Mulch protects tender roots from temperature extremes and can help retain soil moisture during dry spells. Google “mulch,” and you’ll get all sorts of conflicting, headache-inducing advice. I opt for cheap and easy instead of paying top dollar for the premium options. Here are a few ideas for how to find your mulch match this fall.
Bagged Leaves: Leaves make some of the best mulch. They easily decompose, are full of nutrients, and people just leave them on the curb, packaged and waiting for you. This is a cheap option, but one that works best for someone with a truck, van or car with a large trunk. You’ll want to load the leaf mulch pretty thick and wet it to keep it in place. Leaves don’t stay tidy, either—they’re going to scatter away from their intended target. This might be a good option for more of a cozy garden than a formal one. Try to stick to a familiar neighborhood so you can avoid the yards with dogs.
Wood Chips: I skip wood chips from the gardening stores because most are dyed. To me, it seems silly to dye brown wood a different brown color. It’s also relatively expensive to buy the bagged wood chips. Several local landscaping companies have good deals on a truck bed of wood chips ($10–15 per load). If you’ve got a truck (or a friend with a truck) and a small- to medium-sized garden, this could be your best option. I’ve been told that some tree cutting companies will dump large loads of chipped wood at a property for free. I’ve called and asked, but never received this mulchy treasure trove myself. I also chip my own wood with a Yardmax chipper. This is a great option for me because I can make clean goat and chicken bedding all winter long. The chipper helped process the 31 pine trees I cut down on the farm. If you’ve got a big project, I highly recommend borrowing or renting one. Be sure to read the instructions and wear safety glasses. It’s easy to imagine losing a finger or hand to such a fast, hungry machine.
Cardboard: Cardboard works well as an insulator and weed barrier. It’s easy to find free options otherwise headed to the recycling bin. Cardboard can work by itself, but it’s best used with another mulch on top to hold it in place and make it look prettier. Halfway decomposed cardboard sloughing off and littering pathways made my garden look trashier than I liked. For veggie gardens, you might want to stick to plain brown cardboard with only black ink. White cardboard is bleached, and colored inks come from a variety of chemicals not tested for their composting safety. National Certified Naturally Grown standards ask growers to only use brown cardboard with black ink to avoid any possible chemical contamination. Whether you wish to follow those guidelines or not, I would suggest removing any stickers, tape and staples from the cardboard. Picking them out of the soil months or years later can be gross and annoying. Also, be certain of your cardboard mulch placement. Cardboard takes a lot longer to break down fully, but only needs a few rainstorms to start coming apart in your hands. I’d suggest laying down more mulch instead of moving any cardboard positioned a few weeks on the ground.
Unusual Items: If something can be thrown into a compost bin, it could work as mulch. Right now, I’ve got pounds of coconut flakes covering the front porch garden. My husband, who works at Creature Comforts Brewing Co., brought the coconut home after it was steeped in this year’s Koko Buni. We’d like to know if the flakes could work as mulch for the garden, but decided to experiment on the ornamentals first. I’m excited to see how fast the coconut rots and if it adds much to the soil. So far, the malty smell of the garden bed promises many a tasty dinner for the Joros waiting above. Any materials that rot relatively fast (avocado peels or eggshells, for example) are a bad bet for indoor plants, especially if applied on top as mulch. Rot will attract fruit flies or other insects—great for a compost pile, not so great for your coffee table.
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