Decided to try mulching the flower garden every 2 years. I tried 3 years and there were a lot of weeks coming through. Given the size of the garden every year just seems like a lot of work and money. I was going to try to do bulk mulch, but I was conflicted on where to put the mulch before I put the weed barrier down. Given there are a lot of plants it would be difficult to put the weed barrier down and dump the mulch on top. Just a logistical nightmare, for me at least. Maybe some day I will figure that out.
So for the past 10 years I have mulched my flower garden. The first few years I kind of let it go, and the mulch slowly decomposed away and the weeds started to grow. I got a suggestion from a friend that if were to mulch down a neighbor of his used newspaper as a weed barrier under the mulch. So I tried that for part of the garden and a few other varying thickness of a paper weed barrier one year. While the newspaper was a cheap alternative, I found that a paper weed barrier that has the consistency of construction paper seemed to hold the best. The next time I mulched, I could find the weed barrier in a local store. But as the years have gone on, it has been harder to find locally. So I had to go on-line, and I found what I used before. The place I was able to get it was Gempler's and the product I used is WeedGuard Plus the Heavy Weighted version from the SunShine Paper Company. It does seem to last the year and decomposes during the winter.
Why have a weed barrier and why use paper over a fabric or a plastic that last longer? Granted the mulch I used this year says it doesn't need a weed barrier, but I already got the paper so I went ahead and used it. It does what it says and keeps the weeds down. The mulch, if thick enough, makes it easier to pull most weeds that do pop up. The weed barrier just helps keep the weeds in the ground from coming up. As for why paper, well I am using an organic substance that decomposes in 1-3 years and builds up dirt. If you have ever tried to redo a rock garden and removed the rock the previous barrier is buried under dirt. Fabric and plastic weed barriers I would still recommend for something like a rock covered garden, but for mulch I need something that decomposes about the same as the mulch itself. Paper based weed barriers are nice as I don't have to remove the mulch to put it down I can just add on top of what is already there, and by the time I am ready to do it again the old stuff is already gone. So it works out pretty good, just sucks you can't find it locally.
For the mulch itself I have been using a Cypress Mulch. There are a few versions out there. This year I tried something different, but seem popular among local resellers. I think it is also cheaper than what I normally get, which sadly I didn't document, but usually pick up at Home Depot. The stuff I ended up getting is a "No Float" Cypress Blend Mulch that I also got at Home Depot. The main reason I get that is that it seems to last long and doesn't have any dyes in it. Since I have a few herbs and some vegetable plants in my garden I prefer to keep it as organic as I can. I have been tempted to use others, but I want keep what I have on there and just add to it, instead of mixing in other types. So far it has kept the weeds down and my plants seem to be healthy.
This year I ended up using about a roll and half of paper which are 48in x 150ft. It might be less than that as I found a part of a roll in the garage that I used up first(Sorry didn't measure it). As for the mulch I ended up buying about 60 2cu-ft bags. I used about 53 of them, but spread the other 7 where I thought the mulch went on a little thin.
Here is the first 20 bags:
The second 20 bags I was able to get the center corner down:
The last 13 bags I was able to finish things off:
As I sad I went back and put some more mulch down where I thought the mulch looked a bit thin. Much of it was where I started, but there were a few other patches that could use a bit more. Here is the the result of my hard work.
