Uses for Pine Needles

Many, many people want to know what to do with pine needles. Since I first wrote about using pine needles in the garden a year ago, ("What to Do With Pine Needles", December 15, 2010), that article has been read by hundreds of people looking for help with the common problem of too many needles in autumn. This year I expand on the topic by offering more uses for pine needles, some that I do and others that I found through research.

A yearly chore

First, using pine needles as a mulch is the best way to use large quantities of the pesky things. I have about a dozen large Ponderosa Pine trees around the house and can use all of the needles as a weed-reducing covering on my garden paths. I dump the pine needles by the wheelbarrow load between my raised beds. It helps that I have a large garden and plenty of paths that need weed suppression. With normal gardening activities the pine needles are compressed and broken down by mid summer and I usually desire more. If you have more needles than garden paths, consider saving them in bags for additional summer mulch applications.

My strawberries are mulched exclusively with pine needles. They're the best mulch I've found for plants like strawberries that are perennial and benefit when their fruit rests above the soil. The stiff pine needles allow plenty of air and water to reach the soil and don't compact when left undisturbed. The strawberry runners are able to dive beneath the needles and root, creating new sister plants. Many other garden plants can benefit from pine needles or a combination mulch along with straw.

Strawberries and pine needles

Another use for pine needles offers an indirect benefit for gardens. Beekeepers use smoke to control their bees as they inspect and manage their hives. Pine needles are virtually perfect as the fuel in metal smokers. Many beekeepers budget the cost of fuel, often burlap or cotton, into their beekeeping and would welcome the opportunity for free fuel. Contact your local beekeepers association or beekeepers you may know and offer them a bag of pine needles as smoker fuel.

Along the same lines, pine needles are great fire starters. For our outdoor fire pit it's easy to grab a few handfuls of pine needles from the nearest tree when I'm layering the kindling and wood; there's no need for newspaper. For indoor fireplaces, pine needles can play the same role. To avoid the mess of loose pine needles all over the hearth, using thread I bundle the needles into little wands to supplement kindling wood. For a rustic decoration the wands can be stacked along with cut wood near the fireplace. Pine needles will burn quickly so they're best when partnered with other basic fire starting components.

Easy pine needle fire starters

If you plan to go to the trouble of tying pine needles into bundles, consider using them as sachets. Fresh pine needles have more pine fragrance but can be mixed with dried needles to make a decorative, fragrant, long-lasting home accessory. Hung in a closet, they'll quickly make it smell like a forest. Wrapped in a sachet bag, they can add fragrance to drawers, closets, and even automobiles; why buy a paper, fake tree to hang from your rear view mirror when you can have the real thing.

Expanding on the needles-in-a-bag concept, create outdoor pillows and mattresses. Using sturdy, weather-resistant fabric, sew large bags and stuff them with pine needles. Similar to straw mattresses commonly used for hundreds of years, these equivalents can work well on a patio or outdoor deck area. They will be slow to break down and should hold their shape and cushion for a long time. If the fabric material is plastic, thick, or used with an internal barrier, the pointy tips shouldn't protrude.

You can also make tea with pine needles, primarily fresh ones. I stumbled across this use on the internet but haven't tried it. Some holistic medicine practitioners say pine needles offer health benefits and are high in Vitamin C. Before you try it I'd recommend conducting your own research to confirm it's what you want. There are many sites out there with more information about pine needle tea.

Start a pine needle compost pile. Last year I raked many piles of needles and used most of them, but one pile remained in an out-of-the-way corner of my yard. I raked in fall and in early summer I finally got around to using the pile, to replenish the mulch on my garden paths. Imagine my surprise when I began lifting the pile into my wheelbarrow and discovered that the inside and base of the pile was fully decomposed into nice, black compost. The snow, rain, and mass of the pile had effectively composted it. If you have more needles than you can use, put them in an area that will receive plenty of moisture and let them decompose.

For the truly crafty people, make a pine needle doll. Raffia and straw are often used in bundles that are bent and wrapped to create the doll's head. Long pine needles that aren't too dry can be used the same way. Once the head is formed a simple cloth dress completes the doll.

While many people with pine needles would prefer they just disappear, with a little effort and ingenuity you can wile away a winter's day by using pine needles creatively. If you have another use for pine needles let me know. I'm looking forward to what next year's pine needle article can offer.

Go to "What to Do With Pine Needles."

Many, many people want to know what to do with pine needles. Since I first wrote about using pine needles in the garden a year ago, ("What to Do With Pine Needles", December 15, 2010), that article has been read by hundreds of people looking for help with the common problem of too many needles in autumn. This year I expand on the topic by offering more uses for pine needles, some that I do and others that I found through research.

A yearly chore

First, using pine needles as a mulch is the best way to use large quantities of the pesky things. I have about a dozen large Ponderosa Pine trees around the house and can use all of the needles as a weed-reducing covering on my garden paths. I dump the pine needles by the wheelbarrow load between my raised beds. It helps that I have a large garden and plenty of paths that need weed suppression. With normal gardening activities the pine needles are compressed and broken down by mid summer and I usually desire more. If you have more needles than garden paths, consider saving them in bags for additional summer mulch applications.

My strawberries are mulched exclusively with pine needles. They're the best mulch I've found for plants like strawberries that are perennial and benefit when their fruit rests above the soil. The stiff pine needles allow plenty of air and water to reach the soil and don't compact when left undisturbed. The strawberry runners are able to dive beneath the needles and root, creating new sister plants. Many other garden plants can benefit from pine needles or a combination mulch along with straw.

Strawberries and pine needles

Another use for pine needles offers an indirect benefit for gardens. Beekeepers use smoke to control their bees as they inspect and manage their hives. Pine needles are virtually perfect as the fuel in metal smokers. Many beekeepers budget the cost of fuel, often burlap or cotton, into their beekeeping and would welcome the opportunity for free fuel. Contact your local beekeepers association or beekeepers you may know and offer them a bag of pine needles as smoker fuel.

Along the same lines, pine needles are great fire starters. For our outdoor fire pit it's easy to grab a few handfuls of pine needles from the nearest tree when I'm layering the kindling and wood; there's no need for newspaper. For indoor fireplaces, pine needles can play the same role. To avoid the mess of loose pine needles all over the hearth, using thread I bundle the needles into little wands to supplement kindling wood. For a rustic decoration the wands can be stacked along with cut wood near the fireplace. Pine needles will burn quickly so they're best when partnered with other basic fire starting components.

Easy pine needle fire starters

If you plan to go to the trouble of tying pine needles into bundles, consider using them as sachets. Fresh pine needles have more pine fragrance but can be mixed with dried needles to make a decorative, fragrant, long-lasting home accessory. Hung in a closet, they'll quickly make it smell like a forest. Wrapped in a sachet bag, they can add fragrance to drawers, closets, and even automobiles; why buy a paper, fake tree to hang from your rear view mirror when you can have the real thing.

Expanding on the needles-in-a-bag concept, create outdoor pillows and mattresses. Using sturdy, weather-resistant fabric, sew large bags and stuff them with pine needles. Similar to straw mattresses commonly used for hundreds of years, these equivalents can work well on a patio or outdoor deck area. They will be slow to break down and should hold their shape and cushion for a long time. If the fabric material is plastic, thick, or used with an internal barrier, the pointy tips shouldn't protrude.

You can also make tea with pine needles, primarily fresh ones. I stumbled across this use on the internet but haven't tried it. Some holistic medicine practitioners say pine needles offer health benefits and are high in Vitamin C. Before you try it I'd recommend conducting your own research to confirm it's what you want. There are many sites out there with more information about pine needle tea.

Start a pine needle compost pile. Last year I raked many piles of needles and used most of them, but one pile remained in an out-of-the-way corner of my yard. I raked in fall and in early summer I finally got around to using the pile, to replenish the mulch on my garden paths. Imagine my surprise when I began lifting the pile into my wheelbarrow and discovered that the inside and base of the pile was fully decomposed into nice, black compost. The snow, rain, and mass of the pile had effectively composted it. If you have more needles than you can use, put them in an area that will receive plenty of moisture and let them decompose.

For the truly crafty people, make a pine needle doll. Raffia and straw are often used in bundles that are bent and wrapped to create the doll's head. Long pine needles that aren't too dry can be used the same way. Once the head is formed a simple cloth dress completes the doll.

While many people with pine needles would prefer they just disappear, with a little effort and ingenuity you can wile away a winter's day by using pine needles creatively. If you have another use for pine needles let me know. I'm looking forward to what next year's pine needle article can offer.

Go to "What to Do With Pine Needles."

Try Green Manure

It's not what you think. It's not the fresh contribution from the southern end of a northbound horse. Green manure is the term for a cover crop that is specifically grown to benefit soil. A cover crop consists of a large number of individual plants, usually annuals or biennials, that cover the soil as they grow side by side. The cover crop becomes green manure when it is tilled into the soil. Like animal manure, it adds organic material to soil.

I'm a huge advocate of amending soil. Many of my previous articles reference that dedication. Green manure cover crops provide a great way to amend soil in an easy and productive process during the time you're not actively gardening.

Here's the concept: when your garden beds are finished for the season you plant a cover crop; the plants grow during the fall, winter, or early spring; you till the plants into the soil before planting the primary crop again; the incorporation of these plants into the soil improves its fertility and structure; the next season's plants benefit from the improved conditions provided by this green manure.

There are five beneficial components to a cover crop. The first is erosion protection; the cover crop protects from wind and water erosion. Second is weed suppression; the cover crop keeps weeds from growing on bare soil. Third is nitrogen fixation; some plants, like legumes, store nitrogen in their roots, which becomes available in the soil when the roots die or the plant is tilled into the soil. Fourth is soil structure creation; roots, especially in grasses, exude a substance that helps "glue" together loose soil particles. Lastly, pest insect reduction; the cover crop encourages beneficial insects while reducing harmful insect control measures.

While some perennial grasses can be used as cover crops and achieve many of these benefits in varied areas of the landscape, they aren't best suited as green manure for a flower or vegetable garden. For these type of gardens, the cover crops should be annuals or biennials. You don't want perennial plants regrowing after they've been tilled under.

As you might guess, some plants are better than others to use as green manure. Many of the best and most popular green manure crops are legumes. Because of their nitrogen-fixing ability, legumes can achieve all five aspects of a good cover crop. When they're tilled into the soil, the organic matter breaks down quickly and the nitrogen fixed in the roots boosts soil fertility. Their aggressive roots can also help break up some hard soils.

Legumes have limitations as a cover crop, however. They typically are slow growing and probably won't survive winter temperatures. When they're tilled in in the spring, it may be dead plants rather than active green ones that are added to the soil, though that's not a bad thing. They'll just be younger and smaller than if allowed to fully mature before being killed by a freeze. They're often best suited for early spring planting.

Non-legume cover crops are typically grasses or grains. They don't add nitrogen like legumes, but grow faster and do a better job at weed suppression. When they're tilled into the soil they break down slower, adding more organic matter over a longer period of time. Some can survive winter temperatures, but frozen ground is usually enough to kill many of the annual grasses.

Green manure crops have familiar names and are readily available from nurseries and online seed sources. I'm ordering some of my seeds this year from Territorial Seed Company which has a section of green manure plants in their catalog.

Winter rye, clover, pea, vetch, and fava beans are the cover crops usually mentioned first when you ask a gardening expert about green manure. Alfalfa, oats, winter wheat, canola, and buckwheat often follow in the next breath. Which plants to choose depends on where you live and which ones are best for your climate. Typically, late summer and early fall are the times to begin sowing seeds for fall and winter cover crops.

In late summer I plan to sow hairy vetch and winter rye over much of my open vegetable garden, where corn, beans and squash are currently growing. I can sow the seeds while the other plants are growing and use the straw mulch already in place to help increase soil moisture and assist in seed germination. The first frost will whack the beans and squash, but the cover crop shouldn't be affected. They'll have time to grow and establish before freezing conditions hit. They should overwinter fine. I won't be planting again until next June so I'll have plenty of time to allow some spring growth before tilling them in.

In some of my raised beds I'll sow Fava beans and peas in early spring. Those are the beds where I'll plant my warm season crops. The legumes will add nitrogen to the soil and I'll use a hoe to work them into the soil before I place my tomatoes, peppers, and beans.

You can mix the plants within a cover crop; it doesn't need to consist of a single variety. Grasses grow quickly while legumes provide nitrogen, so plant both in the same bed. Each will provide unique attributes.

When it comes time to till or work the cover crop into the soil, it should be done about three weeks before planting. This allows time for the organic matter to begin decomposing and adding soil nutrients. In warm, wet areas with lots of spring rain, you can do it as late as two weeks before planting. In colder, drier areas, till in about four weeks before planting because it will take longer for the organic material to break down. For spring planting the tilling may need to be done while the soil is still cold. Just be careful not to till if the soil is frozen or too wet.

You want to mow, till, or dig in the cover crop before the plants set seed. The concept is to add nutrients and organic matter to your garden soil not create a nuisance weed. If you allow the cover crop to go to seed, you'll continue to have those plants in your garden, but as competition for the primary garden plants. It works well to mow or cut the cover crop a few days before you plan to till or dig them in. Some of the stems and leaves will begin drying out and that's fine.

Using green manure works just as well in a small garden plot as it does for a large commercial operation. You can plant a cover crop in any garden area. If it's a mulched bed, remove the mulch before sowing seed unless it's a mulch with small pieces that you'll till in along with the cover crop.

I plan my plant rotation among my garden beds with green manure in mind. This year I'm growing peas in one bed. Next spring I'll work the dead pea plants into the soil in that bed and plant something new like green beans. The peas will add nitrogen and organic material to the soil and will benefit the beans. Next year I'll plant my peas in a new bed to benefit another future planting.

Though you grow green manure as a sacrifice to other future plants, you still need to treat them with the same care as the rest of your garden. They need sun, water, and weeding. You want them to grow and mature to achieve the best potential benefit. Snow and spring rain may provide enough moisture to sustain cover crops, but check the soil periodically so they don't dry out and die prematurely.

If your soil can benefit from organic matter and nutrients, and most soils do, consider growing green manure. And having fun telling people about using green manure. It's a great way to stop or start a conversation.

 

It's not what you think. It's not the fresh contribution from the southern end of a northbound horse. Green manure is the term for a cover crop that is specifically grown to benefit soil. A cover crop consists of a large number of individual plants, usually annuals or biennials, that cover the soil as they grow side by side. The cover crop becomes green manure when it is tilled into the soil. Like animal manure, it adds organic material to soil.

I'm a huge advocate of amending soil. Many of my previous articles reference that dedication. Green manure cover crops provide a great way to amend soil in an easy and productive process during the time you're not actively gardening.

Here's the concept: when your garden beds are finished for the season you plant a cover crop; the plants grow during the fall, winter, or early spring; you till the plants into the soil before planting the primary crop again; the incorporation of these plants into the soil improves its fertility and structure; the next season's plants benefit from the improved conditions provided by this green manure.

There are five beneficial components to a cover crop. The first is erosion protection; the cover crop protects from wind and water erosion. Second is weed suppression; the cover crop keeps weeds from growing on bare soil. Third is nitrogen fixation; some plants, like legumes, store nitrogen in their roots, which becomes available in the soil when the roots die or the plant is tilled into the soil. Fourth is soil structure creation; roots, especially in grasses, exude a substance that helps "glue" together loose soil particles. Lastly, pest insect reduction; the cover crop encourages beneficial insects while reducing harmful insect control measures.

While some perennial grasses can be used as cover crops and achieve many of these benefits in varied areas of the landscape, they aren't best suited as green manure for a flower or vegetable garden. For these type of gardens, the cover crops should be annuals or biennials. You don't want perennial plants regrowing after they've been tilled under.

As you might guess, some plants are better than others to use as green manure. Many of the best and most popular green manure crops are legumes. Because of their nitrogen-fixing ability, legumes can achieve all five aspects of a good cover crop. When they're tilled into the soil, the organic matter breaks down quickly and the nitrogen fixed in the roots boosts soil fertility. Their aggressive roots can also help break up some hard soils.

Legumes have limitations as a cover crop, however. They typically are slow growing and probably won't survive winter temperatures. When they're tilled in in the spring, it may be dead plants rather than active green ones that are added to the soil, though that's not a bad thing. They'll just be younger and smaller than if allowed to fully mature before being killed by a freeze. They're often best suited for early spring planting.

Non-legume cover crops are typically grasses or grains. They don't add nitrogen like legumes, but grow faster and do a better job at weed suppression. When they're tilled into the soil they break down slower, adding more organic matter over a longer period of time. Some can survive winter temperatures, but frozen ground is usually enough to kill many of the annual grasses.

Green manure crops have familiar names and are readily available from nurseries and online seed sources. I'm ordering some of my seeds this year from Territorial Seed Company which has a section of green manure plants in their catalog.

Winter rye, clover, pea, vetch, and fava beans are the cover crops usually mentioned first when you ask a gardening expert about green manure. Alfalfa, oats, winter wheat, canola, and buckwheat often follow in the next breath. Which plants to choose depends on where you live and which ones are best for your climate. Typically, late summer and early fall are the times to begin sowing seeds for fall and winter cover crops.

In late summer I plan to sow hairy vetch and winter rye over much of my open vegetable garden, where corn, beans and squash are currently growing. I can sow the seeds while the other plants are growing and use the straw mulch already in place to help increase soil moisture and assist in seed germination. The first frost will whack the beans and squash, but the cover crop shouldn't be affected. They'll have time to grow and establish before freezing conditions hit. They should overwinter fine. I won't be planting again until next June so I'll have plenty of time to allow some spring growth before tilling them in.

In some of my raised beds I'll sow Fava beans and peas in early spring. Those are the beds where I'll plant my warm season crops. The legumes will add nitrogen to the soil and I'll use a hoe to work them into the soil before I place my tomatoes, peppers, and beans.

You can mix the plants within a cover crop; it doesn't need to consist of a single variety. Grasses grow quickly while legumes provide nitrogen, so plant both in the same bed. Each will provide unique attributes.

When it comes time to till or work the cover crop into the soil, it should be done about three weeks before planting. This allows time for the organic matter to begin decomposing and adding soil nutrients. In warm, wet areas with lots of spring rain, you can do it as late as two weeks before planting. In colder, drier areas, till in about four weeks before planting because it will take longer for the organic material to break down. For spring planting the tilling may need to be done while the soil is still cold. Just be careful not to till if the soil is frozen or too wet.

You want to mow, till, or dig in the cover crop before the plants set seed. The concept is to add nutrients and organic matter to your garden soil not create a nuisance weed. If you allow the cover crop to go to seed, you'll continue to have those plants in your garden, but as competition for the primary garden plants. It works well to mow or cut the cover crop a few days before you plan to till or dig them in. Some of the stems and leaves will begin drying out and that's fine.

Using green manure works just as well in a small garden plot as it does for a large commercial operation. You can plant a cover crop in any garden area. If it's a mulched bed, remove the mulch before sowing seed unless it's a mulch with small pieces that you'll till in along with the cover crop.

I plan my plant rotation among my garden beds with green manure in mind. This year I'm growing peas in one bed. Next spring I'll work the dead pea plants into the soil in that bed and plant something new like green beans. The peas will add nitrogen and organic material to the soil and will benefit the beans. Next year I'll plant my peas in a new bed to benefit another future planting.

Though you grow green manure as a sacrifice to other future plants, you still need to treat them with the same care as the rest of your garden. They need sun, water, and weeding. You want them to grow and mature to achieve the best potential benefit. Snow and spring rain may provide enough moisture to sustain cover crops, but check the soil periodically so they don't dry out and die prematurely.

If your soil can benefit from organic matter and nutrients, and most soils do, consider growing green manure. And having fun telling people about using green manure. It's a great way to stop or start a conversation.

 

Coffee in the Garden

I have coffee in my garden. Not sipping the hot bitter beverage while seated in an Adirondack chair, watching the birds, as my wife does in the morning, but using actual bits of coffee beans in and on the soil. Coffee grounds and filters are a regular component of my compost pile and now I've added coffee chaff.

My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Pat and Abby recently. They're the mother and daughter team that manage Purple Mountain Coffee Company in Colorado Springs providing fresh roasted coffee to the eager locals. Pat is an avid, dedicated, and passionate coffee roaster who exploded with enthusiasm as she showed us how her custom-made coffee roaster works.

Pat's custom coffee roaster

She showed us the barrels and bags of coffee beans from around the world that she has the pleasure of roasting. And she showed us the barrel filled with chaff, a byproduct of the process. Chaff is the outer skin of the coffee bean that frees itself from the inner bean when roasted. It is flaky and fluffy with a light coffee aroma but offers nothing to the roasted beans so is separated and discarded. I saw it as a gardening opportunity. Pat was very willing to let me take the large, black plastic bag filled with chaff.

Coffee bean chaff

The chaff will become part of my compost pile and ultimately my garden soil. It will decompose very quickly due to its small size and light texture and will help the pile turn into compost quickly, but the best part is that it's free and available in large quantities. Pat, and every other coffee roaster, has bags of chaff that is either thrown away or given to eager gardeners.

America's, and much of the world's, favorite morning drink produces huge amounts of discarded organic material. In addition to the chaff from roasters, every day millions of pounds of used coffee grounds are thrown away. Not only is this wasteful, but gardeners who toss away the grounds are missing out on a great gardening opportunity.  Recycled coffee adds nitrogen to soil and compost piles.

Collecting the morning filter and grounds

 Chaff is a new opportunity for me while coffee grounds have been a garden staple of mine for years. I've described coffee grounds as one of the near-perfect compost pile additives. It looks like a brown component but improves the pile like a green (see my article "Compost and Your Compost Pile, Part 1" for what that means). It's an easy and quick way to add nitrogen to a compost pile that may be suffering from too much brown. The small size of the grounds help them incorporate throughout the pile and decompose quickly. And they can be gathered in large quantities for free.

Since 1995, Starbucks has supported the corporate policy of "Grounds for Your Garden". Anyone can take home a free 5-pound bag of used grounds. Many Starbucks have a wire rack filled with the bags and you can grab one without even asking. Many other coffee shops have followed suit and offer used grounds for free to anyone who asks.

With the abundance of free used coffee grounds it makes sense to take advantage of the opportunity because coffee can benefit a garden in many ways.

When sprinkled on top the soil coffee grounds act as a slow-release fertilizer. With every rain or watering, a little nitrogen finds its way into the soil as it leaches from the grounds. They also add phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and copper.

While fresh, unbrewed grounds are acidic and can exacerbate a high-acid, surface soil problem, used, brewed coffee grounds leave most of the acid in the cup you drink. Only slightly acidic, used grounds may benefit alkaline soils a bit, but really don't pose any problems to soil pH. As they decompose and provide food for microorganisms, the grounds will act like any organic material and actually move the pH toward neutral.

For vermicomposting (using worms to compost) using small amounts of used coffee grounds as worm food is also a good idea. Some worm farmers say their worms like coffee. Regardless of their food preference, worms will eat the  grounds like any other clean organic matter and produce the wonderful soil additive, worm castings.

Coffee grounds will help deter some garden pests. Slugs and snails don't like the gritty texture of coffee grounds and should avoid areas mulched with them. The coffee grounds should deter cats and send them looking to another cat box. Ants are repelled by the smell of coffee grounds and usually avoid areas where they're scattered.

Like compost tea or worm tea, soaking the used grounds in a bucket of water and using the "coffee tea" on your plants as a foliar feed is a good way of adding nitrogen. While only slightly acidic, acid-loving plants like azaleas, hydrangeas, gardenias, and rhododendrons will enjoy the boost.

If you like the smell of coffee, sprinkle the grounds on the soil throughout your garden. In addition to the benefits above they'll make your garden smell like a coffee shop after a summer rain.

Many people have recognized that the office plants that someone regularly pours a coffee cup into look better than the ones with no coffee additives. That's true. Adding coffee to houseplants provides a nitrogen boost, but if the plant is fed a steady stream of full-strength coffee the acidity will ultimately be detrimental. It's better to supplement normal watering with an occasional addition of diluted coffee. Sprinkling some used grounds on the soil in your pots provides the same benefit during normal watering.

Put coffee in your garden. Find someone like Pat to give you bags of coffee chaff for your compost pile, grab a bag of used coffee grounds from Starbucks or another coffee shop for mulch, and use the filter and grounds from your morning cup of Joe in your compost pile too. It's recycling at its best. Abundant and free, this great organic material will benefit your plants.
 

I have coffee in my garden. Not sipping the hot bitter beverage while seated in an Adirondack chair, watching the birds, as my wife does in the morning, but using actual bits of coffee beans in and on the soil. Coffee grounds and filters are a regular component of my compost pile and now I've added coffee chaff.

My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Pat and Abby recently. They're the mother and daughter team that manage Purple Mountain Coffee Company in Colorado Springs providing fresh roasted coffee to the eager locals. Pat is an avid, dedicated, and passionate coffee roaster who exploded with enthusiasm as she showed us how her custom-made coffee roaster works.

Pat's custom coffee roaster

She showed us the barrels and bags of coffee beans from around the world that she has the pleasure of roasting. And she showed us the barrel filled with chaff, a byproduct of the process. Chaff is the outer skin of the coffee bean that frees itself from the inner bean when roasted. It is flaky and fluffy with a light coffee aroma but offers nothing to the roasted beans so is separated and discarded. I saw it as a gardening opportunity. Pat was very willing to let me take the large, black plastic bag filled with chaff.

Coffee bean chaff

The chaff will become part of my compost pile and ultimately my garden soil. It will decompose very quickly due to its small size and light texture and will help the pile turn into compost quickly, but the best part is that it's free and available in large quantities. Pat, and every other coffee roaster, has bags of chaff that is either thrown away or given to eager gardeners.

America's, and much of the world's, favorite morning drink produces huge amounts of discarded organic material. In addition to the chaff from roasters, every day millions of pounds of used coffee grounds are thrown away. Not only is this wasteful, but gardeners who toss away the grounds are missing out on a great gardening opportunity.  Recycled coffee adds nitrogen to soil and compost piles.

Collecting the morning filter and grounds

 Chaff is a new opportunity for me while coffee grounds have been a garden staple of mine for years. I've described coffee grounds as one of the near-perfect compost pile additives. It looks like a brown component but improves the pile like a green (see my article "Compost and Your Compost Pile, Part 1" for what that means). It's an easy and quick way to add nitrogen to a compost pile that may be suffering from too much brown. The small size of the grounds help them incorporate throughout the pile and decompose quickly. And they can be gathered in large quantities for free.

Since 1995, Starbucks has supported the corporate policy of "Grounds for Your Garden". Anyone can take home a free 5-pound bag of used grounds. Many Starbucks have a wire rack filled with the bags and you can grab one without even asking. Many other coffee shops have followed suit and offer used grounds for free to anyone who asks.

With the abundance of free used coffee grounds it makes sense to take advantage of the opportunity because coffee can benefit a garden in many ways.

When sprinkled on top the soil coffee grounds act as a slow-release fertilizer. With every rain or watering, a little nitrogen finds its way into the soil as it leaches from the grounds. They also add phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and copper.

While fresh, unbrewed grounds are acidic and can exacerbate a high-acid, surface soil problem, used, brewed coffee grounds leave most of the acid in the cup you drink. Only slightly acidic, used grounds may benefit alkaline soils a bit, but really don't pose any problems to soil pH. As they decompose and provide food for microorganisms, the grounds will act like any organic material and actually move the pH toward neutral.

For vermicomposting (using worms to compost) using small amounts of used coffee grounds as worm food is also a good idea. Some worm farmers say their worms like coffee. Regardless of their food preference, worms will eat the  grounds like any other clean organic matter and produce the wonderful soil additive, worm castings.

Coffee grounds will help deter some garden pests. Slugs and snails don't like the gritty texture of coffee grounds and should avoid areas mulched with them. The coffee grounds should deter cats and send them looking to another cat box. Ants are repelled by the smell of coffee grounds and usually avoid areas where they're scattered.

Like compost tea or worm tea, soaking the used grounds in a bucket of water and using the "coffee tea" on your plants as a foliar feed is a good way of adding nitrogen. While only slightly acidic, acid-loving plants like azaleas, hydrangeas, gardenias, and rhododendrons will enjoy the boost.

If you like the smell of coffee, sprinkle the grounds on the soil throughout your garden. In addition to the benefits above they'll make your garden smell like a coffee shop after a summer rain.

Many people have recognized that the office plants that someone regularly pours a coffee cup into look better than the ones with no coffee additives. That's true. Adding coffee to houseplants provides a nitrogen boost, but if the plant is fed a steady stream of full-strength coffee the acidity will ultimately be detrimental. It's better to supplement normal watering with an occasional addition of diluted coffee. Sprinkling some used grounds on the soil in your pots provides the same benefit during normal watering.

Put coffee in your garden. Find someone like Pat to give you bags of coffee chaff for your compost pile, grab a bag of used coffee grounds from Starbucks or another coffee shop for mulch, and use the filter and grounds from your morning cup of Joe in your compost pile too. It's recycling at its best. Abundant and free, this great organic material will benefit your plants.
 

Mulch Blowing

Mulch is one of the most important components of a well-maintained garden. Mulch moderates soil moisture and temperature, it hinders weeds, it reduces soil compaction, it increases soil microorganism activity, and it adds to the aesthetics of the garden. Spring is an ideal time to add mulch to perennial flower beds, around the bases of trees, and throughout your garden.

Mulch in Roger and Della's landscape.

I witnessed an amazing process of mulch application last week. Until now, I thought the basic method of adding mulch was fairly standard: you buy it in bags from a nursery or garden center, you open the bags, and you spread it over the soil; or you buy it in bulk, wheelbarrow it to your garden, and rake it as evenly as possible around the plants. Either procedure is pretty labor intensive, especially for a large garden. Now I know about mulch blowing.

A team from Rocky Top Resources in Colorado Springs applied a new cover of mulch to the gardens of my good friends Roger and Della. A little more than 30 yards of mulch was distributed. That's more than 800 cubic feet, about 400 bags that you would buy at the garden center. The two-man team was able to complete the task in three hours. A team of five professional landscapers would have taken the better part of a full day to do the same job.

The wood mulch began the morning in the bed of a specialized truck that can hold as much as 35 yards of material. A conveyor belt on the floor transports the mulch chunks to the rear of the truck where they enter a hopper that feeds them into the pressurized blower system. Attached to the truck blower is a series of interconnected hoses. As the mulch makes its way through this long, winding snake of 4-inch wide tube, the man at the head adjusts the pressure and flow with a control panel on his belt. It blows out in a gentle spray of wood pieces.

John blowing mulch.

John, the general manager of Rocky Top Resources, was the man at the end of the hose. With expert precision he swung it from side to side aiming the spray of mulch into the spaces underneath bush branches and on top of bare patches of soil. In surprisingly little time, a consistent layer of fresh mulch was applied to a very large space.

As the job progressed, the truck remained stationary while the length of the hose changed. At it's farthest reach in Roger and Della's yard, the hose extended well over 120 feet. As he backed his way through the garden beds, John would occasionally stop the flow of blowing mulch, his assistant Jestin would remove a long section of hose, and they would continue with a shorter tube. By the time they finished blowing mulch in the last section of the yard nearest the truck, the hose was only about 30 feet long.

John and Jestin controlling the hose.

This was an amazingly efficient method of distributing mulch. A team of workers and countless wheelbarrow loads of mulch would have compacted the very soil the mulch is designed to protect, in addition to disturbing the plants with feet, wheels, and tools. John and Jestin were very careful about where they stepped, where the hose lay, and how forcefully the mulch was propelled from the hose.

Precision mulch application.

The mulch blowing truck is one of only two in the state of Colorado. John said that their workload increased from only about six jobs in 2002, after the company first purchased the machine, to daily jobs from March through November in 2008. As both the weather and economy improve in 2011, they're looking forward to a busy season of mulch blowing.

The mulch blowing truck.

For many gardens, applying spring mulch is a low-key process. The winter snows and winds have caused existing mulch to shift or settle and you may only need a few new bags to cover bare spots. If you already have a thick layer, simply raking it can loosen the pieces and distribute them evenly.

For new landscapes and others with large areas that need a lot of mulch, blowing is a wonderful alternative. However, there are a few limitations when blowing it. The 4-inch hoses only allow smaller wood chunks to be used, though newer trucks have 5-inch hoses that allow bigger mulch pieces. Fibrous wood mulches like Cypress don't work well in the system. But even with those restrictions, the finished application under current blowing methods looks great.

As with any landscaping job, the cost of professionals doing the work should be weighed against the do-it-yourself option. I like applying mulch and getting intimate with my plants while I spread it, but it would take me about two weeks to complete the task of applying 400 bags. Seeing the same amount expertly applied in three hours makes me a convert to mulch blowing for large jobs; there are many other gardening tasks I could accomplish in two weeks.

Look at your landscape and think about mulch. If you have a big job ahead, think about how you'll apply it. If you have a company that offers mulch blowing like Rocky Top Resources, it might benefit you to take advantage of their expertise.

Mulch is one of the most important components of a well-maintained garden. Mulch moderates soil moisture and temperature, it hinders weeds, it reduces soil compaction, it increases soil microorganism activity, and it adds to the aesthetics of the garden. Spring is an ideal time to add mulch to perennial flower beds, around the bases of trees, and throughout your garden.

Mulch in Roger and Della's landscape.

I witnessed an amazing process of mulch application last week. Until now, I thought the basic method of adding mulch was fairly standard: you buy it in bags from a nursery or garden center, you open the bags, and you spread it over the soil; or you buy it in bulk, wheelbarrow it to your garden, and rake it as evenly as possible around the plants. Either procedure is pretty labor intensive, especially for a large garden. Now I know about mulch blowing.

A team from Rocky Top Resources in Colorado Springs applied a new cover of mulch to the gardens of my good friends Roger and Della. A little more than 30 yards of mulch was distributed. That's more than 800 cubic feet, about 400 bags that you would buy at the garden center. The two-man team was able to complete the task in three hours. A team of five professional landscapers would have taken the better part of a full day to do the same job.

The wood mulch began the morning in the bed of a specialized truck that can hold as much as 35 yards of material. A conveyor belt on the floor transports the mulch chunks to the rear of the truck where they enter a hopper that feeds them into the pressurized blower system. Attached to the truck blower is a series of interconnected hoses. As the mulch makes its way through this long, winding snake of 4-inch wide tube, the man at the head adjusts the pressure and flow with a control panel on his belt. It blows out in a gentle spray of wood pieces.

John blowing mulch.

John, the general manager of Rocky Top Resources, was the man at the end of the hose. With expert precision he swung it from side to side aiming the spray of mulch into the spaces underneath bush branches and on top of bare patches of soil. In surprisingly little time, a consistent layer of fresh mulch was applied to a very large space.

As the job progressed, the truck remained stationary while the length of the hose changed. At it's farthest reach in Roger and Della's yard, the hose extended well over 120 feet. As he backed his way through the garden beds, John would occasionally stop the flow of blowing mulch, his assistant Jestin would remove a long section of hose, and they would continue with a shorter tube. By the time they finished blowing mulch in the last section of the yard nearest the truck, the hose was only about 30 feet long.

John and Jestin controlling the hose.

This was an amazingly efficient method of distributing mulch. A team of workers and countless wheelbarrow loads of mulch would have compacted the very soil the mulch is designed to protect, in addition to disturbing the plants with feet, wheels, and tools. John and Jestin were very careful about where they stepped, where the hose lay, and how forcefully the mulch was propelled from the hose.

Precision mulch application.

The mulch blowing truck is one of only two in the state of Colorado. John said that their workload increased from only about six jobs in 2002, after the company first purchased the machine, to daily jobs from March through November in 2008. As both the weather and economy improve in 2011, they're looking forward to a busy season of mulch blowing.

The mulch blowing truck.

For many gardens, applying spring mulch is a low-key process. The winter snows and winds have caused existing mulch to shift or settle and you may only need a few new bags to cover bare spots. If you already have a thick layer, simply raking it can loosen the pieces and distribute them evenly.

For new landscapes and others with large areas that need a lot of mulch, blowing is a wonderful alternative. However, there are a few limitations when blowing it. The 4-inch hoses only allow smaller wood chunks to be used, though newer trucks have 5-inch hoses that allow bigger mulch pieces. Fibrous wood mulches like Cypress don't work well in the system. But even with those restrictions, the finished application under current blowing methods looks great.

As with any landscaping job, the cost of professionals doing the work should be weighed against the do-it-yourself option. I like applying mulch and getting intimate with my plants while I spread it, but it would take me about two weeks to complete the task of applying 400 bags. Seeing the same amount expertly applied in three hours makes me a convert to mulch blowing for large jobs; there are many other gardening tasks I could accomplish in two weeks.

Look at your landscape and think about mulch. If you have a big job ahead, think about how you'll apply it. If you have a company that offers mulch blowing like Rocky Top Resources, it might benefit you to take advantage of their expertise.

What To Do With Pine Needles

Pine needles are a scourge to many gardeners. While leaves that have fallen from trees can be easily raked up, blown away, or crushed underfoot, pine needles lie in ever-growing mats on the ground and are more difficult to remove. If left in place they choke the life from grass or flowers planted beneath a tree. Leaves can be composted easily while needles seem to take forever to break down. For many gardeners pine needles have a place in the forest, but not in the garden.

I look forward to my annual resupply of pine needles. I think they have a definite place in the garden and offer a great example of how to recycle nature's bounty. My Ponderosa pines play an important role in my landscape.

Newly-raked needles

Pine needles, for my purposes here, are the brown, dried needles that have fallen from pine trees. You may also have heard them referred to as pine straw. Just as deciduous trees drop there leaves in the fall, pines drop a portion of their needles from the innermost sections of branches. Spruce and fir trees will also drop needles, but they tend to be much shorter in length and don't pose nearly as many problems as the longer pine needles. My Ponderosa pine needles are 6-7 inches long.

One of the first negative issues with pine needles is that they're notoriously difficult to remove from your lawn. When you try to rake them, their slender profile causes many of them to slide through the rake's tines and remain where they were. If you try to pick them up barehanded, their sharp points prick your skin. They cling to grass and plants and won't blow away even in the strongest winds.

If left in place, they form a thick barrier that keeps sun, water, and air from reaching plants underneath. That's why you see so many bare areas beneath pine trees. Though needles are slightly acidic, they really don't change the pH of the soil. The reason you have difficulty growing under a big pine is that the tree shades the ground and reduces the amount of moisture that reaches the soil. Add a layer of needles and plants will struggle to survive.

Another negative factor is that they take a long time to decompose. You can add them to your compost pile, but after everything else has broken down and turned into lovely, black compost, the needles will still remain intact. Burning them is rarely an option for many people, so you're left with piles of needles that take up space.

I see all three of these negative aspects as advantages for using pine needles in the garden. Think about areas of your garden where you want a mulch that stays in place and won't blow away. An area where you want to choke out the plants that may grow there. An area that's big and needs to be filled with something that will last a long time.

The path between my raised beds

The first place I use pine needles is on the pathways between my vegetable garden beds. After raking up needles, and raking again and again in the same spot to get as many as possible, I place them in thick layers on my garden paths. Rain, snow, my wheelbarrow, and multiple trips through the garden will compress them into a dense mat that keeps weeds in check. Any weeds that do manage to grow are quickly spotted against the brown background and easily pulled out. Before they're compacted, while still fresh, needles can be slippery when wet so be cautious.

I think they're a near-perfect mulch for my strawberries. They stay in place and keep the fruit dry and off the ground. In sections I use pine needles, my strawberries have fewer fungus and mold problems. I also have fewer issues with slugs; I suspect the sharp tips and rough edges help keep them at bay. When using pine needles as a mulch in the garden it helps to have irrigation in place first. If they're not compacted, the needles will allow water to seep to the ground and the plants, but a soaker hose or drip system in place under the needles works best.

They're also a great mulch for many other areas. Use them alone or with bark as mulch under fruit trees. They don't interfere with perennial plant growth and add a nice color contrast to leafy plants like hostas. The needles don't attract termites and can be used as a mulch in beds directly next to a house.

Individually, I use them as temporary seed markers. In the spring as I plant rows of seeds, I'll use a pine needle bundle to mark where I've already planted. They're already shaped like a stake and are easy to push in the soil. As the new plants grow a few needles don't hinder their progress and will become additional mulch.

Helping with erosion

They're a cheap and easy way to control erosion in problem areas. I've had sloping sections in my garden where the soil always flowed away in heavy rains. A heavy addition of needles helps keep it all in place. They work their way into the soil when it's wet and create a natural wall that inhibits erosion.

They can also be used, like straw, as a protective blanket during cold months. Cover tender plants or bulbs with a pile of pine needles and you've added a nice insulating barrier to the cold.

Of course there are many other uses. They're easy fire starters for an outdoor fire pit. Birds will pick through your beds for needles to use in nests. They can cushion clay pots from the hard ground. You can even weave baskets with them.

So look upon your needles as a blessing, not a curse. Sure it takes more effort to collect every last one of them, but they really do benefit to the garden. I saved one of the best advantages for last: if you or a friend has a pine tree, they're free. You won't need to spend hard-earned money on store-bought mulch for areas where pine needles will work. How great is that?

(Want more ideas for using pine needles? Check out my update article, "Uses for Pine Needles" on November 30, 2011)

Pine needles are a scourge to many gardeners. While leaves that have fallen from trees can be easily raked up, blown away, or crushed underfoot, pine needles lie in ever-growing mats on the ground and are more difficult to remove. If left in place they choke the life from grass or flowers planted beneath a tree. Leaves can be composted easily while needles seem to take forever to break down. For many gardeners pine needles have a place in the forest, but not in the garden.

I look forward to my annual resupply of pine needles. I think they have a definite place in the garden and offer a great example of how to recycle nature's bounty. My Ponderosa pines play an important role in my landscape.

Newly-raked needles

Pine needles, for my purposes here, are the brown, dried needles that have fallen from pine trees. You may also have heard them referred to as pine straw. Just as deciduous trees drop there leaves in the fall, pines drop a portion of their needles from the innermost sections of branches. Spruce and fir trees will also drop needles, but they tend to be much shorter in length and don't pose nearly as many problems as the longer pine needles. My Ponderosa pine needles are 6-7 inches long.

One of the first negative issues with pine needles is that they're notoriously difficult to remove from your lawn. When you try to rake them, their slender profile causes many of them to slide through the rake's tines and remain where they were. If you try to pick them up barehanded, their sharp points prick your skin. They cling to grass and plants and won't blow away even in the strongest winds.

If left in place, they form a thick barrier that keeps sun, water, and air from reaching plants underneath. That's why you see so many bare areas beneath pine trees. Though needles are slightly acidic, they really don't change the pH of the soil. The reason you have difficulty growing under a big pine is that the tree shades the ground and reduces the amount of moisture that reaches the soil. Add a layer of needles and plants will struggle to survive.

Another negative factor is that they take a long time to decompose. You can add them to your compost pile, but after everything else has broken down and turned into lovely, black compost, the needles will still remain intact. Burning them is rarely an option for many people, so you're left with piles of needles that take up space.

I see all three of these negative aspects as advantages for using pine needles in the garden. Think about areas of your garden where you want a mulch that stays in place and won't blow away. An area where you want to choke out the plants that may grow there. An area that's big and needs to be filled with something that will last a long time.

The path between my raised beds

The first place I use pine needles is on the pathways between my vegetable garden beds. After raking up needles, and raking again and again in the same spot to get as many as possible, I place them in thick layers on my garden paths. Rain, snow, my wheelbarrow, and multiple trips through the garden will compress them into a dense mat that keeps weeds in check. Any weeds that do manage to grow are quickly spotted against the brown background and easily pulled out. Before they're compacted, while still fresh, needles can be slippery when wet so be cautious.

I think they're a near-perfect mulch for my strawberries. They stay in place and keep the fruit dry and off the ground. In sections I use pine needles, my strawberries have fewer fungus and mold problems. I also have fewer issues with slugs; I suspect the sharp tips and rough edges help keep them at bay. When using pine needles as a mulch in the garden it helps to have irrigation in place first. If they're not compacted, the needles will allow water to seep to the ground and the plants, but a soaker hose or drip system in place under the needles works best.

They're also a great mulch for many other areas. Use them alone or with bark as mulch under fruit trees. They don't interfere with perennial plant growth and add a nice color contrast to leafy plants like hostas. The needles don't attract termites and can be used as a mulch in beds directly next to a house.

Individually, I use them as temporary seed markers. In the spring as I plant rows of seeds, I'll use a pine needle bundle to mark where I've already planted. They're already shaped like a stake and are easy to push in the soil. As the new plants grow a few needles don't hinder their progress and will become additional mulch.

Helping with erosion

They're a cheap and easy way to control erosion in problem areas. I've had sloping sections in my garden where the soil always flowed away in heavy rains. A heavy addition of needles helps keep it all in place. They work their way into the soil when it's wet and create a natural wall that inhibits erosion.

They can also be used, like straw, as a protective blanket during cold months. Cover tender plants or bulbs with a pile of pine needles and you've added a nice insulating barrier to the cold.

Of course there are many other uses. They're easy fire starters for an outdoor fire pit. Birds will pick through your beds for needles to use in nests. They can cushion clay pots from the hard ground. You can even weave baskets with them.

So look upon your needles as a blessing, not a curse. Sure it takes more effort to collect every last one of them, but they really do benefit to the garden. I saved one of the best advantages for last: if you or a friend has a pine tree, they're free. You won't need to spend hard-earned money on store-bought mulch for areas where pine needles will work. How great is that?

(Want more ideas for using pine needles? Check out my update article, "Uses for Pine Needles" on November 30, 2011)

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.

Hay, You Get Out of My Yard!

I love green in the garden, most of the time. With the construction of my raised beds this year, vegetable gardening has been easier than ever. It's a breeze to organize the plants, water and fertilize them, and take care of the inevitable weeding. And that's the green I don't care for...weeds. This season I decided to experiment with mulches and in the process created a nightmare.

Mulches are an important part of well-maintained gardens. Mulch does marvelous things: it moderates soil moisture and temperature; it can add an aesthetic value; it protects tender plants from frost and sun damage; it can add nutrients to the soil; and it can reduce the quantity of weeds. Of course it only reduces weeds if you use the correct mulch.

In a vegetable garden you should use an organic mulch. Inorganic mulches like rocks and plastic can work, but they're not ideal. The nice thing about using organic mulches is that you can till or turn them into the soil at the end of the growing season and you've added organic matter to help improve your soil. I advocate mulches like dried grass and straw; they protect your plants and break down easily over the winter.

My experiment was to use a different mulch in each of my beds. I'd saved bags of leaves from last fall, so had crushed, dried leaves; I saved grass clippings from mowing and let them dry out a little; I had bushels of hay from the barn; and I had some straw. I know straw works pretty well so left it out of the experiment.  In one bed I put leaves, another was hay, another was leaves topped with hay, another was hay topped with leaves, another was leaves topped with grass, another was grass, and for a control bed I didn't use any mulch.

It was very windy when I first started the process. Within two days most of the leaves in the leaves-only bed and the leaves-on-top bed had blown away; I replaced as much as I could. The hay and grass stayed pretty constant and the other combinations of grass and hay with leaves stayed in place best. Phase one showed that grass and hay does a pretty good job, but when you mix grass and leaves together it does very well at staying where you put it.

After watering and summer rains, phase two began. As expected, the grass and hay began to mat down and compress. It did a great job of keeping the soil moisture from evaporating, but it also hindered some of the water movement from above into the soil. The combination of grass and leaves seemed better, but also had some compacting in places.

Phase three was the most interesting and annoying aspect of the test. The grass and leaves bed had almost no weeds. The control bed had a few weeds, but nothing out of the ordinary. All of the beds with hay had weeds and the hay-only bed was the worst; it developed into very grassy growth. Multiple weedings helped, but the grass kept growing back. My conclusion is that typical ranch hay has millions of seeds and if you use it in your garden you'll introduce a new crop of hay.

Though relatively inexpensive as a mulch, hay has added hours of weeding to my normal gardening tasks. As the summer progressed, I occasionally added a new layer or two of lawn grass to a few beds and they're all doing great as far as weeds are concerned. The beds mulched with hay continue to produce green, grassy weeds.

Bottom line: don't use hay as a mulch unless you intentionally want to grow more hay. I've used newspapers and straw with great success. Though leaving grass clippings on your lawn is the best thing to do, occasionally bagging some for garden mulch can be very cost effective. Leaves are also cheap and make a great additive to grass.

I love green in the garden, most of the time. With the construction of my raised beds this year, vegetable gardening has been easier than ever. It's a breeze to organize the plants, water and fertilize them, and take care of the inevitable weeding. And that's the green I don't care for...weeds. This season I decided to experiment with mulches and in the process created a nightmare.

Mulches are an important part of well-maintained gardens. Mulch does marvelous things: it moderates soil moisture and temperature; it can add an aesthetic value; it protects tender plants from frost and sun damage; it can add nutrients to the soil; and it can reduce the quantity of weeds. Of course it only reduces weeds if you use the correct mulch.

In a vegetable garden you should use an organic mulch. Inorganic mulches like rocks and plastic can work, but they're not ideal. The nice thing about using organic mulches is that you can till or turn them into the soil at the end of the growing season and you've added organic matter to help improve your soil. I advocate mulches like dried grass and straw; they protect your plants and break down easily over the winter.

My experiment was to use a different mulch in each of my beds. I'd saved bags of leaves from last fall, so had crushed, dried leaves; I saved grass clippings from mowing and let them dry out a little; I had bushels of hay from the barn; and I had some straw. I know straw works pretty well so left it out of the experiment.  In one bed I put leaves, another was hay, another was leaves topped with hay, another was hay topped with leaves, another was leaves topped with grass, another was grass, and for a control bed I didn't use any mulch.

It was very windy when I first started the process. Within two days most of the leaves in the leaves-only bed and the leaves-on-top bed had blown away; I replaced as much as I could. The hay and grass stayed pretty constant and the other combinations of grass and hay with leaves stayed in place best. Phase one showed that grass and hay does a pretty good job, but when you mix grass and leaves together it does very well at staying where you put it.

After watering and summer rains, phase two began. As expected, the grass and hay began to mat down and compress. It did a great job of keeping the soil moisture from evaporating, but it also hindered some of the water movement from above into the soil. The combination of grass and leaves seemed better, but also had some compacting in places.

Phase three was the most interesting and annoying aspect of the test. The grass and leaves bed had almost no weeds. The control bed had a few weeds, but nothing out of the ordinary. All of the beds with hay had weeds and the hay-only bed was the worst; it developed into very grassy growth. Multiple weedings helped, but the grass kept growing back. My conclusion is that typical ranch hay has millions of seeds and if you use it in your garden you'll introduce a new crop of hay.

Though relatively inexpensive as a mulch, hay has added hours of weeding to my normal gardening tasks. As the summer progressed, I occasionally added a new layer or two of lawn grass to a few beds and they're all doing great as far as weeds are concerned. The beds mulched with hay continue to produce green, grassy weeds.

Bottom line: don't use hay as a mulch unless you intentionally want to grow more hay. I've used newspapers and straw with great success. Though leaving grass clippings on your lawn is the best thing to do, occasionally bagging some for garden mulch can be very cost effective. Leaves are also cheap and make a great additive to grass.