Spring is coming, and it's time to
start thinking about mulching your flowerbeds for the summer. Mulch
is extremely beneficial for a garden. It traps moisture in the soil,
so you don't have to water as often, and it acts as an insulator,
so your plants' roots don't get too hot. (It has the same effect
in the winter, keeping plants from getting too cold.) And it suppresses
weeds, so you don't have to weed as often! But there are a number of mulches
out there; bark mulch, hardwood bark mulch, pine straw, old hay.
Which is the best choice for your garden?
Pine straw is good for suppressing
weeds. It has a tendency to form a thick mat, and woe to the weed
that tries to come up through that! But pine straw is not for every
garden. Over time, it can turn your soil acid, and make it difficult
to grow anything there. Some plants love acid soil. If your flowerbed
is primarily made up of these acid-soil-loving flowers, then pine
straw is not only okay, it's perfect.
However, most people's gardens grow
plants that prefer their soil neutral to sweet. Hardwood bark mulch
is the best for those plants. It decomposes into a rich, sweet-smelling
black dirt, and it looks ever so tidy while doing it. Plus, hardwood
bark mulch is the best for amending your soil. The problem is, it's
expensive, especially when you're buying it from a garden center
at a dollar seventeen a bag (and they're not big bags, either).
Old hay, on the other hand, is dirt
cheap. If hay gets wet, and spoils, farmers can't use it to feed
their animals anymore; it might kill them. For a gardener, however,
that spoiled hay is just exactly what your garden needs. In fact,
your garden will probably like it better than the fresh, unspoiled
stuff…your vegetable garden will probably like it better than
the hardwood bark mulch. And you can often get an entire bale of
spoiled hay for just a couple of bucks.
The problem with old hay, of course,
is that hay is made from grass (or grains). Grass (or grains), in
a garden, are called weeds. And that hay is just chock full of the
seeds of its kind, plus some other weeds that may have got bundled
up with it. What's a gardener to do?
In her ought-to-be famous "No
Work Garden Book", Ruth Stout has a very simple solution for
that; just add more hay. Hay piled around plants to a depth of about
a foot is too thick for weeds, even its own weeds, to get through.
It's a great solution for the vegetable beds (and it really does
work). For the flower beds, however, it has the unfortunate effect
of making them look untidy, and an untidy flower bed might just
as well be full of weeds.
So what's the best solution for the
gardener? In general, for the flowerbeds, go with bark mulch. It
isn't as good as hardwood bark mulch, but it isn't as expensive,
either. Spread it 4 to 6 inches thick around your flowers, making
sure to cover the whole bed.
For the back garden and the vegetable
garden, go find a farmer and buy up as much of his old, spoiled
hay as you can afford. Spread it 8 to 10 inches at first; increase
it to a foot if some intrepid weeds start poking their heads out
(but be sure to pull the weeds out, or they'll just keep going like
the proverbial beanstalk).
Ideally, gardens should be mulched
twice a year; once in the spring, and once in the fall. It's not
an exact science; when it starts to feel warm, mulch your garden;
when it starts to feel cool, mulch your garden.
Mulch has many benefits for your garden.
What are you waiting for? Start mulching! - Keesa Renee DuPre
