The City of Denver is giving away free mulch and selling compost this weekend at locations across the Denver metro area as gardening season arrives.

On Saturday, Denver residents can collect free mulch while supplies last at four locations:

• Havana Nursery, 10450 Smith Road, Denver
• Bear Creek Park, 3550 S. Raleigh St., Denver
• Veterans Park, 2100 E. Iowa Ave., Denver
• Sloan’s Lake Park, 1700 N. Sheridan Blvd., Denver

Customers should bring their own shovel, rake or other necessary material to load mulch into their own mode of transportation. Loader service is available at the Havana Nursery.

The mulch is made from Christmas trees collected through the Treecycle program, an annual program that collects recycled holiday trees and turns them into mulch. 

The city is also selling discounted compost at participating Ace Hardware locations across the Denver metro area from Friday through Sunday.

Customers can buy EcoGro compost, which is processed from food scraps and yard waste Denver compost customers put in their green carts every week,  for $5 per bag with a limit of 10 bags per customer.

The City and County of Denver aims to divert 50% of solid waste from the landfill to recycling or composting facilities by 2027, according to the 2022 Sustainable Resource Management Plan. 

Through Denver’s compost program, Denver residents divert about 13,000 tons of food scraps and yard debris from their households each year, according to the news release.

Denver is expanding its weekly compost service to all residents in phases beginning in July as part of added services introduced this year, including free weekly compost and recycling collection, according to the news release.

To learn more about the mulch giveaway, visit denvergov.org/mulch and to to learn more about the compost sale, visit denvergov.org/compostsale.