Mulch is an easy and cheap way to take good care of your plants. Adding mulch is the simple practice of adding partially decomposed plant material, including wood chips, leaves, and other landscape waste, to your garden by spreading it in a thin layer on the surface of your soil. Adding mulch to your garden is one of the simplest and most beneficial things you can do for your plants.
Mulch has many plant benefits. As the cold weather draws near, adding mulch to your garden is especially important because it acts as an organic blanket, insulating the soil and protecting tender roots from cold temperatures. Mulch also benefits your plants by maintaining soil moisture – with a good layer of mulch, soil surfaces are less likely to dry out under a hot, dry sun. Mulch also suppresses weeds by reducing seed germination. If that wasn’t enough, mulch also adds important organic matter to the soil. As mulch further decomposes, it fuels beneficial soil microorganisms which help maintain healthy soils and healthy plants.
Mulch is cheap. You can buy bagged mulch from your local garden center, OR you could get it for free. There are a number of municipal recycling facilities on Long Island that pick up curbside leaves and other landscape debris and recycle it into mulch. A number of towns give mulch away for free, including the Town of Smithtown Recycling Center and the Town of Southold. Wood chips and fine screened wood mulch are available free to anyone who wants to come pick up a truckload. Contact the Town of Smithtown Recycling Center at 631-360-7500 or their Kings Park location at 631-269-6600.
As simple and cheap as the practice of adding mulch may seem, there are also easy ways to mess it up. The first is by applying the wrong kind of mulch. Many “specialty” mulches are available including those made from recycled car tires and stone or marble chips. These specialty mulches don’t decompose and don’t need to be replenished on a routine basis, but they also don’t add any of that super important organic matter to the soil. They can even be harmful to plants by adversely affecting the soil pH.
Photo: Mulch that was placed directly against the tree trunk up only six inches caused trunk rot and the formation of adventitious, circling roots on this Japanese Zelkova (Zelkova serrata).
But the most common problem I see with mulch is applying too much of it! It looks like a lot of people went mulch-crazy and “too much of a good thing” was not in their comprehension. Mulch that is piled up at the base of trees or shrubs, and that is 6, 12, or even 24 inches deep, is called a “mulch volcano” because of its similar shape. In order to keep your mulch from “erupting,” you should place a thin layer only 2-4 inches deep on the surface of the soil. Too much mulch may interfere with water penetration into the soil. You should also be very careful to not place mulch directly against the trunk of trees and shrubs. This is the biggest problem with mulch volcanoes because the constant moisture against the tree trunk can cause rot, be attractive to pests, cause improper root growth, and interfere with air exchange between the tree trunk and the surrounding air.
Photo: On this properly mulched London Planetree (Platanus x acerifolia), you can see that the trunk flare is visible and not covered by mulch.
Adding mulch is one of the least expensive, easiest, and most beneficial practices in the garden. Just make sure you follow the recommended guidelines, and remember, mulch – it does a plant good!
