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Mulch (perennials)

So I talked about mulch for annuals.  Perennials are a bit different. So for perennials, you need mulch that will last longer... Wood chips work, they need to be refreshed every couple of years. Rocks never need to be refreshed, but they don't break down to be used as a soil amendment. But that is only part of the story... the other part is a weed barrier... What you use, and if you use a weed barrier under the mulch depends on the plants. If you have plants that have one exit point from the ground, like a tree or a woody bush, you can put down some plastic, or something that won't ever break down, because the plant never needs to grow through it... or if it might occasionally need to send up a new shoot weed cloth with a large hole cut around the planting site, so it has space to grow up shoots.... But if it is something that sends up new shoots frequently, or dies back to the ground annually, you want something that is going to break down and let those shoots come up...

Mulch (annuals)

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Mulch. A topic so important I made it the second post here, after "Why am I doing this?" If I can impart just one piece of wisdom to the world about gardening, it's this, "Mulch." Green beans with straw mulch Why? There are a lot of reason, but weeds, by far are the biggest one for me. I grew up with my mothers garden behind our garage, I grew up weeding it, and when it was plants coming up out of that pristine black dirt man did that garden look good... and for the few hours it looks like that just after it was finished being weeded every one involved looked terrible, exhausted and filthy... I now have my own garden behind my own garage, and it's regularly over run with weeds, in part because I  don't follow my own advice. Mulch lays on top of dirt, plants need dirt to grow, if weed seeds can't get to the dirt, they can't grow. More over, if they do come up, mulch keeps the soil moist, and makes pulling weeds easier as the soil l

Why am I creating this blog?

Nearly every time I mention to some one I  have a garden, or that I  was working in the garden, I get the same questions... What are you growing? How do you grow that? How big is your garden? etc. I'm creating this blog to answer those questions. I'll start by making something clear, I'm not a botanist, I'm not a master gardener, I'm not even always successful in my gardening efforts.  This will serve as a place to document success, and failure, to explain how I got the success, and how/if I can learn from the failure. This will also be a place to talk about how I grow what I grow, what tools I use, what methods and strategies. I'm not an organic gardener, but I'm also slow to reach for the round up (though once it's in hand watch out weeds!) This blog may also come to serve as a place for things less garden based and more kitchen based... the two are linked on my property, as what is grown outside, is prepared and eaten in the kitchen (or some times in