Hello all, and Merry Christmas! As usual, I'm running a day (or 3 months) late and considerably more than a dollar short. I was planning to mulch my flower beds next week after finishing cutting things back and thinning some. It'll take 4 yds of mulch (two loads) and $110-120 to get a fairly thin covering.
My question....do you think it will be very beneficial to me to do it? In a way it seems so late, I'm thinking "Why bother?" On the other hand, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot, either, and wind up with a lot more weeds in the spring.
Your thoughts, please, on winter mulching
Mulch is always good and it is easier to apply when the plants are dormant, when the plants start to grow you have to work around them, so I always apply it in the fall or winter.
Thanks, Josephine.
My elephant garlic looks really good. ;))
I totally agree with frostweed.....so much easier to apply in winter. And it looks good since most all the plants are gone, LOL.
Great!! I hope you get a really good crop.
So, you guys don't mulch at all in the spring?
My only hesitation is that I really like that red hardwood mulch, and by spring it will probably be pretty faded and scruffy looking. I just love how it looks as a background for all the plants putting out.
Do y'all only mulch once per year?
I mulch in winter with leaves somewhat crushed, in spring rake them out and do actual mulch
Your red mulch is what we use in summer to retain water, if I bank leaves on wintertime plants, its to keep the frost off of them, it decomps, then in spring we mulch for the summer. Is prettier when the plants are green!
Yes, Kitt, that's what I'm after--the green against the red background. Do you shred your leaves, or just put them on whole. I certainly have the leaves, but absolutely do not have the time right now to shred them. How easily do they blow away?
put leaves in a plastic or metal trash can, fill about half full, insert string weedeater (do wear goggles), ready to apply in 5 seconds, or maybe 15 seconds?
I used whole leaves and pine needles simply because I wanted the airspace around the plants. Thick enough to block winds, the shredded leaves will add heights to the dirt later, but I always pull them away in the spring anyway. if your area is open to the winds the winds will steal the leaves though.
Well, Kitt, I don't have pine needles, and the wind is sometimes pretty fierce around here.
Gypsi, have you been to my house when we had a couple of RUs here? I'm just wondering if you think your way would be doable with as much flower bed sq footage as I have. Half a trash can of leaves will crush/shred down to what? maybe 1/5? I understand it just takes a few seconds to crush them, but then transferring them to another container to carry them to the beds, I don't know. Do you turn your weed eater off after each time you beat 'em for 15 seconds, and then have to start it again after you empty those and get some new leaves in the can? Just trying to visualize........
I have an electric weed eater. Don't know how to operate a gas one. but you know I seem to remember you have grandchildren. An 8 year old jumping up and down on the leaf pile will also do a great job.
I've not been out there, I think that RU was before I joined. Just rakes and a couple of kids and pile the leaves over the plants to protect them from freezing for winter. None are green now, right?
No, I don't have greenies now, but I also don't have "little" grandkids in the area. The close ones are all working kids going to college. No time for jumping on leaves. My thought is that they would have to be crushed/shredded to have any luck at all against the wind. Our weedeaters are both gas, and I usually have to ask DH to start them for me. Just wondering how I could do this.
Oh just pile them on there and let me think on it. Monster headache crushing left side of my skull.
I wouldn't do too much extra work, maybe pile the leaves and put an old blanket over pinned by rocks, walk across a few times, do the next section?
Depends on if you want beauty or the beast... pile leaves, drop trimmed branches across em, keeps critters out as well.
Now that is a solution Kitt!
Oh, you guys. One of the main places I need to protect is right by my front porch (elephant ears). The leaves already blow up on the porch like crazy, so I know big leaves would be a nightmare.
And Kitt--I'm not the most particular person in the world about my beds, but piling brush up by my front door just seems so wrong. ;))
Disguise it- drape a ribbon or two and some birdfeed hangs, chuckl, or tinsel if the branches are airy enuff...stealth control- little bells, jingle bells, ???
Cosmetic issues are extremely hard to deal with around plants, they just don't make plant friendly winter cover ups- even in camouflages!
This message was edited Dec 10, 2014 1:12 AM
I've decided to go for just buying several bags of dark mulch, and only covering the two areas of elephant ears and the hibiscus instead of trying to cover the whole beds. Then, come spring, I'll rake that off, like Kitt, and cover all with the pretty red stuff.
I mulch all year long. Especially b/c I have large areas that are devoid of anything green. Mother Nature does not like to be naked! My favorite mulch is cedar but I also use shredded native hardwood. With 3 oaks, a magnolia, and some Chinese Pistache trees, I've got tons of leaves. I think it's great to have them shredded right where they are. My current lawn guys don't follow my instructions and are soon to be fired. I came home yesterday to find that they mowed some leaves in front but blew all the leaves in my back- and side- yards in several LARGE piles against my fence. Aarrgghh. They know better but I wasn't home to remind them. I feel kinda sorry for the next crew I hire b/c they'll have a real mess to deal with.
BTW I'm not sure what y'all mean by 'red mulch'. If you mean 'cedar', that's good. If you mean any type of mulch that's been dyed, not so good. That goes for red, black, brown and whatever colors some of these companies can think of.
I'm mentally adding compost as well as mulch. One of these days I'll actually get outside and do it!
In Houston we call it hydromulch, wood chips, red not sure what wood, dont care for the black, but do use shredded cypress occasionally. For me, its the size of chips, and weight, but red is common here anyway
I use cypress, it stays put when flooded
It's a red (dyed) hardwood, not sure what.