Have you mulched your leaves yet? After spending years raking up those fall leaves, I got pretty tired of having a second set of leaves fall from the Oak trees. I decided to make short work of the job by using my mulch mower and ran the mower over the leaves, which mulched them all and enriched my lawn happily at the same time. The lawn may not be as neat and tidy, but it sure will be happy having all that extra fertilizer on it, and it will be even happier next spring, and so too will you! Go mulch those leaves!
Source: Gardeners around the globe
By karen from Davis, CA
Hello !
The problem with using tree leaves is that some trees protect themselves from the concurrence of others trees or plants or from the concurrence of their own seeds that could root close to them. To avoid this they produce toxins which can be in their roots in their branches and in their leaves and will enter the soil to make it toxic for germination. One of the best at this is the walnut tree and others of its family like the Black walnut, pecan, hickory, Carya, Engelhardtia, Juglans, Platycarya, and Pterocarya. The toxin produced is called juglone. I covered a very young palm tree with walnut tree leaves to protect it from frost and found it dead in the springtime. It is also advisable not to eat walnuts collected when their green skin has already started decomposing and rotting as the Penicillium mold which causes the decomposing produces a neurotoxin called Penitrem A, which is dangerous for human and livestock when juglone isn't.
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I broke away from using bagged mulch this year. I have three new sources for wood chip mulch: the local park service, the power company tree trimmers, and landscapers who cut down trees.
Everyone complains about catalogs and how they clutter up their mail boxes. I say bring them on! I use them as mulch under my trees and bushes.
If you garden, buy mulch now! All the garden centers and other stores that sell mulch in bulk bags, have them on super sale right now. I just bought 5 bags (1.5 cubic feet each) of mulch for only $5! It's usually $2.79 a bag, so this is close to be only a third of retail. Yay, me!
Save your back, save time, and make leaf and debris cleanup much easier! Simply sharpen your lawnmower blades and then start mowing over the leaves. Don't use the bagger. You won't need it.
When you mow your lawn, take the grass clippings and use as mulch on your flower and vegetable beds.
I ask my neighbors to give me their grass clippings after they have mowed their lawn. They leave me bags of clippings that I use as mulch around my flowers and vegetable plants.
Mulch can do so much to make a garden look fine, but it's so expensive! I've found that a request on your local FreeCycle group (www.freecycle.org), will work wonders. There is almost always someone in your area who has had a tree cut down and chipped and wants to get rid of the chippings.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
Can I get a load of mulch delivered for free?
Hardiness Zone: 9a
By annette from Kissimmee, FL
I got a whole truckload delivered to my yard. The power company was 'servicing' the power poles, trimming all the tree's away from wires etc. I pulled over and asked them what they did with the shredded branches and leaves etc and they had to take it to the land fill, my house was closer.
Try contacting a tree service for free mulch. Here in the D/FW area of Texas, it costs $500 to haul the chippings from an average size tree to the landfill (according to our tree service guy). They are thrilled to have a place to dump usable mulch and it saves our landfills, too. It's truly a win/win for everyone. (We can even specify how finely we want it ground!)
The same goes for dirt/landfill. Here in Florida they dig holes for pools a lot. You can ask for the truck load of dirt and if you're closer than the landfill, it's yours.
Can I use grass clippings for mulch in my flower beds?
Hardiness Zone: 5a
By chris from IN
Yes as long as the grass clippings do not contain grass that has gone to seed. If it does, well you'll have a lot more grass.
Also avoid using grass that has been treated with chemical weed killers. It might stunt your flowers.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
With winter fast approaching, we need to concentrate on protecting our treasured flower gardens. In a pinch, if I don't have adequate mulch to use on every flower bed,
