How Free Mulch Builds Soil and Community

A deluge of wood chips broke the ice with neighbors

I wanted wood chips to sheet mulch the back yard and to top up the front yard so I put in a request at ChipDrop. The service works like Tinder, connecting people searching for wood chips or logs with arborists working nearby and in need of a spot to dispose of their material. Residents receive quality wood chips straight from the source, delivered for free, and a pile of wood chips stays out of the waste stream.

I had hoped to score four or five cubic yards.

Approximately 20 cubic yards of wood chips

Benefits of free mulch

Retains water

Spread around the base of plants and on the soil, this mulch will help retain water—and just in time! Our first substantial rain of the season started on Wednesday. Although last winter’s 12 atmospheric rivers eased California out of the drought, we can expect to see more drought here as the climate heats up. Every drop of water we conserve now can provide water later.

Protects, enriches and aerates the soil

A barrier of mulch protects bare soil from erosion (and looks good). As that mulch slowly breaks down, it enriches the soil with minerals and nitrogen and aerates clay soil like ours.

Suppresses weeds

A three-inch layer of mulch around the native goldenrod last fall kept the weeds down all year long. The areas we didn’t manage to mulch last fall sprouted a blanket of weeds.

It’s free

Mulch from the landscape center near me costs between $40 and $80 per cubic yard, depending on the variety. Let’s say I chose something around $50 per cubic yard. My 20-ish free cubic yards would cost $1,000! And it would likely contain some debris. I haven’t found a single piece of plastic or other trash in our massive pile.

Where the mulch went

We topped up the mulch around the plants in the front, spread a thick layer of mulch at the side yards in the front and back, layered it on pots and raised hugelkultur beds… I’ve also piled it up next to the compost bins to use throughout the winter when brown matter becomes scarce.

Fall mulching

A layer of finished compost followed by a layer of wood mulch

I’ll likely grow black beans in the above bed next spring. My homesteading niece Danielle suggested I prepare a bed with wood chips for growing mushrooms. (Here’s an easy way to get started.)

Harvested Cherokee Trail of Tears black beans

Before requesting free mulch, make a plan

ChipDrop does warn that arborists may dump up to 20 cubic yards on your property. You have no say in the matter, drivers won’t deliver partial loads and you won’t know how much you’ll get until a truck arrives and fills your your driveway with wood chips, blocking your car in the garage like a snow day.

Luckily, we have a very active Buy Nothing group in my neighborhood. Within minutes of posting a picture of our massive load of wood chips in our group, several people responded to my plea for help. I also told a couple of neighbors to help themselves who told other neighbors.

A neighbor digs in

I have never chatted so much with my neighbors as I did that week we received our delivery. A few of them later dropped off fruit from their backyard fruit trees! I didn’t expect anything in return for the mulch—my neighbors had done me a huge favor by taking some—but really appreciated the fruit. (I made this simple applesauce with some of the apples pictured below.)

Just some of the fruit neighbors dropped off from their backyard trees

ChipDrop did not pay me to mention them in this newsletter. I simply love the service. If you live outside the US or haven’t had luck arranging a delivery from ChipDrop, try asking a local arborist for a load of wood chips. And remember leaves also make great mulch! Rake them up and spread them on your beds rather than tossing them (they emit methane in landfill) and then buying mulch.

Now that the initial shock has worn off and the pile has shrunk to a manageable quarter of its original size, I’ve decided I will definitely use the service again one day—but not likely for a couple of years.

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