with Gerald Frankowski
I love this time of year when you walk through our neighborhood and see so many of our friends working feverishly to spruce up their yards with all the beautiful plants that are now available to us.
As we all know, plants are not cheap! The time we spend on our yards is time consuming, and the money we spend on watering them can be costly. That’s why it’s so very important to mulch our beds properly.
People sometimes overlook this component of gardening, but in my opinion, it’s just as important as to where you place your plants.
Some points to remember-
- Mulch keeps the weeds away, thus giving us more time to enjoy our gardens instead of working in them.
- Add at least 3 inches of mulch; this will ensure that water retention is high and that the roots are kept cool during our brutal summers.
- Keep the mulch at least 1 inch from the stalk of the plant.
- If you wish to acidify your beds for Azalea’s, Camilla’s etc, the best mulch is pine needles. Shredded hardwood mulch is better than pine bark mulch; pine bark tends to wash/blow away.
- Shredded cedar mulch has many great aspects; it works well, its aromatic and helps keep pests away from your plants. Though colored/dyed mulch is very much in vogue at the moment, they tend to come in unnatural colors and the dyes will usually leach out within a month or so leaving your beds anemic looking.
Have fun in your yards and protect your plants!
