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| A few months ago we had a large gum tree removed. The loppers then mulched it all and left it for us. I spread it all over the place.....The mulch was about5-10 cm's thick. thought my mulching was done for the year. However it seems to have all but disappeared....broken down. Soil looked great though! I went out yesterday and bought heaps of sugar cane mulch and spread it very thickly over a new garden bed. around the bases of standard roses and lots of liliums and daylilies. HOW ON EARTH do I scatter annual seeds now? I can't imagine them growing through all that mulch it is about 10cm's thick. Do I have to add a full layer of topsoil on top of the mulch to plant the seeds now?
A bit confused I had some big annual plans.....I can't even imagine planting seedlings now. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Hi HJ yes I had that problem too, as I had bought punnets of salvia's everlasting daisy, more salvia's so I just parted the mulch and planted the seedlings leaving a good size opening, that was three weeks ago. Sadly I dont have many plants left as there must be some kind of insect on all that cane mulch that is eating them as fast as I plant them. We bought our SCM from the cane farmers down Jacob Wells very wet, but if you bought yours in plastic covered bales from Bunnings there may not be any insects in them, you cant win. So I got some more seedling and planted them near the edge of the garden beds pushing the mulch away from them, if these survive I will put the mulch around them when they are a lot bigger. Seeds well I cant help there, probably best to grow them somewhere else and transplant when bigger... Cheers..MM. |
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| You can't. Try growing them in polystyrene boxes and transplanting the seedlings out. Otherwise, open up an area of mulch. You may need to hold it back with something to stop it spreading back onto the garden with the help of wind or blackbirds. I have just spent 1/2 hour this morning clearing the pea straw mulch away from my bearded irises, and foxglove plants that were being smothered. You don't really need a very thick layer of mulch to suppress weeds and encourage worms. |
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| g'day happyjacq_bris, yes there can be downsides to using a good layer of mulch but it's far better to mulch than not to. as has been said plant seedlings just pull aside a bit of hole through the mulch and plant merrily away. len has a new web addy now. |
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| Just did the mulch thing myself. I plant seedlings if they are annuals, but I do have some seeds I am going to scatter and see what happens. We use pea, barley and wheat straw and it doesn't seem to stop the forget-me-nots from self-seeding all over the place. Robyn |
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| You can start your seedlings in egg cartons as I do, later you just separate each section and plant it as you would jiffy pots - seedling and part of carton in the mulch. I just did the same with tomato seedlings, i planted them strait into the compost to keep the warm. |
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| Hi there happyjacq, I would recommend the following - start your seeds in seedling trays (just ask your local nursery for a couple)or cut down a cardboard box to 5cm and start your seeds in there. You don't have to wait until they are the same size as the ones you buy in the nursery. When ready to transplant, separate the mulch, add a handful of potting mix into the planting area, and plant your seedling (grab it by the top two leaves).Water. Adding the extra handful of soil will give the seedling added height, providing it with better conditions to survive. Cheers |
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- Posted by middlejane subtropics (My Page) on Tue, Sep 20, 05 at 2:41
| I just scatter the seeds anyway and then sort of muss up the mulch with my hand, to let the seeds settle into the mulch. Most plants will seed this way, tho you could cover your bets by growing some in seedling mix. |
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