Rock On

Mulch is a necessary part of almost every garden. Its benefits will improve the soil and your plants. Mulch helps moderate soil temperatures, making it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. It helps reduce loss of soil moisture through evaporation. It helps reduce soil erosion of wind and water. It reduces and minimizes soil compaction, one of the most common garden problems. It reduces the quantity of weeds and makes weeding easier. It can add to the aesthetic qualities in a garden.

I finished applying mulch to my new lavender garden. Lavender is native to the Mediterranean region and grows naturally in sunny, dry, rocky areas. Many people grow lavender and you may notice it planted as a border plant in beds where shredded bark is a common mulch used. The plants like a warm well-drained soil and detest damp soil and wet roots; more than cold weather, it is wet soil that kills most lavender. I'm worried that bark mulch might keep my soil too wet, so to help with drainage and to help keep the soil warm, I chose gravel mulch for my plants.

Basically, mulch is anything you apply to the soil surface to protect or improve it. Look around you and you'll see how nature does it:  pine needles mat beneath forest trees; leaves blow and gather around bushes and grasses; dead vegetation crumples into a decaying mass in perennial beds. You can also see how you and your neighbors do it:  bark chunks around trees; shredded rubber in playgrounds; crushed rock next to driveways.

There are two types of mulch, organic and inorganic. Organic is any natural material that was once growing and will eventually decompose. Bark, straw, leaves, grass, newspaper, and pine needles all are organic. Inorganic mulch is a man-made material or a mineral that won't decompose. Plastic, rubber, landscape fabric, and rock are inorganic.

Select the proper mulch for your garden and you will see the beneficial impact on plants. Select the wrong one and plants can suffer, along with you as you correct the problems.

My zone 5 garden is at an extreme for the plants. Our dry summers aren't a problem, but the winters are. Rock retains heat better than wood and during our cold and sunny winter the rock will help keep the soil a little warmer than another type of mulch. It will also radiate some of the heat to the plants, reducing the impact of severely cold nights. As the soil routinely freezes and thaws, the mulch will help moderate the swings in soil temperature.

I don't often recommend rock mulch because it's a fairly permanent addition. Other mulches can easily be raked away to plant new flowers, or grasses, or shrubs. Rock has no place in a vegetable garden that will be replanted every year. But for a perennial bed with plants that aren't going to be moved, rock mulch may be a good match, especially when the plant will benefit from it. Many plants native to arid regions can benefit from gravel on the soil. Agastache is a wonderful desert plant for butterflies and should be mulched exclusively with rock.

Visual attractiveness is another reason to choose rock. My lavender plants surround a flagstone patio I built for my daughter's wedding. The red rock gravel matches the flagstones and makes for an attractive border to the patio at the same time it works to benefit the plants. The sage green of the plants and vibrant purple of the flowers will blend well with the faded red of the patio and mulch.

Usually the best time to mulch is right after planting. Applying mulch to new plantings can give benefits right from the beginning, but you should delay it in the spring until the soil has begun to dry out. For plantings later in the season, you can wait until a frost to apply mulch. The freeze-thaw cycle in autumn can cause soil heaving and may thrust young plants out of the ground. The mulch will minimize that cycle's effects.

Unless you're planning to sterilize an area, stay away from plastic. It is common to see plastic beneath rock mulch. Plants in the area will be tortured because both water and oxygen will have a hard time making it to the roots. When you use rock mulch around plants, eliminate the plastic.

My lavender plants are very young and are facing a hard winter. I've done what I could to make that transition easier. We won't know until spring how successful it was, but I'm confident I chose the best solution.

Mulch is a necessary part of almost every garden. Its benefits will improve the soil and your plants. Mulch helps moderate soil temperatures, making it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. It helps reduce loss of soil moisture through evaporation. It helps reduce soil erosion of wind and water. It reduces and minimizes soil compaction, one of the most common garden problems. It reduces the quantity of weeds and makes weeding easier. It can add to the aesthetic qualities in a garden.

I finished applying mulch to my new lavender garden. Lavender is native to the Mediterranean region and grows naturally in sunny, dry, rocky areas. Many people grow lavender and you may notice it planted as a border plant in beds where shredded bark is a common mulch used. The plants like a warm well-drained soil and detest damp soil and wet roots; more than cold weather, it is wet soil that kills most lavender. I'm worried that bark mulch might keep my soil too wet, so to help with drainage and to help keep the soil warm, I chose gravel mulch for my plants.

Basically, mulch is anything you apply to the soil surface to protect or improve it. Look around you and you'll see how nature does it:  pine needles mat beneath forest trees; leaves blow and gather around bushes and grasses; dead vegetation crumples into a decaying mass in perennial beds. You can also see how you and your neighbors do it:  bark chunks around trees; shredded rubber in playgrounds; crushed rock next to driveways.

There are two types of mulch, organic and inorganic. Organic is any natural material that was once growing and will eventually decompose. Bark, straw, leaves, grass, newspaper, and pine needles all are organic. Inorganic mulch is a man-made material or a mineral that won't decompose. Plastic, rubber, landscape fabric, and rock are inorganic.

Select the proper mulch for your garden and you will see the beneficial impact on plants. Select the wrong one and plants can suffer, along with you as you correct the problems.

My zone 5 garden is at an extreme for the plants. Our dry summers aren't a problem, but the winters are. Rock retains heat better than wood and during our cold and sunny winter the rock will help keep the soil a little warmer than another type of mulch. It will also radiate some of the heat to the plants, reducing the impact of severely cold nights. As the soil routinely freezes and thaws, the mulch will help moderate the swings in soil temperature.

I don't often recommend rock mulch because it's a fairly permanent addition. Other mulches can easily be raked away to plant new flowers, or grasses, or shrubs. Rock has no place in a vegetable garden that will be replanted every year. But for a perennial bed with plants that aren't going to be moved, rock mulch may be a good match, especially when the plant will benefit from it. Many plants native to arid regions can benefit from gravel on the soil. Agastache is a wonderful desert plant for butterflies and should be mulched exclusively with rock.

Visual attractiveness is another reason to choose rock. My lavender plants surround a flagstone patio I built for my daughter's wedding. The red rock gravel matches the flagstones and makes for an attractive border to the patio at the same time it works to benefit the plants. The sage green of the plants and vibrant purple of the flowers will blend well with the faded red of the patio and mulch.

Usually the best time to mulch is right after planting. Applying mulch to new plantings can give benefits right from the beginning, but you should delay it in the spring until the soil has begun to dry out. For plantings later in the season, you can wait until a frost to apply mulch. The freeze-thaw cycle in autumn can cause soil heaving and may thrust young plants out of the ground. The mulch will minimize that cycle's effects.

Unless you're planning to sterilize an area, stay away from plastic. It is common to see plastic beneath rock mulch. Plants in the area will be tortured because both water and oxygen will have a hard time making it to the roots. When you use rock mulch around plants, eliminate the plastic.

My lavender plants are very young and are facing a hard winter. I've done what I could to make that transition easier. We won't know until spring how successful it was, but I'm confident I chose the best solution.