Anyone have a favorite mulch plant?

I mowed my field the other day as is required every year per local covenants.  I realized that I desperately need to get out and start trimming back my fence line as it is severely encroaching on my grass area.  While this is a pain to do, I get lots of feedstock for wood chips that further give me plenty of food for Wine Cap mushrooms.  

Most of the weed trees that are in need of trimming are Autumn Olive, an invasive in my area that I like to keep under control on my property.  This makes me therefore think about Autumn Olive, as a resource instead of a weed.  In fact, it makes a very useful tree for the purposes of supplying me with lots of wood chips.

So does anyone else have a favorite source of mulch material out there?

Eric

The reason for my favoritism is because of the availability. I have a roughly 80 foot forsythia hedge on my property that is ESTABLISHED. I can cut a third out of it every year and have quite a lot of biomass on my hands. This year I got ahold of a chipper so I am going to be trialing the forsythia shreds in my flower/mushroom gardens.

Timothy,

Congratulations on all those wood chips that you are about to get and good job on all the mushrooms you will grow!

Like you, my favorite is mostly a result of simple availability.  But the chips do make a good mulch and are a good substrate for mushrooms.

Eric

You have me wishing that I had a good chipper! There's an invasive, well-established bush that would make great wood chips for me. Il
I can't say I have a favorite "chop and drop" plant at the moment. My favorite living mulch is chickweed. In my area, it sprouts after I've harvested everything, grows through most of winter, and dies back when I'm ready to plant in spring. Medicinal, edible, and tasty. I just need to get it established where I want it instead of in random spots.

Nikki,

I don’t have a chipper, but when I trim, I pile up all my trimmings and rent a big, 12” chipper.  This is much more cost effective for me as I only need to trim every 2-3 years.

As far as chop & drop goes, I like comfrey.

Eric

Wild oats, they are an annual weed, they grow quick and produce a good amount of biomass that quickly dries into straw. It grows densely enough to compete with weeds like canada thistle and dandelions, but then has shallow roots, so it's easy to pull out of the garden, unlike the deeper rooted weeds. I like to let it grow and mature in between rows in the garden, then stomp it down to cover the soil.

Most places have at least one invasive woody plant that is near impossible to kill and produces a lot of biomass. Here that's Chinese tallow and Chinese privet. I'd like to rid my place of them while making mulch in the process. I'll win the battle (get mulch) but lose the war (elimination).

My favorite mulch plants have always been the most aggressive and "weedy: problem plants that i could find.  Turning a problem into a solution.  Capturing and harnessing what most people were scared to put back onto their land and would consider obnoxious.

Of course this approach has to have a method to the madness for it to work out properly.  It could easily lead to more problems.  

While living next to a very sensitive native rainforest in Hawaii I quickly learned about what the nearby national park was using poisons to eradicate. These included a few varieties of Gingers, a small guava called "strawberry guava", a gnarly thorned himalayan raspberry, and a tree called Faya. These, among many other species, were all very quickly taking over the forest and displacing countless native species - dozens of which have already gone extinct.  

After getting my PDC I started looking at things much differently, and started coming up with my own less poisonous methods of dealing with the problem plants. i wanted to develop a system that could feed humans, while also protecting and preserving the most vulnerable natives in our area.  So I got a part time job as a "Forest Steward" for a nearby B&B, and started doing basic tree trimming and landscape maintenance for the community. I found a way to get paid to collect biodegradable resources, aka "green waste" and bring them back to my own place.  The species mentioned above is what i would most often come home with.  

I didn't have the money for any expensive machinery, such as a chipper/shredder or tub grinder, so that wasn't an option.  Even if i did a lot of the material wasn't suitable to put through these machines, anyway. It was often too fibrous and too awkward to put into the feed.  Larger logs i would chunk up into 2-3 ft lengths and stack them along my boundary where i needed a fence to protect from invasive pigs.  A fence is something i could not afford at about $10 per linear foot, but this wall of logs worked beautifully.  

For the smaller more aggressive stuff i did have an area on my property that was a sizable low spot, which was a beautiful shape for a potential future pond.  I wasn't about to take the green waste to the dump, but i also had to be very careful where to put it, because most the these species were so aggressive that just throwing them on the ground would allow them to start growing and spreading again.  The low spot was where i decided to start piling all the material.  

After a couple of years of doing this the low spot turned into a high spot of decomposing materials being consistently smothered by new incoming material.  The edges were sometimes a little problematic, but i would occasionally cut them back and strategically add material that wouldn't grow back in those spots.  Eventually the pile got big enough that i couldn't reasonably add any more awkwardly shaped opportunistic materials, so i capped it off with cardboard and less aggressive tree trimmings, small branches, leaves, cut grass, etc.  Then i started a different pile in another spot while this one broke down and decomposed. Eventually i got chickens and ducks, and they would start working the pile and pooping on it.  Another year passed by and i was able to begin mining it. It turned into a fantastic composted "mulch", which if i was careful, rarely became problematic with the spread of overly aggressive plants.  

As a side note - another big problem for this area in Hawaii is that there is almost no soil.  Its basically lava rock everywhere.  

So i was able to use a slow solution to convert an obnoxious problem into a major solution for my area.  This pile of green waste ultimately helped me grow loads of bananas, taro, peruvian ground apple, native Mamaki for tea, and much more, (very "hungry" plant species) without dependency on store bought fertilizers. Some of these crops even helped to bring an additional small income later on. But more often i would just share the surplus or use it to barter with when there was opportunities to do that.

My "mulch" came from obnoxious weeds.  

To echo what others have mentioned above i think it is often less about selecting one or two favorite species to use for mulch, but rather using what is already abundantly available around you.  

If i had to choose some favorites, though, then i would say grasses.  They can be very well managed to feed the system in many ways.  One person with a scythe, in the right context/situation, can get a ton of mulch material in a relatively short amount of time, while also having something to feed livestock - eventually converting greens into meat or milk.  

One of my favorite grasses is Vetiver. Its clumping, has a deep root system, can also feed animals, and if left alone or forgotten - it doesn't become invasive.  Even the seeds of some varieties are not normally viable.  There are entire groups dedicated to this one grass due to its wide array of uses and benefits. The mulch is longer lasting, and very easy to harvest as needed.  

If I mow my field in the summer it is too dry to grow back so I leave the standing dry grass to protect the soil.  When the fall rains first start I mow the tall standing grass with a riding lawnmower that has a pickup shoot into a wagon and start covering the garden beds for the winter.  When the leaves fall I pick them up the same way and cover the perennial flower beds.

Timely question, since I need to find some perenial that could cover a conventional garden for the looks.

The issue is that this garden is suddenly not allowed to be irrigated (restrictions due to the prolonged draught), so I'm advicing mulching to the owner, but she wants it to look pretty.
As a first emergency act, we will cover it with vegetable earth (potting soil), but I want also some perennial plant, with low water requirements that could works as living mulch all the season.

So far, the best one I've found is the rosemary postrata (tumbling), and we are also considering Carpobrotus edulis. The problem with carpobrotus is that as a succulent, it drinks water fast, and in absence of irrigation it survives by drying the leaves, coming back when there's rain again. So I am afraid that without any irrigation and in the middle of a severe draught it will not look nice.

A note about carpobrotus: Researchers are worried about this invasive plant that "introduces massive amounts of organic matter in the soil, difficulting the establishment of native [beach] plants, and allowing the establishment of other [non beach] plants". So it's a plant that transforms the inhospitable ecosystem of a beach into something with more life and species, and the researchers are worried because the old plants are losing their harsh habitat.

Pretty much everything, viewed from much more than a few feet, looks like a mulch after drying.   Chinese fringe Bushes grow prolifically here and, when cut back after flowering and laid flat, look like store bought mulch within a week or so.  Comfrey vanishes within a few weeks.   Red clover evaporates within days during summer.   In fact, pretty much everything is mulch in my yard.  Well, when it grows where I don't want it.   Golden Rod volunteers here with abandon.  I accept and receive abundant mulch.  Pruned apple branches.  Thank you very much.  Bolted lettuce?  Oh yeah.   Watch some David the Good.  Makes you laugh and has the kudos from me. Books worth a read.

I have several patches of mugwort growing around the property. It loves the weather here. I end up with six feet clumps by end of May. It will shade out too many neighbors, so I am always "chop and dropping" it around its base. Yarrow is another one that is outrageously robust around here. I have to keep them from going sideways for days. Nettles. Same. Rhubarb! Grass clippings, of course. In the fall, I collect piles of oak leaves from the field next to my lot. And from my driveway, since they all blow there from November until January. I use oak leaves to overwinter beds, Deep. Then I pull them off and pile them next to my compost bin for a carbon source.

I have a small shallow pond on my property that is thick with cattails. I cut the green cattails in mid summer let it dry and run it over with a mower and can make huge amounts of mulch in short order.

I also have and grow wild dock like some grow comfrey and I use it in similar ways.

Grasses are my go-to mulch, simply because of easy availability. I have access to hundreds of acres of grass , though of course I only use a few. Grass clippings are easy for me to work with, and they work well with my soil and growing methods.

I have old Pecan trees that drop limbs all the time. I use them as mulch. My favorite chop and drops are Hairy Vetch...love the seeds and how it spreads! Also, ragweed...I let them grow, picking the freshest leaves to eat for nutrients and allergies, and go to seed to spread.

Hi
i just discovered hybrid Bana grass (aka hybrid Napier grass) this is my fav non legume biomass plant at the moment.

still searching for a perfect nitrogen fixer for temperate climate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhTmBwbq3JM&pp=ygUKYmFuYSBncmFzcw%3D%3D

cheers

Tina Wolf wrote:I have old Pecan trees that drop limbs all the time. I use them as mulch. My favorite chop and drops are Hairy Vetch...love the seeds and how it spreads! Also, ragweed...I let them grow, picking the freshest leaves to eat for nutrients and allergies, and go to seed to spread.

Can you talk more about eating ragweed? My sheep love it, and the bees love it when it's blooming, and it grows into 8 feet tall forests here, but I've never heard of eating it.

I am using a live mulch of strawberries and herbs which freely seed.  

Tilley Martin wrote:

Tina Wolf wrote:I have old Pecan trees that drop limbs all the time. I use them as mulch. My favorite chop and drops are Hairy Vetch...love the seeds and how it spreads! Also, ragweed...I let them grow, picking the freshest leaves to eat for nutrients and allergies, and go to seed to spread.

Can you talk more about eating ragweed? My sheep love it, and the bees love it when it's blooming, and it grows into 8 feet tall forests here, but I've never heard of eating it.

I read somewhere, years ago, the American Indians used to eat the roots and leaves and grind the seeds to add to meals. It supplemented their diet and helped them with the pollen. We used to be bothered when it bloomed but don't anymore.

Currently using sunflowers the most...last year we let some wild and not wild ones go. They are everywhere. I've transplanted a bunch of healthy ones, larger ones get pulled for rabbit fodder as I go and the little ones popping up between all else are being chopped and dropped. Favorites are comfrey and burdock, both for the coverage. I'm using some rhubarb as well.

Tiny lambs quarters, hog weed, wild amaranths, mustards, etc get chopped and dropped between established crops.
My major weeds are all invasive and grow from root so I don't chop and drop those.

Invasive honeysuckle covers the 7 hills of Cincinnati.
I would never plant it(and I've planted a box elder).
In my ideal world, it would be harvest out of existence for chips and char,and   replaced by native spicebush.

Some mulch plants I  cultivate are mulberry, sunchoke, comfrey, alfalfa, rose of sharon, catalpa, black locust,, and burdock.

I'm trying to establish willow, duckweed and siberian pea shrub   in my land scape.

Reading this thread has me considering cattails and vevetier grass.

I have a 30 acre pine plantation that is around 25 years old. Cattle have access to it so there are no weeds nor bushes growing. It looks like a forested park.I use the fallen pine needles for mulch which will last at least 18 months in this hot, humid climate. Other mulches disappear in a couple of months. And no, this doesn't make the soil acidic like is stated in many of the gardening articles. The root exudates from the pines are what acidify the soil under the pines. It only takes a little effort to gather a cart full.
I will often move this mulch to another bed when reworking the one it is in, sometimes as many as 3-4 times through the seasons. Since I have access to more than I can ever use I pile it on about 10 inches deep. When I have set out transplants I will place gallon cans with the bottoms cut out over them which makes placement of the mulch quick and easy. This also protects the transplants from cutworms, slugs, wind and such until they get established and larger. When the plants start to grow above the cans I remove the cans and tuck the mulch around them.
Bob

Zone 9b here. I use Mexican Sunflower- the invasive one, but I’m not sure why it’s classified as that because it’s never spread anywhere that I didn’t stick a cutting into the ground. It grows 20 feet tall and I chop and drop it about 2-3 times per year, but feed it to the poultry.

* should have said AND feed it to the poultry.

Pretty much anything that grows on our place might find itself used for mulch. Horse radish, sweet grass (constant battle), other grasses, burdock, horse mint, yellow sweet clover (bumper crop this year), bindweed (after it dries on the drive way first) and rhubarb are all chop and drop. Some of it goes to the chickens. I use spoiled hay to start new beds. I have snowberry bush in my ornamental gardens that spreads everywhere so it gets whacked back a couple times a year. Cottonwood leaves in the fall make great mulch. I have started comfrey but I will let it be until it gets well established. So I guess my favorite would have to be whatever gets in my way at the moment and what it is that needs mulched..

For a wild mulch I like to use Scot's Broom (Cytisus scoparia) The leaves are less obvious than the green twigs, which form something like a horse's tail (as opposed to a horse tail) but the woody stems when seasoned can make a light but strong cane, staff or shillelagh. The leafy branches lie down thick and are nitrogen rich. (So far, Somehow, I have not experienced being overwhelmed by marching forests of BROOM!!! I have planted 2 Italian Alders in my yard and I keep them trimmed and accessible by the trimming for mulch: in contrast to the rhizobial Broom, the Alder is an actinorhizal nitrogen fixer. When I can I get tree service chips, but there is increasing demand for this resource in Oregon Cities: Portland actually has an app for sites where chips are wanted, whether they will pay, and how much they're bidding. Eugene had a heavy snowfall so I currently I have a pile of mimosa (Albizia) chips from a neighbor's ex tree. My favorite industrial mulch is corrugated cardboard, which is actually made with 2 distinct tree families: Cottonwood/Poplar  (the corrugated liner/inside) and Conifer (pine, spruce, etc.) for the board (the outside) This feedstock diversity and micro structure is especially effective at changing plant communities, IMHO because of fostering fungal growth.  Comfrey is pretty good, but the sharp hairs on the leaves are a bit irritating.

I like to use alyssum it has shallow roots, so it doesn't compete with my veggies, it's a perennial in my zone anyway, It will self seed, it's pretty, smells good and the pollinators love it.