Mulch is one of those garden purchases that doesn’t seem expensive until you calculate how many bags it takes to cover an entire landscape. A 3-inch layer across a 100-square-foot bed requires roughly 25 cubic feet of material, so even modest gardens can consume plenty of bagged mulch. Yet free garden mulch may already be falling from your trees, coming out of your mower, or sitting in a pile after you prune shrubs. The University of Minnesota explains that organic mulches can reduce evaporation, suppress weeds, protect soil from erosion, and add organic matter as they decompose. Before buying another stack of bags, take inventory of these five materials you may already have.
