Sorry, this post is probably mostly of interest to people in the US or Canada.
Mother Jones magazine sent me an email telling me about an article in their latest issue on Louisiana’s Mulch Madness. The National Wildlife Federation also covered this last year in an article.
It seems cypress trees make good mulch, but these are old growth trees that are being harvested in unsustainable ways, and in some cases illegally. These trees are also critical for the protection and natural habitats of the Gulf coast wetlands.
If you buy mulch or wood chips, make sure it doesn’t come from cypress trees!
Honestly, this is just one more excellent example of why your garden shouldn’t have any inputs. You don’t need to buy anything except a few tools, a little potting soil if you start plants indoors and some lime if your soil is acidic. Otherwise, most gardens are fine with only your own waste recycled as compost. Only add other things if you are absolutely sure they are necessary! Anytime you add extra fertilizer, mulch, manure, chemicals or anything else, you risk damaging your health, natural balances in your garden or the environment as a whole.
The amount of bright orange mulch that goes onto yards around here is amazing. I keep looking for a good way to mulch/shred my fall leaves so I could make better use of them year round. It is nice to have a layer of some material to retain moisture and protect plants in the winter. Recently, my perennial beds have the fall leaves on them in the winter, these are raked off and the beds are mulch-free the rest of the year.
I’ve never seen orange mulch before. Most people in cities here don’t have much of a garden, so buying mulch is not really in the culture. That seems so strange. Okay, I just searched the Internet and I see some plants grow better with it, but if you want your garden to look nice why use something that’s bright orange?
In the past few years I’ve used wood chips, a waste product from local lumber mills. I also have a lot of locally sourced straw in my garden now, both for my garlic and for other parts of the garden. It makes my garden look a bit like a horse stable.
I have a lot of brush, mostly from pruning my fruit trees, and I have an electric wood chipper, but my garden doesn’t have an electric connection. Renting a generator seems a bit too much of a waste. I would love to turn it all into chips for mulch.
I believe the mulch I see here that looks orange to me is cedar or cypress. The pine mulch is a nice dark brown and is less popular. There are also red and orange dyed mulches. These are generally used to cover the soil under shaped yew shrubbery around houses.
what a radical notion! i don’t disagree. however, i think that it’s very ideal, in a good way, but still, unattainable for some. perhaps many. the economic angle makes such pristine and correct consideration for the pockets we (supposedly) own and their “balance” less reasonable, again for some. what do you recommend for those who have an economic motivation to make their area more productive?
please understand: chipping is anathema to me. i find the whole idea disgusting. it’s the sentiment behind this post to which i’m responding. you say, “Only add other things if you are absolutely sure they are necessary! Anytime you add extra fertilizer, mulch, manure, chemicals or anything else, you risk damaging your health, natural balances in your garden or the environment as a whole.
you’re right!
but i’m on land that’s been misused for 40 years. there are no “native” species here and the idea that i can sustain them and only them isn’t entirely practical for me, at least not immediately. i have to enrich, add N and P and other stuff; organic matter producation barely meets the needs of my beds. anyway, i love this blog and added it to my bookmarks. thanks so much for all the helpful info.
Hi Chidy,
Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the comments you just left.
Many people starting a new garden need to add a few things, often organic material. If you have land that’s been neglected for 40 years, you’re probably no exception.
Often people’s expectation of what they need is not right. How do you know you need N and P? Have you had a soil test done? Many people develop a theory of what they need, and start adding fertilizer. Because their plants don’t die, they assume they are doing the correct thing and keep adding more fertilizer. It might be less common than you think that people really need fertilizer.
Assuming you do need N and P, N can easily be had by growing nitrogen fixing plants. If you grow veggies these are beans, peas and other legumes. If you grow ornamental plants, there are various hedges or trees that will fix nitrogen. Some of them were mentioned in a post a few months ago. As far as P goes, you may need some rock P. Just figure out what you need, apply it, and it should take care of the problem. One or two applications should be enough, after which your garden should recycle the P via your compost. Since most people have P in their compost, you also may just be able to wait and do without it for a while in your garden. If you need organic material in the longer term, there are high bulk yielding plants (often also nitrogen fixing) to grow as compost crops so you have something to compost.
The thing is, once you have solved whatever problems there are, you shouldn’t need to add anything else. You should be able to find natural solutions to problems that might arise, including perhaps not growing a few plants that present unique problems.
After a while natural balances will establish themselves in your garden, and most problems will go away on their own accord.
I should add that I am mostly a vegetable person, but I think these principles should really apply to almost any garden.
Regarding wood chips from a local mill, make sure they don’t contain chemicals from the treatment process that you would not want in your comestibles.