Leon Trollski wrote:
Warren wrote:
I couldn't imagine leaving that thick as mulch. It's not very attractive.

funny, I was just admiring mine yesterday, thinking it looked very
spring-like with the tulips and all poking thru.

I guess you didn't plonk me like you said you did.

I don't particularly find grey an attractive color for mulch, nor is the flakey
texture very attractive to me.


it settles when it gets wet, it would cut off any oxygen supply to
something
growing there. I

Why do you say that? This isn't landscape fabric. Air will always get
through.

Landscape fabric allows air and water to pass. A matted layer of leaves,
shredded or not, does not.


suppose if you fluff it up often enough that could be overcome,
but that sounds like a lot of work when the layer is that thick. If you
have to
dig instead of rake to fluff it, it seems to me that it's a bit too much.


I find the 4-6" mulch added after freeze-up is gone by end-May, the worms
pull it into the soil.

Perhaps things are different where you are, but the places I put 6" of shredded
leaves on (my idle vegetable garden) still have 3"+ in spring. It's partially
decompossed, but mostly just compressed, and turning/turned into mould. And I
don't know of many worms that will come above the frost line in winter. If I
take a shovel, and try to poke through the layer, it's like trying to cut
through a thick rubber layer. That's why I till it into the soil, where it
becomes the greatest ammendment I could find.


Leaf mould, and even shredded leaves, IMHO, make a great soil amendment.
But I
think there are better things to use as mulch.


On the contrary, it seems like the dream amendmenet. It protects my bulbs
through winter, prevents hot/cold swings, keeps the growing tips hidden from
freak cold spells, retains moisture, and gets completely incorporated into
the soil without being reworked by mid-Spring. What's not to love?

On the contrary? You /agreed/ with me that shredded leaves make a great soil
amendment. As for a winter protection mulch, it's good, too. But a 4-6" thick
layer that's been matted down all winter and has turned grey and flakey is not
something that I can find dozens of better mulches than.


It's also free, and I keep it out of our overtaxed landfills.

That's right.

--
Warren H.

==========
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employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Your Guide to the Care and Feeding of a Suburban Lawn:
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