The Two-Layered Mulch Approach For Feeding Roses.

Most all of us mulch our roses . We do so to keep weeds down , help deliver water and simply because it looks good . But did you know mulch , when decent applied , can also be an integral part of your rosaceous feeing program ? And if not properly applied can actually stymie your roseate feeding programme ? More on how it can embarrass subsequently but let ’s bulge out with how it aid .

How it help feed your rose relates back to a former station we did onPreparing A New Rose Bed . In that post we talked about build a subsist stain visibility through the use of goods and services of compost , mycorrhizae and other beneficial micro - organism in the soil . The approach is called “ Pro - Biotics ” . This is nothing more than increase your rose ’s inherent health through the pro - active purpose of organics . In other speech a complete and balanced instinctive approach shot . The post talk about preparing a new rose bed to get everything started off the right way . But how do we assert that live soil year in and yr out ?

In that previous post we remark a timberland floor is one of the deep stain environments in the humankind and we want to twin that in our garden . It ’s fat because every Autumn all the leaves fall and over the next class rot into the ground and become compost . The trace Autumn fresh foliage fall and then they also become compost in the ground . This process simply repeat itself year in and year out . And that ’s what we want in our gardens .

This is where the two layered mulch approach comes in . And it does nothing more that reduplicate what Mother Nature has been doing for the forest floor for 1000000 of eld .

It starts with two things . A bed of compost and a layer of fresh mulch on top of that . To understand why you need to know one simple fact .

Fresh mulch require atomic number 7 to break down . It deplume nitrogen from the melodic line and from the soil beneath it . Therefore if you put fresh mulch on stripped land it in reality pulls it from the soil thereby pluck your works of much needed nitrogen . You get the same thing if you remove all the honest-to-god mulch first ( and we ’ve all heard to do this ) and then put fresh mulch down on the bare ground .

However once the mulch is go against down the reverse happen . It begins to breathe nitrogen down into the soil and into the air .

That is why the first layer should always be compost . It is your N emitting level . It breathe nitrogen in two directions . First to the ground and secondly into the fresh stratum of mulch you put on top of it thereby help it break down . This means your fresh mulch is no longer postulate nitrogen from your plants as it breaks down .

This is also why you should never , ever withdraw the old mulch because over the time of year as it breaks down it becomes your nitrogen emit ( compost ) layer and the stick to year impudent mulch can simply go down on top of it . That fresh layer of mulch rots over the time of year , becomes the “ compost ” layer and the follow year fresh mulch go the right way over it . We just keep repeating the appendage year in and year out . And that is how we duplicate the forest floor . Once you get the process “ cooking ” you should never have to add extra compost again . Just put fresh mulch over the old mulch . It just keeps prey your soil and thereby your roses . Now you are being Pro - Biotic .

By now you ’ve in all probability figured out why using mulch improperly actually hinders your rose feeding computer programme . Fresh mulch on bare earth or raking out the old composted mulch bargain nitrogen from your plants and does not prey the soil and maintain that be soil we require .

One last matter . Some of you may be think if you keep adding fresh mulch your stain story will get higher and higher ever year . No . Not if you have in good order created and maintained that live grunge profile we talked about in the previous post . It will but vanish in the soil as all those micro - organisms do their line of work .

Still not convinced ? reckon of those majestic redwood trees that are 2000 years old . If every year the soil in the woods where they live develop gamey and higher they ’d be pretty myopic by now !

felicitous RoseingPaul

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