Speaker 1: Welcome to the Simple Garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated
to keeping the yard of gardening simple, fun and always rewarding.
Now Here are your hosts, Jim and Marycompetti.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome everybody. You are listening to the Simple
Garden Life Podcast. I am your host, Jim Competty, along
with my wife Mary Mary. Good afternoon here as we
handle our third podcast of the season.
Speaker 3: We're excited to keep going.
Speaker 2: We are, we are. Today's topic is going to be
a great one. We'll get to that in a second.
It has to do with weeds and multing and flowerbeds
and everybody's interested in. We have some great tips today
and some big things to avoid. But before we do that,
introduce ourselves. We have our farm here just in Quaker City, Ohio,
just about an hour and a half east of Columbus.
We've had our podcast going now for gosh, can't believe
this five years. That's crazy, Hi, this is kind of crazy.
You can always email us at the farm at Owgarden
dot com. You can also check out all of our
website and farm at owgarden dot com, and of course,
our podcast is listed on this Simplegardenlife dot com website
that we do all of a lot of our garden
advice and everything, but boy, the podcast is really given
us a chance to connect to so many more people.
We get so many emails, and we really really do
enjoy it. And this topic today Mary the three biggest
mistakes gardeners make when mulching flowerbeds and how to avoid them,
not just to avoid them, but avoid them for less weeds,
less work, and healthier plants. And they really do make
a big difference.
Speaker 3: Right with the sun coming out last week and being
the eighties here, everybody's jumping to the gun to get
their flowerbeds mulched.
Speaker 2: That's right. Well, you know, we talk about this all
the time when it comes to healthy plants and weed
free flowerbeds. There's one answer, and it's mulch. It's a
good layer of mulch. But there's so many things that
people do that really put them behind when it comes
to multi They use a lot of effort, they do
a lot of hard work, but it actually at the
end of the day sometimes creates more weeds.
Speaker 3: Right, Actually putting down that mulch can actually hurt your
flowerbeds instead of help if you don't do it the
right way and with the right material, and.
Speaker 2: It's not just weeds. Mult helps to regulate the soil temperature.
It keeps the roots of plants from getting too warm
or too cold, and it helps retain moisture for those plants,
which can be huge, keeping them hydrated through droughts, and
also shed some extra water sometimes when there's a little
bit too much rain coming. But let's face it, I mean,
there's one reason that most people put down mulch.
Speaker 3: That's to stop weeds from growing.
Speaker 2: That's right, And unfortunately a lot of people go through
that expense and the effort of moulting their beds every
year and hopes to finally put it into their weeding chores,
and that mulching process only helps their weed problems intensify
and multiply.
Speaker 3: Right, Sometimes it looks beautiful for the first couple of
weeks and maybe even the month, but come month two
and three, they're putting more effort into those flower beds
and then necessary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when we hold our garden classes here, when we
speak around this is always a big topic for us
and people want to know. So how do I avoid
all of that hard work, all the expense and that
heartache of mulching in two weeks later, watching thousands of
more weeds come up, and you're like, what would I
do wrong? You know, I'm not going to spend this
money anymore. A lot of times people get to that
point where they think, well, I'm going to try a
landskip fabric. In fact, we have another podcast coming up
in a few weeks about why you don't want to
use landscape fabrics. So that's not the answer. The real
answer is mulch. And I think I don't know about you,
but I think we just get right into it. Number one.
I mean, these are all three big valid points. But
when you're talking about avoiding the three most common multi mistakes,
I think one, Mary, I mean, it's using the wrong.
Speaker 3: Mulch, right. It plays a huge role in the fertility
of your soil by picking out the right materials.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean when multing annuals, perennials, even shrubs, bushes, trees,
even when you're in your garden. It's really a best
to avoid all of these products that people think are
going to be long term because they don't help your soil.
They can hurt your plants. And what are we talking about.
Speaker 3: Number one is stone or pebbles, or rocks.
Speaker 2: Stone and synthetic rubber. You know there's a lot of
synthetic mulches out right now. Yes they last, and yes
stone can last too, but there's a lot of downfalls
we'll get into and there's no nutrients in those none whatsoever.
And so when you put stone down or you put
that rubber down, a lot times people put the fabric
underneath it. There's your soil is never going to get
fed again unless it's through a fertilizer, and that's it.
Speaker 3: And they can actually harm your plants than rather doing
them good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you talk about stone, let's cover that first. I mean,
mini gardeners like it because it's permanent. We do use
It's kind of funny. We have some beds with stones
for like ornamental grass areas, things that are very durable,
but when it comes to our perennials and high powered
plants and all of that, we just don't do it.
Why because stone it's not just permanent, it won't break down,
but it's also a bad choice because of how much
heat it can draw in For most perennial plants in
the summer.
Speaker 3: Right, if just touch that stone in the midsummer, went's
super hot out and you can tell that the stone
produces heat and that heat is going to go to
the soil below it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that can help a little bit in early spring
and late fall and keep your plants warm, but the
rest of the time it's working against you. And on
top of it, it can also help dry out the
soil that much quicker because those stones get hot and
they hold that heat. So when it heats up quickly,
sun beats down on it, and as it does, it
heats that soil temperature sometimes so much that not dries
it out, but it hurts the roots of the plants.
And then in addition, it doesn't break down. So the
soil we've talked about this, there are zero nutrients. I mean,
I guess if you garden for one point two million
years and that's still and broke down, you'd get a
little calcium and other things. But let's face it's not
going to happen in our lifetime. So if that's not
the answer, Mary, what's what's the next question? Obviously, the
best mult for stopping weeds? What is the best mulch?
And so for us, you know we have one one
go to multi more than anything else, and that's hardwood
shredded mulch.
Speaker 3: Yes, and luckily we live close to a saw mill
that we can get it in bulk. But it is
it's the hardwood. The shredded hardwood mulch is the best
to use in your flowerbeds.
Speaker 2: But not all hardwood mults are the same. So Mary said,
a great question. Now we have and if you live
near sawmills that have hardwoods, this is a great way
to save big on your budget. But even if you're
buying bag mulch, that's fine. But there's a couple of
things you want to avoid. You know, I used to,
way back in the day have a landscape business on
the side. For many many years, peop would always say,
I want that real fine multch that it almost looks
like dirt. You plant that and you put that in
your beds and you're going to have hundreds and thousands
of weeds, right.
Speaker 3: You know, that's been the big trend here the last
ten years, is you know that very finely triple shredded,
and a lot of times the black mult is what
a lot of people buy. And it looks gorgeous, it
looks pretty, but that is not the best answer if
you want to keep your work down and your weeds less.
Speaker 2: No, not only is it expensive, it breaks down super
quickly and soil and now that's great for your soil.
It's going to add some some nutrients pretty quickly. But
you're going to be putting that on two to three
times a year if you really want to try to
get it to work. And really, when it's triple shredded
or what they call super pine, it's already in a
soil consistency. Well, when we say soil consistency, what happens
to that? I mean it's going to germinate seeds, not
just seeds in your garden, but weed seeds that blow in,
and that's really where it becomes the biggest problem. But
shredded hardwood bark is the way to go. It gives
the most nutrients as plants break down. But we like
a single shred it's a little but boy, it forms
that really nice thick matt in there and it comes.
It just makes such a difference as to other mulches.
Speaker 3: And it makes it nearly impossible for weed seas to
penetrate through the different layers of the mulch, versus a
finally shredded where it could go right straight down to
the soil.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and those weed seeds find their home. So let's
talk about some other ones. Let's cover it. You can
use some other mulches. Pine bark and shredded pine mulches
are okay to use. The only issue with them is
they don't add the same levels that a hard wood
mulch will. You know, it's not going to break down
and give those ingredients of everything that's really really good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And one thing we want to mention is when
you're getting especially if we go to a sawmill and
you're getting the hardwood mulch, there are certain trees that
should not be used in your flower beds for best results.
Speaker 2: Yeah. My first question is are there buckeye or walnut
trees in our area because they can actually harm plants.
So great, great calumary to talk about that. You know,
you're looking for maples and white oaks and things like that,
and they just stay away from the harmful trees like
we talk about. But overall, when you buy it in
the store, it's gonna it's gonna be those good mulches.
So we talked about pine bark and like I said,
they're usable. One one missed one mystique about pine bark,
and everybody's like, well, it's gonna make your soil acidic
pine bark when it's older, and pine needles once they're red,
they have very little acidity. People don't realize that, so
you can use them. It's the real problem with them
is they don't grip together fine enough to really make
a weed barrier, and they don't add much nutrient levels
at all to your soil as they break down. So
those those are good My least favorite. Do you want
to say it?
Speaker 3: Cres?
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, it's just avoid it. First of all, it's
not a good mulch. It doesn't break down. It tangles
to the point where nothing can get through it, not water,
not nutrients. It's just not good. It's that that orangish
cypress collar and it turns to that really really ugly bround.
Can you tell I don't like it. I mean, it's
just it's just not a good mult to use it.
If we if we leave here anything today, I just
have to tell you hardwood is the absolute best option
for flower beds. And you know, we'll talk about later
it's how you also put it on. But hardwood mulch.
Speaker 3: Is the way to go that's either single perfectly single shred,
but also double shredded would be okay as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can use double shred. I think if you
use double shredded, you've got to put a little bit thicker, thicker.
Level one or what some people do. I love this
is use a single shred for your first four to
five inches and then put that double shred on if
you like that little bit better, softer, softer look. Yeah,
but don't go too far with that. Some people say, well,
why can't I do that? And then put down a
half an inch or an inch of the ultrafying Because
Mary said it. When you put ultrafying down, you're putting
soil right there, and it's gonna wiggle down between that mulch,
and it's gonna have the weed seeds Germany without ever
touching the real soil. It's gonna go right in your
mulch level and then you're really gonna be frustrated. So
that's common mistake Number one. We have two more big ones.
We're going to take a break and we'll be back
right after this to talk about number two and number three.
So that this year, when you mulch, you're multiing to
stop those weeds for good and keep your plants healthy.
And we are back talking about the biggest multi mistakes made.
And you know number one was the type of mulch,
But number two is, boy, if you were trying to
get rid of weeds, don't make that mistake. So many
gardeners do. They think, well, I'm gonna go out and
put three to five inches and mulch down right over
top of those weeds. And that's the end. And what
does that cause Mary?
Speaker 3: More weeds, more bigger and stronger weeds. Actually, yeah, it's a.
Speaker 2: Plain simple fact. If you're not going to eliminate those
beads or those weeds excuse me, that already exist in
your flower beds, they're going to come back.
Speaker 3: I wish that would work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, I watch people try to say,
what if I trim them down? What if I do? Look,
take the time one time to get those weeds out. Now, listen,
if you have big expanse of bad areas and there's
not a lot of plants in them right now, yes,
you know you get in there. You can. You could
till once. I hate that to do that, but get
dig those roots out, dig the weeds out, get them
out strong, and start fresh. Once you do that, trust me,
it will be amazing what will happen. Because if you
dig them out a few seeds that are in there
and you put it on a stick as you need to,
and that's the number three. We'll get to number three
in a second. It's going to keep those suppressed. But
a strong taproot of a dandelion or a thistle, it's
going to come right through there and be stronger than ever.
So go through there. I mean, mulch is expensive and
it takes so much time to keep mulching year after year.
So that's why you want to take time one time
to do it right.
Speaker 3: From the start, right and you know, trying to get
to those weeds, and I know sometimes it's so frustrated.
You go get a dandelion and you almost think you
have it and it snaps off. That's okay, you know,
you try to get through it if you can do
the best you can. And my biggest device when weeding
is do it when the soil is lightly moist, yes,
not overdry, not overwet, and those weeds roots come out
much easier.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And we have a couple of articles on the
site and if you just go to you know, either
Simple Garden Life or any of our sites, this is
my garden or old woral garden, and you put in
like vinegar or horticulture vinegar or thistles. Thistles are the
big ones for most people, and you can actually use
that on them to kill them before you put them on.
You just got to be careful how and where you spray,
because it's going to kill anything it touches. But you
want to get those out, as you said, before you
ever start it. And the best thing is use a
weed fork or something like that. When I talk about tilling,
that's like a last resort because your bed is completely overtaken.
The more the less you disturb your soil when you're
pulling weeds out, the less likely other weeds seats are
gonna get planted.
Speaker 3: I think it's probably important Jim to tell us what
is a weed fork, because not everybody might know what
a weed is.
Speaker 2: That's a great question. So we'ed four because you probably
remember if you've ever watched your back in the day,
your commercial grandparents. Yeah, do it. It's just a long
metal rod on the end of like almost like a
screwdriver and it's got two little prongs. They also make
stand up ones which are fantastic. It's it's more like
a shovel handle with the prongs and you can actually
rock it back to get big weeds out. You can
go to any of your home and garden stores. Are
also on Amazon you can find them. But boy, they
can be great for your back, I mean taking taking
a lot of weeds out quickly. They're wonderful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think the big thing about when you
take out the weeds is you have to be really
careful not to use a big shovel and bring up
that dirt to the surface because all you're doing is
replanning the weed seeds that.
Speaker 2: We're right there eight to twelve inches. You're absolutely right.
So okay, so we've covered one. We've covered two, which is,
you know, using the wrong mulch and then mulching right
over top of weeds. Here's from my mind. Once you
have anything set, this is the biggest of all. It's
not mulching deep enough. Don't skimp on your mulch because
you're going to end up in the long run, having
a lot more mulch put down in subsequent months years
because you didn't do it right the first time, so
people always like, are you serious. It really needs it
has to be has to be at least four inches
stick to work. If it's not four inches stick, weeds
are going to find their way through and gonna we'd.
Seeds are going to find their way into the soil.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you have if you have the resources too.
I mean I would go even to go up to
six inches to help get those weeds out of your
flower beds.
Speaker 2: Six inches by far the best. It's enough to stop
weeds from finding the home below and also deep enough
to conserve the moisture for plants regulate soil temperature. And
everybody's like, that's that's half a foot of mulch, and
you're absolutely right. That is the way to eliminate weed.
I mean, we have large beds, and other than the
springtime in the fall when we're just cleaning them up.
When we do, we don't really have to touch them
a lot. I mean it's a few minutes here and
there to keep because of how thick that mulch is.
Speaker 3: And I think the key is using that hardwood. You
have the hardwood mulch, it's not going to break down
as quick or as fast of commercial mulches that you
get in the triple shredded bags. Therefore, after you have
your beds established, you're not going to have to continually
add mulch NonStop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a great point, and that leads right into what
I wanted to say next, which is perfect. It's like
we know how to talk to each anyway, but it's
topping off that mulch. So people say, well, you know,
I mulch in the spring. That's what most people do, right,
They go out, they buy their bags, they mulch, they
forget it until the next spring. That's another problem. It's
not the biggest mistake, but it's a big mistake. So
you want to keep that six inch layer so we
may go out in August or September when that starts
to finally break down a little bit and put a
few more inches on. Here's the key. Don't rake that
old mulch. Don't touch that almultch. Just put it right
on top, because if you rake it, you're doing the
very thing we talk about with tilling. You're pulling all
those seeds and loosening them and letting them fall down
in between you.
Speaker 3: It's a very common thing in midsummer, your mult is
starting to look dull and faded, and you're having a
big party your Father's Day, celebration or birthday, and what
you want to do. You want your flower beds to
look nice. So you know, if you go out and
you take that rak and you start mulching it, you're
really hurting yourself and putting the weeds that will be
coming up in the next time.
Speaker 2: You go out and rake it, and you think to yourself,
why I haven't I doing this? This looks brand new,
and then two weeks later you have a weed explosion instead.
If that's the case, and if someone's like, you've got
to make it look nice, it's it's dalling out. Just
put a quarter inch or half inch of mulch on
top fresh, don't rake that and disturb that soil, and
then you know. We have a couple bonus tips. Mine
is this, I'll get to yours. Second.
Speaker 3: Yeah good.
Speaker 2: My bonus tip is this. People talk about, well so
much mulch, and that's this. This is just something we've
subscribed to a long time. Flower beds were not meant
to look like a lot of mulch, not having vast
expanses fill your flower beds with plants and not mulch.
The thicker your plants are, the better the canopy is.
The less weed seeds can find at home, the better
your beds look. And look, we're talking perennials here. For
the most part. You can divide these. You can keep
dividing and thicken them up. So don't make the mistake
of when you're designing a new flower bed in your
front yard and you're like, I want it to be
forty feet long, and I have nine plants to start,
and I'll put more in it, keep it small and
keep expanding it, and then it becomes manageable. You're not frustrated.
Your plants look great, and as you divide or as
you get more, you can expand the bed. But again
my tip is member more flower beds or more flowers
in your flowerbeds, less mulch meaning less space for mulch,
not that thickness.
Speaker 3: And less expense as well, and less.
Speaker 2: Expense and okay, so your bonus tip as well, Yeah.
Speaker 3: This is you know, we always get the spring fever
of let's put our mulch on early so that way
we can help those weed seeds go down or suppress
the weeds before they get out. But you have to
be careful and where you live, you can't put mulch
down when your flower beds are frozen or have a
chance of freeze, not a frost, but a freeze, because
all that mulch does is trap the cold moisture in
the soil below, and your plants aren't going to thrive.
Speaker 2: Could That's an excellent point. And you know what, even more,
what happens in the spring so much we're experiencing this
right now. You get tons of rains, all that mulch
just traps all that moisture in, and you get down
to dig your soil two weeks from now and it's
still soaking wet because it never had time to dry out.
So great point. Don't mulch until that soil temperature warms up.
You know, we like to see it fifty five sixty
before you're ever really starting to mulch heavy. But okay,
so there you have it. The three biggest mistakes when mulching,
and now you can avoid them. Okay, you can avoid them.
You can get the right mulch, you can put it
on the thickness you need, and you can also make
sure that When you're doing that, you're eliminating all those
weeds beforehand, and you're waiting long enough so the soil
warms up. And that's right. You're also going to put
more plants in this flower buds to keep them good.
So look, it's common sense for us, right, Gardening should
be fun, don't make it harder than it is. So
what do you think of that? Absolutely, that's right, Keep
it simple, all right, everybody. For Jimcapetti and my wife Mary,
we thank you for listening again. We'll be back next
week with another podcast, Happy Gardening, Happy Gardening.
Speaker 4: We hope you've enjoyed this episode. Subscribe to the Simple
Garden podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most of
your favorite podcast apps. You can also head over to
simplegardenlife dot com where you can listen and read all
of the show notes to every episode.
Speaker 3: And if you have any questions, any ideas for show topics,
or if you want to share your favorite garden tip,
email us at the farm at owgarden dot com.
Speaker 4: Until next time, Thanks everyone,