By Catherine Haug, July 8, 2017
Today’s Daily Inter Lake featured an article, How do you make your own mulch? by Paul Pogue for Angie’s list (1). He breaks it down to 5 steps:
- Choose your mulch source from: leaves, pine or fir needles, yard clippings, bark, and branches or other wood trimmings, straw, shredded newspaper, and compost. pay attention to the season: B yard trimmings and compost are excellent for summer mulch; bark is especially nutrient-rich, and along with pine needles and straw are best for winter. pCat’s note: I save the composted fir needles from my gutters to mulch my raspberry bed; raspberries like a slightly acidic soil and fir needles are acidic.]
- Collect your materials into piles; if using a compost pile, maintain it by keeping it relatively moist. He also advises turning it regularly, but that is a highly debated issue. When it’s ready, it should be humbly and dark brown with an earthy odor. [Cat’s note: See my 2009 posting: What makes your compost tick?]
- Convert the materials: use your lawnmower to cut up a pile of leaves; use a small wood chipper to turn bark, branches and other wood trimmings into tiny pieces.[Cat’s note: shred newspapers with your paper shredder, or tear them into shreds manually.]
- Prepare the ground: remove old mulch to your compost pile. Weed the area carefully (mulch will help existing weeds to grow – just what you don’t want).
- Spread the mulch: generally about 2″ thick works well. Even it out with a rake, leaving a small ‘well’ of shallower mulch around the base of plants.
Read on for more about mulching.
Mulching fruit trees:
Stone mulching around pear tree
In 2008, David Brown of Kalispell published an article in the Daily Inter Lake about mulching, which included stone mulch for fruit trees. See Composting: Yard Waste for my transcription of his article (with his permission). The photo, right, is by David Brown, and used with permission.
List of other articles on mulching and composting, on this site:
- Cocoa Bean Mulch, and Dogs, 2009
- Turning Human Waste into Compost: Humanure, 2010
- What to do with all those leaves: mulch, mold, & compost, 2011
- On Composting, Mulching, Humanure, & Sewage Sludge, 2011
- What is a microbiome and why it is important, 2016
- Composting for Carbon Sequestration, 2016
References:
- Paul Pogue’s article: angieslist.com/articles/how-make-your-own-mulch.htm