I'm really pleased that reviews for my new Prepper's Livestock Handbook are starting to pop up around the internet. I especially wanted to share this one with you by Yvie over at Gypsy Road. She interviewed me and included that interview at the end of her blog post. She asked some very good questions. Click here to go take a look-see!
July 4, 2018
July 1, 2018
Mulch Days
While I was on blog break last month, I was busy mulching the garden. Our summers can be hot and dry, so it's imperative to preserve as much moisture in the soil as possible. We had quite a few rainy evenings toward the end of June, so with the soil moist, it was the perfect time to mulch.
Most years I seem to run out of mulch before I run out of garden. This summer, I made a commitment to myself to get the entire garden mulched. That has meant using whatever mulch materials I can get my hands on. Here's my rundown on mulching materials for the hot, muggy, no-tellin'-when-it's-gonna-rain South. I've listed a few things I avoid at the end of the post.
Dried Leaves
Dried leaves are my old standby, mostly because we have a lot of them! They do make a good mulch, but they aren't perfect.
Pros:
Summary: Dried leaves have been my primary mulch for a long time. They are the traditional earth mulch and build beautiful soil in the forests! Because we have lots of trees, they are plentiful here and using the leaves as mulch is certainly better than stuffing them in plastic bags to be thrown away.
To simplify the two-part process of raking/hauling and mulching, we've taken to doing the raking in the fall and winter and storing them in our future laundry water recycling bed.
Paper Feed or Seed Bags
I showed you how I was using these to mulch aisles in my "What's Growing in the Garden" post last month. Like everything else, they have their good points and bad.
Pros:
Summary: I like these for mulching aisles. They go down first and then the plants are mulched with dried leaves or wood chips. The top layer of mulch helps hold them down and hide them.
Wood Chips
If you've watched the Back To Eden video, then you may think wood chips are the perfect mulch. Maybe that's true in some parts of the country, but in other parts it has both good points and bad.
Pros:
Summary: Wait a minute. Did I put "slow to decompose" under both pros and cons? Yes I did. I like that they last an entire gardening season (or longer), but if the soil must be worked at the end of the season they are in the way. I usually rake them into the aisles until I need to use them for mulch again. Wiregrass growing in wood chips is particularly annoying, and if it isn't removed it will continue to grow until it covers and consumes the wood chips. At the end of the season I rake them into a pile so I can pull the wiregrass. This is why I like first putting down a layer of feed bags or ...
Cardboard
Pros:
Summary: I really like cardboard for covering walkways or large areas, because cardboard smothers well and helps me conserve my other mulching materials. Large corrugated cardboard boxes works best. I don't use cardboard with glossy color pictures on the box. Most stores are willing to give it away, but sometimes they have contracts with a company that collects and hauls off their boxes.
Straw
I don't often use straw, because I don't have a free source for it. But I had some leftover after we used it as bedding when hauling goats. So it made its way into the garden as mulch.
Pros:
Summary: I first used straw for mulch when I had rabbits. In winter I'd stuff their hutches with straw, which would fall out the wire cage bottom along with their manure. What I learned, however, is that all the grain seed is rarely removed. I inadvertently introduced oat grass all over my garden and had a heck of a time getting rid of that!
Newspaper
I admit I haven't used newspaper in a long time, because I don't have a free source for it. Most of our newspaper is saved for fire starting.
Pros
Summary: Newspaper works best in a thick layer. A couple of sheets decompose quickly in moisture which means it doesn't keep weeds down for long.
Living Mulch
AKA ground cover, I call it living mulch if it's growing in garden beds and aisles.
Pros:
Summary: I love the idea of living mulch but have had mixed success. If it grows densely, like in the above photo of my melon bed last year, then it works well. If the seed doesn't germinate well, then I only get a sparse covering which isn't much help as mulch. Timing is important too, and that's something I'm still learning. If the seed isn't planted at the right time it can either interfere with crop seed growth, or can be overtaken by weeds first. I think it's best use is with field crops where the area is too large to mulch, but I'm still negotiating a learning curve with that.
My biggest mulch mistake...
... was using landscape cloth. It was expensive to buy and time-consuming to put down. Then, even with a good thick layer of wood chips the wiregrass grew right on up through it. And if that wasn't bad enough, the wiregrass secured the cloth to the ground! It was impossible to remove. Dan finally put the tiller to it to chop it up, but four years later I'm still picking up bits of the stuff. You can read all about that fiasco in this post, but needless to say I do not recommend landscape cloth!
Plastic is another one I don't recommend. I know commercial organic growers use it, but it IMO it has more counts against than pluses to outweigh them.
So that's the rundown on my experience with mulch. Now it's your turn. What's your favorite way to mulch? Any lessons learned? Any tips for the rest of us?
Most years I seem to run out of mulch before I run out of garden. This summer, I made a commitment to myself to get the entire garden mulched. That has meant using whatever mulch materials I can get my hands on. Here's my rundown on mulching materials for the hot, muggy, no-tellin'-when-it's-gonna-rain South. I've listed a few things I avoid at the end of the post.
Dried Leaves
 |
| Dried leaves mulching corn. |
Dried leaves are my old standby, mostly because we have a lot of them! They do make a good mulch, but they aren't perfect.
Pros:
- plentiful (if you have deciduous trees)
- a good way to recycle them
- decompose quickly (build soil quickly)
- not as ugly as a few other things
- have to be raked and hauled (time consuming)
- usually full of acorns, pecans, etc (which sprout and grow)
- also usually full of sticks
- can harbor fire (and other biting) ants
- usually needs a 2nd layer later in the season
- doesn't deter wiregrass
Summary: Dried leaves have been my primary mulch for a long time. They are the traditional earth mulch and build beautiful soil in the forests! Because we have lots of trees, they are plentiful here and using the leaves as mulch is certainly better than stuffing them in plastic bags to be thrown away.
To simplify the two-part process of raking/hauling and mulching, we've taken to doing the raking in the fall and winter and storing them in our future laundry water recycling bed.
 |
| Convenient for leaf storage. |
Paper Feed or Seed Bags
 |
| Paper feed bags mulching aisles between rows of okra. |
I showed you how I was using these to mulch aisles in my "What's Growing in the Garden" post last month. Like everything else, they have their good points and bad.
Pros:
- excellent way to recycle them
- if plentiful, can cover an area quickly
- last the entire summer
- smothers grasses
- help conserve other mulches like wood chips if not plentiful
- can blow away in a strong wind (have to be weighted)
- needs a covering layer of fine mulch
- not good for mulching small areas, such as between plants
- can be hard to find. Many feedbags are either plastic or plastic lined
- far from aesthetic!
Summary: I like these for mulching aisles. They go down first and then the plants are mulched with dried leaves or wood chips. The top layer of mulch helps hold them down and hide them.
Wood Chips
 | |
| Wood chips mulching beans with feed bags in the aisles. They are deepest around the plants, with a light layer over the bags. |
If you've watched the Back To Eden video, then you may think wood chips are the perfect mulch. Maybe that's true in some parts of the country, but in other parts it has both good points and bad.
Pros:
- can be readily available for free
- slow to decompose
- attractive
- if you can't find them for free, they are expensive to buy
- slow to decompose
- harbor fire ants and black widow spiders
- doesn't deter wiregrass
Summary: Wait a minute. Did I put "slow to decompose" under both pros and cons? Yes I did. I like that they last an entire gardening season (or longer), but if the soil must be worked at the end of the season they are in the way. I usually rake them into the aisles until I need to use them for mulch again. Wiregrass growing in wood chips is particularly annoying, and if it isn't removed it will continue to grow until it covers and consumes the wood chips. At the end of the season I rake them into a pile so I can pull the wiregrass. This is why I like first putting down a layer of feed bags or ...
Cardboard
 |
| Cardboard between rows of tomatoes |
Pros:
- readily available (usually)
- slow to decompose
- can quickly cover a large area
- smothers grasses
- earthworm friendly (used in compost worm beds)
- help conserve other mulches like wood chips if not plentiful
- have to remove tape, labels, and staples
- can't fit them around individual plants
- can blow away in a strong wind, must be weighted
- not aesthetic
- needs a top layer of mulch to cover
- flaps can create slits for weeds to grow through
Summary: I really like cardboard for covering walkways or large areas, because cardboard smothers well and helps me conserve my other mulching materials. Large corrugated cardboard boxes works best. I don't use cardboard with glossy color pictures on the box. Most stores are willing to give it away, but sometimes they have contracts with a company that collects and hauls off their boxes.
Straw
 |
| Wheat straw mulching tomatoes. |
I don't often use straw, because I don't have a free source for it. But I had some leftover after we used it as bedding when hauling goats. So it made its way into the garden as mulch.
Pros:
- easy to handle and work with
- quick to mulch with
- not usually free, but can be cheap
- can contain seeds which introduce more weeds
- doesn't deter wiregrass
- price has been going up and can be expensive to buy from a garden center.
Summary: I first used straw for mulch when I had rabbits. In winter I'd stuff their hutches with straw, which would fall out the wire cage bottom along with their manure. What I learned, however, is that all the grain seed is rarely removed. I inadvertently introduced oat grass all over my garden and had a heck of a time getting rid of that!
Newspaper
I admit I haven't used newspaper in a long time, because I don't have a free source for it. Most of our newspaper is saved for fire starting.
Pros
- decomposes quickly
- good way to recycle it
- can be readily available for free
- must be sorted to remove glossy ads
- requires a lot to get a good thick layer
- needs less fine mulch materials for a covering layer
Summary: Newspaper works best in a thick layer. A couple of sheets decompose quickly in moisture which means it doesn't keep weeds down for long.
Living Mulch
 |
| This photo of clover as living mulch was taken last year. |
AKA ground cover, I call it living mulch if it's growing in garden beds and aisles.
Pros:
- builds the soil
- aesthetic
- can be used as green manure after harvest
- have to buy seed every year
- not always dense enough suppress weeds
- has to be timed properly so that ground cover and crop grow together and weed seeds don't get a head start and dominate
- seasonal, i.e. grows either during warm or cool weather
- hard to maintain in perennial beds. For example, my chicory bed is mulched with violets, but I've had blackberry and honeysuckle vines coming up there.
Summary: I love the idea of living mulch but have had mixed success. If it grows densely, like in the above photo of my melon bed last year, then it works well. If the seed doesn't germinate well, then I only get a sparse covering which isn't much help as mulch. Timing is important too, and that's something I'm still learning. If the seed isn't planted at the right time it can either interfere with crop seed growth, or can be overtaken by weeds first. I think it's best use is with field crops where the area is too large to mulch, but I'm still negotiating a learning curve with that.
My biggest mulch mistake...
... was using landscape cloth. It was expensive to buy and time-consuming to put down. Then, even with a good thick layer of wood chips the wiregrass grew right on up through it. And if that wasn't bad enough, the wiregrass secured the cloth to the ground! It was impossible to remove. Dan finally put the tiller to it to chop it up, but four years later I'm still picking up bits of the stuff. You can read all about that fiasco in this post, but needless to say I do not recommend landscape cloth!
Plastic is another one I don't recommend. I know commercial organic growers use it, but it IMO it has more counts against than pluses to outweigh them.
- It's a petroleum product
- It doesn't decompose, it deteriorates
- Must be discarded when replaced (not good repurposing material)
- It doesn't breathe so when it heats up, I can only imagine that it kills every soil organism beneath it.
- Rain can't penetrate it so
- can't renew soil moisture
- where does a gullywasher go when the ground can't absorb it???
So that's the rundown on my experience with mulch. Now it's your turn. What's your favorite way to mulch? Any lessons learned? Any tips for the rest of us?
June 28, 2018
June Blooms
Closing out the month with a collection of photos I've been taking. Color abounds! All of the May flowers have continued blooming in June, while others are made their debut this month.
What's blooming in your neck of the woods?
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| Southern Magnolia |
 |
| Butterfly Weed |
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| Mimosa |
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| Black-eyed Susans |
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| Multiplier Onion |
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| Hardy Hibiscus, AKA Rose of Sharon |
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| Okra |
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| Meyer Lemon |
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| Summer Squash |
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| Beauty Bush |
What's blooming in your neck of the woods?
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