MULCH

Mulching -
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/M/mulch.html

Two good articles written by Dr. Shigo with respect to mulch.

Improper Fertilization (See A Touch of Chemistry)
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/shigo/CHEM.html

Troubles in the Rhizosphere
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/shigo/RHIZO.html

Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Tree Biologist
www.treedictionary.com
and
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
Watch out for so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, tornado's, volcanic eruptions and other
abiotic forces keep reminding humans that they are not the boss.

"YMC" wrote in message
u...
Hi,

Its been over 6 months since i posted about my pine mulch problem so I
thought I'd share whats happened since I used the mulch.

Backdrop: I have a dozen conifer pine trees - had them pruned back and
mulched the residue. There was a fair bit of the mulch and I couldn't just
store it in one
location in my garden.

The amount could be roughly about 10 - 20 large compost bins full. And i
only have 2.

So what I did was I stored what I could in my 2 bins. Stored what I could
in the backyard. Then I spread it
around in my garden as best as I could.

The mulch seem to turn into something more useful if its placed into open
piles and turned around every month or so.

The ones in the compost bin looked like they turned kind of sour like -
probably due to a lack of water. I travel a fair bit sometimes and don't
get
enough time to do necessary stuff in the garden. So I emptied it out - and
after a very short while - it smelt better - that humus pleasant earthly
kind of smell.

The other stuff which I spread around the garden also seemed to turn up
quite nicely too. No plants died but I was careful not to spread it too
thickly. In the areas where i did spread it thickly, the yellow daisy
marguirites loved it. The earthworms thrived!!

Now comes the second stage - where I have to take the pine mulch in the
storage areas to the rest of the garden. Great time to do it too - as I'm
getting a fair bit of weeds/ grass runners in the flower beds.

ymc



"YMC" wrote in message news:...
"Luke" blah@blah wrote in message
...
I think it's more a case where the pine mulch will make the soil more
acidic, whereas a rose prefers a fairly neutral soil around PH 6.5.
Probably composting it is the better idea as I hate seeing mulch go to
waste.

Thanks for that. I think the old guy just wanted to discourage me and
take
the mulch away. His quote didn't involve leaving the mulch behind
(because
he claimed it was useless).

Another tree cutter suggested putting the mulch onto one section of the
garden which was hidden and let it sit for 4 weeks or so. I've got him to
do the job as he was more helpful and friendly.

I'll probably keep the bulk of the mulch in that section of the garden
for
3 - 12 months or so and put a bit of blood and bone and seaweed mix to
hurry up the rotting process.

Thanks all for the advice.