Stop Paying For Mulch
When I moved into my house the entire backyard was a blank canvas, AKA patch of dirt. I tried my best to grow grass, but constantly failed. Winter was coming and I was not ready for my dog to track mud all over my newly finished wood floors.
That’s where sheet mulching comes in. But buying that much mulch would bankrupt me! So, I found a ChipDrop, a company providing free mulch from arborists.
Bark mulch is generally beneficial for trees, shrubs and perennials. It suppresses weeds, keeps soil moisture even, reduces nutrient runoff in heavy rains, and can keep temperatures moderated during heat and cold cycles. In the spring, a mulched garden will often “awaken” earlier since the soil is warmer.
Spoiler alert. I got y free mulch and the next season the mulch had helped the dry cracked soil turned into dark soil crawling with worms and salamanders.
What is Chip Drop?
ChipDrop finds local tree companies working in your area and notifies them that you would like some wood chips or logs (or both). The next time their truck is full they can pull up your information through our service and deliver the wood chips straight to your driveway, even if you're at work.
ChipDrop lets you place a single request for arborist wood chips. They send it out to all the participating tree companies in your area, giving you a better chance of receiving one sooner. Once you get a delivery, we'll take you off the list automatically so you don't get multiple loads.
I’ve used it twice and get my chips withing 3 days. You can also request them to mit certain types of trees if you or your dog is allergic.
Arborist wood chips help retain water in your soil, keep the weeds down, and even look nice, too!
What’s Wrong With Traditional Mulch?
Recycled/reprocessed wood mulch is made from post-consumer or post-industryial products and may contain treated wood such as Construction & Demolition (C&D) material that can sometimes contain CCA (Chromated Copper Arsenate). According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) these materials should not be ground and used in mulch.
Dyed mulches (black, red, green, and other colors) are usually (with few exceptions) made up of recycled wood waste. This trash wood can come from old hardwood pallets, old decking, demolished buildings, or worse yet pressure-treated CCA lumber.
Plastic mulches, which help raise the soil temperature degrades into microplastics that persist in soil, which can then be taken up by plants. Recent research indicates that vegetables do, indeed, take up forever chemicals, which persist in plant tissues, and then in animals that eat the plants. In an Italian study, microplastics were present in apples, pears, potatoes, carrots, broccoli and lettuce purchased from six different retail stores.
