Thank you very ‘mulch’: Clean North hosts soil-friendly giveaway

Gardeners capitalized on a great deal in the east end this morning as Clean North hosted its annual free mulch giveaway next to the George Leach Centre.

Volunteers with the non-profit helped load the soil-friendly material into more than 30 vehicles between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Saturday.

“We’ve had people coming every year and they really look forward to getting our mulch here,” said Bill Cole, board chair and project leader with Clean North.

“Mulch helps retain moisture around your plants so they don’t dry out,” he explained. “It’s important to try to pile the mulch so that it doesn’t pile up on the bark of shrubs and plants, so you kind of want to make a ‘donut’ or ‘volcano’ around your plant.”

The chemical free and natural gardening material is especially effective for plants like azaleas and rhododendrons as the conifer mulch has a low pH and is slightly acidic, according to Cole.

It will also manage and hold down weeds temporarily.

Clean North’s mulch was all donated through its Christmas tree depot. The organization collects hundreds of trees between Christmas and mid-January before they get chipped up and converted into mulch.

The project leader said that process is great news for the environment.

“All these Christmas trees aren’t going into the landfill,” Cole said. “When they’re buried, they release methane, which is a several orders of magnitude greater greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.”

“Diverting anything we can from the landfill for productive environmental uses is a win-win,” he added.

Any mulch left over from today’s giveaway will be donated to Harvest Algoma.

Readers interested in volunteering for future Clean North events can click here.