How to make, buy and use mulch

Mulching is the surest step anyone can take to promote faster, easier, and more vigorous growth. A layer of mulch lets the soil soak up and retain moisture longer. Soil temperatures stay more even, earthworm and bacterial action increase, and weeds are less of a problem. Mulch can help minor erosion problems you may be having in your garden by actually slowing down the runoff on minor slopes. If you go out into the woods and examine the ground, you’ll see a perfectly mulched garden. On the surface of the ground are leaves from previous seasons in various stages of decomposition, and beneath them is beautiful dark, rich soil. Mulching material varies widely, and it is important to keep in mind what is growing in the area that you are planning on mulching and using the best material for what you are trying to accomplish. Remember that mulch is always decomposing, and furthermore it is often disturbed in the course of weeding and planting, during which mulch is worked into the soil. This is great if you’ve chosen a mulch material that returns organic matter to the beds because you are mulching and composting at the same time.

Mulch types

One of the cheapest and most readily available mulches are leaves. If you do not have many trees on your property to give you an ample supply of this mulching medium, you will find bags and bags of them at the curb of your neighbors that do, who won’t mind you taking them off of their hands. Take the leaves into shrub beds at the edge of the lawn. Autumn leaves tend to mat heavily, though, and can smother some ground covers and perennial plants. Chopping up leaves with your lawn mower will lighten up this kind of mulch as well as help them to break down quicker into your soil.

Some Popular Plastic Gardening Sheets

Many people use black plastic in vegetable gardens for killing weeds or to use as a foundation for paths and walkways which will then in turn be covered with a more attractive substance like bark or gravel. If you use it in a bed, make a few holes in it so rainwater can flow through, unless you’re using one of the new plastic sheeting materials that are perforated with small holes to let moisture seep through to the soil. These are convenient, though perhaps a bit messy looking. To avoid matting like in the use of autumn leave mulch, chop up the grass you are planning on using a few times with you lawn mower. Be aware though that grass clippings decompose very rapidly and can also burn many plants, so don’t allow them to touch the stems of vegetables and flowers. Also never use clippings from a lawn that has been treated with broad leaf weed killers. Pine trees generally shed their old needles after they’ve been on the trees for a few years, so you can find the needles lying on the ground in abundance. Pine needles make a beautiful mulch for ornamental gardens, especially around evergreen shrubs. Keep in mind that pine needles are very acidic and will change the PH-levels of your soil. Keep pine needle mulch around your acid loving plants like azaleas and rhododendrons. Shredded bark is an excellent mulch, particularly for shrubs and trees, and one that is readily available. You can buy it in bags at a garden center, but try to get it delivered in bulk if you are mulching wide areas. Lay down shredded bark about three to four inches thick. The bark weathers to a natural grayish brown color over time. The best wood chips are the ones whose branches, twigs and bark have all been put through a chipper, because they look much like the litter on the forest floor and contain more nutrients.

Some Wood Chip Options

Know where your wood chips are coming from though. If you are collecting them from an area that a neighbor just had a tree cut down, find out why was the tree cut down. If the tree was infested with a pest like a termite, you will introduce that pest to your garden. If you put down a mulch of small stones or pebbles several inches thick, you can suppress most weeds and provide a nice dry surface for plants whose foliage can rot if it lies on moist ground. Stones are most preferred in contemporary or Japanese-style settings.

When mulching goes wrong

Though the benefits of mulching far outweigh its drawbacks, it is important that the gardener know what can go wrong with mulching. Mulching can keep the soil too cool or moist. In the cool climates, when you want the sun to warm up your garden so plants can begin to grow, mulching will delay this. Withholding mulching until the ground is warm helps solve this problem. Mulching can also cause plants to rot. Plants that are sensitive to winter moisture may rot and die if water collects around them. Seeded areas cannot be mulched. You must wait until the newly planted area has growth tall enough so that the mulch will not smother them. Woody mulches such as chips can impoverish the soil. Wood chips deplete the soil of nitrogen while they are decomposing. Watching your plants to see if they are losing their green color is a sure sign that this is happening in your garden. Using a nitrogen rich fertilizer will help curtail this problem.

The advantages of using mulch

How you use mulch is a combination of trial and error and common sense. Some gardeners use mulches so religiously that they claim they never even have to till their gardens. Experimenting with several mulching materials that are readily available and inexpensive is a great way for the beginner gardener to figure out what works best for them and the type of area they are trying to mulch. Your local nursery or garden center will offer a wide variety of mulch. Good luck!