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Forgotten Gardening
 By:
Kay Kelly
I am the quintessential lazy gardener. I might look busy and industrious
as I go about my chores, but don’t be fooled. I’m sweating
because it is hot, not because of my boundless energy and enthusiasm
for pulling weeds and trimming shrubs.
It’s because I’m so lazy, not to mention cheap, that
I’ve discovered the benefits of mulch. Years ago I worked
for a friend who gave me, as one of my on-going duties, the job
of keeping the weeds out of a little hemlock hedge she was trying
to grow. The weeds were consistently taller than the little trees,
and the kind of grass that grew around them had long, deep roots
that broke off a few inches into the ground and sprouted back twice
as thick. Keeping that hundred foot row weeded looked futile. Mind
you, these were the days before Roundup became a household word,
and I didn’t know enough about herbicides to use them. But
somewhere, sometime, I must have read something that gave me an
idea. I spent a couple of days pulling cardboard boxes out of dumpsters,
breaking them down, and laying them around the little trees. As
I went along I wet the cardboard down so it wouldn’t blow
away, and covered it up with pine straw. At first my friend was
annoyed with me for taking so long to do the task. She even made
a couple of derisive jokes about my efforts, and my confidence in
the idea was badly shaken. But it worked! That hedge row never needed
weeding again, ever, and the little trees took off and quickly grew
into the thick hedge she had envisioned. Cardboard and mulch planted
themselves into my consciousness as a cure-all for endless garden
work.
Mulch is nature’s way of keeping plants healthy, and is so
important to the garden that it is the fifth principle of xeriscaping,
or Common Sense Landscaping. Mulching has two major benefits: first,
it adds organic matter to the soil as it decomposes, thus feeding
the soil that feeds the plants. In doing so it provides the habitat
for the bacterialogical creatures that are so important to plant
health. Second, it slows down the evaporation of surface water,
and helps the rain and irrigation water soak into the ground instead
of running off site and contributing to erosion and pollution problems.
This relates to the cheap and lazy amongst us in this way: less
trips around with the water hose, and less fertilizing. It gives
us a handy place to stash the leaves we rake off the lawn... under
the shrubbery they go. And get this – a nice thick mulch keeps
weed seeds from germinating! Less weeds, less work. The weeds that
do come up are much easier to pull out of moist, soft ground. Good
landscape design addresses what is best for the plants, and best
for the environment. Current design practices address every square
foot of a property with hardscape, plant cover, or mulch cover.
Naturally, some mulches are more suited to certain areas than others.
Gravel, for instance, is a better mulch right against the foundation
of a house, whereas gravel in the flower beds might create excessive
heat for the plants. Using different mulches in different areas
creates more visual interest. A slow-decomposing wood chip mulch
works well for walkways, gravel slows down stormwater runoff much
better than asphalt on driveway and parking areas, and pine straw
provides a nice contrast in the landscape beds.
Do yourself a favor, and choose material that’s readily available.
There’s no denying that making use of what falls into the
yard naturally is best. Breaking up small twigs and throwing them
under the shrubs, grinding up leaves with the lawn mower, and raking
pine straw to use on top of everything and hold it in place will
adhere to the very best principles of landscape management. If you
like a clean, tidy look, and have a little money to invest, go buy
some mulch to use as a top layer. There has been a booming industry
built around the mulch business, as more and more companies chip,
color, bag and bale different products to entice us. Some are better
than others, and I’ve used about everything out there except
for rubber mulch and synthetic pine straw. A girl has her standards,
and both those products cross the line with me. I no longer use
cypress mulch either, because that industry is devastating the environment,
and I want no part of that. Pine straw is my choice, and the chief
complaint other people have against pine straw is the very thing
that makes me value it: it does break down and have to be replenished
on a regular basis. It may go against my lazy nature, but it works
for the plants, and that, my friends, is what it’s all about.
Questions? Comments? Opinions? My email address has changed! Email
me at kc.kelley@mchsi.com
http://community.emeraldcoast.com/apalachicola/news/article.showarticle.db.php?a=1148
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