I use pine needles from our Blue Spruce tree and chipped up leaves

Kristine, now that you mention it, I remember seeing pine needle straws when I visited a few rose gardens and they looked really nice. And if they help acidify the soil, it would be an extra bonus for my heavily alkaline soil. Do they decompose well and how firmly do they hold? I ask this because of strong winds in my area (lake effect!).

I use whatever is cheap and available at the time in my area. I used chips my landscape supplier called 'forest blend' and it broke down very quickly and allowed a lot of weeds through. Mushroom compost is sold once a year from a nearby farm but I have never been quick enough to get any. Poppy trash, which is the left over plant material from opium poppy fields, is also very good and breaks down well to help break up my clay soil.

For the last couple of years I have used hemp mulch. It takes ages to break down so it lasts a year and while it doesn't put any nutrients into the soil it helps with the texture. I do get small marijuana plants popping up all over the place but the first good frost kills them off.

I use John and Bob's Blend and Penetrate on everything in my garden as a soil health improver... and for mulch I only really mulch the roses since with the rest of my plants I like them to self seed and be mass planted, and on the roses I mulch with cedar mulch. It's the big pieces because it's windy where I live and fine mulch or leaves would blow away.

I have 9 horses, so I use their output almost exclusively. If you'd be willing to drive to a horse ranch in your area, 99% of them would be happy for you to load up garbage bags (or the back of a truck) with composted manure for free (horse manure isn't stinky). My horses eat mostly oat / grain hay, so unfortunately it grows back in the compost. If you did have the opportunity to get manure in your area, many ranches feed straight alfalfa hay - better for the roses, and no re-growth.

For me, the pine needles take a long time to break down so in the spring I just push them back a bit so I can fertilize. But I do have lots of leaves and needles to use.

Like Lola Moth, I use what's cheap and available, which in my area is old hay. We buy it several bales at a time and have it delivered. Also I mulch with all my pulled weeds (that aren't too obnoxious: no Johnson grass, for example), cut grass, and plant prunings: every kind of organic matter I can lay my hands on. Annual grass in the beds is fine, as I don't have delicate plants they can run over, and so are a fair number of weedy things. I also amend planting holes with the hay, using the most composted available.

I use what's easiest, which are the leaves from the trees in the back of our house. It's not fool-proof because it gets blown away at times, and this year the rabbits have been eating it, but it works well enough to keep the roses blooming reasonably well.

I pick up free city compost by the truckload. Its made of ground up park trees that died in the drought, manure from zoo animals, lawn clippings, and some composted sewage. Sort of a post apocalyptic type mixture. I do have to pick pieces of shredded plastic and broken glass out of it sometimes. It seems to be working out so far! They even delivered a truckload for free once :)

Oh interesting! they say they only use herbivore poo in ours, and my yard is a favorite hangout of feral cats and the occasional raccoon. I wish I could get my hands on some lion poo!

What a great idea! I live right by the zoo and it never occurred to me to go there for manure. I have access to horse manure and turkey manure. Actually sell the turkey manure but it's really cheap. Like $5 for the back of a truck!

I like mushroom soil.

I love wood chips, free from the tree-trimmers. I put down a 2-3 inch layer everywhere about twice a year. Oak leaves are also very beneficial, with loads of good tannins. They work best under something, as they can blow away. Cedar oil will slow down fungal/microbial action, so that one I only use where my cats hang out under the bushes, to help control fleas. Pine needles are a great top layer, since they mat down and stick together. They can be a bit aquaphobic so I try to make sure there is a slight slope or a saucer to direct rain back to the drip zone. :-)

Thank you all. There's a lot to learn from your comments. I live in an urban residential area and, while I wish I can use some of the creative organic solutions with manure, I'm afraid it's not possible for me given the proximity of our lots. That said, I'm encouraged to learn that horse manure is less smelly because we can get it for free in our area.

Great to hear that many of you are using leaves and I keep scratching my head why I haven't thought of it sooner instead of wasting on their cleanup and collection.

It sounds that roses are not too selective about the mulch material which will make it fun and interesting to experiment by rotating between them. The only trouble is that whatever decomposes faster and amends the soil also encourages weeds, but underplanting our roses more densely with perennials might be the way to control it.

Last year I tried putting down wet newspapers and toppi g with leaves. Definitely over kill for my zone

Months later I was still picking newspaper out of the beds.

That's interesting, Kristine. I heard about lasagna layering but it must be that newspapers are placed much deeper than what you did for mulching. Not about mulching but something related to your experience with newspapers, when we bought this house, the previous owners didn't do any gardening and in fact encouraged weeds. The yards were totally neglected. To make a long story short, when I was planting the first two years, I would add pea gravel at the bottom for better drainage in this heavy clay soil. Lo' and behold, in about one year all these pebbles were pushed up to the surface and were all over our raised beds. I stopped adding them since and it works fine though I must say we did some heavy lifting to amend soil for raised beds.

That is so weird about the rocks. When I start a planting bed, I spend forever removing rocks. So when I removed a heavenly bamboo to swith it to Bolero, there were a boat load of rocks. Now I know that I dug all of the rock out and yet the he was full of rocks, so weird.

I use shredded pine mulch, and topsoil blends with humus and ground pine bark.

I'm not keen on leaves, as sometimes they wrap around canes and seem to stay soggy under snow cover. If the leaves were well mixed with other topdressings, that would be preferable to just plain leaves.

Krista, that's a good point about leaves. Our lawn mower can be used to shred them which we may well do and then mix with pine bark and cedar mulch. (after reading the comments here, I already ordered shredded cedar mulch to try it)

Kristine, I also thought it was weird. Our raised beds were literally covered with tiny pea gravel that I had placed ca. 4-6 feet deep down the planting holes in the previous year. I heard that the freeze and thaw cycles push stones and generally larger particles to the soil surface in spring. I assume that's what happened, but it was surely strange to see it.

It's not just rocks that get pushed to the surface of clay soils. I dug two 3ft deep holes and used concrete around my clothesline posts to make sure it was sturdy. The concrete is being pushed out of the holes and the whole clothesline is 3 inches taller than it used to be. I get to save on yoga classes because stretching to hang up the washing does the job on my spinal arthritis. There is also a big blob of concrete that is making its way out of the ground near the house that was probably left over from pouring the foundations.

I apply shredded hardwood mulch 2 to 3 times a year; it breaks down quickly in our hot, humid climate. The roses don't really require a finely shredded mulch like this but the hardwood really works best with all my perennials.

I would not hesitate to use arborist mulch (wood chip) if I had room on my narrow lot for a big pile. The tree services give it by the dump truck full so when you get it you get a LOT!

Over the years all my mulching has improved the soil tremendously (wood chip will do the same thing). If I am faced with making a new bed I apply six inches of compost. I used to rely on a soil conditioner which was labelled Landscape Mix which was compost, humus, and shredded pine bark-- wonderful stuff but no longer available here anywhere I've checked.

I use Moo-doo. It’s from a local organic dairy farm. It is rich dark and dry with little smell as they compost it for a year.

If you can commit to daily collecting used coffee grounds from your local Starbucks, that plus wood chips will make great soil. If you add it on top of the mulch, earthworms will be attracted to the surface to feed on it and bring it down below, gently tilling your beds in the process. Over time, what you'll have is your native soil below, composted coffee grounds and mulch in the middle, and coarser mulch above.

:-)

~Christopher