{"id":11764,"date":"2020-06-18T18:05:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T18:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11764"},"modified":"2020-06-18T18:05:02","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T18:05:02","slug":"proper-mulching-is-just-as-important-to-your-plants-as-proper-watering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11764","title":{"rendered":"Proper mulching is just as important to your plants as proper watering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By ANN JOHNSTON
<\/strong>LFN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of our Valley treasures is Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen, which is a birding, butterfly and native plant nature center. They have given us a perfect description of our Valley\u2019s seasons, which are three non- traditional seasons: A warm season (Feb- April) ,a hot season (May-September) and a warm-cool season (October-January). The two warm seasons are our double growing seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rocks or crushed granite are great mulches for parking lots with their low maintenance and tidy looks, but they aren\u2019t great for most plants.<\/em><\/strong> Photos: Ann Johnston \/ LFN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As we are in the hot season now, we need to be constantly aware that our plants are properly hydrated.There is more to do than provide water for them, however. Mulching, to keep the moisture in the soil and keep it from evaporating, is one of the best ways to be \u201cwater wise.\u201d Mulch also helps prevent weeds that will steal moisture from the plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mulch is a material made up of bark, leaves and compost used to cover the soil. Natural mulch helps conserve water, retard weeds and improve soil as the mulch decomposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several kinds of mulch. Natural mulch is anything made of organic materials that break down over time.Other mulch is made up of recycled, shredded rubber, rocks, crushed granite and plastic fabric weed barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suggestions:\u00a0<\/strong>Straw is a natural mulch that is great for vegetables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Large farms might use weed barrier fabric as mulch.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Shredded cypress mulch is advertised as \u201cno float\u201d and won\u2019t float down the sidewalk during a hard rain. It is also said to deter termites, ants and roaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Other natural mulches like pine bark nuggets and shredded hardwoods can come in colors of red, natural and black. The black tends to fade to gray with our strong sunlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Recycled shredded rubber is usually seen on playgrounds. It doesn\u2019t get as hot as rocks or sand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Rocks can keep the soil beneath it very warm and keep moisture from easily trickling down to the ground. Crushed granite is packed very tightly, which keeps down weeds but your plants may have a hard time pushing through, too. Both of these are tidy and need little upkeep for parking lot edging beds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Natural mulches, because they break down into the soil, do need to be replenished periodically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hints:<\/strong> Where should you mulch? Everywhere there is dirt that is exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Don\u2019t mound up mulch around the base of trees. This \u201cmulch volcano\u201d can cause decay of bark and roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Two inches is a good depth for mulch. Roots need air and water needs to be able to seep down through the mulch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Bags of mulch are sold in cubic yards. Country Living magazine gives this formula to use when calculating how many bags to buy. Use the square footage of the bed times two-inch depth (or possibly three inches) divided by 324 equals cubic yards needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look for:<\/strong> The beautiful reddish-orange blooming trees right now are Royal Poincianas. The trees covered with yellow flower clusters like grapes are Gold Shower or Rain Trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come back next week for more hints, suggestions and what to watch for as you come through the Garden Gate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ANN JOHNSTONLFN One of our Valley treasures is Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen, which is a birding, butterfly and native plant nature center. They have given us a perfect description of our Valley\u2019s seasons, which are three non- traditional seasons: A warm season (Feb- April) ,a hot season (May-September) and a warm-cool season (October-January). The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardengate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11765,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11764\/revisions\/11765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}