What success or failures have you had with mulching

I'd like to hear about your success or failures with mulching. I'm using grass clippings for the first time in my vegetable garden and so far it's working pretty good. I have noticed that because I pile it on heavy (while it's fresh and green) that it tends to get moldy. Will that hurt anything? So far it hasn't caused any harm.

What's your favorite mulch and why?

My favorite mulch is glass because
Nothing grows on it or through it
It sparkles in the sun and looks "cool" and serene in the shade
It hoses off real well if I drop dirt on it
It is not sharp but rather mostly tumbled
It has beautiful colors
Nothing digs, lays, or hides in it
It stays "put"
and......this was surprising to me.......it doesn't get hot and cook my plants


It must have a layer of landscape fabric under it or it will sink into the earth over time but other than that it is indestructible

Wow, that is so interesting. When I read the first line I thought it was a typo and you meant 'grass', but no, it's glass. How do you get a large amount tumbled? Hubby has access to lots of display model refrigerators and I'm looking for what to do with all the glass shelves. Some are a nice soft blue frosted glass.

Landfill / recycling .. 20-25 bucks per 'scoop' . One scoop took up almost whole bed of my mazda pickup.

I have small glass shelves (16 inches) also my son brought from work.....I put some in black garbage bag and " whacked" with rubber mallet and then glued/covered a bowling ball for garden ornament. So...one good whack should make a nice bit of mulch for you. CAREFUL put in sealed bag. Fridge shelves should be tempered....look for the stamp. Not as tumbled as the landfill stff however but should perform as well.

The blue frosted would look great in birdbath or small bowl in garden or where you may want to give illusion of water.

Too bad none of the shelves are steel wire, as they were decades ago. You can tie hardware cloth to those and make great seives for screening soil.

Corey

Yup a bit of yard art!

When I get on a real computer I will upload a photo of the ball ( I spray painted one copper and one silver before gluing the glass ) and of an area with the glass mulch in place.

You can even buy a inexpensive pump and use one of the drawers you have and sink it in the ground...fill it with water...add the pump....top it with a plastic mesh or screen and top that with a thick layer of your broken glass at ground level. It would make a lovely sparkly disappearing fountain for your garden

I may try that, I have a perfect spot and a bunch of beach glass for our years on Kauai. Most of the garden is difficult to get electricty to for the pump to work. Need a solar pump!

Thanks for the ideas.

@IowaAnn -

I use a mixture of things for mulch - my favorite is grass clippings, but I don't have enough for all of my garden beds. The mold has never harmed my veggies - sometimes grass matts a lot so it's harder for water to penetrate.

I use wheatstraw mulch most of the time - I put down a sheet of newspaper to block the light from getting to the soil - keeps weeds from germinating, then pile the straw on top. I'm gardening in raised beds in GA - so my biggest problems are heat and dryness. When I gardened up north - I had to wait until the soil warmed up - I once mulched too early and that seemed to seal the coolness into the garden bed giving my tomatoes "cold feet".

I like the wheatstraw because it looks nice, lasts through the summer, breaks down well and when mixed into the soil improves the texture the next year. It's also relatively inexpensive and easy to get at a Big Box store or a local nursery. I've also bought "mulch hay" from farmers - but that's a bit more effort to get.

I bought some "oat straw" from a small farmer once. It turns out that this was actually cut hay that was suitable for feeding animals. It was beautiful until it started to sprout - I had a crop of weeds like you wouldn't believe as a result of that oat hay. Now I check for seed heads!

Last mulch - I shred newspaper and office paper to use in the garden too. Best is newspaper - it breaks down nicely.

Hope this helps!

I have just started using old remay as mulch between my pepper plants. It keeps out weeds and holds in moisture, plus it is white(some is gray now and some is dirt colored) and keeps the soil cool.
I use the remay as long as I can as row covers, but eventually it starts to rip and disintegrate. I couldn't bear to throw it away so I started putting it between the rows. The plants loved it.
Be careful if you use bermuda grass or st. augustine grass clippings, they will grow if given half a chance.

IowaAnn - We use fall leaves gathered from around the neighborhood.

We dump them "as is" between the raised beds. They breakdown as we walk on them, and the earthworms convert them into worm castings, which are then added to the beds spring and fall.

Other fall leaves are run through the lawn mower several times until they are about the size of my little fingernail, and these are added to the beds for "free dirt."

Even more leaves are shredded by the mower into a suitable size for mulch. I have found using full-sized leaves as mulch does not work too well. They repel rain water. The leaves have to be small enough to let the rain through. I have also found it best to thoroughly wet the beds before adding leaves as mulch.

There are never enough leaves! My neighbor calls me the "leaf lady". He kindly blows his leaves into our yard, and will also pick up bags of leaves for us during his paper route.

We do have grass growing in our front yard, plus a very small area in the back. The grass clippings are added to the compost along with (guess what) more leaves, kitchen scraps, and weeds. If I were going to use grass clippings for mulch, I would let them dry out first.

I wish we had trees and leaves! The one Indian Laurel was frozen in last spring's freeze. It was huge and gave us some leaves to compost, which the earthworms loved.

I frequently use bales of straw (is that what wheatstraw is?) that I have run through the yard blower/vacuum. Sucking the straw up with the vacuum setting cuts the pieces down to 3" or 4" size, which is perfect. Some folks complain about the straw blowing around in the wind but that has not been a problem for me. Don't use hay because there's often seed heads in that product.

Calalily - when we lived in South Florida, we found out where the County tree trimmers dumped their loads. When we needed mulch, we loaded up our van and hauled away as much as we could for FREE! Most of it had been sitting there long enough to have composted.

Perhaps there is a place like this near you.

Yes Mary - the bales I get from Lowes are wheat straw - they are used in construction to stop erosion. And people put them out for Halloween/Fall decorations. What a great idea on using the blower/vac... that's much easier than my attempts to make smaller pieces by running through a small chipper machine. Talk about tedious and mess.

I never thought of using old remay - what a great idea!

And I use leaves to add organic material, but it's so much labor to get them gathered. I have a wire "pen" that I blow them into so they can compost - but the tree roots grow up in them making them hard to rake. I borrowed tiller to chop them and mix them.

Love the glass idea - but I have no idea where I'd find that here...

Honeybee, we thought about that, then realized the trimmers cut and grind up everything. Two trees that grow here, australian pine and huisache, have growth inhibiting chemicals in their leaves/needles and most trees have thorns, lots of thorns. I garden barefoot. We decided not to go that route. I've been tempted to pick up bags of leaves, but sometimes people put trash in the bags (they're not supposed to but it's the Valley).

I made a big mistake this year and put my soaker hoses in my raised beds, set my potato sets along the hose and then started putting straw on the potato plants as they grew. My thinking was that was a great way to keep the potatoes watered under the mulch. :) Yup! Until I started digging up my potatoes and hit the hose with my garden fork. :( Well, lesson learned. Although I'm getting a great crop of potatoes! :)

Cindy_GA,

>> I'm gardening in raised beds in GA - so my biggest problems are heat and dryness

I found that RB walls made from upright concrete paving stones let moisture out TOO fast in the dry summer, so that the corners dry out right away. I would expect unpainted wood to work the same way.

I started saving heavy plastic bags from compost, mulch and other soil additives. Now I line the inner corners of RB walls with that. Then the corners dry out about as fast as the edges. I leave the top of the plastic liner below soil level, just for looks.

Since my usual problem is clay and insufficient drainage Fall through Spring, I leave the RB edges unlined so water gets out and air gets in.

Corey

podster - when I lived in Tennessee I used (free) pine needles for mulch. Wish more pines grew around here because I would prefer their needles to anything else I've used.

"I started saving heavy plastic bags from compost, mulch and other soil additives. Now I line the inner corners of RB walls with that. Then the corners dry out about as fast as the edges. I leave the top of the plastic liner below soil level, just for looks." Corey, I think you just gave me an idea with what to do with the bags my chicken feed comes in. I use the bags to line my wire compost bins, but never thought about using them in the RBs...

As for mulch, I couldn't garden in the desert without it. I use composted made of chickie-poo and their pine shavings bedding. Only real problem I have is that it tends to all blow into the next county a few times a year when we get the change of season winds. Because it is dark, one would think that it would cook the plants, but when put on at least two inches deep, the ground below is pleasantly warm, but not hot.

RickCorey - thank you! This is a great idea. I've actually been thinking about what to do for the corners of the beds - the brick beds that I have especially have the corner dryness - this is an easy fix to do this fall. :)

Doesn't the plastic break down in the heat? I've never thought plastic and food to be a good combination.

here is the ball from the glass - not on topic - apologize but I wanted to show as I said I would.

devil of a time finding something with the glass mulch that is recent.

Wheel.....messed up there - wrong one. I think this is it - I was in the right area before just not far enough back. All the photos I thought I had of the area I mulched are in the snow!! Can't see nothing. Anyway, one area is around this katsura tree - doesn't do justice because that mulch sparkles and I put it down about three years ago with no replenishing and hose it off regularly.

Love the copper ball and the glass mulch looks cool.....literally. Thanks for sharing.

So, how do you plant with glass mulch? Isn't it sharp? I suppose it would give great drainage when it gets mixed into the soil. Very interesting.

Ann, no it 's not sharp for the most part but I wouldn't chance walking on it with bare feet - I did think about using it on that path that is coming off the pavers but ended up using the same type pavers on the path. I hesitated there because I thought that walking on the glass with any sharp/pointy edge might compromise the landscape barrier underneath that I would have to use to prevent the glass from sinking. It would require something much thicker --like a pond liner.

I use it where I want permanent mulch.....not an area where I would plant and replant seasonally. That mulched area around the tree in the photo has been there several years...you are correct, the glass pebbles will sink into the soil eventually and needs a layer of landscape fabric under it which works out fine because I only use in areas that I want to prevent weeds around trees/shrubs etc so never plan to dig into it once mulched.

>> I use the bags to line my wire compost bins,

Yeah! Yeah! For years I've thought that my little compost heap would go faster if I kept the outer layers from drying out despite all our rain, but feared excluding oxygen. My poor negihbor may have to look at an even messier pile now.

I've heard people suggest waterproof paint on the inside (or outside) of RB walls, but that would tkae TIME! (And don't use lead-based paint.)

>> Doesn't the plastic break down in the heat?

What heat? I live in coastal PNW and it never gets hot. Protected from the UV in sunlight, I expect it to only break down over several decades, and that is lots less rate-of-pollution than what blows in from air and rain.

Then I expect 90-97% of breakdown products to be simple organic matter for bacteria to turn to CO2, or be non-toxic. Then I expect 99% of what might be somewhat toxic to degrade into something else before it reaches a root hair or any mammal. So something like .04% might be problematic ...

But whether it's in my rasied beds or municipal land fill may not make a huge difference to the rate at which toxic things reach the ground water. I would only feel bad if I had bought a roll of platic to do the job. THAT would add to the solid waste / pollution tonnage. I think that what I'm doing is "re-purposing solid waste". I love it when I find golden, honeyed words for things like "being cheap".


I know that some do people worry about plasticizers leaching out of water bottles tha they drink from. If I expected to live for thousands of years in an environemnt where there was NO other source of chemical pollution, I might give that a second thought, but not in this lifetime. The quantity is small (even in water bottles) and plasticisers (sometimes called "slip agents" when used in insulation for electrical wire) aren;'t the most toxic things in the world.


Many people feel very differently about pollutants than I do!
Your milage may vary, and you may be wiser about it than I am.


I recognize there's a million things in air, water, food, clothes, house insulation, paint etc that aren't very good for me ... especially if they were 1,000 more concentrated than they are ... but such is life.

I do agree with the idea that a mixture of 1,000,000 things, each at a concentration 1,000 times below any effect whatsoever, might in theory be 1,000 times a toxic dose! It depends on whether they are additive, synergistic, or who-knows-what. but coming from a biochemistry background with just a little "Food Science and toxcity" exposure, I react more the way I do to a tiger at the zoo - not so much fear as "Interesting! I wonder about issues like that!"

But let me say one thing in defense of those who DO worry more about subtle pollution issues (as opposed to UNsubtle things like pathogens, lead and cadmium in toxic levels in tap water).

When I went to the "Nutrition and Food Science Department" cookout, there were a big bunch of PhDs and grad students discussing their research into the (MAJOR!) carcinogenic and directly toxic effects of N-nitroso-compounds and aromatic hydrocarbions. Such as those caused by combining nitrites with protein. Such as those given off by a charcoal grill. Or caused by heating animal fat over a smoky fire.

One vegetarian grad student pointed out how the scroched hot dogs and hamburgers everyone else was scarfing down were LOADED with the very things they were uisng to kill rats and spending grant money to prove were dangerous.

Everyone else laughed and said (through full mouths) "YEAH, right, I bet they are, I'll have another".

Mostly my point is that "the experts" can be far from wise in any given direction of "foolish". On the other hand, the fat in the meat probably killed more through heart disease than the carcinogens did, and I bet most of them lived past 60-70 and then died of something else anyway.

If I can only worry effectively about 100-200 things overall, I have to pick my battles carefully.

(seeds I'm starting, seedlings I'm coaxing, roses that are dieing, bok choy bolting, slugs, tomatoes in cold weather, chnaces of losing my job, my finances, the US economy, the world economy, politics (!!!), muggings, my own health, going crazy, being crazy, retiring with little money in the bank, being 'way behind on sending out Free Seeds for New Bees ...)

... and pollution.

Corey

How clever to reuse glass that way! Would never have thought of it, and it looks nice.

My first choice is straw because I can always get some free bales when I post on freecycle around the first of December. :-) Also it works as well as anything else I've tried.

Mindy

I would be very hesitant to use anything sharp on a landscaping feature. We have had broken glass and it persists forever and can be an unpleasant surprise when kneeling to maintain a plant or pull a weed. It certainly looks pretty, though!

And Corey, my philosophy is that there is so much exposure out there that I can't control, so I will control what areas of my environment I have some say over just to lessen contact with potentially noxious substances and keep my load of poisons down! I also avoid second-hand cigarette smoke....But everyone has to make those decisions for himself.

Quick question - what is remay? If someone explained I missed it.
I have used pine bark mulch for years. They make a variety called soil conditioner that is very fine ground that I especially like.
I seem to remember though hearing/reading somewhere that bark takes an extra ration of nitrogen (to feed the bacteria) to break it down in the soil. Anyone know if thats true?
Also I know that having lots of worms in your soil means its good and healthy. I would like to have more worms and wonder what mulch increases the worm population in garden soil. I heard that shredded newspaper attracts worms.
I am full of questions and 'I-heards' today. Thanks for any answers anyone may have.
Helen

It is really not sharp - I've kneeled on it -- but I still wouln't walk shoeless....would not/ could not do so either on driveway gravel or pea gravel mulch. All glass areas are bordered by low metal curbing and well contained so it doesn't migrate. It stays put even when I water and hose or blow it off. That katsura is the first tree to drop its leaves in the fall. If ever the trees needed to come out, I'd scoop the glass out to recycle and lift the fabric. I've knelt on quite a few rock/gravel stones that have given me a jolt too! Yes, it is pretty just would like to have ordered it by single color but obviously the recycle center won't separate before tumbling - there is lotsa green, clear and brown. Downtown Chapel Hill is where landscapers used and I saw for first time -- filled the deep boxes (folks sometimes sit on) surrounding the trees planted along Main street. The sun was hitting one just right and I was hooked. Looked to buy and was $$$$$ per bag commercially. Then found out about the scoops that almost fill the back of pickup--- that amount covered a huge area and was much less expesive and more permanent as compared to the hardwood mulch I had been using.

Helen, I think remay is the fabric used for row covers and that calalily allows it to rot in the garden after it's useful life as a row cover has been met.

Earthworms like compost. They will eat composting matter (dead plants) and return worm castings (nice term for worm poop) and aerate the soil while they wriggle around in the soil. Google "how to attract worms to your garden".....here's an article that may be helpful.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2387373_attract-earthworms-garden.html

I can't speak to the pine bark/nitrogen question, someone else probably will be along to answer that.

I use straw and dried leaves, shredded paper when I don't have enough straw and leaves. Recently I was fortunate to get a load of wood chips delivered from an arborist. I love that way that looks!

I have read that the nitrogen depletion isn't really a problem in circumstances like the ones you're describing, because it's not enough to make a difference and occurs mostly right at the surface. Can't quote you a source, though.

We use woodchips for the paths between rows in our garden, but we occasionally get weeds that way. I'm thinking matted leaves might work better.

Remay is the lightweight row covering fabric. We use it for light frost protection, as an insect barrier and for shading tender plants. I also use it over hoops over my parthenocarpic cucumbers. I get two--four uses from it before it starts to disintegrate and that is when I use it for mulch. We have several weights of fabric, some is very heavy and lasts for years without tearing.
I get the most earthworm activity when using shredded leaves, cardboard or remay(they love the cool dampness under the fabric). I sometimes add alfalfa, kelp or cottonseed meal when I add mulch to give it a little nitrogen boost.

Thank you all for your informative responses. I love DG.
Helen

Helen - when I moved to my current home five year's ago, I scrounged up a small handful of earth worms and relocated them into a pile of damp leaves. I now have literally millions of earthworms!