As it is February, the month of love, I thought I'd share one of my own loves, arborist chips. Arborist chips are different from the mulch you buy in bags (or by the yard) from your local hardware store. The bark mulch you buy from the store is processed, usually from a single tree type and sometimes dyed to give a uniform color. Arborist chips are ground up trees, a by product of tree trimming or removal. It is made up of whatever went through the chipper that day. I adore the stuff. Let me count the ways
1. It's free, or at least, really really cheap. as it is a by product of tree work, Arborists have to figure out how to get rid of the chipped trees. If they don't have someplace to store them or a way to reuse the chips themselves, they may have to pay to dump them. So as a favor to them, you, the gardener, can offer to take the chips off their hands. You can try cold calling arborists in the area, or if you see a tree service truck in your neighborhood, ask to take the chips then. There are many municipalities around the US that offer out free mulch, usually after big windstorms. Craigslist is a good place to check for chips too. There is also a website, Chip Drop (www.chipdrop.in) , that you can use to request chips. The only draw back with Chip Drop is That it doesn't give a range of places it services, so it may be a hit or miss depending on where you live.
2. It is good for the soil. Putting down arborist chips is like having a very slow release compost/fertilizer on your garden beds. The chips will help soil drainage as they break down. And they will break down. After a couple years very little of the chip material will be left. Not a grand tragedy, just remember the first reason why Ilove Arborist chips so much, they are usually free. I know a few people that have continuously added chips as mulch over the years, and their soil was lovely. Dark, full of life, and with good drainage. I could go on but the WSU extension has a great info sheet on Arborist chips here- http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/FS160E/FS160E.pdf
3. It looks nice. Arborist chips dress up a bed, making gardens look tidier and allowing the plants stand out more. Like any other top dressing for a bed, Arborist chips is used to smother out weeds. I am using chips around the foundation of my house right now to smother out the grass and everything else so I can plant there this spring. Very little has managed to grow up through the six inches of chips. The few weeds that have made it I can pop out of the ground easily.
A few notes on things people don't like about Arborist chips. They aren't uniform. each time I get arborist chips they are going to look different. Different trees, possibly from different arborists, the color of the chips as well as the size will vary. For some people that is a no go and I get that. I figure that if I pack a garden bed with interesting enough plants, no one will notice the chips. They also can come from diseased trees. There is back and forth research on whether or not Arborist chips can carry plant diseases. The WSU extension pamphlet talks about this. I worry a little about verticillium wilt coming in with the chips, my only real safeguard is to look through the chips to see if there is any maple and if there is, to look for the staining from verticillium wilt.
That is arborist chips in a nutshell, I love using them and will continue for as long as i garden. They are economical, great for the garden beds, and just make things look pretty.
