A Little Landscaping Makes a HUGE Difference Plus Some Stars In the Garden

I can hardly believe tomorrow is the first day of August! Where has the time gone? What have I been up to? Well, I've been busy as always but what is very different for me is not blogging. I have to be honest, I haven't missed blogging either. I did not expect that and really don't want to lose my 'scrapbook of activities and gardens-called the blog' so I am trying to still put up a post or two while I go through this phase. In addition I do try to post things on my professional page found under Coach In the Garden on Facebook. Today's post is what I did this weekend-worked on my daughters property! 

Mr. Fix-it and I traveled to Louisville to visit my daughter (Liz) and new granddaughter (Everleigh who is four months old). Whenever I get together with Liz our activities include gardening. No big surprise there right? Both of my daughters garden and my older son likes to garden, though he doesn't do much. The younger son (the Jimster) refuses to garden outside. Something about icky spiders and dirt and heat. Ha! You all do know gardening is dirty right? And hard work? I don't really blame Jimmy at all but for the girls and I the benefits of a beautiful landscape far outweigh the discomforts of getting there.

Liz purchased this house last June and as a housewarming present I promised I would do a landscape design for her. The landscape design is completed and over the past year Liz has been slowly implementing the design in stages. It is hard to do this when you are pregnant and have a newborn so the going has been s-l-o-w for her. Much too slow. Enter Mom (garden helper) and Stepdad (baby duty) and some changes miraculously happen-overnight. Or so it seemed to the neighbors who were all quite curious as to what the hard working ladies next door were doing in the yard.

We started by collecting a ton of rocks (four small trailer loads) from an undeveloped part of the subdivision (with the developer's permission of course). The rocks match her house perfectly, are an awesome garden edger, and were FREE! Rocks are very expensive to purchase so if you can find a local source where they are usually very happy to have you haul them away then you should take advantage of it. Once we had a load of rocks we began laying cardboard on the garden to be. Liz had been collecting cardboard for a long time and had plenty to do the job. It is best to spray the grass prior to laying down the cardboard with a weed killer if you have the time and can safely do it without damaging nearby plants. In our case most of the grass had been sprayed but not all. This is not a big problem and it is still okay to cover the grass without spraying, but the grass will take a bit longer to die completely. This is not an issue if you don't plan to plant anytime soon (within two or three seasons). In Liz's case she is in no hurry. One more note, if you plan to plant a lot of perennials you might wish to use paper bags or newspapers in place of the cardboard. Cardboard is a bit tougher to cut through when planting but it is not an impossible job. I personally prefer cardboard under shrubs and paper under perennials.

Be sure to cover all grass thoroughly. Liz was pretty good at this job. My job was to trench the edge of the garden while she lay the cardboard and rocks. Then we all (Mr. Fix-it, Liz, and myself) spread the mulch over the cardboard. The mulch need be no deeper than 2-3". The point is to cover the ugly cardboard with pretty mulch and make the mulch thick enough that it will not wash away.

Her garden design encompassed a major part of the frontyard. There will actually be just about a ten foot grass path through the frontyard when all is said and done. Also, the hell strip will become a perennial garden. Looking at this view you can see we still have a lot to do, but for now the front garden closest to the house and the eastern side of the house is complete.

Part of planting this garden meant relocating laurels that were planted about two feet from the house in this location. The limelights are planted five feet from the house. They look quite forlorn out there in the middle of the garden but trust me when I say they will grow quickly and will soon fill in this space. I always allow for a few feet between the house and shrubs. It may be that as the 'Limelights' mature Liz may have to prune a bit to maintain that space but it won't be a big problem. Not like she would have to do if the laurels stayed in place. The laurels were moved out back as a border hedge. This subdivision is very new and there are still a ton of houses to be built and which are being built even as you read this post. None of the houses has much landscaping and what they do have is only a builder package next to the homes. Liz's house stands out in that she has planted a beautiful 'Sunburst' magnolia out front by the hell strip along with a few other small trees. Her laurel hedge out back really stands out too in a landscape that includes nothing but grass in all of the surrounding yards. You can see the houses are pretty close together so to differentiate the houses and make them more comfortable and appealing landscaping is needed. Liz will surely reap the benefits of a beautiful landscape soon and I suspect some of the other residents of the subdivision might try to catch up to her as well. Good landscaping can be contagious.

Now in my garden I have to share the 'Limelight' hydrangeas. They are slowly coming into full bloom. I pruned my half a dozen or so 'Limelights' back in March then again in June. The blooms will all be staggered. These blooms pictured here are on the growth from the March pruning. The June pruning is also producing blooms but at a slower rate than these fully opened flowers. The total effect is one that will enable me to enjoy the blooms for a longer period of time. Behind this group of four 'Limelights' is a large group of Joe Pye weed. To the left of the grouping are yellow cannas. Pink, yellows, blues, and whites are a good color combination for me. Out on our farm I have one complete garden dedicated to this color scheme (no reds or oranges are allowed-they are saved for the 'hot' garden). I will share more of the hydrangeas on my professional page found under Coach In the Garden on Facebook.

in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Peanut Mulch

BY SKEETER

Back in May, the Saint and I left our Georgia Gardens to visit a South Carolina Garden. The Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens to be exact. Click HERE to see more about this awesome place. Can you tell what type of mulch they used in this flower bed?

Okay, did you know it was peanut shells due to the title of this post? Well, of course you did. I learned of boiled peanuts while living in Germany. Ah, the things one learns in a forgein country. We had a good friend from South Carolina and he often talk of getting fresh boiled peanuts from roadside stands. Since he was a bit older then us, we assumed he was talking of the olden days as we had never heard of such a strange thing. Click HERE to learn about Boiled Peanuts. 

Now that we live in the Deep South, we know what our friend was talking about. People set up roadside stands along busy city roads, county roads, grocery store parking lots, etc. I have tried the things and I don't care for them. I like my peanuts ripe, roasted and salted. But with all the peanuts a boiling, some one eats them. And lots of them so it make sense to recycle the shells into PEANUT MULCH, In the Garden... Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

No Mulch

By Skeeter

This past weekend was a work weekend in my Georgia Garden. The Saint rented a wood chipper to grind all the limbs from the trees he recently cut down. It was a hot, humid, steamy weekend and we really worked hard to get the limbs removed. We drank about 25 sports drinks to keep hydrated during this hot work. I had to call it quits by noon on Saturday as I dehydrated and got a terrible headache. I also lost my balance and fell over a railroad tie giving myself a nice bruise and scratches as I landed in the limb pile. Yikes, good thing I am a tomboy as it only hurt my pride. I do not know how people with outside strenuous jobs survive in the heat of a Southern Summer. They sure earn their money!

I revived over night and was back at it early Sunday morning. I was sure to take more frequent breaks and drink double the amount of drinks and this worked well with us both staying in the yard until 4:30. It was difficult work but it had to be done as I could not stand the thought of all those limbs laying around until fall. Plus piles of limbs attract frogs, mice, lizards thus food for snakes and we do not want snakes on our land.

I tried to load a video of the chipper doing its job but once again, Blogger does not want me to load videos. This is several times now so I guess for some reason, I will no longer be able to show videos. Anyone else having an issue with videos?

Anyway, in the video you would see how fine the chipper grind the limbs. It was to a powdery state thus useless as mulch in my gardens. I was really looking forward to some fresh mulch from this job, but there will be NO MULCH, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,In the Garden

Tire Recycling in South Carolina

By Skeeter

While taking a break from my Georgia Garden this spring, we ventured to one of my favorite places being Charleston, South Carolina. I showed you that fun time and shared a Ghost Story with you a while back.

While on the journey even though only a 2 and half hour drive, we had to make a Pit Stop along the return home. That happens if you have yummy Mango Margaritas before you head home. Thank you so much Saint for being the coke drinker and getting us silly people home safely. You did earn your "Saint" title that trip!

Before I ever made it to the restroom, I spotted this strange mulch in the flower beds. I did not think to snap a picture of the flower beds as my attention span was captured by the mulch. Not sure if you can read the small lettering on this sign so I will print the words for you...

The State of SC collects $2.00 for each tire commercially sold in the state. Fees are deposited into a trust fund and used to clean up and recycle waste tires. The rubberized landscape mulch used throughout this rest area was produced from waste tires which were illegally dumped within the nine counties listed above. The tire-derived landscaping mulch provides a high quality, long lasting product which serves on as an alternative to traditionally organic mulch materials.

I am not sure about this type mulch but do highly believe in the concept of this recycling attempt. I would think that the chemicals (oil) used to make the tires may harm the plants. Maybe they do something to take the oils out of the recycled tire or maybe the oil is good for a plant. I have not researched this type mulch but have noticed bags of rubber mulch in some Garden Centers lately.
Have any of you Garden Bloggers used this type material in your gardens or researched it at all? I will stick to my pine straw as I love the look of it and the nutrient value it has for my acid loving plants. I have to replenish it yearly where this rubber mulch would last probably forever! Hum, I wonder if this is good for a garden?

I am confused (uneducated) with the TIRE RECYCLING IN SOUTH CAROLINA, that's going on In the Garden...

Mulch and Cultivation Tips

How many gardeners love to receive a big pile of manure? Or get stars in their eyes when they find good composted and mulched leaves? How about it? Is this you? I bet it is! Or you would not be reading this blog.

The above pile of composted, shredded, oak leaves is about 20 feet long, by 10 feet wide, by 4 feet deep. Talk about a goldmine! Problem is that it is in my neighbor's yard. I finally got up the nerve to stop and ask the neighbor if he had plans for his pile. He jokingly said no, and that he kind of liked his pile there. I think he thought I was going to tell him he should do something with it and that it was an eyesore for passersby on my road. Not so at all! You really should've seen the look on his face when I asked him if I could have those composted leaves and how I'd dearly love to see them in my garden. Wiping the drool here now. He might have been a bit astonished. I mean it is not everyday a stranger stops by your house to beg you to let them have your dirty ole leaf pile in the front yard. A deal was struck, and lucky me!!

Out comes the handy trashcan. This pile was so thick and full that it takes about two minutes to load the leaves into this trashcan. I simply scoop them up with my hands. While doing this I got a bit of a shock when I saw something slithery moving quite quickly out of my way. At first I thought it was a snake as it was so fast. Then I thought maybe slugs since it was so big and slimy. A bit more digging revealed the truth-worms! Big fat juicy worms. My neighbor just happens to be a fisherman and retired First Sergeant. Maybe he should take up worm farming? Some of those worms came home with me-intentionally too. I don't think he'll miss them-do you?

Into the truck the leaves go-one trashcan after another. Then into the garden on top of many layers of newspapers. I am so determined NOT to water this summer that I am willing to do a bit of hard work this time of year in order to avoid mucho watering and weeding this summer. That's what I keep telling myself as I haul these leaves. It really helps me to be motivated too! Don't mind the big rock. It too found a home in my garden.

The whole point of this post is to tell you to get out there and mulch now in order to avoid weeding and watering this summer when it is hot and dry and yucky. Most of the mulch I applied last fall in the form of uncomposted leaves, has blown away. All my gardens up close to my chain link fence (away from the wind) have tons of leaves, but the gardens further into the yard are bare. These leaves I just got will stay put and add super good organic matter to the gardens and save this gardener a bunch of work later on in the season. Like Nike says, "Just do it!" Excuse me, I have to get back to mulching....

in the garden....

Today is my grandson's birthday, and I want to wish him a very happy HAPPY #2!!!

Georgia Pine straw

The Saint says I have an Obsession with Pine straw. I don't believe I have an obsession at all. I just like the look of fresh pine straw used as a mulch.

We have many pine trees in our yard so the look of the straw within the landscaping fits perfect.

A good base of straw also is an asset in weed control.

I don't use fertilizer much and would rather the nutrients in the pine straw do the work for me so that would be several reasons as to why I spread so much pine straw each year.

Here is a load (27 bales) I picked up this spring that I spread around in my gardens.

I spread pine straw throughout in Islands, Planters, The Flower Garden, under bushes & trees and around the patio area. I have spread about 75 bales this spring.



You never know what condition of straw you will find as some people will allow twigs and pine cones to be picked up in the bales. I have recently found a pretty good place to purchase the stuff that is really clean. The primo stuff is the Red Long Leaf but hard to come by not to mention pricey. I paid $3.85 per bale for short needle and it is sort of dry, meaning I will have to top it with additional straw because it will break down before summers end.

The process I use around trees or bushes is as follows...

I take a flat shovel and dig out the grass around each tree or bush to form a perfect circle. When possible, I use the old sod elsewhere in the yard. This day, I was working around the Forsythia bush.

I often step back to see if the circle is even and large enough.

Once I have the circle exactly how I want it, then I am ready to spread the pine straw.

FORSYTHIA

I spread the straw fairly thick to keep sunlight from penetrating to allow weeds to sprout...

Here is the final look of the freshly mulched Forsythia...

I really do like the clean look of the pine straw and think it adds to the natural look of our woods with many pine trees...

Here are some additional pictures of places where I have spread pine straw.

PATIO AREA

We had a real problem with drainage in this area of the backyard. This area is a natural run-off for rainfalls. We tried grass to no avail so I came up with a natural look of pine straw instead. It works great and stays in place after a good rain fall.

BUTTERFLY BUSH ISLAND





I will post on this island in the future. It is interesting how it evolved for us.








DRIVEWAY ISLAND



This island breaks up the large paved driveway for us. This island was in place when we bought the house.

The Saint wanted to remove the island and pave over it but after the words divorce were brought up, he backed off of that one. Not really just kidding, I would never divorce my Saint over asphalt but he got the point of how mad I would be. Now he too enjoys the island even though it is a bit of a challenge for him to back the boat into the shed with the island in the way!




FRONT PLANTER

We have two large planters in front of the house and they are both filled with pine straw as a mulch as well.


The pine straw keeps the Japanese Maple trees, Camellia and Nandina bushes cool in the summer and warm during the winter.


FLOWER GARDEN
The Flower Garden gets its share of pine straw also. I usually try to plant things which like the acid from pine needles but this year I added some new plants and did not research to see if they would like the nutrient from the pine straw. I may end up loosing some plants due to my lack of research. But if I loose any plants, that will make room for more next year!



CREPE MYRTLE
Here is one of the many Crepe Myrtle trees that we keep pine straw under. I also keep the straw under all the bushes and trees that are in the grassy portions of the yard. The trees in the woods provide their own mulch each fall by dropping tons of leaves and pine straw.

It is a shame I cannot use the pine straw in our woods but I prefer it stay there as a natural look plus leaves get mixed in with the pine needles and I don't like that look in my landscaped areas. Looks fine in the woods and county right of way though.

I do Spread a lot of pine straw but now that you have seen the look of things, don't you think it is worth it? I know I enjoy the look of it and it last all summer long and gets a fresh thin coat for winter.

If you build up too much, it will mold really badly and can cause disease to the trees and plants. I remove the old straw every other year to keep the mold away.



I usually take the old straw up to the county right of way and spread it around to keep a natural look on the roadside.

This picture was snapped one spring when the azaleas were in bloom up on the street.



Now that you have seen my pine straw mulching, what do you think? Do I have an obsession with spreading Georgia Pine straw, In the Garden?

Where Have All the Leaves Gone?

We all know 2007 was NOT a good year for gardening. Fewer flowers, dead plants, fewer leaves to rake...What is so bad about fewer leaves to rake you ask? For me, it means fewer leaves in the garden as a mulch. I had to go somewhere else to get leaves and what a haul! Ten plus bags of beautiful maple, oak and bradford pear tree leaves-already in a great state of decomposition.

Since the leaves are already bagged and Mr. Fix-it brought them in his handy white truck, I feel like I have been shopping or just received a lovely gift. My friend Geri is short leaves so I may just have transport some of these bags of leaves over to the other side of the county to her home to make her feel like she just got a great gift too!

She primarily puts leaves in her compost bin, whereas I use mine as mulch over newspapers, then if I have any leftover I put them in the compost. Normally, with over 50 deciduous trees in my yard, you would think I have had more than enough leaves to spread around. This year I either used all the leaves very effectively, or there were less of them. I am thinking mainly there are much fewer leaves to go around.

When the big freeze came and took away all the new growth last April, it severely impacted all trees and especially deciduous trees. Once the initial set of leaves were frozen and died, the tree had to grow new leaves. These new leaves appeared to be much smaller than the first batch. The tree canopy was not as thick and there were probably fewer leaves. (though I didn't count them!)

Let's hope this spring is not a repeat of last spring. Contrary to popular opinion we really do NOT want an early spring. The late freeze in April of last year was not the problem, as late freezes are common and the average date of last frost in this area is around April 15th. No, the problem WAS an early spring. The weather warmed up rather quickly and stayed warm for about three weeks in March of last year. This led the trees into mistakenly thinking spring had sprung and out came the new growth and leaves. Weather like the warm March is not a usual occurrance. Late freezes are and we all know the consequences. So, I know I will not be a popular person, but let's not hope for an early and prolonged warm up prior to April of this year, then when that late freeze comes our trees will be not be harmed and we will have a full crop of leaves next fall-for more raking, mulching and composting!

in the garden....happily spreading some much needed bags of leaves-not sure if Geri is going to get any or not!

Plants Get the News

One of my favorite things to use in my garden beds, is newspapers. Who says old copies of the Leaf Chronicle can't be useful? Do you think the Leaf's circulation numbers go up when people can find other uses for the newspapers? Other than going into the recycling bin at Bi-County? These plants are definitely up on the news in Clarksville!

I was preparing this garden bed for mulch and began early on a very cold morning to lay down all of these newspapers. The gentlemen delivering and spreading the mulch did not know what to think of all of the newspapers.

They questioned me, "Are newspapers better than landscape fabric and plastic?"

I explained, "Yes, no doubt about it."

"Why?"

"Because I said so! No, really because the newspapers allow the soil to breathe. When the soil breathes microbial activity and all sorts of organic decomposers (earthworms, millipedes, and good bacteria) are able to work more efficiently. As an added benefit, the newspapers break down slowly and add organic matter to the soil."

The gentlemen were fairly impressed, but I could tell they were still skeptical. It is that way sometimes when a person gets used to doing things a certain way. Their way is six inches of mulch over plastic, plants, trees and anything else in the way. Then get the leaf blower out and blow off the mulch to make it look neat. Yes, the garden really does look neat, but six inches of mulch over plastic is not good for the garden.

"Won't the paper rot under the mulch?" they asked.

"Yes, I hope so."

"Then what is the point?"

"In my experience the newspapers can last one year or more when you lay down 5-6 layers and the newspapers are so much better to garden with than plastic. You usually need to reapply mulch after a year anyhow, just add some more newspapers instead of piling it on the plastic."

I never use the shiny papers, only the normal newsprint. Ink color does not matter in my garden as long as it not shiny. The point of using newspapers is when I want to plant more plants I can easily cut through the newspaper and I don't have to fight with plastic. In the meantime, the newspapers provide that extra barrier against weeds that mulch alone cannot handle.

"Won't the weeds come through the plastic?" the men asked.

"Yes, don't you still get weeds with plastic?"

"Yes. Oh. What do you do then?"

"Weed! You will still need to weed your garden no matter what type of mulch you use, unless of course you pour a slab of cement, then you will have to weed the cracks in the cement!"

Been there-done that! I prefer pulling weeds from mulch covered newspapers. Then when the tenacious dandelions grow through that one little crack in the mulch, I can easily stick my fishtail hook deep into the soil and get that little bugger. If there is plastic under the mulch, guess what happens? I stick my fishtail hook in and hit plastic-which when you want it to give way it does not, and when you want it to stay intact, it also does not. Go figure.

"Are you sure it is okay to spread the mulch on the newspapers?"

"Yes, please. And while you are at it, spread it where the newspapers are not as well."

Newspapers are such a helpful barrier they can delay plants from coming up under them. Therefore, I do not use newspapers over perennials or bulb beds. If I do, I leave spaces or tear the paper over the plant. Even if I mistakenly place newspapers over plants, when they begin their spring growth I can easily see the plants pushing the newspaper up. I then tear the newspaper to allow the plant to come through. Simple. No scissors needed and no great amount of force. The areas to the front of the garden are full of established perennials, bulbs and irises, I did not want them covered with newspapers.

I truly could not garden without mulch or the newspapers under the mulch. If you do not have a collection of newspapers you can use brown paper bags (even better than newspapers because it is hardier, just be careful you don't make it too thick and use only two layers of the brown paper-not two bags). I even know some gardeners who use brown cardboard. I haven't actually used cardboard so I can't vouch for it's worthiness, but I think it would work fine and still beat plastic and landscape fabric any day.

I guess that if all things were equal between plastic landscape fabric and newspapers, that is they both allowed the soil to breathe the same and microbial activity was not reduced, then I would still use newspapers. Here is the biggest reason, newspapers rot, landscape fabric and plastic do not. When we pile mulch on our gardens, the mulch slowly decays. We pile more on and the process continues until we have about 4-6 inches of great decayed matter sitting on top of plastic. Now the weeds are growing in great organic matter on top of the plastic and some poor unlucky gardener is going to have to fish out all of that plastic. If you use newspapers they will decay and you will never have to fish out an artificial barrier between good organic matter and your soil. I mean, afterall, it is about the soil and we want it to be healthy.

So the next time you are getting ready to toss that old Leaf Chronicle, think of your plants and let them get the news too....and maybe increase the Leaf's circulation numbers while you are at it!

in the garden....reading the paper.

Show-offs and Mulches

Skeeter is a gardener like me. She knows a showoff when she sees one and likes pine mulch too! Here is a crepe myrtle growing in Skeeter's yard in Georgia and isn't it beautiful? Do you see why I call them the showoffs of the garden and of the small trees? This one is saying, "Look at me!" What a beautiful picture of the this huge bloom.

Skeeter and the Saint also spread 100 bales of pine mulch one year. Yup, 100 bales! The below picture shows some of her large yard with the mulch and it looks great.

What kinds of mulches do some of you readers use and what is your favorite? I am obviously partial to pine needles as are many of you, but are there any really unique ones you all use which are extraordinary? Dawn, do you use pine mulch in your gardens in Maine? Since Maine is known as the 'Pine Tree State' I would think you would have alot of pine mulch but I don't recall seeing alot. Do any other regional folks have a special mulch native to their area that works great? Seaweed for the ocean areas? How about cocoa mulches or some byproducts of industry?

As for me, Geri and I are heading off to rake (what else) pine needles! Hopefully the haul today will finish off my gardens. Mr. Fix-it said he will let me use his truck sometime to gather pine needles, little does he know just how much I use my heated leather seated Buick to haul pine needles and other gardening 'necessities' like rocks and trees! Don't tell him! He bought the Buick as a birthday/retirement present for me and when he did he said, "I bet you won't haul much gardening 'stuff' with this car. Huh?!" Yeah, right.

For all of you northerners, I have sometimes heard our crepes referred to as "The Lilac of the South". We can grow lilacs here in northern Tennessee, but they are never as magnificent as the northern ones-give and take between the north and the south. lol

in the garden....

Mulches

Talking about raking leaves and using them in my garden brings me to the general subject of mulches. Mulches are a gardeners best friend. They help to moderate the soil temperature in the winter and summer by providing an insulating blanket, conserve water by slowing down evaporation, and reduce weeds by preventing light from reaching the weed seeds and also by being a barrier to weeds.

Moderating soil temperatures in the wintertime helps to prevent heaving of plants with the alternate freeze and thaw spells we tend to have in the southeast. When the ground freezes plants can be pushed out of place-especially shallow rooted plants like heucheras (coral bells). Once the thaw comes (and it will here during the winter) you can push the plant back into place but the damage may already be done in the form of root loss. The plant will need a period to recover which will certainly slow down growth in the spring. Mulch will insulate the ground and hopefully keep it frozen or at least prevent a deep freeze of soil and slow down the big thaw when it comes. This benefit is exactly what plants need in the winter and may prevent plant heaving. Plus, a bed of mulch is just what my garden needs to sleep warmly during the wintertime! Knowing the gardens are tucked in for the winter gives me such a feeling of peace-strange, I know. I guess it is the fact I don't have anything else to do until late January-February timeframe when the bulbs start poking their noses up out of the ground, and the hellebores begin their very long period of bloom.

Moderating soil temperatures involves mulch shading the soil, which will help to keep the soil cool. If the soil stays just a little cooler with the mulch then water loss is lessened and plants do not suffer as much stress from the heat and sun of our summers.

Conserving water is especially crucial with the recent droughts. I am not a person who can see into the future, but I anticipate we gardeners all across the country are going to have to adjust our way of thinking away from water loving plants toward plants that are able to take care of themselves and survive droughts if need be. It is very possible next year may be a great year for gardening, then again we have the possibility of another year like 2007. I for one do not want to be outside watering for hours at a time as I have better things to do (believe it or not!). Mulches help to slow down evaporation by providing a layer between the soil and the air. Mulches also serve to slow down what rain water we do receive and can actually catch the rain and gently direct it into the soil beneath them. Mulches help prevent soil erosion by providing a soft, usually porous layer for rainwater to fall upon.

Lastly, mulches help prevent weeds. I have never seen a mulch which could totally prevent weed growth, but mulches will slow down weeds. Another benefit of organic mulches is that the soil beneath them becomes more friable and workable. So whatever weeds do manage to grow are quite easy to hand pull.

I am a big fan of organic mulches like compost, leaves (shredded is the best way to use these), pine needles, hay, and even grass clippings. Organic mulches are free, readily available and will improve the soil tilth over time. Many gardeners have clay soil which can be as hard as a brick in the summer and as mucky as sewage in the wintertime. Organic mulches help to combat those two problems by increasing soil aggregates and improving the drainage and workability. Organic mulches do not add a great deal in the area of fertilizers so the fertility of soils will still need to be managed.

I do not like inorganic mulches like black plastic, rocks, and shredded tires. Inorganic mulches do not allow the soil to breathe and if you do plant ornamentals in them, the roots may grow above, through or under the inorganic mulch. My home had five foot tall compacta hollies (thought it was boxwood but it is actually compacta) which had been mulched with black plastic and covered with shredded bark. When my oldest son, Brian and I dug those hollies out the roots were growing all through the mulch ABOVE the plastic and in the six inches of mulch left there over the years. Weeds were also growing well in the mulch above the plastic. What a mess! And this example only includes hollies, imagine what would have happened if something like irises or daylillies were planted among the black plastic. When the perennials spread the plastic will get in the way and will cause a maintenance headache.

Aesthetically mulches look good. They can add so much to your landscaping and the selection of mulches should be based on the gardener's preference and level of maintenance he or she is willing to perform on the garden. Inorganic mulches have a tendency to spread themselves around the yard (especially rocks) and will need to be tidied up frequently. (What a pain to mow over all those errant rocks) On the other hand, organic mulches require renewal every year or two depending on the type you use. I use pine needles around my house. I collect the pine needles for free from my one pine tree out front, and from Fort Campbell. I generally use leaves everywhere else but add a layer of straw and newspapers to the vegetable garden after planting the summer garden in April-May. Every now and then I take a trip to Bi-County to buy a truck load of shredded wood mulch for $10 for use in new gardens. I never ever use chipped and/or shredded wood near my house for fear of termites. I don't think it is a good idea to even use the "treated" stuff around your house. Pine needles are a better choice. Pine needles only need to be renewed every other year in my yard and I think that is a great deal! Of course, I always hate it on those years the pine needles have to be redone-like this year.

The first picture shows my front garden with a pine needle mulch after one year in the wintertime, and the second picture shows a back garden with a leaf mulch in the summer. The last picture is of this years results after raking pine needles from Fort Campbell. I love the look and think it matches the house nicely. It seems like I have so many pine needles and leaves in the winter then come summer the mulches seem to disappear. I ask myself every year "Where do they go?" It is just Mother Nature working her magic recycling the organic mulches back into the earth and the process is so gradual that I don't even notice the loss of the mulch until it is all gone. Most people have some pine needles and leaves and if you don't, you might have a neighbor willing to share.

Today is a raking day and I am going to rake and bag some pine needles from some fellow freecyclers. Now all of you freecyclers know exactly what I do with pine needles and thanks for offering your extra ones!

in the garden....