Wednesday, June 1, 2022

It's all too mulch.

On Monday, which was very hot, I took the dogs out to go lay down mulch around the plants and the trees in the front yard. Finally. I've had the stuff in the garage for weeks but at last had a chance. The dogs, being exceptionally hairy beasts, were sent inside after a while, but no such luck for me. Ah, but now the place is well mulched. 

He mulcheth here...

He mulcheth there...

That Freddy mulcheth everywhere.

I prefer the red mulch to the black mulch for two reasons:
1) My wife likes the red one better and
2) See #1.

Now that the job is done, let's consult Good Housekeeping and Better Homes and Gardens to see what I did wrong. 

Well, I think I did all right. You shouldn't use too much mulch and cause root rot, and you shouldn't use too little or the weeds will not be discouraged from coming up. Don't make a volcano of mulch around the base of the trees -- not I! I make a mulch dinner plate. You note the top picture, where I put down damp garden soil topped with mulch to protect the feets of the baby tree I just planted. The old, grumpy trees get the same dinner-plate mulch serving. 

To my surprise, Good Housekeeping actually recommends plastic mulch in certain circumstances, such as promoting vegetable growth by keeping soil moist and warm. Well, I'm not growing any vegetables this year, so I went au naturale, mulchwise. 

Probably the one dumb thing I did is the same thing pretty much everything does -- BH&G says not to let mulch touch your house. "When damp mulch touches your siding, it creates a path for termites and other pests to use to get to your home." Oops. But hold on -- my mulch doesn't touch the siding, although it does get up against the lattice of the porch. Maybe that's too much, too. Oh, who the hell knows. I've been doing it for ages and the termites haven't taken us out yet.

My feeling is -- I'm gonna mulch once a year, I'm gonna do it in the spring, and the hell with it after that. The shrubs don't lie awake at night worrying about me, so I'm going to do the same regarding them. 
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3 comments:

  1. peacelovewoodstockJune 1, 2022 at 12:28 PM

    Mrs. PLW has determined that we have 'bombardier fungus' in our mulch .. the result being sticky little black spots on the front porch railing and siding. A yuge pain to clean off.

    Our property is about half wild woods and I have determined that the annual haul of dead branches and brush will generate plenty of mulch to use around the not wild part. Now I just need to make the business case to Mrs. PLW, probably need a 10-year ROI model in real dollars with an appropriate discount factor to account for future inflation. Unless I could somehow get her think it is her idea. Maybe I'll leave my Tractor Supply catalog on her nightstand, open to the right page ...

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  2. FredKeyJune 1, 2022 at 2:44 PM

    I dunno -- it didn't work for Ralphie for his official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time.

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  3. DanJune 1, 2022 at 7:19 PM

    You should get a percentage.

    Back on 22 May you mentioned Kodiak Cakes stuff. Well, our semi-monthly Wal-Mart grocery order came up and I snuck a few Kodiak items in. Couple of cinnamon & something pancake cups, some frozen waffles and frozen pancakes.

    I thought the waffles were pretty good. Mrs Fert really liked the pancakes (both frozen and in-the-cup). Sooooo, today we ordered enough to get us through the next few weeks.

    Thanks for the recommendation. (I think PLW suggested Kirkland popcorn a few years ago and it was also good.)

    Never thought Bleat readers would be such a good resource for not-regrettable-food.

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