JOHN’S CORNER: The Story of our Incredible NATIVE HARDWOOD MULCH Composted (Aged)

The story starts back in 1992 after I left the oil industry to start my own landscaping business. I started reading about the problems pine bark and hardwood bark mulches were causing in the landscape industry, hence I wanted to find out why they were causing problems.

I learned that the aged (composted) barks that had been used for decades had all been used up and only fresh bark was available. As I studied the problem, I found that fresh bark has very different chemical and biological properties (kills good microbes), it also looked different than aged bark. Hence, to make the bark look dark companies were adding toxic waste to the bark to chemically burn it black to make it look like composted bark. Since I wanted to use only organic and sustainable methods, I had to find an alternative.

For years I had an electric grinder that I used to grind up all my tree trimmings, pruning’s, downed limbs from storms, etc. which I used as a mulch in some areas. My own yard originally was a nasty black gumbo clay soil, but in the areas, where I had used the ground up branches, I noticed something happening. The clay had broken down into rich loam that was loose and crumbly, it was full of very large earthworms, there was all types of soil life present on and in the mulch, the soil stayed moist even in the hot summer without irrigation, the plants grew extremely well and without insect or disease problems. A very different response than the areas where I had used pine or hardwood bark mulches.

Over 25 years ago, I was at a trade show and met a man named Malcomb Beck whom owned a compost company in San Antonio and he had similar experiences in using ground up branches and limbs that he just referred to as “Native Mulch”. I became fascinated and excited as I had a possible solution, hence, I started researching this type of mulch. This was before the internet days so I spent a lot of time going through horticultural and soil science journals at our university libraries looking for research papers on this type of mulch but there was very little information to be found. However, the organic waste recycling movement was just beginning in the USA and universities started studying how to use this ground up material. A new model of soil health and fertility called the “soil food web” was also being developed that explained why this type of mulch worked so well.

As a sidebar, when I started my composting business, recycling brush and leaves into our now famous “leaf mold compost” and into an aged (composted) “native mulch” they would not sell at first. As folks tried the leaf mold compost and got excellent results it started selling, but the mulch did not even though it was extremely high quality. So, I had an idea and renamed the mulch from “Native Mulch” to “Native Hardwood Mulch” and it started flying out the door as the fad at the time was hardwood bark mulch. Folks started using it and it quickly became the standard for high quality mulches.

This experience started a journey on studying all types of mulches and how they compare to each other and how to use them. There is a whole world of information on mulches in the scientific literature that most folks are not aware of. As I studied and learned over the years, I continued to improve the quality and benefits. During the drought of 2011 many homes burned to the ground due to the mulch on their flowerbeds as many are highly flammable. Universities studies have shown that the aged (composted) native mulches are extremely fire resistant.

The other day I was listening to both of our gardening radio shows and both hosts recommended placing compost down first and then the native mulch. This is the best way to mulch our flowerbeds as it copies the way God does it in nature. At Nature’s Way Resources we produce our coarse ground aged (composted) native mulch to naturally have a lot of compost in it. After listening to the garden shows I was curious as to how much compost is in our mulch, so I decided to find out. First, we only use the small branches and limbs of trees to make our native mulch. The reason deer, squirrels, beavers and other animals eat branches and limbs for food is that it is full of vitamins, proteins, minerals, etc. When one uses this type of material to make the native mulch it makes a very nutrient rich mulch. If you notice in the picture below there is lots of leaves and small limbs. The leaves and the cambium layers of the branches rapidly turn into a rich compost. The woody pieces turn a dark chocolate brown as the age up due to the composting process. The composting process shrinks the material which increases the nutrient density of the mulch and concentrates the nutrient content.