The winds of July 4 bought down 3 large branches of an old box elder tree. It seems that the wood is not particularly good for burning, and we do now have a lot to dispose of. Our local dechetteries gave very limited opening hours and we will need several trips to get just the snaller branches there. I am tho mking of hiring a broyeur to chip it all down to a manageable mountain. Would that be useable as a mulch on flower beds and borders? I can’t find many positive views of box elder. I’m hoping that as wood chippings I may gave found one?
I honestly don’t know, but it’s munched organic matter, it’s got to give some benefit to flower beds, even if it just suppressing weeds and keeping moisture in
We have a aboricultualist come once a year to prune trees (previous owners planted maples under electricity lines). He always brings his chipper and we chip everything we have which has included all sorts of species over the years from fallen trees to prunings. Works fine for us, and the mulch cuts down weeding…
I had read that using chipped leylandia could impart acidity into the soil. Is there anything like that to take into consideration with Box Elder? For example, it does have its own bug; am I going to increase their numbers and bring them closer to the house by doing this?
Forgot about leylandii - we don’t have any of the nasty things. But we have included a bit of pine from time to time and hasn’t changed things significantly. As long as it’s not used alone and in great quantity then it should be fine. We tend to avoid using walnut and laural prunus, especially the leaves. But apart from that everything goes in.
And as for bugs…well they tend to like a familiar environment so if they made it through the chipper would probably scuttle back down to where they came from. Presumably the box elder is not diseased? As that would not be good to spread about.
You can chip it down, no problem, nothing to worry about , Norman
Wow! I had not banked on the cost to hire a chipper. There are not many hire centres around here, thought I was in luck to find a broyeur at €55/day HTT. Then see that the minimum period is one month!
Back to chopping it up to take to the dechetterie😦 This is going to take a while, it is only open saturday mornings and tuesday afternoons…
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Before we had a regular tree man, we would pile up our branches into an (enormous) heap. And then ask around until we found one working nearby who would be prepared to bring his chipper by and do it for 50euros or so. Even tho’ a huge pile it didn’t take very long with a big machine. They don’t like to chip stuff more that 3 months old as not good for their machines.
Absolutely fine as chippings for mulching Martin. You can also tie up plant remains, even “difficult” things like this in black bin bags and leave them to rot over a few months at the bottom of the garden. And hey presto when you open the bag you find some wonderful compost you can use.