From my hike yesterday......

Yesterday, he's starting his little chain saw to cut my tree down....

No hiking for me. Latest puzzle. A friend gave it to me. My immediate reaction was UGH! but I didn't want to hurt her feelings. The longer I looked at it the more I liked it. Turned out to be fun and more difficult than it looks.

Nicole, my neighbors had a big maple taken down yesterday. It was in their backyard, so it was a bit more of a challenge but the guys did a good job and really cleaned up after themselves. Do you know whether it is ok to use the wood chips immediately or if they have to be aged about a year which is what I was told?

Sweet_betsy, is that cleome? It's gorgeous!

The little stream in the woods behind our house.

View from hike, grandson, took, back in Jan. Took him and buddies 5 hours to get to the top.

The stairs are closed, but with permit, they climbed the back way up.

driving in the smokey mountains

murraysmom....mine was a healthy, over grown, gonna crash our roof in a storm scary Elm tree. It had water pouring out of it. If it had been a dead juniper tree, applewood or such, and was dried out, it could be used immediately for smoking on the grill.

But what about using it as mulch around plants in the garden? I was told it has to age at least a year or it kills everything it touches. The guy who owns the company that took down the neighbors' tree said they could use the mulch right away if they wanted to.

Murraysmom here you can sign up for "chip drop", and get freshly chipped wood stuff.

You can use it right away as a mulch, but don't dig it in... it will somewhat deplete your soil of nutrients.

I use it straight away.

Moni

Moni's right. Mulch on top is good, helps hold moisture , fewer weeds & looks good! But...digging wood chips into the soil is a problem. It starts to break down & deplete the soil of nitrogen.

If your ever out hiking and see decomposing wood, mushrooms is about the only thing (fungus) you'll find growing in a mulch pile.

South Coast Botanical Gardens. I think these are the Moreton Bay Figs.

Thank you, Moni and Nicole. I guess I was both right and wrong about freshly chipped wood!! I appreciate the responses!!