How to Get Free Mulch!

One of the most costly aspects of garden projects is the endless bags of mulch needed to tamp weeds down in pathways, edging or even to help fill in raised garden beds!

My current garden, which I finally finished setting up earlier this year, consists of 3 wooden raised beds with a thick layer of mulch covering the land. I started with store-bought, buying 5-10 bags at a time and being repeatedly shocked by how small an area each bag seemed to cover. Then I heard about Chip Drop!

Chip Drop: https://getchipdrop.com/

Chip Drop is a free and easy to use site that connects arborists with those in need of wood chips for mulch! Here's how it works, when an arborist is hired to remove a tree/trees from someone's yard, that material is then chipped down and sometimes sent to dumps where the arborist has to pay to drop. By making a request on Chip Drop you're throwing your hand in the air to say "You can drop it off at my house for free!" Chip Drop even allows you to put up a donation amount for the arborist as incentive! I put up $20 for my request, which is far cheaper than the amount I would have paid for the same amount in bagged store-bought mulch, which would have easily been several hundred dollars!

Chip Drop also asks you to fill in an easy questionnaire where you can specify the kind of chips you're looking for, although being picky in this case often means waiting longer for an arborist who can meet your requests. The questions included topics such as "would you mind if your drop came with some logs/branches?", "Would you mind if your drop came with leaves?" 'Would you be okay with any type of wood?". I personally made no specific requests besides selecting "no logs' and my drop came in about 5-6 weeks, included lots of twigs and leaves but I'm very pleased with it! The site also has a neat feature where you can see a local map of where chips have been dropped recently and how long that person waited for theirs, this can give you a good idea of your expected wait time.

So don't buy mulch people! Its FREE!