Self portrait with mulch:
A freshly mulched garden is like a man wearing a beautifully tailored suit. No matter how handsome the man is, he looks even better wearing a beautiful suit.
I didn't mulch the garden last spring, and so the garden didn't look as good as it could have, plus it developed considerable number of weeds. Last winter and spring (and summer, and some of fall) dear Hoover needed a lot of care and attention and I didn't get around to the mulch, because Hoover was more important.
Not man not wearing suit. Wearing funny hat that makes head appear misshapen.
I always dread mulching, because lugging and distributing 10 cubic yards of mulch one five-gallon bucket at a time is a lot of work, and yet I'm always thrilled and delighted when I'm done, not because I'm done, but because the garden looks fantastic and for the following year there are no weeds at all. Each plant looks beautiful in its frame of fluffy brown. The moral of the story is that guys should wear a suit every once in a while. You may wonder how I reached that conclusion, but the truth is I'm so completely exhausted from spreading mulch all day, I don't even know.
A freshly mulched garden is like a man wearing a beautifully tailored suit. No matter how handsome the man is, he looks even better wearing a beautiful suit.
I didn't mulch the garden last spring, and so the garden didn't look as good as it could have, plus it developed considerable number of weeds. Last winter and spring (and summer, and some of fall) dear Hoover needed a lot of care and attention and I didn't get around to the mulch, because Hoover was more important.
Not man not wearing suit. Wearing funny hat that makes head appear misshapen.
I always dread mulching, because lugging and distributing 10 cubic yards of mulch one five-gallon bucket at a time is a lot of work, and yet I'm always thrilled and delighted when I'm done, not because I'm done, but because the garden looks fantastic and for the following year there are no weeds at all. Each plant looks beautiful in its frame of fluffy brown. The moral of the story is that guys should wear a suit every once in a while. You may wonder how I reached that conclusion, but the truth is I'm so completely exhausted from spreading mulch all day, I don't even know.
In our gardens here, we don't put mulch. We do that only with some vegetables. But i agree with you, a mulched garden is better looking. Properly cared gardens here have ground plant covers.
ReplyDelete10 yards equals much work.
ReplyDeleteIt pays off though -- like you I know that skipping a year just compounds the work later.
"Nede Fo Eceip", men should wear a suit once in a while...Deep Thoughts, by H. Barkty.
ReplyDeleteMulch...must do that soon. Suit...a sport coat will have to count. I am so far from the corporate game by now, no suit or tie wearing!
In the first portrait I thought it looked like you were wearing a skirt. I couldn't imagine spreading mulch in a skirt, thankfully I see you weren't.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a garden looks so "mulch" better top dressed with a covering of mulch! I know your plants are thanking you too. Besides compost, my mulch of choice has been cocoa shell mulch. (I know that theobromine that it contains is supposed to be lethal to dogs and cats so I only use it on the front yard beds.)
ReplyDeleteMulch will always make garden bed look better, healthier with clinical finish. Over here, weeds that we pull out become mulch.....
ReplyDelete@Andrea proper gardens here have ground cover plants too. I have ground cover plants here and there, but not around roses that can't compete, and there are a lot of roses...
ReplyDelete@Alan yes, I should not have skipped a year, it would have saved a lot of weed pulling.
@Desert good for you. that corporate stuff can be soul-destroying.
@danger it was 80F, so I was wearing shorts.
@dorothy, I love that cocoa mulch, it smells so delicious!
@B & K, great idea to recylcle the weeds. Here they just don't break down fast enough.