I have them here and there... but I want tons more and figured it was because they aren't diggin' there digs... so to speak. lol... I need to work on soil amendments.
What success or failures have you had with mulching
I read something about earthworm types that are invasive and harming the forests. Also crowding out native earthworms. Eating stuff the trees need and not contributing back to the nutrient base. How the heck did those worms get in the forests.....
I use wood shavings for my chicken coupes and want to try using it as mulch. By the time the manure is dried up and I think it would be safe to use as mulch between the rows....what do you think? Any suggestions? I have noticed that the areas that I laid straw down is moist crumbly soil and where I have put grass clippings (green and thick, my big mistake) the soil is very dry and hard. :(
Ann, we always use wood shavings and manure from the coop for compost to dress the tops of rows.
Interesting what you're finding about the different results from straw vs. grass clippings!
Greenhouse,
I was worried about using the manure/wood shavings. The experts say that the manure needs to be composted first but I figured that if the manure is dry what could it hurt. I think manure would be more harmful when it's wet....so far so good...what are your experiences with it?
In looking for greenhouse info, I found this really good link on mulches.
It covers everything discussed here except glass...
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/gardennotes/715.html
I found that if I water my shavings and dried chickie poo they start to burn off nitrogen and begin to decompose with lots of smell, so I always compost mine first now. It might have been that I had problems because I put the compost on several inches thick. Or that I have 15 chickens and rooster, and they are prolific donators to the pine shavings. In any event, that first year when I used the chicken coop cleanings directly as mulch, the plants were NOT happy. They love the composted stuff, however, and I have been composting first ever since. Also, I worry about pathogens, and the coop cleanings make a very hot pile.
It stays above 90*F most of our summer. So far, after several years, none of my plastic feed bags have decomposed into my compost. My expensive tarp that provides shade on the west end of the chicken run has degraded after 2 years in the high desert sun (in spite of UV inhibitors) and really needs to go in the trash, but not the feed bags... or the clear plastic that the pine shavings come in. I drink coca-cola, so I figure with all of the bad stuff in THAT, trace amounts of plastics in my compost are probably not going to be what kills me...
LOL! kmom, Ioved the comment about coca-cola!! So funny and soooo true! So far my chickie poo hasn't had any negative results but I might add that i'm putting it on top of mulch that was already there.ie. grass clippings and straw. The manure in the wood shavings is super dry so maybe it slowly let's off nitrogen when it gets wet. I think if I soaked one of the poo in water it would take all day to soften up .LOL!
Podster, what a great link on mulches! I bookmarked it.
Kmom, interesting about your plants not being happy with the direct chicken coop cleaning mulch. Come to think of it, the year I used it on my tomatoes they weren't very happy either! You may be on to something! We have composted it since then, but just because we set up new compost bins and cleaned the coop out more regularly.
Sometimes wood shavings can be acidic. That isn't a problem for us with alkaline soil, but if your soil pH was low to start with I suppose it could be. Composting would bring the pH closer to neutral.
I gather leaves during leaf season when people bag them and set them out. We have paper yard debris bags, what I don't pile along my back fence, I simply leave them in the bags stacked.
I pile them between the raised beds, fresh leaves can be piled 3 ft deep, they will compress. I use cardboard when making new beds. It's nice because I can scoop "compost" from beside the raised beds when I need some.
I just put some fresh leaves out there now. I also use them in my chicken coop. Those leaves get added to my compost heap first.
I use lime to combat to much acidity but I havn't had any problems.
I find that until the end of June it can be too wet for mulch and then later when it is drier the plants have formed a canopy to shade the soil...so not much mulching here.
I like leaves. First of all, they are readily available and free. Our yard supplies all of our leaf needs. Second, as they decay, they improve the soil. Third, they look natural and unobtrusive and don't get ugly. Fourth, unlike rocks and other inorganic substances, it doesn't matter if they get dug into the soil when you plant new things. Fifth, they do not pack down and get water-repellant like newspaper does.
Kelli ~ do you shred the leaves first? I ask because in my experience, they do mat and repel water unless they are chopped up.
Ah...the perfect mulch.....does all we hoped and nothing we didn't. Discover it and the world will be your oyster....... Oysters..? I bet crushed oyster shells might be a contender!
Podster, no, I don't shred, but they are small leaves, mainly from wisteria and crepe myrtle.
greenhouse_gal
Your point of view about personal exposure to pollution may make more sense than my approach.
I think you're saying: "don't make it worse than it is already" .
Mine is more like "plastic bag leaching doesn't make it MUCH worse". But I am more careful with things that are more toxic.
Corey
Corey, that's it in a nutshell. Lots I can't control, so what I can control with relatively little pain and hassle I do.
I'm not a big fan of plastic.
>> so what I can control with relatively little pain and hassle I do.
Oh! We have almost the exact same philosophy, we just find different things easy.
(And maybe consider different things to have different degrees hazzrds.)
Corey
Probably true! It all depends on what I come across in my reading, too, and how credible I think it is. Some sites are really over the top, so I try to find a balanced point of view.
>> what I come across in my reading, too, and how credible I think it is.
That really is key. I had a few philosophy courses in college, and almost the only practical content was in a book called "The Web of Belief", that discussed how we evaluate all the noise that we take in.
Before giving something credence, we take into account internal consistency, reasonableness, experience, wisdom, evidence of fanaticism, financial advantage, intergity or its opposite, prejudice, sympathetic awareness of other points of view and closed-mindedness. And that's all done in a split second, intuitively. Cops and lawyers cross-examining a witness only do what any random person talking to a sales clerk or asking for directions, more rigorously and with training and experience.
If Quine had had the Internet as an example, he would have had a WEALTH of examples of reasons not to take someone seriously.
(P.S. One of the hardest things to filter out online is reasonable and well-meaning people repeating what they have read elsewhere ... as I'm guilty of. I often wonder how many universally-practiced garden rules started with one person doing something a certain way (for no reason) and then everyone copying that and giving it as well-meaning advice.)
The only remedy is to listen hard for authors saying "I read ..." or "I think..." or "I DID this and SAW that".)
Corey
Hi y'all - newish on DG- but thought I would share that I've been experimenting with used pizza boxes and the like this year. It turns out my family eats enough pizza to mulch most of the garden. Unfolded they're a good size to lay in the garden paths, and when I weed I'm just throwing the weeds on top. Most of them have self-shredded and composted underfoot, along with the various vegetation. What's left at the end of the season we'll turn under, along with the salt-marsh hay that I always use on the potatoes.
I've used the plastic bags as mulch directly under the plants, too, when they were needing it during our long wet cold spring this year. There's a big bag on the ground inside the gate, too.
There are zillions of worms in my garden, under all of the mulches. Found a beauty of a garter snake under a patch of cardboard one day too. I am going to save pizza boxes all winter for next year.
Ingrid
Ingrid
Well it so happens that I put some pizza boxes in the compost bin several weeks ago. It just seemed a shame to throw them away. I am glad to hear Ingrid I did a good thing. ^_^
We use pizza boxes and other cardboard for mulch as well, but usually on fairly permanent plantings, like the asparagus and the raspberries and blackberries. At our place it doesn't break down fast enough for other crops, so it would make it hard to change the type and spacing on the other rows from season to season.
I love using heavy cardboard to cover grass before mulching with wood chips. I have an area outside the main vegetable garden that has so many pines that it is hard to mow, so I've been gradually covering more of the area with heavy cardboard (usually from the transfer station) and then wood chips.
Two neighbors are having some pines removed tomorrow and have arranged to bring me the wood chips. I'm thrilled to get a large load that I don't have to shovel into the truck first! And since the tree company doesn't have to find somewhere to dump the chips - they save a bit of money too. A win-win for everyone.
I don't have a problem moving the pizza boxes around if they're in the way. The soil underneath them is easily dug up if a little compacted, and it's fertile. Nice score on the pine chips!