What Are The Different Types Of Mulching?

Organic mulch is one of the best things that I can do for my garden, because mulch will inhibit weeds, moderate the temperature, conserve moisture, and improves my soil. Mulch makes yards look neater and it needs to reduce the time that I need to spending out in my yard weeding, watering, and fertilizing. I will mulch my established garden in the spring, when the soil has warm up enough for active root growth. If I have planted either new trees or shrubs in the summer. I will need to water the soil thoroughly first, at least 6 inches deep. In the winter, my ground freezes so I have to cover my perennials. After it is frozen completely with 4 to 6 inches of loose mulch, which could be pine needles or straw. Once the soil starts to thaw in the spring, the mulch needs to be remove gradually. I know that mulch does not kill existing existing weeds, I need to weed my garden before I start laying down the mulch. The best way to put down mulch is to make it thick enough. If I am using a type of fine mulch, such as, shredded leaves I will need to put the leaves 3 inches thick and if I am using a coarse mulch, such as, wood chips, I will put the chips 4 inches thick, but I have to make sure to keep the mulch away from plant stems. Woody mulches such as straw, bark, and wood chips, will last several years before they will need to be replaced. These kinds of mulches are low in nitrogen and they will take it from the soil as they decay. I will counteract this, by adding nitrogen fertilizer to my soil in the spring. I will add 2 pounds of 10 percent nitrogen fertilizer for ever 100 square feet of my garden. Put the fertilizer evenly on the mulch, then I will need to slowly add water to the fertilizer. I will check my plants in early summer and if I find any of my plants in a weak, stunted or yellowish new growth, I know that I will need to repeat the nitrogen fertilizer system again to my garden plants. Another way is to use landscape fabric under the mulch. Landscape fabric is used because this tight mesh will let water and fertilizer to reach my plants, but it will block the sunlight that weeds needs to grow. I like to use this landscape fabric around my permanent plantings, shrubs, and my trees. I will lay the mesh down after I have planted my trees, shrubs, and other permanent plantings, and I will cut holes for all the plants. After this, I will cover with mulch for a beautiful appearance in my garden or yard. Right now, I would like to talk about the many different types of mulches, so everybody will know there are more different mulches to be used than I have already talked about. Lawn clippings are really available for anybody to use in their yard. Lawn clippings are high in nitrogen and fresh lawn clippings will mat and ferment and this can kill plants so the clippings need to be dry out and add shredded leaves to the mix and then add as a mulch. Wood chips are a long-lasting mulch and they are very easy to use. They can be used for garden paths even when they have a real heavy rainstrom. Pine needles are another great type of mulch that I have a lot of them, because we have a lot of pine trees on our property. Pine needles are free of weeds, longstanding and great for use around trees and shrubs. Straw is good to used to mulch my garden9vegetables0 and winter cover. Straw decomposes real quick so I will need to reapplied regularly around my vegetables and winter crop. Compost is another type of mulch and it is decomposed organic matter. Compost is a great soil builder but compost is not the best type of mulch because there will be weed seeds in the compost and it will blow away. Compost needs to be work into the soil and then put mulch over the compost. Leaves decomposes rapidly and they will improves the soil. I always make sure that I have shred all of my garden. I do this because if I put whole leaves around my plants, the whole leaves will smother the plants. Shredded or chipped bark is another good type of mulch that decays slowly and it won't blow away. They are good to use to suppress weeds around my trees and shrubs. Stone is not an organic mulch, but it does have ways that it can be used in your yard. Stone is a low-maintenance ground cover that is used ground cover that is used around trees and shrubs. I put landscape fabric, under my stones, so I will not have problems with removing the stones. I hope that this will help anybody with what kinds of mulching that is out there for everybody to use in their garden and yard.