Keeping mulch in high winds

Wyoming is windy, very windy. I was preparing for the cold front that has officially arrived today. I was given many bags of leaves and was happy to use them as mulch around my plants. The problem is keeping them from blowing to Nebraska. I used straw/hay when I initially dug up the swales but even that blew. So I knew I had to weight this stuff down. So I've got tire sidewalls on the nut trees and cement rip rap on my fruit trees and in this particular picture it's a grape and a fruit tree. We shall see! So far so good.


Anyone have any better ideas?? I did these kind of late so while I did plant them not a lot of it grew.

What about pallets? You could use them like snowfencing to block the wind, and you could lay them down on top of the mulch.

How about keep the leaves in a big pile with some sort of tarp over them until they compact down a bit.

My leaves get ground up and mixed with silt on the roadside. Brush piles collect leaves that blow by.

A permeable structure slows the wind but allows it to pass through.

In my windy spots, l place leaves first and then cover with small limbs. Rocks hold the limbs in place.
https://permies.com/t/32499/composting/Dale-roadside-gravel-pit-compost

Miles Flansburg wrote:What about pallets? You could use them like snowfencing to block the wind, and you could lay them down on top of the mulch.

All the pallets I've collected have already gone into a snow fence/wind block for my wind block tree line. So none to spare for this.

John Wolfram wrote:How about keep the leaves in a big pile with some sort of tarp over them until they compact down a bit.

Because I've been getting them 2 bags at a time for a week and this week is supposed to be in the negatives. I just transplanted those grapes and wanting to prevent death from sudden transplant and cold shock they had to be mulched and mulched well.

Dale Hodgins wrote:My leaves get ground up and mixed with silt on the roadside. Brush piles collect leaves that blow by.

A permeable structure slows the wind but allows it to pass through.

In my windy spots, l place leaves first and then cover with small limbs. Rocks hold the limbs in place.
https://permies.com/t/32499/composting/Dale-roadside-gravel-pit-compost

Our neighbors would murder me and that'd be that. Plus our road isn't county maintained, isn't graveled, is only really called a road because we drive on it. It's lower than the surrounding land and so there's no way we'd take from it. It's bad enough as it is!

I was just taking a break from adding a leaf mulch to my figs in a high wind and saw this post!
I am gathering all of my bits of hog wire tomato cages and anything else I can find to stake around the edges and try to keep them in place....and some rocks, and some logs....ugly but it is working......by spring I will wonder what I was thinking. Once the rains start they will be OK but until then they are blowing everywhere unless corralled . good luck!

Judith Browning wrote:I was just taking a break from adding a leaf mulch to my figs in a high wind and saw this post!
I am gathering all of my bits of hog wire tomato cages and anything else I can find to stake around the edges and try to keep them in place....and some rocks, and some logs....ugly but it is working......by spring I will wonder what I was thinking. Once the rains start they will be OK but until then they are blowing everywhere unless corralled . good luck!

I'm chicken wire fencing my trees in so I've got a bit of that too. lol

Would the neighbors be concerned about brush piles or a few sticks held in place with rocks?

On the road issue --- My road is a mix of silt and gravel. When I rake up the damp leaves, they pick up the muddy silt, leaving gravel behind. Over time, the road should develop a higher percentage of gravel. It would take an amazing amount of leaf gathering to have any noticeable effect on the height of the road.

I'm not in the windiest part of Kansas, but when we face 40mph winds, I often weigh down my mulch with chicken wire laid down horizontally on top of the mulch and weighed down with bricks. You can't even see it from the road.

Dale Hodgins wrote:Would the neighbors be concerned about brush piles or a few sticks held in place with rocks?

On the road issue --- My road is a mix of silt and gravel. When I rake up the damp leaves, they pick up the muddy silt, leaving gravel behind. Over time, the road should develop a higher percentage of gravel. It would take an amazing amount of leaf gathering to have any noticeable effect on the height of the road.

I believe my neighbor would get out his tractor and clear off the road if I laid a bunch of branches on it.

We don't really have silt either. We have clay soil. Not a whole lot of rocks either. I could probably run the leaves and branches over with a mower but all I got were leaves and I just applied them as is.

This is a suggestion for the future, it won't help today's grapes:

Have you thought about kratergardens? They don't have to be massive to make a microclimates, and the bonus is the soil you dig out to make the hole. Bonus dirt!

Matu Collins wrote:This is a suggestion for the future, it won't help today's grapes:

Have you thought about kratergardens? They don't have to be massive to make a microclimates, and the bonus is the soil you dig out to make the hole. Bonus dirt!

I've actually cratered a few things at other points on the property, more for a water retention aspect though. The grapes I want to trellis up the trees ala Sep Holzer. Plus I was having the worst time with them where they were before. I lost 2 to who knows what.

Any suggestions for mulching an annual veggie bed in a really windy area?
Last year we went out and got organic straw to put on our annual veggie beds. It blew all over the yard.
I also put leaves on my potato patch...they also blew around the yard.
The only mulch that hasn't blown away is the wood chips on my food forest - but that seems a bit heavy for veggie beds.

I would appreciate any thoughts!

What about using some type of shade cloth?  Strategically placed objects could hold it down, moisture could still soak in the ground and that pesky wind won't blow your mulch away!

Now you need a way to harness that wind to perform some kind of function!  Make power ? pump water?  Grind grain?  Build a Holland style wind mill just because they look cool ?

Callandra,

Just a couple of ideal that I have.

One would be to lay down the straw/leaves/whatever, and then lay a couple of large twigs/small branches over the stray in order to weigh the mulch down.  I too have used straw and I know that it can be highly mobile in a moderate breeze.  I usually water my straw down immediately after placing it and gently press it down so it is less likely to blow away.  I have also placed tomato towers in my beds, bot the hold down the straw and also to slow wind over the surface of the garden.  If you can get something growing before the wind starts, the crop will help to both hold the straw in place and to reduce wind.

If you are using leaves, I strongly suggest really shredding them up to as fine a particle as possible.  I use a leaf blower-vac that shreds and sometimes I shred them a second time depending on how well they shredded up the first time.  Smaller particles both pack down well and are far less likely to blow around.

Generally, anything that can weigh down the straw until crops poke through will do wonders to keep that straw and/or leaves in place.

Last point.  My experience is that grass clippings are far less mobile than straw or leaves.  I have sometimes laid out straw and then placed grass clippings on top to hold down the straw.  To boot, the grass clippings, being highly nitrogenous, really help the straw decompose.  If I keep it wet, then I can both keep it in place and I can speed decomposition of the mulch.  don't worry though, the mulch will not decompose until the next year at which point you can do it again.

These are just a few thoughts, and if you have any others of your own, by all means, add them to these or replace altogether.



Good Luck

Eric

Wood chips work great for vegetable beds,  and as you've found,  they don't blow away.

Thanks all - we get wind gusts that throw trampolines around, so it's been a bit of a challenge!

I like the idea of fine leaf mulch - I'll have to see if I can find a machine to do that with!

Wind is one of my biggest problems.  Laden with salt it damages my plants, evergreen leaves are shredded in winter and most trees grow at 30 degrees to vertical.  This year I cleared a new part of my garden, hoping to grow more perennial vegetables and useful shrubs in lee of Sycamore trees.  I decided on a whim to create mini berms, about 18 inches from ridge to base, parallel to the wind direction (prevailing winds generally from SW), to give a bit of shelter.  This also gives more shady/damp and well drained/sunny areas (hopefully!), however this autumn I noticed that they collected the sycamore leaves really well.

Sycamore leaves caught in depressions.
I wasn't sure whether the leaves would just blow away in the first gales, but we've had several slightly windy days up to 40 or 50mph and the leaves have now rotted away leaving their leaf stalks only.

Captured leaf stalks all that remain.
We usually have 80-90 mph wind most winters, and I guess if these occur before the leaves have decomposed, then I'll lose more leaves, but I'm pretty impressed how effective a small depression can be.  I'm also surprised how quickly the leaves have decomposed, about three months max between first and second picture.

Callandra Caufield wrote:Any suggestions for mulching an annual veggie bed in a really windy area?

Steal it from your neighbours!

We had a bit of a storm here a week or so ago - nothing to write home about - just 60mph or so. I noticed that my trees are harvesting next door's moss!

moss caught on alder tree branches

moss caught on tuftfs of reeds

If you can slow the wind down, you will catch whatever it is carrying. Plants tend to dessicate in the wind anyhow, so giving them a bit of shelter is desirable from many points. The field next door is heavily grazed by sheep at the moment, so even the moss has nothing to cling onto.

Callandra Caufield wrote:Any suggestions for mulching an annual veggie bed in a really windy area?
Last year we went out and got organic straw to put on our annual veggie beds. It blew all over the yard.
I also put leaves on my potato patch...they also blew around the yard.
The only mulch that hasn't blown away is the wood chips on my food forest - but that seems a bit heavy for veggie beds.

I would appreciate any thoughts!

This is about what I was going to say.

Put down the straw mulch, then top that off with wood chips.

I live where it is really windy and that is the only way to keep mulch from blowing away.

One years I grew Sweet Alyssum which I love because it smell heavenly.  I found that it makes a great living mulch for tall veggies like corn.

i use leaf mulch quite a bit. a few sticks or stalks on top can generally keep it put.

I've used small branches with success. They actually will capture leaves as they blow by as well. Another great way to prevent cats from using your soil as a toilet too!