O.K. You have an entire yard to landscape and less than one day and $100 to do it. Can it be done? Yes. Do you need to sign up for Trading Places and risk your neighbours filling your yard with fake flowers made from mattress coils and spray paint? No.
My niece moved in with her boyfriend who lives just up the street from me. That move closer to me has provided us with lots of time for sharing things like my homemade pizza, my garden tools, my furniture and my advice. A couple of weekends ago she decided the grown up thing to do would be to landscape the front of their house a little bit. Hydrangeas and lavender were decided upon. I told her now all she needed to do was dig up a bed, stick the plants in and mulch.
Niece: Mulch?
Me: Yeah, you know, mulch. If you only do ONE thing make it mulch. Except the bright red stuff. Never use the bright red mulch.
Niece: Why?
Me: Because it's hideous.
Niece: No, why do I have to mulch?
Me: (a bunch of nasty swear words, fist pounding and head shaking, ending with me declaring ... ) YOU'RE NO NIECE OF MINE!!!
After I calmed down a bit I explained to my niece that the single easiest, cheapest way to make a home look landscaped is to put down mulch. Even if you don't put in a SINGLE plant, mulching will make it look like you did something dramatic.
Like you care about your home and are very particular about it even though you'd really rather dig out a plantar's wart than garden. (this isn't the case for me of course but some people aren't as fond of gardening as I am)
Mulching your desolate, dried out garden beds is like putting Spandex on a wrinkly old saggy body. It just makes everything look tight and put together.
I loaned her my edger to cut out her beds (which is why my garden beds aren't edged yet) and then ran out to buy some mulch so I could show her the difference it makes. The above shot is my garden bed without mulch.
Below is a bed with newly laid Spandex.
Tight.
I use natural, cedar mulch which is the same colour as the bricks on my house to begin with but softens to a more weathered, lighter colour once it dries out.
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Again, before mulch ...
After mulch ...
It has a bigger impact than planting the entire garden with $10,000 worth of plants would have. All for the price of $30. 12 bags of mulch at $2.50 each. Once I edge the beds and reseed my tiny little lawn it'll look like I spent a lot more money and time in this spring garden bed than I have. Of course all the perennials have to fill out still.
As soon as I took these quick shots with my iPhone I sent them to my niece. Her response was ... "Ah, I see."
I was expecting a response more along the lines of "This is the greatest day of my life, my view of the world will never be the same, and in all my years of University I never received such valuable information. I bow down to ... " That kind of thing. Something more reasonable.
I still have a few bags to put down but that'll be done in no time this weekend. So if you have a sad looking yard and no money or energy to put into landscaping it at the moment, do your self a favour, grab $50 or so, head to a local hardware store or landscape place and pick up as much cedar mulch as you can fit into your car. Not only will it do great things for your landscaping it makes one hell of a car air freshener.
Why not black mulch? Even though I like black mulch and think it can look great with a lot of homes, it's filled with dyes and other things I don't want my chickens accidentally eating. Or the vegetables I grow in my front yard. I don't want them eating black mulch juice either.
This is the first long weekend to kick off the summer in Canada so I'll be off Monday. I'll see you back here on Wednesday with the update on my hinged hoop house, The Hinged Hoop House 2.0.
Have a good weekend!
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Emily
It seems like I'm the only person who has this problem but I hate bark dust mulch because it has tiny, tiny splinters that stick me every time I encounter the stuff. They are so small they're hardly visible but they HURT.
Laura Bee
I mulched for the first time last year and I felt so grown up! You're full of sage advice Karen. Thanks!
Fiona Mae
I love all your ideas and while I am in AWE of what you do, it IS amazing, really, and I know I will probably never do any of it.
Having said that, I CAN share all of what I have learned from you, with family and friends, neighbors and strangers.
They will think I am a guru!
So, THANK YOU so much Karen!!
Ooh, Karen, my new found friend, I only have this to say, "we're not worthy, we're not worthy!"
Karen
Not worthy? Sure you are. I mean kind of anyway. O.K., you're right, you're not worthy. ;) LOL! ~ karen
Leah
Ugh. I had convinced myself that for the first time since I purchased this house, I would NOT put fresh cedar mulch in my garden this year. But I couldn’t resist after seeing your pictures. 30 bags of mulch later ($3.65 ea US), my house does indeed look like a million bucks.
Karen
Yeah, it really does make a big difference. I thought the same thing this year but nope. I bought mulch, lol. For me it's not the cost because I get it so cheap, but it's the pain of loading up my car with bags and bags of mulch. ~ karen!
Kelly ~ It took me 10 years to lose 10 pounds
I want to be your neice!!
Debbie
Karen, what do you do about your little baby perenials under all that mulch? is that a thing? or a problem?
Lynn Clark
Holy sh!t! Mulch is a hot topic. Who knew 😂
Karen
LOL. ~ karen!
Heather Sykora
I looked into sheet mulching and it works quite well. Here in Texas with St. Augustine grass, one layer of cardboard or a few paper bags and 2-3 inches of mulch will kill all the grass beneath it. It is working great for me. I planted a few perennials that will fill out over the years.
Renee Ryz
We can get cocoa bean mulch at Menards here in suburban Chicago area. The only thing that I disliked about it was that it would get a whitish mold on it and I would have to refluff it. I am fortunate that our village public works dept puts all the chips from the trees they chipper up in a huge pile near the public works building. It's take what you want - FREE, along with larger logs that we can snag & put through the log splitter for fire pit also FREE. Check with your area, the public works may have this available too. It's not as glamorous as cedar mulch, but ya can't beat free!
Meg
Ahh finally got a chance to read this post.
Sooooooooooooo. I have ALL the questions. I have an apartment, and it's got mulched beds. I'm TOTALLY gardening this year because I CAN. But...do I just move the old mulch, plant my plants, and then pile back the old mulch? Do you keep simply adding mulch year after year? Or do you remove it all first? Do you compost it? Do you do this *every* year? Does it change the Ph of the soil?? Does it get...bugs? Do you let the chickens dig in it? Do I just dump it on the ground, and voila, mulch?!
My Dad always got the red mulch and I just hated it so much I thought all mulch was just a REALLY AWFUL IDEA. So I know literally nothing about it other than Rule 1) Do Not Buy Bright Red Mulch.
Karen
Here we goooooo .... Yup, just move the old mulch and plant your plants. Yes you add mulch year after year. Sometimes you can get away with adding it only once every 2 years. Cedar mulch is good for the soil it decomposes on its own over time. It doesn't attract any buts here in Ontario. Chickens are fine to dig in it because it's natural cedar, but I don't let the chickens into any part of the yard with nice mulched beds anyway. Cedar shavings aren't good for bedding for chickens but they're fine for running around in. Yes, you just drop it on the ground and voila, mulch! Glad to hear you know the number one rule, sorry to hear it's from experience, lol. ~ karen!
JO BRAY
Yup! Great advice Karen. From experience I’ve found that using cardboard and mulch means I don’t even have to pull weeds. Just bend the tall ones over, water the cardboard Well after laying down, pour on the mulch and edge with tool you mentIoned and you’re good to go. Edging like you suggested also keeps the mulch off my sidewalk. Add Mulch every year or two. NEVER use plastic and rocks! You will live to regret it when it breaks down and the weeds pop up.
Yabut
My rock river has mulch on either side. It's the bright red stuff and looks great. I considered getting more for the rest of the flower garden too but there was no more available just then so I had to wait until the following year. What I learned by waiting is that I don't want more mulch. Even with the landscaping fabric laid down first, the weeds worked their way through. I found it harder to pull the weed roots through the fabric than I ever did just pulling them out of the ground. I have decided further mulching is not going to happen here.