Your plants, and the soil in your planting beds, can be benefitted through the use of mulch, which has become extremely popular these days. There's one issue, though, at least in certain parts of the country. This is because in these places a waste product generated by sawmills, hardwood bark, is shredded and utilized to make a mulch which has become commonly used. Logs are debarked prior to being cut, and the mills used to be faced with the problem of getting rid of the bark.
While using bark to make mulch was a handy alternative for the lumber yards, but it's not perfect. As a space-saving measure, the bark is heaped into piles, which can get very high in winter when demand is low. The hazard for your backyard garden arises from the mulch being compacted too tightly by the front end loaders having to drive up onto the heaps. The bark matter is not going to decompose unless it's provided with oxygen, and time, which is achieved by air passing through it. If it's overly compacted there's no air flow, causing the mulch to become extremely hot as it decomposes, even to the point of bursting into flames.
Once it gets hotter, it also will cause the mulch to become toxic, because it can't release the gas. Aside from the bad smell when you dig into it, there does exist also a threat to your plants when spreading it around. The pent-up gas inside the mulch is usually discharged, which can burn your plants. Distribute the noxious mulch near the plants, and in a matter of minutes they may be brown. Your once green lawn could go an ugly brown should you dump mulch like this onto it. Regrettably you will only recognize that the mulch was toxic when you discover the undesirable "browning of the green."
The unhealthy mulch has a strong odor once you get down to it in the pile, but so does the good mulch, and the scent is different, but you may not be able to tell the difference. It could be a little darker in color, so if you suspect a problem, take a couple of shovels full, and put them around your least important plant, and see what happens. Be sure that you take mulch from within the pile, and never on the edges. Check out the plant after at least 24 hours; when no damage has taken place the mulch may be used with confidence.
It is probably not such a big issue, but it's better to know about it before the time, rather than bumping your head. Going to the hassle of mulching and next learning that it had destroyed your plants may just make you a little unhappy. Now that you've been informed about bad mulch, you can still get all the benefits without the pain by getting your mulch from a source that can assure you they have taken the correct steps to avoid it.
While using bark to make mulch was a handy alternative for the lumber yards, but it's not perfect. As a space-saving measure, the bark is heaped into piles, which can get very high in winter when demand is low. The hazard for your backyard garden arises from the mulch being compacted too tightly by the front end loaders having to drive up onto the heaps. The bark matter is not going to decompose unless it's provided with oxygen, and time, which is achieved by air passing through it. If it's overly compacted there's no air flow, causing the mulch to become extremely hot as it decomposes, even to the point of bursting into flames.
Once it gets hotter, it also will cause the mulch to become toxic, because it can't release the gas. Aside from the bad smell when you dig into it, there does exist also a threat to your plants when spreading it around. The pent-up gas inside the mulch is usually discharged, which can burn your plants. Distribute the noxious mulch near the plants, and in a matter of minutes they may be brown. Your once green lawn could go an ugly brown should you dump mulch like this onto it. Regrettably you will only recognize that the mulch was toxic when you discover the undesirable "browning of the green."
The unhealthy mulch has a strong odor once you get down to it in the pile, but so does the good mulch, and the scent is different, but you may not be able to tell the difference. It could be a little darker in color, so if you suspect a problem, take a couple of shovels full, and put them around your least important plant, and see what happens. Be sure that you take mulch from within the pile, and never on the edges. Check out the plant after at least 24 hours; when no damage has taken place the mulch may be used with confidence.
It is probably not such a big issue, but it's better to know about it before the time, rather than bumping your head. Going to the hassle of mulching and next learning that it had destroyed your plants may just make you a little unhappy. Now that you've been informed about bad mulch, you can still get all the benefits without the pain by getting your mulch from a source that can assure you they have taken the correct steps to avoid it.
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