Freakin Awesome ! Instead of paying someone to gravel my driveway, I think I'll put the money into buying a wood chipper and utilizing the fallen trees on my property to make my own wood chip driveway out of a big sloppy muddy sandy mess. Thanks for the video!

I used to work on a farm and they used woodchips everywhere for driving surfaces. Every year they would just add more chips to the soft spots. It worked really well.

no more rocks in the bushes from snow removal. huge benefit right there.

We love living in the Pacific NW for it's mild climate and have LOTS of wood chips available here, often for free. The downside of the mild climate, however, is that it doesn't freeze here like it does in Vermont. So our "mud season" is pretty much shortly after the winter rains start in the fall until things dry out full in late spring! So we have road surface on our land that is either rip rapped and graveled for year round use or only driven during the dry season. That being said, I think I'm going to cover up those lesser traveled roads with wood chips anyway now because of the fact that: 1) if I needed to drive it once in a blue moon in winter I could probably get away with it, and 2) it will hold water and help prevent erosion during the wet season...as well as break down and create good soil we can harvest if need be at some point! Thanks for the video Ben...I can't believe how fast your little boy is growing up!

Love it! I am going to do this with my driveway once the snow melts and trial it here in AK. Several weeks behind on spring in the subarctic. Love your videos, Thanks for your updates and insights!

This sounds so awesome! I used this method to avoid "mud season" in the orchard and chicken runs, but never thought about it for our driveway. Thanks so much!

I have a woodchipper and I put the chips on my dirt road every time I do a job. They keep the road from getting muddy. It works out great.

Those buckets on the quad are amazing

Hi Ben. Thanks for the update. We watched your previous videos on this subject as I was also sceptical and but based on that we went ahead and applied chips to our drive last year as we had a massive mud rutting problem and it was a game-changer for us. Not to the same scale as you as we have to make our own chips with a small chipper but the principle is the same. We're in North Latvia about 57deg nth and have a similar climate to you it seems. Thanks for pioneering!

Love this!! Having 100 yards dropped next week for my paths for the food forest, but we also had a (different) section logged and have been toying with the idea of using chips for a larger road to address the paths that the skidder left when logging another section of our land.

Love your content

We did this last year after seeing your video and are VERY impressed. Sent you some pics on IG a few weeks ago.

I'm so glad you posted this! We've been tossing around this idea for a few days, as we've just gotten some chips for free. Cold climate as well - very excited to see this working for you!

A novel to me idea. I've been using pea stone to make a comfortable walking surface, but it's expensive. And I just ordered a PTO chipper to take care of some landscaping needs. So now I have a new place to dispose of the chips!

Thanks brother!

You made a very helpful video

in the process of putting down chips now, love it

Very cool! I've never seen a wood chip driveway irl, come to think of it

I'm glad to see people doing more of this. Deep woodchip roads are fantastic, cheap, easy to touch up surfaces. The only down side is since they hold moisture the under side of your cars rust out faster when they're parked than if you had crushed stone or hardpack. I put down chips for my truck and tractor trails through our woods. TOTAL game changer for mud season.

Great for a temporary access that you will want to eventually revert to woods/pasture/garden. Over time, the humus builds up and holds more and more water and gets softer and softer in the warm season, not the best scenario for a permanent drive. If you want gravel to last longer on a permanent drive, use the proper geotextile underneath it. I helps keep the gravel and mud from mixing.

What about wood chips first the 2 years later add gravel? The wood chips absorb the water pretty good we had a motocross track that was always really dusty in certain areas so one of the loggers suggested wood chips and that worked awesome. No dust and no rutted out sections when it rained. Those wood chips insulate the ground so stays frozen longer then releases that moisture during the warmer dryer season when water is needed most.

I’ve seen loggers utilize hay in sandy conditions, if you come across some round bales for cheap try rolling some of those around

Even if it spreads into the grass areas more frequently, I'd much rather run over wood chips that end up in the lawn with a mower than gravel.

Vermont compost does this.

I get them for free. I put out a fb request. I do it for 2 years on an area of the property i plan to grass. Remove the chips and run through a sifter and you have top soil for the grass. Grass comes out amazing. The rest goes in a compost pile.

I’m thinking about doing this since I work for a tree service. We literally dump loads of chips at dump sites.

I am about halfway through your book The Resilient Farm and Homestead, and just found your channel too. Thank you for sharing all of this good info! We are in NH and need to repair our driveway but have been holding off to find a better alternative to current asphalt. This would be amazing, but how is it during winter months? Easy to shovel/snowblow?

Brilliant idea. How do you stop the grass and vegetation growing through?

do you have a chunkier gravel as a base or even an old gravel drive underneath so it doesnt sink? do you find you have good traction even when its thawed or do skid a bit like loose gravel?

Seems like the wood chips insulate the ground, slowing the thawing and also soak up the water as it comes.

Beer and weed. The ultimate currency..

Hey Ben, what about the fire? Usually road stops it or localize it. Do you see any new risk with this road approach?

Genius. What depth do you aim for? (looks about 4”..?)

Another really cool thing is that the wood chips don't blow away either.

I have seen them used at playgrounds

Just out of curiosity are you hesitant on putting them near buildings with wood. Or would you do a gravel “buffer zone” for termites?

Ben, how was it for plowing? Do you find it decreases runoff?

Anyone tried using a plate compactor on it?

4:06 for 100 yards not 1000! Still cheapest source of chips you can get in most places unless you're getting free - more so than making your own, IMO. And i've tried all methods and scales.

What happens when you have to plow the snow?

The challenge is runoff.

What area is this in?

How bout in Virginia

What about the wood ants

Wouldn't they eventually break down and turn to dirt?

Literally signing paperwork today on a house in Texas that needs a driveway redone because the stone is crap. You couldn’t have posted this at a better time. Thoughts on a hot southern climate that gets downpours of rain in the spring? North Texas.

$700 for 1000 yards??

I was just thinking about using wood chips instead of rock and asphalt for roads. Wood suck in the event of an EV fire though. 🤣