Generations

The first day in NW Arkansas was perfect – sunny and 60 degrees, so my 8 year old nephew John Michael and I planted bags of bulbs and a flat of violas in Mom’s garden. It was fun looking at the bulbs and analyzing where the leaves and roots will come out and looking at how the blooms change colors with age on the little blue and white violas. John Michael is a born scientist with a queasy stomach – I don’t think he could be a botanist if he has to go through Biology labs and dissections. Great potential in engineering…

Then Dad took me to his greenhouse filled with blooming orchids and we found a spot for the snapdragons I was afraid would not survive the coming temps in the teens. John Michael promised to plant them later. Dad showed me the new deer fence around 8 raised veggie beds behind the greenhouse. “I’ll probably plant berries in two of the beds because I don’t need more than 6 for vegetables.” Dad devours gardening magazines and seed catalogs coming in the mail. He also turns 93 in March. Oh Lord, give me some of those genes!

The violas have been under a layer of snow and the tulips, hyacinths and crocus are under snow, mulch and soil, but all have promising, colorful futures.



Do these Felcos make my hips look big?

Into the Field with the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance

Last week I joined a group of folks from the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance, which is a diverse group of organizations throughout the state that have come together to meet plant conservation goals, to plant endangered Echinacea laevigata and other native wildflowers in North Georgia. This will help me complete 16 required hours of volunteer time so I can be in the second graduation class receiving a Certificate in Native Plants from the State Botanical Garden.

Complete blog post at the State Botanical Garden site: http://tinyurl.com/ykgn2rp.

Can I be a homesteader when I grow up?

I offered pumpkin muffins to folks traveling in the car with me, telling them that the chickens happily attacked the rind after I cooked the pumpkin, so I need to plant pumpkins in my garden next year. Liese replied “Oh, you’re a homesteader”.
Oh I wish I could, because to me the biggest insult is being called lazy and if there is one thing a successful homesteader is not, it’s lazy. I consider that reply an amazing, yet untrue, complement. Then Liese and Heather both laughed at me when I pulled out my knitting as I denied the title.
Homesteading for me is like reading the classics – I’d like to be able to claim such a feat, but can’t imagine ever actually doing it. Last month I was listening to Ayn Rand on my I Pod while harvesting turnips – baby steps.

Add Interest to Your Winter Landscape

I have met homeowners who would not consider anything but evergreens in their front yard. What a shame, because the winter landscape can be so beautiful and so dramatically different. A landscape should celebrate the seasons. Blooms, berries, sculptural forms, increased visibility and attractive foliage all add to the character of a changing landscape.

Evergreens can form a strong backbone for our plantings and should be used in a landscape, but not exclusively. Dwarf conifers and ornamental grasses can add height and form to a perennial border, balancing the profusion of color spring through fall. In winter, when the perennials are subordinate, the shape of the conifer, the sound and movement of the dry grasses and the dramatic forms of seedheads become the focus.

Two of my favorite plants to enhance the winter landscape are daffodils and Lenten roses. Both are easy to grow, long-lived, deer resistant, and bloom when we so desperately need flowers in our life.

Winter is when groundcovers, subordinate to showier blooming plants, often get noticed. Evergreen groundcovers contrast with bare trees, brown lawns, and fallen leaves. The bold foliage of cast iron plant and holly fern, the delicate texture of autumn fern, the expanse of liriope or mondo grass, the color of ajuga foliage - all more noticeable in winter.

Trees and shrubs provide winter interest in many forms: foliage, structure, blooms, and bark. The dogwood is a classic example of a combination of all four. The horizontal branching, flower buds, rugged bark, red berries and early spring blooms make this an all season (albeit fussy) plant. Leatherleaf mahonia has bold evergreen foliage, fall color, yellow spring blooms and blue summer berries. Many of the best winter plants offer much in other seasons as well.

Other trees and shrubs with interesting winter structure include the weeping yaupon holly, the wonderful variety of dwarf conifers and the pieris. Foliage interest is added with the bold mahonia and magnolia, or the colorful aucuba and loropetalum,

Trees and shrubs with a show of berries include several hollies, pyracantha, cotoneaster and burning bush. Interesting bark can be found on river birch and oakleaf hydrangea (exfoliating), crape myrtle (mottled, smooth), burning bush (winged), kerria, coral bark maple and red twig dogwood (colorful) and corkscrew willow and Harry Lauder’s walking stick (contorted). Branches of these plants are fun to bring into the house for winter arrangements.

Many trees and shrubs have winter and early spring blooms, including camellias, quince, sweet olive, deciduous magnolias (which also have fat, fuzzy buds), winter daphne, winter jasmine, witch hazel and forsythia.

Ornamental grasses are at their peak in winter, with graceful forms topped by plumes ranging from airy to massive. Enjoy these all winter, then cut them back when the daffodils bloom to encourage more compact, upright growth.

This only highlights a few of the plants that can enhance the winter landscape. There are wonderful annuals, perennials, herbs and vines that can add much to your garden in winter. More can be discovered at the library or local nursery. I recommend a stroll through a botanical garden on a warm winter day, jotting down ideas in a little notebook.

When designing your landscape for winter interest, pay particular attention to those areas visible from inside your home so that you can enjoy the show. Also pay attention to the front entry and your path from the car to the house so that interesting, fragrant and colorful plants welcome visitors and you to your home.

Recharged by the Rain

“I need a rainy weekend, to stay out of my garden and get work done” I heard last weekend as several of us were leaving a charrette at the State Botanical Garden. How I could relate! The next day – a one-day weekend – I spent 7 hours in my garden weeding, planting and spreading mulch. I felt no guilt – my garden and I both sorely needed that time.
But this weekend started with a clammy, cold, persistent drizzle and I actually am getting things done inside – cooking the fresh pumpkin, weeding the email inbox, actually planning for Christmas presents and travel, and brainstorming ideas for articles. I then made a pot of chamomile tea, settled by the fire with background sounds of Vivaldi and a snoring beagle, and opened the box.
I found the treasure on the shelf of the UGA Science Library, among the thousands of books. Fragile, with many loose pages, the 1858 Hedges and Evergreens was in an archival box. I couldn’t believe they would let me check it out and take it home, just like any other book. I finally got the chance to nestle in and spend time with this 150-year-old book. What a treat.
Ah, the rains recharge much more than our aquifers.

Marie Antoinette's Garden at Versailles

This week I revised a PowerPoint on the History of Landscape Design from 2006 to speak to a crowd of retired UGA faculty. I love combining history and anything - makes it much more interesting when you put something in context with everything else that was going on at the time and previous influences. During my re-reseach I reviewed a column I wrote for the Athens (GA) Banner-Herald right after the movie Marie Antoinette was released in 2006. This was a fun column to reseach and the movie had amazing details about Versailles.

Landscape history can be seen on the big screen
Friday, November 17, 2006
more Cottingham columns

My husband and I went to see "Marie Antoinette" last weekend. The movie had exquisite costumes and an engaging story but also was rich in period landscapes - or at least one landscape: Versailles.

I have not been to Versailles, but I have read some of the many books focused on the gardens of Versailles. I thought I'd share some of the trivia that makes watching this movie (and these beautiful gardens) more interesting.

In 1661, France's financial secretary held a lavish celebration at his chateau and gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte. Among the guests enjoying feasts, a play, fireworks and music was 23-year-old King Louis XIV.

At this time, gardens were seen as pleasure grounds and places to entertain guests. One garden historian also said this was when "garden design in France discovered a style of its own." This formal French garden design consisted of strong geometry, elaborate parterres of pruned hedges, broad walkways, statues, elaborate fountains and woodlands.

The story goes that Louis was furious that an ostentatious finance minister upstaged him with a chateau and gardens better than anything he had. Records state that the minister was arrested within three weeks and stayed imprisoned for the rest of his life.

The king then had the designer of the gardens, Andre LeNotre, start work on transforming the grounds of his modest hunting lodge at Versailles into the elaborate gardens shown in "Marie Antoinette." This project took six years to design and the remaining five decades of LeNotre's life to fine-tune.

One of LeNotre's interests was hydraulics. It may seem the fountains are just turned on in the morning, but remember the electric pump had not been invented. First, waterwheels and pumps brought water uphill from the River Seine to aqueducts, then into tanks and reservoirs miles away. Water was released, run through pipes by gravity, then constricted into smaller pipes to create pressure. The shape of the spout determined the direction and effects of water displays. Thirty-two of Versailles' pools include hydraulic effects. When the King was coming down the road, fountain guards would whistle so servants could release the water and get the fountains running.

The French, who lived in relatively flat terrain, had to work hard to create great fountains. Nobody could have them run all day, every day. So the fountains also were designed as great sculptural elements that looked good even when the water wasn't running.

When the fountains did run, Louis XIV wanted drama. The Neptune fountain has 58 spouts. Much of the water ended up in a cross-shaped canal, one mile long and two-thirds of a mile wide. To the visitor it appeared endless, a symbol of the immense power of Louis XIV.
Louis XIV was so involved in the gardens that he wrote a guidebook on how they should be viewed. And viewed they were: From 3,000 to 10,000 people may have been in Versailles on any day. Although photos of Versailles usually show one huge chateau behind dramatic gardens, it actually was a city in itself, with quarters for guests, staff and horses, plus areas to raise food to feed everyone. Hunts would take place in the surrounding woods of the 15,000-acre estate.

After Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are crowned in the film (after 59 years of Louis XV's reign), they walk outside, where wooden ships fire cannons in a mock battle. No, the French Royal Navy has not sailed in to help celebrate; these ships are in the canal for the sole purpose of creating amusing mock battles. A 1710 illustration in one of my books shows four sailing ships. Talk about a pricey water feature.

Another scene shows Louis XVI with an elephant. The Menagerie was started in one of the earliest stages of Versailles' redevelopment, perhaps as early as 1662. It was a working farm that provided butter and more, designed to also serve as a place to view country life and animals. At first it contained mainly farm animals, with some fish and exotic birds. A central plaza was lined with gates into several animal enclosures. When the Grand Canal was created a few years later, boat rides to the Menagerie became popular with guests. Exotic animals, such as an elephant and rhinoceros, were added in the early 18th century.

In the 1780s Louis XVI did build a "little" getaway for Marie Antoinette, a bucolic lakeside village in a Normandy style that previewed a future landscape style mimicking romantic country scenes.

It's hard to imagine the magnitude of these gardens and life under the reign of people who ruled nations in their early 20s. Yet we have a better supply of food, indoor plumbing, air conditioning, lots more books and much more comfortable clothing. I think I'd rather stay in this century.

Move and Divide Perennials in Fall

I have a restless beagle. He used to be content sleeping in the bottom of a closet, but then he discovered that by putting his front paws on his blanket and walking backwards he can move his blanket to other locations. Now he scouts new locations several times a day. The Winnebeagle can move out of the closet, around the bed, down the hall, and loop around the living room before he chooses a location - usually an inconvenient threshold .

Unfortunately, a plant is pretty much stuck where it was planted until a gardener moves it. If you notice a plant is not doing well or getting crowded, now is a great time to dig it up to move or divide it. Experienced gardeners do not hesitate to move a plant that is not thriving, because they know plants respond to the right conditions. Sometimes a plant needs to move because it did not turn out to be the size you expected or it is clashing with or crowding its neighbor. And dividing plants? - well that gets you more impact and more plants for free. Who could turn that down? So stroll around your garden and notice the plants that need to be moved. In Georgia, the recent rains have softened the soil, making it even easier to dig this weekend.

Siting Plants in the Landscape

One key to a beautiful, low maintenance garden is to locate plants in the area where they are most likely to thrive. A plant in favorable growing conditions will grow faster, have fewer pests and diseases and require less (or no) chemicals. There are many conditions to consider: sun, moisture, soil, wind, etc. No gardener can know all of these or find just the perfect spot, but the more one does know and works to meet the plant requirements, the healthier the plant will be and the less work is required once the plant is established.

Sometimes finding the right spot for a plant means moving it until it is happy. To try to avoid this, it is important to review the information on the plant tag and in reference books. It is wise to keep at least one gardening reference book on your shelf, preferably one with regional information. The summer sun is more intense as one moves south. A plant that thrives in full sun in Michigan may burn without afternoon shade in Oklahoma. Also, plants mature at different sizes in different locations where there are different soils, rainfall and growing seasons. In the deep South some crape myrtles become majestic trees and butterfly bushes are semi-evergreen, yet in their northern ranges these plants may die back to their roots in winter, serving as smaller summer-blooming shrubs in those landscapes. Since plant tags are produced for nationwide use, a regional book provides information relevant to your garden.

There are many factors to consider when choosing and siting a landscape plant. This article will look at two key factors: sun exposure and moisture.

Sun Exposure

Full sun is easy to understand, but when we hear terms like ‘part shade’, ‘light shade’, ‘filtered shade’ or ‘deciduous shade’ it all starts to get confusing. Part shade means just that – shaded part of the day. But which part makes all of the difference.

In the South if an area gets morning sun and afternoon shade, then ‘part shade’ plants will do well. If the area gets morning shade and the hot, intense afternoon sun, then plant only a plant that can handle full sun in that area. Further north a part shade plant can handle afternoon sun better.

Filtered shade is shade under trees. Although it may be bright at times, sunlight is filtered though the tree canopy.

Deciduous shade is shade provided by a tree that drops its leaves in winter. This is a special area of the garden, as early spring bulbs and wildflowers love the sunlight coming through the branches in March, but by May the leaves are protecting the hostas and ferns in the garden. A few evergreens that prefer shade may suffer foliage burn when the leaves drop and they are exposed to the winter sun. Also, there are trees that drop their leaves earlier than others. This is a situation where a gardener gets to know their plants and microclimate over time – observation and experience gives a gardener much that no book can offer.

As a landscape matures, more than likely shade patterns will change and some sun lovers may have to move away from maturing trees to stay healthy. Similarly, if a tree is cut down a landscape may change dramatically. Plants that were in full shade may adapt to morning sun, but probably will not handle afternoon sun.

Moisture

When considering moisture a gardener not only has to supply enough moisture for the plant but also adequate drainage, especially in clay soil, which retains water.

Some plants can handle “wet feet”, but in the clay soils prevalent in the Southeast most planting beds should be constructed to ensure adequate drainage. For the sake of your home, surface drainage should flow away from any structures. Clustering moisture-loving plants, such as hydrangeas, together allows the gardener to concentrate watering where it is most needed. If drought tolerant plants are planted away from the house or near the end of the hose the gardener doesn’t have to drag the hose out to the edges of the property as often.

Every plant does need supplemental watering and a little babying during the first year it is in the ground, while it is establishing its root system. After that, even drought tolerant plants may need help during the driest times – just not as often as some of the more thirsty plants in the garden. A layer of organic mulch can lessen water needs by discouraging competing weeds, helping to retain water in the soil, and lessening rainfall runoff.


One Last Note – Changing Sun Patterns
Observe sun patterns throughout the year in your garden. In late March and late September (Spring and Fall Equinox) the sun rises due east and sets due west. During the winter the sun rises and sets further south and is lower in the sky at midday. During the summer the sun rises and sets further north and is higher in the sky at midday. There are fewer hours of sunlight in the winter than in the summer, when the hottest part of the day is mid-afternoon. These seasonal changes are more pronounced the further one is from the equator (much more noticeable in Chicago than New Orleans). What looks like a shaded area in November may prove to be sunny on a July afternoon, when the sun angle has changed. A garden that looks sunny in winter may seem oppressively dark when the leaves come out on the trees in spring.

UGA Trial Gardens Open House

Went to the UGA Trial Garden Open House yesterday. Terra Nova's Rudbeckia 'Henry Eilers' is doing well in my garden too. It's a fun flower form. The Coleus 'Mint Mocha' was a showoff.

Almost new gloves!

I finally gave up on my 1970s Singer and bought a used sewing machine from a friend. Dresses that actually fit and Christmas presents from the macine will be nice, but the first stitches were to repair finger blowouts on my Foxgloves. I wear Foxgloves, thin cloth gloves that don't hamper your sense of touch or feel to hot in summer, every time I work in my garden and go through a few pair every year. They would last longer if I could fix the fingertips whenever I have a blowout. I wear out leather gloves almost as fast when I am moving lumber or mulch. I spoke with the owner of Foxgloves a year or two ago and she told me they would last longer if they were washed after every use, so I am doing that too. So now my chartreuse, red and periwinkle pairs of Foxgloves are in the garden basket kept inside the front door - ready for a second life. Ah, the sewing machine is a great invention!

Learning Lots this Next Week!

I'm taking a day off work Friday to spend time at the Cherokee Garden Library (http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/), one of the top horticulture research libraries in the Southeast. I love listening to podcasts on my new IPod, but there is nothing like holding a 100 year old book. I look forward to meeting with Staci, the Library Director, to learn more about this rich resouce.

Saturday morning (July 11th) I am working at the UGA Trial Garden Open House on the UGA Campus in Athens, Georgia. There are many amazing plants to see there, plus a book sale, plant sale and tours led by Allan Armitage. Read an article about it here.

Next weekend (July 16-18) I will be in the Specialty Ornamentals booth at the Joy Garden Tour Gift Shop in Cashiers, NC. What a great chance to learn more about conifers, hydrangeas and more from the very knowledgeable Flo and Joe Chaffin (http://www.specialtyornamentalsretail.com/)!

It all sounds great, but I will be so glad to come home to my husband and pets!

Give Your Blooming Plants a Little Trim to Spruce Them Up

It is amazing how tidying up can improve the looks of a planting bed: weeding, cleaning up, cutting back, staking, reshaping, edging and mulching. And a little pruning now can rejuvenate the perennials, or even encourage them to rebloom.

Deadheading, removing faded flowers, has many benefits for you and your flower garden.

First, deadheading can be done in small segments of time. Just grab a bucket and a pair of garden snips. You may want to cut flowers for an indoor bouquet while you are in the garden.

Second, it gets you close to the plants, so you notice other things, such as insects, yellowing leaves, new blooms, and interesting color combinations.

Third, deadheading redirects the plants energy into creating more blooms. You may have planted your flowers to provide beauty, fragrance or cut flowers, which they do. But honestly those pretty, bright, fragrant flowers are produced to attract pollinating insects so the plant can set seed and reproduce. Once the seed is produced, the plant's goal is achieved. The plant's energy is redirected from producing flowers to producing seed. If you cut off the spent flowers, the plant produces more flowers in its attempt to reproduce.

Fourth, deadheading blooms and seed pods is a way to control self-sowing plants. Some annuals, such as cleome, self sow to return next year. Many biennials, since they bloom on second year plants, must self sow to keep blooming. Prolific self-sowers, such as rudbeckia and tall verbena, can be controlled by keeping the blooms deadheaded or encouraged by leaving some to reseed.

Self-sowing plants can be fun. Random planting by Mother Nature surprises you with a slightly new design scheme each year, adding to a cottage garden look or creating surprising plant combinations. However, letting the pretty blooms on chives go to seed can result in little chive plants everywhere and you know what their cousins, the wild onions, are like to weed.

Finally, regular deadheading improves the looks of your garden display by removing old blooms and encouraging more flowers. Those plants that only bloom once a season (columbine, hostas, most daylilies and iris) will simply look better if the spent flowers are removed.

How you deadhead is an art in itself. Start by looking at that plant's structure. Where are the next blooms forming? In a daylily, pick off the spent flowers until the stalk no longer is carrying any buds, then cut the stalk back almost to ground level. Carnations and balloon flowers have new buds just below the old blooms, and need a careful approach. Flowers that appear on their own stem should be cut to the ground.

Perhaps it is not feasible to cut every little spent bloom. Many perennials benefit from shearing the plant back after the first flush of blooms. This is much faster and the plant may bloom heavily again in a few weeks. Instead of cutting every one of the hundred of blooms on my coreopsis, I just give it a rough haircut, cutting the plant back by half.

Many shrub roses, such as Rosa mutabilis (the butterfly rose), Caldwell's Pink, Nearly Wild, Simplicity, or Knock Out can be sheared back with hedge shears after each flush of blooms. This creates more compact, bushier plants and three or more bloom displays from a rose planting in a season.

Thinking of Dad

Fathers Day and my 92-year-old father is 800 miles away, but close in my thoughts, especially when I am in the garden.

I learned about gardening from my father, who grew up in a brownstone in an immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey and, like me, finally owned a small piece of acreage in the South after he turned 40. His passion for gardening compelled him to try it all: fruit and veggies, a greenhouse full of orchids, a front yard arboretum, a rose garden, espaliered fruit trees, banks of daffodils, and a lawn quilt on the side of the house where he trialed every kind of sod he could find.

One thing I learned from Dad was organization. Actually by bad example, because Dad would know just the right tool for the job, then go off into the greenhouse, then the carport, then to the house to get the key to the well house, to the well house, back to the house for the key to the carport closets and through both carport closets to find this perfect tool. I’d get the job done well enough with a tool at hand while this search ensued and when he returned I would agree his way would have been better and yes, his is the perfect tool for the job.

But for a guy whose tools are totally disorganized, Dad is a meticulous organizer of dirt and weeds.

I use the method of weeding that he taught me. One bucket (actually a colorful trug – I do have to add my personality to the chore) is for weeds that go onto the compost pile. The other bucket is for weeds that go in the trash - weeds too noxious to add to the compost. Spent plant tags and other trash are also tossed into this second, much smaller trug.

If a new planting bed is being created, then additional buckets are needed. One is a small container of soil where earthworms are gently placed while the tiller, shovel and pitchfork plow through the bed. They are returned to the planting bed later, when their neighborhood is safe again. Another is for stones found in the bed. These do not return. Yet another may be needed for plants and bulbs that are to be saved and replanted after dividing.

Then there is the organization of the dirt itself, starting with the creation of our garden soil. After dinner in the 1960s, before recycling and living green was cool, food was carefully separated – leftovers for the fridge, meat and bones for the pets and almost everything else for the compost bin, which Dad carried to the cluster of huge 8’ square compost piles. In addition to weeds and kitchen scraps, he added soil and cow manure, both rich in microbes and good bacteria, to these compost bins. After some months the result was rich, dark soil.

But before the soil can be used there is yet more organization. Using a handmade sifter made from 2 by 4s and wire mesh (the one my daddy made for me leans against my compost pile), every shovelful of aged compost is sifted as it enters the wheelbarrow. What doesn’t fit through the mesh is separated again and goes back onto the pile or into a bag hanging on the compost frame that is later carried to the trash can.

This may sound extreme to someone who did not grow up organizing dirt and weeds, but it was expected from me. I am so grateful for that upbringing, because the end result of planting beds with richer soil and fewer weeds is well worth the work – work that is so second nature to me as a gardener that I don’t even think about it when I enter my garden. I just do it. Thanks, Dad.

Mowing again!

Yesterday every neighbor in sight was in their front yard mowing. We all smiled and waved at each other while mowing knee-high dandilions and fast-growing lawns, because for the past two years the drought in Georgia made mowing almost obsolete. Thanks to recent rains, the grass and everything else that survived the past two years is growing again. The charm of mowing will wear off quickly (undoubtly it will end today, since I am mowing a 1 acre front yard with a push mower while anxiously awaiting the riding mower to return from the shop). Still, so much green and the beginning of spring gives us gardeners in Georgia great hope. Perhaps now the dozens of trees I have planted in the front will grow into a woodland to replace most of the lawn that must be mowed.

A Dozen Reasons to Mulch

Mulch, a protective layer of material placed on top of the soil, is one of the best ways to lower maintenance and improve the health of your landscape.

I highly recommend organic mulch, which is mulch made from once living material such as shredded bark or leaves. Organic mulch should be two to three inches thick and reapplied as it decomposes, usually once or twice a year. It is best to keep mulch a few inches away from the base of plants, since good air flow and a little drier environment is needed there to discourage fungus and pests.

Below are a dozen ways mulch benefits the garden during winter and summer, drought and deluges.

Benefits of Mulching

Deters weed growth: Mulch lowers the chance of weed seeds germinating. Weeds that do appear are much easier to pull in a mulched bed.
Retains moisture: Mulch retains soil moisture by decreasing evaporation, plus soils enriched by decomposing organic mulches are better able to retain water.
Stabilizes soil temperatures: A layer of mulch insulates the soil and roots from fluctuating and extreme air temperatures. Soils with temperatures moderated by a layer of mulch attract earthworms closer to the surface, improving soil structure.
Adds organic matter: Nutrients from decomposing organic mulches help build the soil and feed plants.
Controls erosion: A layer of mulch absorbs the impact of rain and watering, protecting the soil from erosion.
Improves appearance: Mulch can unify a landscape with harmonious texture and color.
Stops soil from splashing onto plants: This not only makes the plants more attractive, but reduces the transference of soil borne diseases.
Provides a place to walk: A mulch path will protect your feet from mud and dirt. Mulch between raised beds in my vegetable garden limits weeds and allows me to harvest in any weather.
Protects plants in winter: Roots will stay warmer in winter under a thick blanket of mulch. With a generous layer of mulch in winter, borderline cold hardy plants have a better chance of survival.
Prevents soil from forming a crust: Crusting of soil (creating a hard top layer) prevents exchange of nutrients.
Protects young trees from mower and line trimmers: A 3- to 5- foot radius around a tree trunk is recommended for at least the first three years after a tree is planted. This also eliminates weeds and grass around young trees, which compete for water and nutrients.
Recycles organic material: Your garden benefits greatly from leaves and branches that are shredded and used as mulch instead of bagged up and hauled away.