Free Mulch & Compost

Went out for my afternoon walk today, and passed a house where the owner was taking down a Halloween display they had set up on their porch. Among the things he had sitting there were 2 bales of straw, and 3 pumpkins. I greeted him, and asked what he was going to do with them - he said he was going to set them out for the trash. I told him I would love to have the straw for garden mulch, and I could compost the pumpkins if he did not want them.  He wanted to know where I live, and I told him I could get my truck when I get back home and pick up the items. But, he said he wanted to finish the job and would deliver them since I was only about 2.5 miles away. After a brief conversation, I continued my walk and got back home about an hour later. There, sitting in my driveway was 2 bales of straw, 3 pumpkins, and a basket of "gourds". There in the basket he called "gourds" was a Baby Hubbard Squash, and a Delicata Squash under a half dozen decorative gourds. Needless to say those squash will be eaten and not composted!

Ash, and ye shall receive....

Lucky you!  Your title should have been:  Free Mulch, Compost & FOOD.

My church decorates on Thanksgiving with pumpkins and I always leave my contact info.  They have called because I usually tell them I will compost the pumpkins. In the spring, I stop by the church office with a harvest of greens.

What a score!!

I too have collected extra bales after Halloween and Thanksgiving. Its such an awesome source. Another method to get mulch is to send an email to your local arborists/tree trimmers or removers and volunteer to host a pile in your driveway.

I scored a free bale of bedding straw and 4 pumpkins after Halloween for the compost pile. Plus some perfectly good winter squash. Free is always good. :-)

Our son's in-laws have several prolific citrus trees. Five years ago, when Ed married into their family, I saw all that beautiful rotting citrus under the trees, and asked what they did with it. When they said it just went into the garbage, I asked if I could have it for compost.

At the time, we were the poor, rural relatives and they were the rich folk. I can only imagine how they felt about boxing up their garbage and sending it to our place, and what they must have thought when I got excited about getting all that compost to help start our new pile.  

Now they know we aren't poor -- just eccentric -- and we all get along just fine (including our thriving compost pile). The free compost comes over on a regular basis and we all get along just fine.

countrynaturals wrote:Now they know we aren't poor -- just eccentric -- and we all get along just fine (including our thriving compost pile). The free compost comes over on a regular basis and we all get along just fine.

 
Love it!  When I asked our neighbors about us getting the vegetable pulp from their juicing operation they thought I was crazy -- I may be crazy, but they didn't know that gardening preserves my sanity!  But, I showed them the compost that resulted from all of that pulp, they were amazed. I now get 5 gallons a week of vegetable pulp, and the compost tumblers love it!  And, to think, all of that pulp used go down their garbage disposal!

OhioGardener wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:Now they know we aren't poor -- just eccentric -- and we all get along just fine (including our thriving compost pile). The free compost comes over on a regular basis and we all get along just fine.

 
Love it!  When I asked our neighbors about us getting the vegetable pulp from their juicing operation they thought I was crazy -- I may be crazy, but they didn't know that gardening preserves my sanity!  But, I showed them the compost that resulted from all of that pulp, they were amazed. I now get 5 gallons a week of vegetable pulp, and the compost tumblers love it!  And, to think, all of that pulp used go down their garbage disposal!

I guess we don't have to be crazy to garden -- but maybe it helps.