What do you do with your wood chips?

[John Ziebron]

Years ago I just added my chips to the compost pile or tilled them in the ground when we had a garden. No more garden or composting so in the last 6 years after I moved I found an organic farmer that used them for his chickens. Now they moved and I'm searching again.

I live in a rural area and quite a few folks have horses. There is one place that has an outside area that I see has wood shavings once in a while. So I stopped and talked to the fellow and he asked what kind of wood shavings I had. I know that walnut is toxic for horses and I rarely use it. At this time I had all hard maple and cherry. He said he couldn't take it because of the cherry. So any ideas what to do with the two 55 gallon bags I have now?

[Bill Conerly]

Have a fire sale?

[William Hodge]

Look for people selling organic slaughtered animals. They advertise locally.

[George Yetka]

Look for people selling organic slaughtered animals. They advertise locally.


And after dinner?

I take mine into the woods and dump it. My first one I emptied straight into the garbage bin. The truck came down the street and used the arm to dump it there was dust everywhere. Then I bagged and tossed the next few. After that I figured the woods wouldn't mind

[Ole Anderson]

Out to the curb for the trash man in a 3 mil contractor trash bag.

[Jim Becker]

At our old property, I just piled them up in a more remote area. Sometimes a barrel got added to the compost pile if it was walnut-free, but there was little need for that kind of material in the pile. Here at the new place, on-property disposal is pretty much not going to happen and I've had to go to bagging and disposal in the trash. There's little volume right now with the temporary shop, small SDD based system and most of my time devoted to home/property improvement. Time will tell once I have a shop building up and can get back to whatever becomes "normal" at that point.

[Stan Calow]

Anybody know if there's a valid reason to reject cherry?

[David M Peters]

At my old place I disposed of shavings in paper leaf bags, seemed a little more environmentally friendly than using plastic trash bags.

[Lisa Starr]

Yes, cherry, walnut and most exotic hardwoods need to be excluded from bedding for horses. For some reason, horses find those species very palatable, and they are toxic.

[Patrick Kane]

I wish there was a better solution. In the fall and winter, i dump the sawdust in my garden beds to then be tilled or mulched over in the spring/summer. However, i dont like doing that after things are mulched, because the sawdust looks less appealing. In that timeframe, i dump it straight into my 50-60 gallon toter can, wet it a bit, and then the waste management truck dumps it into the hopper with the automated arm. Like one of the guys above, i felt pretty guilty the first time they switched to the automated arm, because it just throws 50 gallons of dry sawdust all over the place. I always make sure to tip my waste management crew around the holidays to stay on their good side, i hope. If I had the land, it would be best and easiest to dump it in a giant pile and let it compost over the years. Unfortunately, i think 'greens' are more important to a proper compost mix, and 'browns' are used in lower quantities.

I use a lot of walnut and i havent noticed a negative affect of having it compost in garden beds. Things grow just fine the next season. We have had numerous walnut sawdust discussions over the years, and more intelligent guys than myself link articles etc. The juglone in the walnut is very limited in dried heartwood, and the little that remains in sawdust quickly degrades when exposed to the elements. Maybe it would have an effect if you dumped it fresh onto a growing plant, but my dust always sits for 3+ months before the next crop germinates and grows.

[Jason Ost]

i enjoy a nice Campfire.

[Joseph Montroy]

I give them to the local FFA so the kids can use in their display stalls at fairs. They look fancy and the pigs love it. All wood shavings are welcome with pigs.

[Doug Colombo]

I dump mine in the woods behind the house.

[John Ziebron]

Thank you all for your input. I'm fortunate to have a couple of areas on my property where I can dump the shavings so that is what I will do. They'll probably decompose even faster there than in a landfill.

[Bob Falk]

I dump mine directly in the trash bin to avoid the plastic bag....makes quite a cloud of dust when the truck dumps it overhead, but no complaints from my trash hauler

[Bob Falk]

From what I read wood chips can deplete nitrogen in the garden when used as mulch.....while this may not affect established plants as the roots are deeper , it can suppress seedling growth.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I'm going to begin eating them as a snack....should add a lot of low calorie fiber to my diet. ;)

[Tom Bender]

We are fortunate to have 'compostables recycling' here so that works for me. I keep a paper leaf bag in the shop which makes cleaning up easier. Small offcuts get tossed in and dusty things can be swept or shaken out down in the bag to contain the cloud. Also, when I have glue on my fingers it can be wiped off on the inside of the bag.

When half full it gets heavy so it gets moved up to leaf duty. This happens a few times a year. This and misc compostables from the yard means we have a couple bags waiting in spring when the recycling program resumes.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Dang - I see I left out the link!

Here it is:

https://www.treehugger.com/technology-makes-it-possible-for-you-to-eat-wood-4863501