Mulch and Feed Your Gardens for Free

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Mulch and Feed Your Gardens for Free

© Ron Williams

In Today's throwaway society, there is absolutely no need to go out

and purchase mulch material for your garden, unless it is for the

particular aesthetic appearance sake of the mulch material.

Were you aware that there are a number of mulching materials that you

can obtain from around your own community that are free, and some of

which can be even delivered to you for nothing as well.

 

Impossible you might say. Well I mulch my gardens fairly heavily, and

I never pay a cent for the mulch material. As a matter of fact, most

of the mulch is willingly delivered to my home for nothing. As the

former owners are only too glad to see the back of it, as it would

cost them money, time and effort to find other ways of getting rid of

it.

 

I also combine these outside sources of mulch with my own compost,

weeds and other organic matter mixed through to achieve a great

result in my garden, and so all that it costs me is time and effort.

So what am I talking about? While some of the below list is delivered

free, other items I pick up myself, depending on time, circumstances,

importance etc.

 

Grass Clippings from other people in the area or from lawn- mowing

contractors.

 

Wood shavings from local wood turners and carvers, ( Do not use

shavings from treated timber).

 

Small amounts of solid fill from friends who are excavating. This is

to assist in raising garden beds, in my heavy clay soil.

 

Light prunings from shrubs which is shredded by me or put whole into

garden

 

Heavier sticks and logs, which are turned into trellis, garden

stakes, garden edges, seats, frames, log planters etc. while they

slowly decay.

 

Newspaper, cardboard, non-rubber carpet underlay, and even carpet and

carpet squares. Which is put under other mulch to prevent grass and

weed regrowth.

 

Animal manures sometimes mixed with straw from places like Racetracks

and Showgrounds, Pony Clubs, Stables etc. I contact them well

beforehand to see if any is available.

 

To this I also add my own weeds, throwing away some which can still

be a potential problem, or burying them below the bottom most layer

of mulch material to stop them regrowing.

 

Another item I add is any old potting mix from deceased plants or

when repotting plants.

 

Being a fairly lazy gardener, I throw the material around a bit at a

time, as they are available, and let nature mix them for me. On a

couple of occasions I have received a bit too much wood shavings so

these became path material between some of the garden beds, with a

heavy underlay of newspapers. People even tell me that it looks and

feels good underfoot.

 

Never put a large amount of fresh animal manure on any garden, as it

will burn any plant around it. Be extremely sparing or let it age

first for a few months before applying it to the garden.

 

I have been living in my new house for about fifteen months, and the

mulch layer in all my gardens (there were no gardens originally), is

about 10 cm or 4 inches deep. None of which I have paid for and

little that I have had to even pick up for myself.

 

People are even starting to comment on how fast the plants in my

gardens are growing in the local heavy black clay soils, and they are

surprised when I tell them that I have never bothered to fertilise

the plants. The reason for this is that the earliest laid mulch

material, is now broken down into plant nutrients and is now feeding

my plants as a plant nutrient soup aided by the soil life which has

suddenly started appearing in my gardens.

 

Another benefit that has started to appear in the last few months is

the arrival of insect eating wildlife into my garden. Predatory

insects and birds are now visiting my gardens on a regular basis,

where I saw none this time last year. Bees and butterflies are also

starting to visit many of the plants, which have come into flower for

the first time this year.

 

So what can you do to start locating your own supplies of free mulch

material, well here are a number of suggestions.

 

Put a little sign near your gate, something along the lines of

`Organic mulch required', or `Lawn clipping wanted'. There are sure

to be a number of local people who are currently throwing theirs away

in your community or even local area. Never mulch solely with grass

clippings as they form an impenetrable layer that air and water

cannot get through. Always mix it with other things to stop it

`thatching', just like a roof over the soil.

 

See if you can get into contact with local people who are into

woodturning and carving, or even local sawmills. And come to some

arrangement about unpreserved wood shavings.

 

Check the local phonebook for local showgrounds/racetracks/stables

etc, to find out if any have stable or manure waste to give away, for

people willing to pick them up.

 

In other words, start talking around the place that you are after

mulch materials and they will soon start coming to you.

 

The only caution with using other peoples waste material is the

chance that you might also import other peoples pests and weeds. I

have rarely found it a problem because of heavy mulch on mulch

routines. But it is possible.

 

One point being that when you first start applying mulch to your

garden you may see some nitrogen deficiencies occur in some plants.

This is because the organisms that are breaking down the mulch

material are using up all the available resources of it during the

initial breakdown. Once you have gotten past this time the old

composted material provide more than enough nitrogen for future

processes.

 

Another thing to be careful of is not to bury or mulch up against the

stems of wanted plants, as it may cause further problems for your

plants in rot problems around the collar of the stems and introduced

pests and diseases.

 

So get out there and talk around the community, find the contacts,

believe it or not they will be as grateful as you to solve their

particular problems of waste reduction. As well as that, you may

start making some new friendships out of the deal; I know I have.

 

List mom here: my father saves the wood shavings and uses them in his

garden!