A homeowner who ordered a delivery of wood chips found themselves with too much of a good thing, posting a photo of the enormous pile in the subreddit r/Gardening.
"I've made a huge mistake," they wrote sheepishly. "I guess when you order a second chip drop it means they bring twice as much. These pictures don't do this mound justice."
Commenters were encouraging.
"You'll eat that elephant — one bite at a time. It's not like it's going anywhere, is it?" one person joked.
While this particular mound of wood chips was overwhelming, wood chips are generally a great friend to the home gardener and landscaper. They're an excellent choice for organic mulch, which helps to suppress weed growth, retain water, and maintain consistent soil temperatures.
Wood chip mulch can also be used to create grass-free yards, which are becoming more and more popular because of their money-saving qualities. While a traditional grass lawn guzzles water — on average, 30% of a household's monthly water bill, according to the Environmental Protection Agency — a grass-free lawn is more resource- and energy-efficient, making it more affordable.
Grass also requires more harsh chemicals for upkeep than natural lawns, and those chemical herbicides and pesticides are incredibly harmful to the human and animal residents of an ecosystem. On the other hand, natural lawns are much friendlier for pollinators — and healthy pollinators are the foundation of our food systems. Pollinators are responsible for sustaining 75% to 95% of the world's flowering plants, adding $217 billion to the global economy each year, according to Pollinator Partnership.
And fortunately for this Redditor, wood chips can be a huge help in making the transition to a natural lawn. Gardeners use them to line pathways, create flower beds for native plants, and even to grow mushrooms.
"I've been through maybe 4 piles like this," another user wrote. "It seems like a lot but you just do a few wheelbarrow loads a day and you'll be ordering another pile before you know it. Makes a good daily workout."
Others were feeling optimistic as well.
"If you take too long then maybe it will be a big compost pile next summer?" one person joked.
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