OK,saw this about wood chip gardening,called Back to Eden (Like garden of Eden).

Basically its making your garden like a forest floor,no tilling,no watering to a point,kills weeds like crazy with a 4-6 inches layer of wood chips.NO need for fertilizer after it starts composting,doesnt use pesticides. Its the biblical approach to healthy plants,and he has the garden(s) to prove it.

You do this in fall and can plant in spring,each rain sends a compost tea into soil.

Soooo.....up here the bark beetle caused a lot of trees to be destroyed,they chipped the branches,about 1.5 years ago? So 2.5 miles from house is staging area,went up and hauled off 3 trash cans of left behind already composting chips for our small garden,pics when I lay it out.

Chipped WOOD,not Bark! Bark is bad.Chipped branches.

OBTW,thinking about it area of chips we went to had zero weeds growing,amazing,and the area a couple/3 inches below top of chips was moist,it hasnt rained here in months! Just like he said it would be.Chips 6-12 inches deep there.

This video is 1.5 hours,when you have some dead time really worth the look.

http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/#movie