Every year, in spring, our town dumps huge piles of either compost or mulch, FREE for the taking, in the public pool parking lot just down the road from us. People swarm there with trucks and bags and buckets and shovels and recycling bins - you name it!!! The only thing NOT allowed are professional landscapers "stealing" what is there for the residents to use, with tractors or dump trucks. (of course there is always that ONE who thinks he's above the rest and doesn't have to abide by that - like the tractor guy yesterday who made several trips while we were there!!! :mad:)
Anywho... each time I noticed that they had dumped some compost this year, I couldn't find the time to get over there before it was all gone! BUT... yesterday there was a NICE sized pile of rich mulch for the taking and Don was home to help too!!!
So, off we went in our 2 cars to fill up the trunks with large black bags of free mulch. When we were into the 4th bag or so, Don bent down to pick it up and [size:17pt] [color:#333333]YOUCH he pulls his back out seriously!!! OHHHHHHHHH the pain of it! Didn't stop him from helping me get a total of 16 bags in 2 trips with the 2 cars. I ended up carrying them all to the pile on the driveway - afterall... I was the one who wanted it in the first place! He held the bags open to make it easier for me to shovel the stuff into - that was a help in itself!
Now I just have to prepare the areas where I'll put this nice mulch, but am waiting for it to cool down a bit more this week - I just can't go out there today in the 90* weather we've been having the past several days! [/size] [/color]
Starbucks does free coffee grounds? How could I not know that? Lynn, I hope Don's back isn't too bad and he gets better soon, and congrats on all that nice free mulch! I don't think anyone around here gives out free mulch. You can buy some from the zoo. They call it zoo doo, and it's a bit pricey.
Owie, sympathy pains for Don, feel better quickly!
Lynne bring some black bags to summer camp. I'll show ya' a pile of woodchips, some smi composted. I dont know who actually owns it but everyone takes it for free.
Wendy - I posted about those rocks in my pond thread - go have a look-see?
His back is a bit better - he's been taking it easy this weekend, but frustrated that he couldn't work on the pond!
Thanks all for you comments! I used the first 5 bags under a bush today - posted about it in my Ahhhhh thread about bushes in the shrubs and trees forum, in plants and flowers.
It's growing!!! The pile of bags on the driveway that is!!!
This morning, bright and early, we went back to the pool parking lot in hopes to fill some bags with compost this time - we had driven by last night and saw that there was still some left after having been there for 2 days. This time we managed to get 20 bags!!! They were only 1/2 full, but even at that I couldn't even budge them - Don had to do all the lifting, and he took it very carefully and slowly this time.
Here's the new "decoration" on our driveway - like it? :wink:
I've already used 3 bags in my veggie gardens, and 4 bags in the new garden under the white birch tree where I pulled out the ugly bushes. The rest will be saved for the new gardens on either side of the pond.
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