7/8/08
I never mulch my garden. I should. Every year I regret not doing so and plan to mulch thoroughly next year. The cycle turns, yet again I fail to mulch. Why?
Hmm. Let’s see.
First, too many choices. This is where gardening books discourage rather than inspire me. Everyone is an expert, everyone has their preferences, and no clear, correct path emerges from the information overload. As well, I either don’t have the spare cash to buy many bags of commercial mulch, or enough clean, useful stuff lying around my yard to use.
Then there’s conflicting information about when to mulch and how much to apply. I always seem to be out of synch with the weather, and it happens that my workflow for the year peaks during gardening season, so I’m always short on time. Some experts claim that mulch gives an environment for undesirables, like slugs, to thrive in. Other experts say that mulch interferes with water getting into the soil as well as keeps it from getting out. Who to believe?
Almost every expert claims that mulch keeps weeds down or prevents them altogether. Um, what planet do they live on? My weeds can get through anything!
So far, my garden has done fine without mulch. The only thing that ever looks like a problem is when a dry spell is followed by a hard rain. Then crusty surface soil splatters onto leaves, and soil might wash away from the base of stems.
What keeps me wondering is that I see so many fabulous gardens, both live and in books, that appear to be deeply mulched (and fertilized with tons of manure — which is also difficult for me to acquire in any meaningful amount).
Such head-scratchers are what moved me to write “Open Your Heart with Gardens.” Experience has proven that there’s no One True Method for gardening. No matter what technique we use, I and thousands of others successfuly grow plants we eat or admire every year. So there must be something more than technique involved. Something personal, and open to deviation. So much of our lives are constrained by rules; but in the garden, rules are open to interpretation, and reversal, and we are free to tinker with them. Gardens let us be who we are more than most other areas of life.
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Rules of the Game, Opening the heart, Learning something new, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation — Carolyn Haley
|
