Mulch Wars!

Ok people, time to weigh in on one of the great questions of our times....

All my neighbors, not to mention the local gas stations, are going to that artificially colored mulch, usually (ick) to exactly match their brick color! Against all odds, I'm starting to find myself looking at it when I go to HD. Feeling the pressure build...

So, is dyed mulch the wave of the future or merely the pink flamingo of the new millenium?

Opinions please....!

I think its very pretty but I much prefer the natural or dark dirt colored mulch than the red. The red just seems too comercialized to me I guess and want something more natural in my gardens. I guess too it depends on how you use it. Like a flamingo in the garden is neat but if you start putting those things on your roof, car hood and as a door knocker you might be going a little overboard. LOL

i have the red, going to black next year

i use natural and red mulch. in my flower beds i use natural. along my pathways i use red mulch.

I don't have or use any of the red mulch, in fact haven't seen it around here. My mulch is usually shreds from my own plant material put through my BCS shredder. One problem with mulch here is the earwigs just love to hide in mulch. Donna

I use oak leaves for mulch. My neighbors use shredded wood mulch. The colored stuff hasn't caught on here, yet.

If I didn't have a dog, I'd love to use the cocoa husk mulch. I think it would look great - but I prolly wouldn't like paying for it. Oak leaves are free.

Cheri' < cheap-skate

I am all for no-dye mulch. However, I think I am going to get some colored ones to identify areas I could plant next spring.

Resist the urge!!!! (hehehehe)

I avoid the colored stuff (sorry to those who like it - it's just not my style.) I use pinestraw in the front beds (I like the looks of it, and it isn't as attractive to termites as the hardwood mulch); and as little as possible natural-colored wood mulch on the beds in the backyard.

Shredded oak leaves and well-rotted horse manure go on the beds in the fall; IMHO just about any natural mulch (such as leaves and compost) can look presentable if it's reasonably consistent in color and texture.

I use the regular hardwood mulch but my neighbor said she was going to the dyed because it keeps it's color for a year. She was going to get the dark brown - not the reddish orange and not the black.

I can't see paying extra for color. You will still need to add more as it breaks down.

Didn't know the stuff loses color so fast! I like the natural soil look so usually go for pine bark in front yard for the neighbors, oak leaves in large back beds. Love stopping in front of people's houses and taking away their bags of pine needles and oak leaves. Can see them thinking "crazy lady...dang she's got three kids in there too..."

Well I did something completely different. I have always used cypress mulch. After reading some negative information about it, this year I switched to hay. Yes, common ordinary cheap hay. Doesnt look fantastic, but I am here to tell you that I have been able to cut back quite a bit on my watering!!!! The hay is doing a wonderful job of keeping the water from evaporating from the sun. We dont get alot of rain here, so every little bit helps.

rylaff I am a total hay convert! In my cheapo way, I use really thick hay even in the fancy front yard beds, let it flatten out, and then just sprinkle it lightly with store-bought mulch. Only thing I find keeps the torpedo grass down! In our climate it decomposes rapidly and the worms love it.

delphiniumdiva, I agree. I like the way it decomposes. I just sprinkle new hay over it. My plants are having less wilting and are darker green then ever. And it is cheap!!!!!! With my entire back yard now converted into a garden, I appreciate a good deal. And I have about a zillion more earth worms than I used to. And the weeds? Way down!!!!!

rylaff what do you do about fertilizing? I haven't been - just too busy, but will the decomposing hay help or hurt? Doesn't decomp. suck nitrogen?

According to several farming sites, a thick layer of mulch helps keep down weeds and is a source for a low amount of nitrogen. I fertilize but not as much as I should . Intermittant is the word. Nope, occasionally. I occasionally use liquid foliar fertilizer, granular fertilizer, and my brugs get coffee grounds. About 3 weeks ago, I made up a mixture of cheap generic 6-10-10, tropical, and epson salt. I sprinkled some around the base of everything. Oh my gosh!!!!!!!! I should have taken a before and after pic. I got some dark green leaves!!!!!

Could you be more specific about your intruiging mix? And what's with the epsom salts if that's not a stupid Q?

I have to mix up a BUNCH because I have so many plants (a jungle). I use a 1:1:.5 ratio. 1 cup of cheap fertilizer, 1 cup of hybiscus/tropical fertilizer (I have lots of tropicals and that stuff is costly), and .5 cup of epson salt. Epson salt is hygrated magnesium sulfate. Magnesium is crucial to cell wall development and cellular exchange. It aids in uptake of other nutrients. Sulfer defiencies are not uncommon in many soils and epsom salt can add that back in. Supposedly, your blooms will be bigger and brighter. We shall see on that one.

The red mulch will fade in time and looks nice in a shady garden. It sort of shines, but not in a gaudy way. :) Just ask Ginger_H hehehehe.
*ducks*

Thanks rylaff - good idea! Fertilizer really runs up the budget which I'd rather spend on new plants! New Q: dont' think I've ever noticed special hibiscus/trop fertilizer. What's the diff?

Tropicals like magnesium. Aids in the greening and vividness of the blossom. Tropical fertilizer has magnesium and some other trace elements.

This message was edited Jul 11, 2004 2:12 PM

Thanks :)))

I use a "natural" mulch cover -- weeds. :)

ROFL!!!! LSP I'm going to use that next time I get a visitor! "Those aren't weeds, that's my new torpedo grass mulch. Isn't it wonderful? So green and natural looking..."

Hah! I've got you all beat!

We've got a perfectly lovely solution for ground mulch--dollarweed, English ivy, and Va creeper, everywhere!!!!!!! With peppervine mixed in the whole mess! Oh, and Japanese fern vine, and some other new and as yet unidentified vine that's very attractive actually, at least until it blooms and dies, and leaves bare spots in what little grass we have!

We put down pinestraw all over the garden, but the darned stuff keeps rearing up and returning. I guess it must thrive on pinestraw!

I'd have to roundup the whole yard and start over to get rid of it! So we just live with it. Ya can't keep up with how fast it grows down here.

You guys crack me up!!!!!!!!

I HATE DOLLARWEED!!! Just the thought gets my blood pressure up! Torpedo grass is the worst in my book though - comes straight through the mulch and breaks off at the root when you try to pull it up. I do find that putting hay down under any other mulch helps the most - and I mean LOTS of hay. Its so thick it just smothers everything. Even the torpedo grass can't get through - still comes up right next to the plants, but at least it doesn't take over the bed.

Would y'all mind adding some pictures, details or comments to the PDB? (Kind of like photos on "America's Most Wanted" or the FBI's Top Ten list at the Post Office.)

Panicum repens (aka Torpedo Grass): http://plantsdatabase.com/go/31834/index.html

Pepper Vine: http://plantsdatabase.com/go/63405/index.html


Dollar Weed...one of several things:

Malvella (Sida) leprosa: http://plantsdatabase.com/go/32231/index.html

Hydrocotyle: http://plantsdatabase.com/b/Araliaceae/Hydrocotyle/

Dichondra: http://plantsdatabase.com/go/55572/index.html

Just think - even if you can't get rid of a particular weed in your yard, you can help someone else know what they've got, and maybe even keep someone from introducing it by mistake!

Good point Terry! I actually saw dichondra for sale in a tropic catalog!!! Can you believe? I will try and get some pics up of the weeds and also the other things you had emailed me about. Got bad virus right now - moving slow.

I don't have (yet, but give it time!) torpedo grass here. We've had everything else! I'm relatively new to FL, and did not encounter any of the other two plants in GA. Both seem to have arrived via loads of topsoil, mushroom compost, pine straw, etc. we have had delivered over the years we have been here to improve the builder's sand that came with our house.

A landscaper labeled the pepper vine. One of the pictures in PDB looks like the leaf structure, but one shows berries, and the data says that it blooms. Mine is just the green-leaves that grow on a really tough-to-pull, even break off, stem, usually to about 1ft or more high, but I have had it vine and climb after that. I usually have chopped it down before that happens. Mine has never bloomed, nor had the berries shown on another pic. So this may not be what it is, or may be a relative.

It's in one of my flower beds, shady. We have removed all valued plants from this bed, and plan to cut all the "weedy things" back and just carefully use roundup on the whole bed, several times this season, to try to get rid of it the whole mess.

Likewise, my dollarweed, as it's been called by others, sort of fits the description of hydrocotyle. It runs low right on the ground, is difficult to eradicate because of the tender stems that break off, so you can't get at the roots. It's in our front garden, all mixed in under the azaleas and other well-established shrubs, so no roundup option. No water or standing water there, on a downhill slope. But, in FL, the water table is pretty close to the ground, and we usually get lots of rain, so that may be all it needs.

But, again, no blooms or seeds, ever. The leaves are light green, and rather fragile looking, unlike the darker shinier leaves of the dichondra. It propagates via a quickly spreading system of mostly above ground runners. I'm not sure I ever was able to pull one up back to the root. It stays in the shady areas of the garden.

I don't have pics, but that's all I know about the two I have. I wouldn't say they are different plants from those in PDB. Maybe different varieties. Or the "pepper vine" may be something else entirely. Both are very invasive in my yard.

BTW, I first heard of the dollarweed being a problem in Jacksonville FL, about a year before someone "delivered" ours here.

I'm no expert about either plant, but, if those of you who are can find anything usable from this post, feel free to use it in PDB. I'm only using the names I've been given for them by others, but the descriptions are similar.

This message was edited Jul 16, 2004 10:13 PM

Terry please job my memory next week abou the pics - down with virus right now, going to forget, I just know it...

I use black lava rock in my large containers and around some of the full-sun bedded plants. It neither retains nor reflects sunlight; it doesn't attract insects or snails or harbor fungal growth; weeds have trouble getting through it; and I like the black color, which never fades. It doesn't contribute anything nutritious to the soil, but neither does it break down and need replenishing. It does shade the root zones and decreases water evaporation and gives a neat appearance. I give all my plants alfalfa tea every 3 weeks or so (except the bogies--every 6 weeks), so I don't think I'm depriving them too much by not providing an organic mulch.

I put a lot of pine cones in the shadier beds and especially around the hostas, so their leaves never touch the wet soil.

In my smaller containers, I use those little colored glass hemispheres that look like half-marbles--.99 a bag at Hobby Lobby. They make those little containers look so special, and they do their duty cutting back on evaporation. Of course, all the containers get their alfie tea, too.

Speaking of tea: My next door neighbor planted two little dwarf nandinas that looked near death. He asked me if I thought they could be saved, and I asked him if I could put some of my brew on them. He said do so by all means. Well, I gave them a good water soak and then made up a 48-hr. batch of tea and gave them a good drench. I also put some on his lantanas, which were limp and barely putting out blooms. I put the brew on late last Thurs. evening, and the next day at noon--I swear--those nandinas were putting out new fresh green growth, and the lantanas had new buds on them. Today, 3 days later, the nandinas are covered with new baby leaves, and the lantanas are perked up and going vertical instead of just langouring across the bed. And they have more new buds. I didn't add any plant food to the brew--just alfalfa and some commercial compost plus a little yeast and Karo Syrup to get it cooking fast. That brew is miraculous. In 3 weeks I'll give them another drench, and I'll add fish oil emulsion and some Epsom Salts to the tea just before application. Well, I know the tea is off-topic, but just can't help singing its praises.

Pen

Pen more details about the tea - want the recipe please!!!

dd, there is a discussion of the tea on this thread, including my recipe. It needs to be stirred at least once a day to stay aerobic. If you brew it more than 3 days, add more molasses and yeast and keep stirring it till you use it--otherwise it will quickly become anaerobic. The sugar and oxygen maintain the aerobic microbes, and the oxygen keeps the anaerobes at bay. The yeast just help speed up fermentation so you can use it after one day if you're making it during warm weather. It also does not smell so bad when you keep it oxygenated (stirred) and when you use it within 1-3 days. The soil experts who use compost tea actually use a fish tank bubbler in their brew. That would be a good idea for the alfie tea, too, but I think stirring is sufficient for our purposes.

http://davesgarden.com/t/441235/

Pennzer I just read that whole thread - fascinating!!! Going to the feed store in a few minutes to get some alfafa!!! Alreay picked out a tub! Hate using chemical fertilizer - too much $$$ and too easy to overdose.