Flood Irrigation and mulch?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Byers on February 2, 2010 at 4:13pm

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

Permalink Reply by Liz & Dan on February 2, 2010 at 5:05pm

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

Permalink Reply by Barbara von Oppenfeld on February 4, 2010 at 8:26am

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