Robin's Nest Cottage Garden

Why Do They Sell Colored Mulch?

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

I honestly don't know either why they feel the need to paint or stain mulch, or what the material is that they use to color it. My guess is that the color is from some natural mineral pigments, such as several types of iron oxide or rust, and for black, probably carbon or charcoal.

More worrisome is that the vehicle or solvent they use to get it to spread and stick to the mulch. That may just be water, and something like starch or gluten. The reason I think they use these simple harmless things, besides that maybe they are trying to be eco-friendly(not always a safe assumption these days) is that the more dangerous stuff like in real paints, like heavy metal pigments and lead and hydrocarbons and latex and polymers is that those things all cost a lot more money than earth pigments, ie just dirt in some locations, and simple binder/stickers like paste and glue.

The reason they color the mulch is I guess that people want it, but I think it started when there was a this kind of tree in Florida that was non-native, a type of eucalyptus, that they wanted to eradicate and they cut them all and ground them up for mulch. That type of eucalyptus had a very reddish brown colored wood, and fresh mulch was the reddish color.

Those trees are all gone now, and they use other trees, like cypress and cedar and various hardwoods, like peoples yard tree trimmings, which are mostly more white or light colored. The more organic and natural way to color those mulches is to just compost them for a little while, and they get naturally dark, but not necessarily a consistent color.

I think the idea that mulch has to be uniform in color is sort of silly. I recommend using a variety of materials and sources for mulch. Leaves, broken up twigs and stuff you pick up off the grass, plus several types of boughten mulch all are great.

Another more insidious reason they color the mulch might be evident when you see what happens to these mulches after a year or so, when that color starts to weather and wear off. You start seeing the underlying wood color, except that it weathers too, into a grayish silver. The effect is sort of like a painted backyard fence, that hasn't been maintained and the natural aging patina is trying to come through, but the pigment is still present too. Worst looking than either condition, never been colored, or freshly colored.

I suspect that the Depots and Lowes want people to rake up all their aging mulch and completely replace it. I even saw a quick HowTo commercial on Saturday TV by Home Depot that recommended cleaning up all the old mulch and adding all fresh new. VERY BAD ADVICE and I haven't seen the ad since. I don't watch much Saturday TV though. The whole point of mulch is to protect the soil, but also to break down and feed the soil. Raking it up, besides being unnecessary work, takes up many of the beneficial critters that help the soil too. Just add new mulch on top of the old mulch, and then you don't need as much.

Chuck Goecke

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You Can Use Oil and Water For Organic Pest Control?

Friday, May 15, 2015

Oil and Water. Your Best Organic Friends for Pests in the Garden.

Oil sprays are one of the best ways to organically get rid of lots of pests in your garden. It works best on the small little suckers, spider mites, aphids, Thrip crawlers, and mealy bugs. Oils smother the bugs by plugging their breathing holes. The best part is that they can never develop an immunity!

All oil sprays are classed as organic, even if some are made from petroleum oils. Basically they use something like a baby oil, with a detergent to act as an emulsifier so they can be mixed with water to spray. They coat the plant and slowly evaporate over a few days. In the case of "dormant oils", they actually can take up to a month to evaporate. Only use dormant oils in winter on the bark of trees and shrubs.

Lighter weight and lower dosage (more about "dosage" in a bit) oil sprays are okay in warmer weather, but still best in the cool morning hours.

Make Your Own

A simple home made oil spray can be made with any cooking oil, even used, ABF(already been fried) oil and a good mild dish detergent, like Dawn. Use 2-4 tablespoons of oil and 1/2 teaspoon of detergent per gallon of water. You can double the oil and detergent for a winter dormant spray.

In hot weather, stay towards the lower end of the dosage. Pure water itself also works well, and I'll get to that in a bit. IMPORTANT: Don't use the orange oils and solvent like oils, they are very hard to dose just right without killing the plant.

Where Oil Doesn't Work - Water Does

Oil sprays work great for the plants that can tolerate them, which happily, is most. Sadly tomatoes do not, and some of the worst bugs, like spidey mites, would succumb easily to the oils. For them, there's always good ole H2O.

Water, blasted on plants just below the strength that will damage the plant, knocks off most troublesome bugs. In many ways, I don't even like organic bug killers, like oil sprays. Most sprays, even organic, will always do a better job of killing the good bugs than the bad bugs. Good bugs, predators, walk about all over the plant, hunting down the bad bugs. They are sure to walk into any poison or organic pesticide you put on the plant.

Bad bugs, like thugs hiding in an alley, mostly hang out in nooks and crannies on the plant, sometimes creating them by injecting chemical that distort and curl the leaves. It is very difficult to get good enough coverage of your spray to get them all. Bad bugs have the advantage of reproductive fecundity; they multiply very rapidly, so they come back with a vengeance. Horny Bastards.

By using plain water, you knock off the bugs, which for most pest bugs, is nearly 100 percent fatal. They are wimps. Even the most active and tough bad bugs, like sharpshooters, still live life on the nutritional edge, and being chased around by water wreaks havoc in their lives. Predatory bugs are very active, tough and ambulatory. They can easily just get back to work. Good bugs also need drinks of water sometimes too. Using water to knock down a flushing bad bug population can give the predators enough time to get caught up and keep the problem under control. It help put things back in balance.

The only downside is that keeping plants wet is sometimes conducive to disease. So do the bug water sprays in mid day on dry (low humidity) sunny, breezy or hot days, when the plant will dry off pretty quickly.

A great tool for power misting to get the bugs is one of those water wands, that usually has the water breaker screwed on the end. A breaker is kind of like the nozzle with lots of holes to make the water rain out softly. Unscrew that breaker and put back on either one of those mister nozzles, or I like even better, just one of those cheap plastic water cut off ball valve thingies. You can set it to many levels of mist to harsh strong sprays, like for conifers, junipers, very tough plants, etc(that get spider mites in hot weather). The wand gives you an extension of your hand and the bend at the end lets you get up under the plants. Blasting up from below is the best way to knock off the bad bugs.

Taking care of your pest control problems organically - especially in vegetable gardens - keeps dangerous and unknown chemicals out of your bloodstream, and out of your family's. Our What's In Your Body story covers more of this.

Do you have any ideas on what's worked for you? Let me know in the comments below.

Chuck Goecke

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Why We Compost

Monday, April 27, 2015

We compost for two reasons...First, to add vital nutrients to the soil. Second, to avoid filling our landfills with organic material.

Among other things, it shades roots from the sun, insulates from heat and cold, retains moisture, protects from damaging rain, encourages worms and microbial action near the surface, and adds nutrients to the soil as it decomposes. In clay soil it helps break up the soil, and in sandy soil, it helps to hold in water and nutrients.

It also will save you money on your watering bill.

With all the choices in mulch available, its hard to know which is right for you. Below we compare 5 of the most common types and let you know how to use each one.

Cotton Bur Compost - Similar to the mulch, its very rich in nutrients. You'll use the fine or medium grade for compost. Great for quickly establishing nutrients to in the soil and for acid loving plants.
Living Earth Compost - Made from a variety of cost effective sources, this is a high quality all purpose mulch at a good value.
Cow Manure - In expensive and high in nitrogen. Make sure you buy aged manure. Be carefull to not apply in too high a quantity. Better is mixed with the above two.
Peat Moss - Generally not good alone. It holds toomuch water - but when dry, is very difficult to reabsorb water. Definately mix with the first two on the list. It has no nutrients
Mushroom Compost - This is the spent growing medium for mushroom farms. It's very good and has been aged wonderfully. Rather expensive but a great compost.

WARNING:

Almost anything labeled "Compost, cow manure, Mushroom Compost, etc." can be made poorly. Many of your cheap brands are made up of mostly sand. Before you buy, make sure you can see a sample to make sure you're getting a high quality product.

Should you Compost?

Yes:

Composting is much better than throwing away your organic matter into the landfill. But picking up all of your organic material, putting it in a pile and tending to it constantly to provide a small amount of compost material that will most likely not meet your demand is time consuming. So...

No:

We don't think you should make a compost pile... But you should compost where it lies. Use a mulching mower for grass clipping and fall leaves that fall on the lawn. No raking required. And wait til the leaves fall and just mulch over them in your beds. It's faster, easier, eliminates raking and solves a lot of garden problems with little to no effort.

So you never listen and want to make your own anyways. Or you don't have a lawn. Whatever.

A good compost pile is made of roughly 50% green plants and 50% brown plants. Green plants include: Green plants, weeds, lawn clippings, shrubs, vegetable food waste. Brown plants include leaves, twigs, dead plants, etc.

The purpose of green plants is nitrogen. so, if you're short of Green plants, you can add nitrogen (any fertilizer works). Believe it or not, you can even pee on the pile once in a while. Urine is chock full of nitrogen - and there's no better way to get little boys into gardening than to pee on a compost pile once week.If you're short of Brown plants - you just have to wait.

So how do you use it?

In initial plantings, compost is used to make a more organic soil. For bedding plants, you'll usually mix in a 2 cu. ft. bag over about 12 sq. ft. For Shrubs, you'll usually mix a 2 cu. ft. bag 6" - 8" deep over about 6 sq. ft Chuck Goecke cover image by Kirsty Hall