Favorite Mulch?

How about this controversial subject! I put the old, tried and true shredded mulch down a couple of years, then raked up some pine needles (white pine the long type of needles) the other day...anyhoo, I threw it on top of my new strawberries, tomatoes, rhubarb, and jeese! I really like it! What say you all? I like the natural, soft look as well.
Now, I KNOW that I am stepping on toes, with this comment, but I really dislike those colored mulches. You know, our homes are NOT commercial properties, and we should not succumb to the fads of landscapers...you know? I wonder what that coloring does to the soil, too.

If you have'em, the needles are same as pine bark mulch,as you said they look great and you have a good one.

My neighbor has a couple pine trees. I about choked when I saw he had raked the needles and binned em for yard waste pickup, Now I rake needles off his grass and use them all around my blueberries and the perennial bed thats connected there. I love em too!. Lovely golden color for months before fading to tan.

I buy a very finely chopped bark mulch and use it to amend my potting mix.

I buy cedar for near the house (termites!) Last year got a good deal on broken bags and used it under my swing too. It does last a lot longer than the bargain shredded wood junk. Course, if you want to mulch to amend the soil, yearly cheap shredded wood will do that.

I did take red colored mulch from our neighborhood dumpster once and used small patches of it to help mark some of my bulb plantings. I would also not use it widely.

We have a logging company near us and have a friend that works there so get a discounted rate on shredded mulch, they use a variety or wood sources in their mulch so they do automatically dye it, they do not sell the undyed, I don't buy the really dark. then I use shredded leaves in the fall, we don't have enough pines in the yard to use the needles
Here's the newly mulched berm in March

I think the pine needles may be rather acid-y; I'm not sure that's true of pine bark mulch.

Different mulches for different uses and tastes. I generally use a brown shredded mulch. Honestly not sure if it is dyed or hardwood, I think we use either. My understanding is mulch sold as hard wood is not dyed. I love the look of pine needle mulch that I see farther south but in our area it isn't generally used or sold. I think shredded leaves are just wonderful but they are a good bit of work for us. Two years ago we gathered up Josh's leaves and ran them through the shredder then loaded them into the trailer and back out of the trailer into our beds. He has way too many leaves to try and just pick up with a mower like my friend does. I will say that the shredded leaves not only look nice but feed the plants nicely. A great way to clean and winterize your beds.

Could be, happy--thats why I started with them on the blueberries- and I probably should use some lime on the flowers there now.

Love shredded leaves but we borrowed the neighbor's shredder last fall and it takes a long time to feed them into it by hand. I try to keep an eye out for one other neighbor who I know shreds his and bags for waste disposal (fool, LOL)

Interesting about the lasting quality of the cedar, sallyg. Think I'll be much ("mulch" - now, couldn't resist!) more discriminating the next time I buy mulch. I've just been very disappointed with the shredded stuff.

cedar, or was it cypress? I forget exactly, but anyhoo, yes rot resistant

I couldn't see me using the stone or rubber mulches but they do have their uses as well. I think Josh's place looks great with his stone mulched area.

I'm an oak leaf mulcher, too. Lots of oak trees shade my entire yard, so I use what is handy.

We used to have a shredder and found that when leaves were slightlydamp but not matted that they shredded better and more quickly with less dust. When the shredder died we used a lawn mower run over the leaves usually twice to get a coarser shred. We rigged up a tarp one one side and the garage on the other and spread two bags of leaves at a time down the middle. I'd say one bag of shredded leaves equals 4 bags of unshredded. The advantage to shredding is faster break down, no matting and they don't blow away!

For the last several years I have been totally spoiled by one of my newspaper customers who saves his 15-20 bags of Willow Oak leaves for me each year. These I do not shred, but just apply. They look so nice! (Any one remember how beautiful cocoa shell mulch was?) Have no idea why he doesn't use them himself but I'm not going to ask!

Oh, I also use all the droppings of fluff my oaks are shedding along with clouds of pollen right now. I call it the nearest thing the east coast has to tumble weed. This I tuck around my strawberry plants and veggies and in my containers, too. Looks like a brown version of spanish moss to me and pretty much disappears by season end. Cheaper than straw, too.

Wow Holly! Kudos to Josh.

Josh has put a lot of work into his house. It is in a small town and he is on a main street corner. He want's it to look good but also wants easy care.
What do you like to put under your mulches. I have started using heavy cardboard, newspaper layers and even magazines. I mostly use mulch when putting in new beds or extending beds from one area to another. As the beds fill in I use less mulch. But I do like it around the edges to give a boundary between the grass and beds. Here are a couple of areas that were extended last year and they all have the cardboard under them.

Not to mention that the mulch covers up my horrible looking red clay. Even composted it looks bad. Before and after pics.

Holly. I'm still sitting here totally blown away by the picture of Josh's yard you posted. Incridible the way his water feature and stone "mulch" work so wonderfully echoes the great old stone church behind. Even the fence repeats the arches of the church windows! What a talented eye for design you have running in your family. Can't wait to see your place in person.

I never noticed the fence and church connection, you are right about it. Can't take credit there as that section of fence was already in place when he bought it but he did finish the fence and gates as only part of it was up.
This is the same area at the time of purchase.

I really love pine "straw" like they call it in NC, and I don't know anyone with a large pine stand where we could harvest some. I've actually considered hauling some home from vacation. :-} The tan bark we get usually is dyed to make it more uniform. I use a lot of grass and clover clippings in the veggie garden. I want to get Lobster compost for my tomatoes this year, the stuff is supposed to be great for heirlooms since many of them are not VFN resistant, as well as it's other benefits.
Our Jen has sweet gum trees and I've tried to convince Holly to let me use the fruits for a long lasting mulch under our junipers, they haul bushels of them away every year. Ric

Stone mulch does look very clean and good contrast with the greenery. I'd think you have to have a blower to keep it clean.

Sweet gum ball mulch does durable . I bet it would keep cats out of the bed too, if that were a problem.

I think mini pine bark nuggets are so pretty, but they tend to float away in my sloping yard when it rains.

Regular hardwood mulch is now my favorite, because it stays put, breaks down nicely, and is the cheapest around.

Holly, how do you get lobster compost?

http://www.coastofmaine.com/storefinder.shtml
Dutch Plant Farm may also carry it.
This message was edited Apr 24, 2012 8:34 AM

This message was edited Apr 24, 2012 8:35 AM

ssg, my Ace Hardware sells bags of lobster compost. Comparable to Chessapeake Blue crba compost but I think the lobster harvest is more hardy these days. poor crabs.
8 ^(

Those photos are incredible, Holly, of Josh's yard...but your photos of "before" and "after" are SO EFFECTIVE...I remember using that cocoa mulch - the scent, well, to a chocoholic..was worth buying the mulch and ANY, I mean ANY, excuse to show it off was a quick "out" from whatever I was doing just to trot on over and stand over the warming-up mulch...LOL!
I love those pine bark nuggets, too, but find the same "floating problem." The larger works well for my small garden in front of my house with the quartz rocks around that the pretty exotic Japanese Maple...neat! Probably need a Gnome for underneath, huh.
Thank you, one and all, for these most interesting thoughts - I sure feel much better informed reading them. It's good to be amongst gardeners again...!

I just read the most ridiculous article about mulch!

http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2012/04/hippie-mulch.html

Spray-on color! o_O

Have the day off - just worked 7 days in a row, so had the time to read the article, ssgardener. YIKES! What constitutes getting a life to some, is NOT the idea of others... Here's a quote: "We have poured countless hours into serving our client and the only thing we get out of this..." in defense of an action, only made me think that they should have poured the same hours into planting trees, you know, preferably WHITE PINES (LOL), that improve our planet and give us that lovely mulch without greasing the palms of others...
Yes, I admit, I am an old Hippie. And proud of it.

Hm., interesting. THe photo sure looks photo shopped. I would never buy mulch dye, but I am sure some people would. On the other hand I can't see getting so vehemently opposed to it as some of the respondents on that article. Maybe its made of old beet pulp, mulberries, and coffee grounds? I get annoyed at people who assume something is terrible and toxic when they don't have any way to know. And Hippie Mulch is a terrible name for that unless they publicize what its made of , that is natural.

I can't get over that picture of the woman spraying the color. Was that outfit really necessary?!

Sally, you're right, there's a fake quality about that picture.

And Sally, I am totally with you. To be opposed without education is very dangerous! You're right - it might well be made of something innocuous. Interesting that they call it "Hippie Mulch," guess to catch attention of a certain target consumer, and yet seem to dance around divulging the ingredients. They start to tell, then back off. Of course, I did not go through the whole investigation, so cannot give a totally informed opinion. So I won't!
But I will go look at some White Pines...LOL!

also- "University of St. Thomas ("one of the most highly renowned business schools in the globe,"

as in the island of St THomas? Coz otherwise I have never heard of it. Oh yeah right up there in reputation with Yale...lol

ROFLOL, Not too sure about that. I wonder if it has anything in it to retard spores. Old mulch will develop spores that shoot out and leave a tar like substance on your house and car and whatever else might be close to the old mulch. That is another reason to top dress your old mulch.

Hey ssgardener, you made me laugh so much that I HAD to go back to see the outfit. And I can tell you exactly why you can't get over it...you have one or more of the same outfits hanging in your closet -right?! My husband just said that we really need to find out if the mulch is made out of old hemp stalks...LOL! Big time! Forget coloring it - it has its own coloring properties!

LOL, Gracye, I'm not quite old enough to have an outfit in the closet, but I'd LOVE one as a Halloween costume!

Wanna borrow one of mine?! HAHAHA!

I probably still have an outfit like that stashed somewhere. As far as mulch goes, we just got in a load of Hemlock Mulch from Canada. How beautiful it smells and looks (dark mahogany brown) with no color added. It's just beautiful.

Whats the going price on mulch? ALDI has Cypress mulch, 2 cuft for $4, I think. Sounded pretty good.

We need too much to do it by the bag. For instance: The cheapest mulch is about $20.00 a yard and the most expensive is $35.00 a yard. There are 27 cubic feet of mulch in a yard and 2 cubic feet in a bag (or about 13 bags in a yard). Some of our neighbors need less than we do but they pay a few dollars a yard to get it delivered anyway.

thanks

How many yards do you buy? I would think it would be an awful lot of work to move it from the front of your house to whereever you need it....

Where do you buy it from? Those prices sound really good.

We use about 5 yards and buy it from one of the local vendors (there are so many here). We put it into wheelbarrows or the trailer of our ride on tractor and pitch fork it in. This year we bought it from Warren County Trucking Co. because they were the only ones we saw with Hemlock Mulch.

Ah; ride on tractor. Your garden and mine must be in rather different leagues!

Actually, my bigger problem is that I have to go up stone steps to get to my back yard, so even moving it up by wheelbarrow would be a challenge.

I bet the hemlock mulch is gorgeous.

Consider me extremely envious of that hemlock mulch! My husband has a long-bed pick up and we buy bulk, shredded (this was last year and now I am rethinking the whole mulch saga) hardwood. I pay my money, turn my back, (saw a load get dumped into the truck and it bounced the truck pretty strongly), and take it home. My dear husband helps me, and we get it done quickly. A big scoop of the loader halfway fills the truck bed, and it is around $50.00.