Topic: Free wood chip delivery service

[Mike]

Wife got told about this the other day and we decided to give it a go.  Essentially, this is a service where people can request an arborist drop their wood chips.  So, when an arborist has a full load they can find a nearby location and drop it off for much cheaper than the dump.

We signed up last night around 4pm and got a load around 9am today.  But it seems to be really active in this region.

One thing that impressed me is that the site, the sign up, and all of the communication really focused on making sure you knew what you are signing up for.

https://getchipdrop.com/

[ober]

And.... what do you use this for?

[Mike]

I'm using this load mostly for weed and grass suppression.  Once we weed the front floor beds we'll do the full cardboard and mulch setup but for most of the other areas I've just knocked down the weeds and am putting this directly over it.

Basically, anything you'd use regular mulch for.

[ober]

Do you sort out the leaves, I assume?  Looks like some of those chips are pretty big.  I mean I guess free is free and the quality is what you make of it?

[Mike]

Nope, all of it went together.  It'll all breakdown and provide nutrients for the soil.  And I'm not using them in decorative places so a little big of haphazardness is fine with me.

And yes, it really does come down to the price vs the use.  if I was doing a really decorative area I would buy some chip.  Though, I might use this as the bottom layer and the nice chip as a top layer to bring down cost.

[ober]

Ah, interesting.  Good to know and thanks for sharing!  I might look into this!

[Mike]

So, some lessons learned:

1. Don't dump it on the grass or even near it.  I had them back up too far and a little more than half was on the lawn.  Fine for most of it but as I got to the bottom the fork really caught on the grass making it hard.  I'm gonna guess we'll have wood chips in that area of the lawn for a few years.

2. Use a fork rather than a shovel.  The stuff is pretty dense and a shovel can be hard to get in it.  I tried using a shovel to take it out of the cart and spread it but the fork worked much better.

3. Get a garden cart!  I moved most of it with the rubbermaid garden cart rather than a wheelbarrow.  It is a lot lighter so less energy spent moving it around.  And it is more stable having two wheels.  That said, if I needed to put a load towards the back or go over obstacles the wheelbarrow worked better.

4. The top layer doesn't decompose as much as the inside layers.  So, if you have some areas that you want a finer more broken-down material then dig in a little and use the inside stuff.