Free wood chips question

[bpgreen]

About a month ago, we had a wind event (gusts up to 99mph). Lots of trees blew down.

I just got a Facebook notification that there's an overabundance of shredded trees (the city normally uses this for parks, etc.).

So they're looking for volunteers to take wood chips.

I used to be really good at math, and I vaguely remember there is a quick rule of thumb for this, but I'm tired.

My lawn is about 5k sq ft. How many cubic yards do I want to take?

If it makes a difference, I'm going to dormant seed before the first major snowfall.

I'm working from home and not going anywhere, so it doesn't matter if my driveway is blocked for a month or so.

[MorpheusPA]

Wood chips?

That's easy math. Zero cubic yards, you don't want to spread wood chips on your lawn or gardens. On the lawn, they'll be there for years. Years. On the gardens, that's not necessarily an issue, and I'll even admit that you could put down, perhaps, one inch of them. But you'll risk getting slugs and snails, which will love the things as hiding places and bedding.

Now if they're reducing it to sawdust, that's a bit of a different story. I'd countenance up to about 100 pounds per thousand square feet. 1 cubic yard of sawdust weighs around 600 pounds, give or take a whole bunch depending on many factors, so call it a full cubic yard of that and just dump the extra hundred without worrying about it. Sawdust is a slow decay and won't cause you major headaches--just never, never dig it into any soil for any reason at any time ever.

[bpgreen]

Thanks for the info.

I didn't realize it would take that long to break down. I'll pass.