I have a variety of herbs and perennials planted around my house. Daylilies, Irises, regular herbs, stokesia, ajuga, spiderwort, rudbeckia, hostas, yarrow, bee balm, and the list goes on...
A wonderful company came out today at my request and spread a nice 1 - 1.5 " coating of double-ground mulch all through my flower beds. It is a great quality mulch, and in some cases, I can still see small dried out signs of plants from last year.
However, many things are covered, and I just don't know what to do! :) Should I go digging through the mulch to uncover things, or let nature do its thing? Will most plants survive being covered with mulch this early in the year, and spring up past the mulch when warm weather hits?
Or am I destined to be on my hands and knees, digging out anything I can find?
TIA,
-Jennifer
mulch suffication?
Some things do not like mulch too close to their bases. I would think a landscaping company would know this. I hate to say it but if they completely covered plants I'd try to dig them out. Especially your daylilies and irises... you need to keep mulch away from their crowns or rot might set in. Plants that die back to the ground might be okay.
mulch for winter protection should be loose and not suffocating... like straw or pine boughs.
Oops.... I must've sounded confusing .. it's extremely loose... and there already was some mulch on all the beds. the daylilies and irises were a little covered before, but because the mulch was so sparse before, they were barely covered.
The daylilies haven't sprouted anything green yet from last year, and only a couple irises had green starts. Those "starts" might've been frozen in last week's storms, also.
Does this make it better, or worse?
Edited to add - My "winter" is nothing like yours, Poppysue ... :) Our lows are near 30 , highs near 45 on average. It's not getting anywhere near teens or single digits for highs and lows. yahOO!!
This message was edited Feb 4, 2004 8:45 PM
The layer on top of the soil is good. But still... when you get it close to the crowns of plants you're asking for trouble. Daylilies should be planted so the crown is an inch below the soil line. If your piling another inch or two on top they'll be too deep. I mulch my beds in the spring. To keep the much away from the plants I'll invert an empty pot over the top of them and then mulch around the pot. It keeps me from getting too close to the crown of the plant. Are the irises tall bearded? They really hate mulch too close. The tops of their rhizomes should be exposed.
If your planning to pull the mulch off the bed in spring you might be okay... but if it's a permanent mulch layer I'd move the mulch so it's a few inches away from your plants.
I don't plan on taking the mulch off. We're about 3/4 thru winter now, and the intent of the mulch was never winter protection, but instead organic matter and moisture control.
I have no idea if the irises are bearded or not. :) Sorry.
My one regret on the hill now is that a lot of the spots didn't get marked, or the tags got lost a few months after planting. So now, I'm not even sure exactly where everything is planted on the long hillside of daylilies and irises...
oh dear... what a mess..
Thanks though,
-Jennifer
I put mulched leaves on my garden as a winter protection. I plan to pull off at the earliest opportunity. Although the wind did a fairly good job of pulling much of it off in the late fall.
Edited to add--our winter is only about 1/2 over. I am really jealous of you Southern Gardeners! LOL
;~D
LimeyLisa Kay
This message was edited Feb 5, 2004 8:48 AM
The thing is, the mulch isn't on for winter protection. It's on for moisture retention, appearance, as well as soil modification.
I may end up leaving it on as is, waiting until spring, then seeing what happens.
Yes - in spring you'll be able to find your plants much easier. You can pull mulch away from anything you might think is suffocating then.
Hi, Angel
I do not use a deep mulch but that should be fine. Have you ordered from Parks or Wayside? I think they are based in SC.
I was thinking about placing an order.
Teresa
I have only lived in SC for about a year and a half. I didn't even know Park's was in SC until about three weeks ago. Never had a yard until last August, so I haven't had any reason to order yet . Sorry
Teresa, check the watchdog - my experience is Wayside is high but they have things some others don't but I would have to say they have a very good photographer!