From: Barry_Carlson@mindlink.bc.ca (Barry Carlson)
Subject: Bark Mulch
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 03:57:39 GMT

In response to Judy Gurka: gurka@tigger.cs.Colorado.EDU

>My new 'thing' this year (or one of them anyway!) is to put
>mulch around almost everything, including in pots.  I am using
>"bark mulch -pine and fir" (as opposed to that company's "pine bark
>mulch").  The advantage is greatly reduced evaporation, here in
>Denver, where a
>humid day is 40%.  I'm wondering if there are any disadvantages,
>such as PH, for instance?

Pine and fir might be a bit on the acid side of things, but some of
the plants you mention would like that anyway...particularly the
tomatoes.  The negative side of some mulches (I am thinking
particularly of sawdust) is that they can tie up the nitrogen in the
soil while they are decomposing.  This is a short term problem however
and you can always add some high nitrogen fertilizer if you are
worried about it.

I think that the benefits of mulching far outweigh the negatives.  Our
soil here is heavy clay/silt -- mucky when wet and hard as a brick
when dry.  We have 1/2 acre, so we invested in a little shredder.  All
the cuttings, prunings, etc.  (as long as they aren't diseased) get
run through the shredder and turned into tiny perfect mulch.  This not
only means that we have almost no yard garbage to be hauled away, but
makes a real Heinz 57' kind of mulch which I think gives the garden
more in the way of nutrients than a bought bark mulch would.

Our soil is of a type that if you play around with it too much
(i.e. go in for lots of spade work), it starts to compact -unless it
is at absolutely the correct degree of dryness which it almost never
is.  Given that, I decided to let the worms do the double-digging and
my job is to keep them happy by throwing more mulch on the beds every
chance I get.  We have been doing this for four years now and the soil
has gone from "impossible" to "pretty good".  In another few years we
should be up to "terrific".

Incorporating organic matter into soil is great for almost any soil
type, and when you mulch you are doing the longer term version of this
since the mulch will break down, get used by the worms and so on.  I
also find that mulching evens out temperature and moisture extremes.
And, lest we forget, throwing on mulch gets rid of a lot of the weed
problem.

Some books will warn you that mulch makes a good place to hide not
only for things you want in your garden, like worms, but also for
things you don't, like slugs.  It is true that a leaf mulch will not
stop a slug, but one of the advantages of having the shredder is that
I have been able to experiment with types of mulches.  It is possible
to make a mulch from garden prunings that is all sharp and pointy
twiggy bits.  Slugs have tender tummies and don't like crawling over
things of this description (which is why things like diatomaceous
earth and egg shells work as barriers).  I use this type of mulch for
under my strawberries.

I had read about the advantages of mulching (good old Ruth Stout), but
there is nothing like seeing the soil improve to really appreciate
what a difference it can make.  Lately I have taken to cleaning out
the tea pot and spreading the used leaves of my herbal teas on the
houseplants.  My advice is go for it, mulch EVERYTHING.  One
caution...around trees and shrubs leave a circle so that the mulch
isn't right up against the bark.  -Moira Carlson