pros & cons: leaf mulch vs wood mulch
ebindc
15 years ago
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joepyeweed
15 years agodigdirt2
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Pros and cons of using pine straw for mulch
Comments (8)Pine needles do not significantly acidify soil. It's one of those old gardening myths. I have done soil tests beneath pine trees that have been mulching themselves for decades and the pH was identical to nearby earth in sod. Soft woods don't extract as much calcium from the soil as hardwoods and so you will be adding less calcium but it will not be a problem. If you need a higher pH you should add lime anyway. I have seen demonstration vegetable gardens at very well known botanical gardens using pine needles for mulch....See MoreBark chunks vs shredded redwood mulch
Comments (5)I think the shredded mulch may have retained too much water over the winter rains anyway - I had to remove some from around my lavenders which were getting moldy, the drainage is still poor in many places. Yes the kitties are lucky and happy to have a safe outdoor space now - they used to have a screened porch in our rental cottage for years, then we bought a condo which had no outdoor area. They definitely missed watching birds and squirrels. Here they are enjoying their "catio" planted with herbs sages and other cat-safe plants :) Some of these were taken before I added the mulch, when plants were pretty new last summer. Now they have grown but I'm battling whiteflies on most of it - sticky traps have not been very effective :(...See MoreMulched, Mulched, Mulched. Daylilies all mulched.
Comments (23)Nate, it sounds like the following is too late, since your work has already begun, but for what it's worth: We had 4 new roofs (entire house) and everything that that entailed (remove old roofs, put on new + gutters & downspouts) and new stucco siding on one side of the house's addition (hence, remove all old stucco, too). Contractor also created a new profile for the eave over that side of the house; also made and installed a copper overhang for the window on that side. Not all of this was done at the same time; still, a lot of construction materials and debris. Used the same contractor and his small crew for everything. The crew was able to do the roofing job by accessing all the roofs from the patio; the main issue was roof debris that ended up on the ground. They were exceedingly careful and neat but even now, I do find the occasional nail and bits of roofing material. For the stucco work, however, they needed to erect and safely access scaffolding. I asked the contractor to try to protect a daylily bed directly under the side of the house needing that work. For various reasons, I couldn't dig up the plants in it, even though it contained some daylilies I value a lot (eg LAST SNOWFLAKE, NEON FLAMINGO, COWBOY SCARF, MABOU, Jack Carpenter patterns, and more), so he set up the scaffolding on a large piece of plywood that was placed on cinder blocks on either end of the bed (and with two blocks supporting the mid part of the wood). The crew had to access the scaffolding of course, so one end of the bed got badly trampled & the soil very compacted. Even so, given what had to be done to the house, and the time they spent doing it, the daylilies sailed through everything in near perfect condition. There was a lot of bent and torn foliage, but it was late autumn anyway so that didn't matter. Plus, it was the crowns I'd been concerned about. We plan to use the same guys to paint the house's exterior next spring. Since I don't know exactly which month that will be, I expect to have to dig up the entire bed. Even so, I'll ask the contractor to once again place scaffolding on plywood on cinder blocks. The idea will be to protect the soil from compaction so that I can use that bed again as soon as the work is done....See MoreStraw vs. grass clippings as mulch
Comments (8)Although putting straw around the plants worked in my head... in reality... a little less on the "working" part. This weekend I started a new vegetable bed to put in six extra bush tomato plants and four pole beans my son brought from kindergarten as a project. The bed is 7' long and 2' wide, next to a 4' tall chain link fence. I de-sodded, spaded it up, forked it, worked in five gallons of unfinished compost (my compost isn't quite done, but it was all I had), raked, and planted. There were lots of worms, so I figure the dirt is okay. There's also lots of weeds around it and the bed is out and kind of exposed and all new. I was concerned my six year old would be taken by a desire to use the fresh dirt as a derby site for his hot wheels and dump trucks. So I decided I'd experiment with it and see how the newspaper + mulch thing worked. I didn't have grass clippings and getting into the compost reminded me I was out of browns, so I bought a bale of oat straw at Bergmann's near Stillwater. I figured if it went badly, I'd use it in the compost. Well... I put newspaper around the plants, cutting 2"x2" holes for the plants to poke through. Then the straw. The plants are from 2 inches tall to 6 inches tall. The taller ones were fine, but the smaller ones were kind of swamped by the straw. At the end, it didn't really look like something that was going to work out. I guess I should have taken a picture and posted it. Any comments? Advice?...See MoreKimmsr
15 years agotiffy_z5_6_can
15 years agoluckygal
15 years agotrancegemini_wa
15 years agooldmainer
15 years agoleslies
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15 years agoKimmsr
15 years agoken_mce
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7 years agoRenee Texas
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7 years agodrmbear Cherry
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7 years agoOusama Abdu
7 years ago
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