The Orchard is covered in mulch...and it was all free!

It all began with a quick stop on our way home one afternoon, to ask the local power company tree trimmers if they were looking for a place to dump their chipped mulch.  In fact, they were! They agreed to drop their next load at our homestead as it was a lot closer than where they had to drive to dump it. Later in the week, they brought a second load.  We spread those two piles all across our new orchard area, but even with 2 full loads, we didn't have quite enough to cover the entire orchard and what we did have only covered a few inches thick. But it was a start and that was last Spring.

 Fast forward to a new year and the same tree trimmer crew was working our area again, so we stopped to ask if by chance they could bring us some more chips.  They remembered us and where we lived so they brought more!  We are currently spreading our 9th load this year, so a total of 11 full loads of mulch since last spring.  The entire orchard is now about 8" thick and we have also added mulch to the yard surrounding our raised beds.  It's been a lot of work spreading all this mulch, but wow!  What a difference it makes for our dogs to be running around on top of mulch rather than the clay mud we call a yard this winter!  The house is much easier to keep clean and will make such an improvement when the Spring rains hit.

The front yard still has a small grassy area so we'll have a little green come Spring, but the side yard has now become a field of mulch.  The side yard was mostly all clay so any rain made a mucky mess out of it.  Grass didn't grow as the seed would wash away and the weeds would take over so quickly the seed didn't stand a chance. We are hoping the mulch will break down with time and give us some decent topsoil.  But for now, while it's a bit out of the norm to have a mulched yard, it looks so much better than it did and it will help hold in the moisture this summer when the hot sun bakes down on our raised garden beds. 

And the best part - it was free!  So, if you need some free mulch, stop and talk to any local tree trimmers you see.  They just might be looking for places to dump them so it's a possible win-win for both of you!  Be sure to ask if they've chipped Walnut trees.  Those chips are not great for other trees or plants and actually might kill them. 

Another great resource for some areas is to sign up for Chip Drop - you never know when they will show up so read their terms and make sure you are okay with their policies before you sign up.  Here is the link if you are interested:  Chip Drop