Beginner Gardening: Speakiing of mulch . . . , 1 by Twincol

Twincol wrote:
As some of you know, I have two 50YO Fruitless Mulberry trees in my front yard. For years I've allowed them to gather in the beds next to the house and over the surface of the beds in which I have azaleas planted. They've not suffered from that topping. Mind you, I've never turned them into the soil in the beds, BTW. Not sure how that might impact the soil chemistry, hmmmm.

But my question is this . . . I have 120 feet of rose bush beds with a brick or concrete block fence on one side and a concrete border on the other. I have not amended the soil since I planted them. I have them set up so that I can irrigate them via a little canal like farmers used to do. I have a major problem, BTW, with my lawn invading these beds; lawn = bermuda. Can I take the leaves which fall this year and throw them on top of the rose beds? I know it sounds like a lot of leaves, and it is. But they will break down into nearly nothing, given the length/width of these beds. I'm just thinking that it might be a good use of these "green" resources and save me from having to throw them away. I can simply cart them from the front yard to the back yard (she says as if that's no big deal!).

I'm also thinking that perhaps I could lay them out on top of some weed barrier cloth, which would help reduce the bermuda filling the beds up. Then, come summer, add bark?

Thinking aloud . . . . Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

Linda

Pic = pretty flower from one of these beds