Mulch - for Garden and Landscapings.

I just began to mulch my garden two years ago as I am now a senior and cleaning weeds and hoeing are more strenuous than in my younger years.

My first requirement was, "IS IT REASONABLY PRICED". I went to the local lumber yard where thousands of logs are processed each year into lumber, flooring, construction lumber etc. The bark is taken off these logs and ground up and then elevated into a pile in the lumber yard. I went and asked, "How much for a small trailer load that holds 1 yard of mulch"? The answer was $10.00. "Sold", I said, and I will take two loads and pay up front now. I will come for the second load tomorrow. ( I was thinking of the strenuous work of unloading and mulching my daylily gardens). That first year saw me get those two loads and mulch two of my larger daylily beds and all the hostas under the shade trees.

Time of application is important to curb rodents burrowing into the mulch. You leave it, in my area of southern Ontario, until just before snow flies in late November. At this time the rodents have already found winter homes and will leave your daylilies alone under the mulch.

A second year rolled around and this year I got three loads of bark mulch and finished off all the daylily gardens as well as toping up last years mulching. I have neglected to tell you -- "The best mulch is several years old, is black and partially rotted away". When it rains on it a couple of times, it turns a light grey color. For me this is a satisfactory landscaping color, as it is very natural. For some persons, they prefer loud and, to me, 'un-natural' colors. Everyone to their own. By the way, still $10. a yard and they heap up the trailer too. So this is how to mulch, and where to get it economically.

My neighbour Don, used to mulch up all the maple leaves with his lawnmower and blow them out and up into a cart with a container for the mulch that he draged behind his mower. It looked like an outhouse (toilet) being dragged along behind, but even with good natured ribbing, he would give me as much of this grass and leaf, cut up mulch, as I needed to pack perennial pots away for winter. Leaves are another, there for the taking, mulch you can use.

Spring of the third year came and since mulching has saved me so very much hoeing and weeding, I got a chance to buy a 25 yard load of mushroom compost. They heat this compost to 180 degrees, which kills all weed seeds and leaves remaining the fertilizer, compost, and mulch values. For me a three in one purchase. "Can you bring me 5 yards"? I said. No! Only full loads of 25 yards. "How Much"? Well I can bring it for around $250 to $400 and I'll see what my boss says, since you are on our route down to pickup wood shavings. (at same lumber yard as above) I got a load for $250 and mulched all my daylilies that spring. It was too much work for me so I hired a young man to help.

When the load arrived it was quite a pile of rich, gooy, smelly, near fresh, barnyard manure looking 'poop'

 It steamed out smells for a month or more, and I knew from growing up on a farm that this was gooood stuff. My only fear was that it might be too rich and burn my daylilies. I mulched a small amount and left it two weeks. Prognosis was 'Looks good and no burning the plants'. I got my young friend over and we mulched 4 inches around all three large daylily beds over a three day period.

The results were:

• fantastic mulch value
• fantastic fertilizer value
• and the rotting compost will enhance my garden soil
• I had found a THREE IN ONE mulch.

WHERE DO YOU GET IT? ---- Any mushroom farm that has spent mushroom growing soil. You need to get one that has been heated to 180 degrees to kill weed seeds and fungus. This way you do not add weed seeds or fungus to your garden when mulching and with a three/four inch mulching it will prevent weeds from growing around your plantings.

Bark and mushroom compost are not the only mulches by any means. There are many, many more. A list would include, straw, coarse grasses, sawdust, leaves to name a few. In truth, anything that will decompose makes a good mulch. You can even use wet newspapers spread out thick between the rows to cover the whole area. You need to water the newspaper until it stays where it is put and will smother the weeds underneath. In other areas you may find other mulch materials plentiful. In my area an asparagus farmer used the hard stem ends that were trimmed off the number one asparagus as mulch around his apple trees in the orchard. These rot down too and make good mulch. Your removed dandelions and grass clippings left on the lawn to dry and then chopped up with the mower make a mulch for your lawn,

I am so happy that I found a good mulch material that works well for me. I will update this hub when I find how long and well the mushroom mulch lasts around the plants.

After one summer .This mulch has rotted down about 50%, so I am going for a second year without topping up.

November 28, 2008

It is late fall of the third year and all I have to do is mulch with mushroom compost around my daylily seedling rows. I got my friend over to help me do this heavy work and it didn't take long to mulch all of my daylily babies that I grew last spring from seed and planted out in rows.

You will find me here at home among my daylilies .