What's the most efficient way I can use the nice big (4 foot) pile of
wood chips on my drive now that two dying conifers and a dying cherry
tree have been deceased?

I don't want to waste any!

janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

The message
from Janet Tweedy contains these words:

What's the most efficient way I can use the nice big (4 foot) pile of
wood chips on my drive now that two dying conifers and a dying cherry
tree have been deceased?

I don't want to waste any!

Separate the cherry chippings from the conifers' stuff.

Now the trees are gone, you can can catch the sqrls. decapitate, skin
and draw sqrls and hang them about 12 feet up the lum.

Light a small cherrywood fire in the grate and cover with cherry chips.
When the chips are used, your Christmas dinner should be smoked and
ready for serving.

Conifer sawdust may be used thus:

Clean out coalshed/bunker and put slack into bags.

Beg several buckets of raw cowdung from your friendly local dairy farmer.

Mix sawdust/chips, coaldust/slack on a board with cowdung, and mix to
the consistency of dryish concrete.

Trowel the stuff into plastic flower-pots, compact them and turn them
out, leaving the 'sand-castles' under cover to dry.

When dry, these can be used on the fire, or in a solid fuel stove.

HTH

--
Rusty Hinge http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/tqt.htm

Dark thoughts about the Wumpus concerto played with piano,
iron bar and two sledge hammers. (Wumpus, 15/11/03)

Janet Tweedy wrote:

What's the most efficient way I can use the nice big (4 foot) pile of
wood chips on my drive now that two dying conifers and a dying cherry
tree have been deceased?

I don't want to waste any!

janet

We compost 'em - a big heap works best (for at least a year) and then use as a
mulch or soil conditioner in the woodland borders. Also raw as paths in the
woodland areas or between raised beds in the veg plots. Our local arb blokes
know we can always find somewhere for them to tip their chippings.

Rod
http://website.lineone.net/%7Erodcraddock/index.html
My email address needs weeding.

i wouldnt compost conifer clippings,any how i dont think they decompose very
well.Most other things can be composted.If you compost now it will be ready
for next autumn for a mulch around your plants to provide protection from
the wet/frost & add the goodness back to the soil. Bag the clippings & get
rid of at your local household refuge site !
kenty

Rod" wrote in message
...
Janet Tweedy wrote:

What's the most efficient way I can use the nice big (4 foot) pile of
wood chips on my drive now that two dying conifers and a dying cherry
tree have been deceased?

I don't want to waste any!

janet

We compost 'em - a big heap works best (for at least a year) and then use
as a
mulch or soil conditioner in the woodland borders. Also raw as paths in
the
woodland areas or between raised beds in the veg plots. Our local arb
blokes
know we can always find somewhere for them to tip their chippings.

Rod
http://website.lineone.net/%7Erodcraddock/index.html
My email address needs weeding.

If the trees were dying due to something that could spread, the tip has to be the best place for them.
Failing that, I stuck a mass of conifer bits around a hedge bottom last year and it's going down very well indeed. Didn't look good in summer, but we didn't mind as it's out of sight anyway - though you may mind browning bits all over the place!

Composting sounds good. I've often wondered if the pH of compost would alter much with the type of tree added (we clip conifers for people and I don't really know what it would do to my pH) so some follow-up from you would help me out ..... please!

In message , "kenty
;-)" writes
i wouldnt compost conifer clippings,any how i dont think they decompose very
well

We had a load of shreddded/chipped conifer a few years a go.

Some was used fresh for the paths around the veg beds. The rest was
stacked in an impromptu bin in the corner of the garden and left alone.

A couple of years later it had composted down lovely - still pretty
coarse of course, but made a lovely mulch for round the fruit trees and
other places.

--
Chris French and Helen Johnson, Leeds
urg Suppliers and References FAQ:
http://www.familyfrench.co.uk/garden/urgfaq/index.html

In message , "kenty
;-)" writes
i wouldnt compost conifer clippings,any how i dont think they decompose very
well

We had a load of shreddded/chipped conifer a few years a go.

Some was used fresh for the paths around the veg beds. The rest was
stacked in an impromptu bin in the corner of the garden and left alone.

A couple of years later it had composted down lovely - still pretty
coarse of course, but made a lovely mulch for round the fruit trees and
other places.

--
Chris French and Helen Johnson, Leeds
urg Suppliers and References FAQ:
http://www.familyfrench.co.uk/garden/urgfaq/index.html

In article , Jaques d'Alltrades
writes

Separate the cherry chippings from the conifers' stuff.

Eh? You'll be lucky they are in one pile, the logs are separate but not
the chips!




Now the trees are gone, you can can catch the sqrls. decapitate, skin
and draw sqrls and hang them about 12 feet up the lum.


Oh the dogs will take care of them anyway, they chase them away.



--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article , Rod
writes
Janet Tweedy wrote:

We compost 'em - a big heap works best (for at least a year)

On their own or mixed with other stuff?


Also raw as paths in the
woodland areas or between raised beds in the veg plots.


What sort of depth for that? Just to cover the soil or a good three or
four inches?


--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article , "kenty
;-)" writes
i wouldnt compost conifer clippings,any how i dont think they decompose very
well.Most other things can be composted.If you compost now it will be ready
for next autumn for a mulch around your plants to provide protection from
the wet/frost & add the goodness back to the soil. Bag the clippings & get
rid of at your local household refuge site !



I'd never ever take stuff to my local tip from the garden, I'll burn the
big stuff (we have a multifuel burner ) or compost it but never ever
dump it


--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article m, Hazell
B writes
If the trees were dying due to something that could spread, the tip has
to be the best place for them.


No the larger conifer was dying because I was trying to kill it, the
smaller was dying because it was too dry in that place. The cherry was
about 60 years old, directly above drains and on my border between my
house and next door in the front garden. It has never recovered since
they laid cables in the road about four years ago and ever year it got
less and less leaves. Expert advice etc seemed to say that I get it done
now or wait for it to fall on the cars or next door or on the house!..


Composting sounds good. I've often wondered if the pH of compost would
alter much with the type of tree added (we clip conifers for people and
I don't really know what it would do to my pH) so some follow-up from
you would help me out ..... please!

We have alkaline soil so I don't mind the odd acid stuff, the garden
isn't huge but could accommodate the conifer Chipping's fairly easily.



--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article , Chris French and Helen
Johnson writes

Some was used fresh for the paths around the veg beds. The rest was
stacked in an impromptu bin in the corner of the garden and left alone.

A couple of years later it had composted down lovely - still pretty
coarse of course, but made a lovely mulch for round the fruit trees and
other places.




Sounds about right to me, thanks I'll go for that then.

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

Janet Tweedy wrote:

In article , Rod
writes
Janet Tweedy wrote:

We compost 'em - a big heap works best (for at least a year)

On their own or mixed with other stuff?

We usually just leave the big heaps where we've been chipping but it probably is
better mixed with other stuff if you have the time.

Also raw as paths in the
woodland areas or between raised beds in the veg plots.


What sort of depth for that? Just to cover the soil or a good three or
four inches?

For woodland paths just a good few inches with nothing underneath (I like
bio-degradable paths so we can change the layout without having loadsa rubble
to dig out) -add more as stuff becomes available.
For between the raised beds - old compost bags or newspaper etc underneath + a
good covering of chippings - I tend to use my workshop chippings or chainsaw
chippings for this mainly because they're nearer, they don't look good as a
border mulch and they contain less bark and green stuff so don't compost so
easily.

--
Rod
http://website.lineone.net/%7Erodcraddock/index.html
My email address needs weeding.