I'm a newbie. I started out with black mulch from Home Depot. I'm not really sure why. I switched to cedar but I don't like it because I have found bits of blue painted wood. I was thinking of switching to straw or even grass clippings maybe.

Are you a mulcher? How do you do it and what is your thinking behind your method?

I've never been a mulcher until recently. I had tried it years ago and found I spent way too much time and money mulching and then watching it float down the gutter when it rained. However, we did mulch one of the rose beds last year because it had been taken over by weeds the previous year when I was too ill to work in the yard. I just couldn't get a handle on the weeds last year so my brother decided to mulch. So far this season that bed has been the only one I've been able to keep weed free! I'm seriously thinking of doing all the beds now! We used the cypress mulch because we heard it doesn't float when it rains. So far it seems to be true.

I use cypress mulch, it seems to last longer and does not float away in heavy storms.

Cypress and cedar is what gets used around here.

Cypress mulch has always been a "go to", until you look at the devastation that is being done to it's natural habitat.
Because of that, I have switched to pine. Shavings, or chunks. Depending on your situation... chunks do tend to float...though they do have their place.
I find shavings have been more environmentally sound, and are working well for my situation.

My whole mindset is use what doesn't ultimately harm our environment.

If I can avoid cypress I do so and that's why I try to use cedar more often. But there are times that's the only mulch I can get when I need it.

I would also suggest... if you have deciduous trees, rake those leaves, and use them! Mow them, bag, and dump, as mulch, or compost!
They are gold!!!

My favorite type of mulch is the kind that I get for free: wood chips, shredded leaves, saw dust, plant clippings, pet droppings & beddings, hay and stable beddings mixed with manure.

The last time I paid for mulch was 30+ years ago.

I always check the city and suburbs' recycling centers and park districts where they dump their woodchips.
I watch announcements on the neighborhood website and Freecycle and craigslist for Christmas tree shredding and mulch.
I watch road signs and tree trimming trucks and ask the workers for the woodchips. They are always happy to give away woodchips.

I also get pet droppings and beddings from neighbors.

My most favorite activity during a lull in the garden is hauling horse manure that is mixed with bedding from a stable in the suburb.
I make sure to get dark mulch from the back of the pile where the manure has been aged and any weed seeds that might be found in the horse manure have been heated and killed. This is my best mulch source for the past 20 years.




After some trials and errors, I discovered that hauling mulch in buckets worked best for me both for loading and unloading. And the Toyota Prius is marvelously roomy. It can haul 26 buckets of manure/mulch. 🐴🐴

I was regular about using Cedargrove compost for many years. Over the years, my soil has improved and remains a nice rich color. I switched to a more local compost, but wasn't pleased with either the color (more gray than black) or texture (kind of crunchy). I typically get a dump truck load and work my way through it over the growing season. In addition to seasonal mulch, I also add ground up leaves in the fall (easy to just run my riding mower over them and catch them). I've also tried the free mulch provided by a local horse facility but it had way too many grass/hay seeds and rather defeated the purpose. Anything to suppress weeds works for me.

tipson4490 said:I'm a newbie. I started out with black mulch from Home Depot. I'm not really sure why. I switched to cedar but I don't like it because I have found bits of blue painted wood. I was thinking of switching to straw or even grass clippings maybe.

Are you a mulcher? How do you do it and what is your thinking behind your method?

I use Cocoa Bean Hulls.

I guess I am lucky. Since we heat our house with wood I bought a chipper shredder that can take 3 inch limbs. So when I cut the wood for heat keep all the 3 inch and smaller and run them thru the chipper . out comes chips about 3/4 of an inch. All oak and hickory. I make about 15 large garbage cans full each year. After a year or so it has decomposed and goes into the vegetable garden.

Trouble is I am going on 76! And cutting and splitting 7 cords a year is wearing me out.

Hi all,

I know it sounds a bit weird, but I prefer to use sand as mulch (and as a soil amendment). Early on I used to purchase Play Sand by the 40-pound bags in a home store (Home Depot), but in recent years my use of sand has increased and I now purchase washed river sand by the truckload, which is nominally 20 tons.

The organic matter content of sand is essentially zero, so it doesn't help the soil that way. But our soil here in this part of Kansas is a dark sedimentary type that farmers like for Soy Beans and Corn, and my experience so far is that the addition of a significant fraction of sand to the local soil creates a kind of sandy loam that works well for me as garden soil. Unlike some organic mulch materials, sand is relatively disease and pest free. Oddly, many plants will grow in "pure" sand.

That includes our native Kansas sunflowers. My gardening is mainly focused on my hobby of breeding zinnias, and I have had some success in breeding new flower forms in zinnias.

So far I have not experimented with using sand as an indoor growing medium, but I will probably do some experiments with using sand indoors this coming Winter. I still have a lot to learn about growing zinnias indoors under lights.

ZM

Hi Denny,

" Since we heat our house with wood I bought a chipper shredder that can take 3 inch limbs. So when I cut the wood for heat, I keep all the 3 inch and smaller and run them thru the chipper . out comes chips about 3/4 of an inch. "

I have a similar shredder chipper. It is essentially a hammermill on wheels.

https://www.mackissicchippers....

I have several sized screens for it, so I can make a very fine product or coarse product, depending on the hole size of my screen. I use the chips primarily as garden path material.

It is windy at times here in this part of Kansas, and each windstorm seems to produce some more broken off limbs from our many trees. So I have an extensive brush pile that I use to feed my MacKissic "Mighty Mac" shredder chipper. Anything big enough to use as firewood (for us, 2 inches in diameter or larger) gets sawed to 18-inch lengths (we have a couple of chainsaws) for use in our basement fireplace. The fireplace is used mainly for pleasure during the Winter, because there is a propane fired central heat system.

ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

In my garden I mulch with grass clippings. Same thing in my strawberry and raspberry beds. Those plus my flower beds will get a layer of shredded leaves this fall. I've been using bagged mulch on my flower beds but am hoping to convert all but 1 to either more berries or a native flower bed that won't need mulching since it will have ground cover plants that outcompete the weeds.

Wood
Leaves
Grass clippings.

I refuse to use anything else.

RpR said:
I use Cocoa Bean Hulls.

I also use hay and straw bales while I use the leaves from covering the roses in winter as a heavy mulch over my potatoes.
Used to use Eucalyptus bark but for some reason no one in Minnesota carries it any more; it was fantastic for flower beds as it also has a negative effect on many nasty bugs.

I use Cypress in the flower beds and straw in the veggie beds.

If I'm buying, shredded hardwood is the only thing I would buy. It can be hard to get started without buying an initial layer.

But for free, the possibilities are numerous, probably all already said. Some may be most appropriate in the back yard, or at least out of sight while still recognizable. Leaves, grass, shredded paper, general small shrub trimmings, kitchen scraps, rough compost, pulled weeds (that haven't made viable seeds yet), pine needles, etc.... I use what becomes available when it becomes available, or as soon as winter knocks some things down if plants are too tight at the time. I don't think of mulching as a "one and done" but an ongoing process.

I use the Scott's brown wood mulch from Home Depot. I like the color and texture of it. Holds it's color pretty well until it decomposes. I'm no expert when it comes to the best mulch, but I like the look it gives my beds. As for being washed away, I have retaining wall blocks that I use as edging in my garden. They weigh 20 pounds each so they and the mulch stays put even in a hard rain.