Garden - Mulching

My mother taught me how to mulch my first flower bed. It was a big beautiful shade bed from one of the gardening catalogs.  Choosing mulch better known as wood chips is a personal preference. Many home owners prefer rock between their landscaping, mulch though allows plants to multiply. Another benefit to miulch is that it nourishes the soul while keeping the weeds out.

I always start my beds by taking the area'a grada down as low as possible. I'm not taking about billy goat chewing for its evening meal but as low as the mower deck will allow should suffice. 

Next you need loads and loads of newspaper or cardboard. I also save and use outdated magazines and calendars. Throwing away food boxes is against the law in my house too. Hamburger Helper, cereal, even pizza boxes all make for the first layer of defense in my gardens, when putting this layer on the beds mi make it hick. Realize that his layer disentigrates quickly therefore it is wise to make it dense. A normal daily paper can be opened on the first half gold but no more then overlap everything. One macaroni box isn't thick enough either. It takes lots of overlapping and three or more to accomplish your goal.

Next layer is the actual mulch or as most people think about it - wood chips. The layer of mulch
should be at least three inches deep, more never hurts. Truly you must use this layering and hipness method or else you have wasted your time energy and money. Further there certain types of trees that are toxic to plants such as walnut. 

Once I have the flower bed base in place, I let the bed sit for a few weeks to kill off the grass and weeds. Now when I am ready to make my plantings I simply pull back approximately a ten inch circle of mulch, puncture and loosen the same amount of paper, dig my spade in and plant.

Mulch has so many benefits: holding moisture, adding nutrients, weed control that it makes perfect sense to the gardener who can't stop themselves; someone like me.