Mulching

In the arid West mulching is essential to successful gardening.


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  • Topic: Mulch
  • Author: David Salman
  • Keywords: soil, mulch, , Mulch
  • Date: May 2001

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Once the soil has thawed and the plants are starting to grow, it is time to replenish the mulch layer on your beds. I realize that many parts of the country don’t need to use mulch because the rain is plentiful and the slugs are large and hungry. (Where slugs are a problem mulch can aggravate the situation by providing them a moist shady environment in which to hide.) However in the arid West mulching is essential to successful gardening.

The choice of materials that can be used to mulch is large. Some very successful gardeners like Lauren Springer (“The Undaunted Garden”, “Passionate Gardening”) plant densely so there is little or no visible ground. This uses the plants themselves to create a living mulch. In less densely planted beds, mulches are beneficial in many ways. They shade the soil to thwart the drying effects of the wind and sun. Mulches will reduce weed growth and discourage weeds from re-seeding themselves. And mulches can help capture the rain water from hard driving rains by reducing run-off and allowing the rain to soak into the soil. Mulches can also add a pleasing aesthetic element to the garden by covering the ground and showing the plants to best advantage.

Mulching materials include pine needles, coarsely textured compost, shredded leaves, crushed nut shells (pecan shells are very popular in New Mexico), shredded, chipped or composted conifer bark, cocoa bean waste and crushed gravel. Never use grass clippings or fresh manure. Over the years my preferences for mulching materials have changed. For shady flower beds I find pine needles to be both effective and attractive. For sunnier beds I like crushed pecan shells, composted pine bark or crushed gravel. (These materials are also fine for shade beds. We have a lot of large conifers in and around Santa Fe, which makes the use of pine needles a little more natural looking choice for this area.)

In rock gardens and perennial borders with xeric and very xeric plants small diameter (3/8” to 1/2”) crushed gravel is the mulch of choice. Gravel is very practical in very windy areas where lighter mulching materials will blow away. I also like gravel because it encourages many perennials to re-seed themselves. Beardtongues (Penstemon), Hummingbird Mints (Agastache) and Flax (Linum) are just a few of the perennials that naturalize when surrounded by gravel mulch. Be sure to plant lots of groundcovers when using gravel mulch. They will grow on top of the gravel and reduce the reflected heat that radiates off of large gravel expanses.