Hi All,

I have a 5,000 square foot area that will be used as neighborhood
playground. The area was full of weeds, which have been manually
removed and has now been covered with a very high quality weed block.
As a long term solution, we were interested in using rubber
mulch, but the cost was too high ($7,000 to $10,000 at a depth of 2.0
inches). As an alternative, what mulch would you say was the longest
lasting / slowest degrading type of mulch (cypress, pine needles, pine
bark, cedar, cocoa pods, coconut shells, or etc...). We are needing
approximately 32 cubic yards and would prefer not to have to perform
as much maintenance. Are there any mulch that do not break down or
that break down into matter that doesn't support weed growth?

Thank you so much for your advice,

Xref: kermit rec.gardens:226461

A consideration with mulch, is that many people are allergic to it.
I was not aware of this until I had it put in front of my house,
then had to have it all removed.

wrote in message
m...
Hi All,

I have a 5,000 square foot area that will be used as neighborhood
playground. The area was full of weeds, which have been manually
removed and has now been covered with a very high quality weed block.
As a long term solution, we were interested in using rubber
mulch, but the cost was too high ($7,000 to $10,000 at a depth of 2.0
inches). As an alternative, what mulch would you say was the longest
lasting / slowest degrading type of mulch (cypress, pine needles, pine
bark, cedar, cocoa pods, coconut shells, or etc...). We are needing
approximately 32 cubic yards and would prefer not to have to perform
as much maintenance. Are there any mulch that do not break down or
that break down into matter that doesn't support weed growth?

Thank you so much for your advice,

On 11 May 2003 10:33:14 -0700, )
wrote:

Hi All,

I have a 5,000 square foot area that will be used as neighborhood
playground. The area was full of weeds, which have been manually
removed and has now been covered with a very high quality weed block.
As a long term solution, we were interested in using rubber
mulch, but the cost was too high ($7,000 to $10,000 at a depth of 2.0
inches). As an alternative, what mulch would you say was the longest
lasting / slowest degrading type of mulch (cypress, pine needles, pine
bark, cedar, cocoa pods, coconut shells, or etc...). We are needing
approximately 32 cubic yards and would prefer not to have to perform
as much maintenance. Are there any mulch that do not break down or
that break down into matter that doesn't support weed growth?

Thank you so much for your advice,

Pea gravel?

"jammer" j@mmer wrote in message
...

Pea gravel?


This actually sounds like a really good idea but playgrounds don't use it as
a rule because the tykes like to stick little rocks up their noses and into
their ear canals. This generally happens often enough on a playground that
doesn't have a hundred yards of teeny little rocks on it.

Val

On Sun, 11 May 2003 20:48:25 -0700, "Valkyrie"
wrote:


"jammer" j@mmer wrote in message
.. .

Pea gravel?


This actually sounds like a really good idea but playgrounds don't use it as
a rule because the tykes like to stick little rocks up their noses and into
their ear canals. This generally happens often enough on a playground that
doesn't have a hundred yards of teeny little rocks on it.

Val

Ok, well, i couldn't think of anything else. Good luck.

On 11 May 2003 10:33:14 -0700, )
wrote:

I have a 5,000 square foot area that will be used as neighborhood
playground. The area was full of weeds, which have been manually
removed and has now been covered with a very high quality weed block.
As a long term solution, we were interested in using rubber
mulch, but the cost was too high ($7,000 to $10,000 at a depth of 2.0
inches). As an alternative, what mulch would you say was the longest
lasting / slowest degrading type of mulch (cypress, pine needles, pine
bark, cedar, cocoa pods, coconut shells, or etc...). We are needing
approximately 32 cubic yards and would prefer not to have to perform
as much maintenance. Are there any mulch that do not break down or
that break down into matter that doesn't support weed growth?

Organic mulches will eventually break down into compost of some sort.
And nourish plant growth. You have a 2-part problem -- weed
surpression and a comfortable landing for kids in a playground area.
Foot traffic alone may be a fair weed-control. Seems to me a a
renewable bark mulch would be most appropriate.

Lorie wrote:

A consideration with mulch, is that many people are allergic to it.
I was not aware of this until I had it put in front of my house,
then had to have it all removed.

There are dozens of different types of mulch. It's rather a stretch to say
that "mulch" can be allergenic without specifying the type, although I have
not heard of any allergic reactions to any that are commonly used in my
area.

To the OP - look for somthing called "play chips" in your area. They are a
very common product here for just this purpose. Wood chips that are often
combined with recycled rubber - long lasting, safe for kids, cushiony and
relatively inexpensive. Runs about $12-15 per cy here for the quantity you
are looking at. I wouldn't worry too much about weed development - foot
traffic should keep them to a minimum except perhaps along the periphery of
the play area. A reasonable alternative may be sand, but watch out for
neighborhood cats :-)

pam - gardengal

On 11 May 2003 10:33:14 -0700, )
wrote:

Hi All,

I have a 5,000 square foot area that will be used as neighborhood
playground. The area was full of weeds, which have been manually
removed and has now been covered with a very high quality weed block.
As a long term solution, we were interested in using rubber
mulch, but the cost was too high ($7,000 to $10,000 at a depth of 2.0
inches). As an alternative, what mulch would you say was the longest
lasting / slowest degrading type of mulch (cypress, pine needles, pine
bark, cedar, cocoa pods, coconut shells, or etc...). We are needing
approximately 32 cubic yards and would prefer not to have to perform
as much maintenance. Are there any mulch that do not break down or
that break down into matter that doesn't support weed growth?

Thank you so much for your advice,

Though cedar woodchips break down into nutrients when buried & with
sufficient nitrogen in the soil to help effect the break-down, when used
only as a surface mulch, the largest grade chips don't break down in five
years. If by a "weed block" you mean some kind of garden fabric, that will
can make large grade cedar wood chips last a decade. These chips have a
natural preservative oil that makes the chips last an awfully long time if
not mixed with enough nitrogen & soil to encourage beneficial funguses to
go to work on the wood. If the worst it experiences is rainfall it'll last
indefinitely, just as would unpainted cedar shingles on a house.

The only drawback is the largest grade wood chips can continue to splinter
if it contains chipped wood rather than just the bark, so on a playfield
can give kids splinters who fall or wrastle in it. A finer grade would be
safer to play on without getting splinters but wouldn't last as long as
large chips. Pine bark & wood-shavings does not splinter like cedar &
makes a softer surface to play on, but its natural preservative oils
aren't as radical as for cedar. Although in fact, other woods such as
spruce & spine & aspen, which splinter less than cedar (aspen shavings
don't splinter at all), do also last a very long time when not buried in
high-nitrogen soils & especially when barriered against direct contact
with soil. I don't know off hand if white cypress splinters the way large
bits of cedar wood does, but if it does not, white cypress also contains a
large amount of preservative oil & large chips would last a great many
years. The natural oil in both cedar & cypress keeps them from rotting
into loam unless one takes such measures as buring the chips & adding
nitrogen to start it breaking down, which is why unpainted cedar shingles
never rot away merely from rainfall.

Rubber mulch toxifies the soil with zinc. If any part of the land were
needed for something else at a later date, or even just flowers at the
edge of the playfield, it would be difficult to impossible to remove this
polluting material, & the leached zinc would kill all nearby flowers (some
woody shrubs adapt, but flowers are doomed by this toxic waste that is
being increasingly & harmfully promoted as a mulch). By comparison, if
someone changes their mind after covering the surface with bark, it can at
any time be churned into the soil & some nitrogen mixed with it, at which
time it begins to break down with no toxic after-effects. (The phenols in
pine & cedar can kill weeds & plants if it is laid on thickly, but phenols
eventually break down or evaporate, & are not in the long run harmful in
the environment the way rubber & its zinc content become a permanent
pollutant where rubber mulch is laid down).

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

In article , Pam wrote:

Lorie wrote:

A consideration with mulch, is that many people are allergic to it.
I was not aware of this until I had it put in front of my house,
then had to have it all removed.

There are dozens of different types of mulch. It's rather a stretch to say
that "mulch" can be allergenic without specifying the type, although I have
not heard of any allergic reactions to any that are commonly used in my
area.

To the OP - look for somthing called "play chips" in your area. They are a
very common product here for just this purpose. Wood chips that are often
combined with recycled rubber - long lasting, safe for kids, cushiony and
relatively inexpensive. Runs about $12-15 per cy here for the quantity you
are looking at. I wouldn't worry too much about weed development - foot
traffic should keep them to a minimum except perhaps along the periphery of
the play area. A reasonable alternative may be sand, but watch out for
neighborhood cats :-)

pam - gardengal

Though from my (gardening) point of view your're right, pediatric allergy
specialists would disagree. To people who have such allergies, fungal
spoors that grow in organic mulch can be a serious & even life-threatening
problem, especially when the allergic response is an asthma attack.

There are vastly more allergies caused by plants than by mulch of course,
& large areas barriered & mulched will cause fewer childhood asthma
attacks than would a meadow or a vital garden.

However, even though severe childhood asthma is growing problem that
results in more deaths than most people seem to know about, if activists
want to reverse the increasing asthma trend, they should be working to
remove bazillians of chemicals pollutants from our daily environments &
diet, not plasticizing nature. The human body can generally fight of
allergenic responses to the natural environment pretty easily, but not so
easily if the diet, atsmophere, workplace, home environment, & ever corner
of our daily lives is jam-packed with trace amounts of thousands of
chemicals, the majority of which were never generated for profit without
any other necessity.

But kids with mold AND pollin allergies -- their parents frequently do
have to get rid of just about everything in the yard including organic
mulch & go with pavers & pea gravel, & how sad that'd be for any gardener.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/