Local: Northern Virginia: Free Mulch for Garden and Landscaping Projects at Fairfax County Parks

This weekend, as Jon and I were impatiently waiting for Baby’s arrival (and…. still waiting) we decided to take fate into our own hands. We decided that a “watched pot never boils”, and we were just too prepared. What we needed was a major project- one that would make labor really, really inconvenient. That would almost guarantee Baby’s sudden arrival! Things always happen at the least convenient time right?

We had put off landscaping for several months. Our gardens looked like a scene from a post apocalyptic movie. I had this deep rooted (and completely false) belief that I was a master gardner. After killing everything in the garden and being over run by weeds (for the second year in a row). Jon convinced me to clear out the gardens and just plant simple bushes and mulch to make our yard routine easier when Baby Groner does make his appearance.

Being the thrifty person that I am, I was concerned with the cost of this project. Jon’s a certified genius and he thinks large scale. When Jon Groner wants to do a little landscaping, he’s thinking water features, koi fish and rare orchids (all of which he mentioned when discussing this- Love him:) I’m thinking rip everything up and buy a box of mixed ground cover seeds at Costco.

Jon remembered that the Fairfax County Park Authority gives away FREE MULCH (I adore free!) at a bunch of their park sites. We went out and bought a pitch fork, borrowed a friends truck and got about $140.00 worth of mulch for free! We bought a few bushes, and ta-da! Maintenance free landscaping is done!

The Fairfax County Park Authority’s mulch is high quality, clean and double shredded. They also have leaf mulch in season. They have different drop off locations, that you can find by clicking here.

We got our mulch from Bull Run Regional Park at Old Yates Ford Road Clifton, Virginia 20124.
Because they distribute mulch as they have it to many different locations, you can call to double check that your preferred location is well stocked before you head out. You can check by calling 703-324-5995.

This is the mulch pile at Bull Run Regional Park:

This is a map of exactly where the parking lot is to get it: (They have many different sites- unless you live close to this location… click here to see alternate locations.