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Mulch

Mulches: What You Choose Can Improve Your Soil!

April 26, 2020

Freshly mulched flower bed.

Spring gardening brings lots of planting and along with it, mulching. If you use mulch in your landscape, it needs replenishing every year. David Crouse, Extension Soil Scientist at North Carolina State University, notes that adding 1 to 3 inches of an organic mulch to your soil surface each year is one of the most important strategies you can use to improve your soil.

If you haven’t been mulching around your trees and shrubs, flowers, and vegetables before , consider starting as there are many benefits besides controlling weeds and making your yard look neater (see https://www.buncombemastergardener.org/what-why-mulching/
for a discussion of the many “pros” of mulching).

Which mulches are best for improving your soil?
Many of us in Buncombe County garden on clay soil and Crouse notes that “The best organic matter amendments for clay soils are pine bark (less than 1⁄2 inch in diameter) and composted leaf mold.”

Thus, Pine bark is an ideal mulch that doubles as a soil amendment over the longterm. Bark nuggets or “mini-nuggets” form an attractive mulch for many areas of the landscape and will help improve your clay soil over the years.

Pine bark mulch.

It is certainly a great idea to mulch with materials you have on hand, such as fall leaves, which will benefit from shredding before using as a mulch to prevent them from forming an unattractive, impenetrable mat that may actually keep water from reaching your plants. Shredding will speed leaves’ composting into leaf mold and enhance your soil texture.

Fallen leaves become leaf mold.

Amendments that do not improve clay soil
Note that there are several organic materials also used as mulches that Crouse recommends against using as soil amendments because they don’t help improve clay soil: hardwood bark, pine straw, and wood chips.

Pine straw mulch will not improve clay soil and is highly flammable, so not a good choice for use near homes.

                                     Article by Buncombe County Extension Master Gardener Volunteers

For more information:
David Crouse chapter “Soils and plant nutrients”:https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/1-soils-and-plant-nutrients#section_heading_7243

Pine Straw Advisory Warning: https://www.sunsetbeachnc.gov/vertical/sites/%7BA2C1D077-15B6-49E5-B8FD-53D65FA0DC5D%7D/uploads/Pine_Straw_Flyer_FINAL.pdf

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Categories Mulch Tags mulch, soil amendments, spring garden chores

The What, Why, and How of Mulching

February 23, 2018

Fall brings a flurry of homeowners and landscape companies adding mulch to trees and shrubs, perennial borders, annual flower beds, and vegetable gardens. At the same time, leaves are bagged or sucked up to be transported to some unknown end. Spring brings more mulching.

Mulched_jacki-dee_CC BY-NC-ND 2.0_Flickr
Freshly mulched garden

What is mulch?
Mulch is any organic or non-organic material you apply on the soil surface to enhance plants’ growing environment. Soil amendments differ from mulch because you dig or till them into the soil.

Organic mulches:

  • Living or green mulches: Low-growing carpet-like plants underneath taller plants.
  • Pine or grain straw: Widely used in low traffic areas. Grain straw is used in transitional and vegetable areas.
  • Grass clippings and leaves: Volume and texture varies with shredding.
  • Newspaper and cardboard: Heavy layers block weed growth, but also reduce the penetration of moisture and air and restrict soil life, such as earthworms.
  • Compost: Adds nutrients and organic matter in small amounts. Use with other organic materials.
  • Arborist wood chips: Aged chips provide some advantages to “fresh” chips, but both work well. As with other mulches, do not “dig in.”
  • Bark mulches: The most common commercial mulches are bagged or delivered in bulk. Quality of bark mulches can be inconsistent.
  • Sawdust: Not recommended because it can create a barrier to water penetration.

Non-organic mulches:

  • Rubber mulches: Last longer than organic mulches, but may be toxic to the environment.
  • Gravel and crushed rock: Often used as a design feature or for walkways, but may create too warm an environment for plants and can be difficult to weed.
  • Solid plastic sheeting: Specialty uses in vegetable gardens, but not recommended for landscape beds because water penetration is an issue. Most are not biodegradable.
  • Other landscape fabrics: Woven fabrics can allow water to pass through, but also can be problematic over the long term.

Why mulch?
In addition to reducing your gardening workload, properly applied mulch offers many benefits:

  • Saves water because mulch-covered soil stays moist longer and needs less irrigation.
  • Moderates soil temperature.
  • Controls weeds since fewer weeds germinate in covered soil.
  • Reduces soil erosion.
  • Adds organic matter and nutrients to the soil in small quantities.
  • Makes garden beds neater.
  • Reduces water splatter that carries soil-borne diseases.
  • Reduces soil compaction from rain.
  • Helps keep mowers and weed-cutters away from the trunks of trees.

 There is a downside . . .

  • Mulching can be expensive.
  • Mulches deteriorate over time, are washed away in heavy rainfall, and are scattered by foot or vehicle traffic.
Mulch volcanos can damage tree trunks and cause improper root growth.
Say NO to mulch volcanos.

Application guidelines

  • Use what you have: grass clippings, wood chips, leaves—compost or grind before application for great results.
  • Arborist wood chips from tree work are often available for free.
  • Check the origins of other mulch materials. Some may be dyed or contain contaminated wood. Look for local forest products.
  • Apply enough, but not too much! Mulching with 3 to 4 inches of most materials is sufficient. Use at least 6 inches of wood chips for weed suppression.
  • Keep mulch away from tree trunks and plant stems. “Volcano” mulch can cause damage to trunks or stems and cause improper root growth.

Bottom line
Enhance your landscape with proper mulching. You can create a richer and more efficient landscape using mulches!

 Article written by James Wade, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer.

Learn more
Mulch
by Clemson Cooperative Extension

Mulching the home landscape
by Susan H. Barrott
University of Minnesota Extension

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Categories Mulch Tags mulch

Should I Use Rubber Mulch?

July 7, 2014

This past week’s garden tasks have included the prep and thought of getting mulch spread.   Lots of mulch.   We have a pretty good size property and if the whole landscape were to get mulched at one time, it would take 25-30 yds of mulch.

Oh, my back aches!
Oh, my back aches!

My back just isn’t up to the task!   The most I have spread in any one purchase has been 10 yards…usually smaller loads, a little at a time.

If I were smart, maybe I should consider using more permanent mulch….once it’s down, maybe I’d have the job done for about 10 years!   By that time, I’d be too old to worry about mulch.

It seems that most all of the organic forms of mulch are only going to last a couple of years without having to be freshened it up.  So, I’ve done a little research on more permanent mulch…RUBBER MULCH.   Rubber mulch comes up on every internet search for permanence…Let me tell you a little about rubber mulches.   They are all made of scrapped car tires.   Of course, all of the positive things about rubber mulch are published by the folks that are trying to sell me on their product.

Rubber mulch professes to:

  • have no odor, looks like shredded wood
  • comes in numerous natural (or unnatural, i.e. Blue) earth tone colors

BlueMulch

  • be safe for plants and pets
  • controls weeds
  • not house or feed insects
  • allow penetration of water and fertilizers
  • be economical due to the permanence (definitely not due to initial cost)
  • be good for the environment, because no trees are cut down from using it
  • be good for the environment (270 million scrap car tires yearly that won’t go to the landfill)

With all of that being said, I should use rubber mulch, right?    Well, after thinking again (and reading several articles),

I’ve concluded that Rubber mulch:

  • does smell at higher temperatures
  • really doesn’t look like real wood up close
  • research (primarily done by Washington State University) shows that the chemicals that synthetic rubber are made of are toxic.  Aluminum, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, sulfur, and zinc have all been identified in laboratory and field leachates.  The chemicals leach into the ground, thus, the groundwater, etc., plus will actually kill the plantings.   More info on this is available from the following article:   http://www.theinformedgardener.com, written by Linda Chalker-Scott, Ph.D., Extension Horticulturist and Associate Professor, Puyallup Research and Extension Center, Washington State University.
  • studies have shown that mulch made from wood chips, have done a better job of weed control than rubber mulch.  Also, sawdust was found to be a better mulch for Christmas tree production in terms of weed control, microbial biomass, and soil chemistry.
  • isn’t really permanent…oxidation actually begins to turn them cloudy, white.   The manufacturers say to buy product with UV protection….MORE CHEMICALS, duh?
  • is very flammable and is hard to extinguish.  (Ever had a kid’s bottle rocket land in your yard? or had hot charcoal to get spilled beside the patio?)
Rubber mulch, shown flaming, produced the highest flames and temperatures of the eight mulches tested.. Courtesy of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Rubber mulch, shown flaming, produced the highest flames and temperatures of the eight mulches tested.. Courtesy of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Should I use rubber mulch?   I think I’ll go the organic route.   What about you?

Article written by Patsy McNatt, Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.

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Categories Mulch Tags inorganic mulch, organic mulch, rubber mulch

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