RE : Treflan post

Thank you to all who replied to my question. I like what Billy NY showed but am worried on my clay ground stuff coming super slow and stunted in cool damp years such as this one. Anybody else have any mulch garden setups to show here on this board.

I have a fair amount of clay in the soil, and you know how resilient pigweed is, that mulch works great, there is nothing poking through at all, that I can see. Its crammed with plants too, so that does shade them. I have pulled a few weeds, but if I just walked away from it, the garden plants would win hands down, there is just no way enough of anything will come up. No purslane this year, funny, if the garden has both that, and pigweed, woodchuck gets in, what do you think they go for first, both those weeds ! I have seen that first hand when I had one literally build a den inside my fence.

I like the mulch green just like quality hay for the nutrients, its easy to handle, no mold dust, but its nasty once it gets wet and moldy. I don't like wet clippings, it turns to mush and is dangerous to walk on, too slippery. The dry grass makes it nice, no mud on your shoes in the wettest conditions. I want to make a storage area under a roof for this mulch. Its fund to make it, its just liked doing hay, and sometimes I can get it nice and green depending on the weather, I let the lawn grow and cut at opportune times. I had even replanted my front lawn for this purpose, that went awry, will try again next spring. I look forward to it.

I keep voles as a hobby, they reside next to my tool box and I use this for their nest and they chow down on it, you have to add some every day or it will be gone. I bed them with sawdust/chips from cutting firewood, so that is where my compost comes from, I pile that up, turn by hand and it adds up, the results seem to be evident.

Hopefully not overwhelming with all I posted, I just think its a great solution, should be very effective, and its all part of a multi facet hobby, with lots of benefits. Its great to see any garden thrive, I've worked this patch for at least 13 years now and finally have turned this lacking soil into a really nice top soil.

I tried all Summer to catch a groundhog in my garden using a have-a-heart trap. Yesterday our black Chow killed a big hog in the back yard. Hal

Dogs are effective, they never came near the house when I had a dog here.