NEIGHBORHOOD GARDEN FOR JANUARY 31, 2015
*************************************************************
WHY MULCH YOUR PLANTS?
BY GEORGE EDGAR
Lincoln
had bitter cold temperatures during the first two weeks of November and
then cold temperatures from late December through mid-January. Nebraska has been fortunate to have escaped
the endless string of cold temperatures we experienced last winter.
According to Al Dutcher,
Nebraska
state climatologist, “The temperature outlook for February contains
considerable uncertainty as the Climate Prediction Center
shows no climatological trend for
Nebraska.
CPC suggests a weak tendency in the
90-day outlook for below normal temperatures across southwest and south
central Nebraska, with no distinct trend indicated for the remainder of
the state....Colder than normal temperatures, above normal moisture
(including snow) occurs a little over 60% of the time for Nebraska
during the March-May period, with the highest probabilities assigned to
the western half of the state. It remains to be seen whether these
conditions will occur this winter.” (“Weather Outlook Uncertain, but
Storms Could Lie Ahead” by Al Dutcher, Cropwatch for January 20, 2015, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, http://cropwatch.unl.edu.)
For gardeners
in Nebraska,
what do we need to do when we have such uncertain predictions? The
reality is, this is the usual prediction for the central plains states.
We are never certain what the weather is going to be. Will it be a wet,
cold spring or will the above average temperatures continue? Will we
have an early fall or will we have above average temperatures until
Thanksgiving? Will it be a mild winter or will we have below average
temperatures with lots of snow next winter?
The common myth
is that we mulch our plants in the fall to keep the ground warm to
protect our plants. The truth is we mulch in late fall to keep the
ground cold. More winter hardy plants are killed by the freezing and
thawing during the winter than from the cold and below average
temperatures. So we want to put the mulch on the soil
after a couple of hard freezes
(temps in the low 20’s). My wife usually does not cover our roses until
after Halloween. In northern climates such as North Dakota and
Minnesota
where it snows and the snow stays all winter, some plants do better
because the snow insulates the ground all winter and they do not get the
freezing and thawing.
Gardeners who
put their mulch on too early in the fall do not allow the ground to cool
down normally and thus the plant does not go into dormancy naturally.
And don’t remove your mulch too early in the spring. Most gardeners can
remember a warm spell in March? We have had a number of them over the
years. Plants that were not properly mulched or had their mulch removed
too early, warmed up and some broke dormancy. Then when we got a cold
spell in April they could not go back into dormancy and froze.
If you don’t remember ask your grandmother. The rule is-don’t put mulch
on too early in the fall or remove too early in the spring.
What is the
best mulch? Each gardener has his or her favorite. Gladys uses lots of
compost from her huge compost pile. I use wood chips or shredded hard
wood on my roses, shrubs, and other perennials because I have access to
it. I do
not recommend using
CyprEss mulch from an ecological
point of view.
CyprEss
trees are being clear-cut from our native wetlands to make
way for business and housing developments in
Florida
and the destroyed CYPRESS TREES
are not being replanted. According to the Florida Cooperative
Extension Service, the old idea that
CYPRESS mulch is superior to other mulches is not true anymore.
The old-growth CYPRESS
harvested prior to the 1950’s had a reputation for being rot-and
termite-resistant. But all those old, old trees have all been taken except for a few saved in our nature preserves. Now CYPRESS
mulch comes from trees that are too young to develop that property as it
takes hundreds of years for the chemical to form inside the tree. Also
science has found that the proper hydrology for
CYPRESS
seed germination is difficult and rarely accomplished by anyone but
Mother Nature. Some counties in Florida
have restricted the use of
CYPRESS
mulch because its harvest degrades
CYPRESS
wetlands.
CYPRESS works o.k. as mulch in your garden,
but the destruction of these forests is not good for our environment.
So what do we recommend?
RED
Cedar mulch usually
comes from Cedar Tree nurseries and the trees are grown just for the
mulch. The trees grow fairly rapidly and are quite often on land that is
not much good for anything else. Hardwood mulches usually come from
trees that had to be cut down for one reason or another and would have
ended up in the landfill or burned if not ground up. Recently hardwood
mulches have been dyed red, gold, and dark brown. Most dyes do not hurt
your soil. Pine needles, pine bark, and shredded evergreen wood all make
an excellent mulch.
I use compost on my raspberries,
asparagus, rhubarb, and in the flower garden. Some gardeners use
shredded leaves and grass. Do not use leaves that have not been shredded
by a grinder or your mower, or grass clippings that have not dried out
for a couple days. These tend to mat down and not allow water to
penetrate. Also, there are too few air spaces which are needed for good
insulation.
Also, do not
use those foam cones unless you cut the top out. Then fill the inside
with mulch, compost, or soil. On a warm winter day the heat builds up
inside a cone that has the top still on it. This can heat on a warm
winter day or in the early spring, can cause the plant to break dormancy
and start growing. With the next hard freeze the plant then freezes and
dies. The cones are easy and convenient to use, but they do not work.
The main reason
I wrote this article is to encourage you to go out now and check your
mulch. If the strong Nebraska winds have blown some away, replace
it. If you did not put enough on to start with, do it now. It is not too
late to protect your plants from the freezing and thawing this spring.
Remember, mulch in the winter to keep the ground cold, and mulch in the
summer to keep the roots cool, the ground from drying out, and to
suppress weed growth.
Copyright 2015
|