In article .com, "Ima
Googler" wrote:
Another question from the group newbie... 
Last year I purchased a shredder/vac/blower and shredded up all of our
leaves and put a nice thick layer on my flower beds. I've got
probably 4 inches or so on top of my main garden and I'm wondering if
thats too much. The garden includes mainly hosta, heuchera and a few
other shade perennials. I moved some of the mulched leaves out of
the way today and it seemed pretty damp underneath, we've had lots of
rain lately. Will this be a problem, is it too think or should I
just leave the mulch as is? I'm hoping it will be ok and it can serve
as a weed barrier.
Thanks in advance for your help!
As a general rule leaflitter is the most natural autumn & winter mulch, &
encourages the microorganisms that manufacture nitrogen. A healthy garden
will also love the fallen leaves that keep down winter-germinating seeds,
then turns into lovely leafmold by or during spring. Woodland gardens
which are permitted to recycle their leaves back into their own soil need
very little fertilizing to remain happy as all get-out.
On the other hand, an unhealthy or inorganic garden will
linevitably/eventually have harmful insect population explosions because
harmful insects adapt & bounce back more rapidly than do beneficial
insects. In such cases leaflitter can harbor an excess of harmful insects.
Or even in a healthy garden, if a droughty winter means the leaves never
did break down into leafmold, spring rain or artificial irrigation wetting
so many whole leaves in warming weather will make it ideal slug & snail &
woodlouse territory.
So there are some cases when the leaves really do have to be taken away &
composted or put in black bags & stored until they break down into
leafmold. In most cases though the leaves are gotten off lawns & into the
gardens during autumn leaf-fall, & nature does the rest.
Four inches of mulch, however, certainly is apt to be too much, & it
might be nice to aportion all that mulch more thinly about the gardens. As
for keeping the ground moist underneath the mulch, that's generally a good
thing, it won't keep it TOO moist unless the soil is badly draining clay;
it just allows for water conservation. An inch or two would be a lot of
mulch but not too much unless you were hoping to germinate seeds in which
case soil would have to be churned to the surface mixing the mulch in.
-paghat the ratgirl
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