shopmom,

I have used free mulch from our city department many times and never had any problems wth it. (termites not a big problem here though...that I know of) I use it in my flower gardens and beds to keep weeds from running rampant.

I know tons of people that get their mulch this way and have never heard any complaints.

If they deliver it, even better!!

I would check with someone in your area about that knows more about termites though...

good luck!
quasky

hello shopmom and quasky,

I bought compost from our green recycle center ($4 for 1/4 ton p/up full), spread it all over my yard. It was beautiful, black, earthy stuff.....filled with nut sedge seeds. I did not know any better, now I do.

Free coarse mulch from the city, that sounds great. Stay away from the compost or black tarp it to kill seeds (maybe). Might not be and issue in your area.

"Free delivery"-if you pay your taxes, it is not free, you are just getting a tiny bit back of what you paid in.

grow, grow, grow,
-Ethan

Thanks for your replies :)
This is more of freshly chippd limbs and trees.
Its still very light colored as if it had been chipped that day etc..
It wont match my pine straw..but I will use it to fill my huge wooded lot to block weeds etc..?

They also sell non toxic stain now for $25. I could stain it if it looked terrible?
but it may turn dark?

It will turn darker for sure. Don't make more work for yourself that you need to!

Good Luck!

quasky

That is a great idea. I was wondering how I could mulch under my spruce tree to keep the thistles down. Does this stuff blow around in the wind. Its incredibly windy here...
Any how thanks for the tip!

Normally I would say it doesnt blow around. But after reading here, I think some places must be a lot windier than GA?
Like a leyland would never blow over here?

I would compare this free mulch to the red mulch people buy so much here.
Not as large as bark mulch.
But its not as long and strand looking. Its more like chips.

I think I will call them up and let yall know how it goes :D

I have gotten free wood chip mulch twice, once from the electric company when they were cutting limbs near me and I chased them down...they were grateful for a place to dump it. Another time (and just recently) my neighbor had two trees trimmed back and the company doing so were also grateful to have a place to dump the chips. Both were light colored as you would expect from newly chipped wood but the chips I spread early last year have darkened considerably. Termites are a problem here so I don't put the chips in beds against the foundation of my house but use it freely in beds that are in more remote areas of my yard. I am into free mulch. Although wheat straw isn't nearly as pretty as pine needles, etc, I recycle free wheat straw bales when business owners abandon them after the fall season is over. I hope to fill the blanks in my beds of perenniels with annuals so the straw mulch is mainly hidden by mid summer.

Our county has free mulch piles, but you have to go & load it yourself-if they would deliver, I'd be all over it! My neighbor says she got some funky stuff one time & it's true, there may be the occasional piece of plastic or large debris in it, but it's free! I use to go load it up in recycling bins & bring it home, but I started a compost pile a year ago, grass clippings, veg waste, & shredded leaves-now I have my own compost to use. But the free mulch is great-they're recycling all your neighbors' trimmings!

City of LA has free mulch, and I used it exclusively in my raised garden last year. 6 inch steel studs, 10x10 and pure mulch. I have never had better results before. Only drawback was the shear number of earwigs that invaded/bred in the garden. Lots of natural pests in there, but used some soap and stomp methods, and all was good.

Many years ago, we took advantage of FREE MULCH from our city or county..Never again..we ended up with so many weeds that next spring on top of poison ivy/oak..Not saying that bagged mulch can't have the same..I don't know how this product is processed, except by what the city/county runs through that shredder equipment,just like utility co. trim trees to keep the wires off power lines..One of my gardening friend collect leaves from her neighbors who have put them out for city pick-up and she invested in a shredder and sometimes goes through as many as 30 bags of leaves which she uses as mulch. She does not buy any other mulch to my knowledge. It makes great compost and when it breaks down is nutrients for her plants which are always beautiful!

We get free composted leaf mulch from the city, dark and pretty good, except for the occasional piece of trash we find in it. No bugs, weed seeds or much of anything to complain about. We always put it on in the fall and with a layer of mushroom compost under it, by spring we have awesome soil.

They also have wood chips, and we get that too, to put on our beds in the spring and summer. When we use fresh wood chips we always make sure to fertilize as they can pull nitrogen out of the soil as they decompose. Best is to get partially decomposed chips but that isn't always available. There has never been a problem with poison ivy wood in there, tho I have heard of that with fresh chips from the utility companies, who will sometimes dump their trucks on your property for you if you ask. The stuff we get looks so much like cypress mulch when it is on the garden that we have stopped buying the bagged stuff altogether.

They load it in our truck for us but there is no delivery.

On the other hand, we got some free stuff from another city source once that was awful, it was dead. When it got dry, it was hard and cracked, no life to it at all. It took a couple of years to get the stuff to where it had any good organic matter back into it. Besides, we had to load it ourselves. Never went back there.

Sandy