Adventures in Mulching

Garden projects are well under way, thanks to some lovely weather the past few weeks. I've been hard at work preparing beds and fighting weeds, and I knew that mulching was the next step. A few years back my sis and brother in law mentioned they'd bought mulch in bulk - sounded like a great plan to me. While the bags can be helpful, the plastic bag waste really annoyed me and I found it got a little expensive.

I did some web browsing and located Missouri Organic - a company just a few miles down the road from me near the Stadiums. Their site is super helpful, including a calculator to help estimate the amount you'll need for various bed shapes. It also contained a list of available mulches and explained the differences. When I saw an Erosion Control version, I knew this was the company for me. My yard slopes quite a bit from the backyard to the front road (one of these days I'd love to measure the angle!) and soil loss/standing water is a real issue when it rains. I happily calculated, then overestimated to ensure I could do some 'extra' projects as I had the time.

The dump truck arrived bright and early Monday with my 4.5 cubic yards of mulch. With delivery fees and tax it came to less than $100 - which is quite a deal if you do the math calc comparisons to bagged by the cubic foot mulch. Its even cheaper without the delivery fee, but seeing as how I don't own a dump truck this was perfect! Eight hours and a bit of help from my brother later I had all the beds on left side of my back yard finished - don't they look lovely? 

Next up is the vegetable garden - tonight I'll finish the edging so its ready to hold mulch tomorrow. This weekend I hope to lay edging around the right beds and/or the hammock bed (I have yet to determine which I'll do!). After that comes the front yard - and I'm guessing I have more than enough mulch to finish the work. The pile looks barely touched!