Is it possible to have too much of a good thing?
Spring is almost here! With longer daylight, it is a favorite time for most people to go outdoors and work in their yard. I have still been seeing a great deal of leaf litter in folk’s shrub beds. Now is the time to go ahead and clean up your beds. You can clean up the bed edges by using what we call a v-ditch technique. This may take a little more time, but in order to create that “wow appeal”, it is necessary to have crisp, flowing, bed lines. Creating the small v-ditch forms a place for you to tuck in your pine straw or other mulches to achieve that sought after manicured look.
I visited a yard yesterday where the plants looked very weak and necrotic. The plants had been sitting in about 2-4” of pine bark that had been piled up along their base. The stems on the shrubs had begun growing small feeder roots. This is never a good sign. It’s easy to enjoy fresh mulches because they help with weed control, hold in moisture for plants and have a very appealing look. However, use caution with your springtime rituals of adding mulches because they can be deadly over time if not applied correctly. When applying mulch, it is important to make sure the mulch does not touch the plant trunk or stems. It is imperative that hardwood and pine bark mulches be applied correctly. Pine straw, on the other hand tends to be more forgiving. This could be due in part because pine straw permits better air exchange and breaks down faster than hardwood or pine bark mulch.
So what was my advice to the owner with the over abundance of mulch that I visited yesterday? I suggested that she skip any mulching plans that she might have had for this spring, because there was already plenty of mulch currently in place, and that she start removing the pine bark from off the trunks of her shrubs and trees. In order to give the beds a fresh, smoother look, simply rake the existing mulch in the bed and then level it out.
Remember too much mulch can cause some serious problems for existing plants. It’s important to remember that paying attention to the little details is what makes a wow appeal in the yard.
Is it possible to have too much of a good thing?
Spring is almost here! With longer daylight, it is a favorite time for most people to go outdoors and work in their yard. I have still been seeing a great deal of leaf litter in folk’s shrub beds. Now is the time to go ahead and clean up your beds. You can clean up the bed edges by using what we call a v-ditch technique. This may take a little more time, but in order to create that “wow appeal”, it is necessary to have crisp, flowing, bed lines. Creating the small v-ditch forms a place for you to tuck in your pine straw or other mulches to achieve that sought after manicured look.
I visited a yard yesterday where the plants looked very weak and necrotic. The plants had been sitting in about 2-4” of pine bark that had been piled up along their base. The stems on the shrubs had begun growing small feeder roots. This is never a good sign. It’s easy to enjoy fresh mulches because they help with weed control, hold in moisture for plants and have a very appealing look. However, use caution with your springtime rituals of adding mulches because they can be deadly over time if not applied correctly. When applying mulch, it is important to make sure the mulch does not touch the plant trunk or stems. It is imperative that hardwood and pine bark mulches be applied correctly. Pine straw, on the other hand tends to be more forgiving. This could be due in part because pine straw permits better air exchange and breaks down faster than hardwood or pine bark mulch.
So what was my advice to the owner with the over abundance of mulch that I visited yesterday? I suggested that she skip any mulching plans that she might have had for this spring, because there was already plenty of mulch currently in place, and that she start removing the pine bark from off the trunks of her shrubs and trees. In order to give the beds a fresh, smoother look, simply rake the existing mulch in the bed and then level it out.
Remember too much mulch can cause some serious problems for existing plants. It’s important to remember that paying attention to the little details is what makes a wow appeal in the yard.