by Texas Homesteader ~ 

Mulch is a valuable asset in your garden. It preserves moisture, moderates soil temperatures and helps keep your plants healthy too.

But don’t assume your only option is to buy mulch! Check with your city, utility company or local extension agent & you could get it FREE! 

Bermuda Grass Battles In The Garden

I’d fought (and lost the battle) against Bermuda grass in my garden every year. It would simply grow into the garden from outside the garden fence.

From there it would grow under the boards of my raised beds and into my vegetable beds. Those underground rhizomes beneath the wood boards were nearly impossible to remove completely.

So we ripped out the wood raised bed borders and decided to just plant in rows instead.

But how will we keep that Bermuda from coming in through the garden perimeter fence?

Keeping Bermuda Grass Out Of The Garden

I decided to make it difficult for a Bermuda grass runner or rhizome to survive long enough to reach my garden by making a wide walkway around the entire perimeter of the garden.

I’d line the area first with empty feed sacks RancherMan saved for me to deprive the soil beneath of light so nothing can to grow there.

Then I’ll top it with mulch to make it look nice & give me a walking surface. This wide surface should keep Bermuda grass at bay since it will have to grow a long way just to reach light.

But I needed a cheap (or even FREE) source for wood chips.

Can You Get Wood Mulch From Utility Companies?

Utility companies trim trees from around their powerlines & those trees are  often mulched into wood chips. That chipped wood is often offered for free to residents along their route. This keeps utility companies from having to pay to haul it the landfill.

We were unsuccessful trying to call and get a chip drop. But one day we saw the utility trucks near our home chipping trees. We pulled over and asked if they had a place to drop this load.

We left them our phone number and they called when their shift was through and dropped a truckload of chipped wood. For FREE!

My County Services Had Free Wood Mulch Options

Many cities have a location where residents can come pick up mulch and wood chips for free.

Offering free wood mulch is beneficial to the city not to have to haul that botanical matter to the landfill. And it’s also obviously beneficial to the residents to be able to use that material.

Plus it also makes an impact in water reduction since compost conserves moisture for gardens.

I was not aware of any such service in our county. But I contacted our county extension agent and found free mulch was offered at a nearby city park. It was unmanned, residents simply pull up next to the wood-chip pile and fill buckets or the beds of their trucks.

And it was all FREE.

Free Wood Mulch, No Plastic Bags!

So RancherMan & I loaded seven large 30-gallon empty cattle protein buckets into our truck and headed to the park.

In no time RancherMan & I had all our buckets filled and headed back home.

How Much Wood Mulch Needed For Our Garden?

It took a total of 14 buckets of mulch to thickly line my garden perimeter pathway in an 18-inch wide strip and another 7 buckets of mulch for the 18-inch rows between my planting rows.

Using Waste Products In The Garden For FREE!

I love that I was able to use items that would otherwise go to waste that actually benefits my vegetable garden:

The paper sacks I used to line the garden pathways were just a waste product of our cattle feed.

Wood mulch is a natural material that will degrade over time and be mixed back into the garden soil in subsequent years.

The paper should allow slow percolation of rainwater. It also will slowly degrade over time and be mixed back into the garden soil as well. In the meantime, the earthworms will love it, which also will improve my garden soil. SCORE!

Purchased Bark Mulch Is Expensive And WASTEFUL!

While at a local big-box home improvement store shortly afterward I saw bags of wood mulch being sold for $3.30 per 2-cubic foot bag. It’s convenient, but I figured I’d do the math…

Each of our buckets would hold over 2 bags worth of mulch. So for just what I’ve used so far my wood mulch would have cost at least $130 to buy!

Then we’d have to figure out what to do with all the dang plastic bags they are sold in. (have I ever mentioned how much I.  Hate.  Plastic??)

As it was, all it cost us was a couple of pleasant trips to a nearby park and our time – no disposable plastic trash! 

It was a good thing for us financially, a good thing for the environment and a good thing for the city to not resort to hauling this precious material to the landfill.

The moral of the story is this: Check with your city (or county) and don’t assume your only option is to buy this stuff!

Many cities have similar services so check with your city, utility companies or even call your local extension agent like we did. It can be a trifecta win for you as well!

~TxH~

This post categorized in       

Tagged in      

My Favorite Garden Hacks

Garden Planning

• Easy Garden Planting Plan Spreadsheet
• Prepare Now! Late-Winter Garden Checklist
• How To Make Your Own Garden Soil
• Prepare Your Garden For Spring Planting

Seed Planting

• Planting Seeds In A Milk Jug Mini-Greenhouse
• Planting A Clear Tote As An Indoor Greenhouse
• Repurposed Cardboard Seed-Starting Pots

Soil Health

• Easy Compost For A Healthy Garden
• How Leaves Benefit Your Garden
• Using Manure In Your Compost & Garden

Garden Styles

• How & Why To Use Raised Beds In Your Garden
• 3-Sister’s Garden – The Original Companion Planting
• Planting A Large Galvanized Trough
• Where I Found The BEST Raised Bed!
• Planting A Blueberry Bush In Rustic Galvanized Tub

Garden Plants/Harvest

• Stevia – Growing Your Own Sweetener!
• My Simple, Zero-Waste Herb Drying Setup
• The Lazy Gardener’s Plant List – Plant Once, Eat For Years!
• How To Tell When Watermelon Is Ripe
• Luffa A Surprising Zucchini Substitute!
• How To Plant & Grow The Best Tomatoes

Water/Irrigation/Drought

• Keeping Potted Plants Watered
• Repurposing A Coffee Can For Deep-Soak Watering
• 3 Rainwater Collection Systems We Use
• Cheap (or FREE) Wood Mulch For The Garden
• Using Vining Plants For Living Mulch
• Surprising Use For Empty Clay Pots In The Garden

Weed Control

• Stopping Bermuda Grass!
• Biodegradable Weed Block
• Less Toxic Homemade Weed Killer

Garden Tips

• How To Save Outdoor Plants Even During A Hard Freeze
• Tricking Birds AWAY From Your Strawberry Plants
  
• Protecting Tender Seedlings From Wind
• Homestead Hack: Remember Where You Planted Seeds
• How I Use EcoBricks In The Garden 

MORE Gardening Posts

C’mon by & sit a spell!  Come hang out at our Facebook Page. It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea. Lots of good folks sharing!  You can also follow along on Pinterest, on Twitter or on Instagram.

If you’d like to receive an email each time a new blog post goes live it’s EASY to
subscribe to our blog.

• 
• 
• 
•