Mulch for Home Gardens and Landscapes

Adding mulch to your landscape provides all kinds of benefits for your garden. Mulch is “The Great Protector” of plants and soil. Think of it as a kind of shelter: it cools, warms, nourishes, provides moisture and keeps out unwanted intruders.

Benefits
A layer of mulch provides warmth for early spring germination of plants because it helps retain heat in the soil. You can transplant hardened-off seedlings earlier and they will settle into their new home more comfortably. As the growing season progresses, mulch will stabilize the soil temperature. It also helps retain moisture which can be very helpful in cutting down on the amount of water you use in your landscape. Mulch also cuts down on weeds in a garden as it shades the soil from sunlight which may help prevent weeds from germinating. Finally, mulches can prevent soil erosion by wind and rain. In windy areas, gravel or rock mulch may be preferred over lightweight organic mulches. Any mulch that reduces the impact of raindrops will help reduce water erosion, just make sure the soil surface is entirely covered with mulch.

 

Winter Protection for Roses

Roses need special care to survive winter in Colorado. Insulating roses from temperature fluctuations helps their natural defense system operate properly. It’s not cold weather that damages roses; it’s the see-saw slide between warm and cold days and nights.

Proper winter rose protection should actually begin at the end of August. Stop fertilizing at this time and gradually reduce water. Roses will begin the hardening off process which prepares them for dormancy. In November, once night temperatures have consistently dipped to 20 degrees, prepare roses for winter. Cut down any high canes that could break in high winds or heavy snow. But don’t do any serious pruning until mid- April.

 

Encourage Earthworms

Q: Earthworms gross me out. What good are they?

Photo: Joseph Berger, bugwood.org

A: We hardly notice them most of the time… they’re out of sight, underground, aerating the soil, creating humus, increasing fertility. It’s only after a rain storm, when the ground is saturated, that they come up for air. Then we see their desiccated carcasses strewn across the pavement. Robins eat them, anglers use them for bait, and little kids bring them home in their pockets as pets. Most of us dissected one in biology, carefully counting the five aortic arches while debating the coolness of being squeamish. Yet, for all their inconspicuous habits, earthworms play a major role both in our gardens and in the wild.

 

Mulch in the Veggie Garden

This is the perfect time of the season to take care of mulching your vegetable garden. Often gardeners take time to mulch their perennial, shrub, and other beds, but they don’t think about mulch in their veggie beds. Given that your vegetable beds likely use the most water of any areas in your garden, mulching can go a long way in helping conserve water, keeping weeds under control, and in keeping your veggies happy with more consistent moisture. Here is a quick primer on different mulch materials you might consider:

 

Black Plastic Mulch

Black plastic
This type of mulch is used very early in the season (typically being put down in April) to warm up the soil for plants that will be planted later, such as tomatoes, peppers, and squash. If you are going to use plastic to warm the soil, be sure to use a thick plastic (5 mil or so). Don’t use plastic garbage bags since they aren’t thick enough, will tear easily, and will soon be blowing around in your garden in the spring winds. Instead, check in the painting supplies section of your hardware store for drop-cloth quality black plastic. Usually holes are then cut in the plastic in mid-to-late May to accommodate transplants. If the plants haven’t grown large enough to shade the plastic once temperatures are routinely in the 80’s and 90’s, remove the plastic mulch and replace it with one of the following organic mulches.