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defrost49

wood chips

defrost49
10 years ago

I've been tempted to ask the tree service when they are cutting back from the electric lines if they want to dump a load in my yard. I thought this would be a good way to get some free wood chips.

Friday, I saw them cutting in a nearby town and from the cleared areas, it looked like they had cut and chipped a large swatch of Japanese knotweed as well as trees.

Have you gotten free wood chips this way and have you had any trouble with getting something invasive like "bamboo"?

Comments (6)

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    10 years ago

    I've gotten wood chips from a tree service once or twice, but I try to do it in the spring. My concern is poison ivy, lol. Got it for the first time a few years ago and don't want to go through that again! Maybe I'm wrong (and I probably am!) but I feel like the chances of getting it mixed in with the chips in spring are lesser than in the fall.

    I never thought about invasives being in there though. I suppose it depends on how the invasive propagates - if it is full of seeds when cut, etc.

    I'll be watching this thread for answers - interesting question, defrost!

    Dee

  • pixie_lou
    10 years ago

    I get lots of chips from tree companies. I usually see the truck in the neighborhood, inquire as to what they are cutting, and then ask for the chips. I personally only want hardwood, I don't want pine chips. The tree service I personally use has been pretty honest with me in the past - telling me what's in their truck and letting me know I may not want it.

  • gardenweed_z6a
    10 years ago

    I'm no expert but my 20+ years of experience with Japanese knotweed isn't pleasant--it seems to me if you have an opportunity to keep it away from your garden, good sense would suggest you do so whatever the cost. Once you have it, you always have it--there's no either/or about it.

  • defrost49
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Gardenweed, so far we don't have it but some started up along the road which we think may have been caused by the town's annual roadside brush cutting. There is lots of bamboo further down the road so we think pieces of it dropped off and rooted on our property. DH has been diligent about treating the sprouts with a heavy duty brush killer. At first it required spraying the leaves several times over the season. We didn't see any this summer but will keep watching.

    I never thought about poison ivy but that's another roadside varmit. Pixie Lou, thanks for the advice, I never thought to ask if they knew what was in the load. Hardwood would be ideal. We're think of trying to grow mushrooms and one variety requires a bed of wood chips, hardwood preferred.

  • diggingthedirt
    10 years ago

    My DH has picked up a couple of loads of wood chips from a local garden material place that also sells bark mulch, topsoil, etc. It's much less expensive than bark mulch, and the 2 loads he's gotten were mostly, maybe completely, cedar - it smells wonderful. Anyway, this is another alternative; still very inexpensive, but not free - and, at our supplier, we DO have to pick it up.

  • NHBabs z4b-5a NH
    10 years ago

    In the past I have fairly often done that, both with Unitil and the NH Electric Coop, as well as with a neighbor who runs a tree service. I haven't ever gotten anything nasty in my chips, but we are pretty heavily wooded here, so mostly it's branches and trees from clearing the utility lines as opposed to lower brushy plants like knotweed. They also mow periodically to cut back lower brushy stuff, but that isn't chipped, and their tree trimmings have been fine in my experience.