We’ve not had enough mulch for our gardens here, but I am working on solutions as we grow.

Mulch is the Swiss Army knife of gardening. In the garden, adding mulch:

1. Keeps roots cool
2. Adds humus to the soil over time
3. Retains moisture in the ground
4. Keeps weeds from emerging
5. Provides food for worms and other soil life
6. Keeps dirt from splashing on vegetable leaves

But mulch is not always easy to get. There are services like ChipDrop that help connect gardeners with arborists, but they aren’t always effective. Where I live, I’ve been signed up for ChipDrop for months with nary a single chip delivered.

Buying bagged mulch is expensive and not worth doing if you have a garden larger than a postage stamp.

So what’s a mulch-hungry gardener supposed to do?

In a recent video, I shared 3 ideas for keeping your garden mulched even when you can’t get free wood chips. If you have a decent-sized garden, you can get all the mulch you need for a few bucks (or less). But it does take a little work and planning.

Today I need to break out the Sudan-Sorghum grass seeds I’ve been saving and start planting them in all the empty patches I can find. Since I can’t easily get mulch, I have to grow it. I’ve raked up leaves for some places but there just isn’t enough. I think chopped giant grasses ought to do the trick, though!