When you say mulch, do you mean wood chippings?

That's a really good question. I'll take pretty much whatever I can get. The wood chippings seem like a better option because they would take longer to decompose. But I'm really hoping to get pretty much anything that will protect the plants roots from high temperatures and hold moisture in. If compost would work for this, then I would be willing to use that too.

A few weeks ago I worked on a similar project - putting in native plants and mulching around them. We got a truckload for free from a local company that shreds tree trimmings and yard waste. There is nothing harmful to natives, but no matter what type of mulch you use, keep it away from the main stem of the plant by a few inches. The mulch covers the drip irrigation lines, so we had to be careful where we stepped when we spread it. You will need to weed consistently for a while, because virtually any mulch except rubber will have some weed seeds.

If your project is for a non-profit organization, you are more likely to get mulch for free. Have you contacted your local trash company to find out what happens to the stuff in the green bins? Tree trimmers may also have mulch, but they may charge for it.

I know this isnt exactly what you were asking, but around here (Sacramento) we can get free mulch from the utility company (haul it yourself). Also I've seen listings in the Pennysaver and on Craigslist where they will put you on a delivery list for a free pile. I did that once, but it was 10 cubic yards -- almost as tall as our garage!!!

Make sure they are the type of native plants that tolerate mulch. Some of them don't. California soil, redwood country excepted, is mostly very lean without much in the way of organic material. The native Oaks only tolerate native oak leaves.

I got a load of shredded stuff from a tree trimmer once and it wasn't worth it. The smallest pieces were in the 1-2' range and it looked awful. I left it to compost for a couple of years, but that didn't help. Never again!

Large tree service companies love to give you for free the remains of trees they run through their shredders. Then they don't have to take it to the dump and pay.
But they give you lots and sometimes the stuff they give you benefits from being run through another shredder to reduce the size of the wood pieces. Which is more work for you.
When I want wood chips I check craigslist for ads from people who got the wood chips delivered to their house and they got too much. Then I go see if the wood chips are ones I would want to use. Sometimes I don't want them. But sometimes they are perfect. There's a lot of variables involved in even getting free stuff.

I heard that eucalyptus in the mix would deter weeds but also slow plant growth. I have a free source for mulch from a major contractor with the city but was worried about eucalyptus in my rose beds. True or false about the eucalyptus being bad for roses, etc.

Thank you all very much for the responses. This is really helpful. Deep_roots, I like the idea of taking what I can get and running it through a shredder again. I don't think that this will be an option for this project, but I am going to investigate this anyway.

hoovb, thank you. That makes sense. I am really concerned about water use, in general, for this project and the survival of the plants with an irregular water regime. Most of the natives that I have selected should do well with mulch, but I am thinking that it might not be good for grasses. More specifically: Nassella pulchra. Do you have any thoughts on this?

lg_teacher, thank you for the recommendation. I will contact them and find out. I'm going to investigate getting a discount or donation on this since it is a volunteer project for a good cause.

In general, it sounds like I really would have to accept that free mulch could be a "grab bag" of pretty much whatever. Is there such a thing as free compost? I wonder if this might be a better option. Thank you all again for your expertise.

Hi Alex,

This year our city gave away free compost. My neighbor went and got some. So I went over to look at it and it was full of very small pieces of green glass. So I was glad I did not get any.

Getting wood chippings from tree trimmers is pretty easy. If you see them working on a street, they will usually be very happy to dump their chippings in your front yard. I have done this several times. And yes you never know what you are getting. Sometimes the stuff is chipped very nicely and other times you get a bunch of stuff in there.

Wood chippings can pull nitrogen out of the soil as they decompose, so some people add nitrogen to the chippings. One time I got some chippings and it made everything look horrible. I don't know what kind of wood it was, but it seems like it pretty much poisoned most of my plants. It took them over a year to recover.

Let us know what you end up doing.

Karin

I am sure you already know this is not the time to plant natives. Mulch or no mulch the first year, freshly planted they will need careful summer water to survive until the winter rain. West Covina is blistering in summer. I hope it works out for you.

hi hoovb, i sure do! the timing of this project is awful. i am trying to avoid using the most delicate types and sticking to tougher ones.

i am especially worried about the fremontodendrons, because they are fairly delicate but we'll just have to see what happens. luckily, the location where they're going in is semi-shaded so it will have some late afternoon protection from the sun.

Karin, i will probably end up using a cheap mulch that has been processed from a local mulch supplier instead of sourcing the material from an arborist. if i had more time to sort it out, i would have tried to find a really good free supplier for this, but as it is, i'm scrambling to get everything ready.