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By Dr. Calvin Finch
Mulch is an essential part of gardening in
South Texas. There is a long list of benefits
to the practice of mulching. Saving water
leads the list. Mulch saves water by insulating
the soil. Mulch also keeps the soil cool. The
summer sun beating down on bare soil
heats it to temperatures so high that root
growth does not exist in the upper two
inches of the soil. When we only have 4 to 6
inches of soil, we cannot afford to lose the
top two inches. Organic mulches will usually
not eliminate all weeds but they certainly
reduce weed pressure and make them easier
to remove.
The best mulch is the one that is the most
available. We don’t know who ever started
the rumor that pecan and oak leaves were
not good for mulch because of acidity, but
they were wrong. In highly alkaline soils
like ours, the addition of a little acidity
helps free nutrients.
It is a real tragedy to send leaves to the
landfill with the garbage pick-up. We waste
the organic material, pay to have them
hauled away and then waste valuable landfill space.
City of San Antonio residents can get inexpensive
brush mulch at the 1800 Bitters
Road Brush collection site. Call 311 for
details on cost and availability. You have to
load it yourself, but the material is excellent
for placement over newly-planted tree roots
and in the shrub border. Three to four inches
of mulch over the roots of a newly-planted
tree increased growth rate by about 40%
when compared to trees in which the sod
grew up to the trunk.
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