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GARDENER'S
READING ROOM
Fertilizers,
Pest Control and Soil Management
Organic
Gardening
Feeding
Mulches, Weeding Mulches
Used
properly, mulch can suppress weeds, enrich your soil,
hold
moisture, improve your soil texture, protect plant roots
from erosion and temperature extremes, and immediately
neaten your
garden beds. Used improperly, mulch can damage or even kill
some plants. Of course, that can be a proper use - if
you have
a weedy area where you want a bed next year, you can lay
down a huge layer of mulch to smother the weeds.
As
a rule of thumb, rhododendrons, azaleas, and blueberries
like
a light mulch - no deeper than about an inch. Most other
plants like a 2-3" mulch. Leave a little "well" around
your trees & shrubs, and go lightly around your perennial
crowns. Almost any organic matter - bark, compost, straw,
dead
leaves, cocoa bean hulls - can be used as mulch. Any of them
will protect your soil and roots and help hold down
weeds
and hold water.
For
some people, the most important consideration is appearance.
Do you love the woodsy texture of hazelnut
shells, the red-brown of freshly laid bark, the black richness
of compost? Then that's what you should get.  But
consider the difference between "feeding" and "weeding"
mulches. Compost-type mulches are "feeding" mulches
- they are the best for improving your soil's texture
and fertility. Top dress with 3" of Cedar Grove Compost
or Fertile Mulch. The worms will slowly mix it in for you,
making your underlying
soil blacker, richer, and more crumbly. In a hurry, or have
really bad
soil underneath? Mix 3" in, then mulch with 3" more-a
double treat. Cedar Grove is the blackest and richest-Fertile
Mulch is a little lighter. Both are available at Sky by the
bag, by the pickup, or delivered.
If
your biggest concern is weed control, you may want to
consider
using bark for your mulch. The feeding mulches tend to work
in more rapidly - bark and other coarser, high carbon
materials
will stay separate for a year or more.
Sky
has the medium fine and extra fine grades of bark in bulk
or bags. Chunky
nugget bark is available by the bag only. Also available
by the bag are some very fine specialty weed-suppressing
mulches:
hazelnut shells, cocoa bean hulls, mini nuggets, and more.
(Even lava rock or gravel can be used as a weed-suppressing
mulch-though obviously these do not improve your soil underneath!)
For maximum effectiveness, use a weed barrier underneath. If
you did not put down a protective mulch last fall, make mulching
part of your spring cleanup. Groom your beds, removing spent
foliage and new weeds-then put down a layer of mulch for instant
neatness, weed suppression, and soil protection.
By
Terri Williamson
Skylights Spring 2004, Vol 18, No. 2
Other
articles on fertilizers, pest control and soil management
Other
articles on organic gardening
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