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.
Mulch or no mulch?
I had a conversation with a neighbor tonight about mulch. Do you use it? Or do you think it's bad for your garden? And if you don't, what do you use?
Re: Mulch or no mulch?
yes, I use wood and leaf mulch. it helps prevent evaporation, keeps down weeds and enriches the soil. i'm not sure how an organic, degradable mulch (ie, not shredded tires) could be bad for your garden. i use mulch in both my ornamental & veggie beds.
eta: just saw your location! I grew up there!
Was your neighbor talking about chemically treated mulch or something?
I am not a big fan of that, and prefer natural products if at all possible. I also won't use it anywhere near my vegetable garden.
I saw some artificial mulch used in a vegetable garden demo at the Home & Garden show recently and it started a lot of conversations there. Some people said they wouldn't ever use mulch in their garden & I couldn't help but wonder if that was part of their reason.
PHOTOS REMOVED
so... where do you get your mulch? i used straw a couple of summers but i don't like how it doesn't really break down in a way that feels "additive" for the soil.
I use mulch in my flower beds to keep the weeds down between plants, but i don't really mulch my veggie beds.
In the veggie beds, I put down newspaper and then put grass clippings on top of the paper. The grass breaks down releasing nitrogen into the soil like a natural fertilizer. The newspaper helps keep down weeds. I till everything in the following year and add compost if necessary.
Not OP, but the only "bad' things I've heard/can think of about mulching in the garden are:
*Putting the mulch too close to plants/trees can burn the plants.
*If the bed is close to the house, mulching too close to the house can attract termites. (I've also heard that this is not true. So who knows.)
*Around here, the free mulch that is available can have weeds in it. I actually got more weeds the first year I used the free mulch than in the areas I didn't mulch. But that was specific to a particular, poor mulch.
Awesome! I don't love it here, but it works.H grew up there, though.
My neighbor said that the mulch is not necessarily good because of the dyes they use to color it. He also said that it, at first, "soaks up" the nitrogen in the soil. Eh. We get our mulch free from our complex about 2 times a year, and I use leaves the rest of the time. I'm not running out to replace the mulch with other things. I was just curious to see what the popular opinion was here.
I've started using recycled rubber mulch for my flower beds. I've found it to keep its color and certainly does not decompose like typical mulch does. It also seems to be keeping bugs out more than usual. I usually order it from gempler's online. Here's the the link: http://www.gemplers.com/search/mulch
Hope this helps!