Mulch is Essential

You've been working hard on creating a low-maintenance, Florida-friendly landscape that you can enjoy year round. Your soil has been amended with lots of rich compost, you've planted the right plants in the right places, the right trees in the right places to help conserve energy. What's next?

Mulch, Mulch and more Mulch!!!

Pine Bark

The last step in creating that low-maintenance, sustainable landscape is mulch! There are many wonderful benefits of mulch:

1) Reduced weed growth. For extended protection place 2 to 3 layers of newspaper around plants prior to mulching. The newspaper will breakdown slowly reducing the amount of weed seeds that are able to germinate.

2) Reduced amount of water needed to sustain plants. A 2 to 3 inch layer of mulch will protect soil from the sun's drying rays, thereby retaining moisture in the soil for a longer period of time, which equates to a savings in water useage.

3) Cools the roots of plants in the heat of summer. Plants will be less stressed if their root system can remain cool especially those who are planted in full sun.

4) Provides nutrition to the plant as it breaks down - depending on what type of mulch you use.

Oak Leaves

Mulch Options

1) Bark or wood chips - provide good coverage and last the longest. Pine bark (a renewable resource), melaleuca and eucalyptus varieties are easily found in Florida. Cypress is also readily available but is NOT a wise choice. It is an important wetlands tree that is slow growing. Currently, very old stands of cypress are being cut down to provide mulch and the growth rate of new cypress cannot keep up with the demand. Click here to read more about Cypress mulch. It is better to use a mulch such as melaleuca which is an invasive tree in the state.

2) Pine needles are another great option especially if you have pine trees growing in your yard. Many local nurseries currently offer pine needle mulch.

3) Oak leaves are another great option for mulch and for adding nutrients to the soil. Plant oaks in flower beds and those beds will self-mulch when the trees drop their leaves. Free mulch and very little work to get the beds mulched.

4) Grass clippings make for a good mulch if they do not contain a lot of chemicals. They do breakdown quickly and need to be replenished often.

5) Gravel is an option but does not provide much of a block to weeds, nor any plant nutrition.

6) Rubber mulches are not the best as they do not provide any nutritional benefit to the soil and may even leach chemicals.

Mulching takes time and is an added expense, but applying a nice thick layer of it to your garden beds is essential, and well worth the extra effort in the long run.

From the Ground Up

The secret to healthy good looking plants is not really a secret at all.  It's just plain old common sense. It all starts from the ground up ~ ~ with the SOIL!

It's the NUMBER 1 and MOST IMPORTANT thing to do, consistently, when establishing a garden.

Florida's poor sandy soil does not contain enough nutrients for good plant health and for retaining water. It's easy to recognize plants that are growing in the barren, unproductive, paltry looking stuff we call soil. Many of us have learned this lesson the hard way, and now subscribe to the notion of adding a generous, heaping supply of organic matter to every garden bed before planting. As my mother always said (and you know mom's are always right) and I quote, "It's better to place a 50 cent plant into a $5 hole."

Don't skimp . . . add your homemade compost or spend the extra money to buy mushroom compost or composted manure. And, by all means, be generous when creating that $5 hole. Your plants will love it, and you'll be a happy, successful gardener.

~ ~ More useful ways to enrich the soil ~ ~

* Make your own compost with leaves, grass clippings, food and plant wastes. It's a great way to save money on soil amendments, and it will be readily available for use when needed.

* Lay newspaper or cardboard around plants before mulching. Both provide nutrients as they breakdown, and serve as a good weed barrier for newly disturbed areas.

* Mulch, mulch, mulch all garden beds. Oak leaves are a good source, if they are available to you. They are great in turning sandy soil into black gold. Heap a generous amount of oak leaves on all  beds each spring, and they will generally last until the next spring. If leaves aren't available, renewable mulches such as pine bark, pine needles, straw or melaleuca are good choices. Cypress mulch which isn't as easily renewable and could be harvested from old and rare cypress trees is better avoided.

That's it! This one simple step of enriching your soil will help you create a beautiful garden. It won't be long before your neighbors are asking you what your secret is to growing healthy, beautiful plants.

Don't Toss those Bags Just Yet!

The Live Oaks are probably starting to cause you some grief as they have been slowly dropping their canopy of leaves all over everything. How lucky you are if you have one or more of these stately trees in your yard. Why? You ask. Not because you like to rake or because you like having their pollen everywhere but because they are going to save you a lot of money and make your plants very happy.

Your garden beds are probably in dire need of a new layer of mulch and that's exactly where all those wonderful leaves come into play. A thick layer of Oak leaves provides a nice "free" barrier of weed control in your beds, PLUS as they decompose they add a rich layer of nutrients to our sandy soil. Over time, they can improve the water holding capacity of our soil and provide fertilizer for your plants. All this for "FREE!"

There is one catch though. Yes, you'll have to spend a little time raking them into your garden beds. And, while you're doing that you can just keep telling yourself: I might have to rake, BUT . . .

#1 - I won't have to buy mulch and drag the bags all over the garden.

#2 - I won't have to buy fertilizer and toss some under each plant.

Do you see the savings adding up already? Keep going.

#3 - I won't have to spend time bagging them and dragging them to the curb.

#4 - I won't have to go to the gym today because I got my exercise in the yard.

Do you get the picture? 

Do you see the benefits of not raking, bagging and dragging them to the curb? 

I thought you might!

Hey, you might even try using your blower to blow some of them into your garden beds.

Now I'm really convincing you. Aren't I? 

So, garden smart and don't let all that free mulch end up on your curb. Take advantage of Mother Nature's bounty and save some $$$'s and time. And, while you're at it, sneak over to your neighbor's driveway after dark and snitch their...already raked...bags of leaves. The more the merrier!

Choose Your Mulch Carefully

Mulch is a necessity in Florida, and cypress seems to be the favorite choice for most gardeners. While cypress may be the least expensive mulch on the market, it is the least sustainable. Cypress trees are slow growers and some of the oldest stands in Louisiana are being harvested to keep up with demand. The depletion of these forests is having a negative environmental effect on the state. You can read more about the problem at SaveOurCypress.org, where you can also find a list of "green" alternatives that work just as well.