How to get a free load of wood chips

Yes, you can have the chips, and there is no charge for the material. Ask while a job near you is being quoted or booked, tell us the road and the exact spot you want them, and the load goes to you instead of back to the yard.

The one thing we cannot hand you is a date. A load of chips is the by-product of somebody’s tree coming down, so the tree gets scheduled and the mulch follows. If you need a specific amount on a specific Saturday, buy bagged mulch and do not wait on us.

The easy ask and the harder one

If we are already taking a tree down at your place, the chips are yours for the asking. On-site chipping means the chipper and the chip truck are standing in your driveway with the material already running through them, so keeping it is a decision about where the chute points rather than a second trip. On a maple in Blaine that we worked the long way around a septic tank, the small-diameter limbs went through the chipper and stayed on the property, blown into the spot the homeowner had marked out. Say so before the crew starts, and mark the spot with something they cannot miss.

The harder ask is a load with no tree of your own. That one we can only fill when a job near you makes chips, so what we take is your name, your road and the spot. Then it waits.

What actually shows up

Fresh chips, from whatever came down that day. Bark and leaves ride along with the wood, so the pile looks rougher than a bag from a garden center, and it settles as it ages.

Species is not something we can take an order for. The Blaine job was a maple. A removal in Strawberry Plains was a maple and a hackberry, and the brush was chipped on site. If your project needs one species, or a uniform chip size, this is the wrong material for it.

Size of the load is the other surprise. A chip truck holds more than most people picture, and what is in it depends on the day. Ask what the truck is carrying before you say yes, because once it is on the ground, moving it is your wheelbarrow and your weekend.

Picking the spot before the truck arrives

Three things decide whether a drop goes well, and all three are about your driveway rather than about the chips.

The truck has to reach the spot. Chips can be blown or dumped where you point, but only within reach of where the truck can sit, so a back corner behind a gate usually means a pile at the front and a long walk with a barrow.

The ground has to carry the weight. A gravel or paved spot is the safe answer. We do take turf seriously, and on that Blaine job ground protection mats went down wherever the lift set up, but a loaded truck on soft ground after a wet week is a repair nobody wants to be arguing about afterwards.

And somebody has to be able to live with it for a while. A pile in the middle of the drive is fine on the day and in the way by Wednesday. Our cleanup step is where this gets settled on a removal, and it is the same question on a delivery.

How deep to spread it, and what to keep it off

Chips are a mulch material, not a leftover we are talking you into. The University of Tennessee Arboretum’s urban forestry guide says that to conserve moisture and promote water and air penetration, “the back filled soil surrounding newly-planted trees can be covered with mulch consisting of material such as bark, wood chips or pine needles”.

The same guide gives the number worth keeping: “Mulch depth should be between 3 to 4 inches.”

That is the depth, and the shape matters as much as the depth. The Arboretum ran a mulching trial, and the guide says its purpose was “to demonstrate the benefits of applying mulch properly and to identify the adverse effect of piling mulch too high around the stems”. So spread the load out and keep it back off the trunk rather than heaping it into a cone against the bark. A truckload is enough material to make that mistake at scale.

For anything particular to your soil or your planting, the UT Extension office for your county is the place to ask. We can tell you what is in the chips and where we put them.

What about the logs

Most people who ask for chips also ask about the wood. On the Blaine job the usable firewood was hauled down the road to a neighboring property at the homeowner’s direction.

What we cannot promise

Being straight about this is cheaper for both of us than a missed Saturday.

• A date, or a week. The chips come when a job near you makes them.
• A species, a chip size, or a load of a particular volume.
• A drop any distance from where we are working. We prefer to drop chips within 7 miles of the worksite if possible.
• Delivery for free in every case. The chips themselves cost nothing…seriously!

What we can promise is that we will tell you which of those we can do when you call, rather than putting you on a list and going quiet.

Where to go from here

If you already have a tree removal coming, decide the chips at the estimate, because the crew can leave them exactly where you want them while the truck is already there. If you want a load with no tree of your own, call and get on the list.

We chip across Blaine, Strawberry Plains and the rest of the Knoxville area. Call 865-360-6685, tell us the road, where a truck can back in and the spot you want the pile, and we will tell you what we are likely to have and when.