Rose Cottage Ltd

I realized over the past Winter that the part of my 7 acres I do try to control gets out of control every Summer.

This is not for lack of effort.

Fighting weeds and trying to keep areas clear where snakes and ticks like to hide gets very difficult in warmer months. Last year’s chigger population seemed “aggressive” to say the least and I was not looking forward to another battle this season.

Mulch to the rescue – and lots of it!

Forget buying the stuff by bags unless you have a fairly small yard or garden. This is often an exercise in futility for many gardeners. Not only does it become expensive rather quickly, hauling those 50-pound bags of mulch in your car and out, and then getting the stuff where you need it in your yard, is hard work. Get it wholesale by truckload, or partial truckload, have it dumped, and get it spread.

I’ve spent the better part of the last 4 days spreading mulch. The difference this year was that I had more than enough to work with and was able to spread it as thick as it needs to be to stop the dreaded Summer weeds. Fork it into a wheelbarrow, roll it to the location, and dump and spread. Use an assembly-line mentality and before you know it, your yard not only looks fantastic, but you’ll save hours of time this coming Summer. I dare any weed to grow through 4″ of mulch!

I didn’t have to stop mid-project and run to Lowe’s for more mulch – something that has deterred this process in past years. If anything, I had more mulch than I needed. This gave me an opportunity to actually re-design several areas that are greatly enhanced by a nice bed of mulch. Even the yard’s most unattractive element, an LP gas tank, is now sitting in and surrounded by a nicely contoured bed of mulch – it almost appears part of the garden!

I found some good basic info on different types of mulch, how to pick the best for your yard or garden, and how to estimate how much you need here.

To find wholesale mulch in your area try a Google search, or have a look at the Classifieds section of your local newspaper. Some municipal recycling centers even have free or nearly free mulch days after cities and towns do their own Spring clearing and clean-up.

More about something I found to fight chiggers AND ticks in my next post…