No Need To Harvest From The Backyard: The Easy Way To Get Free Wood Chip Mulch

Trying to get a cheap supply of mulch for your flower beds to prevent weeds, slow water loss, protect your soil, grow healthier plants, and attract beneficial insects? You're probably already harvesting the leaf litter and other natural materials in your own backyard for this purpose. But there's another source you may not have considered, and taking advantage of it can also help keep organic waste out of the landfill. One of the easiest ways you might be able to score free mulch for your yard or garden is by contacting arborists or tree-trimming companies and asking for their wood chips.

If you've ever hired an arborist to trim or cut down a tree in your backyard, you may have noticed that they usually put the prunings through a wood chipper before driving away with the material. Maybe you've also noticed the power company tree-trimming trucks removing vegetation along powerline rights-of-way at the back of your property. Sadly, as mentioned, all those useful wood chips may end up in a landfill — unless the arborist can connect with a gardener who is willing to take them. Meanwhile, you're about $11 a bag for 2 cubic feet of bagged mulch or scrounging around in your backyard looking for fallen branches to run through a chipper. Clearly, gardeners seeking the best ingredients to use in a DIY mulch and arborists are a match made in heaven, at least when these two groups of folks can find ways to connect.

If you see an arborist working in your neighborhood or trimming trees below the powerlines near your property, take the opportunity to ask them to drop their load of wood chips in your yard. Some local tree trimmers advertise on their websites that their chipped prunings are free to anyone who wants them. Alternatively, you could ask the other gardeners in your neighborhood if they're aware of any local programs for sourcing free chipped tree trimmings. Then there's ChipDrop, a website that allows gardeners to receive free loads of wood chips from professional tree pruners working in their neighborhood. ChipDrop operates in many locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Benefiting from these easy, free or inexpensive deliveries of wood chip mulch will mean you'll no longer have to harvest branches to chip yourself or buy expensive bagged mulch.

Once you receive a truckload of wood chips, you may end up with more mulch than you know what to do with. You only need a 1- to 2-inch layer of mulch for most garden beds, so if you get a large delivery from a local arborist, you'll likely have plenty to go around. You could share your haul with other gardeners in the area, or you could look around your yard for novel ways to use the material. In addition to using wood chips to cover soil, you can also use them to create walkways through your backyard. You can even use wood chip mulch as a budget-friendly driveway edging idea. Remember that it's best to apply mulch in early spring or fall. And when you're mulching around tree trunks, the pile should resemble a donut, not a volcano.