Garden Mulch: Make Your Own with a Chipper Shredder

If you want better soil, fewer weeds, and less watering, garden mulch is one of the best tools you can use. The good news is that you do not need to keep buying bags of mulch. With the right chipper shredder, you can turn branches, leaves, and other yard waste into homemade mulch that feeds your garden, improves the soil, and cuts down on waste. That is exactly what we have done for decades in our perennial gardens on Manitoulin Island.

Key Takeaways

Homemade garden mulch can suppress weeds, hold moisture, and build richer soil over time.
A chipper shredder turns branches, leaves, and garden waste into useful mulch.
Heavy mulch works especially well in perennial gardens because it reduces maintenance.
Surface-applied mulch does not need to be dug in to improve the soil.
Making your own mulch can save money and keep nutrients on your property instead of sending them away as waste.
Avoid using walnut waste in mulch because juglone can inhibit plant growth.

Mulch works because it copies the way healthy ecosystems protect the soil. In forests, fields, and hedgerows, the ground is rarely left bare. Leaves, twigs, and organic matter cover the surface, helping hold moisture, protect soil life, and steadily add nutrients as they break down. Garden mulch does the same thing in a more deliberate way. When you keep the soil covered, you reduce weed pressure, protect against drying out, and create better growing conditions over time.

My wife, Mary, and I have been gardening together for almost 40 years, and one thing I’ve noticed is the tremendous value of mimicking nature in specific ways. Mulching is perhaps the clearest example.

How to Make Your Own Mulch from Garden Waste

One of the best ways to keep a garden healthy is to turn your own yard waste into mulch. Branches, leaves, perennial stalks, and many kinds of trimmings can be chipped or shredded and then spread directly over garden beds. This keeps nutrients and organic matter on your property instead of sending them to the landfill or the curb. It also gives you a steady supply of mulch without the cost of buying bags every season.

Why a Chipper Shredder Is Worth It

A chipper shredder is not just a cleanup machine. It is really a garden productivity tool. It reduces bulky yard waste into a compact, useful material that can be spread where it is needed most. It can also make the whole property look tidier because branches and cuttings no longer need to sit in piles waiting for pickup. If you garden seriously, a chipper shredder can be one of the most useful outdoor machines you own

Mulching can also let you close the nutrient and organic matter loop when it comes to making use of the branches, leaves and nutrients that every yard produces, turning troublesome waste into a valuable resource. That’s what we do at our place and it all comes down to an outdoor machine called a chipper. Watch the video below to see one in action, then let me tell you more about mulch.

For perennial beds, a generous layer of mulch works best. We maintain more than a thousand square feet of perennial gardens at our country home on Manitoulin Island, Canada, and these gardens never get tilled or dug. We don’t have to wrestle to keep the weeds at bay because the constant layer of 3” to 4” of compacted mulch we maintain on the soil prevents weeds from ever growing, though that’s just one of the benefits. The important thing is to keep the mulch on top of the soil rather than digging it in. Surface application protects the ground immediately, and natural breakdown gradually improves the soil underneath and virtually eliminates weediing work. This was especially valuable during the 2024 ardening season because my wife was in hospital for almost two months, with me with her at the hospital. Despite getting no weeding or care to speak of, our gardens look almost as good as usual.

Retaining water and constantly increasing nutrient and organic matter levels are another advantage of a continuous cover of mulch. Simply put the mulch on top of the soil without digging it in, and you’re done.

This garden is one of many at our Manitoulin Island home. Heavy, ongoing mulch means the little ecosystem here is in a kind of balanced, steady state. Except for deadheading off the old blooms, our gardens like this can go for weeks and weeks without any attention and no weeding. Without heavy mulch, the story would be very different.

One Important Warning About Walnut Trees

Walnut waste needs special caution when making mulch. Walnut trees contain juglone, a natural compound that can interfere with the growth of other plants. If readers have no walnut trees on their property, this is not usually a concern. But if they do, it is worth being selective about what goes into the chipper shredder and what gets spread onto garden beds.

Real-World Benefits of Mulching

If you added it all up, most of our gardens have digested a total of two or three feet of solid, compacted wood chip mulch over the decades and it shows. The organic matter content of our perennial garden soil is a whopping 8%, compared with the 3% organic matter levels in the same soil in our pasture fields that have not been mulched. Nutrients also take care of themselves with constant mulching (we never fertilize and yet have big, luxurious plants). Then there’s moisture retention. If we experience a rip-roaring drought in our area (and we do sometimes), our mulched perennial beds are the last to show the strain. Mulching also offers another benefit, one that lightens the load on landfills.

A vital key to making mulch a regular part of your gardening life is having a ready source of mulch. Many people buy bags of mulched cedar bark or other materials but there are two problems with this. First, bagged mulch is expensive, especially given how much is required for even a small garden. And second, bagged mulch does nothing to stop the outflow of nutrients and organic matter leaving your yard and property and going to waste. To make something different happen you need something to produce mulch from the varied sources of garden waste you produce in your yard. This is one reason they invented a gas-powered machine called a chipper/shredder.

Here I am using a chipper/mulcher to transform ugly garden waste into useful mulch.

Take tree branches, leaves, plant stalks, pine needles or any other kind of garden waste, feed this into a chipper/shredder and out comes finely chopped organic matter for your garden, ready to use. It’s a great thing. This is why some people call chipper/shredders “fertilizer machines” because they make unusable sources of garden waste into something you can apply to your garden and benefit from. Easy to roll out and handy to use, chipper/shredders can boost your gardening self-sufficiency and success. There’s no way we would ever have the gardening results we do without a constant 3” to 4”-thick layer of mulch.

Homemade Garden Mulch FAQ

What is the best mulch for perennial gardens?

A heavy organic mulch works very well for perennial gardens because it helps suppress weeds, retain moisture, and build soil over time. Homemade chipped or shredded garden waste can be an excellent option.

Can I make mulch from my own yard waste?

Yes. Branches, leaves, plant stalks, pine needles, and many other forms of garden waste can be turned into mulch with a chipper shredder.

How thick should garden mulch be?

A compacted layer of about 3 to 4 inches is a strong practical target for perennial beds. That is enough to suppress weeds and protect the soil well.

Do I need to dig mulch into the soil?

No. One of the benefits of organic mulch is that it can simply be spread on top of the soil. Natural breakdown and soil life will do the rest over time.

Is homemade mulch better than bagged mulch?

Homemade mulch can be better in many situations because it is cheaper, recycles nutrients from your own property, and gives you a larger supply for bigger garden areas. Bagged mulch is convenient, but it does not close the loop the way homemade mulch does.

Can I use walnut branches and leaves for mulch?

Use caution. Walnut contains juglone, which can inhibit the growth of other plants. It is best not to use walnut waste in garden mulch unless you are sure it will not affect the plants you are growing.

Is a chipper shredder worth buying for gardening?

For people with a yard, trees, shrubs, and garden beds, a chipper shredder can be very worthwhile. It reduces waste volume, makes useful mulch, and saves repeated spending on bagged products.

Besides the horticultural benefits, a chipper/shredder also makes it easier to keep your yard looking tidy. You can reduce the volume of garden waste by a factor of at least 10 by shredding and chipping, and you can do it as you produce the waste. No need to stockpile ugly heaps of branches, cuttings and clippings until the municipal pickup day happens, assuming it happens at all.