110 Magic mulch

The Magic of Mulch

Hello from the back patio. Finally we have a space where we can relax and enjoy the fall weather when it arrives. The weather has been relatively nice this week (meaning I am not constantly whining about the heat and humidity.) 

Thanks to the weather and to the great innovative guys at Greatscapes just down the road from us, our backyard is now free of leaves, sticks, weeds and natural debris. AND we have mulch! Lots and lots of mulch re-established the area and now the back entrance looks like some care has been taken.

The catalysis for this cleanup was our dead boxwood. All eight (8!) of our boxwood turned brown this spring. Dropped their leaves. Gave up the fight. Just died! 

 Big boxwoods they were, too. My husband’s grandmother had them planted so they were at least 50 years old. It was sad. They’d been a wonderful screen around the small brick patio area. Yes, this is a large photo, but they deserve a fond farewell. Picture four on each side of three brick steps to the patio and back entrance. That was a lot of boxwood!

The culprit is called “winterburn.” From what I can understand about winterburn, it is comparable to a human having a rash. The doctor looks at it and says it is dermatitis. Anyway, the boxwood are GONE.

They’ve been replaced

with a series of 

arborvitae and holly. 

And I treated myself to a contorted Lauder’s walking stick so I can have my very own twisted branches in a couple of years. No, it’s not very pretty now, but it will be amazingly useful. We also added another dogwood and a weeping cherry for a bit of spring color.

But to get back to the subject. NONE of this project could have been done without mulch!

I am now a big fan of mulch. The more the better. The deeper the better. Buy clean mulch so few to no weeds come up. (Hint: do not let grass clipping get into the mulch. Supervise the mowing or do it yourself!!) 

Kevin, at Greatscapes, tells me we have about four cubic yards of mulch now. So, how much is that, I ask? Kevin and his team are grand to work with. They actually listen, answer questions, and are just nice guys! Thanks, Kevin, for my mulch lessons.

I find this fascinating. We used almost four! To make it even easier to understand: There is no way that dear husband and I could have handled all this on our own. (27x4=108 bags!) 

Even Martha Stewart landscapes with mulch. 

We’re learning a lot about maintaining a landscaped space. I liked what Kevin told us: Think of mulch as the icing on the cake. He’s right! Now, I guess we just need to pay for all that mulch and enjoy.                                                        No-Green Thumb 

Glenne