How to Grow Your Own Mulch (So Easy!)

This page may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more here.

Ever wondered how to grow your own mulch? If you’re into no-till gardening, deep mulch gardening, or permaculture gardening in general, this question has likely crossed your mind.

Let’s be honest: mulch is getting more expensive to buy. In my area, the price of straw for gardens has almost doubled. That adds up quickly, especially if you have a large garden or homestead. So, it makes sense to figure out how to grow your own mulch if possible.

Why Use Mulch in Your Garden?

Mulching your garden is one of the easiest, most effective ways to improve its overall health. Since I started using mulch in the garden, things have gotten much easier! 

Mulching can help with:

• Moisture Retention: Mulch helps the soil stay hydrated by reducing evaporation. This is especially helpful if you have hot, dry summers.
• Temperature Control: It keeps the soil temperature steady, protecting your plants’ roots from extremes.
• Weed Suppression: Mulch smothers weeds, reducing or even eliminating them altogether.
• Soil Health: Organic mulch decomposes over time, enriching the soil with nutrients.

Discover more about how I use mulch in the garden!

Why Grow Your Own Mulch?

Growing your own mulch has some of its own benefits as well! 

Growing your own mulch means less money spent on garden supplies, leaving more room in your budget for other things (like seeds, tools, or a celebratory garden tea party!)

What is Mulch?

In simple terms, mulch is any organic material or plant matter that covers and protects the soil. The main types of mulch can be broken down into three categories:

1. Living Mulch

Living mulch consists of live plants grown as ground cover. Examples include low-growing herbs like chamomile, mint, and thyme. While this type of mulch offers unique benefits, it’s quite different from non-living mulch. If you’re interested, check out my blog post all about living mulches!

2. Brown Mulch

Brown mulch is typically a carbon-rich material like wood chips, straw, or fallen leaves. It’s excellent for weed suppression because weeds struggle to grow through the thick, dry layer. However, brown mulch can draw nitrogen from the soil during decomposition, so you’ll need to make sure your soil is fed well.

3. Green Mulch

Green mulch, on the other hand, is nitrogen-rich. Think of it as the “greens” in your compost pile—grass clippings, chopped plant material, or fresh hay. This type of mulch decomposes quickly, enriching the soil. However, it can also provide a fertile place for weeds to grow.

Which Mulch Should I Use for My Garden?

For the best results, I recommend a combination: use green mulch near your plants and cover it with brown mulch. This approach balances nutrients and minimizes the risk of weeds. When I do “chop-and-drop” mulching, I lay the green materials under existing brown mulch if possible. If needed, I simply top it off with more brown mulch.

How to Grow Your Own Brown Mulch

Growing your own brown mulch can be easy! Here are some of my favorite sources:

Deciduous Trees

Deciduous trees are fantastic for producing brown mulch because their leaves naturally drop in the fall. 

Ideally, plant deciduous trees on the north side of your garden so the leaves fall where you’ll use them—less hauling, more mulching!

If you already have deciduous trees on your property, you’re in luck. Otherwise, consider planting varieties like oak, maple, or ash for a long-term mulch source. Some people worry about oak leaves because they’re slightly acidic, but I’ve never had issues as long as the leaves are used as a top layer and not tilled into the soil.

Wood Chips

Using wood chips as mulch is one of the most common ways people mulch. If you have fallen limbs and branches, you can make your own wood chip mulch.

While running branches through a wood chipper is ideal, most of us don’t have access to such a large and expensive machine.

However, William from Permaculture Apprentice offers a practical alternative: pile up your woody material and use a chainsaw to cut through the pile. He advises allowing the pile to mature for a couple of years but I think you could use it right away if needed.

This method is a resourceful way to create mulch without specialized equipment.

Straw

Straw is a traditional choice for brown mulch. Straw’s thick, dry texture makes it great for smothering weeds. You can grow it by planting cereal grains like wheat, rye, or barley. 

Keep in mind: To use straw, you’ll need to thresh the grains to separate the seeds from the stalks. This can be labor-intensive without proper equipment.

While straw is a fantastic mulch, it’s not the easiest material to grow unless you already have a small-scale farm setup.

How to Grow Your Own Green Mulch

Now, let’s dive into green mulch—fresh plant material that’s rich in nitrogen and perfect for nourishing the soil. Here are some of my favorite plants for green mulch:

Comfrey

Comfrey is a powerhouse mulch plant, and here’s why:

• Comfrey grows incredibly fast, meaning you can harvest it several times in a season.
• Its leaves are rich in potassium, calcium, and other essential nutrients.
• Comfrey is also deep-rooted, which means it mines nutrients from the subsoil, bringing them to the surface.

I also love comfrey as a medicinal herb, so it has many many uses at my house!

To use comfrey as a mulch, chop the plant back to its base, then layer the leaves around your garden beds.

Clover

Clover is a great choice is you want to grow your own mulch because it’s perfect for improving your soil. It’s a nitrogen-fixing plant, meaning it takes nitrogen from the air and adds it to the soil through its roots. 

When you use clover as mulch, it keeps releasing nitrogen as it breaks down, helping your plants grow.

To mulch with clover, just chop it and drop it around your plants. White clover is usually too short for this, but red clover is hardy and grows well almost anywhere. 

Crimson clover is another great option because it grows thick and provides plenty of material for mulch.

Bonus: Clover also brings in pollinators to your garden!

Borage

Borage is one of my favorite plants, and for good reason! In permaculture, we love plants that serve multiple purposes, and borage does just that.

Its deep roots pull nutrients like calcium and magnesium from deep in the soil, storing them in its leaves. When you use borage as mulch, those nutrients go back into the soil, naturally enriching it.

The flowers are edible and a favorite of bees, making borage a win-win for your garden!

Rhubarb

This one might surprise you—it surprised me—but rhubarb can be used as mulch! Its huge leaves provide excellent soil coverage, and since rhubarb is a low-maintenance perennial, it’s super easy to grow and care for.

If you’re not using rhubarb for its stalks, you can dedicate it completely to making mulch. If my rhubarb comes back this year, I’m definitely giving it a try!

Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is a versatile plant with a lot to offer. Its thick stems and broad leaves make excellent chop-and-drop green mulch, adding organic matter to the soil as it breaks down. 

I love Swiss chard for its mild flavor and its ability to thrive through the warmer summer months. Not only do I have greens all summer, but mulch for the garden too!

 As a bonus, Swiss chard is easy to grow, thrives in various conditions, and its vibrant stems add a splash of color to your garden!

Nasturtium

Nasturtium is one of my all-time favorite plants to use for green mulch. It’s a fast grower that spreads quickly, giving you plenty of material for your garden. It self-seeds so it grows back year after year.

Both the leaves and flowers are edible, adding a peppery kick to salads, so it’s as useful in the kitchen as it is in the garden.

To use nasturtium as mulch, simply chop back the foliage and flowers and spread them over your garden beds. It’s an easy, productive plant that works hard for you!

Yarrow

Yarrow is a nutrient-rich plant that makes fantastic green mulch. Its leaves are full of minerals like phosphorus and potassium, which enrich the soil as they break down.

For the best results, chop and drop yarrow around trees and shrubs to provide a slow-release nutrient boost. It’s an easy way to support healthy growth in your garden!

Final Thoughts: Grow Your Own Inexpensive Mulch

Growing Your own inexpensive mulch is easy and a great idea for saving money. With these ideas in mind, you can create a sustainable, self-sufficient mulch system for your garden. Not only will it save you money, but it will also help your garden thrive naturally—just the way nature intended!

What do you grow that you can use as mulch?