Rising costs for bark mulch are no reason to forego this beneficial garden helper. Instead of redlining the plant plan or even tightening their belts, clever gardeners look for treasure troves of free bark mulch. If these resources have dried up, our list of 20 affordable sources will get you on the right track. Find out here where and how you can get bark mulch at a bargain price.
Treasure pits for free bark mulch
The first point of contact for free bark mulch is sawmills in your region. Before processing, felled trees are cleared of bark, which accumulates on the site in large quantities. Municipal composting facilities and landfills experience a similar situation during the peak season for tree pruning. Primarily in spring and mid-year, the deposits of bark mulch are bursting at the seams. In many cases, people who collect their own items are welcome here without having to pay a fee for the shredded tree bark. Furthermore, private gardeners or associations make significant calculation errors when calculating requirements, so that mountains of excess bark mulch accumulate and get in the way.
The circumstances mentioned generate a whole crowd of generous donors who give away the organic material to those who collect it themselves. The green sponsors usually make their intentions known on social networks and on free classified advertising markets:
- ebay classifieds
- Quoka
- Findix
- Willhave.
Due to the variety of possible uses, free bark mulch is often sold out within a few hours or days. The sooner you have the information, the better your chances of being one of the lucky beneficiaries. It is therefore advisable to activate an appropriate offer alert. It is also advantageous to use your own search ads to indicate your interest in free bark mulch.
Note:
Do not underestimate the amount of bark mulch required. The mulch layer should be at least 10 centimeters high so that weeds are reliably suppressed. For a bed measuring 1 square meter, the requirement adds up to a whopping 100 liters with a weight of more than 30 kilograms.
Cheap sources of supply
If all efforts to obtain free bark mulch come to nothing, the focus is on inexpensive shopping options. The focus is on providers who shine with low prices all year round, garnished with seasonal special offers. Budget hunters among home gardeners also have their sights set on the sporadic bargains from remaining stock markets. This customer-friendly circle includes garden-oriented, wood-specific and non-industry suppliers alike. The following list is based on the experiences of price-conscious hobby gardeners and would like to make you more aware of how to successfully determine the best possible source of purchase for inexpensive bark mulch. The overview is divided into location-based and online providers who consistently stock bark mulch as well as points of sale with time-limited promotions, each in alphabetical order:
Permanently in the range (location-specific)
- Hagebau hardware store (approx. 540 branches)
- Hornbach hardware store (approx. 160 branches)
- Composting facility from city or municipality
- Obi hardware store (approx. 680 branches)
- Recycling yard/recycling yard urban or municipal
- Sawmill of the region
Permanently available (online provider)
- Amazon.com
- Ebay.de
- Holzpellet.com
- Hornbach.de
- Hood.de
- Manomano.de
- Obi.de
- Pflanzmich.de
Offered sporadically (location-specific)
- Center Shop, post seller with numerous branches
- Repo Germany with currently 70 branches
- Thomas Phillips, remaining stock seller with a dense branch network
Sporadically on offer (online provider)
- Ebay classifieds, private and commercial sellers in your area
- Thomas-Phillips.de
- Retourenking.de
Please always keep the transport costs in mind when making your selection. A regional provider may be awarded the contract even if the actual product price is higher than the competition. In order to purchase bark mulch at the cheapest price, it depends on what you have to pay in the end. For a comprehensible comparison, simply use the calculator and determine the final price per liter including VAT.
Rent a trailer and pick it up yourself
A smart move on the way to unbeatably cheap bark mulch is to collect it yourself. If you have a vehicle with a trailer hitch, the effort of renting a trailer with a tarpaulin is worth it in most cases. The following calculation example demonstrates the background:
1 pallet of bark mulch (60 x 40 l) 2,400 l for a purchase price in the hardware store of 230 euros (free curbside delivery)
Sparfuchs alternative:
- 2,400 liters of loose bark mulch from the composting plant (4 EUR/100 l) for a purchase price of 96 euros
- Trailer rental for single-axle vehicles with tarpaulin for 4 hours at a price of 30 euros
- Savings compared to buying a pallet: 230 euros./. 126, - Euro (96, - + 30, -)=104, - Euro
If the time window of 4 hours for the return journey is too tight, this option is still worthwhile. As a rule, the trailer rental price for 24 hours (returned the next day by 3 p.m.) is 37 euros, which only reduces the savings calculated above by 7 euros. Increased fuel consumption for a more distant source of supply is not taken into account.
Tip:
Despite all the joy of free or cheap bark mulch, you should not miss an important care measure before spreading it. In the first phase of the decomposition process, the shredded tree bark removes nutrients from the soil. By fertilizing in advance with compost, horn shavings or plant manure, you can effectively prevent the deficiency.
Bad smell reveals poor quality
You should ignore the saying “you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” when it comes to free or unbeatably cheap bark mulch. Bad or foul smell indicates inferior quality. While a small proportion of foreign matter in the form of green compost and wood chips or an irregular grain size is certainly acceptable, a musty, putrid smell is an absolute exclusion criterion for any mulching material. Even a layer height of just a few centimeters causes more harm than good in your garden. Mold and rot contaminate the soil and cause severe distress to soil organisms. Don't be afraid to leave the supposed benefactor with rotten bark mulch or complain about the third-rate slow seller from the cheap provider.
