I’ve read that mulch is a gardener’s best friend. Mulch cuts down on weeds, holds moisture, gives you a non-muddy surface to walk. I’ve tried several different mulches and so far none of them is the panacea we hope.
Bark mulch is traditional, what you see around shrubs in many yards and public displays. It’s neat, relatively easy to put down and does a nice job holding moisture and reducing weeds as long as you put down a thick layer. What I don’t like about bark in the flower garden is that you have to move it aside any time you want to plant something different or fertilize and even a thick layer must be replaced every couple years or so.
I don’t care for stones around flowers. We have stones with shrubs in this landscaping and they do look nice and keep weeds down. Stones are permanent.
The first mulch I ever tried was newspaper. Eww Yuck! I must have read about it somewhere because we carefully kept the old newspapers for months and laid around the flowers. It looked awful, didn’t do much for weeds and disintegrated into a mucky mess.
The second mulch we tried was grass clippings. As long as you cut the grass before it can go to seed you won’t have too much problem with unwanted grass growth, but the smell! Plus there were always grass seeds and it is very hard to get grass out of a garden once it gets going. I never figured out why grass loves to grow where it isn’t wanted vs. growing in my lawn.
We tried straw several years. The first few years it worked great but the last year there were a lot of seeds in the hay that sprung up and we had grass growing everywhere.
Leaves are another option but they can get moldy and they also get rather nasty when wet.
We used plastic or mulch paper several times. The plastic works fine but it’s only good for annuals and then it’s only good for a year. If you use it for perennials or seeds you have the same problem as with the bark, it’s hard to move plants or cultivate. The paper blew around too much and I didn’t like it at all.
What I am using this year is Preen. This is a pre-emergent herbicide that prevents seed germination. That makes it perfect for perennials or annuals you start from plants but don’t use it with your seeds until after the seedlings have a few leaves.
Daylilies with Preen for Weed Control
You can see the little yellow granules. You can also see the tiny clover weed next to the right hand day lily that I missed weeding. I fertilized and weeded everything then sprinkled Preen down. You have to reapply it if you disturb the dirt (as in cultivate or plant something different) but rain doesn’t affect it. I’ve had very good luck with Preen in past gardens. Of course it doesn’t do anything to retain moisture but it does a great job keep the weeds down.
Peony Fertilized and with Preen
Preen is rather expensive but a big jug will do my garden two or three years. That is far less expensive than bark and less unsightly or smelly than paper, grass, straw or leaves!
What do you use?
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