I put out more wildflower seeds today and experimentally didn't mulch

[conuly]

So we'll see what we see. If the birds don't eat them all that tells me I can save on mulch. If they do, I'm gonna have to find something cheaper to stretch this mulch with, I guess.

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Comments

[rebeccmeister]

It seems like some municipalities have mulch supplies that are available for free to anyone who can go and get them. I have no idea if that's an option at all for you, but it's been great for me in a couple of the different places I've lived. They basically wind up with an excess because of needing to maintain street trees and whatnot.

[conuly]

Yeah, free compost pickup starts May 1 around here. In theory they limit you to one bag per household (so two for me, because I'll ask the person who drives me to register as well and then get their bag) but in practice they often let you take as much as you can carry, so we'll see what we see.

May 1 is a lot later than I like, but let's be honest here - there's no way I'll have planted it all up by then!

[rebeccmeister]

I feel like gardening winds up being a big experiment no matter what, so it will all be efforts in a positive direction!

[conuly]

If I don’t get something down to cover the ground it’ll all get taken over by ragweed within minutes. Again.

[rebeccmeister]

That is true! There's always cardboard? (not aesthetically elegant, but...don't take this as advice so much as sympathies for dealing with an unrelentingly vigorous plant!)

[bibliofile]

Around here the sity uses straw blankets to cover up grass seed, which you can tack down.

Plain straw is probably cheaper but may blow away? I am not a gardener.

[conuly]

Straw isn't that inexpensive if you have to order it online, it turns out. Not for the square footage of our yard.

I think I'm going to have to hope I can get a really big free compost haul.