Seasoned Logs Firewood & Mulch - Tree Planting - Woodland Management - Tree Surgeon Herts - Free Quotations & Advice - Mycorrhiza
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Herts, Essex & South Cambridge
Hardwood Logs & Organic Woodchip Mulch Delivered Free in Herts and Essex*
Seasoned hardwood logs, firewood
loose loads, and organic woodchip mulch suitable for weed suppression, or for use in paths, borders and children's play areas.
Order Online
or call for free delivery*
*We deliver logs free of
charge within a 20 mile radius of our yard in Little Hormead, near
Buntingford. Most of the
towns and villages are listed
Here.
Outside this area a small
delivery charge will apply. Please
Contact Us to
enquire about a cost for firewood delivery
Burning firewood uses the shortest carbon cycle of all fuels, and as such is
the best alternative to coal, oil or gas, plus far more enjoyable.
Wood
is one of the most environmentally friendly materials, being renewable,
biodegradable, non-toxic, and energy efficient. See our range below and order
online or by phone
Logs & Mulch Range & Prices (No VAT to add)
| Type | Description | Image |
Price & Availability |
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Loose
Firewood Loads
|
1.5m³
mixed hardwood load 17-25% humidity (9-12 months seasoned) (Equivalent to 45 Forecourt Bags, and our logs are hardwoods, local, sustainable and delivered) This Season is Predominantly Oak, Ash, Cherry and Birch |
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£120 (No VAT & Delivered)
Available Now
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| Woodchip Mulch Loose Load |
1000
litres of Woodchip Mulch delivered and tipped (Seasoned, Locally Sourced, Sustainable, Organic & Delivered) |
 (Click to enlarge) |
£50 (No VAT & Delivered) Available Now |
| Woodchip Mulch Loose Load |
2500
litres of Woodchip Mulch delivered and tipped (Seasoned, Locally Sourced, Sustainable, Organic & Delivered) |
 (Click to enlarge) |
£100 (No VAT & Delivered) Available Now |
Click here to arrange a delivery online for hardwood seasoned logs & seasoned organic woodchip mulch
Information on Log & Mulch products & frequently asked questions;
(Please click on a product below to navigate to the detail)
General questions on Firewood & Mulch
Below are some answers to questions we receive regularly about our Firewood and Mulch delivered in Herts and Essex. If you have any other questions we would be pleased to answer them. Contact Us to do so
Q: Where is your firewood sourced, and is it sustainable?
A: Our logs and mulch is sourced in two ways. Firstly the logs that comprise our standard loose loads are mainly sourced as a by-product of our tree surgery operations in Herts and Essex. All good hardwoods are stacked and seasoned, then processed into logs. This operation is still done by hand by our woodsmen, hence the larger variation in size and species compared to our Select range. Secondly we source timber from sustainable managed woodland to provide a more consistent size for our nets and Select Log Loads
Q: Should Mulch be seasoned before application?
A: It depends upon the application. For paths and areas where it is used as a pure weed suppressant it is fine to use un-seasoned mulch as it will last longer, however if used around planting, and particularly vegetables, it should be seasoned as fresh mulch may draw some nitrogen from the soil. Our Mulch is supplied seasoned as much as possible but due to the size of chippings seasoning is a quick process, so can be applied two to three months from production. When seasoned, mulch will add nutrient to the soil and improve the quality, and as our woodchip mulch is organic and untreated, it can simply be turned over into the soil when its work is done, improving the soil quality, and then re-applied on top in Spring
Q: What are the benefits of using Mulch, and is there anything wrong with garden centre mulch?
A: There are many benefits of woodchip mulch application; firstly as a weed suppressant which acts as a labour saving device as well as preventing weeds using nutrients meant for the plants. Secondly mulch helps in hot dry spells by retaining moisture beneath, slowing evaporation and limiting the need to use extra water. Coupled with this the ambient soil temperature fluctuates less, helping newly introduced plants establish without excess stress. Thirdly as it degrades it adds extra nutrient to the soil, and helps break down clay soils by adding fibrous texture. Generally, there is nothing 'wrong' with garden centre mulch, increasingly it is of improving quality and more care is being taken in sourcing from sustainable processes. However it is best to use a mulch from your area, as the species processed will be suitable to the plant and soil types in which it is being used, and garden centre mulch is often sourced from large managed coniferous forests as far afield as South America. As with anything, air miles, packaging, distribution, question marks over sources and unnecessary processing all make it best to source locally
Click here to arrange a delivery online for Green Man hardwood seasoned logs and seasoned organic woodchip mulch.
The Standard Loose Load of logs we provide is a mixture of mixed hardwoods and some softwoods (less than 10%). They are of good moisture content (17-25%), and are split by hand therefore are of varying sizes in breadth and length. If you have the space at home to store this is the most cost effective firewood option. The logs are all of good quality and a mixed load always ensures interesting fires and a range of sizes to suit your grate
Q: What species are in the mix?
A: The wood is very good quality, being a mixture of predominantly Hornbeam, Ash, Oak, Cherry, and Birch, but logs are un-graded so they may be of different lengths and breadths, and due to the individual qualities of each wood come in varying states of seasoning. Good at home storage and selection will produce fine results
Q: How do you deliver a loose load?
A: As with all our loose log loads, firewood is tipped directly from the vehicle to the most convenient point for both you and us. We use either a Toyota 4x4 or a 3.5t Transit for most deliveries, so near a garage door on the drive is most common as these vehicles will go most places a car will. Please let us know if your access is especially narrow or restricted
Q: Can I collect logs from your premises?
A: Unfortunately our log yard is inaccessible to most vehicles and so we do not arrange firewood collections
Click here to arrange a delivery online for Green Man hardwood seasoned logs and seasoned organic woodchip mulch.
The Loose Load of Woodchip Mulch is a highly cost effective and eco friendly Mulch. It is recycled from our tree surgery operations, locally sourced, organic, unpackaged, untreated, unprocessed and delivered to your door.
Q: Will I need to prepare a place for you to deliver?
A: A tarpaulin or wooden boards placed on the drive are ideal for delivery, especially if your drive is gravel. This makes it far easier for you to distribute, as once the pile is small enough a tarpaulin can be dragged and tipped where it is required, plus there is less clearing up afterwards
Q: Can you deliver various quantities of mulch?
A: Yes, our minimum delivery is 1000 litres in a loose load, but we can deliver 1500 litres, 2000 litres, and up to 2500 litres in one delivery.
Q: How thick should wood chip mulch be applied?
A: Again, this is dependant upon the application, but generally speaking as an effective weed suppressant it should be applied 3-4 inches thick, however for paths and mulching around plants 1-2 inches will suffice
Click here to arrange a delivery online for Green Man hardwood seasoned logs and seasoned organic woodchip mulch.
Please click below for more about;
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Logs to Burn - an anonymous poem describing the characteristics of some of our wood
Green Man Conservation Log and Mulch - Above A Loose Load Of Hardwood Seasoned Logs On Their Way To A Green Man Customer - Below Right; All but the most hardy of weeds are suppressed, nutrients introduced and water retained with our organic bio-degradable woodchip mulch Below Left; Other forms of lighting and entertainment are less required by the side of a crackling log fire
Beech-wood fires burn bright
and clear,
If the logs are kept a year:
Store your Beech for Christmastide,
With new cut Holly laid beside.
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for years 'tis stored away;
Birch and Fir-wood burn too fast,
Blaze too bright and do not last;
Flames from Larch will shoot up high,
Dangerously the sparks will fly.
But Ash-wood green and Ash-wood
brown
Are fit for a Queen with golden crown.
Oaken logs, if dry and old,
Keep away the winters cold,
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke;
Elm-wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold.
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread -
So it is in Ireland said;
Apple-wood will scent the room,
Pear-wood smells like flowers in bloom,
But Ash-wood wet and Ash-wood
dry
A King may warm his slippers by
Anonymous
Possible Dangers of Burning Treated Timber
With sales of firewood on the up and logs in shorter supply we feel it important to remind customers of the possible dangers of burning treated timber. Burning old fencing, decking and sheds for example seems a good way of getting another use from the timber as opposed to just throwing it away. However this timber may have been treated with CCA, (chromated copper arsenate), used since the mid 1930's. It is a mix of copper, chromium, and arsenic formulated as oxides or salts. It preserves the wood from decay fungi, wood attacking insects, including termites, and marine borers. Burning CCA treated wood releases arsenic into the atmosphere, and the ash will contain high levels of arsenic and copper, especially important if you use ash in the compost and then on the vegetable plot. Disposal at civic waste sites is best.
Green Man Conservation Logs & Organic Mulch
Carbon Cycle
“The problem in reality is that carbon emissions from burned oil, gas or coal cannot be considered as equal to the same amount of biological carbon in a tree. Why not? Because there exists naturally an active carbon pool with carbon freely moving between forests, oceans and air. The fossil carbon pool, in contrast, is inert. But once out of the ground, fossil carbon joins the active carbon pool for millennia. Releasing fossil carbon increases the active carbon pool, and this is the crucial difference between fossil and biological carbon”. Jutta Kill, Climate Change Campaign Co-ordinator for FERN
Burning logs is seen by some as ‘dirty’, and standing next to a large bonfire or seeing smoke emitted from a row of chimneys it is easy to see why. However the reality is that emissions are simply visible locally, and the emissions from well seasoned firewood are cleaner than the alternative electric, gas or oil fired central heating for which emissions are discharged away from the point of use, and thus do not impinge on our conciousness as much. Aside not being at the mercy of volatile global fuel prices, or the politics of involvement in oil extraction, or piping of gas from countries with perhaps obverse ethical standards to ours, burning seasoned logs is a way of supporting continued management of woodland locally, and utilising a by-product of the tree surgery industry that would otherwise often go to waste.
Green Man Conservation Log and Mulch - Above Left; The produce from our tree surgery and woodland work is recycled into site-specific quality hardwood mulch for planting purposes and fine quality seasoned firewood logs for sale. Wherever possible the arisings from woodland management are kept on site and used to form brash and log habitat piles to encourage fungal, invertebrate, bird and mammalian life. Above Right; Fine quality hardwood logs are seasoned at Muttin Hall, our East Hertfordshire yard for year-round distribution - Below; Fine quality seasoned hardwood firewood logs and organic woodchip mulch are the by-product of Green Man Conservation’s tree surgery and woodland work
In a 1979 issue of The Northern Engineer (a quarterly publication of the Geophysical Institute) Stan Parkerson and Kent Severns point out that our earliest fuel is one of the most complicated:
‘Wood burns in three stages. First, the water which it contains must be evaporated. Because certain kinds of wood may contain as much as 230 gallons of water per cord (a cord is the equivalent of a four-foot high stack of 4'x8' plywood), it is easy to understand the importance of air-drying stove wood for a year or more before it is used. Otherwise, a large percentage of the energy that could be used for heat goes into turning all that water into steam. A further detrimental effect of burning unseasoned wood is that it results in a higher rate of creosote build up in the chimney. This is not because green wood contains more creosote-forming materials, but that it produces a cooler fire. This permits the excess moisture, along with the dissolved volatile gases and tars, to condense more readily on the inner walls of the chimney. The mixture then runs back down the chimney until the moisture is evaporated again, leaving behind solid, flammable creosote which creates a chimney fire hazard.
The second burning stage is when the volatile gases are distilled out of the wood and ignited. This stage produces approximately half the total energy available in wood.
The third and final phase of combustion is the charcoal stage containing the remaining half of the heat energy in wood. This stage is clean-burning and the most efficient. Wood, therefore, burns as two types of fuels - gas and solid. Each type has different burning characteristics, making it difficult to maintain controlled and efficient combustion in even well-designed stoves.
Highly efficient airtight stoves are a must for anyone with a serious intent to heat with wood. Open fireplaces or barrel stoves are nice for effect, but they are washouts when it comes to fuel efficiency. Unless one has an unlimited supply of wood on hand, they are not a good solution to the heating problem.
Stove efficiency is a combination of two factors - heat transfer and combustion efficiency. Most airtight stoves are reasonably effective in transferring heat, so if the overall efficiency is to be improved, it is necessary to get more complete combustion of the volatile gases.
British Charcoal delivered in Herts & Essex
Sustainably Produced Charcoal from English Native Broadleaf Woodland
With well over 95 percent of charcoal consumed in the UK being imported from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to Indonesia and beyond, the trend away from the ‘home-grown’ product has played an integral role in the drastic decline of a woodland industry once vital to both rural and urban communities.
Nationally, targets for coppice restoration have been set by organisations, such as English Nature, for wildlife and conservation benefits. The target for England is to return around 70,000 hectares to active coppice management, but without a market for this harvested wood, it is unlikely that any significant progress towards this target can be made. However, if the UK became self sufficient in its charcoal production, this would contribute 60% of this target.
The traditional production and management techniques employed for making charcoal in Britain have driven the healthy, holistic stewardship of the woodlands that generate the raw materials for the end product. The practices of coppice and pollard rotation that develop the necessary wood-crop also ensure constant reinvigoration of the woodland ecology and sustain the individual pollard-trees and coppice stools themselves to ancient maturity (as only the coppice-stool roots and pollard stem are allowed to age; the rest of the plant is constantly renewed, with ageless new growth).
With the move away from charcoal as a fuel of the British economy, both domestic and industrial, the commercial viability of managing woodlands has fallen to timber-producers, charities, enthusiastic individuals and a die-hard band of woodsmen keen to keep renewable, traditional and environmentally conscientious woodcraft alive.
We are now hugely proud to be able to supply charcoal sourced from a small family business of fourth generation coppice foresters working a manual charcoal kiln in Berkshire. Their woodland work is ensuring the survival of an area of ancient British native broadleaf coppice woods to the benefit of the flora and fauna dependant upon it, where at least two trees are planted for every one felled for the process.
This fine quality charcoal product requires no firelighters at all, unlike most foreign high street brands, burns long, slow and hot and is entirely from renewable English woodlands.
Individual 3 kilogram bags now available delivered in Herts and Essex with log and mulch orders for £5.50. For purely charcoal enquiries please contact us to discuss rates
(From the Royal Forestry Society)
"All other major construction materials are finite. One day they may run out. Trees can be cut down and replanted.
Timber can be recycled and when it reaches the end of its life it can be disposed of with minimal impact to the environment because of its non-toxic nature.
Timber is one of the best insulation materials. It is 5 times better as an insulator than concrete, 400 times better than steel and 1,770 times better than aluminium. That makes it an excellent material for use in construction to reduce energy bills for both households and business.
Timber is extremely versatile, beautiful and is one of the oldest and most natural construction materials known to man. Weight for weight, wood has probably the best engineering properties of any material. Many of its structural properties result from the microscopic layout of its cells and cell walls.
Wood is an extremely versatile structural material, ingeniously arranged to provide a living structure that combines both strength and flexibility".
Contact us to arrange a delivery
Albury, Allen's Green, Amwell, Anstey, Ardeley, Arkesden, Aspenden, Audley End, Baldock, Barkway, Barley, Barwick, Benington, Berden, Birchanger, Logs and Mulch Bishop's Stortford, Bishops Stortford, Braughing, Logs and Mulch Brent Pelham, Broxted, Buckland, Logs and Mulch Buntingford, Chapmore End, Cherry Green, Chipping, Chrishall, Church Langley, Clavering, Clothall, Cole Green, Colliers End, Cottered, Cromer, Dane End, Dassels, Debden, Debden Green, Duddenhoe End, Essendon, Farnham, Farnham Green, Felsted, Ford End, Logs and Mulch Furneux Pelham, Good Easter, Graveley, Great Amwell, Great Chishall, Great Dunmow, Great Hallingbury, Logs and Mulch Great Hormead, Great Munden, Green Tye, Logs and Mulch Hare Street, Harlow, Hatfield, Hatfield Broad Oak, Haultwick, Logs and Mulch Hay Street, Hertford, High Cross, High Easter, High Ongar, High Wych, Hitchin, Knebworth, Kimpton, Langley, Letchworth, Levens Green, Litlington, Littlebury, Littlebury Green, Little Dunmow, Little Hadham, Little Hallingbury, Logs and Mulch Little Hormead, Manuden, Matching Green, Meesden, Melbourn, Logs and Mulch Much Hadham, Nasty, Newport, Nuthampstead, Patmore Heath, Perry Green, Puckeridge, Quendon, Reed, Reed End, Rickling, Rickling Green, Royston, Logs and Mulch Saffron Walden, Sandon, Starling's Green, Stickling Green, Sawbridgeworth, Stebbing, Stevenage, Spellbrook, Standon, Stansted Abbotts, Stansted Mountfitchet, Logs and Mulch Stocking Pelham, Takeley, Thaxted, Therfield, Thorley, Throcking, Thundrige, Tye Green, Ugley, Ugley Green, Upper Green, Wadesmill, Walkern, Ware, Wareside, Watton at Stone, Wellpond Green, Welwyn Garden City, Wendens Ambo, Westmill, Weston, Wicken Bonhunt, Willian, Wimbish, Wyddial
Hardwood Firewood
Logs available now
Woodchip Mulch is available now
Place an Order
Free Log Delivery to Buntingford, Royston, Baldock, Letchworth, Bishops Stortford, Ware, Hertford, Saffron Walden, Hoddesdon, Harlow, Sawbridgeworth, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City, Melbourn, Duxford and all villages in between; working through most of Hertfordshire, North Essex, and Cambridge
We are proud to work under the direction of;
