Gardening & Landscaping
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Alternatives to mulch?
Does anyone have any suggestions for alternatives to mulch for flower beds? For some reason my DH is dead set against mulching our flower beds and wants to use rock. I have been doing some research and am not really fond of the idea of using rock. I've been googling like crazy and I'm not really finding any alternatives so I thought I'd try here to see if anyone has any ideas.
Re: Alternatives to mulch?
2011 AthensGAHalf official time: 2:33:31
Ze Blog
What's his issue with mulch? I mean, it's good for the plants. It's used so much b/c it's beneficial, cheap, easy to use, etc.
and you're right, rock is totally a PITA.
but you have to move the rock everytime you want to plant/pull something up!
Tell him the Nesties say that mulch is better
Rock, to me, is a bigger pain than replacing mulch. As pp said, any time you want to plant or add something to the soil you have to move many pounds of rock. And the rock on the bottom will be coated wih dirt, so you have to be careful when you replace the rock because if the dirty side shows, your rock bed will look blotchy and weird. You don't want to have to wash rocks every time you plant.
And leaves and twigs get worked into the spaces between the rocks that you can't get out with a blower--they have to be picked out by hand.
And disappearing mulch isn't a bad thing--it's added nice nutrients and texture to your soil, improving it. Rock never makes your soil better.
I think this is probably the best thing to take back to your DH. Rock is going to look awful eventually after it gets filled with leaves, twigs and weeds. Then what? I had a dry stream bed at a house once and had to clean it out every so often. Trust me when I tell you that its not less work than spreading a few new bags of mulch.
My former boss had gorgeous gardens. I worked in her home so I saw them everyday!
She used pine straw instead of mulch. I always thought it would change the ph of the soil, but she claims she's never had an issue. Her house is back in the woods so the straw really completed the feel she was looking for.
I hate rocks in my garden, unless they are the large boulders that add interest.
I agree that they are hot and heavy, and impossible to work with if you have plants.
I think if I lived in a desert, I might go for rocks and cactus, but in my climate, there's no way I would put rocks down in my yard. I'm constantly planting more stuff and I would want something that adds nutrients and retains moisture.