Dear editor:
I really enjoyed Joanne Young’s column on mulch (“Growing Together: Much ado about mulch,” April 10). While every peer-reviewed scientific study in North America that I am aware of shows that arborist mulch is the best mulch for your garden, Joanne’s six points about why you should use mulch are spot on.
If you are able to stay away from dyed mulches and their unknown source of shredded wood, your garden will thank you.
Please keep in mind that you should not mulch your entire garden, as it is always advantageous to leave some open soil for native bees.
Most native bees are solitary bees and ground nesters. They require access to bare or partly vegetated soil to excavate their nests and brood cells.
I would add to her point about “materials like gravel, stone, or rubber being longer lasting, but don’t improve soil quality” by saying that they also compact your soil.
Compaction disturbs the microbiome in your soil and its gas exchange, and it is then more difficult for your plant material to thrive.
If you use the chop and drop method, you can always put your mulch down on top of your trimmings and debris to add to the composting component of your garden.
Remember, compost looks like it is thoroughly broken down to our naked eye, but it actually is just getting started. You still have years of microbe activity happening!
Joanne touches on landscape fabric. Again, the science is absolutely against using landscape fabric in a garden.
Landscape fabric reduces carbon dioxide movement between the soil and the atmosphere about 1,000 times more than wood chip mulches do.
Plastic mulch is the only thing worse than landscape fabric. Landscape fabric does not “smother” weeds either, because they will colonize the surface of the landscape fabric.
If you are interested in any more scientific breakdown or to read the studies, please Google gardenprofessors.com (see “Landscape fabric — a cautionary tale“).
Betty Knight
NOTL
NOTL
