Great tip, especially for new gardeners.

I agree, a great tip ... I couldn't garden without mulch!

What would we do without mulch? Great tip Chris.

I love the way mulch looks on the beds, gives them that finished look.

You want to be careful, though... some plants need less mulch than others -- their roots need to breathe (or so I've been told by some master gardeners)

I lucked out this year -- neighbors were taking trees down, and utility companies were trimming branches away from power lines. The two truckloads of wood chips I've gotten from those places aren't as pretty as the mulch I buy from the suppliers, but I can't beat the price -- FREE.

When you consider that the first pile was 10x20x5, that was a huge cost-savings for me (I pay between $2-3 for a 2cu ft bag of mulch). The current pile was almost as big as the first one. I used it to mark out the beds between my trees. When it comes time to plant shrubs between the trees, I'll just move the wood chips away from where I want the shrub to go, and dig there. MUCH easier than tilling up an entire bed that then just gets mulched over.

I save store-bought mulch for the beds close to the house.

I love the way mulch amends the soil too

GREAT tip!

vic said:I love the way mulch amends the soil too

GREAT tip!

Earlier this summer, my favorite neighbor looked at my newly wood-chipped beds and told me: You'll want to spray that mulch with something so it doesn't decay.

I just looked at her like: and then said "I'm trying to build an eco-system here."

This is a GREAT tip goldfinch! Methinks it's an essential in areas with cold, dry w*i*n*t*e*r*s. fiwit I agree cuz my peonies, iris and DLs don't like mulch.

dahlianut said:This is a GREAT tip goldfinch! Methinks it's an essential in areas with cold, dry w*i*n*t*e*r*s. fiwit I agree cuz my peonies, iris and DLs don't like mulch.

W*i*n*t*e*r.... w*i*n*t*e*r.... I've heard that word before, somewhere....

OH fiwit you said the 'w' word out loud. quick like a bunny take it out before it finds you

I mulch very sparingly because it keeps my plants from reseeding. Of course that allows weeds to reseed too!

I love the smell of wood chips !

quietyard said:I love the smell of wood chips !

Becuase the second batch was from trimming tree branches near power lines, it's as much leaves as branches. The pile is still mostly intact, and I've got my own giant pile of leaf mold going on, in parts of it

dahlianut said:OH fiwit you said the 'w' word out loud. quick like a bunny take it out before it finds you

Thanks for the warning! Wouldn't want the yard to look like this in August!

prettiful pic

Wow! That is a pretty picture! What is that white stuff covering the ground?

fairy dust

plantladylin said:Wow! That is a pretty picture! What is that white stuff covering the ground?

Here in GA, we don't normally know what that white stuff is...and my yard looked like that for EIGHT DAYS.

We have actually had snow flurries down here in Central Florida a couple of times ... the last two winters we saw a lot of ice!

plantladylin said:We have actually had snow flurries down here in Central Florida a couple of times ... the last two winters we saw a lot of ice!

I'm outside Atlanta, so we had the Christmas day snow, and the "let's shut the city down for a week" five inches this past winter.