Ok, this is more of a rant than ............................
I "finally" found information that would have saved hours of back breaking work over the years.
I assume that everyone who gardens, deals with the mulch issue at one time or another.
My gardens are sandy soil that no amount of compost, leaves, table scraps...... ad infinitum has helped. Instead of brown sand, I have gray sand. No tilth to speak of anywhere.
Why bother? comes to mind.
What set this off? We have gone from 60's and 70's to high 80's and full sun. Even expecting this to happen every year, I am unprepared to mulch my new plantings. Thus this diatribe.
Regular mulch doesn't really help sandy, wind blown, over heated soil. No cooling effect that I can tell.
I have tried numerous ideas and spent a lot of money for nothing. All the work only delays the inevitable death of plants. I fear that this will happen fast this year.
I am going to attempt the news paper covered with mulch again. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE? I am going to punch holes in the paper so water can drain through. This makes perfect sense when I think about it. I did not ever read the part about punching holes. I tried shredding in 2" strips with no success at all.
The plan; wet three layers of paper, tear into sizes to fit around plant, not touching the stem. Cover with something. If I still have wet, matted leaves I may give this a go.
I took a few pictures yesterday. The Bloggie does not "like" red or orange colors. However, what it does "like" takes my novice breath away.
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| Sometimes the camera does like red |
