Mulching, nowadays, is starting to become popular, due to the benefits it brings to the plants and soil in your garden beds. In some parts of the country it comes with a caution, though. This is because in these places a waste product maded by sawmills, hardwood bark, is shredded and utilized to make a mulch which has become commonly used. Logs are debarked just before being cut, and the mills used to be confronted with the problem of getting rid of the bark.
Using the bark to produce mulch was a handy option for the lumber yards, but it's not perfect. The lumber mills stack the bark up high to save lots of space, and with little demand for the mulch in winter the piles get really high. The danger for your backyard garden arises from the mulch becoming compacted too tightly by the front end loaders having to drive up onto the heaps. In order to decompose, the waste bark has to be exposed to oxygen throughout a period of time, which means air has to flow through the pile. If condensed too tightly, the circulation of air is inhibited and the waste matter becomes increasingly hot, to the extent that it could spontaneously combust.
When it gets hotter, it also causes the mulch to become toxic, because it can't release the gas. This can easily result in a foul odor, as you dig into the pile, and a bigger problem as you spread it around your plants. The gas that's within the mulch can be released, and if this happens the plants will be burned. Distribute the noxious mulch around the plants, and in a matter of minutes they may be brown. In the event you happen to get a mulch heap like this and it gets dumped on your yard it could turn the grass brown. The difficult part, you might not be able to tell good mulch from bad until the damage has already been done.
Unhealthy mulch features a strong odor once you get down to it in the pile, but so does the good mulch, and the smell is different, but you may not be able to tell the difference. It may be somewhat darker in color, so if you suspect a problem, take a couple of shovels full, and place them around your least important plant, and see what happens. Be sure that you take mulch from deep within the pile, and not on the edges. Examine the plant just after at least 24 hours; if no damage has taken place the mulch can be installed with confidence.
This probably is not that major of a problem, but when it happens to you, you probably would have liked to know about it. Going to the trouble of mulching and after that learning that it had ruined your plants may just make you a little unhappy. Now that you've been warned about undesirable mulch, you can continue to get all the benefits without the pain by getting your mulch from a source that can assure you they have taken the correct actions to avoid it.
Using the bark to produce mulch was a handy option for the lumber yards, but it's not perfect. The lumber mills stack the bark up high to save lots of space, and with little demand for the mulch in winter the piles get really high. The danger for your backyard garden arises from the mulch becoming compacted too tightly by the front end loaders having to drive up onto the heaps. In order to decompose, the waste bark has to be exposed to oxygen throughout a period of time, which means air has to flow through the pile. If condensed too tightly, the circulation of air is inhibited and the waste matter becomes increasingly hot, to the extent that it could spontaneously combust.
When it gets hotter, it also causes the mulch to become toxic, because it can't release the gas. This can easily result in a foul odor, as you dig into the pile, and a bigger problem as you spread it around your plants. The gas that's within the mulch can be released, and if this happens the plants will be burned. Distribute the noxious mulch around the plants, and in a matter of minutes they may be brown. In the event you happen to get a mulch heap like this and it gets dumped on your yard it could turn the grass brown. The difficult part, you might not be able to tell good mulch from bad until the damage has already been done.
Unhealthy mulch features a strong odor once you get down to it in the pile, but so does the good mulch, and the smell is different, but you may not be able to tell the difference. It may be somewhat darker in color, so if you suspect a problem, take a couple of shovels full, and place them around your least important plant, and see what happens. Be sure that you take mulch from deep within the pile, and not on the edges. Examine the plant just after at least 24 hours; if no damage has taken place the mulch can be installed with confidence.
This probably is not that major of a problem, but when it happens to you, you probably would have liked to know about it. Going to the trouble of mulching and after that learning that it had ruined your plants may just make you a little unhappy. Now that you've been warned about undesirable mulch, you can continue to get all the benefits without the pain by getting your mulch from a source that can assure you they have taken the correct actions to avoid it.
About the Author:
Winona O. Smith writes about gardening along with Ottoman Coffee Table.To know more about Lift Top Coffee Table click here.