"The Mulching Mind"

Here a Mulch, There a Mulch, Everywhere a Mulch, Mulch

Mulch can consist of a variety of materials, and by definition, it does a number of things. First and foremost, it’s a protective cover placed over the soil to retain moisture. Mulch also helps to reduce erosion, suppress weed germination and growth, and provide nutrients to the soil as it decays.

Got all that?

In simpler terms, mulch is whatever you put down to protect plant roots. Mulch can be made of many things. There’s rubber mulch, made from shredded tires. Plastic sheeting acts as mulch. Even landscaping rock and gravel can serve as mulch. But at the top of the mulch heap are the environmentally friendly bark mulch and pine straw.

Bark mulch retains moisture longer than most other mulches, but decays quicker. So it’s good for returning lots of nutrients to the soil in the short term, and will save you some watering. For cities with water restrictions, bark mulch or wood chips are the way to go. Wood mulches also help to keep plant roots cool. Temperatures in the south and western states can be scorching. So while you’re trying not to break a sweat, mulching your outdoor plants will cool them off, too.

Pine needles or pine straw, as it’s called in the south, are commonly used as mulch in parts of the country where long-needle pine trees are prevalent. Pine straw also retains moisture which means a lower water bill. Also, a layer of pine straw about 3 to 4 inches thick can practically eliminate the growth of weeds—Bonus!

What other materials have you used or seen used for mulch?

Mulch, a basic element of Xeriscape

Back in 1978 a new term was coined in Colorado that has a growing impact on the landscape business.  As water conservation becomes more prevalent all over the world, EnviroColor® encourages the use of this landscape technique to keep "water wise"

Xeros from the Greek, meaning dry.

Xeriscape landscaping is a growing trend among individuals, organizations and corporations who want to do their part is preserving our environment.  Through the use of low water consuming plants and gardening practices that support water conservation, we can extend the life of our precious clean water supplies.

Many pursue xeriscaping primarily as a means to lower their own water consumption.  This practice has a "bigger picture" trickle down effect.  Even if you are not thinking as much about "going green" or helping the environment, you inevitably contribute to building a sustainable future.

Xeriscape landscaping incorporates seven basic principles which lead to saving water:

• Planning and design
• Soil analysis
• Practical turf areas
• Appropriate plant selection
• Efficient irrigation
• Use of mulches
• Appropriate maintenance

By incorporating these seven principles, you can help preserve our most precious natural resource-water.

Mulching Conserves Moisture

Mulch is a layer of nonliving material covering the soil surface around plants. Mulches can be organic materials such as pine bark, pine needles, compost and wood chips; or inorganic materials, such as lava rock, limestone or permeable plastic, not sheet plastic.

Use mulch wherever possible. Good mulch conserves water by significantly reducing moisture evaporation from the soil. Mulch also reduces weed populations, prevents soil compaction and keeps soil temperatures more moderate.

If it is color you desire in your xeriscape, remember EnviroColor® Georgia Pine, Sierra Red, Cocoa Brown and Black Forest to enhance the color and extend the life of your mulch.

Colored Ground Cover Christmas Wish

For Christians all over the world this is a special time of the year as they are celebrating the birth of their Savior.  We here at EnviroColor® wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the obligatory Happy New Year too! 

We are excited about what the new year has in store for our brand and for all the individuals who are searching for the perfect solutions to their ground cover needs.  As was mentioned last week we are perfecting our 4EverGreen grass colorant.  This new product is the perfect item for the lawn fanatic who desires the "perfect" looking yard.  As always we are striving to provide the end user the best top spray solutions for mulch, pine straw and now grass.

Sales pitch is over, seriously, we want our subscribers, readers and patrons to have a splendid holiday season.  May you cherish the moments made this Christmas.

Merry Christmas from EnviroColor®.

        

Peace to all!

 

Winterizing with Pine Straw Mulch

I am spending so much time in the yard on the weekends preparing all my plants for winter I fugured I needed to share my finds with the rest of you.  I have collected a great article from author Terry Gray and just anded a quip or two concerning ways to enhance and enrich the natural color of the suggested type of mulch.  Enjoy and get your yard ready for the winter season!

                                

 

It is considered the fact Pine Straw Mulch is a sustainable, renewable resource, it's so simple and lightweight to work with pine needle and looks very attractive especially with a top spray of EnviroColor®. Young seedlings can grow through pine needle, water can filter down through it, the ground can breathe and yet pine straw still holds in moisture. It lasts longer than other similar materials and pine needle won't shift off with the first steady rain.

In fall mulching with pine straw has an significant function since temperatures in the late fall to winter months can change radically. The ground heaves as it freezes and thaws, forcing the root systems of many fragile plants up from the soil and exposing them to the elements. Nearly all plants are much healthier when they have a bed of pine needle mulch spread over their roots.

When mulching with pine straw you should wait until the ground is frozen or just about frozen before you add the pine needle. Any sooner cover will boost mold and mildew to form on the surface. Generally, a 2- to 3-inch bed of pine needle mulch situated over the root zone of a plant will provide a noticeable difference in the plant's health. Established plants will show less stress and better growth. Just be sure to pull pine straw mulch an inch or two aside from the stems of shrubs or from the trunks of trees.  If pine needle mulch is placed up against trunks or stems, it can contain too much water and encourage decay on the bark.

Many people make the error of using less reliable fall mulch such as hay in their garden. Hay is not a good alternative to pine straw since hay often carries seeds that will sooner or later sprout and cause weed problems in your garden in the spring. Pine straw comes from several different species of pine trees that drop their pine needles by nature throughout the year. Since it is produced naturally, pine straw sometimes is referred to as the "guilt-free" mulch. Each species' of pine tree will have its own unique characteristics, such as pine needle length, wax content and pine needle flexibility. The Loblolly species of pine straw, for instance, has a pine needle length ranging from about six to nine inches, making it simple to use and shape. Also, the needle sizing is optimal for allowing the soil to breathe well while allowing first-class water infiltration.

Ideally, garden mulch for the winter is added in the fall to protect against sudden and extreme temperature dips before plants have had a chance to fully harden. A few inches of pine straw mulch can provide a cushion of as much as 10 degrees above ambient air temperatures which is just enough to keep roots growing. And certainly, a top layer of pine needle mulch offers decorative appeal and for more enriched natural pine needle color, use EnviroColor®, to make the garden looked cared for at a time when the yard can look a little underwhelming.

Winter Mulch for Roses

A couple of weeks ago I forwarded some advice on fall mulching, now with the occurance of the first major frost in the Metro Atlanta area I figured I had better find out what to do for my roses come cold weather.  This is the best advice I found.......

 

                            

 

OLATHE, Kan. - Many gardeners find the concept hard to accept: You shouldn't protect most perennial plants from each year's late-season decline into freezing weather.

"With few exceptions, plants need to go through the transition on their own, so they enter winter dormancy on time. You only apply winter mulch after that, because its sole purpose is to hold in the soil's cold. That way, it can buffer any air temperature changes that come later on, during winter's freeze-thaw cycles," said Dennis Patton, horticulturist with Kansas State University Research and Extension.

In general, plants become fully dormant after two to three hard freezes in the mid to low twenties, he said.

Winter mulch protection is particularly important for any limited- or shallow-rooted plants, Patton said. In Kansas, they include such "semi-hardy" plants as mums and strawberries, as well as all trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs that have been in the landscape for less than a year.

Winter mulch is vital to the survival of grafted roses, too, he added, which typically mean all hybrid teas.

"Winter's repeated pattern of freezing and thawing kills more plants in the Midwest than sub-zero temperatures do," Patton warned. "In unmulched landscapes, the shifts can heave some plants from the ground, exposing roots to air. Plus, they can expose plant grafts and crowns - the places where stems and roots meet -- to hard, killing freezes."

In late winter or early spring, the mulch's role can gain even more importance, he said. The insulating cover can hold in soil's cold so that unseasonably warm weather doesn't cue plants to break dormancy.

"If these periods are long enough for unmulched perennials to lose some winter hardiness, the plants are open for major, even fatal damage when the weather turns cold again," Patton said.

Because winter mulch also can moderate soil moisture loss, however, it can benefit any landscape plant. Freeze-thaw cycles tend to dry out the soil, creating plant stress, the horticulturist said. Mulching also protects the soil from the compaction and erosion that winter rains and snowmelt can cause.

For perennial gardens, Patton recommends a 2- to 3-inch-deep layer of a light, airy mulch material, such as straw, shredded leaves or pine needles. (One bail of straw can cover about 100 square feet 3 inches deep.) Deeper layers can suffocate plants over winter.

Plants with woody stems or trunks will need an inch or two of "air space" between mulch and wood - "as if their trunk is inside the hole of a mulch doughnut," he said. "As they decompose, mulch ‘volcanoes' that touch the main stem can cause the same damage as placing a woody plant too deep in the ground."

Grafted roses are the exception to the doughnut rule, Patton warned. The best protection for their crown and graft is a mound of garden soil, gathered from elsewhere in the landscape. The soil cone should be about 6 inches deep. A top layer of straw or leaves will help prevent erosion.

"You should periodically inspect roses and other low-branching shrubs until spring growth begins and you remove winter's mulch," he said. "You may have to institute other protective measures if varmints are using the mulch as cover or climbing on top of snow-covered mulch to gnaw on branches."

Thanks to Kansas State and Dennis Patton.  Happy Holidays everyone and I hope your roses appreciate the extra care.  Looking forward to your comments.

 

 

 

New Trees and mulched tree rings at your club

Great ideas on how to make your course play "new"  Just remember the tree rings and the pine straw!

http://grounds-mag.com/golf_courses/grounds_maintenance_improve_course_strategic/

                       

Slopes and lawn/groundcover maintenance

These are some great ideas to deal with the issues slopes create in our care of our lawns and gardens.  Mr. Fech points out some great ways to deal with water, fertilizer and ground cover.  To learn more follow here...index.html

As you  can see pine straw is used widely in the southeast because it can stay in place better than wood mulch.

Color Coverage and Value

 

Question: what is more valuable to your property, a thick layer of pine straw or great color all season long maximizing your dollars spent on your ground cover? 

This is highly subjective and every opinion is valid.  Commercially, property owners and managers are realizing that laying pine straw every six months keeps a nice thick layer of ground cover, but the color seems to last 60 days or so.  Most are searching for alternatives to keep the curb appeal popping all season long while reducing their expenses in this economic climate.  The future for commercial ground cover is coverage, color and value, not bale counts or yards.  Differentiate your property now!  Let the EnviroColor® service team help.

 

 What is your preference?

                      

What is Pine Staw? A clincal explination

PINE NEEDLES
Mulch
Opportunities for harvesting pine needles for mulch in south-eastern United States, where fast growing pine forests and plantations are abundant (P. elliottii, P. palustris, P. taeda), is reviewed by Beckwith et al. (1995) and Stanton and Hamilton (1993). In this region, the use of pine needles for mulches in landscaping has become popular. Consequently, the carpet of pine needles under a pine stand has become a valuable resource and harvesting and selling of pine "straw" has become a profitable enterprise for forest farmers. Since the pine mulch breaks down rapidly and must be replaced at 1-2 year intervals, there is an almost unlimited market for this product.

The needles of P. elliottii and P. palustris are long and can be readily baled. The needles of these pines provide an excellent ground cover. Pinus taeda needles are shorter and more difficult to bail but are also an excellent ground cover.

Needles fall throughout the year, but in south-eastern United States, heaviest needle shedding occurs between September and October during normal weather conditions. December, January and February are good months for gathering pine straw, provided that the bales are delivered directly to the dealer or stored under a shelter.

Pine straw is usually gathered into piles with a pitchfork or mechanical rake for bailing. Where the understory vegetation prevents the use of tractor mounted rakes, pine straw is raked and piled entirely with pitchforks. Baling pine straw is a labour-intensive process. One person loads the straw into the baler with a pitchfork and another ties the wire that binds the bale and a third person stacks the bales. A three-person crew can produce from 250 to 300 bales per day. Higher production can be achieved if partial windrows can be formed and the straw then fed into the pickup reel of the baler, where it is mechanically tied with twine. The most efficient production is attained when the straw is raked into long, clean windrows, picked up mechanically, baled and pushed out to the side. Production by this method can achieve 1 000 bales per day.

Pine straw harvesting can begin in pine plantations as early as age six when yields as high as 110 150 bales/ha, every two years, have been reported. Fifteen-year-old pine forests can yield in excess of 440 bales/ha. Vigorous young to mid-age forests will yield more pine straw that older, lower vigour forests. A low annual yield is 110 bales/ha, an average yield is 150 bales/ha and a high yield is 220 bales/ha.

Yields of pine straw can be increased through fertilization. Bales free of cones, hardwood leaves and limbs are the most desired. To produce clean bales of pine straw, stands should be free of undergrowth and debris. Mechanized bailing operations on good sites can produce 1 000 bales/day. Bales of pine straw currently sell for US$2.50 wholesale and US$4.00 retail. Many forest landowners often sell their pine straw to producers who do the raking and baling. The producer pays by the bale with prices ranging from US$0.25 to US$1.00 per bale.

Advantages of pine straw harvesting in pine forests include:

it provides a source of income while trees are being grown for timber or pulpwood;
weed control and fertilization to increase pine straw production may improve timber productivity;
forest land owners can obtain a reasonable income with little personal input by leasing pine straw bailing rights to a commercial producer.

http://www.putnalspinestraw.com/