Question about my soil

Last year I got a trailer of free mulch. The ploblem was that it was green. I put it in all my flower beds. Most of my plant didn't do well and I found out that I should have put lime in the soil before I put the green mulch out. My question is do I need to put lime out this spring before I plant new things or has mother nature replaced the nitrogen the mulch took out.

Brenda

If your soil needed lime last year, it probably still needs it this year. You can do a soil test to see what nutrients are missing in your garden. That's the very best way to know what it needs.

Brenda you did not say what the green mulch was but I bet you the plants were burnt. The mulch if it was green I would not think took out the nitrogen I think it put to much in there. At any rate it upset your soil balance. I will not mulch with wood anymore. If I do mulch it is with gravel.

There is a lot of disagreement with the old idea that mulch will suck nitrogen out of the soil. While generally agreed that digging it into the soil will temporarily deplete nitrogen, many university & extension services discount the effects of mulch and recommend the use of wood chips as a beneficial mulch.

My own anecdotal evidence supports this. Truckloads of wood chips used as mulch have no noticible effects on my plants. I fertilize well with compost and manure and there seems to be ample nitrogen to go around, especially considering that even with 3 to 6 inches of wood chips as a mulch, only a tiny fraction of that is in contact with the soil.

I'm not clear about what lime has to do with the nitrogen levels.

Wayne

Brenda,
The lime is to raise the soils p.h. You should have your soil tested to see what amendments you do need. Texas A&M does soil testing. You find get info from your local extension office http://county-tx.tamu.edu/ .
It also depends on what your growing. For instance if your growing azeleas you don't want to add lime.
Siggy

Wayne My point surrounded the fact that she said it was green. would you think that could burn if she happened to allready have high nitrogen. I do not buy that stuff either of nitro being sucked out of the soil. my thing was with my hot summers and the speed at which water drains in my rocky soil i found out that at times i could water real heavy and it water was not getting down to the soil. that is why I converted to gravel. I think some mulch if it is dark really heats up a lot and contributes to my situation with my wood mulch.

Thanks for all your tips. The mulch I used was oak. Another factor I forgot to add was we are 18 inches below normal on rainfall for the year and we had a hot summer. The plants produced few blooms and then seemed to burn up. I did water but with temps of 96 and higher water didn't help much. Maybe it was a combination of all. I have a friend that works at the County Extention office and I think I'll have her send of my soil off to A&M and see what they say. January is when I start getting ready for my spring planting and I don't want a repeat of last year.

Brenda