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We got a huge pile of chips delivered to our yard for next-to-nothing by a service called Chipdrop. Here are our thoughts on the product & the process.
0:00-3:59 – Using & spreading chips
4:00-8:38 – Review, pros & Cons
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34 Comments
Just wat i was looking for
Nobody is spraying pesticides on maple and oak trees. Actually in terms of things people buy, wood chips are about the cleanest thing you can amend your soils with. Even city run compost piles will have nasty stuff in it. Wood chips like you got are actually amazing. The leaves and twigs are good – they have more nitrogen and will help break down the chips faster.
Nice. Arborist chips are not for pretty landscaping. The leaves and sticks are a feature, not a bug. That means it is 'live' mulch that will add a balance of nutrients to the soil as it breaks down. Landscaping mulch is treated, colored, and often just made from bark; not good for growing food. If you have the room to leave the pile as it was dropped for a few months and then give it your chickens, it will be full of grubs and worms they will enjoy.
As to moving it mulch where you need it, what I like to do is lay the wheelbarrow on its side right up against the pile, use a metal rake to pull chips into it, then pull it upright. I can get it about 2/3 full in just seconds with this method. I just wouldn't try it with a fiberglass wheelbarrow.
I’m glad someone actually gets a load or more from chip drops. Been on the list a couple years & zilch 🥴. Was thinking they didn’t exist. I’ve had to resort to cardboard & straw.
Glad to see they do exist & you actually got some chips👍
Our local tree guy keeps them for himself😫
Pro Tip #78: A four tine manure fork is the most efficient way to scoop up mulch, if you own one.
New sub love your backyard garden and chicken pen! Look forward to viewing your content! Side note I’ve gotten 2 chip drops and ordered another today! I just let the kiddos help sort it all out lol 😂
I just got a chip drop here in California. Like you, I paid the $20 fee and I got a response the next day! The arborist called me the night before, warned me about the size, and showed up exactly when he said he would. When he got here with the truck, he let me take a look at the size of it before I committed, and he also let me take a half load. That was still way more than I needed to put around two 4×8 raised beds and various spots around our yard, so I put up a post on the Nextdoor app and my neighbors cleared out the pile within a week. Like yours, my load also had A LOT of green leaves, (probably more than half the pile) but I don't mind it so much. They are already breaking down pretty quickly, and it also allowed me to put a bunch of it in my compost bin as well. There were some sticks, but not so many that I couldn't separate them. I did have some trash in my pile, but not much. I found two soda cans and a children's paper party hat, not sure if my neighbors also found any trash, but it definitely wasn't very much. All around it was a pretty good experience for me and I will probably do it again next year. And, yes, it was a TON of work just moving around the bit of the pile that I did use. The temperature here was also in the 90's and humid on the day that I did it.
Mam. Just got a drop. Worked on it for about 5 hours. Still about 1/3 left to go. Could barely walk..lol
cowgirl boots did it for me. yeeeeeeeepeeeeeeee
One more thing just call tree services and ask them for chips. Never paid for drops and had tons of chips dropped off all of last year. Just started up again this year. Also got wood to cut and sell for firewood. Helps to have land for them to drive to drop it off nice and easy.
From my experience with having an arborist drop a load of chips in our yard… yes, it is a lot of work. I had the chips dropped in an area where I wanted mulch anyway and took my time moving it a few loads a day. It took months! The leaves look bad at first. In fact, it all looks bad, nothing like what you get in a plastic bag at Lowe's. I had to separate out a bunch of sticks. I put those in a pile for a hugelkultur bed. The leaves broke down nicely and after a few months, the mulch looked pretty good. A word of caution about spreading woodchips directly on crabgrass, especially if that crabgrass is on a septic drain field. The crabgrass won. Every other weed died and the crabgrass thrived. In hindsight, I would have laid down cardboard first and spread the wood chips over that. In other areas of the yard, the woodchips alone did a fine job of smothering regular old weeds.
Thank you
You got lucky! I requested chips and got an entire tree. And Chip Drop did absolutely nothing to correct it.
Since you don't know if herbicides/chemicals may have been used is it safe to use around your chickens since you will be eating their eggs?
This is almost entirely stuff come from trees, so there won't be pesticides and garbage. The green leaf thing is no big deal, it was probably cut the same day or yesterday, so those leaves will turn brown very quickly. The only thing I don't like is the chickens will think there is something in there, and there really won't be bugs and stuff for them.
I signed up for chip drop 3 yrs ago and I still haven't received any.
How many yards did they give you?
Chip Drop should pay us to take their so called "chips". My drop was about 20% long sticks and vines, 20% wood chips 20% pine needles and the rest various yard debris and grass clippings. You are basically taking whatever yard debris and refuse they have on hand thus saving them spending money to dump their garbage elsewhere. You might get lucky and get wood chips.
Great fantastic, I had twice the size of what you have. I am older than you and I wheel barrowed for two days to get it all done. Make sure you have several inches of mulch as it will settle. Great exercise doing it again this spring. Thank God for Chip drop.
I always let my chip drop piles age at least a year!
Young lady you’re a beast!! You’re doing great. I just signed up for chip drop….I have a tractor with a loader though. No way am I hand loading that stuff. Great job!
I was interested in using chip drop for chicken bedding. I heard you mention the con about not knowing where it came from which I didn’t think about. I’m trying to save some money on bedding. Thoughts?
Another tip is to contact local tree companies directly and forget chipdrop all together. You will get chips faster and can actualy talk to a person about where and when it's coming. I got over 400cuyrd one summer. about 6 loads a week for most of the season.
I got my first chip drop it was a full 18 yards. I had to move it all in a day or two after working all day landscaping at work lol
I'm an arborist I'm not going to lie I feel bad for you it be hot out there messing with that s***. Lmao 🤣😂
Thank you for this. I’m receiving my first load. So this helps. 👍❤️
You are warned that there will be lots of leaves and pine needles and you indicate that you understand. They ask you to be specific about where you want it dropped.
I can see the advantages, provided you have enough property and no homeowners association to deal with, also, if you could cure it properly by composting it, although, you would need a tractor to keep turning it over for several months before you put it down, that would be best.
I would never put landscape cloth under wood chips again. It worked well for 5 years then the chips were broken down enough for the weeds to come thru and the black plastic has been a real mess coming up in chunks. 2 years still sifting thru the weeds and black plastic.
Are you concerned there might be pesticides in it?
Lucky you are not in FLORIDA lol
My goats love to sift through these piles. A greek 2 pronged hoe is your friend with this job. It gets worse before it gets better, but if you just let it sit for long enough, it becomes like normal mulch. For some reason our neighbor became apoplectic when we did that though. I had 8 giant piles in a row, and I was using them as training obstacles for my equines.
I am not going to brag or tell you how to do this. First I need to tell you that I really like your channel which I just found a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, I too use chip drop, and I love chip drop. But I usually get two or three trucks full at one time. I use a skid steer to move it around.
my gawd those eyes !