are doing their job by covering the soil and helping to de-compact the soil. This is where sawdust is an amazing addition to the pathways in your garden. If you don't have established pathways already in your garden before you add the sawdust figure out where the pathways are planned to be. The one thing you don't want to do is mix sawdust into your topsoil. If you do, sawdust can tie up the nitrogen in your soil and you'll have a nitrogen deficiency which can cause your plants to not grow. All you need to do is spread sawdust on top of the existing pathways. I usually do a layer 2-3 inches deep. This way if there are any weed seeds the sawdust will hopefully keep them from sprouting. After a few months, you'll notice the sawdust is almost gone. That's good. This means that soil microbiology is doing its job and transforming sawdust into topsoil. The more you do this the more you will notice less and less weed pressure in your pathways. After a few years, weeds will be non-existent in your pathways. For any gardener that is a huge relief.

You have to be careful how to use sawdust in your garden. As mulch, it is only to be used as a top cover. Never mix it into your soil. I learned this the hard way when I first started gardening. I mixed it all together with my compost and nothing grew that year. When sawdust is incorporated into your soil it will tie up nutrients from your soil and will cause your plant growth to stunt. It will ruin your entire crop for the year.

Another benefit of putting sawdust on your pathways is that your body weight won't compact the ground so much when you walk around your garden. You'll notice the ground feels spongy and that means less stress on your feet and lower back. Sawdust is a highly effective water capture system as well. When it rains it soaks up the rain like a sponge. The sawdust will hold that rain in the pathways which will help keep your beds moist. As the moisture dries up in your bed the plants will send out roots to absorb the moisture from the pathways. This will keep you from watering your beds all the time. I notice I really don't have to water my beds that much which means a lower water bill.

Having your pathways covered in sawdust is a lot nicer than having just dirt pathways. It breaks up where your garden bed ends and your pathway begins. I feel it looks a lot cleaner having your pathways covered in a thicker layer of sawdust. Part of having a garden is for it to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Sawdust will help keep your pathways looking clean.

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Conclusion

Using sawdust in your garden pathways is just one way you can recycle a waste product from your shop and turn it into something beneficial. If you have a garden and implement this, you will reap the benefits of building quality topsoil in your pathways. This will help nourish your plants which in turn will help nourish you. This is a very effective way to keep some of your waste out of landfills and turn it into something positive and the best part is it is free. It's another waste product that we have to deal with. How do you use sawdust in your garden? What are some of the ways you dispose of sawdust?