Do I need to mulch every year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I don't mulch, the weeds take over something terrible.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Bare soil isn’t an option anywhere but the desert, a beach, or deep, dry shade. Planting things you want very densely, so they crowd out the weeds, is the best way to go. Then you can let fallen leaves mulch for you in the fall/winter, and no need to buy bags and bags!

I do usually have a chip drop pile at all times. I use the coarse chips for paths and the partially decomposed material for mulching new plantings, tops of containers, vegetables (where you do indeed want a little space between plants).

[Anonymous]

You don’t need to mulch every year, and the only mulch I’d use is ground up leaves a grease, or pine needles. A ground cover plant Is a better option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to mulch, ever. I have never used mulch. Real gardens should be densely planted, or at least planned to be densely planted at maturity, to avoid unsightly mulch.

The mulch phenomenon is a landscaping company gimmick that busy, non-gardening homeowners fall for because they don't know any better and think a yard needs to be neat above all else. I see the landscapers diligently pull up tiny plantings that are way too spaced-out, replace them seasonally with tiny new ones equally too spaced-out, and add fresh mulch all around them, never allowing anything to actually develop. This is now the "standard", such that people who have never been exposed to actual gardening techniques think this is the way a garden should look. A garden is never neat and tidy. It's alive and should be lush and a little bit "messy". The ultra-neat, spaced-out, "islands of plants in a sea of mulch" look is a lot more sterile in terms of biodiversity, and creates an inhospitable environment to insects, birds and other wildlife. Also it looks ugly.

Excellent post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We pay a company 850 for premium black mulch on a 1/3 acre with 15 trees and 10 shrubs mulched to include weeding and edging. You’re getting ripped off. Time to shop around.

I'm not the OP, but would you mind sharing the name of the company?

[Anonymous]

I’ve been mulching ever since I discovered Ruth Stout decades ago. I started with hard clay and now I can easily sink my arm in the soil a foot deep.