Mulch the most important thing we do all year!

Wild Dog · Post by **Wild Dog** » Nov 10, 2007 1:12 pm

Nothing we do is more important than feeding our soil which of course feeds the plants.
Mulch with anything you can get cheap or not, leaves are wonderful, municipal yard waste is maybe the best but any form of organic matter is important.

Mulch protects against winter heave, freeze/thaw the most dangerous thing your hosta will face.

Then mulch impedes early emergence, which many of us can talk about after last spring.

Everything you do can be enhanced by good soil or limited by poor soil.

The plants I put 12 inches of leaf mulch on last year suffered the least damage this last terrible spring.

I started this thread in another place and found so little interest that no one commented or even argued, hurt my feelings.

Wild Dog · Post by **Wild Dog** » Nov 10, 2007 2:02 pm

Added from Chris's great post about depth because it is related.

Choose the depth you feel is proper then mulch when you've finished planting, the plant can find its own depth with out much suffering. Mulch will not overcome way to deep but help and mulch will absolutely overcome to shallow. Mulch is creating new soil; building it up slowly and the plant will find its own proper level.

Two things mulch offers is insulation, summer and winter and air. Air is a little discussed subject and just as important as water, sun and food. I’ve found that hosta roots do not need as much air as most believe but the crown area does need sufficient air.

The air around the crown is consistent with hosta growing in the wild in Japan.

thy · Post by **thy** » Nov 10, 2007 6:59 pm

We do mulch-- with compost, leaves and leafmould

Jamie · Post by **Jamie** » Nov 11, 2007 12:32 pm

In my experience WATER is the most important thing for hostas. My plants can't live off mulch alone cause there's minimal moisture content in MULCH. And Mulch isn't what takes the nutrients to where there needed. Then again it's a hosta and I've seen some live with minimal of all. Throw a hosta on the ground and it'll continue to grow without MULCH.

sugar · Post by **sugar** » Nov 11, 2007 1:35 pm

I remove the fine woodchip I use for mulching my plants in containers during fall
This allows me to have a better control over humidity of the soil in the containers. It also helps me removing all slug eggs that are in there
I bring in a new layer of woodchip as soon as it is freezing (december/january)

allnitro · Post by **allnitro** » Nov 11, 2007 6:50 pm

What is leaf mold? And I do rake my mulch several times through the year as a matter of fact I just did again today.

Wild Dog · Post by **Wild Dog** » Nov 11, 2007 7:00 pm

What is leaf mold? And I do rake my mulch several times through the year as a matter of fact I just did again today._______
JEFF

Leafmold is just composted leaves.

Why do you rake your mulch?

John · Post by **John** » Nov 11, 2007 7:11 pm

Got to agree with Jamie... water is indeed more important than mulch. That much should be obvious, without anyone having to defend a thesis on the subject.

Wild Dog · Post by **Wild Dog** » Nov 11, 2007 7:20 pm

water is indeed more important than mulch.

Guess I'm not sure if I've suggested otherwise? I am saying that mulch is more important in the fall, winter and early spring but I don't see any either or question or at least I'm not making a comparsion between water and mulch.

I know this; absent mulch watering is more difficult, this statement is not taking anyone to task about water or mulch!

thy · Post by **thy** » Nov 11, 2007 7:55 pm

Wild dog

You are arguing with your self and fighting windmills

Been a member here for 5 years and lurked for 9 months before I dared to type a few wórds In English... But I can garantee you... I have never seen a post saying ..do not mulch.
With the right sort of nutrience.. you can grow most/all plants in a rock mix.... but they neéd water, water..and fertilizer..

If you do not want to fertilize and to do your weeding job easier... mulch....I love it

I have been bringing in 1.5 tons of comunity compost a year - to a tiny city garden..then add my own compost and leaves and I never trow green stuff in the garbage...

After 11 summers my cllay have starten to break up last year... violets and anemones spread for the first time... but the best thing I have done here was Wandas advise to dig down some wood chippings in the top layer with some died up pig pii ... Urea
You are right about not digging fresh materials down in the anerob ( not aired) layer... but every garden soil have a top layer..even my clay

Now I an digging up hostas... maybe have to make a rebuilding of the house... and it is easy to see where i have dug down some compost...and where I tried my ... I am lazy... lasagne methode...it did not work out as good as the others .... I need help in that area for digging up a well grown small hosta... the top layer is thin...and my clay is heavy

Hey... you grow great hostas..as a lot of us do...come on share some pics, discuss ...I love to open my ears for new knowledge

LucyGoose · Post by **LucyGoose** » Nov 11, 2007 7:56 pm

I don't have much on the hosta beds...I used to....but then those icky slugs like the mulch.....Just yesterday I had a friend drop off horse poop...nice dri old powdery poop.....I plan on adding some of that to all my different beds....

Wild Dog · Post by **Wild Dog** » Nov 11, 2007 9:59 pm

thy, not sure what you may have seen but I'll post a few photo's. I had a problem with my old camera but I just ordered a Nikon d40 digital so I'll have more photos from now on.

This is a photo of one of the experiments where I floated hosta in my pond 24/7 365 for 3 years, this was part of several experiments I did looking for the outside limits of water limits and requirements for hosta.

The pink foam with the cut out is the way I suspended the plants in the water. This was almost full sun and they never showed the effect of summer heat. You can see one of the holes broke off.

woodthrush · Post by **woodthrush** » Nov 11, 2007 10:22 pm

I don't use mulch at all. The wood chips became a breeding ground for slugs and leaf mulch is vole heaven. It just makes a nice warm place for the voles to winter. We rake the beds clean in the fall. We usually have a good snowpak for the winter, so that's good insulation too.
Pam

Wild Dog · Post by **Wild Dog** » Nov 12, 2007 1:45 am

Thy, back to photos.
This was a gravel driveway before we added the room.
I had a bunch of 1gal hosta so I sat the root balls on the gravel and piled mulch around them until I could get around to planting them. I never got around to planting them and just left them on the gravel and mulched again in the spring. They are still growing on top of the gravel in mulch, I just mulch yearly. Just dawned on me that I haven't look to see what the roots are doing in or on the gravel. Normally I would take a few up to see and I will next spring, here is what I expect; the mulch will have decomposed and filled the spaces with the compost.

Also, if you will be constructing new planting beds you may be interested in the bog where I am growing hosta.

BTW this is not the best photo to illustrate what I'm talking about.