Mulch Ado About Nothing

Even our "afterthought" plantings (like the wild grapes you see here to the right) are starting to bud now, because the growing season has begun in earnest.

As a consequence, we are faced with a number of interesting decisions.  None of these decisions are difficult, nor even difficult to predict, once you've gotten used to the Myrtle frame of mind, but they are informative.

For example, all these plants need to be mulched, right?  I mean, that's what every single gardening authority will tell you.  They will then go on at great length about the wide variety of available mulches, and what the pros and cons of each might be, vis-a-vis the soil alkalinity or acidity (which you've been instructed to carefully get measured by the county extension agent, in association with Texas A&M University, of course!), and the mix of other elements (notably zinc, that's always a big one they talk about). 

And, of course, there's also the question of cost, and environmental sensibility.  There are rubber mulches, after all, to go with the traditional cedar chips, and bark mulch, and cypress mulch, and peat moss, and on, and on, and on.

So, what do Myrtle Maintenance Personnel do?

Oh, come on, you didn't seriously think we'd spend money on mulch, did you?  And artificial mulch?  Why not just grow wax vegetables?

No, we use what we have on hand, just like we do with everything else.  Fortunately, we recently moved our wood pile from the back yard (next to where the pond project is currently underway) to the front yard (as part of a screen in front of where the bee hives are going to go next year).  At the bottom of the wood pile?  Lots and lots of bark, rotten wood, leaves, and other yucky gunk that will work nicely as a mulch around our brand new trees and vines.

We suppose in the interest of being faithful chroniclers, we should enumerate our new plants as of the last week.  We'll list the veggies and fruits next week, but here's what we planted over the weekend:

• 2 Forsythia
• 2 Pink Azalea
• 4 Loblolly Pine
• 5 White Pine
• 2 Lodgepole Pine
• 1 Red Maple

So, why did we not choose a more traditional mulch for these plants?  Apart from the cost savings (which is considerable), there are a few key reasons:

1. Natural mulch is essentially a new layer of "compost-in-place".  As the mulch rots, it nourishes the protected plant.
2. Limiting weeds is, at Myrtle's, only partially desirable.  We obviously do not want weeds to take over completely, but neither do we want them completely eradicated.  We could do a whole series of posts on the health benefits to chickens of eating those plants which other gardeners poison in their race to conformity.
3. Mulch naturally erodes; a readily available replacement-in-place is to be preferred to a mulch which can only be replaced by another special trip to the garden center.
4. Recreating the natural cycle is to be preferred whenever possible.  Think about the biodiversity of the rainforest, as an example, and then think about where the nourishment for all of that comes from; it is almost entirely a closed system.  Very little rainforest nutrient comes from external sources.

We'll show you how well the garden is doing sometime soon... as soon as we know ourselves how well it is doing!

Happy farming!