Mulching Ideas, Tips & Guides

Rustweed or juniper leaf is a native plant that earns its name from orange coloring in the fall. It is a drought-tolerant summer annual or short-lived perennial plant. It is found throughout the southeastern United States on mostly open, disturbed sites. Rustweed is considered a ruderal species, meaning that it colonizes open ground and does not handle competition well. Research has shown that rustweed seeds can remain viable in the soil for over one hundred years, just waiting for optimal conditions.

Field madder (Sherardia arvensis)is a mat-forming, prostrate winter annual. It has four to six leaves that whorl around a square stem. It produces lavender to pale pink flowers. In addition, field madder produces fleshy roots that can be used to make a weak red dye.

Cut leaf evening primrose (Oenothera laciniata) is a native, biannual plant. It forms a rosette during its first year of growth and produces yellow flowers on low spreading stems in its second year. The pretty, yellow flowers open in the evening and close during bright, sunny conditions Flowering will last for over a month, and sphinx moths and native bees pollinate the flowers. Unfortunately, the plant also hosts the tarnished plant bug, a piercing, sucking insect that feeds on vegetable and ornamental herbaceous plants.

American burnweed (Erechtites hieraciifolius) is an annual summer weed. It is native to North America and is a member of the aster family. It is a fast-growing weed that can reach heights up to eight feet.

Back to Eden gardening is a simple but effective technique and philosophy for growing plants. It is sustainable, organic, and focused on soil regeneration. The idea is to recreate the natural conditions in which plants grow and thrive, which reduces the need to weed, water, and do other garden chores.

Natural precipitation rates vary around the world, but no matter how much rain a region gets annually, we all share the responsibility to use it wisely. Water-wise gardening – sometimes called xeriscaping – uses innovative conservation techniques and sound gardening practices to create a beautiful landscape while conserving water. For water wise landscaping ideas, read on.

Yes, there are a lot of chores vying for attention:  whether to deadhead the spring bulbs, or edge the beds they’re growing in; divide that overgrown drift of some perennial, or pot up the annuals for a summertime show ahead; mow or mulch and so on.  But let’s not get crazy—let’s go area by area through the list:vegetable gardenMAKING NEW BEDS? A nature-inspired method for raised-bed building, using fallen branches and logs, is called hugelkultur—and it’s fascinating, and effective, if you’re expanding your growing area.TUBERS AND SLIPS: Are the white potatoes in the ground? Sweet potatoes can go in this month, too.MY NEW SEED-STARTING TOOL will tell you when to sow what, indoors and out. Also fo

Last month’s giveaway, my first ever on the blog, was such a hit that I promised a monthly event (though in April we might just have a surprise “extra” edition, so stay tuned).  As a garden writer, it seems fitting that I should give away not just my own book (as I did last month, and promise to again) but also books by those who’ve taught me. I have been stockpiling some goodies from the used-book dealers the last few weeks.Crockett’s Victory Garden James Underwood Crockett (first published, 1977) The star of the PBS series “The Victory Garden” was also the author of a series of books on how to garden, and this is my favorite of his. It was my first garden book ever, given to me by my sister, so maybe that’s why, but I think its value far exceeds the sentiment attached. Dated (meaning chemic

Like the journalist I was trained to be, I’m always editing the garden, and good thing, since by August in a dry year like this one has been, it needs another round. Gaps in the perennial beds (preferable with a little fresh mulch applied) will look better than a hosta that’s had it, or an anemic-looking bleeding heart.Focal points: weeds and water. Every weed pulled now is a hundred (a million?) you don’t have to deal with later. Don’t let them go to seed. Make a pass through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Too many to handle in a particular area? Smother them with cardboard and mulch, like this.If your garden is dry, don’t waste water on lawns, which will bounce back from brown when cooler, moister days return—or on washing down paths and patios. Sweep instead! Target water offerings to the most precious subjects, particularly recently planted things and the vegetable garden.

WOO-HOO! MY FRIENDS AT WHDD in Sharon, Connecticut, aka Robin Hood Radio, just called to say our A Way to Garden podcasts are not just on iTunes but also on an RSS feed. Easy, peasy, to tune in to.

The saying “Be careful what you wish for,” came to mind more than once in the three weeks since the email from Anne, with whom I started my garden-writing career when we worked at Newsday newspaper in Long Island nearly 20 years ago. The journey from that email to today’s Times article has been something like a season of “Survivor,” particularly the photo-shoot day.When I heard from Anne, I’d been busy getting ready for June 14, my first Garden Conservancy Open Day of the year, with a large reception for the Conservancy scheduled here that same evening. But she suggested coming 10 days earlier…only 4 or 5 days after her email…way ahead of the day we’d targeted to have it “all together” (if a garden can ever be “all together”), and way too so

I CAN SEE this blog will soon become a list of rules and to-do’s (or not to-do’s), so here’s another thread we can start together. What are your garden no-no’s? Mine are many, including these two:Dyed green bamboo stakes. If the local garden center doesn’t have good-quality, strong, natural-colored ones, try A.M. Leonard—I order by the bundle, and they last practically forever. A great value compared to tiny packets of quick-to-split, spindly stakes in no-green-nature-ever-imagined.Dyed rust-colored mulch (do you sense a theme here?). Any dyed mulch, in fact, is a no-no. Mulch is not a decor item, like a throw rug or a bedspread; it needn’t (shouldn’t) match the siding, please. A medium-textured, natural-colored organic material like composted stable bedding is what you are seeking. Trust me, I worked for Martha. Paint the patio furniture, not the mulch.

FIRST, THE HAIRCUTS: Many perennials (euphorbia, some true geraniums, ribbon grass orPhalaris) do better the second half of the seasonif cut back hard. Others need just deadheading. Annuals that grow leggy can often benefit from a chop job, too. Do some experiments. Sometimes a plant can’t look worse, and you probably won’t kill it. :-)MAKE A PASS through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Top up mulch in all garden beds if washed or worn away to help in the plight.IF YOU ARE IN JAPANESE BEETLE territory, handpick (as with other obvious pests like tomato hornworms) in early morning and drown in a can of water to reduce infe

I CAN SEE this blog is indeed becoming a list of rules and to-do’s (or not to-do’s), as predicted, so let’s continue the thread we started last week together. “You and your garden rules,” one of you chided in response…but then chimed in with some of his own, pot calling kettle black.

Perhaps it’s Omphalotus olearius–the jack-o-lantern mushroom. Silly me: I forgot to photograph the underside–to see if there were true gills beneath the cap and how the stem and cap attached to each other–but it had disappeared before I realized my oversight a couple of weeks later. (UPDATE 9/10/11: From commenter Kristy, the suggestion is that these could be honey fungus, or Armillaria; read about those here. The colony was about 20 feet from the nearest tree, a spruce, but I’m still going with Omphalotus.)I’ll hope for its return next year, and if it ever stops raining, I’ll be sure to be more detail-oriented when admiring the growing collection of fungi who have joined me in my garden.You may recall my fascination with (yup!) fungus: read all about it.Categoriesmushrooms & other fungi

As I said in my November 8, 2010 post, the A Way to Garden philosophy (developed through a very unscientific 25-plus years of digging holes) is that the garden is a 365-day companion, and that the season never ends.You can hear me talk about that notion in today’s podcast with my friends at Robin Hood Radio, by the way. Or in the “woo-woo video,” as I call it, that I made this past spring. It’s right here (though you have probably seen it):WITH THAT ‘WE NEVER CLOSE’ attitude, I will continue posting and also sending newsletters* in the hopes that all gardeners have plants on their minds no matter what the weather delivers—and speaking

I FEEL ROUND 3 OF GARDEN NO-NO’S coming on. When Mary Lynn asked yesterday in a comment about my point of view on using landscape fabric, the fuse was quickly lit: NO! I said. NO! I’ve rounded up some no-no’s we’ve posted collectively so far, but I bet by now there are a few more things to bitch about. Grab a lawn chair and a cold drink, and we can fester together this holiday weekend. Sure beats weeding (which ought to be a garden no-no). Is watering with a coffee pot (or gardening in your long-johns) a no-no? Not for me, apparently.

UNDERPLANTING: The antidote to boring masses of pachysandra or ivy: underplanting in complex mosaics. I showed my method, at the request of various commenters on a previous story. You asked for it, you got it.TO THE WOODS WITH ME: I published a favorite “doodle” by offbeat English illustrator Andre Jordan, which apparently you loved (and I got to “meet” this idol of mine as a result, thank you all very much).THE COMPLAINT DEPT: We opened the doors on Memorial Day weekend, and the gripes are still pouring in. Got a “garden no-no” you want to add to the list? (Does dyed mulch or bad staking, or maybe garden gnomes or white-gravel mulch get you all worked up?)NO DULL EDGES HERE: Who knew you were all OCD like I am about edging your garden beds? This how-to was another popular post.PESTO FEST: The kickoff event in our summer-long cross-blog food series with Dinner Tonight was a spicy favorite, featuring my recipe for Garlic

VEGETABLE GARDENTUBERS AND SLIPS: Are the white potatoes in the ground? Sweet potatoes can go in this month, too.CONTINUE SOWING CARROTS, beets, radishes, salad greens, dill. With salad greens, select heat-resistant varieties now for best results as they’ll bump into warmer weather. A primer on when to start what seeds.DIRECT-SOW BEANS at mid-month and beyond; sow a short row e

I KNOW, I KNOW: Why can’t it just last; why does it all have to start to flop and fade and fall apart? The spring garden, that is. June is the month when spring turns to summer—often well before the official moment (June 20 at 7:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time in 2012). Remember those gorgeous lilacs, rhododendron, flowering bulbs? Beautiful memories, yes, but also big brown messes everywhere. Uh-oh, get ready for another cleanup! Shall we tackle it together, one thing at a time (in print, and in podcast version)?

BEFORE we start: Last month I asked if you’d set the tone for your 2015 garden? This year’s mantra is “Be thoughtful, keep weeding,” with the “thoughtful” part standing for “thoughtful organic gardening,” as in thinking carefully before any action is taken. My resolutions. (A year earlier, I’d suggested, “More mulch, no spray,” another way to say: Be kind.)10 steps to get the season startedI FEEL FRANTIC, but know that being strategic is a smarter attitude in the face of April’s heroic to-do’s. I try to stick to these 10 steps, as I begin erasing winter’s havoc.Start cleanup near the house. Tidying beds along the most-traveled front walkway early reminds me that I can do this, a little at a

APPARENTLY ANDRE HAS BEEN LURKING in the complaint department, where I admitted my loathing for dyed mulch (among other garden products that should not have been invented).

HOW MANY MOMENTS LIKE THIS have we each had in our gardening lives? Moments when the mulch, just applied, by the next morning has run out of the beds and downhill after a flash storm, or the lawn we’d just cleared of winter’s debris is re-covered in it a day later when another swirling snow blows in. Moments when (fill in the blank with your latest mishap).

I wasn’t prepared for how energizing the experience of actually teaching in the garden would be. (That’s me in a mass of Hylomecon and Stylophorum, top photo, talking about how to get Eranthis to colonize; below Bob and I are crawling around repairing messy edges of a bed).I have loved being a Garden Conservancy Open Days tour host for a dozen or so years; it’s so valuable to see how people see your garden—how they move through it, what attracts their attention. But even after all that experience with “company,” this was something special.Doing the show-and-tell was great fun, especially because the group of 30 students came prepared with questions that really got us thinking (and making matching arm gestures; we may become tw

VEGETABLE GARDENTUBERS AND SLIPS: Are the white potatoes in the ground? Sweet potatoes can go in this month, too.CONTINUE SOWING CARROTS, beets, radishes, salad greens, dill. With salad greens, select heat-resistant varieties now for best results as they’ll bump into warmer weather.DIR

First, though, I recommend a long, hard look. I walked around outside the last week of June with a pad and pen–and a critical eye. In the flurry of spring prep, planting and pruning, I’d been working around some problems rather than tackling them properly.Where perennials or even worse, shrubs, are bulging out of the beds and drooping onto the lawn, it’s time for a decision. (And no, the decision cannot be “mow around them and deal with it later,” which is what I always do in a few spots in spring.) Time to either reduce the plants by division or pruning, or make the bed bigger, easing passage around its perimeter. I’m doing some of each (but waiting for fall weather for the divisions if it stays hot and relatively dry here).NOW, ONWARD! JULY STARTS OUT as Throw In the Trowel Month here, with June’s cutbacks s

THE TALK WAS OF LIVING MULCH, meaning groundcovers, on this week’s Robin Hood Radio podcast, because it’s the perfect time to divide your best ones up (or buy some!) and get some needy areas of the garden covered in weed-thwarting beauty.

MAKE A PASS through each garden bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Apply mulch to all beds to help in the plight.GARDENS NEED an inch of water a week from you or the heavens. Check your rain gaugeto make sure they get it, and remember: Soak deeply in the root zone. Don’t spritz things with a sprayer now and again like you’re washing the car. That’s a garden no-no. Pots need extra attention, especially smallish ones in sun, and they also need regular feeding. Be alert!TREES & SHRUBSBE ON THE LOOKOUT for dead, damaged, diseased wood in tree

FIRST, THE HAIRCUTS: If you were squeamish about cutbacks as spring faded, you may be regretting it now, and facing floppy, exhausted plants in certain spots. Some things (like certain perennial Geraniums, for instance) do better if cut back hard. Go for it. Others need just deadheading of spent blooms. Annuals that grow leggy can often benefit from a chop job, too. Do some experiments. Sometimes a plant can’t look worse, and you probably won’t kill it. :-)MAKE A PASS through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Top up mulch in all garden beds if washed or worn away to help in the plight.LOOK WHILE WEEDING: Try to remember what’s done well (and not so well) so far in each bed. Make notes, to

Some “fixes” are obvious: I’ll raise the deck on the mower to a longer cut, assuming the weather heats up and rain tapers. I’ll soak beds deeply (unless ample rain does first!), then clean up their edges and top up mulch. In many spots I’m being downright brutal with more “edits” and cutbacks. (I know, I gave a lot of haircuts in June to things like perennial geraniums and euphorbias, but the barbershop is still open here apparently, with bleeding hearts, groundcover sedums that flowered recently, Phalaris or ribbon grass and more getting hacked to the ground. Celandine poppy, orStylophorum diphyllum, too.)July is also a big month for the vegetable garden, and not just of harvesting: I’m sowing fresh crops to enjoy this fall (like more peas); more on doing a tuneup in the edible garden below.Frankly, July always starts out as Throw In the Trowel Month here, and I often do feel overwhelmed. But then summer shapes up and t

YES, THIS THE MONTH when the spring garden, all promise and freshness, fades to a picture of widespread deadheads, and weeds really start testing us. We shall overcome! Multiple bouts of heat in some areas may have put things off course a bit, and you’ll find yourself doing chores already that usually come mid-month. Here, it was cold forever, and then whoosh, we baked (and caught up). Go with the flow, right? Here’s where I begin this month or thereabouts (and probably never end, the usual story with the to-do list…but it makes me feel better having it, anyhow):MAKE A PASS through each garden bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Apply mulch to all beds to help in the plight.GARDENS NEED an inch of water a week from you or the heavens. Check your rain gaugeto make sure they get it, a

Note on things I didn’t include: the monthly garden chores (always a big hit), or posts from previous years that are still top-performing thanks to Google search (like my refrigerator-pickle recipe, truly the little engine that could). All the big green headline links below are 2010 vintage, and apparently met with your approval. Thanks for your visits and encouragement this year.1. Vintage WPA PostersThese 1936-1943 beauties bear timely messages: of conservation, hard work, simplicity, rich with phrases like “preserve food” and “spare our trees.” A slideshow.2. What Weed Is It?Stop wondering and use one of the handy guides I rounded up to ID and manage your invaders.3. 2010 Res

Where perennials or even worse, shrubs, are bulging out of the beds and drooping onto the lawn, it’s time for a decision. (And no, the decision cannot be “mow around them and deal with it later,” which is what I have done in a few spots this spring.) Time to either reduce the plants by division or pruning, or make the bed bigger, easing passage around its perimeter. I’m doing some of each.Are some spots that seem to invite weeds to sow with wild abandon—like the driveway, or other gravel surfaces, or cracks between paving stones—requiring hours of finger-numbing work (or, more likely, just being left unweeded)? Again, decision time. To solarize (lay down black plastic sheeting, weighted with rocks, and use summer heat

WHERE TO BEGIN with the massive job called fall cleanup? Top on our chores list this month: a 7-point program to help us all focus—along with some critical note-taking on the 2014 garden, as we’re teasing it apart.fall cleanup: the short versionLeave especially ornamental or wildlife-friendly plants standing. Don’t act as if you’re vacuuming the living room; clean up beds tactically for maximum enjoyment by you and the birds.Remove sickly things first. Destroy the debris to minimize next year’s issues with squash bugs, cabbage worms, voles, and other pests and diseases.

MULCH IS NOT A DECORATIVE ITEM, like carpeting or paint! If chosen carefully and applied properly, it’s the most important soil-building, plant-sustaining tool a gardener has. At this time of year, I’m asked a lot about mulch, but most of the questions make me a little nervous, because they center on the aesthetics only.

I’ve said in the past that I think of the August chores list as a form of spot cleaning—a headstart on fall cleanup, one blemish at a time. Thinking of it that way makes it more palatable, frankly: a leg up on work I’d have to do later, anyhow? OK; I can handle that.I can’t fix everything, turning brown leaves green again, or sewing up holes in the Astilboides or brassicas. But I can (and must!) try to trick the eye with some targeted trimming, mulching and edging—and lots of deadheading, of course.(I say “must,” because Garden Conservancy Open Day visitors are coming August 17—do join us!)Besides the visual relief, editing out the worst bits reduces hiding places for pests and disease, so again, it’s worth it.  Let’s go:weeding and wateringWEED! Make a pass through e