The shredded redwood breaks down much faster and much more evenly than bark chips. It also retains more moisture because there is more surface area with the shredded fibers of the bark vs. the outside surface of the bark chips. I find that I usually have to replace shredded bark every year, which I don't mind doing as I look at it as part of garden maintenance.

The advantages of bark chips is that it takes longer to break down over time and you will have to replace it less often. People also find it more attractive, but it is more expensive than the shredded bark.

My DH and I had this discussion on the way home from dinner tonight! We decided the shredded stuff is really meant for mulching planters and the chunks for pathways. I'm redoing our shade garden and will use the shredded, but the chunks should be helpful and fine to use to keep the kitties from dragging in stuff. Lucky kitties to have their own outdoor area.

I think the shredded mulch may have retained too much water over the winter rains anyway - I had to remove some from around my lavenders which were getting moldy, the drainage is still poor in many places.

Yes the kitties are lucky and happy to have a safe outdoor space now - they used to have a screened porch in our rental cottage for years, then we bought a condo which had no outdoor area. They definitely missed watching birds and squirrels.

Here they are enjoying their "catio" planted with herbs sages and other cat-safe plants :)

Some of these were taken before I added the mulch, when plants were pretty new last summer. Now they have grown but I'm battling whiteflies on most of it - sticky traps have not been very effective :(

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Have you tried blasting off the white fly with a jet of water? I remember that helped a hibiscus I had once.

Well the bark chunks worked out great, because HD had a sale on the natural bark nuggets - 4 bags for $10! That's less than half what I paid for the shredded redwood last year, and it looks great :)