Food-Gardening Lessons From A Wartime Victory Garden

Using Sawdust in Gardens

“Is 30-year-old decayed sawdust good for vegetable gardens?” Question by Jean of Elizabeth, Arkansas

Answer: It depends on how decayed your sawdust is and its wood type. First, be sure your sawdust is not from treated wood. (Hopefully you can ask the person who created all that sawdust!) Treated wood contains dangerous heavy metals that can leach into the soil and be taken up into vegetable plants, resulting in toxic produce. Treated wood also resists breaking down, so its sawdust would be a really bad to add to your garden.

If your sawdust is not from treated wood, it may be usable. Dig into it and see if it has a crumbly, soil-like texture below the surface. If it does, then it should be okay to use. If your sawdust has remained dry all these years and is comprised of slow-to-decay hardwood, then it must be composted first. (Sawdust that has not broken down is a poor garden soil additive because it initially binds soil nutrients, which is not good for plants.)

Here’s how to compost sawdust in five steps:

  1. Invest in a composter or choose a bare corner of the yard for composting
  2. Pile your sawdust along with layers of green (grass clippings or chopped leaves) and brown (Black Gold Earthworm Castings) organic matter to a height of 3-4 feet
  3. Water weekly to keep the pile moist (in the absence of rain)
  4. Turn the pile monthly, to ensure it gets plenty of air and breaks down evenly
  5. The inside of the pile should warm up and break down to a soil-like consistency after a few months

I hope this helps!

Happy gardening,

Jessie Keith

 

About JESSIE KEITH

Plants are the lens Jessie views the world through because they’re all-sustaining. (“They feed, clothe, house and heal us. They produce the air we breathe and even make us smell pretty.”) She’s a garden writer and photographer with degrees in both horticulture and plant biology from Purdue and Michigan State Universities. Her degrees were bolstered by internships at Longwood Gardens and the American Horticultural Society. She has since worked for many horticultural institutions and companies and now manages communications for Sun Gro Horticulture, the parent company of Black Gold. Her joy is sharing all things green and lovely with her two daughters.

Leave a Reply

Content Disclaimer:

This site may contain content (including images and articles) as well as advice, opinions and statements presented by third parties. Sun Gro does not review these materials for accuracy or reliability and does not endorse the advice, opinions, or statements that may be contained in them. Sun Gro also does not review the materials to determine if they infringe the copyright or other rights of others. These materials are available only for informational purposes and are presented “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including without limitation warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement or other information is at your own risk. In no event shall Sun Gro Horticulture Distribution, Inc. or any of its affiliates be liable to you for any inaccuracy, error, omission, fact, infringement and the like, resulting from your use of these materials, regardless of cause, or for any damages resulting there from.