Wood chips. Nothing better. Can get arborists to deliver for free because they have to pay landfill fees. Not considered a fire danger. The non-uniform size locks them down and prevents wind blowing them around. You can run your drip emitter lines under them. As they decompose they will add carbon, nitrogen and nutrients to the soil as well as oxalic acid, humic acids that lower pH. No need to fertilize. Deposit AT LEAST 6" thick (will settle and shrink rather significantly in the first 2 weeks). Reapply annually.

You will get anywhere from 10-20 cu. yrds of wood chips dumped so you must have A PLACE for them reachable by a heavy dump truck for them to deposit this load. Figure 10 cu. yrds = volume of an large SUV. Time of delivery depends on when they are in the area/passing by.

My local free source (duplicates present) abridged notes collected from the VPA website [I added a few comments enclosed in brackets]:

I'm getting a huge load of wood chips from Andy Young at The Tree Amigo (andy@thetreeamigo.com)
He has an abundance of wood chips from landscaping jobs in the East Valley. His service area is Mesa, Gilbert, South Scottsdale, North Chandler, Tempe, and Central Phoenix
The office number to our tree service is: 480-214-0058.
Please contact him directly for wood chips. He did mention if you are out of his service area he would be willing to deliver for a small fee. Let's help him keep this out of the landfills October 6, 2008

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Arizona Public Service, Line Clearing Arizona Public Service
Forestry Division
PO Box 53933, Phoenix, AZ 85072-3933
Contact: Maria Alvarez , (602) 371-5229
Call to request a truck load of wood chips from limbs removed by the utility line clearing crew.
When they are working in your neighborhood they will drop it off at your garden free of charge.
[there have been complaints about the amount of debris found in the APS wood chips]

Check the "Yellow Pages" for:
Dairies
Eggs (source of chicken manure)
Fertilizers (source of bulk or bagged soil amendments, manure, etc.)
Gardeners - (source of grass clippings & leaves be sure to find out what, if anything, has been sprayed on grass)
Horse Boarding & Training
Landscape Equipment & Supplies
Lawn & Grounds Maintenance

SRP customers do not have a similar service because SRP burns their wood chips producing electricity.

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Integrity Tree Service, Inc. 602-788-0005, advertises free wood chips. You can check the details at their web site:

/www.itreeservice.com. I have them scheduled to come out to arrange future services, but I have not used them yet. I found them through Local First Arizona. Hope this helps.

Try a load of free wood chips from arborist John Eisenhower's company, Integrity Tree Service. His number is 480-699-5310. [I got my last load from ITS...but they were literally working across the school from where I live, so I walked over and asked. Happy with the driving skill of the service.]

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http://www.phoenixtrimatree.com/wood_grinding_recycling.htm

http://phoenixtreeremovalservices.com/

http://www.servicemagic.com/tloc/Phoenix-AZ/Tree-Stump-Remove/

http://phoenixtreeremovalexperts.com/
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I'm in S Scottsdale and have gotten had both The Tree Amigos and Integrity Tree stop by with wood chip and mulch deliveries - it was chipped up roughly and about a 20yd pile, so you'd want to check on the options for that. I think that N Phx is included in their coverage areas, and they probably try to coordinate finding someone who would like the material with wherever their job sites are.

Just fill out their contact forms -- both have staff that are on the ball and will contact you within a day to see what you are looking for. (Both are also wonderful about taking note of any exceptions you might have as far as material -- for example, if you specify no oleander or you'd really like pine, etc...)

The Tree Amigos (Andy Young): http://thetreeamigos.com/contact.php

Integrity (John Eisenhower): http://www.itreeservice.com/contact.php

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Hello, My name is Jesse Huffman

I run Arborvision tree service

www.arborvision.net

Most of the debris from our jobs is chipped into very small particles that make GREAT mulch.

I let the flood irrigation soak it and am amazed at how quickly it turns into black gold.

I have run out of room and it makes me sick to take this stuff to the landfill.

Please contact me if you would like a load. They are usually 1-2 ton loads.

arbor101@cox.net email

located on 23rd avenue and Northern

Jesse Huffman

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I can deliver fresh tree chipping to your garden or orchard. Must be able to enter with big truck or dump close by. Call 602 329 1176

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Integrated Landscaping in Tempe

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Hi, here's a great contact person to call if you are looking for "free" wood chips and mulch. Can't guarantee consistency for what is delivered. They prefer to deliver to an area close to where they are working, so, I can't say where or when you will get what you want but he's been awesome delivering wood chips to my yard. I'm still in the pool for some more so don't overwhelm him yet (ha ha).

Call Dan, 480-200-3331 Wood Chips

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Tidy Tree Landscaping - 602-989-5296 seems like 20 cu yds.

(Brian Smith recommended)

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http://www.chipero.com/requests/new

I am dubious as to how well this works as this is not AZ centric site

Here is a link that might be useful: woodchips

This post was edited by Fascist_Nation on Sat, Apr 19, 14 at 14:53

F_N, thanks for all that info; I saved it all! ehits, as one who has citrus, grass *and* dogs, good luck trying to get the 'mess' out of any of your choices. You'll constantly be picking up your mulch along with the doody. I've had them all - except pine needles - and it's a pain. My advice: Check with a reputable nursery about a green cover that is easy to maintain.

For what it's worth, I have pine bark mulching a great deal of my front yard and it has been down on the ground for over a dozen years. The chunks are indeed getting smaller, but it's not the horror show that some people seem to think. It certainly isn't expensive, and it's problem free.

If you do go the green ground cover suggestion . . .

http://www.amwua.org/groundcovers.html

http://www.azwater.gov/azdwr/WaterManagement/AMAs/documents/LWU_Plants1.pdf

http://www.azwater.gov/azdwr/WaterManagement/AMAs/documents/low_water_supplement.pdf

http://www.azwater.gov/AzDWR/StatewidePlanning/Conservation2/LandscapePros/PlantLists_Landscaping.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: ground covers AZ MG PDF

This post was edited by Fascist_Nation on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 6:27

When Fascist Nation recommended the wood chips, he likely missed the part about your dogs. As noted by tomatofreak above, cleaning up after the dogs in a wood chip yard will be a nightmare. My suggestion is to put down quarter minus gravel. We did the entire backyard, first using a chemical spray (running for my flame retardant suit now....) called Ground Clear to kill the weeds. This was NOT an inexpensive solution but we have a huge yard and did not want to water or mow grass, don't want a pool, etc etc. If you can train them to use just one area you could only gravel that section. Dog poop clean up is easy with that tiny gravel. Good luck.

Cleaning up after dogs in wood chip mulch is not difficult ... scoop the poop and then rake the mulch level again.

Man.. I feel kind of stupid after paying for mulch now. I bought about 30 bags of it (and landscape fabric) from Home Depot to cover my back yard.

Wow! I appreciate all the info and replies. I will start reading into all the suggestions. I will reply again when I make a decision. Hopefully someone that uses pine needles will chime in too!

Pine needles will work fine as mulch if you have a free source. BUT they will be flammable.

Is there any concern with large areas covered in wood chips that you might be attracting termites to your house? I love the idea, but my house had old termite damage when I bought it. I don't want to go through that again.