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The Professional Gardener

To mulch or not to mulch?

14 years ago

I thought that everyone agreed that mulching is an important part of maintaining a healthy garden, however a friend of mine said he heard the speaker on NPR's You Bet Your Garden say that we should never use mulch.

What? I've never heard anything against mulching before. I'm looking for some professional feedback here! Can anyone explain the reasoning behind NOT mulching?

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Comments (4)

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
14 years ago
Nah, I'm sure that there was a misunderstanding. Mike McGrath, the host of 'You Bet Your Garden' is a staunch proponent of mulch.

He might have warned about the use of FRESH wood mulch, or dyed wood products, or rubber mulch. He may have even warned about the use of wood (not bark) mulches in close proximity to parked cars and our homes due to the occurrence of artillery fungi. He may also have said to never pile mulch up against tree or shrub trunks.
calliope
14 years ago
Nature abhors a vacuum, so if there isn't mulch down on bare soil, then there should be a ground cover or some other means to keep temperatures moderated and conserve moisture in the soil. There are so many hideous things out there anymore people are mulching with, there are cases I imagine where no mulch would be preferable. LOL.

When I first got into horticulture and worked at a large independent garden center, our sales were primarily bark mulches. I've been away from that scene for twenty years now, and on the growing end and when I happen on places selling mulch (everyone from the supermarkets to the gas stations) I see that is not the case. My daughter who was doing landscaping went to install some annuals at a large corporation for a special occasion and the lawn maintenance contractor they'd hired had buried all their beds in so much mulch that the plants couldn't even make contact with soil, and she told them that.

Mulch can be very mis-used and abused. LOL. Perhaps your friend heard part of a statement. When I give garden talks, I sometimes hear back months later things I know I never said.
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Wayne, I just have to say that I found your post quite inspirational!! And I am convinced that your interest in and attention to your garden is what is keeping you 83 years young!! I only hope I am as actively engaged in my garden when I am your age........which is not all that far off. LOL! I am a mulcher - always have been, always will be. Yes, it can be time consuming and even expensive, especially when dealing with gardens the size of yours. But it is my feeling that the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. My primary reason for mulching is to improve the soil and replace any nutrients that may be lacking or depleted - any sort of organic matter applied as a mulch will do that, some better than others. My personal choice is compost but bark, wood chips, leaves or whathaveyou will work almost equally as well. And then there are the additional benefits of weed suppression, soil temperature moderation (very valuable in freeze-thaw areas) and moisture retention, which is critical in my very summer dry climate. I tend to mulch just once a year but the timing may differ depending on my schedule and what needs attention. If I do a fall clean-up, I mulch then but sometimes a bed gets left until spring and then I will mulch after cutting back and cleaning up that area. I also mulch immediately after any newly planted area is completed. Pretty much any type of mulch will help with weed suppression at least for the short term but as I stated, that is not my primary reason for mulching. I also enjoy weeding - a very zen-like activity to my mind - and weeds will appear eventually, mulched beds or not. All my planting beds are mixed plantings - trees, shrubs, perennials, vines, groundcovers, etc., so a very dense planting is not always possible like it might be in just a perennial border and I appreciate the help any sort of mulch does in keeping weed growth down. And the plants appreciate the improved fertility of the routinely mulched soil. Like with most things in gardening, mulching or not mulching is always a personal choice, governed by your preferences, your gardening situation and your climate. To my mind, mulching is just another very necessary part of a healthy garden maintenance program and one that has the added benefit or reducing or even eliminating other routine garden maintenance chores. YMMV
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claysoil
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the feedback. I was worried that there was a new trend out there that I didn't understand!
Embothrium
14 years ago
>When I give garden talks, I sometimes hear back months later things I know I never saidOne day I found out that it was believed at one of the giant garden centers here that I had told another shopper not to shop there during one of my visits.

After thinking about it for awhile I decided it must have based on the time I suggested to another shopper that if the store we were at didn't have it they might still be able to find it at another in the area.

I don't remember many other people being around while we were talking, which makes me wonder if this party pointed me out to an employee and announced that I had told them not to shop there. Or maybe we were overheard by an employee who heard it as something like "you should shop at another store" (instead of this one).

Wildly varying eyewitness accounts after traffic accidents and other occurrences shows how much people differ in what they see, hear and retain.

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