Definitely I mulch. If I didn't mulch I wouldn't be able to have the flowerbeds and the varieties of perennials I have in my yard.

I have used various mulches over the years. I started with the bark mulch available for free years ago from the tree service companies (got a few truck loads). Then they started charging for the load (got 2 loads at $100 each), then too many people wanted a load (the last time I wanted a load I didn't even get one that whole summer).

Bark mulch...slugs love it. Looks great. Smells wonderful after a rain. Easy to apply. But it breaks down in about 3-4 years and you will need to reapply, which, by the way, in my yard is a huge job.

Since I couldn't get bark mulch anymore, we were able to get a semi load of flax shives. They were giving it away for free. I hunted all over for information on using flax shives for mulch on flowerbeds and couldn't find any information. I know that farmers use it in their feed lots for the cattle to walk on. I know others who use flax straw (which will still have the flax seeds in it and of course, will sprout and flower) in their shelterbelt to keep down the weeds.

But until I saw some flax shives on the paths at the Lily Nook in Neepawa did I realize that it would probably make a great mulch for my flowerbeds. So, now, as the bark mulch desinigrates (sp?) I am redoing all the beds. I am placing about 1" of flax on the flowerbed which will compact to about 1/2". It works great! I is also easy to remove if I need to plant a new plant in the flowerbed, as the flax shives are small pieces that compact well, making a smooth surface that is peelable. I have had no signs of snail or slugs on the areas mulched with flax. I am thinking that they wouldn't like to crawl along the flax since it is like little 1/4- 1/2" pieces of 'slivers', not smooth like wood would be. Flax shive mulch also looks great.

All my little sempervivums were hidden in the wood chip mulch, whereas they show up great in the flax shives. The only problem is when I was trying to take a picture of Blueberry Tart SDB iris. The flower was hard to distinguish from the flax shives.

I do not mulch the majority of the vegetable garden though. We have a walk behind tiller that works great. I did lay flax down between my garlic that I planted last fall. Looks good and is keeping the annual weeds away.

Flax also is easy to pick up if I wish to if redoing an area. Last year I flaxed all the pots that I planted my annuals in. This year I pllled out the dead annuals, 'peeled' off the flax, ammended the soil in the planter, planted it up, reapplied the same flax and watered it well. Flax will just lift as a mat from the surface of the soil.

Since I am only doing a 1" layer I have had no problem with the soil not being able to breathe. I know that because there are still lots of earthworms are still under there. This was a concern that was expressed to me when I first starting to use the flax.

Enough of a story this morning for you??? Think I just wrote a book or something....

Brenda

I use the woodchips from the local arbourist. He lets me know when he has a load of healthy stuff and delivers it. I put down about 10 cubic yards of the stuff last year on my beds (all by hand because the beds were already planted). The price is very reasonable compared to what the garden centers charge even when they sell in bulk. You can see my beds in the link below. You will need to scroll down about half way to see the backyard.

Here is a link that might be useful: Danni's Garden

Free straw, the only parts of my garden that doesn't get mulch is the rock garden, Semps and Irises.

Sharon

It's 'disintegrate' I had to look it up... I couldn't figure out the spelling either. :)

It is mandated to us by the town that we are to mulch our flowerbeds & tree plantings. We are using a mixed bark mulch, it has all sorts of stuff in it, bark peelings, twigs, mostly wood chips and sometimes pieces that sort of remind you of fence posts. This is my first time mulching and I'm wondering why I hadn't done it before (at our old place). It makes such a huge difference in the moisture level of the soil, and I believe it keeps the soil beneath healthier. Also, I can hide my drip irrigation under it!

Brenda, that is good information on the flax mulch. Does the water have any trouble penetrating the flax mat? I'll be watching for slugs in my mulch now.

Sharon, why don't you mulch your Irises? (The semps I understand...)

I mulch with shredded bark mulch. It does an amazing job of keeping the weeds down - and the moisture in. The only thing I am not sure of, is how to add more compost around the plants. Do you peel off the mulch and put underneath? Or spread over top? When I tried to peel back the mulch around my azalea to acidify the soil, I found that the roots were right up into the mulch. Anyone have suggestions?

Janet

No problem with water getting through the flax. And, it keeps the moisture levels up around the plants.

As for wood chips...They would have to be pushed out of the way, then you would add your compost, and then put the wood chips back.

If you were to put landscape fabric down, then wood chips on top, you will find that the roots will grow close to the landscape fabric just as Janet is finding in her beds under the mulch. I am also finding that the perennials have grown enough that the fabric is bulging in some places as the perennial is growing (just as the hosta that I worked with yesterday had grown and the new shoots were all yellow and pushing up the fabric).

I am now in the process of redoing all my perennial beds. I am removing the remaining wood chips, pulling off the landscape fabric, adding Sea Soil around each plant to fertilize it and then placing flax on top instead.

Perennials are plants that don't need a lot of extra fertilizing like annuals do, so, I amend the soil when I plant each perennial. In the past, I have never added any compost to my beds since planting them.

Brenda

Thanks for your input everyone. Brenda, that Sea Soil sounds like interesting stuff. I went to their website and read about it. Here in Ontario the nearest place it's available is Ottawa. I have family there who will be visiting here later this summer.Hopefully they can get me some and bring it north. Any tips on using it?

I use barley straw, and lots of it - about 4 inches thick. I do mulch my veggie garden, along with my fruit garden and all my flowerbeds. It works great to keep weeds down and retain moisture, and the soil gets so nice and easy to work and full of earthworms. I used to have a real problem with my FIL the fisherman, when we shared a yard. I'd come home and find little holes in my flowerbeds where he was sneaking out worms. I get some barley sprouting, but it's easy to pull and I have a whole lot less if the straw is out of the bale for a few weeks and gets rained on - most of the barley sprouts before I use the straw. About the only things I don't mulch at all are the potatoes. Crocuses have a hard time, though. They usually bloom down in the straw and I never find them until after they're done.

Connie

I've been mulching last year and this year with straw, too. Huge difference in the moisture level in my sandy soil and windy yard. The plants are definately happier...and that makes me happy!
One thing I noticed though (and I'm learning as I go...)is that the frost is noticeably slower to come out of the ground in the spring. I guess this could be good or bad, depending on the spring and this spring was so cool that I likely noticed it more. I pulled the mulch back where I had layed it on quite thick around some shrubs and strawberries and a new perennial bed untill the ground had thawed. Does anyone who has been mulching for awhile find this a problem or do you just leave it?

I also find that newly planted seedlings get lost or weak from being crowded by the straw mulch. The straw can be a litle ungainly to move around and handle. I think a way around that would be to keep a nursery bed and let new seedlings get a head start.
I'll keep using straw though because I can get it fairly locally and its relatively cheap.
Good idea Connie, to let it get wet and sprout! I had been keeping mine under cover so it was dry when I apply it...but I think I'm going to try it your way.

I've also started using grass clippings in the veggie garden around some things...peas, lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli. I really like it... I'd like to use it in the perrenial beds becasue its more chopped up and would break down and add to the soil as well, but am a little scared of weed and grass seeds...if I could keep ahead of the lawn it would help :'(

The straw does keep my ground colder, which is usually a good thing in chinook country. We'll often get a few warm days in February/March and things start to warm up and bud out, then they get their buds frozen off the next week. The mulch helps a lot with that - at least the ground is cold. I do till the straw in on the vegetable garden, so the ground warms up faster. I get around straw being too tall because DH has a bale processor - he can blow it on a pile for me, and it's only about 4" long. The rotary combines everyone uses around here tend to break the straw up pretty short too - hard to bale, but nice for mulch. When I used grass clippings, I didn't have much of a problem with grass seeds - they have to be pretty ripe - but I did have a miserable time with dandelions. My grass has a real dandelion issue, and I can't seem to catch up with them, never mind getting ahead.

Connie

Thanks so much everyone. Straw and grass clippings are readily available so that's what I'll start with, layered over newspaper.I have two questions-
1.Connie, is there any particular reason why you don't mulch your potatoes?
2. Can slugs be a problem with all that lovely stuff to hide under in the daytime?

GC, because prolonged wetness on bearded iris rhizomes may produce rot. However, if we have a winter without adequate, reliable snow cover to insulate the ground, newly planted irises may be damaged by extreme cold and heaving. You can mulch newly planted irises late in the fall with several inches of mulch that doesn't compact, such as dry loose straw. Sand is another good cover up mulch for Irises. Make sure though in early spring when it starts to melt to get that straw off.

As for slugs, yes you will see some hiding in the shade areas, find some local frogs and in a couple of years they will control them for you.

Sharon

I don't mulch my potatoes because I hill them in July. I usually till between them and weed them once in June if I get around to it then till again and hill that nice loose soil in early July. After that the potatoes shade the ground and I don't have weed problems.

Connie

Chickadee, just a tip when applying green grass clippings...do it in thin layers and let each layer dry out before adding more. Otherwise it heats up and rots instead. Good luck!

Brenda, do you have a picture of your beds with flax shives you could share? By shives, do you mean the stems?

Another alternative is to use a living mulch. Things like thyme, sedums, lamium, ajuga, etc. I have a whole section that has ajuga as groundcover, and it does a great job of keeping the weeds away.

Here are two pictures of the BOG garden that I took on June 14. I mulched with flax shives last year and have had probably about 10 weeds this year so far. The bed is 22' x 22'.

Another closer picture of the path.

Flax shives are the pieces of the plant stem that is left over after the good stuff is taken out of it by the processing plant.

Brenda

Can you put a ton of it on the bus, Brenda? :>

No, but I can give you some the next time you are in the area, Marcia. :)

Brenda

I'd better make plans to be in the area at some point in time, then! From the amount i'd need, i guess i'd have to be in the area more than once! LOL

Thanks for the photos, Brenda. Ya, I really like how it's all chopped up and if there's any seeds, well, flax is rather pretty anyway! Looks great.

There are no seeds in the flax shives. Flax straw...now that is another story.

Speaking of flax...the farmer sowed the field next to us with flax this year. It should be a very pretty field when it is blooming later this summer!

Brenda

If you live near a mushroom farm, see if you can get some spent mushroom compost. It's makes a lovely dark mulch that breaks down over the year. I put it on in the autumn and it acts like a blanket over the soil. The dark colour means it attracts the sun's heat. It also looks neat. It is a bit alkaline so don't use it around azaleas or rhodies.

I use a combo of grass clippings and straw -because they are free and I can't afford anything perty. I prefer the grass clippings because the blend in with the garden more, whereas the straw can look shiny and yellow for quite some time. The downside I find of grass clippings is that they just sort of disappear...blow away, break down, etc. and you have to replace them quite regularly. But if it's breaking down in the garden, that's a good thing anyway.

But I completely advocate using mulch of some kind. Not does mulching allow me to garden in zones above me, but it allows me to water less, my plants seem happier, the soil erodes less, compacts less, I spend less time weeding...need I go on?!