Mulch Corner
By John Ferguson
I will be on vacation this week so I thought I would share a humorous e-mail that someone sent me many years ago.
The Lawn (from the Internet, source unknown)
“Winterize your lawn,” the big sign outside the garden store commanded. I’ve fed it, watered it, mowed it, raked it and watched a lot of it die anyway. Now I’m supposed to winterize it? I hope it’s too late. Grass lawns have to be the stupidest thing we’ve come up with outside of thong swimsuits!
We constantly battle dandelions, Queen Anne’s lace, thistle, violets, Chicory and clover that thrive naturally, so we can grow grass that must be nursed through an annual four-step chemical dependency. Imagine the conversation The Creator might have with St. Francis about this:
“Frank you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there in the Midwest? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracted butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles.”
“It’s the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers ‘weeds’ and went to great extent to kill them and replace them with grass.”
“Grass? But it’s so boring. It’s not colorful. It doesn’t attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It’s temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?”
“Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.”
“The spring rains and cool weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.”
“Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it – sometimes twice a week.”
“They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?” “Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.”
“They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?”
“No, sir. Just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.”
“Now let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?” “Yes, sir.” “These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.”
“You aren’t going believe this Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.”
“What nonsense! At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It’s a natural circle of life.”
“You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and have them hauled away.”
“No! What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter and keep the soil moist and loose?”
“After throwing away your leaves, they go out and buy something they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.”
“And where do they get this mulch?”
“They cut down trees and grind them up.”
“Enough! I don’t want to think about this anymore. Saint Catherine, you’re in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?”
“Dumb and Dumber, Lord. It’s a real stupid movie about . . .”
“Never mind I think I just heard the whole story.”
To find out how much compost was in our “Native (Hardwood) Mulch” I took a small bucket nine inches deep to use as a container.
I filled the bucket with the coarse ground native mulch till full. I then hand screened all the mulch in the bucket through a ¼ inch mesh hardware cloth.
I then poured the fines that were collected back into the original bucket and measured the amount. It turns out our Native Hardwood Mulch is over 50% microbe enriched compost (humus).
For years I have noticed that earthworms get huge when living in the native mulch, many times larger than normal. The large amount of compost content explains why. Most earthworms eat microbes living on the organic matter. Earthworms can easily ingest the compost fines in the native mulch that are full of microbes. Since the microbes are feeding on a nutrient rich material, they are full of nutrients, hence one gets very large fat and healthy earthworms.
Another benefit of Native Mulch the way we make it, is that the microbes that feed on it will also break apart heavy dense sticky clay and turn it into beautiful loamy soils that all plants love. When used on one’s flowerbeds the composted mulch fines turns into rich humus that holds water, nutrients and minerals in the soil preventing leaching. The humus formed is a mixture of humates, fulmates, humins, and other compounds that make the soil healthy. The fines in the native mulch are much denser than the larger pieces, hence when it is applied to one’s landscape beds they naturally settle to the bottom and the woodier pieces float to the top. This recreates the mulch layers that God uses in nature. The soil is covered with 1-2 inches of dark brown to almost black crumbly organic matter (a compost layer) and then 1-3 inches of brown leaves, twigs, etc. the woody layer.
Research funded for over 30 years by Canada’s Department of Forestry at Lavelle University, from studies all over the world have found this type of mulch is the quickest and most cost effective to improve soil whether sand or clay!
Benefits of our Native (Hardwood) Mulch:
– The heat from the composting process kills the weed seeds and plant pathogens
– Our native mulch is ALIVE as it contains huge amounts of beneficial microbes that create healthy fertile soil and prevent disease
– Our native mulch since it is composted is naturally stabilized, preventing nitrogen tie-up when applied
– Our native mulches improve soil quality faster than any other method and at lower cost – Due to the tremendous density of beneficial microbes, native mulches prevent many types of plant diseases
– Native mulches increase plant growth rates and increase yields of vegetables and fruits.
– Native mulches prevent soil compaction as they provide food for earthworms and food for trillions of microbes that create soil structure
– Native mulches feed and fertilize the soil as they are many times higher in nutrients than traditional barks.
– Native mulches made from tree materials that have a high percentage of buds, shoots, leaves, and cambium layers in them. These materials are rich in protein, vitamins, enzymes, minerals and other nutrients.
– The humus particles (fines) attract water molecules and can actually absorb them from the humidity in the air and then store the water for plants to use later
– Studies at Tx A&M University has found that native mulches are the best at reducing erosion. The material tends to physically lock together and it is full of beneficial fungus fibers that glue mulch fragments together and to the soil (glomalin’s).
Hence, they do not float off in a hard rain as easily as most barks do. Native mulch is also full of bacteria that also produce glues (polysaccharides) that glue the particle to each other and the soil.
– Native mulches make an excellent potting medium or rooting medium for many species of plants.
– The use of native mulches completes the recycling loop. It helps save valuable landfill space by recycling grass, leaves, trees limbs and other woody material that would have created large amount of greenhouse gasses in the landfill. As it turns into humus it sequesters carbon into the soil.
– Many beneficial insects hide in the coarse mulch during the day and come out at night to eat pest insects like aphids.
