Paul James, master gardener and host of
Gardening by the Yard, fields some gardening questions:
Q: Is it cheaper to buy mulch in bulk rather than in bags?
A: Most of the time it's cheaper to buy gardening products of any kind in bulk rather than in individual bags. If price is your only consideration, you should seek out suppliers who sell in bulk; however, finding those suppliers isn't always easy. If you have to haul the mulch yourself, you will have to factor in the price of gas, plus wear and tear on your vehicle. And the vehicle needs to be large. Bagged products are much easier to transport, even in the trunk of a small car, and store on your property.
Bagged products will save you time. You can easily get six or eight three-cubic-foot bags of mulch in the bucket of a large wheelbarrow, and that's 18 to 24 feet of compressed mulch. If you buy the same mulch in bulk and have it dumped in your yard, you would have to shovel it into a wheelbarrow, and you could get only about one-third as much in the bucket (roughly 10-cubic feet) because it isn't compressed. So you would have to make three times as many trips back and forth from the mulch pile to wherever it's going. You'd also have a mess to clean up.
Q: Do crushed pecan shells make good mulch?
A: Absolutely, pecan shells make great mulch. In many areas of the country, they're readily available and reasonably priced. What's more, they're attractive and an excellent slug deterrent. Slugs don't like to crawl across coarse, jagged surfaces; when they encounter a bed mulched with pecan shells, they tend to head elsewhere.
Q: Do all manure-based fertilizers stink?
A: Try as they may, manufacturers haven't figured out a way to make manure-based fertilizers completely odor-free, although some don't smell as bad as others do. To find out which ones are the most odiferous, I recruited a volunteer with an exceptionally keen sense of smell--my son, Dalton.
Dalton smelled each sample and rated them on a scale of 1 (least stinky) to 10 (most stinky). The first sample Dalton smelled was bat guano, which he gave a 2 on the odor scale. Next, was a product made from processed sewage, which he rated a 5. Finally, he took a whiff of a chicken manure fertilizer, which to his nose topped the scale at 10.
All of them lose their stench within a few hours to a day after being applied and watered well. Don't let their smell keep you from using them. All are great fertilizers and completely natural.
Q: Not so long ago, you used leaves and straw to improve heavy clay soil. How's the soil now?
A: Actually it was just six months ago that I used the technique you described in a bed that contained so much heavy clay that I could barely get a shovel to penetrate more than a few inches. After clearing the area of weeds, I first spread a thick layer of leaves on the bed followed by a thicker layer of straw--all of which I watered well.
Now the soil in this bed has improved to the point where I can dig easily, and it's full of earthworms. In fact, the soil has improved so much that I've begun to fill the area with some of my favorite shrubs.
Q: I planted some azaleas without first improving the soil, and they're not doing so well. Can I correct the problem without digging them out?
A: Azaleas definitely require a specific type of soil: one that's rich in organic matter, drains well and has an acidic pH of 5.0 to 6.0. While it's best to create those conditions before planting, there is a way to salvage the situation after the fact: Top-dress the entire planting area with a soil mix made especially for acid-loving plants.
First, clear the area of any weeds, then spread the soil mix to a depth of two to three inches throughout the bed. Follow that with a light layer of mulch and water well. Within a couple of weeks, you should see an improvement in the health of your azaleas. You'll probably have to remove the mulch and apply more soil mix at least a couple of times a year. In time, that mix will work its way into the subsoil and with the help of earthworms create the perfect conditions for growing azaleas.
Q: Did the fencing that you used a while back keeps the rabbits from eating your beans?
A: Do you mean the powder-coated fencing I wrapped around my planting of pole beans? You bet it did, and any day now I should begin to see flowers on the vines, which means beans are just around the corner. The timing couldn't be better, because my potatoes are ready to harvest and also my onions. For me nothing's better than a big pot of green beans, potatoes and onions.
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