Do wood chips absorb moisture?

Last year, I redid the area along my backyard fence, pulling out a lot of English ivy. To smother anything I might have missed, I laid down a thick layer of wood chips. Recently, I’ve noticed the area seems much drier, though it could be due to the lack of rain in the past few weeks.

My question is: “Is my garden dry because the wood chips are absorbing and holding moisture?”

The top layer of wood chips might appear dry, but if you dig deeper, you should find a layer of moisture—assuming you applied them thickly enough. Deep mulch is my go-to gardening method.

I’ve had the opposite experience. In my very wet climate, the wood chips actually held too much moisture. I eventually had to remove them because they attracted fungus gnats and other pests.

I use wood chips in my no-dig garden, and when you dig down to soil level, it’s usually cool and damp.

No, but it’s keeping more water in the soil by being a barrier between the soil and the sun/wind. The mulch dries out at the top which means the lower layers don’t.

I just went to check the soil, and it’s definitely cool but not exactly wet. I forgot to mention it’s hard clay that clumps together but crumbles apart in your hands.

This fall, I plan to add shredded leaves to that area again, hoping they’ll eventually break down and help loosen the soil.