Mountain of Mulch

We actually had stuff planned for this weekend past, but didn't get around to any of it because first Noel spent all day Saturday sick in bed, then when we might have gone and worked on some of the other stuff this pile of mulch came our way.

The deal is that some neighbors had gotten a truckload of mulch for free from a tree company or somebody like that, off Craigslist. But they got the whole truck, so they had about 25 yards of mulch sitting on their front lawn. Their house is on one of the smaller lots in our neighborhood, and they only needed so much mulch in their garden, so they had a huge mulch problem just piled up on their front lawn. So we fired up the loaner truck and drove down there Sunday afternoon and shoveled about five yards of mulch onto the truck. Then we spread it all over the place. Then we went back and shoveled five more yards of mulch onto the truck, and got most of it spread out before the sun went down.

And this evening, after work, we went over there and shoveled even more mulch onto the truck, stopping when the sun started going down because shoveling in the dark is not my idea of fun unless I'm digging a hole in the back yard.

The main use of this mulch was to cover over our dirt pathways. I like the dirt pathways, but we were getting a lot of dirt in the house and more drastic measures were required. We added a long dirt mat at the doorway, but a better solution was to cover the paths with something until we have the time/energy/money to pave them. With the paths mulched, our shoes and the dogs' feet are cleaner when we get to that entry mat.

The mulch at least looks tidy. Now we just need to both be healthy enough during a time when it is neither raining nor dark so we can mow the lawn, eh?

I didn't put mulch down in our rain drainage basin, because there are lots of little plants planted in the bottom there that I didn't want to kill (it's a law that anything you do to kill weeds preferentially kills the plants you want to keep). But now the upper path in the orchard is mulched, which saves me having to weed all those little baby grasslets that were coming up there. Established grass will just laugh at mulch, but baby grass is more delicate and will croak under four inches of pine chips.

I do think it's funny how in the places where I ran out of mulch before we went to get the latest load it kind of looks like water lapping on a shore.

Goldie like the mulch because it is sort of warm and has a nice paw-feel. Rosie hardly notices it, but she always liked the dirt just fine.

Also, wow, are we old. I haven't ached this much since the Great Sodding Day of 2005.

Technorati Tags: landscaping, lawn, mulch

posted by ayse on 02/02/09