It's important to mulch the soil in spring to help with water retention during the summer. Some people use bark or a manure mix of some sort. My garden mulches itself because it knows how lazy I am.
Here we see skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) coming up through the camellia/magnolia petal mulch.
It pretty mulch falls everywhere, including the pond. BTW, when they tell you to site your pond away from overhanging trees, they mean it. Also, when the pond guy recommends an automatic skimmer, you might want to do that. On the other hand, going outside every morning before work to hand skim off all of the debris is also a fun exercise.
Here's the mulch/pond litter progression: Spring begins with bright pink camellia petals covering everything. Those are followed by magnolia petals and finally cherry blossoms. Summer brings shedding bamboo foliage all season long which is followed in autumn by the falling leaves of the cherry, magnolia, and anything else the wind decides to blow in.
It's much better since the Italian plum no longer deposits fruit as well. (The fruit was delicious but the tree wasn't well.) Can you see the fish coming to investigate?
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I think your mulch is far more decorative than that usual brown stuff. Hooray for gifts from above! Mind you, I'm pretty sure I'd fall behind on the constant cleaning of the pond.
ReplyDeleteFun how your pond shows the spring progression of blooms in your garden. Of course, when you site the pond in full sun with nothing overhead, it fills up even faster with algae, including the dreaded string algae, which you can't get off with a pond skimmer on a pole. We had that problem with our pond in Massachusetts. Great shot of the western skunk cabbage. I keep hoping this year will be the year mine produces a bloom, but it's just foliage so far.
ReplyDeleteIf you listened to everybody who gave advice -- including your pond guy -- your garden wouldn't be half as much fun as it is. :)
ReplyDeleteA self mulching garden! You do think of everything.
ReplyDeleteNice water mirror with flower petals, Peter.
ReplyDeleteOur pond was in the treeless middle of the garden when we built it. But then we planted trees! On the other hand, nothing is prettier than trees reflected in a pond.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading years ago about a famous gardener (not so famous that I can recall her name, however) who let all her deadheading and pruning debris stay where it landed as mulch to feed the soil. It worked for her and I periodically exercise the same restrain on clean-up.
ReplyDeleteIt's as if you planned it!
ReplyDeleteWe rake our lawn and put the leaves in the beds where there are not trees. Everything else gets self mulched. No raking of beauty bark here.
Oh, yes, I know the feeling with the pond debris. Our biggest problem is in May/June when the Cottonwood trees shed their "cotton" all over the neighborhood. It's pretty, but it's messy, too. The Camellia/Magnolia mulch is so pretty!
ReplyDeleteWait...there are fish down there? Well, perhaps it acts as camouflage to protect them from herons and raccoons.
ReplyDeleteI like your way of thinking very mulch. I planted my blue Cunninghamia in its original spot with the idea that someday the mulch of dead branchlets it creates would smother the weedy brush just behind it. Of course, I just moved it, but it can mulch itself faster where it is now because it won't be so parched! Looking forward to Eucalyptus and bamboo mulching themselves, someday, too.
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