I use wood chips in the landscape and a seed blanket in the vegetable garden. The wood chips are down always and if I put in a transplant I move the chips aside and return after watering. The straw seed blanket is always down to ensure the soil doesn't blow away in the wind. I use a soil-warming film from Johnnys for some of the veggies, down briefly in spring.

Dan

compost in all my flower beds shade gardens....no weed mats of any kind in any situation ever..... a whole seperate conversation .....micro bark nuggets preferably aged 1/4-1/2inch screen ponderosa or cedar( which seem to hold their place in wind better than larger nuggets) as well as just being my taste for shrub borders...occaisionally we use biodegrading red films reflecting a 640-660nm wavelength in veggies or cutting flower beds.... particularily in the cucurbits patch and sometimes tomatoes....sometimes pea gravel for ornamental beds.

mulches banned from any of my gardens or professional projects permantly!!!!!!!!!!!

are any dyed bark mulch( and spray colorants) ......any shredded pine mulch....recycled rubber mulch ick ground up petro chemicals ick....volcanic rock any color ick.....white quartzite mulch ick...any compost of unknown origin consisting of primarily herbicide or pesticide laden lawn clippings.

Fergot: I also save all of my ornamental grass clippings. They are covering a couple garlic beds right now.

Dan

I use all kinds of mulch on my beds. Straw, whole tree leaves, shredded tree leaves, grass clippings (that are known to have not been sprayed with anything in the last month), banana peels, wood chips from the city, compost, spent brewery grains and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.

My favorite type of mulch? hmmm, probably wood chips for moisture retention and straw for around strawberries, tomatoes, melons and squash. But I tend to use what I can get and my mulches are usually a mix of several things.

mtny,
I get why you don't want to use dyed bark mulch, rock and the rubber mulches. No shredded pine mulch because of pine beetles? Just curious.
The grounds crew where I work is in the midst of raking all the dropped pine needles and I asked if I could have a few bags of them. They said sure. Do you all see any issues with that?
I'm like gjcore, I use different things, small bark nuggets, shredded cypress, straw.
Last spring I called the city forester in a local town and asked if I could hit the city mulch pile once in a while. As long as I don't take more than a truck load at a time and call before I go, it's fine and free, except for my labor. I did hit a few spots with grubs in them, so I went higher in the pile and dumped what I took home in an out of the way spot in the yard. I plan to start using that this spring. If you have a city forester or parks and recreation department in your area, give them a call and see if they have a mulch pile you can access.

Barb, back when I had the landscape business the GF at the time got a new yard. The wood chips I got from the tree care company had MORELS in there! I did her house and another with the chips and there were some good early-season BBQs.

I'm like Greg and I'll do some kooky mulch but banana peels would have me sleeping in the guest room...

Dan

I know that Springs has a free mulch pile off Fontanero, but other than that, not sure, they removed the one at Memorial and put in a playground, dang kids (lol).

I got brave yesterday and harassed a tree trimming crew!! Asked if they could dump some at my place if they are out that way, hey they were only 20 miles from my house, basically a stones throw!!

I use wood chips on my windblock plantings, leaves on my rhubarb and decorative plantings and straw in the garden beds over winter. Summer it is compost.

Billie

"mulches banned from any of my gardens or professional projects permantly!!!!!!!!!!!

......any shredded pine mulch..."

mtny - like treebarb, I am curious as to why you don't like pine bark mulch. I used to use it because I thought it might add some acidity to my lovely alkaline clay soil, but stopped using it simply because the neighborhood cats seemed to like it as a substitute for kitty litter - talk about "ick!!"

I don't like any of the coloured mulches available, either - I can't think that the dye does anything beneficial to the soil, the plants or the ground water. I don't consider lava rock or white quartz as a mulch - more for "zeroscaping" then "xeriscaping" certainly. Rock just reflects heat back onto the plants, plus retains too much heat to be healthy for the plants, IMHO - and it just doesn't look good, to me. Natural gravel might be good for a cactus bed, but I think that white rock looks awful. :-)

I primarily use natural cedar bark mulch now. I don't use the wood bark nuggets (though I did use one bag that was free) because they take too long to break down in order to add anything to the soil, plus the wind tends to pick them up and fling them. Of course, leaves are also left on my beds for the winter.

I haven't used any wood chips from the city because I worry about what the trees may have died from, or what they may have been sprayed with. (Of course, who knows about the bagged cedar bark mulch you get from nurseries, etc. :p )

Holly

One thing that I don't like about cedar mulch is that some of it comes from recycled roofing material. In principle recycling is a great thing but cedar roofs are often treated with a variety of preservatives.

From what I have seen, and how wet the mulch is when I get it from the city, they are not cutting dead trees. The mulch is made from the trimmings from road projects, maintenance projects and clearing from the utilities.

I have to agree Holly, I do not like the look of the gravel and rocks. Of course I come from AZ where all you see is that junk, everyone thinks it is the ultimate in landscaping, that and concrete, YIKES, lets make the hot hotter!!!
And the less color in the rock (pure white, red etc) the more leaves, trash or even a stray "rock" (from the neighborhood cat) sticks out.

Straw, and leaves, depending on the source can be weedy or carry other stray stuff (chemicals, rocks, beer bottles, snakes [yes I found a snake in a bale of straw, fortunately he was no longer alive]) I suppose its all a matter of chance.

Billie

free from the city for ornamentals.

Dan,
Morels and grubs? Now there's a tasty mix!
Holly, one of my main issues is how mulch blows around here. I've noticed the pine needles don't seem to blow around. They kind of knit together. They take a long time to break down, too.

Billie, I wish I'd seen your face when you found the snake! I was feeding my horses one time and picked up the bale cutters. The cutter felt odd in my hand so I looked down and I had a live garter snake in my hand along with the bale cutters. I promptly flung both into the barn wall. I have a live and let live attitude with most critters, but I was too startled to think. The snake relatively unhurt, but not amused!

treebarb - Since you also participate in the Conifer Forum, you may have seen my mention that I am going to try pine straw and and small pine nuggets as my primary mulches from now on. I see from your post above that you also use pine needles/pine straw to good effect. I was going to ask in this post if folks here in the Rocky Mtn region recommend using pine straw, since it doesn't seem to be readily available in this area, at least commercially. It is also good to know that you haven't had problems with the wind blowing it away, which was one of my concerns.

I have no pine trees in my yard; the neighbor has one but one tree doesn't really produce enough needle drop to allow me to gather up enough mulch for my needs. Where do you get your pine straw? I was going to, reluctantly, order from pinestrawdirect.com - reluctantly because the shipping cost is almost as much as the cost of the bale itself. :-(

gjcore - I had no idea that the "natural shredded cedar bark" could come from recycled cedar roofing material. Obviously, not something that they advertise on the package! I have been using the shredded cedar bark for quite a few years with no obvious ill effects to my plants or to me, but the idea that it may be from chemically treated roofing materials does give me pause!

Anyway, since reading about the benefits of other types of mulch, specifically pine straw, I probably won't be using much cedar bark anymore - what a difference a few days make, since, as you can see from my post on 03/04, I was sure that was the only type of mulch I would be using!

Holly

Holly,
I'm not sure if pine straw and pine needles are the same thing, but I think they are.
My parents had 6 acres near Bailey and I got it from there for years, but they sold the place a couple of years back.
I just got 5 garbage bags full from the grounds crew at my job, but that's all they had. I don't know where you can get it but I'll see what I can find out and let you know.
Someone around here has got to sell it and I'd hate to see you pay shipping on it.

I've really enjoyed your posts on the Conifers forum. Your Dwarf conifers for the Denver area post got the best suggestions I've seen yet, so way to go. Hope you don't mind if I steal a few ideas!
Barb

I'm amused to read how much pine needles are desired for mulch. I live in Black Forest and have battleships worth of pine needles. I rake my backyard 2x a Summer and flower beds constantly and wheelbarrow the needles elsewhere on the property. I don't find them attractive. They're sticky (my cats hate them on their paws) and often contain bits of mistletoe that's impossible to pick out all of. I would, however, be thrilled if someone would like to come and help me rake : ) They're welcome to all they can haul! I prefer cedar bits for my flower beds not only for the look but also for the smell as they warm up in the Summer heat. I prefer straw on my vegetable beds. Just an FYI, there is a slash and mulch program up here in Black Forest which should be starting back up in April and normally goes till the middle of October.

treebarb and oakiris I guess my bias against pine is that I really don't like they way it looks new and how it ages I find the shape of chipped mulch tends to make it more susceptible to movement and looks lesss natural compared to a nice cedar or ponderosa doug fir bark nugget( same objections to shredded cedar mulches too). Obviously we would'nt ever use a pine mulch made of beetle kill on or around susceptible evergreens. On new england projects I have had clients really enthuse about needle mulch. There it is made from pinus strobus(eastern white pine) needles and in its own way makes a nice mulch nowhere near as resinous as the mulch kareng mentions, it does however tend to lower soil pH somewhat. They also have access regionally to nice mulches of sustainably harvested sea grass straw mulch often used for a winter mulch

Barb - pine straw is indeed pine needles. The place I am planning to get it from ships 40 lb bales - awkward and heavy, thus the shipping charge I am sure. According to their site, "Each bale covers approximately 120 square feet at 2.5 inches thick" which is plenty for me, probably for several years, so it really is cost effective. Of course, free would be better, but....If you find anywhere locally that has pine straw available, and it is nice clean stuff, please let me know! Glad you find my novice posts on the Conifer Forum useful; I love conifers, and would really like to get a nice collection of dwarf specimens going, but the expense....There are some wonderfully knowledgeable collectors on that forum and at least we get to see pictures of how it should be done!

kareng_grow - obviously, you don't have the right kind of pine trees there....:p Sorry you hate the stuff, but it seems to be recommended by a lot of people so I would like to try it out. The link below gives reasons why pine straw is a good mulch to use - of course, it is from a place the sells the product so they aren't gong to say it is lousy, but it matches what I have read elsewhere from actual gardeners. Of course, what won me over is their 11th reason - that zoos use it. :-D (In a list titled "Ten ways..." they include 12 reasons - ??).

mtny - thank you for letting us know why you don't like pine bark mulch. I am planning to start using ponderosa pine nuggets as a mulch and I am also concerned about transporting pine beetles along with it; unfortunately, the companies that sell the nuggets don't, obviously, list their sources, and certainly don't state that it is "from pine beetle killed trees." How do you avoid this potential disaster?

Holly

Here is a link that might be useful: Reasons to use pine straw

Whatever I can get. I use the free ground up Christmas trees from the city and also free tons of pine needles I have in my hard for less decorative spots. I do put my grass clippings on the vegetable beds. Also in between the veggie beds (not in) I got this really cool rubber sand for free off Craigs list. It's really neat for that kind of application, because it's not organic so fewer weeds. It looks like dark sand. I hate spending money on gardening, as you can tell. I'm all about the frugal.

For those in Colorado Springs or near abouts...the slash and mulch program in Black Forest opens April 23 for receiving slash and mulch will be available May 14. Sometimes they ask that you bring canned goods for the food pantry but otherwise this is a free service...