On 10/2/2007 10:40 AM, Scott Hildenbrand wrote:
ap wrote:
Hello all,
We live here in north GA and was planning on putting new red colored
mulch to our garden beds in the front of our home. Right now, there is
a very thin layer of red mulch in some beds.

The beds are near large trees and soon the leaves will fall.

What do others do about putting red mulch during fall season?

Do you put a filter of some sort to catch the fall leaves so they
don't cover up the mulch?

Is it suggested to mulch after the leaves are done falling?

What about running the blower ? Will it blow away the mulch also?

The mulch we have used so far is the red colored mulch from Garden
Plus.
(At lowe's)

Please let me have your advice!!

THANKS!



I prefer to use said fall leaves as mulch. Much cheaper and better for
the environment.

Why not wait till the bulk of the leaves fall and are cleaned up. If you
can't and choose to mulch sooner that should be fine. You can use a leaf
blower to remove the leaves so long as they don't get rained on before
hand.

Once the rain hits them and they compact down, they will be harder to
remove from your beds and will tend to stick together in mats.

Fall leaves are my only mulch. In winter, a leaf mulch helps protect
ground covers from frost. (Yes, we get frost every winter in many parts
of southern California, even areas not in the mountains.) In summer, a
leaf mulch helps keep the soil cool and moist, conserving water.
Year-round, a leaf mulch prevents mud from splattering.

I try to add as many oak leaves as possible to my compost pile, which is
really more leaf mold than compost. I also add some ash, liquidambar,
and zelkova leaves; but oak makes the best leaf mold. When the pile
reaches the point where additional new material will overwhelm the
composting action, I start mulching my beds, front and back (especially
my camellia bed). I just leave peach leaves where they fall as a mulch
for the grape hyacinths and primroses growing under the tree.

I also try to keep an oak leaf mulch around the valley white oak by my
driveway, the oak that produces the leaves for my compost pile. Western
oaks really need a leaf mulch. However, winter winds often scour the
mulch away.

Last winter, I had about a 2" layer of leaves on the front lawn. When
the Great Freeze of '07 hit (record breaking cold for our climate), this
mulch was all that kept the pink clover (Persicaria capitata) alive. (I
planted the pink clover in place of grass, to which I'm allergic.)

In the end, I get far more leaves than I can use. I pile the excess on
my patio and walkways. Then, each week I fill the garden waste bin with
leaves for the County's composting project. I generally don't dispose
of the last of the leaves until about two months after they fell.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/