Mulch & Other Drought Busting Techniques (buy, live, mold)

[normie]

Greetings from Georgia! I am starting to adjust to my new town, and so far I'm loving it. Drought is, of course, a big concern (even though it's raining today) but they do a good job of educating newcomers like me. What a great idea--let's do the same for newcomers to VA! VA will be having drought conditions this year, so let's start a thread sharing some dought-busting ideas.

I'm going to kick it off by reminding people to use mulch around trees and in gardens. I remember when I moved here I saw mulch being used extensively for the first time. I didn't know what to think--I thought it was bizarre that people were building giant mulch volcanoes around their trees! LOL, now I know that mulch is your best friend in a drought year. Of course, a mulch volcano isn't necessary, but it really will help if you put an inch or so of mulch around your trees.

[McScootch]

Fill the bath tub once a week and have the family take turns bathing, like the old days.

[claremarie]

Just make sure to push the mulch away from the trunk. No volcanoes, please. That attracts undesirable insects.
And it's too early to mulch here in NOVA. You need to wait until your bulbs and perennials start coming up so you don't bury them by mistake.
The best mulch is homemade. Shred your leaves and mix them with grass clippings in a nice compost pile, and after it decomposes you'll have a much smaller pile of awesome compost/soil amendments/mulch. And it's FREE! It does wonders for the heavy clay soil common to both NOVA and Georgia, helps the soil conserve moisture, attracts worms, and may eliminate the need for fertilizer. And it smells GREAT too. If you don't have enough grass clippings and shredded leaves of your own, you can "steal" the bags of leaves and clippings that your neighors put out on the curb. Best done really early in the morning so your neighbors won't think you are nuts.

If you must, you can put a thin layer of commercial shredded hardwood mulch down on top of your compost dressing, but you'll need a lot less of it, and you'll save your back from lifting all of those heavy, dusty mulch bags.

[southward bound]

Of course, a mulch volcano isn't necessary, but it really will help if you put an inch or so of mulch around your trees.


I remember what a good landscaper told me years ago: covering the base of the tree trunk - with a mound of anything - will over the course of time kill the tree. So, as another poster said, use your mulch, but be sure to push it away from the trunk. A lot of people pile up mulch 2-3 inches high, even higher, packed around the trunk. Not healthy for the tree in so many ways.

[HEATHER72]

I've never seen the infamous volcano mulch piles until I moved to Virginia. I lived in Albuquerque and they didn't mulch trees there. So, I guess I don't quite understand the love affair with mulch in a place that gets more rain that New Mexico. We have spent a lot of effort getting our mulch piles lower so that the mulch doesn't slide off when it rains. For the record, the FBI Academy has the biggest volcanos that I have ever seen! LOL

[5stones]

buy soaker hoses. These saved all my baby trees and plants last summer. Plus they conserve water by just letting water slowly seep into the ground. I just placed them all through the flower beds and would turn them on in EARLY morning for about 30minutes 2x a week.
BIG hint.... put them down BEFORE you mulch, on the bare dirt then put mulch on top. That way the dripping goes directly to the plant and not on top of the mulch!

Don't water at night, that causes MOLD etc...

[scimitar12]

Back In K.C. people would put mulch around anything. Some mulch volcanos were so big it looked like they could have been used as ski slopes. Too much mulch is not good for a tree; a little goes a long way.

[Older&Wiser]

Originally Posted by McScootch

Fill the bath tub once a week and have the family take turns bathing, like the old days.

Yeah, but only on Saturday night

Re volcanos: mice love them, especially in winter. They feed on the outer bark and gird the tree - killing it in a short time