How To Vegetable Garden In Kansas
How To Vegetable garden In Kansas
Beware Of Harmful Mulch When Mulching Your Plants
Mulching, at present, is starting to become popular, because of the benefits it brings to the plants and soil in your garden beds. In a few parts of the country it comes with a word of caution, though. Some locations, a popular type of mulch is produced from shredded hardwood bark, which is a waste product from sawmills. Prior to cutting the logs, they are debarked, and the bark was previously a big problem for the mills.
The saw mills can now get rid of the bark as mulch, but there is still a problem. As a space-saving solution, the bark is heaped into piles, which can get very high in winter months when demand is low. The front end loaders drive up on the piles concentrating the pile, and this compacts the mulch too tightly, which can end up causing a big problem for your garden. The bark matter will not decompose unless it's supplied with oxygen, and time, which is achieved by air passing through it. The temps of the decaying bark, when it's so compacted that airflow is limited, can get very high, and there's even the danger that it could catch alight.
Once it warms up, it also will cause the mulch to become toxic, because it can't release the gas. Digging into the mulch and distributing it releases a terrible stink and also creates a danger to your plants. The gas that's contained in the mulch can be released, and if this happens the plants will be burned. Disperse the noxious mulch near the plants, and in a matter of minutes they may be brown. If you happen to get a mulch heap like this and it gets put on your yard it could turn the grass brown. You might be entirely unsuspecting, and only be informed that the mulch was bad when you discover the damage.
The bad mulch carries a strong odor once you get down to it in the pile, but so does the good mulch, and the smell is different, but you may not be able to tell the difference. It could be a little darker in color, so if you suspect a problem, take a couple of shovels full, and place them around your least important plant, and see what happens. Take mulch from more deeply inside the pile for this objective, not from the outside. Assuming nothing has happened to the plants for more than 24 hours, the mulch should be fine.
Even though it's not the end of the world, this type of problem is rather prevented than experienced. Going to the hassle of mulching and after that learning that it had damaged your plants may just make you a little unhappy. Avoid toxic mulch by getting from a place you have confidence in and who can give you some type of guarantee or assurance - you do, after all, want to get the benefits of mulching.
Edible Estates Regional Prototype Garden #1: Salina, KS (fritz haeg)
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