Wood Chippers?

[patric]

Is there anyone around that brings a wood chipper by your house, and leaves the chips?

I know I could haul my many spontaneous brush piles to Greenwaste, but I could really use the mulch.

[rebound]

When I lived on an acre lot in Owasso we had a lot of trees, and I had piles of limbs, etc, virtually constantly.   I eventually ended up buying a small chipper to use for the smaller limbs, and used the larger ones for firewood, of for our outdoor firepit.   But after a while I got tired of using the chipper even for the smaller stuff, as (to me) it just wasn't worth the time for the amount of mulch that I generated.  After I reclaimed what I could use for actual firewood, I would just pile up the rest an burn it.

I know burning piles isn't an option in Tulsa, but there is a mulch site where you can take your brush for free.  They chip it, and you can take all the mulch you want back home for free.   Yes you would have to haul it up there, and the mulch back, but it's a pretty good deal. It's free, and would take less time than mulching it yourself.

-----------------------
(from the website)

Mulch Site
2100 N. 145th E. Ave.
Open seven days a week (excluding City holidays)
7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

You can:
Drop-off: tree branches, grass clippings and leaves
Pick up: an unlimited amount of FREE wood chips and firewood. A firewood cutting area is available, but you must bring your own tools.

[Breadburner]

There is a guy from Fargo that will help you out.....

[cannon_fodder]

$63, Home Depot will rent you one for 4 hours:

http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Chipper_2/MA003021208/index.html

[heironymouspasparagus]

Like CF said....rent one.  You know what is in the mulch then.  The mulch ya get from city site can be good IF you do some composting to heat it up to kill off whatever diseases/fungi/pests/etc to keep from importing a problem to your place.

[patric]

$63, Home Depot will rent you one for 4 hours:

http://www6.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Chipper_2/MA003021208/index.html

This is closer to what Im looking for, except someone brings it to me and takes it back when the bodies brush are done.

I dont mulch enough to justify buying one outright, and thats also a good point about spreading invasive species.

[heironymouspasparagus]

This is closer to what Im looking for, except someone brings it to me and takes it back when the bodies brush are done.

I dont mulch enough to justify buying one outright, and thats also a good point about spreading invasive species.

How big are the branches in your brush?   Are all the branches smaller than 1/2"?

Is it mostly leaves?

If so, you can use them and the leaves/weeds/grass clippings/whatever to start your own compost pile.  Cheaper than renting anything, and easy.  Small stuff can also be run over by your mower.  Will mulch for you and if careful, can distribute throughout the yard where it will do the grass a world of good!


I go to the green waste facility a lot and pick up quite a bit of mulch and wood for burning/lumber/decorative items.  One other thing that is minor, in my world, but serious for someone particularly sensitive, would be poison ivy and poison oak vines that are chewed up in the mulch.  I have never had a problem, and have used literally hundreds of dump truck loads of the stuff....but I am not very sensitive to either of those.

[RecycleMichael]

Like CF said....rent one.  You know what is in the mulch then.  The mulch ya get from city site can be good IF you do some composting to heat it up to kill off whatever diseases/fungi/pests/etc to keep from importing a problem to your place.

Bogus.

The crews that operate and load the state of the art mulching machines look at every load. The first year they learned how important that is. Yes, composting organic material always makes it better, but if you don't know what you are doing, your compost pile may or may not kill off all diseases or pests. Composting needs 140 degrees to be totally cooked and most people only get it to 125 or so degrees.

Ask for the chips that have been ground twice. The crews now grind, then compost a little, then grind again for use in particularly nicer landscaping needs.

The city has tons of the stuff for free and they load it for free. Or you can bring your own bags and buckets and pick out just what you need. I have seen cars fill up a couple of trash bags by hand and loading them into little car trunks. Seven days a week from 7:30 am till 5:00 pm. All you can eat.

https://www.cityoftulsa.org/environmental-programs/resource-recovery/mulch-site.aspx

[heironymouspasparagus]

Bogus.

The crews that operate and load the state of the art mulching machines look at every load. The first year they learned how important that is. Yes, composting organic material always makes it better, but if you don't know what you are doing, your compost pile may or may not kill off all diseases or pests. Composting needs 140 degrees to be totally cooked and most people only get it to 125 or so degrees.

Ask for the chips that have been ground twice. The crews now grind, then compost a little, then grind again for use in particularly nicer landscaping needs.

The city has tons of the stuff for free and they load it for free. Or you can bring your own bags and buckets and pick out just what you need. I have seen cars fill up a couple of trash bags by hand and loading them into little car trunks. Seven days a week from 7:30 am till 5:00 pm. All you can eat.

https://www.cityoftulsa.org/environmental-programs/resource-recovery/mulch-site.aspx

Bogus??  Which part? 

Yeah, I am sure they check stuff they put into the shredder, but also I guarantee you they don't get every bit of all of those problems.  Can't happen.

The city does a double grind of some sort, which is great!  This dramatically increases the surface area of the pieces and helps a lot to breakdown the material - the piles I get it from are very fine and work beautifully for the compost piles I make.  I need a dump truck to get enough....May have to see if they will deliver!  As for composting - that's a whole other discussion and I didn't touch on methods at all, but it takes a lot of 'green' matter or other source of nitrogen to go with those dry materials. 

Red wigglers are great and next year I am gonna start doing some experimentation with black soldier fly....very promising for composting fat and meat type leftovers.



If one has room, here is a way to get started on a medium size composting facility.  Compared to commercial, this is tiny, but way bigger than most home gardeners can do.  This guy is in the northwest, so some of his methods won't adapt totally here....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8vj5szFjbQ

[patric]

How big are the branches in your brush?   Are all the branches smaller than 1/2"?

Is it mostly leaves?

If so, you can use them and the leaves/weeds/grass clippings/whatever to start your own compost pile.  Cheaper than renting anything, and easy.  Small stuff can also be run over by your mower.  Will mulch for you and if careful, can distribute throughout the yard where it will do the grass a world of good!

Much larger than 1/2" hence the chipper.  Once I pick up twigs, any leaves are fair game for my mulching mower.  I cant recall that I have ever bagged grass or leaves to go to a landfill.   
I just work it back into the lawn, distributing the spots where it might collect into thatch. 

Just hard to imagine no lawn service thinking of towing around a chipper instead of stacking brush on their trailer.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I just work it back into the lawn, distributing the spots where it might collect into thatch.  

Good for not bagging!!

First, there is no such thing as "thatch".  That is a BS contrivance used by the lawn care companies to get you to buy more chemicals to put on your yard!  Which is a huge part of the problem to start.   They point to brown spots and say, "See...there's thatch".  When in reality for the vast majority of cases, it is caused by an excess of chemical treatments.  And the fact that you haven't been cutting your grass to the proper height - 3" for bermuda.  And bagging the grass.  Too short and removing the cuttings are both bad for your lawn.

If you have excessive cuttings that are not decomposing fast enough (what the lawn treatment people are trying to "sell" you as thatch), then the number 1 cause is excessive fertilizer and heavy watering.  Both of which you have direct control over - don't fertilize more than twice a year - once is better!   And NEVER use an automatic sprinkler to water every day!  Or even every few days!!   1" rain equivalent watering per week is more than enough!!

And NEVER bag the cuttings!!


You can get a mat of leaves if you have large trees - keep mowing it and leave it lay!  Mow every 3 or 4 days in the fall if you have that many so the little pieces will fall down in there and decompose over winter.  Extra goodness for the lawn!!

Except pines - never disturb their layer of pine needles...they need it to maintain their own little ph micro-climate and become very susceptible to disease when you mess with that.  If the compulsion is so strong you have to mow, then point the discharge back at the base of the tree.  But don't mow pine needles.  And leave them lay!!

[heironymouspasparagus]

Much larger than 1/2" hence the chipper.  Once I pick up twigs, any leaves are fair game for my mulching mower.  I cant recall that I have ever bagged grass or leaves to go to a landfill.   
I just work it back into the lawn, distributing the spots where it might collect into thatch. 

Just hard to imagine no lawn service thinking of towing around a chipper instead of stacking brush on their trailer.

Here is the Lawn document to get you started.  OSU extension.  David Hillock is the "Lawn Guy" for the State of Oklahoma!   And when you read about thatch, don't ignore the causes and how to avoid - it is contrived by the chemical sales people.  And that is just the start.  OSU has a ton of information about lawn grasses. 


http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2299/HLA-6420web.pdf

[Ibanez]

Bogus??  Which part? 

Yeah, I am sure they check stuff they put into the shredder, but also I guarantee you they don't get every bit of all of those problems.  Can't happen.

The city does a double grind of some sort, which is great!  This dramatically increases the surface area of the pieces and helps a lot to breakdown the material - the piles I get it from are very fine and work beautifully for the compost piles I make.  I need a dump truck to get enough....May have to see if they will deliver!  As for composting - that's a whole other discussion and I didn't touch on methods at all, but it takes a lot of 'green' matter or other source of nitrogen to go with those dry materials. 

Red wigglers are great and next year I am gonna start doing some experimentation with black soldier fly....very promising for composting fat and meat type leftovers.



If one has room, here is a way to get started on a medium size composting facility.  Compared to commercial, this is tiny, but way bigger than most home gardeners can do.  This guy is in the northwest, so some of his methods won't adapt totally here....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8vj5szFjbQ

The Cadillac of worms....

[heironymouspasparagus]

The Cadillac of worms....

Dino yasss!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emA-IK2RcKY


Well, except that Cadillac ain't much anymore....but the worms are still great!!

[RecycleMichael]

The Cadillac of worms....

WKRP radio commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2SBhu0303k