Posted: 10/5/2010 9:51:48 PM EDT
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Would tree trimmings gone through a chipper (the commercial sized ones pulled behind the trucks & shot into the back of the truck) be good for my garden?
A tree service contracted through the electric company came by my house to trim branches from the power lines, so I asked him what he does with all the shredded brush. He come out & said if I want a truck load I could have one, or as many as I wanted, so I told him I wanted one & showed him where to dump it when he got his truck full. Said it may be a couple of days, but I will get a load. The guy said a load would be about three full size pick up loads. Any advise on how & when to use it on my garden or around my property would be appreciated. I was told there would be no Walnut, cause of it's acidity. He said if there is any Walnut in the mix of a truck load they trash the whole load. |
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Any advise on how & when to use it on my garden or around my property would be appreciated. We get that stuff too. It's great for mulching around the bases of trees and shrubs. I don't use it in the garden as it's too coarse and raw, as is. If you let a pile sit and compost for a year or two, it would probably be an OK way to add organic matter to the soil. |
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Any advise on how & when to use it on my garden or around my property would be appreciated. We get that stuff too. It's great for mulching around the bases of trees and shrubs. I don't use it in the garden as it's too coarse and raw, as is. If you let a pile sit and compost for a year or two, it would probably be an OK way to add organic matter to the soil. Thanks. The crew leader (the guy I talked to & that seemed to be in charge of the other guys) basically said the same thing Feral, let it sit for a year or so cause it would be too green to do any good for a while. He seemed to know what he was talking about (since he suggested the same as you) & seemed to be honest (telling me about the Walnut) about it. He was an older guy (probably late 50's) that looked like he had been in business for years. |
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Any advise on how & when to use it on my garden or around my property would be appreciated. We get that stuff too. It's great for mulching around the bases of trees and shrubs. I don't use it in the garden as it's too coarse and raw, as is. If you let a pile sit and compost for a year or two, it would probably be an OK way to add organic matter to the soil. THis. Don't use it on your garden or flower beds until it's broken down some. Otherwise it will deplete the nitrogen in your soil. Around trees or very deep-rooted plants is a great use. Walnut is bad because of a substance called hydrojuglone. It's not the acidity, but this chemical put out by walnut––by every part of the tree, and even the rain water which runs off of the leaves. It kills or inhibits most things attempting to grow under it. One walnut in the middle of a shrub rose and poof. No more rose.  I'm only saying this because I had one person hear that "acidity" thing and put walnut mulch on his acid-loving shrubs.  That was an expensive lesson.
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Any advise on how & when to use it on my garden or around my property would be appreciated. We get that stuff too. It's great for mulching around the bases of trees and shrubs. I don't use it in the garden as it's too coarse and raw, as is. If you let a pile sit and compost for a year or two, it would probably be an OK way to add organic matter to the soil. THis. Don't use it on your garden or flower beds until it's broken down some. Otherwise it will deplete the nitrogen in your soil. Around trees or very deep-rooted plants is a great use. Walnut is bad because of a substance called hydrojuglone. It's not the acidity, but this chemical put out by walnut––by every part of the tree, and even the rain water which runs off of the leaves. It kills or inhibits most things attempting to grow under it. One walnut in the middle of a shrub rose and poof. No more rose. I'm only saying this because I had one person hear that "acidity" thing and put walnut mulch on his acid-loving shrubs. That was an expensive lesson.Thanks for your advise Kitties-with-Sigs. I have heard of Walnuts being bad for plants before, but never really knew why. I was just going by what this guy told me. I will let it set for a few years before putting in the garden, but I do have some trees that are a PIA to mow around. |
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I have added a considerable amount of mulch to my garden over the last 3 years. I have learned a few things and have an opinion or two. I have a mulch plant right down the road and they sell the year old stuff for a dollar a bag in the Spring. Being a novice gardener, I put about 150 bags on the first 2 years and tilled it in. This was hardwood mulch that had been at the plant for a while breaking down. It was then bagged and sat for probably at least 9 months. This was definitely well on it's way to compost. My garden didn't do much for the first 2 years, but the soil improved dramatically. This year, I added 8 yards more of their economy grade. I didn't till it in, but rather used it after the garden was planted to create permanent paths and to use around the plants. My garden wasn't doing much this year untill I added a high nitrogen (36-0-0) fertilizer, but then went gangbusters. As said above, the wood was tying up the Nitrogen in the soil and not allowing it to be used by the plants.
The benefit of the tremendous amount of mulch that I added was that the soil has held a lot of moisture all summer. Southern Indiana has seen very little rain in the last 6 weeks and the ground is still moist. I dug sweet potatoes the other day and the moisture looked great. The other benefit is that it has worked wonders to break up the clay soil that was there. I have decided that I will continue to use the mulch in the garden. However, I will limit it to the permanent paths. My wife really appreciated not getting her feet dirty or muddy when she went to the garden and it actually got her out there picking a lot more. If you lay down newspaper or cardboard first, your weed problems will be nearly nil. When using it around the plants, a couple of cloudy days gives a good crop of mushrooms. It may not hurt anything, but fungus if fungus. If you follow that, I wouldn't have a problem making paths in raised beds or in the garden with the new chippings. If nothing else, make the paths now and till them in after a couple or years of breaking down. These are just my opinions based on limited first hand experience. YMMV. |