I’m new to zone 7b, and a fixer house on 6 acres with NO garden beds, just “grass” and weeds right up to the house. I learned about the Seed Bank the hard way … 3rd year in, I have become the mulch queen! Your channel has changed my way of gardening with dense planting, filler grasses, and low disturbance methods. I will be so happy to hand off my mulch crown and have thick and thriving garden beds ❤️
I am working on mulching my entire lawn in the next year as a short term solution before I get the energy to plant the native plants, ground covers, perennials, and vegetables I want. This year the project will be mass planting blue flax and rudbeckia hirta in one area. Baby steps. 😬Am also dealing with creeping bellflower. I...just want to bury it all.
Hello there I am so happy to hear this message it's about time somebody addressed this I've been a landscape designer for much of my life and it's been almost impossible to persuade people about this over mulching thing in the garden that I do I use trenching as a way to keep the grass out of the gardens and it works very well I used to mulch in those trenches but then found but it's just as easy to drag a pointed hole around the trench a couple of times in the season to keep it open I think it looks nicer and is a healthier way to have a garden no matter where I buy my mulch I wonder about the chemicals in it thank you again and God bless you I'll look at your posts from now on thank you
Thank you! I wondered why after putting in a new plant where all the weeds came from. No grass for me. No more kids - no more grass. My front yard is all river rock with many plants. My backyard is beds all the way around with a 3' stone walkway in the middle. I use pine bark in the back, but love your idea of planting closer and no mulch.
I was out planting early, in the light rain, wondering if I had finally lost my mind. I came in looking for warmth and inspiration. And I found it! Thanks for showing how planting densely is worth it...eventually.
Thank you so much! It is totally worth it but yes. It takes a while to fill in, I definitely mulch the first and second year, and then I expand the garden and start again😂🌱🌱🌱
One thing to consider is to not leave any bare soil, because doing so can expose soil biome to hot, drying sun, which can kill beneficial microbes, insects, etc. soil life benefits from mulch. So while waiting for plants to grow close together, keep the soil covered and protected with some kind of mulch.
Mulch, leaf litter, compost are what I use to protect bare ground over winter and spring. It mostly cuts down on commercial fertilizers. I live in zone 9B, semi-tropical.
In 9B deep south even with dense planting I still use mulch (gathered, not purchased) to conserve water and protect soil better in our high heat. It also breaks down nicely and feeds the micorhizae.
@TexMarque same here. I'm zone 9a. I swear by leafy matter. The absolute best mulch there is. If I don't have enough my second fav is hay. I know, I know people freak out about hay. But if you keep it thick it won't seed. It keeps the soil cool and composts as fast as leaves do.
Such a good video. This is a down to earth version of the piet oudolf garden style - have your perennials interact with each other, use grasses and sedges in defined clusters to create an order and act as green mulch, see the garden in all seasons - especially the seasons in which the flowers decline and leave beautiful skeletons. I love your videos Lisa - you are doing such a service to show people what realistic gardening looks like for us northern prairie folk.
Fianlly!!! I have been looking at videos but they were never about plants in Northern Illinois. My ears perked up when you mentioned the Morton Arboretum! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expierence.
Your gardens are beautiful and inspiring. I have one garden bed to the point of "Where do I put the mulch?" Looking forward to more maturing to that point. 🌱🙏 I appreciate your perspective and insights. Thank you for creating these videos.
I have been leaf mulching for years it definitely gives you something better to look at before my perennials come in and it’s great about controlling the weeds Love the idea of adding sedges I’ve even thought of doing some cover crops where I have more annuals
Hey wonderful video! One comment - I think what you identified as "Jacobs Ladder" at 6:45 is actually a cultivar of native Woodland Phlox! Jacobs ladder flowers look more similar to columbines or tiny hibiscus flowers with large stamens, whereas woodland phlox has bigger gaps between the petals, and no visible stamen! Further, woodland phlox is easily identified with the dual symmetrical petals at the base of the flower stem, which this definitely has. Great video!
Whoops! That was definitely a late night editing mistake 😂 yes it is woodland phlox. Glad we have someone here that knows so much about woodland plant identification! Thank you! ☺️🌱🌱🌱
Amen! One of my PA Sedge isn't doing too well, and that makes me sad. The others, though, are looking very nice and I think they'll survive their first year in the ground here. Another good cover plant is native strawberry. That stuff will weave its way through all the nooks and crannies that the other plants can't quite manage. In my region, it's evergreen or semi-evergreen, so you get a decent look to the bed even when all the other plants are napping.
planting more plants close together helps, i think it also helps planting bigger and agressive plants in the right situation to help fill things out and crowd out weeds and grass. Grass is growing right through my 6 inch ground cover (creeping phlox, carnation, selfheal) but they are more easily crowded out by my shrubs, yarrow, bee balm, roses, flax, etc.
Greeting's from Ireland, I haven't mulched my beds in three years and the flowers are up and flying. Every March I used to put a hand full of organic fish blood and bone meal around each plant and then mulch the beds with homemade compost. I don't think flowers need a lot to grow but I will mulch and fertilise next March.
Brilliantly done, love it! The mulch beds with only three random shrubs are definitely lonely! 😂 And packing with plants gives more opportunity for more plant diversity and diversity of bloom times, as you’re showing. Your garden definitely proves a native garden doesn’t have to be a messy garden! 💓
I have a front yard cottage garden, have had it for years, and I've always had a huge weed problem. I always felt so guilty about the fact I love plants and have so many. I kept thinking, I should take plants out so I can weed more easily. Anyway, now I realize that my problem wasn't that I had too many plants; I had too few! The past couple of years, my perennials have grown even more, and I now have plants right next to each other, no need for mulch. (I still do use mulch between the rocks and natural lawn edge.) I am not at all a fan of the "plant museum" look, with plants dotted around in a sea of mulch, which you described in this video. So glad I stumbled upon this video today. I'm going to check out more...
I love your content! I started a new full sun garden that has boulders. This is the same premise that I have! I am packing in a variety of drought tolerant plants, grasses, and seedums (between the boulders). My goal is to not to be able to see the base of my plants.
Not needing mulch is such a flex! Today I am grumpily staring at the chipdrop woodchip pile I have to carry in buckets up a steep slope to build the soil and trying not to make eye contact with my neighbors, lol. But I am assured that after doing this for a few years, I'll have lush green on the hillside.
did chip drop twice - am in hot central texas and my native (and non-native culinary herbs/medicinal herbs) are just fine without water -- the fig and pomegranate I planted are doing great. Mulch is life (also for termites so good to have a termite service to protect your house!)
Great video BUT it depends on location. Here in Middle TN someone measured the temperature of the ground with and without mulch and the difference was 40 degrees!!! Mulching is as much for temperature as weed control. (Since 1980 we've gone from 6A to 7B.) This year I covered my shrub and tree "gardens" with rock - extremely satisfied. After 20 years I have over 50 kinds of perennial and with annuals have finally learned to plant bunches - not single, lonely stems. The more the merrier.
Mulch isn’t just for weeds though, it’s a great little ecosystem that continually helps improve your soil. I think you were eluding to that with agriculture but in some areas where our soil isn’t all that great mulching is super important.
It's true, if you are growing things like roses or some annuals for example, they may not like rocks and clay, and it may have to be amended and conditioned for them to thrive to their fullest potential.
Another snappy video! Being May can you do a video or do you have experience with the chelsea chop for natives? Just learning about this want to avoid the flop of the leggy plants last year.
I am going to chop asters very soon and my red bee balm. Aster will get another chop in early July! Will try to mention it in an upcoming video! Thanks! 🌱🌱🌱
I feel your pain! Grass is constantly trying to get into my native beds. I use a natural edge and it's a constant battle. One thing to check is what kind of grass you have, as bermuda is going to behave differently than fescue. I found out a lot of the grass I had had seeded in and I was able to pull it easily, but it depends on the species, hope this helps! 🌱🌱🌱
Rhizomes will seek the cover of the phlox, which preserves water in the soil. The best thing is to religiously edge the lawn every year with a hand edger to break off the rhizomes and pull them away from the groundcover. It may also require you to dig up the phlox after it is done flowering, clean up all of the grass rhizomes and roots, divide it and replant it for next spring's blossoms.
@Bea768- I too have increased my use of shrimp compost, spring and fall. This spring my soil is so much healthier with all the worms, etc.. I also noticed huge increase of slugs, earwigs and large black ants when using mulch. I know somewhere that the ecological explanation says that beneficial insects will balance everything out(?) but in the meantime they are destroying my plants. 😢🇨🇦
I started using g&b brand soil conditioner as mulch in the spring and it's great! Instead of hard lumpy components, it's very fine, but it's definitely not soil. It decomposes wonderfully in the pacific northwest winter, but also protects the soil in the summer. There's only one place near me that sells it, and it's a little $$, but my garden is fairly small, and the joy it brings me is so large, so i make the investment. It's also great for grass seed in an area with a dog. The grass still grows, and the new housing develpment soil gets better every year. And last, in the winter, it helps control the mud in the areas where the dog did destroy with her big paws and claws 😊
I started gardening for food with vegetables and such, and over the years have upgraded to trees and many other plants. And, Im a professional gardener now, and I personally have NEVER really recommended mulch, and I dont use it myself. Pull tall weeds, let low lying plants grow as a living mulch, IMO, this is the by and far superior method. In my experience, mulch is just the perfect medium for new weeds and other unwanted plants to root in, essentially doing absolutely nothing its supposed to.
I definitely mulched my bed this year... why? It's a brand new bed and the plants won't be here for another week! I figure, slow down the seed bank and add some organic material while I wait. Oh and I am so jealous! I have only one monarda in the back veggie garden and that is it for native plants. SOON, very soon!
Yes. I mulch for soil health, so yeah, I mulched all my flowerbeds last year because they needed it, but longterm I'm looking at creating an ecosystem to keep the beds full all year round. If you have healthy plants the soil doesn't need amendments.
Thanks for the guerilla labeling of plant names throughout the video. Helps to connect plant to growth habit / context. Rosy Sedge, why are you so cute?!
Deer are tricky, but in general they don't like to eat sedges! It would depend on your location which sedges to choose. And some like sun or shade, or wet conditions so you'll have to look up "native sedges for shade in raleigh NC" For example, depending on your city
In winter I fill my garden wagon with forest soil and dump it out in piles and stuff grass clippings and chopped leaves between them in the narrow drainage areas I leave to be able to walk through them. I make rows with some and beds under my trellis frame for various things depending on time of year. It`s just a huge experiment right now and this fall/winter I hope to get rutabagas, turnips, beets, carrots, radishes and some potatoes. I wish there were no power lines near the cursed pine trees shading my winter garden and yard. It ruined a lot of my plans for growing more food and using solar power for part of my heating.
This was very inciteful. May I just ask your opinion on weed sheets. I am doing a ground level bed with some lupins and hostas. Should I do a weed sheet to stop weeds coming up or go with mulch for the first year or 2? Does the mulch break down? If I'm going to do this flower bed I want to do it right first time. I'm in Ireland zone 9-10. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
This is an ongoing problem for a lot of us. I use a half moon shaped edger and create a natural edge like in the video. The grass tries to grow in during the year but if I trench it really well a couple times a season, that really aggressive grass doesn't creep in. If you have something else like a quackgrass infestation, I've controlled it with diligent pulling. But there are some gardens where I had to start the area over because there was so much quackgrass, there was no way to save it but to herbicide and start the area over. Sadly I have an empty piece of garden where I had sprayed bindweed and it needs to be rebuilt. Sometimes it is necessary. Good luck!
I want to put a mulch walkway through my front lawn that leads to my side yard gate. Trying to get rid of lawn. Less watering. Any suggestions? I like this video. Thank you
So I didn’t mulch this year and raked out all the old mulch because the soil under is a nice black and the mulch was just always getting in my driveway and looking messy. Anyway, so many weeds now. Thinking of doing rock instead of mulch but tiny beds I did rock in so far still get weeds too. I guess it’s inevitable. My question is what’s the safest most effective solution to killing weeds once rock is on top? Im scared of round up but are other brands ok?
What about putting stepping stones on the side of the house so you have even less mulch to walk on and the bottom of your shoes stay clean! They are very inexpensive and easy to install in quick set cement.
I don't mulch at all. I underplant most things with sweet alyssum. Mulch gets in the way of seeds. Plus, the way plant and soil prices have gone through the roof I don't need to spend more on mulch.
This depends on geography. To me, mulching goes hand in hand with weeding. We're in Middle Tn, the 4th rainiest area in the nation. Each year in my gardens (I have 5) there are literally thousands of tiny oak, walnut, elm, etc sprigs that grow before anything else. You can't ignore them - they become trees. So you pull and cover, pull and cover, pull and cover for a month. Finally, about June, it ends but until then you CAN'T just let it go and wait for coverage. This year I used cardboard over large areas but still the number of tiny trees was incredible. Wish I could just wait until thick plants prevented weeds.
I hear you. I'm not convinced that mulch helps with tree weeds? They seem to come right through. I pulled a ton of siberian elm today 😣 You guys have a ton of weed and pest pressure that we do not have in the north.
@@lisalikesplants On the good side, they grow like crazy. In the past two weeks we have alternated rain and 80+ degrees. I plant on the 80 day with fertilizer and the stuff seems to explode. Today I dug up and transplanted almost 50 blanket flowers that had self seeded. Like your channel a lot!
I use my grass clippings while green around my garden and fruit trees because I`m building soil but I`m on a rural lot and don`t care what it looks like. I just want food and rich soil.
I've never been a fan of landscape mulch. Especially black mulch. If you're in a climate with long hot summers black landscape mulch is one of the worst things you can put down. It heats up the ground, inturn heating up plant roots and the plants themselves leading to stress and other problems. The absolute best thing you can use is leafy matter. When trees start shedding their leaves and plants have gone dormant blow, rake all those leaves into your beds, around your trees and such. Not only does this cover the ground you are creating a microclimate and living soil. This leads to healthy plants no need for fertilizers and other chemicals to fight diseases. Plus no weeds. Landscape cloth is just as horrible.
What kind of mulch are you using? It looks awesome! Im using what I have and that is leaves, hay and woodchips. It looks messy, but who cares! Still if I can find a way to create mulch like yours, that would be great!
Most of the beds have leaves and stuff I've chopped from our grasses and stems, but the new bed behind me in the video is just shredded hardwood. I don't like it shredded too finely because it breaks down quick. I just get it delivered locally and my neighbor and I went in on this pile.
While I love the dense planting, my wife hates it. She has a fear of snakes and mice. You have some great ideas, maybe I could implement some of them in the areas that I want to be “my” space! Lol
My husband loves mulch…but I’m the gardener, he doesn’. I find it doesn’t stop weeds but hides the dirt so in Spring I’m weeding anyway and searching under piles of mulch to find dirt to plant new perennials and annuals in!!!
I have some shredded hardwood that I'm using in new beds and at the edging and for the path. It looks dark because it's slightly composted, but it's not dyed.
I'm trying to make a native garden.. but that doesn't mean I'm getting rid of all the weeds. Because I'm basically allowing weeds as long as they're native.
In the UK we don't leave gaps inbetween plants (bar the planting space for growth recomended) We just let plants grow into each other. I wonder why Americans started leaving massive spaces around each plant and mulching so much?
For anyone who is going to mulch, highly recommend not using black mulch (or dyed mulches in general). Black mulch is made from carbon black dye, which uses an extreme amount of energy (1300 Celsius) to heat up coal tar/petroleum byproducts and is thought to be carcinogenic/negative organ effects
That's a really good thing to think about! Here in the Midwest we mulch up to the foundation of the home. I assume in a fire risk area rocks would be much safer as a buffer instead of using shredded hardwood at all near the home.
@@lisalikesplants I don’t know about other parts of the country, but here in California (where most of the houses are wood frame construction) applying wood-based mulch near the house’s foundation is also a really good way to create termite problems. I generally keep all of the areas close to my house mulch free. That being said, in our hot and dry climate, mulch is critical to preserving soil moisture. Weed suppression is just an added bonus.
While I see what you are saying..... I strongly disagree. It seems you are using a horticultural mulch, as opposed to tree mulch. I do permaculture food forests, densely packed gardens of food..... and I still use mulch, not to stop weeds but to feed the soil. We did a test with a neighbour a few months ago when it was summer here in Australia, I have 10 times the worm density of my neighbours garden, and it's densely packed like yours but he doesn't mulch. I mean, I get it, but when the only jobs I do is prune and mulch, it's not so big of a deal. At the moment I am trialling an Aussie native called Dichondra as a living mulch, and when I come to mulch leave small pockets for it to spread again.
On the contrary, mulching an acre sounds like a lot of work! It really depends on what you have. Many people have large areas where they manage native plant gardens instead of grass. Plants fill in and get big and cover the ground. It sounds hard to spread 15 yards of mulch regularly. If it seems too expensive to have large gardens, seed mixes can be a wonderful alternative. I'll try to show some pictures of larger yards full of plants. ☺️
Mulch is the most important thing you can do to support soil health. It mimics the natural process of soil formation that should dominant the forest ecosystems across north America. Do not follow this, it is not based on science.
What if you restore your land to forest and prairie? Nature doesn't need us to build soil, that's for humans, our veggie gardens and agriculture. Native plants don't need mulch, indigenous people did not mulch the forest. They left the leaves and burned the prairie and savannah and the plants thrived.
@@lisalikesplants mulching is just as importantant to grassland ecosystems - the type of mulch should be tuned to the particular biome. A prarie ecosystem should have less tree wood and more ground up stems and leaves. The more you can provide plant material to sacrobes in the soil, the better. Ultimately, if you focus on building your soil at the surface, nature does the rest. Ideally, you want to move away from fertilizer and pesticides altogether, mainly because of downstream effects (people argue about the impact on their plants and of course they are beneficial to "their plants" - its the rivers and oceans that become toxic waste dumps). If you mimic nature in your approach, eventually you won't need any of that stuff and your garden will balance itself out. Our knowledge of soil is very limited - none of our science has looked at what's happening beyond 2 ft down for obvious practical reasons, but most of whats happening with carbon entrainment is happening much deeper and involves more different microbes then there is even time on earth to count. Just like when the gut dr says the high level take away is to feed your gut 30 different plants a week and it optimizes itself, mulch your soil and it optimizes itself.
Indigenous people did mulch actually - they burned the forest every year, which is a form of mulching, just fyi. Nature does mulch. Mulch is broken down wood into small easily decomposed pieces. I think your understanding of mulch has been distorted by people who think it's about moisture control or something like that. If you have a functioning forest or prarie ecosystem, the annual debris accumulation is mulch. Mulching is the foundation of soil health according to every actual published scientific paper on the topic.
I’m new to zone 7b, and a fixer house on 6 acres with NO garden beds, just “grass” and weeds right up to the house. I learned about the Seed Bank the hard way … 3rd year in, I have become the mulch queen! Your channel has changed my way of gardening with dense planting, filler grasses, and low disturbance methods. I will be so happy to hand off my mulch crown and have thick and thriving garden beds ❤️
Yes early on we really rely on that much! I'm glad you're finding the videos helpful! 🌱🌱🌱
I am working on mulching my entire lawn in the next year as a short term solution before I get the energy to plant the native plants, ground covers, perennials, and vegetables I want.
This year the project will be mass planting blue flax and rudbeckia hirta in one area.
Baby steps.
😬Am also dealing with creeping bellflower. I...just want to bury it all.
Jhelum hi jķpp pop p John llll K ľ
"Just wait a few weeks..." (?)
You almost sold me on leaving this video... Until I glanced down to this previewed comment.
Thx Karen! 😊
It’s nice to know that the things I did because I was too lazy to mulch were the right choices all along. :D
So happy to have found a channel for gardening with native plants!
You're in the right place!
For native perennials that are just getting established, i mulch around them with a thick layer of grass clippings/fall leaves.
Great idea, I'll bet they appreciate the leaf mulch! 🌱🌱🌱
Hello there I am so happy to hear this message it's about time somebody addressed this I've been a landscape designer for much of my life and it's been almost impossible to persuade people about this over mulching thing in the garden that I do I use trenching as a way to keep the grass out of the gardens and it works very well I used to mulch in those trenches but then found but it's just as easy to drag a pointed hole around the trench a couple of times in the season to keep it open I think it looks nicer and is a healthier way to have a garden no matter where I buy my mulch I wonder about the chemicals in it thank you again and God bless you I'll look at your posts from now on thank you
Thank you so much! Yes! Let's liberate everyone from the tyranny of ANNUAL mulching 😂🌱🌱🌱
What is a pointed hole?
Thank you! I wondered why after putting in a new plant where all the weeds came from. No grass for me. No more kids - no more grass. My front yard is all river rock with many plants. My backyard is beds all the way around with a 3' stone walkway in the middle. I use pine bark in the back, but love your idea of planting closer and no mulch.
I was out planting early, in the light rain, wondering if I had finally lost my mind. I came in looking for warmth and inspiration. And I found it! Thanks for showing how planting densely is worth it...eventually.
Thank you so much! It is totally worth it but yes. It takes a while to fill in, I definitely mulch the first and second year, and then I expand the garden and start again😂🌱🌱🌱
One thing to consider is to not leave any bare soil, because doing so can expose soil biome to hot, drying sun, which can kill beneficial microbes, insects, etc. soil life benefits from mulch. So while waiting for plants to grow close together, keep the soil covered and protected with some kind of mulch.
Exactly! It's great for new gardens. Thanks for watching! 🌱🌱🌱
Mulch, leaf litter, compost are what I use to protect bare ground over winter and spring. It mostly cuts down on commercial fertilizers. I live in zone 9B, semi-tropical.
Love all the native plants!
In 9B deep south even with dense planting I still use mulch (gathered, not purchased) to conserve water and protect soil better in our high heat. It also breaks down nicely and feeds the micorhizae.
@TexMarque same here. I'm zone 9a. I swear by leafy matter. The absolute best mulch there is. If I don't have enough my second fav is hay. I know, I know people freak out about hay. But if you keep it thick it won't seed. It keeps the soil cool and composts as fast as leaves do.
Such a good video. This is a down to earth version of the piet oudolf garden style - have your perennials interact with each other, use grasses and sedges in defined clusters to create an order and act as green mulch, see the garden in all seasons - especially the seasons in which the flowers decline and leave beautiful skeletons. I love your videos Lisa - you are doing such a service to show people what realistic gardening looks like for us northern prairie folk.
Thanks so much! 🌱🌱🌱
I stopped 25 years ago...I cut and drop and leave all leaves.....great soil....great rare seedlings show.
Fianlly!!! I have been looking at videos but they were never about plants in Northern Illinois. My ears perked up when you mentioned the Morton Arboretum! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expierence.
Your gardens are beautiful and inspiring. I have one garden bed to the point of "Where do I put the mulch?" Looking forward to more maturing to that point. 🌱🙏 I appreciate your perspective and insights. Thank you for creating these videos.
Than you so much! 🌱🌱🌱
I have been leaf mulching for years it definitely gives you something better to look at before my perennials come in and it’s great about controlling the weeds
Love the idea of adding sedges
I’ve even thought of doing some cover crops where I have more annuals
Hey wonderful video! One comment - I think what you identified as "Jacobs Ladder" at 6:45 is actually a cultivar of native Woodland Phlox! Jacobs ladder flowers look more similar to columbines or tiny hibiscus flowers with large stamens, whereas woodland phlox has bigger gaps between the petals, and no visible stamen! Further, woodland phlox is easily identified with the dual symmetrical petals at the base of the flower stem, which this definitely has.
Great video!
Whoops! That was definitely a late night editing mistake 😂 yes it is woodland phlox. Glad we have someone here that knows so much about woodland plant identification! Thank you! ☺️🌱🌱🌱
Great video! I wish everyone would label their plants in their videos the way you do.
Love the idea! I'm trying to learn the right plant types that are low maintenance. Your garden looks amazing!
Glad to hear it, thank you so much! 🌱🌱🌱
I loved the moisture retention, because I’m in Wyoming where it’s incredibly dry, but I battle bugs so much worse I’ve given up.
Amen! One of my PA Sedge isn't doing too well, and that makes me sad. The others, though, are looking very nice and I think they'll survive their first year in the ground here. Another good cover plant is native strawberry. That stuff will weave its way through all the nooks and crannies that the other plants can't quite manage. In my region, it's evergreen or semi-evergreen, so you get a decent look to the bed even when all the other plants are napping.
So true! Native strawberry is a tough plant!🌱🌱🌱
Been absolutely loving your content. Keep it up! You're delivering so much value
Thank you so much, that means a lot! 🌱🌱🌱
planting more plants close together helps, i think it also helps planting bigger and agressive plants in the right situation to help fill things out and crowd out weeds and grass. Grass is growing right through my 6 inch ground cover (creeping phlox, carnation, selfheal) but they are more easily crowded out by my shrubs, yarrow, bee balm, roses, flax, etc.
Such a great video with good information. Thank you!
Good thing I want a cottage garden! Thanks for showing this side of the process :) :)
Greeting's from Ireland, I haven't mulched my beds in three years and the flowers are up and flying. Every March I used to put a hand full of organic fish blood and bone meal around each plant and then mulch the beds with homemade compost. I don't think flowers need a lot to grow but I will mulch and fertilise next March.
Awesome! I'll bet they are starting to grow fast right now! 🌱🌱🌱
Brilliantly done, love it! The mulch beds with only three random shrubs are definitely lonely! 😂 And packing with plants gives more opportunity for more plant diversity and diversity of bloom times, as you’re showing. Your garden definitely proves a native garden doesn’t have to be a messy garden! 💓
I have a front yard cottage garden, have had it for years, and I've always had a huge weed problem. I always felt so guilty about the fact I love plants and have so many. I kept thinking, I should take plants out so I can weed more easily. Anyway, now I realize that my problem wasn't that I had too many plants; I had too few! The past couple of years, my perennials have grown even more, and I now have plants right next to each other, no need for mulch. (I still do use mulch between the rocks and natural lawn edge.) I am not at all a fan of the "plant museum" look, with plants dotted around in a sea of mulch, which you described in this video. So glad I stumbled upon this video today. I'm going to check out more...
Thanks so much! I'm glad this some worked out for you!
I love my mulch path, it works great and is easy to maintain.
So easy! Thanks for watching 🌱🌱🌱
I love your content! I started a new full sun garden that has boulders. This is the same premise that I have! I am packing in a variety of drought tolerant plants, grasses, and seedums (between the boulders). My goal is to not to be able to see the base of my plants.
That's going to look awesome! 🌱🌱🌱
Great selection of perennials and natives!
Not needing mulch is such a flex! Today I am grumpily staring at the chipdrop woodchip pile I have to carry in buckets up a steep slope to build the soil and trying not to make eye contact with my neighbors, lol. But I am assured that after doing this for a few years, I'll have lush green on the hillside.
The hard work will be worth it! Stabilize that hillside! 🌱🌱🌱
did chip drop twice - am in hot central texas and my native (and non-native culinary herbs/medicinal herbs) are just fine without water -- the fig and pomegranate I planted are doing great. Mulch is life (also for termites so good to have a termite service to protect your house!)
I am just done with my first dump of chipdrop. took 4 months to mulch ...
Native grasses will keep erosion down, plant some now for years of enjoyment later!!
Great video BUT it depends on location. Here in Middle TN someone measured the temperature of the ground with and without mulch and the difference was 40 degrees!!! Mulching is as much for temperature as weed control. (Since 1980 we've gone from 6A to 7B.) This year I covered my shrub and tree "gardens" with rock - extremely satisfied. After 20 years I have over 50 kinds of perennial and with annuals have finally learned to plant bunches - not single, lonely stems. The more the merrier.
Mulch isn’t just for weeds though, it’s a great little ecosystem that continually helps improve your soil. I think you were eluding to that with agriculture but in some areas where our soil isn’t all that great mulching is super important.
It's true, if you are growing things like roses or some annuals for example, they may not like rocks and clay, and it may have to be amended and conditioned for them to thrive to their fullest potential.
Another snappy video! Being May can you do a video or do you have experience with the chelsea chop for natives? Just learning about this want to avoid the flop of the leggy plants last year.
I am going to chop asters very soon and my red bee balm. Aster will get another chop in early July! Will try to mention it in an upcoming video! Thanks! 🌱🌱🌱
Woah! It really fills out later in the year!
Thanks notoots!
I love dandelions. They fix calcium into the soil.
And they're just inoffensive in general. They are also edible & nutritious.
I love your channel! It is so informative and entertaining to watch! Thank you for sharing!❤️🙏
Thank you so much! 🌱🌱🌱
How do we keep the grass out of the creeping phlox? Grass has destroyed my native and pollinators beds.
I feel your pain! Grass is constantly trying to get into my native beds. I use a natural edge and it's a constant battle. One thing to check is what kind of grass you have, as bermuda is going to behave differently than fescue. I found out a lot of the grass I had had seeded in and I was able to pull it easily, but it depends on the species, hope this helps! 🌱🌱🌱
Rhizomes will seek the cover of the phlox, which preserves water in the soil. The best thing is to religiously edge the lawn every year with a hand edger to break off the rhizomes and pull them away from the groundcover. It may also require you to dig up the phlox after it is done flowering, clean up all of the grass rhizomes and roots, divide it and replant it for next spring's blossoms.
GREAT and very helpful video. What do you think about using cardboard first before (under) the mulch you do place down?
So much great information! Your channel is awesome and your garden is beautiful! Two green thumbs up!
Thank you so much! 🌱🌱🌱
you had me at 0:58 lol I absolutely love this channel - subscribed!
Thanks! 😂
I don't use mulch myself but use shrimp compost instead. I found mulch to attract snails and earwigs into my garden. And mulch looks messy!
@Bea768- I too have increased my use of shrimp compost, spring and fall. This spring my soil is so much healthier with all the worms, etc.. I also noticed huge increase of slugs, earwigs and large black ants when using mulch. I know somewhere that the ecological explanation says that beneficial insects will balance everything out(?) but in the meantime they are destroying my plants. 😢🇨🇦
I started using g&b brand soil conditioner as mulch in the spring and it's great! Instead of hard lumpy components, it's very fine, but it's definitely not soil. It decomposes wonderfully in the pacific northwest winter, but also protects the soil in the summer.
There's only one place near me that sells it, and it's a little $$, but my garden is fairly small, and the joy it brings me is so large, so i make the investment.
It's also great for grass seed in an area with a dog. The grass still grows, and the new housing develpment soil gets better every year.
And last, in the winter, it helps control the mud in the areas where the dog did destroy with her big paws and claws 😊
I started gardening for food with vegetables and such, and over the years have upgraded to trees and many other plants. And, Im a professional gardener now, and I personally have NEVER really recommended mulch, and I dont use it myself. Pull tall weeds, let low lying plants grow as a living mulch, IMO, this is the by and far superior method. In my experience, mulch is just the perfect medium for new weeds and other unwanted plants to root in, essentially doing absolutely nothing its supposed to.
I definitely mulched my bed this year... why? It's a brand new bed and the plants won't be here for another week! I figure, slow down the seed bank and add some organic material while I wait. Oh and I am so jealous! I have only one monarda in the back veggie garden and that is it for native plants. SOON, very soon!
Smart thinking. When our plants are small those weeds are way faster! 😂
Yes. I mulch for soil health, so yeah, I mulched all my flowerbeds last year because they needed it, but longterm I'm looking at creating an ecosystem to keep the beds full all year round. If you have healthy plants the soil doesn't need amendments.
What a lovely and joyfull video. I love your point of view. ❤
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it! 🌱🌱🌱
Excellent presentation.
New subscriber! Glad you showed up in my feed! You are so informative and to the point! Thank you! 😊❤
Glad the video was helpful! Thank you so much! 🌱🌱🌱
Thanks for the guerilla labeling of plant names throughout the video. Helps to connect plant to growth habit / context.
Rosy Sedge, why are you so cute?!
Thanks for noticing! We really need more examples of how the plants really look in the garden. 🌱🌱🌱
Beautiful garden! And great video - Thank you for sharing New Subscriber 🌻🌻🌻
Fantastic - a new way of thinking for me. Love it.
Thanks for watching!🌱🌱🌱
This is a fantastic. Liked & Subscribed! Thanks, YT algorithm.
Thank you so much! 🌱🌱🌱
This makes sense. What are the deer resistant plants the can be used for this purpose.
Deer are tricky, but in general they don't like to eat sedges! It would depend on your location which sedges to choose. And some like sun or shade, or wet conditions so you'll have to look up "native sedges for shade in raleigh NC" For example, depending on your city
thank you so much for this, I am hooked, subbed immediately🎉🎉❤💚❤
I heard someone refer to wide plant spacing as "funeral home landscaping!" I thought that was brilliant!
Oh my god 😂
I call it the "plant museum" look, where you walk a bit to view each plant as you would a sculpture in a museum, haha!
In winter I fill my garden wagon with forest soil and dump it out in piles and stuff grass clippings and chopped leaves between them in the narrow drainage areas I leave to be able to walk through them. I make rows with some and beds under my trellis frame for various things depending on time of year. It`s just a huge experiment right now and this fall/winter I hope to get rutabagas, turnips, beets, carrots, radishes and some potatoes. I wish there were no power lines near the cursed pine trees shading my winter garden and yard. It ruined a lot of my plans for growing more food and using solar power for part of my heating.
Very helpful, thank you!
Is mulch pad made of all rubber? Can you link one that you recommend? The ones I found aren’t ve😢wide.
Makes total sense. This fall is my perennial gardens 2 year anniversary- looking forward to having one less task
That's great! My beds are older but the edges are all new because i keep bumping them out a little at a time! 😂🌱🌱🌱
This was very inciteful. May I just ask your opinion on weed sheets. I am doing a ground level bed with some lupins and hostas. Should I do a weed sheet to stop weeds coming up or go with mulch for the first year or 2? Does the mulch break down? If I'm going to do this flower bed I want to do it right first time. I'm in Ireland zone 9-10. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
My biggest problem in gardening is invasive lawn grass getting in between my plants. Any suggestions?
This is an ongoing problem for a lot of us. I use a half moon shaped edger and create a natural edge like in the video. The grass tries to grow in during the year but if I trench it really well a couple times a season, that really aggressive grass doesn't creep in.
If you have something else like a quackgrass infestation, I've controlled it with diligent pulling. But there are some gardens where I had to start the area over because there was so much quackgrass, there was no way to save it but to herbicide and start the area over.
Sadly I have an empty piece of garden where I had sprayed bindweed and it needs to be rebuilt. Sometimes it is necessary. Good luck!
I want to put a mulch walkway through my front lawn that leads to my side yard gate. Trying to get rid of lawn. Less watering. Any suggestions? I like this video. Thank you
Thanks, just make sure you put down enough mulch to keep the grass and weeds out. Good luck!
So I didn’t mulch this year and raked out all the old mulch because the soil under is a nice black and the mulch was just always getting in my driveway and looking messy. Anyway, so many weeds now. Thinking of doing rock instead of mulch but tiny beds I did rock in so far still get weeds too. I guess it’s inevitable. My question is what’s the safest most effective solution to killing weeds once rock is on top? Im scared of round up but are other brands ok?
The way you describe this is incredible ❤
Thank you so much! 🌱🌱🌱
I understand exactly 💯 but I'm still going to mulch in the front lol
That's fair! 😂🌱🌱🌱
What about putting stepping stones on the side of the house so you have even less mulch to walk on and the bottom of your shoes stay clean! They are very inexpensive and easy to install in quick set cement.
That's a great idea
I don't mulch at all. I underplant most things with sweet alyssum. Mulch gets in the way of seeds. Plus, the way plant and soil prices have gone through the roof I don't need to spend more on mulch.
I bet it also looks wonderful when they bloom. I am also stopping mulching, thanks for the idea
Your garden is 🔥
I love that you said that you may need to use mulch when it comes to new beds or new plantings... But the comments 😂
😅 🌱🌱🌱
This depends on geography. To me, mulching goes hand in hand with weeding. We're in Middle Tn, the 4th rainiest area in the nation. Each year in my gardens (I have 5) there are literally thousands of tiny oak, walnut, elm, etc sprigs that grow before anything else. You can't ignore them - they become trees. So you pull and cover, pull and cover, pull and cover for a month. Finally, about June, it ends but until then you CAN'T just let it go and wait for coverage.
This year I used cardboard over large areas but still the number of tiny trees was incredible. Wish I could just wait until thick plants prevented weeds.
I hear you. I'm not convinced that mulch helps with tree weeds? They seem to come right through. I pulled a ton of siberian elm today 😣 You guys have a ton of weed and pest pressure that we do not have in the north.
@@lisalikesplants On the good side, they grow like crazy. In the past two weeks we have alternated rain and 80+ degrees. I plant on the 80 day with fertilizer and the stuff seems to explode. Today I dug up and transplanted almost 50 blanket flowers that had self seeded. Like your channel a lot!
Hi! Fellow.5b here! Ive been searching for prairie dropseed everywhere! If you are in chicago, can you share your source??????😮
My website has a list of local native plant sources! lisalikesplants dot com. Let me know if it's still working... 😅🌱🌱🌱
Beautiful garden Beautiful lady 😊
I use my grass clippings while green around my garden and fruit trees because I`m building soil but I`m on a rural lot and don`t care what it looks like. I just want food and rich soil.
I've never been a fan of landscape mulch. Especially black mulch. If you're in a climate with long hot summers black landscape mulch is one of the worst things you can put down. It heats up the ground, inturn heating up plant roots and the plants themselves leading to stress and other problems. The absolute best thing you can use is leafy matter. When trees start shedding their leaves and plants have gone dormant blow, rake all those leaves into your beds, around your trees and such. Not only does this cover the ground you are creating a microclimate and living soil. This leads to healthy plants no need for fertilizers and other chemicals to fight diseases. Plus no weeds. Landscape cloth is just as horrible.
What kind of mulch are you using? It looks awesome!
Im using what I have and that is leaves, hay and woodchips. It looks messy, but who cares! Still if I can find a way to create mulch like yours, that would be great!
Most of the beds have leaves and stuff I've chopped from our grasses and stems, but the new bed behind me in the video is just shredded hardwood. I don't like it shredded too finely because it breaks down quick. I just get it delivered locally and my neighbor and I went in on this pile.
@@lisalikesplants , thank you!
While I love the dense planting, my wife hates it. She has a fear of snakes and mice. You have some great ideas, maybe I could implement some of them in the areas that I want to be “my” space! Lol
Great video!!
Thanks so much!
My problem is that I can't stop rearranging my gardens 🤦♀️ Maybe someday I'll be able to let them be long enough for things to properly fill in 😂
Relatable 😂🌱🌱🌱
It’s like rearranging the rooms in your house, sometimes you get bored and want a change. Not that *I* have ever done that 😉
I learned something! Thsnk you!
My husband loves mulch…but I’m the gardener, he doesn’. I find it doesn’t stop weeds but hides the dirt so in Spring I’m weeding anyway and searching under piles of mulch to find dirt to plant new perennials and annuals in!!!
Thanks for a great video😁
What are you using for mulch? It looks like compost…..
I have some shredded hardwood that I'm using in new beds and at the edging and for the path. It looks dark because it's slightly composted, but it's not dyed.
That’ll stick! The seed bank!
I'm trying to make a native garden.. but that doesn't mean I'm getting rid of all the weeds. Because I'm basically allowing weeds as long as they're native.
So happy you're starting to garden with natives! It's so rewarding! 🌱🌱🌱
In the UK we don't leave gaps inbetween plants (bar the planting space for growth recomended) We just let plants grow into each other. I wonder why Americans started leaving massive spaces around each plant and mulching so much?
No idea 😂
For anyone who is going to mulch, highly recommend not using black mulch (or dyed mulches in general). Black mulch is made from carbon black dye, which uses an extreme amount of energy (1300 Celsius) to heat up coal tar/petroleum byproducts and is thought to be carcinogenic/negative organ effects
Well dang I came here hoping to get around mulching my veggie garden but alas no such luck 😂
Haha yup that's precious soil we need to protect! Thanks for watching! 🌱🌱🌱
Are you in the Denver area?
Illinois
My Nana used to say.." Mother nature is a prude, she likes to be covered up! and shell do it with weeds if you don't cover her up!"
This is such a true statement. Your nana knew what's up! 🌱❤️🌱
In Arizona, no mulch would mean get your veggies at the store.
Yes I definitely mentioned this is not for the veggie garden
Maybe one of the reasons plants are spaced a distance is they are in a fire zone. This is a real issue in California .
That's a really good thing to think about! Here in the Midwest we mulch up to the foundation of the home. I assume in a fire risk area rocks would be much safer as a buffer instead of using shredded hardwood at all near the home.
@@lisalikesplants I don’t know about other parts of the country, but here in California (where most of the houses are wood frame construction) applying wood-based mulch near the house’s foundation is also a really good way to create termite problems. I generally keep all of the areas close to my house mulch free. That being said, in our hot and dry climate, mulch is critical to preserving soil moisture. Weed suppression is just an added bonus.
All landsscapers do tree volcanoes, I don"t get it ? Who taught them to mulch that way ?🤔
No idea😣
Mulch FEEDS the soil. Triple shredded hardwood MULCH.
Mulch with compost.
While I see what you are saying..... I strongly disagree. It seems you are using a horticultural mulch, as opposed to tree mulch. I do permaculture food forests, densely packed gardens of food..... and I still use mulch, not to stop weeds but to feed the soil. We did a test with a neighbour a few months ago when it was summer here in Australia, I have 10 times the worm density of my neighbours garden, and it's densely packed like yours but he doesn't mulch.
I mean, I get it, but when the only jobs I do is prune and mulch, it's not so big of a deal.
At the moment I am trialling an Aussie native called Dichondra as a living mulch, and when I come to mulch leave small pockets for it to spread again.
Your idea is good for a small yard. But we just can’t see how your idea can apply to a large yard, such as an acre.
On the contrary, mulching an acre sounds like a lot of work! It really depends on what you have. Many people have large areas where they manage native plant gardens instead of grass. Plants fill in and get big and cover the ground. It sounds hard to spread 15 yards of mulch regularly.
If it seems too expensive to have large gardens, seed mixes can be a wonderful alternative.
I'll try to show some pictures of larger yards full of plants. ☺️
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100%🎉
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I don’t think anyone is worried about how to mulch perennials that are years old lol
No mulch = jungle
Mulch is the most important thing you can do to support soil health. It mimics the natural process of soil formation that should dominant the forest ecosystems across north America. Do not follow this, it is not based on science.
What if you restore your land to forest and prairie? Nature doesn't need us to build soil, that's for humans, our veggie gardens and agriculture. Native plants don't need mulch, indigenous people did not mulch the forest. They left the leaves and burned the prairie and savannah and the plants thrived.
@@lisalikesplants mulching is just as importantant to grassland ecosystems - the type of mulch should be tuned to the particular biome. A prarie ecosystem should have less tree wood and more ground up stems and leaves. The more you can provide plant material to sacrobes in the soil, the better. Ultimately, if you focus on building your soil at the surface, nature does the rest. Ideally, you want to move away from fertilizer and pesticides altogether, mainly because of downstream effects (people argue about the impact on their plants and of course they are beneficial to "their plants" - its the rivers and oceans that become toxic waste dumps). If you mimic nature in your approach, eventually you won't need any of that stuff and your garden will balance itself out. Our knowledge of soil is very limited - none of our science has looked at what's happening beyond 2 ft down for obvious practical reasons, but most of whats happening with carbon entrainment is happening much deeper and involves more different microbes then there is even time on earth to count. Just like when the gut dr says the high level take away is to feed your gut 30 different plants a week and it optimizes itself, mulch your soil and it optimizes itself.
Indigenous people did mulch actually - they burned the forest every year, which is a form of mulching, just fyi. Nature does mulch. Mulch is broken down wood into small easily decomposed pieces. I think your understanding of mulch has been distorted by people who think it's about moisture control or something like that. If you have a functioning forest or prarie ecosystem, the annual debris accumulation is mulch. Mulching is the foundation of soil health according to every actual published scientific paper on the topic.