Gardening Stuff

[rapunzel]

Just a little information about gardening things I wanted to share --

Saturday, March 21 -- Native and Perennial Plant Sale in DeFuniak Springs at the Farmers' Co-op. I understand this will be a great source for plants that will attract wildlife like butterflies and hummingbirds.

Walton County Master Gardeners will be selling tomato plants in a couple of weeks. Two varieties developed for this area will be available -- Christa and Fletcher. As soon as the little guys are big enough to go home, I'll update everyone. Save some room.

WalMart has Eucalyptus Mulch available. I think we all know how evil Cypress Mulch is for our environment. Eucalyptus is the opposite -- buying this mulch is good for your garden and great for the Florida environment. Melaleuca/Eucaluptus has natural disease resistance and is a great choice for mulch. More importantly, these trees are being harvested from the Everglades, where they have become an invasive pest species. Melaleuca | Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants The mulch costs a little more that the cypress mulch (the harvesting of which destroys slow-growing native trees and habitat), but a market demand will bring the price down.

 

[Mango]

If I might add-- Eucalyptus also is an excellent insect repellent. We use the oils here in New York to repel ticks and other chiggers and it smells nice to boot--minty.

 

[woodworker]

Can you fill us in on the reasons why cypress mulch is "evil" to the environment?

 

[AAbsolute]

Can you fill us in on the reasons why cypress mulch is "evil" to the environment?

Take cover

 

[NoHall]

If I might add-- Eucalyptus also is an excellent insect repellent. We use the oils here in New York to repel ticks and other chiggers and it smells nice to boot--minty.

Unfortunately, it attracts koalas. Watch out.

 

[rapunzel]

Can you fill us in on the reasons why cypress mulch is "evil" to the environment?

I don't want to bore you with too much detail, so why don't we start with a question -- how much do you know about cypress?

Florida used to be covered with cypress, and it was all clear cut with the exception of one small preserve. Cypress is slow growing, and it is just beginning to recover. Cypress mulch was once a byproduct of the old growth cypress lumbering. The old growth cypress mulch probably was pest resistant and long lasting, because they are still pulling up 200 year old old growth logs out of the Apalachicola River and selling them for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The old growth is gone, and the the mulch used today is made up of 3-inch cypress saplings, ground up to resemble sawdust. The wood is too slow growing, and by providing a market for the saplings, we are ensuring the cypress habitats that are so important to our natural Florida wildlife never have a chance to rejuvenate. Logging for saplings devestates the landscape, leaving it a barren wasteland.

Even if you don't care about the beauty of our landscape of the habitats of animals, the product of ground up cypress saplings is crap...it floats, it is dyed red and garish, it is too course to provide a weed barrier.

I like pine straw mulch, personally. It's natural, appropriate to the area, it weathers nicely, and does a good job of blocking weeds. If I were into nugget-like mulch, I'd use the eucalyptus because it is disease resistant and pest repellent, and it's an exotic invasive nuisance. It's a two-fer. Instead of killing something good to get something crappy, you are killing something crappy to get something good.

For more on why cypress mulch isn't great for the landscape -- Cypress Forests - Threatened Now More Than Ever?-?Save Our Cypress Coalition - Say NO to Cypress Mulch

For an idea of what we've lost, check out Audabon's Corkscrew preserve -- Bald cypress

 

[woodworker]

Thanks - I hadn't heard about the 3" saplings.

No doubt our predecessors sure did some clear cutting! I was under the impression that some (most?) of the local sawmills use renewable cypress from Mississippi/Louisiana plantations and their culls and scrap get ground up for mulch. Not really old growth, which means it's not as weather resistant either I believe.

Unfortunately, there's still a market for the old growth, just like with a lot of the exotic hardwoods. I think folks are starting to become aware of the destruction of these old growth stands. I agree that with our technology and availability of open land, there's no reason why we can't just use renewable and leave the old growth alone - again, market...

 

[rapunzel]

I also spotted some Eucalyptus mulch at Eastern Lake Nursery over the weekend!

 

[scooterbug44]

I also spotted some Eucalyptus mulch at Eastern Lake Nursery over the weekend!

Yep - they know their stuff! They suggested it to me for my plant graveyards as it is better for the environment.