Mulch and Birdhouses in the Garden

Storey Communications, Inc. is an excellent source for very practical books on home and gardening. You'll find their inexpensive books very helpful for learning to garden, raising your own animals, or cooking the produce of your gardens. Let's take a closer look at three of their gardening books and one of their nature books. This article is split between two weeks.

The Mulch Book

Every gardener should know that mulching is important to the health of your garden. Stu Campbell, in The Mulch Book presents some compelling reasons for using mulch in the garden. Among those reasons are moisture retention, suppression of weeds, regulation of soil temperature and, if using an organic mulch, the nutrients it releases as it breaks down. Just to be fair, he also discusses the downside of mulching. Mulching does create the perfect environment for rodents, slugs and snails to live. Organic mulches can use up nitrogen which is then unavailable to your plants. Choosing the wrong mulch for your plants may create more problems than it solves. In spite of the downside, mulching normally makes your garden work easier and is beneficial to the plants.

There are many types of mulching, each of which serves a different purpose. Be sure to read chapter 4 entitled A Few Definitions to learn about the different styles of mulching and when to use them. Do you know the difference between a "winter" and "summer" mulch? After reading this chapter you'll know the answer to speeding up the production in your garden -- information especially useful to those gardening in short summer areas!

Chapters 5 and 6 present a detailed listing of all possible types of mulching materials and provides guidance on using them most effectively. The last section of chapter 5 discusses how you can choose which mulch is best for you. He considers issues such as cost, availability, ease of application, and appearance. The remaining chapters, 7, 8 and 9, list many common vegetables, fruits and ornamental plants. Campbell discusses the mulch most suitable for each plant species.

If I had owned The Mulch Book when I started gardening many long hours of weeding would have been saved. When I design my garden for a new townehouse, mulching will be part of the plan. This book really opened my eyes to the potential of mulch as not just a time-saver but as a nutrient provider too. Every gardener, whether just starting out, or one with many years of experience, would benefit from reading the applying the information in this book.

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