Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Of cheap shrubs and rock mulch
While talking with a neighbor a few years back, I couldn’t help but notice another neighbor on the other side of the fence planting shrubs. She was working very hard, clearing a ton of weeds and junk and placing her purchases. I asked what she was planting. The woman said they were blueberry bushes, she got a deal through work.
My first thought was uh oh, she’s planting in too much shade and I don’t see amendments. I couldn’t help myself and went over there! I explained to her that she needed to change the pH of the soil for those bushes to thrive, which means they needed to add, at the very least, peat moss into the planting holes. As mentioned on another garden bite, blueberries need a soil pH of about 5 or 6, most of us have a more alkaline soil or neutral at about 7. There’s a lesson in that sometimes a deal is only a deal if you know what you’re getting! PS, those blueberry bushes never survived. And that neighbor is gone too… Someone else bought the place and used wood mulch around the home! 😉
Another neighbor wants rock. ugh, I hate rock.
If you’re going to use rock then let it be anywhere you are NOT planting. Rock mulch does not allow for water retention and the rocks can heat up causing issues with some plants. If you ever want to remove the rock, rent a rock vacuum. Seriously, or say you’re giving it away and hopefully someone will come along and remove it for you! Geez, I sound like the neighborhood garden busybody!
