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Notes From the Garden

Notes From the Garden

Gird Your Loins And Mulch

By Madeleine Wilde

Feb 11, 1999 -- More on mulch, but first let me salute Duane Kelly for once again staging the Northwest Flower & Garden Show which gives such a luxuriant taste of the garden's fullness including its sights, sounds, and smells. Now that we know this has been the wettest winter since the mid-50s, we need to see garden exuberance. We have been patient with our sodden landscapes, and now a great visual and sensory hit seems to be just what the doctor ordered. I know that many of you are frustrated by the crowds but Duane promises us more room with the future expansion at the Convention Center. Meanwhile, gird your loins and take it all in. The Show truly does have something for everyone. Take your sense of humor along to help you with the crowds.

As for the great subject of mulch, let me fill in some details from my last column, and hopefully answer some good questions that were posed by readers. It may be helpful for you to know that I do not believe that there is a "right" way for any aspect of gardening. However, there are approaches that are based on observation and then common sense. For example, if you have limited time that can be spent in the garden, then you need to develop gardening systems that do many things at once.

Any mulching material will smother many weeds and also make it easier to remove weeds by keeping the surrounding soil from becoming compacted. Along with this ability to ease the weeding chore, mulches protect the soil from the harsh effects of drying winds, freezing temperatures, and pounding raindrops. Mulches should not necessarily be confused with amending the soil with rich organic materials. While some mulches such as compost, aged manure, or even rough gravel can be dug into soils, other mulch materials such as the arborists' wood chippings I wrote about last time need to be understood as a material that simply is laid on top of the soil and allowed to proceed through a decomposition process in place.

To find this sort of material, contact a Certified Arborist whose business address is close to your home and garden. While the arborists I know are delighted with my interest in their truckloads of chippings, they do not relish fighting traffic to come across town. The old adage 'time is money' does come into play here. They actually are doing you a favor to drop a loaded truck at your home, for they could easily charge a dump fee to their clients. However, I have found that they get very excited about a gardener who sees the wisdom and the value in what for them is a costly byproduct. From their studies and knowledge they know their "byproduct" can have a very significant and beneficial impact on the health of the home landscape.

From a visual and design sense, some loads are great while others may have coarse evergreen leaves or needles or wood chunks that sort of stick out in an unpleasant way. One load I received was filled with long stringy pieces. It was horrible to work with, but guess what? It did the job of protecting the soil for the season, and I was able to easily pull off the "stringy-ness" and put the offending material into the yard waste system. Other chunks I don't like I quietly remove while tending my plants and then try to broker with my arborist for a more refined load to dress off the beds. I have been working with the same arborist now for close to 12 years. He takes care of all my trees in the garden, he has been given many referrals, and when I ask him for a particular type of woodchip he tries to fit me into his schedule. That means I need to let him deliver it when it is convenient for him. Does this all sound too complicated? You must decide. I prefer the waiting and the fascinating stories he tells me about the trees he is caring for. The price is right for me and I don't have to look at or feel guilty about the plastic bags that other mulch products are packaged in.

There have been other questions about nitrogen loss that may occur with woodchip decomposition. These questions then lead into the whole spectrum of soil nutrients and fertilizing. Please stay tuned for I can certainly write some observations about those subjects. Today's current cold, wet weather tells me that we still have a few more weeks before it becomes a good time to actively start amending the soil. Again, except for producing high yields in a productive garden, such as the vegetable patch, soil amendments are not necessarily the 'right' way to garden. Heresy, you mutter? Perhaps to some.




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