My neighbor Bob made me rethink my whole approach to mulch last week

Bob's 73 and has been gardening since before I was born. He told me I was wasting money on bagged mulch from the big box store when the city dump gives away free wood chips. I laughed it off until he showed me his backyard with 20 years of that free stuff and soil that looked like coffee grounds. Now I'm sitting on a pile of free chips I hauled home in my pickup and wondering how much money I burned over the years. Anyone else get schooled by an old timer on something simple?

2 comments

2 Comments

nina_hall27d ago

Oh man, you make a really good point about the hidden junk in free mulch. I guess Bob's been picking through his pile for two decades and probably got lucky with his source, or he just spent years weeding out the bad stuff by hand. That kind of patience is rare, and I totally get why paying a premium for clean, consistent material feels like the smarter move for most of us.

henderson.kim27d ago

Hold up on that free wood chip hype. I tried that city dump stuff once and brought home a truckload of poison ivy roots, weed seeds, and some kind of fungus that killed my prize hydrangeas. Bagged mulch might cost more, but at least I know it's been heat treated and screened for garbage like bottle caps and broken glass. Bob's soil looks good now, but he's been at it for 20 years working that cheap pile into gold. Most people don't have that kind of patience or luck with free mulch. I'll stick with paying a few bucks for something that won't mess up my garden.