Must Have Mulch

With increasing water restrictions due to the worsening drought in many parts of the U.S., it is becoming even more important to conserve water. You can help you plants conserve water by adding a thick layer of mulch to your garden beds.

I prefer an organic mulch that adds nutrients to the soil as it breaks down, such as wood chips. You can often purchase wood chips or composted organic mulch at rock yards by the yard, home and garden centers by the bag and sometimes even free from local tree services.

If you beds contain no mulch, before putting any down, I recommend grubbing out any weeds that might be in there and giving the area a good watering, in accordance with whatever water conservation plan you find yourself under, if the soil is dry. Then apply approximately 4 inches of mulch (tapering off somewhat up against existing plants) to your bed. Once a bed has been mulched, you should periodically redress it by adding an inch or so on top of the old mulch as it decomposes.

When adding plants to mulched areas, pull back the mulch where you want to put in your new plant(s), transplant your new additions, water them in and spread the mulch back around them. Keeping your plants mulched will help them survive by retaining moisture in the soil and keeping it cooler than it would be without a good layer of mulch.

Garden Coaching

If you are on the right mailing lists, seed catalogs have probably already started showing up in your mailbox, soon to be followed by flower, edible plant, bulb, ornamental plant and/or garden supply catalogs. If you join in the annual ritual of pouring over these catalogs, marking things that look like they would be great additions to your yard but are unsure just what you would actually do with everything if you were to order and have them show up on your doorstep, then hiring a garden coach might be just the thing for you.

Hire a garden coach? Just what is a garden coach, you ask?

I was quoted in an article on garden coaching in the March 2010 Costco Magazine, "A garden coach is like hiring a professional trainer for your garden", explains Costco member Cathy Stein, owner of Eclectic Design Choices and a coach in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. "The role of a garden coach is to show a homeowner how to make improvements and maintain their landscape, to access the needs of their landscape and to show them how to put it into top shape".

Garden coaches offer a variety of services to help you turn your landscape visions into reality. They may help you with design, plant selection, shopping for healthy plants, plant care instruction, plant identification and lists of professionals for the parts of your yard transformation that you don't want to tackle yourself. By doing all of these things, a garden coach can actually help save you money by avoiding costly mistakes. For more of my thoughts on what a garden coach can do for you, click on my garden coaching tab above.

If you live in another part of the U.S. and would like to find a garden coach near you, you can find listings for garden coaches in your state in this garden coach directory. There are even international listings there as well. If you live in the DFW area, I'd love to talk with you about setting up an initial consultation.