Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: GREEN MULCH - Fu where are you ?! 61Sep 23, 2010 11:55 pm Great to hear Yes the raking can harm the plants though you might not see anything come of it till it gets really hot. The roots at the surface are the ones that absorb water and nutrients. Just leave the black mulch there and put straw or the green tree waste / tree lopper mulch over the top Re: GREEN MULCH - Fu where are you ?! 63Oct 26, 2010 3:34 pm Hi, Thanks for the tip re: mulchnet. I gave them a call today (Tuesday) and are getting a delivery Thursday. I thought their service was great. Follow up emails and everything. I'll be paying for 5 cubes ($130), but the lopper i spoke with said I'll probably get 6-7, depending on the job he does beforehand. If I don't use it all, I'll let you know and if anyone wants some free mulch they are welcome! Cheers. Also, I did a ring around of local loppers in my area and nobody had any green mulch, but one guy pointed me in the direction of http://www.transfieldservices.com/page/ ... formation/. They lop for our local council and said that if they have any left over they give it away. Seemed pretty helpful too. Re: GREEN MULCH - Fu where are you ?! 64Dec 02, 2010 10:23 pm Hi Fu, just a quick question re green mulch. How much 'green' should there be in comparison to the woody bits? I have had 10m3 delivered and is very very brown and dry looking. Last year's delivery had a lot more green. Also, does mulchnet set standards? Thanks in advance. Re: GREEN MULCH - Fu where are you ?! 65Dec 12, 2010 10:28 pm Hey you posted ages ago so sorry I call it green mulch not for its colour but it state. It is green and not yet composted. Not green in colour but green in nature Yes Mulchnet do set standards. Talking with Tim, he has contractors who only offer disease free mulch. They wont supply mulch from trees that are diseased. All the nutrients contained in the tree will return to your soil. Ever look at a plant or a tree and wonder how they grow? Well the mass of that plant is largely taken from the mass of the soil and then what do we do? Cut them down and take away from the soil and not return anything back. This changes that and the volume of material is returned back, creating new soils and increasing soil health and making the garden water efficient Re: GREEN MULCH - Fu where are you ?! 66Dec 17, 2010 7:41 am Hi a question for Fu or anyone that might know! I am on acerage and follow fu's principles with green mulch - the gardens are just amazing in one year! See below (sorry blatant advertising for the powerful properties of Fu's advice - all these garden beds were made of mulch and manure and that is it, with regular top ups of sugar cane and tree loppers mulch!) BUT.... I am in the process of doing more garden beds, but the issue is I can't dig the couch grass out (sub surface irrigation hose from HSTP) and I also don't want to use weed killer if I can help it over such a huge area and around existing trees. I am doing a garden bed up the side of the fence approx 70m x 2m and that would require a massive amount of digging and poisoning of grass when I have lots of established natives and golden cane palms along the fence line. I was going to lay mulch directly over the grass but really thick - 20cm deep....will this work or be enough to suppress the grass? I have taken some photos to illustrate my point, and I need to mow and whipper snipper, the rain has been full-on! and the grass growth has been any advice would be much appreciated! thanks! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ ETA: I used cardboard on the front beds to suppress the grass, but was really wondering if it was the cardboard that made the difference to suppressing/stopping grass from growing (as not much couch has gotten through) or the thick layer of mulch was what actually worked and whether there were any other methods out there apart from cardboard? (apart from elbow grease of course!) thanks again! Kylie handover happened 15/6/09...love living on an acre but still so much to do! Re: GREEN MULCH - Fu where are you ?! 67Dec 17, 2010 7:45 am This is going to be difficult - but perhaps put down newspaper first - then mulch. I mentioned difficult only because of the size of the area - but if you ask all your neighbours to collect their newspapers for a few weeks you could probably get enough. Put down 6 sheets - we did that, plus 5cm of pebble and everything underneath is dead. The light just doesn't get through to promote weed growth. After 4 years - we're in! Re: GREEN MULCH - Fu where are you ?! 68Dec 17, 2010 7:51 am thanks stonecutter! I did use thick cardboard the front beds and I should have been more clear in my post (will go back and edit) - as I wasn't sure if that is what made the difference or if it was the actual use of thick mulch that suppressed the weed, ie whether using cardboard made a difference or not? THanks for your answer! P.S checked your blog out your turf and garden beds look amazing! Kylie handover happened 15/6/09...love living on an acre but still so much to do! Re: GREEN MULCH - Fu where are you ?! 69Dec 18, 2010 11:14 am I don't suggest laying cardboard or newspaper under mulches as they do form barriers for nutrients and moisture movement as the water will run along the denser layer. Of course when this does eventually break down there will be a benefit of the organic content but not a good idea overall. The results you had out front may have been better still! I'd look at a few options. One is to lay and pin black plastic down over the areas to become garden beds. Leave it there for a few weeks to a month and a bit. That should kill off the grass ok. You can do smaller areas with round up as per my instructions (search Glypho and round up) Lay newspaper down or cardboard and then a very thick layerr of mulch to even 30cm. Let that rot over winter and don't plant anything. Then in early spring dig it all through and you have your compost there for improving the soil, add in some zeolite and bung in the plants. Then a lighter mulch to around 100mm of straw and tree lopper mulch as you have done out the front. The other thing you can do is to just pile on the mulch and get started soon as possible with the garden beds and spray with Glypho as the bloody couch comes through. Grr Couch GREEN MULCH - Fu where are you ?! 70Dec 18, 2010 6:13 pm Thanks so much Fu you are a legend!!! I will have a think about the best option for us and let you know how it goes thanks again for your time to answer!!! Kylie handover happened 15/6/09...love living on an acre but still so much to do! Re: GREEN MULCH - Fu where are you ?! 71Dec 21, 2010 12:32 am That's cool You are as much help by being a good ambassador in your area for the same methods It won't just benefit you, It will help all your neighbours and they can pay it forward too Looking to start the journey of becoming an owner builder in SA. Feeling pretty (overly) confident on the building and construction details, but really struggling to find… 0 8788 No. It's not original. Circa early to mid 90s would be my guess and maybe even as late as early 2000s 1 7032 A question. Im in Queensland and building a new home. We managed to reach practical completion 6 weeks ago but we haven't heard any date for handover yet. Who should we… 0 6163 |