I’ve written several times about our garden.  We converted everything over to raised beds last Spring and haven’t looked back.  We’ve thoroughly enjoyed them, but they have remained “unfinished” in between the beds which has been a pain in the patooty.  It’s really annoying weed whacking in between, and sometimes crab grass and weeds from between the beds starts to creep inside.  We’ve been wanting to put weed barrier down and cover with wood chips for several months now, but the cost for bags of mulch has been holding us back.  That’s the ugly side of frugality.  Sometimes it means projects stay on hold for a while until you can afford them or you find another option.

Another option was what we went with in this case, and it paid off big time!

A few weeks ago, our neighbor was having a tree cut down in his yard.  We were out front doing some landscaping and I asked my husband what they do with those trees once they mulch them.  He said he thought they had to pay someone to dump the mulch.  My mind began spinning, like it often does.  I thought it would be a great idea to ask if we could do each other a favor and have them dump those wood chips in our backyard.  Free dumping ground for them and free mulch for us!  Win win!

My husband loved the idea and sauntered over across the road to talk to the tree trimmer.  When he returned, we got good and bad news.  The bad news was that the wood chips he had in his truck bed weren’t a “clean” load and he didn’t recommend that we use it.  The good news was that he agreed to call us when he got a good load and he would give us woodchips at no cost.  Sweet!

Well, weeks went by and we never heard from him.  Discouragement crept in and we were pretty sure he lost our number or decided against giving us the wood chips.  We patiently waited for either another opportunity or when we would have extra funds to buy bags of mulch.

Friday, we were in the backyard filling the last two beds with dirt, newspapers, and plants when we got a call.  We were getting free mulch!!!!  Yipee!  He hadn’t forgotten about us after all.

You see we had some bad storms last weekend, which knocked our area out of power for several days.  Trees were ripped up from their roots.  Homes smashed.  Power lines down everywhere.  It was certainly a tragedy for many people.  Thankfully we just had no power for a few days and some large limbs down.

This is one of our neighbor’s trees ripped up from the roots.  Yikes!

 

With the abundance of trees down, this tree removal company had been booming.  They were probably getting tired of paying places to dump the wood chips, so that’s whey they decided to call us.  Hey, we’ll take it!

The guy came and dumped this humongous load in our backyard.

You can’t tell very well but that pile is almost 5 feet tall!  It will last us a LONG while.

Umm…please ignore the pasty white legs, greasy hair, and cheesy expression. Mmmkay?  Thanks.

We spent all day filling our last two and half beds with dirt and compost, planting the rest of the summer crops, ripping out weeds in between the beds, laying weed barrier between the beds and laying down mulch.

I was so incredibly tired when we came inside from our long day of yard work, but look how nice it turned out.  I’m so excited about our low maintenance garden!  It’s been a two year process to get here, and it’s finally DONE!  Ahhhhh…it feels so good when you see a long project finally come to an end.  Such satisfaction.

 

 

So, how do you get free wood chips?  Get a tree trimming service to dump some in your backyard.  Yes it will be a LOT, so beware, but you are doing them a favor and they are doing you a favor too.

 

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