Phoenix Permaculture Guild

Join us in creating a more sustainable Phoenix!

Hello everyone!

I've spent the last few weeks designing and building a garden in my back yard.  Currently, the paths or walkways between my raised beds are grass, but I love the way mulch looks, so I have been leaning that way.

My dilemma is this - I have flood irrigation in my yard... something I'm not willing to give up, as it is great for my trees.  Will the flood irrigation wash away the mulch?  Has anyone had experience with this?

Thank you!
Nick

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Take some of your desired mulch and place it in a bucket of water, if it sinks you will most likely be okay, if it floats you will have a hard time. Some mulches sink and some float so the answer is it depends on your test.

Reply to This

We mulch cut our grass clipping in place and each flood irrigation they float up to the front yard. You will probably get some movement in the mulch but won't know until you try it (Chris' suggestion is a great one). I know Diann has mulch all over her yard and has flood without problems. It will just depend, you might eventually move toward gravel type mulch for some pathways if your irrigation moves too quickly along those paths, or raise the pathways. I've been keeping our walking areas grass, but my dogs are wearing grooves into the yard...so I'll need to look into something like that soon!

Reply to This

Pine bark mulch does float away in my experience. I have a rose garden that gets irrigation and I needed a cover to prevent weeds. I ended up using landscape rock on top of landscape fabric, which isn't ideal because it gets hot; but it does stay put. You can get quarry gravel in a wide assortment of colors and textures and could probably find something in a dark brownish shade that could substitute for the mulch look. Paving or stepping stones might look nice on a path too.

Reply to This

RSS

Support the Guild

EcoMania

Botanical Interests, Inc.

Planting & Harvesting Calendar
Native Seeds \ SEARCH | www.nativeseeds.org

Latest Activity

Jay Headley added a discussion
Hi all- I would like to order some Cornish X next week, but would prefer to have my mother in law raise them in Prescott rather than in Phx.  Anyone know how Cornish X will do in cooler weather up in Prescott?    Jay
57 minutes ago
Alison Pearson added 20 photos to the album '"2010" Summer'
1 hour ago
I didn't get a chance to thank you Doreen but this was VERY informative, a must for all newbies!
3 hours ago
Treasa Birchett added a blog post
So I cooked the first of the rabbits we processed last week. Fried it like chicken. What went wrong is I have never fried chicken and I cooked it too long resulting in rubber rabbit so I popped it into the crockpot for three hours and it was divine…
4 hours ago
I was just reviewing John Jeavon's book How to Grow More Vegetables and in it he mentions planting Mexican marigold (Tagetes minuta) for controlling nematodes.
5 hours ago
Hi Brittany, Now is sure the time to be making Kombucha since it's been gone off the shelves for a few months now. I so miss it! I hope and pray that the issues get resolved and it comes back. I've had some really good success with making Kombucha…
5 hours ago
Hi Chris - I don't have a PH tester. I've always just added bagged composted mulch, steer manuer and Starbucks grounds to my existing AZ soil to ammend. Some years my spring tomatoes are really good and sometimes not so good. Is there anything in ad…
5 hours ago
Thanks for the heads up. When should transplants go in? It's so stinking hot out there! I have an area preparred and ready to go but dragging my feet in fear of the heat.
5 hours ago

2009 Arizona Farmers' Market List

Proud member of:

© 2010   Created by Administrator.

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service