When we utter the word mulch it can mean a lot of different things. Some mulch is free, some mulches we make ourselves via composting and some mulches you have to pay for.
Where can I get Free Mulch?
For the most part the only mulch that you are likely to get free of charge is a mulch that somebody desperately wants to get rid of. Off the top of my head I can only think of two sources for free mulch.
Wanted! People who would like to make up to $93.60 in
One Square Foot of their Backyard. Check this out!
1. Your local composting center.
Today many small towns and large cities have composting yards where the city and or residents bring organic materials they need to get rid off. Leaves, tree branches etc. They often grind or chip the tree branches and give away the mulch this creates free of charge. Sometimes they mix it all together with rotting leaves etc. and give it away as compost. Our little town does this and the material is free of charge, but you have to load it onto your truck by hand. They won’t load it for you.
2. Tree Trimming and Tree Removal Companies.
Tree removal companies pretty much do the same thing day in and day out. They trim or cut down trees, haul away the bigger logs and grind up the smaller branches. This creates a great deal of wood chips that they must get rid of. Often times they have to empty their chipper truck several times per day and therefore they are happy to give this free mulch to anybody nearby that will accept it.
I lied to you already and I just started this article!
There are more than two sources of free mulch. I need more coffee, it’s early. Lots of businesses generate organic material that pretty much is in their way. Mushroom farms have used organic compost they want to get rid off. Feed mills and other mills have by products of ground corn or rice hulls they need to get rid off. So depending on where you live, there could be all kinds of sources of good organic mulch that is either free, or low cost.
I’m giving you homework to do.
At the bottom of this article I’d love it if you would tell me and others of all the places that you know of that generic second hand organic matter that can be used for gardening. This should be fun! Brace yourself.
What’s the difference between Free Mulch and Mulch you have to pay for?
Mulch that you pay for is of much higher quality and is a great source of organic material for your yard or garden. Free mulch is usually the freshest mulch you can get, and in the world of mulching that’s not a good thing.
The best mulch you can use is mulch that has been around for several years and has decomposed a great deal. If you let mulch decompose long enough it turns into rich, black soil that plants thrive in. Basically that’s how nature makes topsoil. Topsoil is nothing more than decomposed organic matter. So the more time that mulch is allowed to decompose, the better it is for your garden and plants.
When buying mulch the best mulch you can buy is mulch that is made from tree bark, not the wood of the tree. When logs are processed at the saw mill one of the first processes is to debark the logs before they are sawed into lumber. The tree bark that is removed is an excellent source of garden mulch because it’s 100% tree bark, no wood from the tree. Tree bark actually has some nutritional value.
Wood is not a good thing in a mulch. As wood decomposes it requires a great deal of nitrogen in order to break down and when you apply a mulch that is heavy in wood chips to your flower beds, landscape or other garden areas it will actually pull valuable nitrogen from the soil. Your plants need that nitrogen and they are not going to be happy if they have to share it with the mulch that you apply to the bed.
Free mulch is usually ground up wood chips, branches, twigs and leaves. All fresh. All starving for nitrogen to use for decomposition. Think of these free wood chips as nitrogen sucking machines that you are applying to your garden. But they do have value and I’ll get to that.
Don’t let the mulch making entrepreneurs trick you.
Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs and I am one of them. So I am not bashing the entrepreneurial spirit, I am just making you aware of an opportunity that they have seized up, solved a problem, made a lot of people happy, created some jobs etc. What they are doing is taking used pallets, a by product of industry, and grinding them up into mulch, then dying the mulch to make it pretty. Is the dye harmful to your plants? Not that I know of and I’m pretty sure it’s fine. But the wood is not great for your plants.
Is it harmful to use dyed mulch?
No, not that I know of. Not if you use it around mature plants. But it’s not all that beneficial to the soil. It’s okay as a mulch, but it really doesn’t do much for the soil. Like I said, mulches that are made of bark, pine bark or hardwood bark are the best mulches for your soil and your plants.
What can I use free mulch for?
Free mulch, ground up wood chips are great for mulching walkways in your garden to keep the weeds down, maybe dry up a muddy area, or to mulch around mature plants only. If you have lots of room and can stock pile free mulch you can just spread it out in a wide low pile and let it decompose. It’s not a fast process, can easily take three to five years, but after five years you will have some really, really good mulch.
Do I really have to wait five years to use it?
No. Think about this way. The day that it arrives on your property is when it is the least valuable to your plants and soil. A week later it has already started the decomposition process, and I’m not scientist (you knew that about me didn’t you?) but I’m pretty sure that mulch decomposes rapidly at first and the longer it stays around the decomposition process slows down. So most of the necessary decomposition happens early on and the longer you have it the more beneficial it becomes. So day by day it increases in value. Unlike your money in the bank!
I made a movie about mulch. Crazy huh? But it is informative.
Wanted! People who would like to make up to $93.60 in
One Square Foot of their Backyard. Check this out!
Don’t forget to do your homework. Comment below on sources of organic material that you are aware of.
I ran across a new wood chip / mulch beta class site recently. freemulch.abouttrees.com a free site where people who want mulch and people with mulch (arborists chippings) can meet up Sounded really sincere where I read it all. protections for both sides of the deal I get all the ramiel chips I can use by keeping my eyes open and a local church lets local tree services drop off chips on the back lot. Once a year a member levels it out with a tiny tractor. Dig down a foot or so and get a truck load of compacted black humus ( almost typed hummus)
I placed red dyed wood chips under two mature pine needle bearing ornamental trees, they are cone shaped and have been 10′ tall for past ten years with no sign of further growth. Within 2 years the trees showed signs of distress and have lost the green coloring with dry bare patches. Did the chips kill the trees?
Robert,
I really doubt that the dyed mulch caused the problem, it has been used on hundreds of thousands of landscaping projects all over the country. I’d be looking for another cause of the problem with the trees. And that’s from a guy who is not a big fan of dyed mulch.
The City i live in has free compost. they do load it for you. we are allowed to get three scoops per month. the guy that loads it told me that the compost i was getting was just leaves that had turned to compost. not sure how well it it on our gardens, but i put it on my flowers last year and i have to say, my roses has went “crazy” this year. one of my rose has went almost to the top of my house-beautiful rose, mom wants a start of it now. lol, lol
I have an interesting dilemma. Bonnie Plant farm is right across the road from me. I know the manager really well, we even get our veggies free from him. I’ve tried using the plants and soil from over there which I’m free to have all I want. I’m thinking that vermiculite wouldn’t be appropriate for my compost pile. They have so much waste, surely I should be able to use some of it. However, cutting those “organic”? pots and cutting the plastic strip off takes a lot of time and effort. Do you have any suggestions how I might use any of their wastes???
Hi Anne!
Have you considered worm or mushroom composting? Those guys can do the sorting for you! Also (answering the original post) the free wood chips I get from the city dump are absolutely superb for growing oyster mushrooms! When the mushrooms are done with it I feed it to the worms in my worm bins. By the time the worms and mushrooms are done with it my plants LOVE it! Also worms and mushrooms cut the time it takes to compost in half!!! Just don’t mix the two or they will compete.
Bagasse from sugarcane mills can be used as a mulch.It is also a renewable source of material.If you dont have mills near you, persons who sells cane juice will have cane husk which can be shredded. It acts as asponge and can absorb nutrients when applied, hold water which reduces watering frequencies, prevent dirt/mulch or other materials from splashing on plants or vegatables, etc. Try it you are gonna love it
Hi Mike and all…
I’m new here but,first things first, Thanks Mike for putting this site together. I’ve been reading your emails for several weeks now (good stuff btw) and decided to order the package you offered…Yes! The info you give (For Free!) was worth the price of the package you are selling!! I hope to learn more…
Okay, I’m not a scientist but I have been researching many of the aspects of growing plants and the biology behind it.
One of the posters above mentioned mycorrhizal fungi…This is very important since 95% of all plants use this symbolic relationship to exist…i.e. they need each other to thrive…Now, I don’t know but last fall I started to pull my tomato plants to throw in the compost pile…When I seen the root system that they developed, I stopped and cut the deceased plant off at ground level leaving the roots to decompose…Will the fungi go dormant and reemerge with what ever crop I chose to plant this year??? I don’t know…It’s an experiment…I’m like you Mike, It’s all about experimenting…What works??? We’ll see what happens…Worst case? The roots I left in the soil will turn to compost…
More later if anyone wants to listen to my rants….Maybe my thoughts on Brix…Higher readings there DO make a diffeerence…And why soil mineralization is important…Not to mention the dangers of using animal manure for compost…
Symbiotic not symbolic, perhaps?
Hello Mike, I just planted some peach trees their about 4 feet tall I was wondering about when to fertilize them and which type to use. Thanks for all the great information I try to read and watch all the videos. Keep up the great work.
Walter,
The ideal way to fertilize your peach trees is with something organic or a slow release like Osmocote. I like Osmocote because it’s easy to apply and will continue to fertilize your peach trees continuously over a period of at least 3 to 4 months. Therefore there is no chance of them getting over fertilized. You should be able to find it at a garden center or big box store.
Mike.
Could you add nitrogen to your woodchips by making a grass clippings tea much as you would compost tea? Especially where you have already put them around flowers, etc.
Thanks, Rod.
hello ,its me vasudev again
u can take peels of banana as u may b knowing very well that they r rich source of potassium and phosphorus i have experimented this blend for my four’o clocks and they bloomed in a great lush !!!!!! 🙂 roses are mostly benefited they can b over dosed have no side effects as they are organic and releases the nutrients when the plant require but over watering in case of potted plants always washes off the nutrients Epsom salt with this blend will do the best because it provides a little acidity and its magnesium content helps plant 2 absorb the nutrients its not useful 2 fertilize unless ur plants r able 2 absorb it plants absorb it naturally but this salt helps 2 aid it & do it faster also it improves bloom color , size, numbers etc dried flowers are also the best to be used as mulch as they have the high amount of nitrogen as per my observation its true what i told is all about fertilizing as well as mulching u can much plant with these peels but with a extra little layer of dried soil & leaves thank you for your tips i would require more tips for successful growing of roses from cutting without rooting hormone bcoz i dont have it & how to increase rose blooms ?? hope you will mail me soon i see my mail a little less bt u can mail .. 🙂
I love grass clippings because they are an excellent source of nitrogen for the plants. This is part of my “Green” layer in my lasagna garden beds. I am privileged to live right beside a huge set of woods. I can go into the woods and find tons of fallen leaves even in the summer. Our county has a dump site right by the house where they dump wood chips that they shredded when trimming trees during the summer or when a tree falls across a road. It is free for the taking. Love it! Love your e-mails, too!
I live in townhouse complex with lots of trees. I start raking leaves late September and by early November I’ll have collected almost 200 bags of leaves for my 1000 sq ft garden. By May, nature has worked them into the soil all on her own. In spring and summer I use grass clippings from a local lawn bowling club. It’s awesome!
Oh! I forgot… another weed control/ mulch is newspapers & un-lamenated cardboard boxes. Shred them or just lay them down on your walkways. Throw your pretty mulches over top. Come next Spring, they usually turn right into your soil. 🙂
If you have a local sawmill (like we do here in the Ozarks… LOTS of sawmills), hit them up for either their sawdust (which they have mountains of) or their wood chips. Just be sure to check with someone ahead of time whether they cut black walnut there, before loading up. If you talk sweet enough, they’ll load it for free. 🙂
A quick way that I found of getting the sawdust to break down is to spread it pretty thin (apx 4″ deep) in a safe area & burning brush on top of it. It’s amazing how well it works & the thinner layer makes it easy to remove any twigs that may be left after the burning. 🙂
I pick up my mostly oak leaves with the bagger attachment on the lawnmower in the fall and pile them up next to the garden waste pile, in spring I run them thru the chipper/shredder and then start a new compost pile, as I stack the pile I add septic tank bacteria and water it in layers about 6 inches at a time. I let the piles age for 2 years and then loosen them up with a tiller as they are being used in the yard and gardens
Hi I have one comment regarding municipal free mulch. If you are using mulch for your vegetable garden you might want to steer clear of municipal mulch considering You don’t know how much (if any) of the organic materials had been treated with chemichals. Like pesticides and weed killer.
The one thing I would caution you about is that you don’t have black walnut leaves or chips. Black walnut is very toxic to many vegetables and other plants. I have a garden about 50 feet from a black walnut and can only grow only certain veggies at that end of the garden. Goggle black walnut and see the danger to certain plants.
My understanding about wood chips that are put on the ground is that it will make good compost and not draw nitrogen out of the ground as long as you don’t mix it in to the soil. If you just spread it on top it will do a great job keeping your soil moist etc. If you want to see the results and learn more, view the film BACK TO EDEN free on the net.
George,
I’ll disagree, it takes nitrogen for the wood to break down so it will pull nitrogen from the closest source. The soil beneath them.
Hallo, here in Copenhagen there is neither forrest or horses or anything like that. I started using all kinds of stuff to be honest but mostly i mix up my own. I use a part regular dirt, some compost from last year, leaves and grass, vegetables and fruits or any vegeterian leftovers from the kitchen and mix that up with water from a raindrain or some pockets filled from the rain since it remains natural bakterias already which help to get the compost done.. I mix it several times add Water on a regular base and than i use about one part of that “compost” together with to parts of the regular dirt. Apperantly the flowers and plants are happy about it. 🙂
Be very cautious on using mulch from unknowns. You could be inviting unwanted chems into your garden. I used to use community resources, but then I started to read about what is added to mulches, what people are using for sprays and chem fertilizers remaining in the mulch for a long time. I want to know what is not in my mulch. Some palets are made partially of pressure treated lumber and you do not want that in your veggies.
My view
I have found that some local breweries and distillers of fine beverages use lots of grains and hops. When they are thru with it they throw it out…..feeds hogs if yo’nt or compost it after “filtering It one more time”.
We have surpressed grass and transformed our yard with free wood chips from local services. If we see them working we just drive over and ask them if they will dump over at our place.
I have also used, for compost, shredder paper from work, coffee grounds picked up from local coffee shops, and really the key is to just ask people. I found a company that was juicing wheat grass and had two year old juiced remains by their parking lot that they let me take. It was beautiful!
Saw dust is better than wood chips if hold moisture longer and breaks down faster in your soil. I can be easly gotton from a saw mill or wood working shop near you for free. Caution though if they mill treated wood do not use these types they will ruin you soil and cost you your garden
I have a compost pile, never put grass clippings in it, only leaves and kitchen waste(no meat produces). For mulch I wait until it is put on sale at the local home improvement store, i.e., 5-2 cubic ft. bags for $10, and load up on what I need to cover my raised beds. I line the beds around plants with a layer of newspaper 4 pages deep and put the cheap mulch, usually pine bark, on top. The plants florish and it keeps my expense of watering to a minimum in our hot Gulf Coast summers. I have the neatest veggie garden around here as an added bonus since I have very few weeds to pull.
I have been one of those strange people that stop by for your sacks of leaves after you have them all raked up and set out for the trash. I can tell what kind of leaves you have and if I want them, are they nice and dry so they go through my mulcher quickly. I usually dump the bags out in front of the mulcher so I can sort out the occasional rock or beer can mixed in with the leaves. My garden and all the earthworms love that brown gold. Before I got the mulcher I would just dump them into an enclosure and run the mower around and around to cut them up as small as possible. I have found that adding chemical fertilizer repels the earthworms and other bugs that help the decomposition process.
If you have a lawn you have all the compost/mulch you need. Catch the clippings and put it around all your flowers and in your garden. It will hold moisture all year and cut down the number of weeds. AND by next spring nearly all of it will have rotted. In a few years you will have the best dirt possible. If you don’t need the clippings just don’t catch them but let your lawn use them, they rot there as well. Don’t do this with grasses like Bermuda, just the cool season grasses that won’t root down in your garden/flower beds.
Mike and friends, A couple of cautions to be aware of in regard to compost materials. There are a group of agro and home herbicides, known as aminopyralids, or generally pyralids, that are persistent in plant materials and manure, even after being composted.(Google: Killer Compost, also motherearthnews.com, search Killer Compost) Also Weed and Feed treatments for your lawn can be a problem when adding grass clippings to your compost pile. Great growing, Richard in Utah.
I bought a Mighty Mack chipper shredder. With this little machine I produce a lot of my own mulch. The twigs and branches from 8 acres of forest provide ample amounts of material for grinding. I use these grindings in pathways around my 12 raised garden beds in which we grow vegetables.
Hi Mike!
I just want to say I love your e-mails! I’ve learned all kinds of stuff since I signed up a few weeks ago. So I have a couple of sources for stuff to add to my mulch and compost piles. I have 8 LARGE oak and maple trees on my corner lot. We usually rake for weeks and have the city haul it away. This year I am going to look into getting a leaf shredder and put it all back into my beds. Why waste all those great leaves! I think they will rot down over the winter and provide good mulch the following spring correct?
Also, I have a friend who lives in the country raising rabbits and chickens. We are helping out with feed and supplies and they will share eggs and meat with us. Should I ask her to save the rabbit and chicken poo? It will be mixed with wood shavings they use as bedding. Can I throw that directly into my compost pile or should I do something else with it first?
Thanks for all the great information!
Edie
Edie,
Your right about the leaves, they compost the best when shredded. They can also be added to that chicken and rabbit manure. That will help the leaves break down faster and at the same time take some of the heat out of the manure. I think you have a good system!
I help our church put on suppers and take home all the carrot, apple and potatoe peelings.The peelings break down fast because they are so small. The key is to get the peelings out right away.
I also use the wood chips from tree trimmers as a free mulch; I let it compost in place and put a thin layer of nice looking mulch on top.
Hi Mike,
I live on the ocean coast. Nothing composts better than the seaweed. I like to dig up the vegetable garden in the fall to a depth of one foot and put down a 6″ layer of seaweed. Cover it over with the soil and come spring, the seaweed has already broken down. Seaweed adds something like 50 trace elements.
I also add it to the compost pile as the decomposition is hastened greatly. The resulting compost has great texture and deep dark color.
Thanks Irene, Great tip!
I used some of the municipality “compost” (mostly yard waste) for potting plants. Found out later it had a ph of 8.5. Many plants died before I could take corrective action (lots of elemental sulfer)
When we first started our garden with raised beds we needed a source to fill them so we went to our local fair grounds and there it was a huge pile of a mixture, all the animal dung mixed with lots of dirt and debris, of course we had to sift it to pull out the junk but it filled all of our raised beds and then we also used it for our flower beds. It was work but it was FREE!
Hi Mike and all
Seems that there is a national affliction with bagging and tossing everything – waste paper , newspaper , kitchen scraps , leaves , grass clippings and many more things into the garbage for removal to a land fill.
I grew up in the city but visited an aunt’s farm as a child.
They had no land fill.
They recycled everything.
The separated milk went to the hogs, the cow and chicken manure went to the garden after cooling off (as my aunt called it)
There seems to be a notion that composting is something new that must be figured out.
Well it may come as a surprise but nature invented composting to keep things fresh.
And it’s been going on for quite a while.
The “first garden” was full of compost.
Even we will become compost (dust to dust etc)
Elizabeth – just chuck them all in.
Basically the idea that your compost needs to be some perfect balance of green and brown stuff is a myth. Perhaps it is relevant if you absolutely MUST compost as fast as possible, but if you are happy letting it sit for a year then anything goes.
Mike – wood chips and sawdust do really well if you use them in composting toilets. We have used them for years when hosting big events and working outdoors in the woods. Box with a toilet seat and a bucket beneath.
Use as normal but “flush” with a scoop of sawdust to cover everything. When the bucket gets towards full empty it into the compost. The sawdust stops all smell and it gets really hot (perfect balance of carbon/nitrogen), killing all pathogens.
Also, I’ve read that if you use woodchip mulch year after year the lower layers break right down and do feed the soil. What you want to avoid is any digging in of woody stuff that hasn’t composted fully.
Interest Mike, that’s why I love you guys and gals! You have so much real world, hands on experience doing about everything there is to do.
View the movie, Worlds Fastest Indian, about a New Zealand man, who builds up an Indian Motorcycle, and takes it to Race on the Bonneville Salt Flats,Great Movie. early in the film the guy goes out and pees on his Lemon tree each morning, and when he leaves for the U.S.A. he reminds his grandson to take care of his Lemon Tree (wink) while he’s away. now I get it. Nitrogen! lol
We keep chickens and use dust free wood chips from the local timber yard for their bedding in the coops. we clean then out once a fortnight and put the waste in a compost heap made from old pallets 8 foot X 4 foot. We also put grass clippings, garden weeds, crushed egg shells, banana skins, tea bags onto the pile. The hens do all the hard work by turning it over as they scratch for worms and grubs. We don’t cover it and allow the rain to keep it moist. The heap has been ongoing for the last 4 years and it’s near the top now.
A few days ago I opened the gate and dug down into the pile, what a surprise I had, the biggest juiciest worms I’ve ever seen, I put several barrow loads onto the garden and mixed it into the soil. I can’t wait to see the vegetable crops we’ll be getting this year and it hasn’t cost us anything.
Don’t put citrus fruit skins into compost or pine needles it makes it too acid. Do a soil test first to determine what sort of soil you have then act accordingly.
Happy gardening to all.
I have heard of the coffee grounds from a coffee house before. I also use our egg shells and other scraps in the garden when we don’t have chickens to eat them. I’ve recently obtained hourse manure from Craig’s List. I’ve also gotten cactus starts (I live in Arizona) from http://www.Craigslist.org Recently I’ve been eyeballing some “fire-wood” in my town on craigslist, if I had a wood chipper, that would be all she wrote! I love the free section in craigslist.
I love vegetable gardening very much I have them all over our residential lot. During summer, I put partially decomposed leaves, carbonized rice hull,duck dung, cow dung and all sorts of animal dung I could find, and wood chips over my the beds and my plants are doing very great! I only have to water the beds every other day.
I make my own compost in our backyard. I just put every biodegradable waste materials in a compost pit and water the pit with rice washings and waste water from laundry (minus the bleaching agent to encourage earthworms and beneficial microorganisms participate in the decomposition process) and let Mother Nature do the rest. The end-product after six months or so is a great black soil I mix into the garden and add some of it to my flower pots.
I live in Northern California and have around me a lot of growers who use coconut husks for their hydroponic medium. Every couple of months I can get my hands in a few yards of this. I use it for ground cover, mix it into my soil and use it in my beds for mulch. It’s really good for creating good drainage and makes the paths nice and soft for walking. The down sides are that it’s usually very light and blows around and sometimes is loaded with flowering nutrients, which if used right away in your vegetable garden could make your sprouts bolt into early flowering.
This is my contribution to the blog. Thanks Mike
Thank you Genaro!
I get woodchips from the power co when they trim for wires. Free of course we spread it out but first run regular garden hose through it with a recirculating pump attached and then pile more wood chips on top. It is a great source of heat for the office or the chicken barn to keep the chickens egg production all winter long. Try it the mulch reaches 165 degrees when decomposing. Thanks MiKe this is a great Forum! !
QUESTION: Can windfalls and rotten lemons and oranges be safely put in a compost pile? Any certain percentage?
i recently read that citrus peels are too much acid for a compost pile. and i used to have an indoor worm farm when i didn’t have enough room for a compost pile and the directions said absolutely no citrus peels.
Becky,
In moderation I’m sure they are fine for a compost pile.
the grass clippings make a great compost tea. If u have any coffee grounds, put them in the tea and any other mulch u get from the yard. Grass clippings, fresh wood chips, fresh leaves can be nitrogen problems. Most make a tea after sitting in water for 3-5 days. Smells bad but has lots in it… add some alfalfa pellets to the mix and its great. The alfalfa can add enough to the mix and can be used several times. Dilute it at 10-20 percent because it can be something ur dog will rub in and it will
be strong for the plants.
I’ve just recently started researching where to get free things for my compost endeavors.
I get bags of coffee grounds from local coffee shops
Will be getting my truck loaded at a rabbitry for $35
Will be getting my truck loaded at the local waste management site with composted leaves for $35
I pick up large bags of free wood chips from a business that works with all kinds of wood
I get bags of free paper shred from several offices, they are happy to have them picked up
A nearby produce stand gives me the rotten stuff
I go in the woods and get wheelbarrows of rotten fallen trees
I have friends with cattle and horses that I get free manure from
I get free cardboard boxes from just about every stores go to
My husband brings me 5 gallon buckets of rock powder from the quarries… Thanks honey!
I’ve recently started using compost tea on my flowers and they are blessing me with beautiful lush flowers and leaves
I compost from my home… Pretty much everything but meat, oil and dairy.
I have a large drum composted my honey bought me for a present. Love ya sweetie!
I have a worm heap. That means I keep a pile of compost near one of my nursery beds and keep it damp. The worms love it.
I’m gathering free pallets to make a triple bay compost bin.
Thanks for all the suggestions
I like to stop at the local coffee shop and bring home a trash bag (or more) of the coffee grounds. I layer it on my compost pile, then add other layers of leaves and other clippings from my yard. In the fall, I pick-up bags of leaves to add them to the pile.
Last spring I hauled 25 wheel-borrow loads of finished compost to my garden. P.S. I didn’t have many earthworms until I started adding coffee grounds.
For Coffee Grounds for your compost pile remember your local latte shop! Even thought I do not drink coffee I stop by with a clean lidded bucket and am always given the bucket full just for asking! My worms love them!Don’t be afraid to ASK! And remember to say THANKS! You will be back!
Hi Mike,
First, thank you for all your helpful tips. I’ve been composting with red wiggler worms for about the past year. I put in our vegetable and fruit scraps. I’ve got 7 bins going and get coffee grounds and fruits/vegetable scraps from our local coffee shop (they make smoothies too). The worms break all this down and I get great compost in two or three months.
Ifti
IFTI what do you use for the red wiggler worm bins any info would be helpful. Thanks Nell
I empathize with Don-I never wanted the free township compost because I grow organically as much as possible,and you have no control what is in the municipal compost;I also only put leaves that I know where they have been in the compost-it is easy to acquire diseases from sick trees on your healthy ones from their fallen leaves,and it is best to make sure they are completely composted.I found out the hard way when I used wood chips from an infected tree and it spead bacterial spot to several trees that took alot of intervention to get rid of.I threw out all of their leaves.
I always just throw all eggshells,coffee grounds,peelings,any rinds or greenie ends in the pile(Thanks for the idea Mike!).We have chickens and their droppings go in(they are also fed organic meal)I find that mixing compost dirt with peat moss,(and newly,mycorrhyzal fungi)on newly planted beds helps the plants get a good start-I think because the peat moss lightens the soil and lets the roots spread easily,and adds nutrients and allows drainage;and the m.fungi helps roots to develop also.
For mulching around plants to prevent weeds,I have experimented with shredded paper from my shredder(I have lots!)_.I researched and found that the inks are soy and plant based.(Stay away from receipt paper,it’s loaded with BPA!)So far it works pretty good where you don’t mind having it seen.And it seems to keep cats away-they don’t like that it gets stuck on their paws!
I buy old round roll hay from farmers that has set around the edge of the fields for years. cheap :
Starbucks Coffee gives away free large bags of used coffee grounds.
I forgot to mention, to be careful not to use wood mulch or other cellulose type mulches too close to the house, since it not only makes good mulch, but termites like to eat it also and may spread from the mulch to your home; not a good thing!
I pick up bagged leaves I find as I am driving around town, but I first look to see what kind of trees are in the yard so I don’t end up with those pesky gum balls or magnolia cones and tough leathery leaves. I also spread them between the plants in the garden and then till them under in the fall.
I have sweetgums in my yard in Atlanta. I love the shade but hate the cuckleburrows that they drop. I wish I could cut them down but City will not let me. I heard once that there was something that would make them stop setting fruit. gotta research that.
I am one of those woodchip creators and we dump alot of chips in a lot of areas. One of the most common are corrals for cattle. The owners like them because it gets the cattle out of the wet manure. The cattle seem to act like it affects them like catnip does a cat. I have seen them come up to the fresh pile and half lay in it and then push themselves along in it. They also kind of root in it with their heads.
We go on a three year cycle and some places we dump the chips are almost unrecognizable because they have been stomped/buried so deep. Maybe if you asked a local cattle/dairyman they may let you haul some off. You could also stop and ask a tree trimming truck if they dump at anyplace that uses it for bedding.
I have used the chips as mulch before I read about it soaking up so much nitrogen. I wonder if you could add nitrogen to an area that you’ve put chips down. Green Light used to make a high nitrogen liquid that was for when you set out your plants. Maybe compost or grass clippings tea?
Will be monitering this post for future referance. Thanks, Rod.
I get free chipped pine (Christmas trees) from a county conservation center.I put them down 3-4 inches deep under my blueberry bushes and have been doing this for many years. They rot down fairly fast and seem to maintain the pH at a perfect level for the blueberries. I put six inches down on my main garden the year I went overseas (Army service) and three years later there was less than an inch and underneath that the soil was dark, moist, and full of worms. I will plant the garden for the first time in three yars this year and I’ll see how it goes. I have 64 cubic feet of compost to add and hat will surely help.
Our city picks up yard waste, and composts it. Residents can load their own compost free, or pay $10 for a “scoop” that fills up a long pickup bed. I bought a scoop once. It had a lot of little pieces of trash in it (weed barrier fabric, plastic, string and rope, etc.). It also had a lot of sticks in it — as long as six inches long and 3/4 inch thick.
Sadly, I hadn’t read Mike’s compost article at that time, and I used the compost to make a new flower bed. I filled it with perennials, which did fine that spring and summer, but next spring, only one of them came back.
Two years have passed, and I still find bits of trash in that flower bed.
Hi Mike:
Thanks for your information really helps us.
You mention that if you use tree clippings or chips that it will draw the nitrogen out of the plants. 2 questions 1st concerning a raised bed and using the mulch form the city, as a walkway so far i have had no problems. 2nd. how about adding store bought nitrogen will this stop the attack on
my plants?
again thanks for all you do.
Y.I.C.
P.
had two 12 yd trucks of wood chips unloaded free in my yard. Havea horse farm where I live, but the horse doo doo also has saw dust mixed with it. I plan to spread some of it on top of my wood chips and hope it turns into good manure. Also have a county site where I pick up compost.stopped buying miracle grow a while back.Thanks to Mike. My bp3180 just came in the mail. Thanks again Mike for helping me make the right decision. I wish I had known Mike and this site when I was a young buck. Have three acres with a 2800 sq. ft. home in Atlanta. The house has a small creek along one of its boundaries. Anyone interested in the gardening business and wants to move south, we can shake hands. The house is vacant and I live next door.email [email protected]
Our county electric co-op trims trees all the time and looking for places to unload the chips.
Hi Mike:
Thanks for your information really helps us.
You mention that if you use tree clippings that it will draw the nitrogen out of the plants. 2 questions 1st concerning a raised bed and using the mulch form the city, as a walkway so far ive had no problems. 2nd. how about adding store bought nitrogen will this stop the attack on
I try to get my free wood chips early in the season so I don’t have leaves to deal with. I use the chips around my bushes. Extras are put under some dense pines. They stay wet and start breaking down quickly. I’ll then run them through my 5 hp chipper and they come out like coffee grounds. Really great to mix in my dense clay soil. Or, mix with grass clippings for some great compost.
If you need nitrogen…YOU are producing it ever hour of the day…human urine (look it up). Before you get grossed out think…what is mixed in with horse and cow manure? That’s right, their urine. Want to see your grass grow green and tall, put some of your urine on it, but please not straight from the tap. My kiwi plants need lots of nitrogen to grow, so I put my urine on them. They do so well I think I will start calling them Peewees! So to enhance the decomposition of a pile of wood chips just add wee wee.
I work for a nearby school district, with offices just behind the high school. Our back windows overlook the wood shop’s sawdust collection output. Several times a week, students empty out the collection bins into big plastic bags.
Check with your high school or jr high/middle school to see how they dispose of their sawdust. If it’s just going into the dumpster, you can take it off their hands and help save hauling fees.
Sawdust can be great, but you need to ensure it is not from treated lumber. Those can (note not all treated lumber is poison) contain chemicals that are not good in the garden!
Also, be careful that it’s not from a black walnut tree. The chemical they exude can be poisonous for a very very long time.
We have an arena nearby that holds horse and livestock shows. They pile up the wood shavings used for bedding with manure and other things and let them compost. All one has to do is pull up with a truck and they will load it with a front end loader free. I like to pile it up and throw in some other stuff and let it compost for several more months. Easy, free and plentiful who can turn that down?
What do you think of using hedge trimmings as mulch. I just pruned my foundation hedges (yew and cypress bushes). It’s too early for grass clippings, and I don’t have enough chopped leaves.
Also I heard coffee grinds are extremely acidic–not good for most garden beds. I may sprinkle some around my blueberry bushes.
Yes, coffee grounds are acidic. That’s why roses, tomato plants & azaleas love them. Just make sure to sprinkle them in a ring about 4″ from the plant, if the grounds are fresh. Turning them in lightly wouldn’t hurt either. I’ve used them for years on my plants & have had great results. If the acidity makes you nervous, let them sit outside for a day or two to dry out before adding them. 🙂 Your plants will love you for it.
We novice gardeners can really be taken for a ride, buying ‘compost’ that carries the name ‘natural’ and yes, it is, but from a sewage plant! it happened to me once, repotted all my plants and the soil became so hard as rock, many plants died, until I realize that that was not “compost” but sewage waste. So much great information, I really am grateful to you, there’s no other way of learning all this. Thank you!
I went to a neighbor county and picked up compost. Not even weeds would grow in it. To make matters worse, they ran me out of the yard because my car tag was not in their county. My county is huge and picks up yard waste but do not have a free compost service. I think they dump it on the neighbor county that rejected me. It goes somewhere for sure. I am going to ask my counselwoman why we dont have the service. I am fired up now, whew!
Save the coffee grounds from work, the local convenience store, or other place, they are great. Find a friend who owns horses. I also sweep up the maple tree “helicopters” from the driveway and use them.
I have been getting loads of free chips from the commercial tree pruners. I use them to mulch trees planted in the Arboretum and develop trails through woods on the property (Hartman Arboretum). It turns out that some of the chips at the bottom of the pile after 5 years have composted and become black with good texture with no odor. I have grown plants in 100% of this compost with amazing results! Red raspberries are one example.
I use the fallen leaves from our cypress trees. I only collect them about once every four years so they are already decomposed and ready for the garden. Smells real good too. I spread them all over the beds and yard and they really green up the place.
I get composted cotton hulls from the local gin. My soil is almost solid clay. I mix it about 50/50. I had no earthworms the first year or the second year. This year when I went out to turn the soil there was an earthworm in almost every some garden shovel. I square foot garden and have tremendous yields for a my three 4’x6′ beds. I am handicapped and use the raised beds so I can garden without getting down on the ground. I am starting a new 4’x12′ bed that I hope to grow cuttings in to help with the old social insecurity. I enjoy your newsletter and if I can sell some plants I can get your program. Thanks for the great info
Leaves in the fall are a great resource. I take my truck and trailer a load bags of leaves that people have raked and left on the curb for city pick for the land fill. I use the leaves in my vegetable garden. When the plants get 6 inches high I spread the leaves from the bags between the rows and around the plants. Keeps the soil cool and the weeds from growing. Before the next gardening season the leaves have composted into the soil. Sure improves the clay I have.
I also use the leaves to mulch blueberries. Seems like the plants eat leaves as I always need to replace them each year.
Coffee Shops – even Starbucks will give you used coffee grounds. Used to have to set up a deal with the shop managers to save grounds in the buckets i supplied. In this more enlightened age everyone is doing it and you almost have to compete to be the first one to grab the used grounds. Makes great worm food if you have a worm bin.
I volunteer at the Food Center (free kitchen)as a “chopper” (cutting up vegies) and they have takers on the many pounds of kitchen scraps. Again, sorta competitive; the homesteader types with animals to slop try to get there before the gardeners to grab that free compost.
Several years ago, I begged for compost for the garden. “Honey– Bunny, some women ask for diamonds, others clamor for furs or designer clothes. But, I beg for the gardener’s best friend– Compost!” You know what that city boy answered?
“Naw, I don’t think so, Sweetheart. Then when I die, on my tombstone, it can say, ‘Finally, he made compost.’ And by the way, l’m ‘Honey Rabbit!'” I contemplated possibilities and play the game of pickup sticks with twigs and mounded the pile with lots of nutritious nettles.
That year, tomatoes thrived. I was more than aggravated. But the year after that, every plant shriveled up. Guess what I now have? Yep, black gold- w/o human remains!
As a Scothcman, I love free stuff, and never met much mulch I didn’t like. However, not all pallet mulch is created equal. Wooden pallets coming in from overseas have two considerations: first, most have to be treated strongly with poisons so they do not bring in even more insect pests (the disastrous importation of the Formosan termite is believed to have been brought in on wood pallets, which lead to regs on poisoning the wood in ones brought here). The second consideration is, foreign pallets are (a) less likely to be returned to the [foreign] source for re-use, and (b) are most often of bastard dimensions (as in, not the old 48×40 so common here), so foreighn, poisoned pallets are the most likely to be discarded to the grinder. Re-buildable US-made pallets are usually rebuilt. So, you can just about guess that the preponderance of ground up pallets are from foreign, heavily poisoned wood — and once ground you will have a hard time determininging the origina of that wood. Commonly being treated with goodies like pentachlorophenol (makes dioxin when burned)and arsenic compounds they can’t even be used for fuel.
Having whined about that, I think wood chips make great mulch and compost: the microbes that eat the cellulose need nitrogen, so mix ’em with lots of grade A chicken (fresh and hot is fine), keep it warm and moist and you’ll be surprised how fast it all breaks down (depending on climate).
Personally, we compost anything that was ever alive except for coal and petroleum. If it has not been poisoned, it’s all good :). I like leaves and lawn trimmings as good as anything.
I back up to woodlands with tons of white pines….I usually rake a different area each spring and use the top layer of pine needles for mulch….works wonderful under my rhododendrons and azaleas……good exercise too!
I ran a Tree Surgeon Service for 22 years, so I had a lot of ground up wood chips to get rid of over the years. I had a short driveway where I parked my equipment. Once it got really muddy, so I put down a thick layer of chips that were on the truck. Needless to say, that took care of the mud. On a regular schedule, I would put down another thick layer of chips. Over the course of about 8 years, I built up a base of some of the finest compost material you could ever wish for. I ended up with about a 10 inch depth of very loose material, which I scraped up into a pile and now use for potting soil. I continue to compost coffee grounds, egg shells, vegtable scraps, and grass clippings, which are added to my pile as they are ready.
Our town gathers the fall leaves and twig debries every year and take them to the landfill. If a person had the ambition and the space for storage, fall is the perfect time to get great excelent material for your compost pile. But, like Mike mentioned earlier, you have to do the work yourself and load the leaves. I’m sure you have seen neighbors out bagging their leaves and placing them out with the trash. Instead of driving by and looking, why not stop and ask for them. You can go around and leave your number with them and ask that they call when the bagging is done so you can gather them up. Leaves rot faster and turn into mulch that is ready for use in the following year. Just a thought.
The place I get the majority of my composting material is the local grocery store.
Vici has only a “mom and pop” type grocery store,I have been collecting “green material” there for 2 years.I usually get approximately 25# weekly from there.
I also know farmers where I get the “brown” compost materials for free ,again if you load your own.
With that and the household (coffee grounds,egg shells and the like,and yard (leaves)I make maybe a 55 gal. drum packed usually ???
I get wood chips from the city for free,just have to load them.I use them for mulch and for walkways.,or for bare ground.
WE USE TO RAISE RABBITTS AND CHICKENS AND WE MIXED THEM TOGETHER AND IT NEVER BURN OUR GARDEN OR FLOWERS WE JUST WOULD WET IT DOWN LATE IN THE AFTER NOON AND WE HAD ALL KINDS OF FLOWERS AND WHEN WE WENT FISHING AND CLEAN OUR FISH I WOULD CUT THE HEADS UP AND BURY THEM IN MY FLOWER GARDENS . COFFEE GROUNDS ARE GOOD AND SO IS BANANNA PEALINGS GOOD FOR FLOWERS ROSES LOVE THEM CUT THEM UP AND PUT THEM AROUND YOUR ROSES AND THEY TURN BLACK THATS OK ALSO I PUT A LITTLE DIRT OVER THEM WHEN I BURY THEM. MIKE I LOVE YOUR MOVIES AND EVER THING YOU SHARE WITH ALL OF US THANKS A LOT .
JUANITA PRITCHETT BEAUFORT SC.
I offer to help elderly and single moms in my neighborhood by blowing their leafs and evergreen droppings. I collect them and spread them in the garden and rake them into my existing mulch.
Here in Oregon, we are lucky to call the court house on Nov 1 and ask for a load of leaves to be delivered. Pick up begins after the first rains. I have gotten them the next day or as late as early January. Loads vary by area and trees, usually mostly maple type with some acidic needles so the balance is good for us. They will deliver only full loads, or half, if the other half is going to a close by neighbor. This year we had 4 truckloads delivered to our subdivision. There are two of us who use it most, plus 1 or 2 more who use some. This year there are a lot of long evergreen needles which have been hard to break up, along with some black walnut, possibly the worst delivery in my 20+ years of experience. Letting it sit a year will do the trick.
We till a portion of the pile at a time with a mini tiller. I like mine pretty small, so built a screening box with half inch metal mesh to fit in the will barrow. That way I catch rocks, plastic pieces, pine cones, black walnuts, whatever is delivered that year. In the last two days we have taken 6 huge wheel barrow loads out of it that is as beautiful as the very best purchased compost. Was enough to do my beds in the front yard (the lawn came out last year). My plants are singing out there. I do it again in the fall if I can. Have the back yard to do right now.
Wow! That video was really good information. I cannot wait to see what other people have to say about their sources of compost. Thank you for sharing your wealth of information.
My daughter has horses. Every day those horses produce a truckload of manure. Put that on your wood chips and see how fast it breaks down! Add nitrogen to your compost with rabbit manure, chicken droppings (way too hot to use on the garden) chinchilla manure (nice neat pellets) People who have animals would love to have you pick up their manure. Put a bucket in your local coffee shop. They will be happy to save coffee grounds and filters for you. Be sure to pick up once a week or more often, it can get smelly. My grandpa had a lovely little walnut tree that would not bear nuts. He started saving coffee grounds at work and spreading them in a thick mulch under it. Wow! Did we get a nice walnut crop!
I tryed the wood chips that the town had. The men were very glad to empty into my yard. I spread them around my shrubs ans plants, looked really nice. Then I wanted to get rid of them faster than I had received them! Was I upset when I discovered I now had termites! Be advised as to what kind of chips to put down!