Mulch'll Do About Anything

It’s September in Texas and I’ve officially forgotten what rain looks like. It’s that wet stuff that falls from the sky, right?

No rain for two months means there’s a direct correlation between the increase in outside temperature and the increase in my city water bill. Some years it’s so bad that I stop looking at the actual Amount Due, and just click the ‘Dear Lord, Yes, Just Pay the !&$^#* Thing’ button when the e-bill hits my inbox. (That way I don’t break out in hives.)

One of the best ways to combat the lack of rain and keep your water bill under control is to make friends with mulch. Why is mulch so important? Two reasons. First, it conserves water by regulating the moisture levels in the soil. For example, normally I have to water my jalapeno and serrano peppers every two days. If I put 3-5 inches of mulch around those babies, I only have to water them once a week.

The second thing mulch does (and this is important in Texas) is that it regulates soil temperature. Plant roots stay cooler during the heat of the day and retain that heat at night. Insulating plant roots from those crazy temperature swings increases the chances they’ll survive. This same principle applies in winter, so mulch makes plants happy all year round.

There are only a couple of things you need to know about mulching. First, there’s no such thing as too much mulch (with one exception – but we’ll get to that). All of my flowers, herbs and landscaping plants have 3 to 5 inches of hardwood mulch over the entire bed. Don’t forget you can even mulch those pots of annuals you have cooking on your back porch.

How much should you get? If you own a truck (or SUV, or drive a really old Lincoln with a big trunk) you can take yourself down to the lawn and garden center and buy it by the bag. Here’s a little trick for calculating how many bags to buy without doing any math. Go outside and look at the flowerbed you want to mulch. How many bags would fit in the bed if they were laid end to end? Just take a guess or you can walk it off, averaging one bag for every normal step. Count ‘em up and that’s how many you buy.

Of course, if you’re lazy like me (or more than ½ your yard is flower beds), you order a dump truck full from the city. My lot is 1/3 of an acre and easily half is flower beds. So I typically order 6 square yards of mulch at a time.

What not to mulch? Trees. One thing you can kill with too much mulch are trees. Do not mulch newly established trees (e.g. less than 2 years in the ground). If you’re going to mulch around an established tree, be sure to leave at least a foot between the base of the tree and the mulch and keep the depth at 2 inches or less. Why? Because tree roots grow outward from the base, just under the soil surface. Too much mulch will literally suffocate a tree.

One other great thing about mulch is that it keeps your feet from getting muddy when you trek through your garden.

Tricky Details:

• Buying tips: I prefer hardwood mulches over the pine, cedar and cypress because the hardwood breaks down quicker and feeds your plants over time.
• In my area, the City of Plano (http://egov.plano.gov/pureproducts/) has a yard debris recycling program and offers both bulk and ‘by the bag’ landscaping products for reasonable prices. Check out your city’s website to see if there is something similar in your area.
• If you are mulching a newly planted bed, you’ll want to wait a couple of weeks -- give those petunias and mums some time to get their roots established before you smother them with love.
• What about rubberized mulch? Personally, I prefer the natural stuff; however, if you are installing long term landscaping (like shrubs around a house) the rubber stuff is an okay option.