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The Deep Middle


Gardening & writing in the prairie echo

Why Plants Are Better at Mulching Than Mulch

7/18/2018

15 Comments

 
If you enjoy spreading wood mulch every year in your landscape, then by all means ignore this post. If you enjoy pushing heavy wheel barrows and carefully navigating plant stems and branches without breaking anything, move along. However, if you're into less maintenance, more wildlife, and more environmental sustainability, then follow me into cultivated wildness.

Wood mulch has nothing on plants!

1) Wood mulch is touted as a way to improve soil and conserve soil moisture. It's true, it does these things, and can be valuable around newly-planted trees as well as an initial, one-time application at planting time for perennials. Soil organisms digest and incorporate wood mulch, building the upper layer over time, and mulch is great for saying "keep away" around tree trunks.

But thick layers of plant communities shade the soil with their leaves, which cool it down and robs sunlight from weed seedlings. Plant roots also rob water and nutrients from weed seedlings while amending soil naturally over time. Take prairie grasses -- 1/3 of their roots die each year, adding organic material. Many plants have evolved to punch down into clay and open up air and water passageways, while plants with fibrous roots can build up sandy and rocky soil so it holds more water over time.

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2) When you cut down the garden in spring with a hedge trimmer, string trimmer, or mower, all that dead plant material becomes a mulch layer providing a lot of the nutrients that plants need -- that's why trees drop their leaves over their root zone, after all. Give the plants back to themselves!

3) Leaving plants up for winter helps them gather leaves around their bases, insulating them from winter cold, adding organic matter over winter and spring, and provides shelter for overwintering insects. The more plant layers and plant diversity you have, the more life you'll have thriving in your landscape.

Wood mulch is beneficial, yes, but doesn't hold a candle to more plants. If you can't afford a lot of plants, try to choose those that spread by seed or runners (wild geranium, purple poppy mallow, zigzag goldenod, solomon's seal, blue mistflower, etc). Consider planting just the ornamental flower layers with forbs and shrubs, then sow in a grass or sedge groundcover; we love to suggest sideoats grama for this purpose if you're working toward a stylized meadow look. Additionally, there are local and regional nurseries and growers that offer smaller plants for a smaller price, so you can buy more at once time. Some day, we hope the industry sells trays of plugs at nurseries to consumers planning larger beds.

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What should you shoot for then when it comes to the number of plants in an area? Let's keep it simple. Say you have 10 square feet -- you could plant this with one shrub or three gallon-sized perennials. Or, you could plant ten or more smaller perennials. Some of these smaller perennials may be ground covers, some mid height plants, and one or two taller architectural plants. The point is to both layer vertically and cover the ground horizontally. Remember that any bare patches of soil might be good habitat for the 75% of our 4,000 native bee species that nest in the ground.

Finally, look at the numbers and tally up how much money you spend on wood mulch each year. Is it around $200? In three years that's $600 -- money you could have put into more plants, which means more habitat and less work for you as that habitat grows.

15 Comments
Harriet Carter
7/22/2018 11:27:06 am

Great article with common sense applications. Most people mulch to give beds a cleaner look which is not necessarily good for the plants. If you have leaves use them!

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Beth Goodnigiht
8/4/2018 12:14:17 pm

Great article Benjamin. I am in the process of doing a meadow planting, and I will mostly be shirking the woody mulch. Just a few areas of more intense ornamentals in smaller areas will be 'traditional' planting beds. But most will be just more heavily planted meadow flowers into the fine fescue blend of grasses I have planted that will be the base of everything. Because of budget concerns, I was not able to buy plugs and get everything going at once. So the grass is the beginning. This fall comes my trees and shrubs to create privacy hedgerows and other interest areas. The perennial flowers will come next spring. My idea is to carve out planting holes as I install the woody plants as well as the perennials (and I will cover the bare soil with woody mulch to get things protected), but then to let the fescue fill back in as the 'mulch' and matrix. I don't know if it will REALLY work, but I'm trying it this way. Thanks for your website and book. Meadows are marvelous. :)

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Benjamin
8/7/2018 10:38:39 am

Hey, even the pros don't always know if something will REALLY work. Every site and landscape is different, and then we have weather and fauna to factor in. It's all educated guessing.

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https://www.resumeshelpservice.com/ link
11/13/2018 05:27:29 am

Your blog is very informative. We also have plants in our garden. I have no idea that even the dead plant becomes a mulch layer. If I had known it before I wouldn't remove and burn it. As of now we are growing vegetable plants and 3 kinds of flowers. I will definitely follow what I have learned here. Please keep writing more informative stories in your blog. Thank you and God speed.

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Lara link
4/24/2020 04:16:41 am

Useful sharing for a newbie of gardening. I think I need to hire a professional for covering the mulch at the first time.

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Millie Hue link
12/22/2021 07:58:50 pm

Thanks for pointing out that it would be helpful to use plants instead for mulching such as using shrubs or smaller perennials. I will keep that in mind when I hire a professional next year once the spring season has begun. It's my first time living on a property with a lawn that is why I need all the information I can get to ensure that the plants will grow well for the pleasing appearance of my property.

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Neil Martinuzzi
2/15/2022 05:24:53 am

Heard you on Joe Gardener. I live in a similar situation and have planted a similar scheme as you. I left the plants up over winter, bee balm, blue stem, cone flowers, last year I cut it down and composted it. are you suggesting I leave it as is? Or cut it and let it lay as a mutch? Thanks for your help and I will be ordering your book, A New Garden Ethic

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Benjamin Vogt
2/15/2022 08:57:28 am

There are a variety of things you can do. When you cut back leave some plants with 12" of stem for cavity nesting native bees (coneflower is one of those). I mulch mow some areas, and hand cut others with a hedge trimmer. Some places I just let the cut material fall and leave in place, others I break it up by hand in smaller pieces. A few SMALL ares I don't touch at all to provide more diversity in habitat and less disturbance, and shift those areas around year to year.

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Neil Martinuzzi
2/16/2022 11:01:07 am

Benjamin, thanks for your prompt reply, I heard about the bees in the cone flowers on another episode of Joe Gardner, did not put that together for me so thanks, will cut those back to 12". I usually take it down with a brush trimer head on my Stihl week cutter. I'll break it up by hand leave it all. Curious to see what it get, always have some bunnies in there!

John Carston link
3/23/2022 10:49:24 pm

I found it interesting when you said that it is important to considering the health of your grass for a beautiful appearance. Last night, my cousin said to me that he is seeking a dependable service to assist him in clearing his agricultural field, and he asked if I had any suggestions. Thanks to your informative post, I'll be sure to tell him that it's much better if he contacts a reputable mulching service, as they will be able to answer any of his questions.

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Max Jones link
5/26/2022 01:54:44 pm

Thanks for the info about mulch. My mom wants to start a garden. I'll share this info about mulch with my mom.

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Lynn
1/5/2023 09:17:12 pm

I really enjoyed your article... my hedge that I trim is a mix of flowering currant and barberry... I could easily leave the currant branches but the other is so thorny. What do you suggest I do?

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Mia Evans link
1/13/2023 03:36:15 am

I like that you talked about wood mulch and how it will be able to conserve the moisture of the soil and improve it. I will make sure that I will be choosing that kind of mulch delivery for my garden in my backyard. It will probably help me have more abundant growth regarding the herbs and vegetables that I wanted.

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lv rescue training Dubbo link
2/25/2023 06:31:48 am

When you have an issue with one of the trees on your property, you want to add trees to your landscape, or you need a tree removal service, you want to call in experts who will be able to advise your decisions

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Iris Smith link
3/23/2023 11:52:32 pm

Thanks for pointing out that wood mulch is promoted as a technique to enhance soil and retain soil moisture. My husband claims he wants to brighten the surroundings. I'll tell him to obtain the mulch so the garden's landscaping may be completed.

Reply



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    Benjamin Vogt's thoughts on prairie gardening in Nebraska. With a healthy dose of landscape ethics, ecophilosophy, climate change,  and social justice.

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