Comments on: Gardening Basics: How to Apply Mulch

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:06:35 +0000

Bo, the free mulch is great for this purpose! Unfortunately, mowing and then putting 3″ of mulch will not kill your weeds if they’re mature enough that you could mow them. Try mowing, then either use 6″ of mulch, or use a layer of cardboard (wet it thoroughly) with 4″ of mulch.

Or, you could kill the weeds by mowing, spraying with an organic spray or using a weed torch to kill the weeds (wait three weeks and retreat if need be), THEN put down 3″ of mulch. Hope that helps, Bo!

By: Bo

Bo — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:19:07 +0000

Hi Genevieve. Thanks for putting together this article, it is very useful for us, who are first time home owners.

Question: I have a small shaded area (about 150 sqft maybe?) under a few big trees in the back yard, and there are weeds all over the place there. I plan to mow the weeds, put in 3″ mulch and maybe put in a picnic table to make a small park-like area for our family. Any suggestion for me please? What kind of mulch will work the best? The county transfer station have free mulch, but I am not sure if they are suitable for this purpose?

Thanks,
Bo

By: Wildlife Habitat Garden Certification

Wildlife Habitat Garden Certification — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 22:37:53 +0000

[...] Use mulch to preserve water (but leave a few patches of bare soil for the peaceful solitary bees that like to hide underground). [...]

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:07:41 +0000

Amanda! Lovely to “meet” you! Your gardening habits sound perfect! Steer manure can be a bit salty, the nursery person was right – but with all the rains we get each winter, I think the salts wash through the soil before they really build up too bad. And steer isn’t as salty as chicken. I think you’d notice stunted, unhappy plants if it was a real issue.

Wes Green Landscape Supply in Arcata has some composted horse manure for $30/ yard if you know someone with a truck, or many stables are happy for you to haul off some fresh manure for free, though you may have to shovel it yourself. I have also heard rumors of free “zoo poo” at the Eureka Zoo, but have not personally gotten that since I have chickens and worry about disease if they have chickens. But I think it’s probably good stuff – chicken/ goat/ barnyard manure should be lovely. If you find any sources of good chip mulch for free let me know. Nobody around here seems to do that, though maybe some of the tree companies would oblige if asked.

Cheers to you and welcome back to Humboldt! Don’t be a stranger.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 02:42:32 +0000

Thanks so much for doing this blog. I’ve been learning a lot. I was glad to see this discussion of mulch. I’m a Humboldt native, but I formed a lot of my gardening habits in Colorado. I applied an inch of two compost a couple of times a year and put down thick layers of chip/leaf mulch that the city provided for free. I was happy and my plants were happy. Now I’m back in Humboldt, and Steve Soloman’s vegetable gardening book informed me that thick mulch would breed hordes of slugs, snails, pillbugs and earwigs due to our mild winters, and could damage soil fertility until it breaks down. A local nursery employee cast aspersions on the bagged steer manure compost I had been used to using. Salt build-up! she said. So I quit doing both without a good idea of what to do instead. Now my garden has not been as lush as I would like. So, short story long, I am happy to see that perhaps I can keep doing that mulch/compost thing I used to do. (Now if only I can find a free source of awesome all-you-can-haul mulch…)

By: Coastal Gardening: Sea Coast Gardening Tips | North Coast Gardening

Coastal Gardening: Sea Coast Gardening Tips | North Coast Gardening — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:01:32 +0000

[...] of compost and manure to help the sandy soil hold moisture and nutrients. Use a thick layer of wood chip mulch after planting to hold moisture [...]

By: Video Review of the GroundHog Rake | North Coast Gardening

Video Review of the GroundHog Rake | North Coast Gardening — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:07:53 +0000

[...] Learn some professional tricks to applying mulch in garden beds [...]

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:10:39 +0000

Linda Chalker-Scott, author of The Informed Gardener (a scientific approach to gardening), really recommends chipped wood very highly for mulching beds. It sounds like you just gathered wood that was already breaking down in the forest and chipped it, and that sounds fantastic to use on top of beds.

Only thing I’d pay attention to is if the wood was Eucalyptus or some other kind of wood that suppresses the growth of other plants, or if you just cut down living trees and chipped them – I might do some research as to how long to let it sit before using it as mulch – but all my research indicates chipped wood is fantastic mulch.

Thanks for the link to your blog! I love how you include so many photos.

By: The Modern Gardener

The Modern Gardener — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:16:58 +0000

Fantastic and thorough. We bought a chipper as we have a lot of fallen wood, and spread that around our raised vegetable beds. I think we will need to add a lot more though, as the weeds and grass are starting to pop through. We have avoided putting fresh wood chip on borders though because it’s not as pretty as bark and we hear it’s not actually great for the soil. Do you have thoughts on that?

Here’s the chipped effort! http://themoderngardener.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/chipper-morning/

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:24:50 +0000

Ooooohhhh, the volcano method. My head hurts just thinking of it. For those not in the know, check out this page and scroll partway down. This is a mild example of what I see veeeery often. Don’t do this!

http://www.tlcfortrees.info/mulching_staking.htm