Mulching & Chipping in Emerald

Mulching & Chipping in Emerald: Local Conditions and What That Means for Your Property

Mulching and chipping in Emerald is closely tied to the volume of material that the suburb's tree canopy generates. The combination of wet winters, moist soils and a long growing season means that tree pruning, hedge cutting and storm-drop recovery produce a continuous stream of brushwood that needs to go somewhere. Most blocks cannot accommodate an open windrow or burn pile, and the CFA fire season restrictions running from approximately November through April rule out any open burning during the period when the most material accumulates. On-site chipping is the practical solution, and the resulting chip is genuinely useful in Emerald's garden conditions: a 75 mm layer of arborist chip over the root zones of established eucalypts or under ornamental exotics retains soil moisture through the drier months of January and February and breaks down relatively quickly in the high-rainfall environment to improve the naturally acid soils. Eucalyptus chip from mountain ash or messmate is not allelopathic in the same way that some commercial mulches are. The concern about eucalyptus mulch suppressing garden plants is largely overstated when the material is fresh-chipped and spread at normal depth. For the larger chip volumes produced by storm-damage recovery work, which in Emerald can run to several cubic metres per property after a significant weather event, we can leave the chip on-site in agreed areas for the owner to distribute, or arrange for it to be taken off-site to a processing facility. Where clients have large acreage properties along Belgrave-Gembrook Road with established garden beds, bulk chip delivery of the processed material can offset the need for purchased bark mulch.