Q: I want to cover a 30-by-100-foot garden in wood chips because it is on a slope, and the soil drains so fast that it has lost a lot of its nutrients. Where can I get free wood chips? — Merle Need, Canton/Cartersville
A: Arborist wood chips are one of the best mulches you can use. They make new soil and deliver nutrients in a form that plants really like. Then Bryan Kappa had a bright idea. Working for a tree company, he knew that often the only way they could get rid of their chipped trees was to pay to empty a truck at the dump or drive long distances to find a homeowner who had called them to get chips delivered.
He started a company called ChipDrop (getchipdrop.com). Now tree companies can go to the website and find homeowners close by who want chips. Homeowners can fill out a simple form telling tree companies where they want the chips dropped. It’s a true win-win situation.
Before you make your request, though, consider that what is delivered may have lots of leaves and needles as well as chips. Tree company trucks can hold 10-16 cubic yards of chips. If you only need one cubic yard, what are you going to do with the rest? Do you have a spot where the truck can back up and dump? A 16-cubic yard pile of chips can be very intimidating.
Q: What is the proper way to treat the ground under a magnolia tree? I have always thought that the buildup of magnolia leaves was a part of the tree’s efforts to keep its roots covered and protected. Yet I see many people rake and remove that natural ground cover. — John Rick, email
A: You are right and here are my thoughts. When covering the ground under a tree, you have two choices: plants or mulch. Usually, the ground under a magnolia is very shady and English ivy, the ground cover with the most shade tolerance, struggles to advance more than a foot or two into the drip line of a mature, densely leaved magnolia.
With plants out of the question, you’re left with mulch. You could use pine or hardwood chips, but they cost money and don’t match the tree’s color. Your observation is correct that magnolia leaves are part of the tree’s efforts to protect the roots. I think magnolia leaves can make a perfectly adequate mulch. Whole leaves do hold water where mosquitoes could potentially breed. My advice is to rake all of the leaves under the tree then go over them once with your mower to break up but not shred the whole leaves. If the limbs are too low to walk under, then do the best you can pushing your mower under the tree from all sides.
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