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Gardening in Oz

Free mulch

20 years ago

My local council, Cabooltureshire are now advertising free mulch available from the council tip, apparently made from recycled paper and cardboard.

Will be handy for me - I have lots to mulch. Anyone know the benefits/drawbacks of using this kind of mulch?

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Comments (6)

User
20 years ago
I don't really see how there could be a down side to it. Many of us are using newspaper or cardboard under our mulch to suppress weeds. I would use some blood and bone and water well before spreading. Then water again after spreading to stop it blowing around. The definite benefits is that you won't be getting any weed seeds in it and of course that it is FREE!
Cheers,
Dee.
goldhills
20 years ago
Wish they did that when I used to live down there.
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I've been picking up truckloads of this compost for 3 years after laying a 6 inch layer on my sweet corn bed as mulch 3 years ago....one day I moved some of the top layer aside and was blown away at the millions of redworms that had moved up through the bed and began to congrigate in the top layer of this compost as red worms are wont to do. I've experimented with this compost and all I can say is redworms freek out when you give it to them! They will devoure a 3x3 box 5 feet tall filled with this compost in 4 weeks! Leaving about 3 feet of worm castings behind, crazy stuff. I had brandywine tomatoes all year long this year and still have huge tomatoes coming in in the middle of January.
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In Orange County residence can get up to a pickup truckload of the compost that they make from the yard waste. Now we usually got it from the transfer stations but it isn't always available. That stuff is pretty well broken down and looks mostly like black sandy dirt. However there will always be some chunks in compost (acorns, bits of sticks, and the bits of the garbage that people seem to insist on putting into the yard waste bags.) Yes, I always find bits of glass in the compost as well as other bits of non organic stuff that people rake up with the leaves and put out with the yard waste. I have also gotten mulch from one of the Lake county landfills. That stuff is big and chunky shredded yard and tree waste. We really like it when we can get a tree service to dump wood chips at our place. Use those all over the place (who cares if it is a bit too chunky, it's free.) It all breaks down over time.
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Jennie60
20 years ago
Our local council, Baulkham Hills, will mulch your prunings etc free, but you have to take it to them and then haul it back again. Pretty impossible without a trailer. It would be much more useful if they mobilised a wood chipper to do it on the spot on your own nature strip.
robyn5760
20 years ago
Here in Ballarat, the council cuts lake weed from Lake Wendouree and it is free. It isn't too bad - absolutely no weeds! At the same place you can get manure, a mixture of pig, sheep and cow manure, but both you have to shovel yourself.
cestrum
20 years ago
Does anyone know of any cheap mulch out Ipswich way? I'm paying $7 for a bale of sugarcane mulch; problem is, I'm (v. slowly) converting grass to a no-dig garden, so need *a lot* of cheap mulch.
Larsman
20 years ago
Here on the Gold Coast we get nothing. Good news is that hopefully the whole lot of 'em will be sacked soon.... Sorry don't know anything about gardening, including mulching.....

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