Horse Manure - Compost bin or Garden

You can see if chip drop is active in your area for free woodchips. But I think the amount/quality is unknown to a degree, so it may be a bit of a risk plus you need a place for it to be dropped. So you could end up with a mountain on your driveway
Free Wood Chip Mulch from ChipDrop

 

Would certainly wish to know its contents before tipping. (No leylandii !). Have found it best to be pro-active and ask at point of production. Just listen for the buzzsaw and go get 'em. Last load was oak, finely chipped (its adjustable on some machines) and free delivered. Offered beers pro-quo but was told 'not to lead the lads astray' by the foreman (!)
Means that they could go straight home without taking to tip, where gate money is required. Win -win.

 

There are chips dropped at the local allotment and more often than not it is Leylandii. Very occassionally it's something else but that tends to dissappear in minutes.

 

I've not had a problem with leylandii at all. Many of my paths have it and my current 18month old pile of woodchips is mainly that and it's broken down enough now I add it to the compost pile as I add greens. It's just wood and breaks down in the same way as others

Now people growing them in urban gardens is another problem

 

Surely leylandii is just softwood chippings like pine or thuja.

Tried to get some chippings here earlier and it was difficult so gave up.
The place I contacted wanted 30 quid a ton delivered and they just wanted to dump it in the road at the end of their working day.
I think in general they have better customers than the likes of me, the council maybe or large gardens.

 

Leylandii is fine for paths and mature plants but it has phytotoxic compounds, when fresh, that can hinder young plants. I bag some up and age it before use around perminent planting and it seems to do a good job. It's slow to decompose which is either a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.

 

I wouldn't put fresh chippings of any tree around small plants, its just not something you do, is it?
Bark maybe a different proposition if used as a mulch.

 

Woodchip used as a path breaks down in 2-3 years, at which point it may be spread on to beds with/as compost for autumn application, thereby giving soil a barrier for planting through in the following Spring.
Replace with new chip.