New here......how much of a dirt ring......

[Jason Douglas]

Wood chips are great. Long lasting mulch choice

 

[Modern Marvel]

I would definitely agree ,landscaping tarp is a big joke. Just another way to get you to spend more money. Do yourself a favor and don't bother with it, nothing good comes from it and the truth is that the tree or shrubs only are harmed from the stuff. If you really want your trees healthy and full get a really good brand of agricultural chemical that usually come in two forms premixed and mixing is required. From my experience the premix has much less results so I prefer to mix the formula but always follow the products directions for application and never go closer than one foot to the trees drunk at the base. There is also volatile organic or VOC , chemicals given off from decomposing foilage and Leafs that that are toxic to grass and small shrubs and harmful to tree health and growth. A tree ring is nothing but landscape and design and gives Pleasant design to the landscape. With that being said the last thing that is necessary is to have the tree properly elevated, properly thinned out and manicured free full and healthy foliage canopy. If properly done in the right season following the steps mentioned I can guarantee you positive and rapid results.
Good luck. Mike.

 

[BC WetCoast]

Tell your husband two things

If momma ain't happy, nobody happy.

Happy wife, happy life

If he doesn't like weeds the only options are asphalt or concrete. I just worked on a house, where they had laid artificial turf. The area was so shady, grass would never grow. Anyway, there are now weeds growing in the artificial turf.

 

[treebilly]

Hey Rope, are you planting your garden directly in the wood chips? I'm thinking about mulching my garden with wood chips run through a tub grinder. And then top coat with wood chips.

 

[treebilly]

And I agree with what everyone else has added.

 

[ropensaddle]

Hey Rope, are you planting your garden directly in the wood chips? I'm thinking about mulching my garden with wood chips run through a tub grinder. And then top coat with wood chips.

Well yes and no on my cantelopes and mellons I place dirt mounds in the chips and plant then after they come out a bit I lightly coat mounds with stump grindings. I have one raised bed of all decomposed chips I plant in seems to work well. I have even plowed in chips in the food plots it made the clover do swell. I also been mixing topsoil with decomposed chips and grass clippings, I basically experiment and most of them seem to work out pretty good.

 

[Marine5068]

I don't use fabric in my yard either but it can help with weeds. I recently was asked to prune out several bradford pears that were planted in a 4 foot planting space in a parking lot with sidewalk and highway on the other side. He asked why they were getting blight and what could be done to slow the process down. I looked and he had black plastic over the whole area except where the trees poked through it. I told him you can start by taking up the mulch and removing that plastic! I thought the higher end fabric was breathable and water permeable ?

Actually from experience of all of our many perennial gardens, I have found that using the more expensive landscape fabric is worse and can actually block a lot of the goodness you want seeping down into the soil below.
We have used the cheap, thin fabric with great success under our large gardens and have for well over 10 years with positive results and no weeds.
A trick is to remove some or all of the mulch every 4-5 years and use fresh stuff that way the degraded mulch won't block the holes and the air gets to penetrate fully again.
After I remove it, I water like crazy and soak the soil without mulch on it, then I put new mulch back on top and water some more.

 

[ATH]

.......
A trick is to remove some or all of the mulch every 4-5 years and use fresh stuff that way [great organic material that will help the plants thrive] won't block the holes and the air gets to penetrate fully again.
After I remove it, I water like crazy and soak the soil without mulch on it, then I put new mulch back on top and water some more.

Sounds like a better plan than the alternative, but still not ideal.

 

[Jason Douglas]

Weeds be damned. No landscape fabric in the forest.

Plant your understory with lots of shrubs and perennials. They'll outcompete most weeds eventually. Pull em and spray til then.

Yardwork sucks... or you love doing it.

 

[Modern Marvel]

Like I said before Landscaping tarp slash/fabric Is just a big joke it doesn't work it's just another way to get money out of people it's terrible 4 your plants and does not allow nutrients and water of the correct amount to reach the soil. Another solution is keeping your plants spread out at a moderate distance between each other get yourself a nice backpack sprayer and spray the weeds generally Roundup Works fairly well for Homeowner use and watch for overspray do not spray within six inches from the plant any other weeds that are close you can just pull them and make sure that you put correct pesticides and fertilizer. Fish guts in leftover parts from filleting are the very best and Black Cow is very good also. make sure that it has plenty of sunlight that can reach the plants. Sunlight is what makes the difference for growing plants. I've been in the landscaping business here in Florida for many years and have done many projects if you want to save yourself some time and money just do it right and that's the way I suggested.

 

[Marine5068]

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Ok. I just told my husband this. He's not thrilled at the idea of "constant weed pulling".
But I think I have him convinced to try it, thank you.

Round-up

Excellent advice from all the experts here...
I had this conversation last year... and I'm still mulching!

Some weeds came up through the mulch, but a dose of Round-up got rid of most of them.
Could be my imagination, but the trees I mulched look much happier and healthier this year.

Btw, all of the bulbs that got covered with mulch came right up through it and looked better than ever..

Here's what I've mulched this week...


Btw, I stuck one of those little solar lights next to every tree I've mulched - at night the yard looks like a huge fairy village. Makes me smile every night!

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Oh, almost forgot to mention...
I used a double layer of newspaper** under the mulch - two sheets, opened up, placed in an overlapping circle around the tree.
** Don't attempt this on a windy day!

... and it's economical, too - I mulched five trees, a fig, and a blueberry bush with just one yard/ $21.00.
You can't beat that for weed control!

 

[Jason Douglas]

A significant mulch bed around a tree may be the single most important practice to perform.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

A significant mulch bed around a tree may be the single most important practice to perform.

I concur - and it looks great, too!