You don't have to buy it if you want wood chip mulch. The tree trimming companies will gladly dump it off for free! I called my electric coop CVEC and they dropped off two huge loads last fall.

Mark

and so for those of us who have OG&E what do we do?

just pull out the yellow pgs & call some tree trimming companies?

That's what I would do. I'm always reluctant to do that, though, because some of the trees they use are diseased, etc., and I've heard of people getting diseases, bacterial or fungal, in their yards from using that mulch. There are companies that offer good mulch, like cypress or cedar (I don't use cypress anymore because of the depletion of the cypress stands), at a very, very reduced price by the truckload.

Also, you can go to HD or Lowe's and ask for their broken bags of mulch at a reduced price, too.

Susan

ohhhhhhhhhh good idea - hadn't thought about that

Sorry if this is off-topic, but I have a small garden that will probably need mulching in the next two weeks. Would it work to use half-mature compost as a mulch? What about plain old grass clippings if I haven't treated the lawn with any chemicals? I'd just like to avoid any extra expense.

I would think that the half manure compost might burn your plants but someone more knowledgable than me would know for sure on that.
I have used grass clipping for mulch in the past but by the bunper crop of grass in my garden the next year I suspected getting grass seeds in my garden so I quit doing that.
Some people just use newspapers as mulch...shredded or just folded and lay it in around the plants but it doesn't work for me as it dries out and blows around since we get a lot of wind.
I use wood chips for my mulch but there are a lot of things which work. Why not just do a Google search and see what ideas you come up with?
Good luck with your new garden.
G. M.

Droogie,

With the half mature compost, I think whether or not it will work would depend on what is in the compost. Grass clippings work fine, but as G. M. said above, they can lead to a garden full of grass if they contain grass seed or weed seed.

If you want to try the grass clippings, lay down several layers of WET newspaper (you can wet them after you lay them down) and then immediately cover the newspaper with grass clippings before it dries out and begins to blow around. As a bonus, the newspaper will attract earthworms and they will eventually turn it into earthworm castings.

I have a chipper-shredder and can now make my own mulch, but have used everything you can think of in the past, including old hay, straw, chopped oak leaves, grass clippings, finished compost and bagged, purchased hardwood mulch. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

Dawn