Where to Get Free Lawn Chips

Landscaping and lawn care can get expensive. Luckily, there are plenty of free gardening resources out there if you know where to look, and they can provide you with free wood chips, as well as compost, seeds, mulch, and plain old dirt.

Where to find free chips

Most major cities in America have resources like ChipDrop that help arborists find people who need wood chips. You can offer a tip, but this is not required and you will still receive free chips. You can also tell ChipDrop which chips you need and which you don’t.

It’s worth remembering that this is a free service, so you don’t get bagged dyed mulch from the nursery (which on its own isn’t a very good mulch). On this day, on your way home, you cut down trees from your truck—there are many—and drop them in your driveway or street. Since they are sweeping the street in search of brushwood and leaves, they also sometimes come across a little garbage, but this is insignificant and again free of charge. If you can’t use all your chips, neighbors often pick them up, or you can pay up front by posting them online for someone else who needs them.

If ChipDrop isn’t your thing, or you’re worried about 10 yards of wood chips in your yard, you can call local arborists and get on their list – they always want to unload wood chips too. (Otherwise they’ll have to pay to dispose of them to keep you working symbiotically. You get free chips, they save some money.)

If none of these options exist for you and you want to do something like sheet mulching your lawn (because lawns suck ), you can always get some windblown mulch or packaged material. It’s better than nothing, but will cost you money.