I would use it, unless the trees were diseased.

I should say around the perennials and shrubs in my front garden beds. Not sure if that would look bad or not

Yes you can use wood chips as mulch anywhere mulch can be used. Plant pathogens are highly host specific. conditions dependent and pre-existing in the environment. Fear of spreading disease is not warranted.

Are they fresh or aged wood chips? I've heard fresh can be harmful to certain plants, so if they are you may want to research the plants you have first.

Listen to Cristopher - what he said is 100% accurate. In fact, studies evaluating the landscape mulch potential of 15 organic materials, including grass clippings, leaves, composts, yard wastes, barks and wood chips found that wood chips were one of the best performers in terms of moisture retention, temperature moderation, weed control, and sustainability. In many urban areas, arborist wood chips are available for free, representing one of the most economically practical choices.

And yes, the allelopathic and pathogenic potential of wood chips is practically nonexistent.

I better eat my Wheaties. They’re willing to bring me 8 yd whenever I’m ready.

Use a pitchfork not a shovel.

Well I wasted time letting mine age then lol. Oh well better safe than sorry.

I second the pitchfork!

free is the key ...

second.. is quality .. good wood with a sharp chipper.... can be very good ... nice uniform chips ...

but if they are clearing brush ... you can get a lot of vines and carp trees that dont shred good ... and they should tell you if there is poison ivy in it ....

if there is a lot of green leaves in it.. i can be hard to spread ... in the sense of if you lay down 4 inches... but you get 80% leaves... in a month or 3 when the leaves dry out.. you find gaps in your coverage ...

i used to ask the guys to call me when the trees were dormant.. no leaves.. to avoid the green leaves issue ...

do you have a riding mower and garden cart??? ... or a large wheelbarrow?? ...

a manure shovel really helps .... the width and depth allows you to scoop a lot ... not bad in winter either ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=manure+shovel&iax=images&ia=images

if there is a lot or small branches.. a pitchfork also helps.. to make a nice pile you can scoop with the shovel .... and is brilliant in the garden anyway .... i liked the foot digging type.. not the 6 foot hay thrower type ... probably called a garden fork ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=garden+fork&iax=images&ia=images

i also had a huge double wheel wheel barrow ... great for volume with mulch ... but not so much if you get the bright idea to fill it with sand... and then try to lift it ... lol .. only made that mistake once ... but on my undulating lot.. the double wheel did help .. a little more stability ... IT REALLY HELPS IF THE MATURE SHOVEL FITS INTO THE WHEELBARROW .... [when the kids were smaller.. i usually had start all projects with both kids in it and a tour of the yard ... usually dumping them out in the sand pit... and my way to whatever i was planning to do....]

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/groundwork-pro-10-cu-ft-poly-wheelbarrow

and keep in mind.. just because it can hold 600# .. doesnt mean you can lift and push 600 pounds 500 feet away and up a small incline.. lol ...

if this works out.. you will be saving a lot of $$$$ .. if you have to spend a few bucks for the right tools .... you should still be far ahead ....

ken

well.. duh.. the only reason i started the above.. was to say.. back in the day.. you wouoldnt take EAB infested ash ... if offered .. they were supposed to do something special with that stuff and it wasnt spread it around the area ...

ken

You are talking fresh wood chips, right? Not composted? As long as they are coarse wood chips, and you don't make the layer too thick, I think you're OK. Coarse chips will still allow water and oxygen to move through the layer. Don't use anything with a lot of sawdust in it or really fine material...like what results when they grind stumps. That can block oxygen, create anaerobic conditions and sour the soil pretty quickly. At least that has been my experience.

This will all be clean stuff and cut the same day he drops it off. They’ve been filling their truck daily as they are super busy right now

It's perfectly fine to use -- and it's F-R-E-E.

Re: stump grindings: I had a very large willow removed earlier this year and kept the stump grindings, have been working my way through the pile, spreading out in areas that need mulching. I haven't noticed any detrimental effects on the plants, and I started spreading back in early spring (just a small pile left to go through...almost done!). I was not about to let that go to waste, nor was I going to PAY THEM $300 to remove the material from my property --> that would be stupid, since there always seems to be a need for more mulch.

stump grindings are often too much soil .... in my case sand ... mixed with raw wood ....and you pay to have it removed .... or piled where it can compost for a year or two ...

lets be very clear ... as TOP DRESSING.... use anything that pleases you.. cheaper the better ... and it will eventually rot down to a soil amendment ...

if you are incorporating ... as in a soil amendment... then you compost your wood... until it is humus ... lol ... and work it in ...

as wood rots.. it burns nitro ... which is all fine and good in the compost pile.. but in mother earth.. it can cause a nitro deficiency ...

around here ... when they grind a stump.... and leave it ... and try to seed grass ... it can be rather water repellent... but also.. the grass sprouts yellow.. and stays yellow for a couple years.. while the wood is broken down.. subject to how much fert you can add .. without burning the heck out of putting nitro fert on babe grass ..

to repeat.. as a top dressing.. its just fine ...

but raw wood is not a compost to be added to the soil ... such as in a planting hole ....

ken

ken: can you tell ive had humus on my mind.. lol ... i need some marinated chix and pita also ... send donations to my house ...

"This will all be clean stuff and cut the same day he drops it off."

You understand this has leaves and other leafy/needle scraps in it, and shredded parts of different types of wood? If you are expecting a uniform content (both dispersed evenly per load, and same load to load), specific looking color, or bark chunks this ain't it. It is free because with the greenery content it can not be sold as decorative mulch, so it costs them money to dump it.

In NW IL, when someone speaks of mulch, it is always wood chips and also used for decoration (in urban/suburban). But the free stuff is good for the garden, you can call any tree service (arborist or not), city, or county and they will gladly dump a minimum of 5 yards on your driveway.

FWIW go to the landscape supply and see the variation of mulch in the wood species, how it's cut, and dyes added and compare it to the free stuff to decide if that's what you want in front landscape beds.

Sure, I don’t expect it to be perfect. But I think it’s a gamble I’ll take for the difference between FREE and $200-300. I think actual dyed mulch probably looks better but hey free is free

i suspect.. as your garden experience grows .... you will find the natural grey color of aged wood is better than any man made color ... [see what i did there ..lol]

with color.. you have to either spray it every year to maintain such.. or constantly add more ... more work ... and more cost ...

and really.. if you want red mulch.. just move to GA for teh red clay .. and black can fry smaller plants with heat build up and heat retention deep into the night ... those are the usual suspects ...

lifes too short to add a layer of work in the garden.. painting your mulch yearly.. that is why houses are brick or sided in vinyl .... [and just never buy a house that a prior owner painted the brick,. whats that all about.. but i digress ....]

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=mulch+dyes&ia=web

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) By any chance do you have any of those studies that compare different types of mulch? Do you happen to remember how garden waste compost compared against arborist wood chips?

Junky shredded wood ends up just looking junky as some have mentioned. I worked at an arb. we used the stuff the city shredded from tree removal for paths, not beds. It was full of big chunks and awkward sticks that we had to constantly remove because they were a tripping hazard. And did not give a nice uniform coverage as some have mentioned. But it was FREE. For nice looking beds, we used shredded BARK, not wood. That you usually have to buy, it's not free. I use shredded wood from my local tree removal guy for around my big trees, but composted stuff in bags which is a mix of fairly high carbon stuff, and shredded bark for my fancier flower and shrub beds near the house. However, if you don't mind combing through the stuff and removing some of the odd pieces, the free price seems like it is a good idea if you have a lot of space to cover. I like a finer shred for flower beds.

​Check out gardenprofessors.com for summaries of and citations for the mulch research. Linda Charker-Scott has some of the best posts there (and she conducted/published the most rigorous comparative study I've seen).

@swampthing Do you have a link to the study that compares garden waste compost to fresh arborist chips? They have dozens of mulch articles on that website and I do not want to search through 100 references trying to find the study if you happen to have it handy. One of the problems I have with LCS blog posts is she tends to self-reference her own documents as proof of a point. When you read those documents, they often fail to review scientific literature except for her own studies.

For example, this is her summary document:

http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/publications/FS160E.pdf

The first reference in that document is not a study, and it has a similar summary of mulch, but it does not have the same conclusions as her original document:

http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/19900/ec1629-e.pdf

The second and last reference in that document is back to her own research and that document does not review the research to directly compare different types of mulches.

https://web.archive.org/web/20211201030444/https://watermark.silverchair.com/0738-2898-25_4_239.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAt4wggLaBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggLLMIICxwIBADCCAsAGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQM5VKVpVDYB9S78YY3AgEQgIICkXshx372ZJ0yWsQDebSyyTad94fovY9jCaKNq6uloghfzUs1OuedmDgHyfjTo4vbJJfcED8JtkbCVr_pyzvY9g8XdeAGI-yw9d2h0seNrRdoz6sPOmBnLnqf7U9bK30e4-DdZzq_8Hl9h56URk6Vc8yAAdZcvP1rOAdyKIa7NgljyNDf2mSEiM75W00tgrYqFzCasMIy9dXo5w0-aM7FgI8KHnsCPF6SIxyH0TuIEH-mWeOkwUzTbDW4vI_xJ9PhjBcI43XK9dTsETHaaErbvJnkRU0uJ_C_hYunKDrUMALdRv_lbxestfL81y2d5FBdB_lGzOZ8FHve_o5AQtfGscjMcrgcBQJsOPaoeM4sElvF9homEAkuOjO1BftD0FhptlHDX5zI-zrm6kHUUD-7F_t0_q7Mzx8mpO7AhZf2QQ_xI3Ha2gixh95nymMqvZp3kpVVgLkKraRS7oZGcbDnK7eDlIDzeQcRVIkSUOZvZKHMDPC52qV97oa3Y1Zi7O5WFE9OeuHJATIRuYpErIyFZfkx-8MudhUHoROrT51289H5z6N8Uu9glQMIlvGW_3rMc1TdKhM3Zn125QoVHmhGY3g7Ii4plnfxZx4zyR2qPG83vbnzVHhW_Hg9XuIhGtoUQOaX4uN-m3OT7fJAU5zl073eLXJEWkEKhnGkIC5ZSmLmW84qbL57iYvJyLUTaJerrGlxTNNRbLRKwl2d2SaVGtybMrUkUIprUIV1YYesbyx2C6rjciGS3-oMUPv0DLJG74Gn37D9jfJUtjyPugwOMBQtjjbKFsKzkMvzIz4bmTfQB_Py1I3u9OvkrFO6t6ABDrIugEWzyjJeXdW1Jso3Qgxz8rG6jZwz5s2FdOfcTJTKZQ

No doubt she quotes some study somewhere that compares mulches in a peer-reviewed journal, but finding that would take time given her self referencing writing style. In addition, if you have ever been unfortunate enough to participate in her group on Facebook, you know that the group actively hides from any real peer-reviewed research that does not agree with their favorite points of view. Any post of the peer-reviewed research that they do not like they simply remove from the group, and if someone publishes too many times with research they do not like, they kick the person out of the group. Every thread is full of bullying comments. Every thread is micromanaged. It's a poisonous environment in which to review real science. I completely respect her and read her articles with an open mind. But I have seen firsthand how her group manages the information it does not like, and their process is counter to science.

Here is the publication I referred to (and which I'm sure is the same data as swampthing noted): Wood Chip Mulch. It is a WSU extension service publication authored by one of the most astute practical horticultural minds of our time.

While this publication only reports on the study, the full study is available from another source. It and a lot of other interesting and scholarly publications relating to this topic are included as a Reference addendum.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) Thank you for the list of studies from the WSU site. Do you have any favorites on that list that compare garden waste compost against arborist woodchips?

Why do you need to compare garden waste compost against arborist woodchips? Are you going for the blue ribbon for the biggest turnip at the county fair?

@Christopher CNC Because I have a heavy investment of time and garden resources in garden waste compost, and I want to quantify whether it is worth my time to switch over to a different mulch. Am I going to switch for a 5% improvement? No. Would I switch for a 50% improvement? Immediately. Facts matter.

So I read about 15 studies and went halfway through the references on the WSU site that Gardengal supplied. I could not find a comparison of garden waste compost to arborist wood chips. On my own, I finally did find a study that looks at several organic mulches including garden waste compost (coded GWC in the study).

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0210777

Unfortunately, that study only looks at Pine Bark (coded PB) and not arborist wood chips, and Dr Scott makes the fair point that heartwood in arborist chips absorbs water well and bark does not until it has composted.

That said, the key summary results from that study have GWC winning the competition, at least on the metric of minerals found in the soil at the surface (0 to 10 cm) and one soil layer below that at 10-to-20 cm.

So who knows what the comparison against arborist chips would show, but generally I come away from that study thinking garden waste compost is actually a pretty darn good mulch material, and I do not think anyone should feel bad about using it. If anyone tried to reference the study above on the Facebook group the post would be taken down and if the person posting did it too many times they would be removed from the group. I don't think that is a science-based approach to knowledge.

No one should feel bad about using garden waste compost or arborists wood chips for mulch in their gardens. It's a garden, not a crop in the field that needs to feed four hungry children with the profits.

"I come away from that study thinking garden waste compost is actually a pretty darn good mulch material, and I do not think anyone should feel bad about using it"

In nearly 50 years of gardening, using compost as mulch has never bothered me or made me feel bad. What a preposterous thought! Any mulch is better than no mulch and any organic mulch better than any inorganic one. After that, the distinctions are too subtle to be of significance.

I prefer using compost because I prefer the appearance compared to wood chips and because it carries a decent nutrient load, reducing the need for any supplemental fertilization.

Chip drop sent me a link to this video. I find wheelbarrows hard to control especially on hills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdsKW4ujMsU

i bought a large capacity double wheel wheelbarrow for my slight hills ... it worked great for wood chips and light material ...

almost killed myself filling it with sand once ... lol ... so i learned to half fill it with heavy material ...

and both kids fit in it when they were younger ..

the plastic bin was a bit flexy with dense material ... but again... i couldnt fill it up anyway ... so it didnt matter all that much

i got many loads of fresh free wood chips.. probably mentioned it above ... quality varied.. but the key word remained .. FREE ... i also got a few bad batches of compost .. and that wasnt free ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=arge+capacity+double+wheel+wheelbarrow&atb=v301-6__&iax=images&ia=images

@ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 I think you hit on the key point. If I had a large garden - say 100 feet by 100 feet - then going for the arborist wood chips is a complete no-brainer. You would need about 10 truckloads of wood chips for that job, and just the transportation fees on that exceed $1000, so getting that all for free is the way to go.

My case by comparison is a few key hedge lines. I want maximum nutrition for those plants, and I want to encourage the growth of beneficial fungi networks in the soil. Getting 10 cubic yards of chips for free when I only need about two cubic cards is not less hassle or money (when I account for time) than just paying $30/cubic yard for garden waste compost, plus a one-time delivery fee.

Chip drop also has a place to sign up if you don't need much. It makes it possible for a person who got a load to share if they have too much.

@westes Zone 9b SF Bay sorry I don't have a specific study handy. I'm a researcher in another field and just a garden hobbyist. So disappointing to hear about that Facebook group!

go big or go home.. or stay home.. whatever ...

note i designed the beds around where the truck dumped them .. mostly because i knew ... in advance where i wanted the bed... planning 2 or 3 years out ..

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1992654/bed-development-eye-strain-hazard

it does help.. if you can leave the pile stand for a year ... so leaves and stuff break down ... but you need space for that ...

ken

i agreed to have the tree trimmers leave us a load of mulch. I got to the directed spot and it looked like an elephant laying there!!!! Hubby came along and said I don't want it THERE and promptly got out his loader tractor and spent two hours moving it to a different spot!

@rginnie I feel like I won't have arrived as a gardener until I have moved to a larger piece of land and put up cement blocks to store 10 cubic yard piles of rocks and mulches and soils. I already have piles of this stuff on my small lot and the neighbors must be thinking I am a garden supply hoarder. :)