How to Find Free Garden Mulch

Go to any garden center and you will find that purchasing garden mulch can be an expensive proposition. Unless you are looking for a specialty product, there are a number of ways that you can find mulch for your garden at little or no cost. Read on to learn more.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A pick-up truck or trailer
• Pitchforks and shovels
• A phone book

1. Start by calling any woodworking or cabinet shops in your area. Many shops plane their own wood, making mounds of wood chips. Many shops will be more than happy for you to haul off this material.

2. Look in the phone book for any sawmills in your area. Sawdust and tree bark are often given away, if you’re willing to load and haul it yourself.

3. Find out if there are any dairy or cattle farms in the rural areas surrounding your location. If you can find a phone number, give them a call. Ask if you can clean up the fields of the hay fed to the cattle. This has the added bonus of having manure already mixed in. It will help fertilize your soil.

4. Think of other options such as your neighbors' grass clippings and fallen leaves. These materials can be used as mulch if no other choices are available.

Tips & Warnings

• If any of your neighbors do woodworking as a hobby, they may have sawdust or shavings also.
• Don’t limit yourself to just cattle or dairy farms. Check out goat farms, too.
• If you find a place willing to allow you to haul off their excess, make an agreement to pick it up regularly. That way you will always have an ample supply to begin the next season.
• Mulch is one of the most beneficial additives you can put on your garden. At the end of the season, just till it in and it will add nutrients and make the ground even more easy to work.
• Don’t expect the people giving you the mulch to load it for you. Be prepared to shovel, rake and load it yourself.

[MacDonald]

on 2/20/2008 Do coffee grounds count as mulch? Starbucks gives away big bags of their used grounds.