Wood chips from tree service companies

[cookiesdaddy]

In my area there are several tree service companies offer to dump 5-10 yards of fresh wood chips from their nearby jobs. I'm thinking of getting these free wood chips to cover the walkways outside my garden beds and other landscape areas. Has anyone here order such service? What can we expect in term of quality for these wood chips?

THANKS!

 

[Ridgerunner]

They are fresh green wood chips. You'll probably get a few larger chunks, but most are a pretty small size. Depending on time of year, you could get quite a few seeds of certain trees, usually what I call weed trees, not much value but sprout and grow very easily. Some people like some of those trees. I'd be happy with certain ones in the right places, but they can be invasive if you let them go to seed. But around here I could also get oak, pine, maple, or hickory. It is possible you could get pieces of walnut, which might contain enough juglone to be a problem with certain plants, like tomatoes, but the odds of getting enough to have a big problem are small. They are certainly not certified organic.

I get a few yards every year for use on my landscaping beds and around my young trees I'm mulching. I usually pile them up for a few weeks before I use them and let a few rains wash them. That's more because of me not being ready to use them that instant than because of any specific plan. Then I take last year's wood chips off the landscaping beds and use those old ones in the garden as mulch, replacing them with the new chips.

I figure the likelihood of any signicicant amount of herbicides on them is pretty low, but there is certainly the risk. I let them age a year before I put them on my vegetable garden. That is planned. Most herbicides will have gone away by then.

If you leave them piled for a year, they will greatly reduce in size from decomposition. They do not have enough nitrogen in them to compost real well, but they will rot over a year's time here. How much depends on how much rain you get and what trees they are from.

I'd take a load in a minute, realizing I don't know exactly what I am getting and that there might be some risks with it. I figure the benefits outweigh the risks, but everyone may not feel that way.

 

[digitS']

I've done just as you are thinking of, Cookiesdaddy: used them as mulch in paths.

Right now, I've got some piled up with soil mixed in to see how well they compost. That pile has been there several years and it still doesn't look much like compost. Probably, I should have mixed in a high-nitrogen fertilizer but, I guess I'm in no hurry.

Unlike Ridgerunner, I've moved the fresh chips around shortly after they arrived in the yard. Maybe, I should have moved them sooner than later or left them untouched for 12 months.

If you move them really fresh - they are just fresh "tree parts," wood, leaves, twigs. It took me 3 weeks to move out the last of the wheelbarrow loads the first winter I got a load. And, it was late winter and cool. By the time I got it all hauled out into the garden, there was a lot of white fungus in those spruce chips the company dumped in my driveway. Then, I got sick . . .

It was just about the worse respiratory illness I've ever had - coughing, fever, and about 3 weeks recovery time. Here's my advice: wear a mask when there is fungus dust.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Free? I'd take them in a heartbeat and use them on pathways.
I can get them for like $7 a yard , but it's a $35 delivery fee. At least it was last year, no doubt that will be going up too.
(Steve, you got them free???)

 

[digitS']

Oh, yes - free.

The first load was from 2 doors down. The tree service was probably a little miffed that I waited to ask until they'd filled the truck. They'd probably have shot the chips right over the intervening neighbor's front yard with the machine.

The second load was actually right beside one of my gardens and the park department owned that property. Willow - I had to haul it by the wheelbarrow load to the garden but it was all down hill. It took them a few years to bring a loader in and haul it away but I wasn't going to haul it to the pickup, load the pickup and then unload the pickup elsewhere - so, I just helped them as much as I could.

Third load was when the nextdoor neighbor had just a leetle too much dumped in front of his house! He is Mr. Machine and rented a bobcat to move it around his yard. Seems to kind of defeat the idea of "free" but I got it free when he ran out of room to put it.

That initial load of spruce required 3 trips in the pickup for me to get it out of my driveway. (The last load wasn't quite full - may already have been sick ). The spruce tree was far from full grown and all I got was the branches! Bio-mass is what I think this is called. Makes what you get from an annual Fall garden clean-up look like nothin'.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

It's amazing the amount of bulk you get from trees. Our neighbor has been clearing lodgepole from his property for a few years now and had a pile of chips he offered me,
but since I didn't drop everything and race right over with the truck he withdrew the offer.
He has a pto chipper for his tractor and offered to bring it over for our clearing (forever, ongoing ) project. Unfortunately he wants $50 per hour. So, I guess I'll save up for that delivery fee!

 

[seedcorn]

Just came from nursery. They have wood chips for free. $3/load (pick up or trailer) to load it for you. I know where I'm going to get some later.

 

[patandchickens]

How coarse or fine they are, and how many big spiky chunks mixed in, depends completely on the particular company and what equipment they use. So you would jsut have to see what they are like, if you're picky.

Personally I think tree chippings are MARVELLOUS stuff, as long as you understand a coupla things:

1) there is no guarantee you're not getting interesting diseases along with them, remember that some of the trees being taken down are being taken down for a REASON. I hot-compost tree chippings for a good long while first and don't have lots of valuable mature trees here anyhow, but in other circumstances I could understand some people wanting to be cautious.

2) if they come from leafed-out trees, they will do two important things when dumped in a pile: they will compost real hot for a good long while (which is good IMO) and they will also, at least in my climate, mold like CRAZY a coupla inches below the surface. The mold is not a problem if you are planning on basically ignoring the pile for six months before trying to do anything with it, but if you were thinking of picking at it gradually over the first few months, you'd better have a good respirator and no mold allergies or asthma, that's for sure!

I need to get more of them this year, have just about run out of the last lot and they are SO SO useful. I use them as mulch on beds, mulch on paths, and mulch-that-is-then-dug-in-as-amendment in veg garden. Can't get enough of 'em

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[cookiesdaddy]

Thank you everyone. Very helpful information!

 

[4grandbabies]

Free? I'd take them in a heartbeat and use them on pathways.
I can get them for like $7 a yard , but it's a $35 delivery fee. At least it was last year, no doubt that will be going up too.
(Steve, you got them free???)

We also got 2 loads free last year, and they offered more, which I wish we had taken. They are great for pathways. We have a lot to use this year, and the bottom of the heap it breaking down really well, it sure heated up the first month we had it.