I'm embarrassed to admit that I spread three huge bags of fluffy grash
mulch a foot deep all over my vines and veggies - and wore a goofy grin
the whole time. It's my favorite way to start the day - out in my
garden under a hot morning sun, with piles of mulch and a watering can.

When you've put so much hard work into something, and suddenly find
yourself in posession of something that makes almost every aspect of it
easier - and it's free AND abundant - well, that's just delightful. I
broke 10 yr old hard desert clay snarled up with crabgrass with a
pickaxe to start this garden, and my gardening space is about 200 sq
ft. Not huge, but large enough. So you could say I'm invested. After
the seedlings, and the bugs, and the composting, and laying the hoses
and lashing up shades and trellises, making the frames for tomatoes and
vines out of lumber by hand...man, mulch is my new best friend. It
saves me time and energy - and after months of hard work, with school
heating up (paramedic school - clinicals start soon ) I'm thrilled to
have a new timesaver. Also, I'm trying to garden organic, so there's a
few situations that I could have just thrown a chemical at, that I'm
putting a little more time and energy into to try to keep the situation
earth-friendly.

My neighbors use big industrial mowers - even though I'm in the heart
of Phoenix, I'm downtown in an irrigation area where people have nice
big lawns - so they use large mowers to get it done quickly. The
texture I'm getting from Mario - my kitty-corner neighbor - is soft,
fluffy, delicious, pure grass clippings. It's a joy to walk on - like
shag carpet - saves me water, deters the bugs, and keeps away the
weeds.

Since weeding, composting, watering, and bug-battling take a lot of
time, it's awesome to have something that cuts down the time I spend on
the hard stuff, and leaves more time for fussing with the vines,
arranging shade, journaling, planning, harvesting. I especially like to
take a certain amout of time looking at each plant. I love botany, so
the different vines, growth rates and patterns, flower shapes and
timing, fruiting behavior, and textures of everything facinate me. With
lots of gorgeous fluffy mulch, I have more time to really study each
plant, look at how the leaves and stem join, how the fruit develops,
how the stems change texture as the plant grows.

It's like having a family reunion where everyone is individual and
fascinating, but blissfully silent and cooperative, provided you keep
the drinks coming.