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Posts Tagged ‘Mulch’

MULCHERS – THE BASICS

WOOD CHIPPERS are popular with homeowners because they turn branches into chips and leaves into compost which can be used in gardens around flowerbeds to cover trails and other purposes. Often times people spend lots of money purchasing mulch and chips and also spending time and effort and sometimes money in hauling branches and leaves to the landfill or preparing them for curbside collection. With a wood chipper a homeowner can use what used to go to the landfill and save lots of money making their own chips and mulch. CHIPPER SHREDDERS come in a variety of sizes and designs. We’ll review several popular styles.

ELECTRIC MULCHERS – FOR SHREDDING LEAVES

Electric Mulchers are usually small portable machines and able you to quickly shred a pile of leaves which can then be used as mulch in your garden or compost pile. Mulchers are also frequently called shredders or leaf shredders. Popular models include McCulloch, Flowtron and Patriot. Prices can range from about $100 to several hundred dollars. While McCulloch and Flowtron leaf shredders are on the affordable end of the spectrum, the award-winning Patriot electric chipper shredder handles up to 2 1/2 inch branches.

SMALL GAS MULCHER MACHINES – CHIPPING BRANCHES AND SHREDDING LEAVES

Small gas CHIPPER SHREDDERS are very popular GARDENING TOOLS. They combine the benefits of small size and portability with some additional power and capacity so they can mulch leaves as well as chip branches. Prices can range from several hundred dollars up to more than a thousand dollars for a reasonable quality machine. Examples of popular models include Troy-Bilt and Patriot.

LARGER GAS MULCHERS – CHIPPING BRANCHES AND SHREDDING BRANCHES AND LEAVES

Property owners with a lot of trees or commercial landscapers often require a larger size WOOD CHIPPER to handle the quantity and size of branches that require chipping. Some models that fit in this category are still portable, some are towable, and others are designed for an add-on to a tractor and these are known as PTO chippers. Expect to pay over a thousand dollars and as much as several thousand dollars for one of these larger machines that you can take to work with you. They are built to perform and to last. Merry Mac, Patriot and DR Chipper are examples of MULCHER manufacturers with products in this category.

PROFESSIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL WOOD CHIPPERS

If you are in the logging industry, you may need an even larger size wood chipper. Plan to spend five grand or more for your equipment. Homeowners with even a large property generally do not need this size of wood chipper, but for those that do there’s just about any size available to fit the job you have to do.

MULCHER EQUIPMENT OF ALL SIZES ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE

Besides the fact Pine Straw mulch is a sustainable, renewable resource, it’s so simple and lightweight to work with pine needle and looks very attractive. Young seedlings can grow through pine needle, water can filter down through it, the dirt can breathe and even so pine straw still holds in moisture. It lasts longer than other similar materials and pine needle won’t float off with the first drenching rain.

In fall mulching with pine straw has an significant purpose since temperatures in the late fall to wintertime months can change radically. The ground heaves as it freezes and thaws, forcing the root systems of many fragile plants up from the dirt and exposing them to the elements. Virtually all plants are much healthier when they have a bed of pine needle mulch spread over their roots.

When mulching with pine straw you should wait until the ground is frosty or just about icy before you add the pine needle. Any earlier application will encourage mold and mildew to form on the surface. Generally, a 2- to 3-inch bed of pine needle mulch placed over the root zone of a plant will provide a noticeable difference in the plant’s health. Established plants will show less stress and better growth. Just be sure to pull pine straw mulch an inch or two out from the stems of shrubs or from the trunks of trees. If pine needle mulch is heaped up against trunks or stems, it can trap too much moisture and further decay on the bark.

Many people make the error of using less reliable fall mulch such as hay in their garden. Hay is not a good option to pine straw since hay often carries seeds that will sooner or later sprout and cause weed problems in your garden bed in the spring. Pine straw comes from several different species of pine trees that drop their pine needles or ?straw? by nature through the year. Once the pine needle drops to the ground, it is cleansed and baled, without ever taking down a single tree. Since it is produced naturally, pine straw sometimes is referred to as the “guilt-free” mulch. Each species’ of pine tree will have its own unique characteristics, such as pine needle length, wax content and pine needle flexibility. The Loblolly species of pine straw, for instance, has a pine needle length ranging from about six to nine inches, making it simple to employ and shape. Also, the needle size is optimum for allowing the soil to breathe well while allowing excellent water infiltration.

Ideally, garden mulch for the winter is added in the fall to protect against sudden and extreme temperature dips before plants have had a chance to fully harden. A few inches of pine straw mulch can provide a cushion of as much as Ten degrees above ambient air temperatures which is just enough to keep roots growing. And certainly, a top layering of pine needle mulch offers decorative appeal, making the yard to look cared for at a time when the lawn can look a little underwhelming.

Mulch is a material that gardeners place over the surface of the soil to help in maintain moisture. Also using the right kind of mulch in a garden can help to improve the condition of the soil as well. In this article we explain a little bit more about the kinds of mulch, Wilmington gardens should be using.

Certainly of all the things you can do as a gardener laying down mulch on exposed area of soil is extremely health for the plants that have been planted there. The use of this material around the bases of trees, shrubs and other plants in a garden can help to reduce the amount of water that is lost from the soil.

Also along with preventing moisture loss mulch is something many gardeners use in order to prevent weeds growing. But as mentioned for it to be affective it needs to be applied on the soils surface properly. Laying too much of this or using the wrong type can actually prove to be harmful to your plants.

When it comes to the kind of mulch material to use most gardeners like to use bark, straw, leaves or sawdust for their gardens. However, although you need to spread it around the bases of the plants you should not allow it to come into contact with them. Remember the plants themselves need to get moisture, oxygen and nutrients from the soil as well.

The quality of mulch material you use in your garden should be of a very high standard. If it is badly prepared or the mulch is of the wrong (sour mulch) sort then this actually is extremely harmful to your plants. The sour mulch is a material that will contain high levels of toxins and these could have an adverse affect on your plants growth.

When it comes to how much mulch you should be laying in your Wilmington garden it will depend on which type of materials it is made from. Plus also the type of soil on to which the mulch is also going to be laying on needs to be taken into consideration as well. Where you have soil that is sandy then you need to lay down a layer of mulch that is between 3 and 4 inches in depth. Doing this will actually help the soil to retain moisture that seeps through the mulch from above much better.

Today you can get purchase materials for using as mulch in the garden from your local nursery or garden center, but can be quite expensive. However, many gardeners now to save money will actually make their own. One way of making your own mulch is to collect the grass clippings each time you mow the lawn and then spread them over the soil. This type of mulch material is best suited for use in vegetable rather than flower gardens as it can be somewhat messy when laid.

If you have an organic garden then you should only be using an organic variety of mulch on it. Most organic mulch, Wilmington gardeners select to use has either been made from the own garden clippings or from trees that have been shredded. Actually making your own can prove much more cost effective than buying the bags from the local nursery or garden center. This kind of mulch also is worth getting for a normal garden as it can enrich the soil underneath as well.