Question/Help: decomposed Cedar chips in compost

We have a large area which has been covered with cedar chips from a mill here in our town....they have broken down to almost a powder and we need to put on new....can we put the decomposed stuff into our compost pile??? Thank you for your help....Deb

Hi Depsi, I am really not too sure about these type of wood chips, some will alter you soil and add acidity to the soil, while others will help to break soil up, so if you dont get an answer soon, perhaps you could give a call to your area garden department who could give you a good idea of rights and wrongs, also, do any neighbors have this, if so, what kind of plants do they grow, this should give you an idea of the soil type for growing certain plants, depending on what you want to grow, good luck, hope someone with better knowledge can come in hear and help you further, best wishes. WeeNel.

Are the chips mulching a planted area ? or an area you want to stay open with just mulch?

We have raised beds for the planting area, this is the area/walkways between it....the picture shows the area I'm speaking of.....

I'd say if they are almost powder in form, they've pretty much composted themselves and would be great to add to the pile. That, or save yourself some trouble and just put the new stuff on top of the old stuff. You can turn some of the older stuff in with some soil, if you don't have roots that would get disturbed.... I agree that normally they would add acidity (I'm guessing) but it's likely to have leached out at this point from watering the plants beneath it.

Thank you all for your help....we wanted to get the old out of the way 'cause to put new down over it would've raised the area up over our stepping stones.......off it goes to the pile.....Thanks again....Deb

All compost finished at PH 7.0. All mulch remains mulch until it becomes compost. Therefore what is on top of the soil is mulch. You can not within reason have to much mulch. As long as you do not mix wood products into the soil it will lay on top and make good mulch and later just drop into the soil as finished compost.

Anything that once lived will eventually return to the soil somewhere at which point it begins to rot and become compost.

These facts apply to the compost pile. If the greens are strong enough and ballanced with the browns anything that rots will compost. The key word here is anything.