It was time to mulch all our happy little bushes (all five million of ’em) in hopes of helping them retain water and stay warm through the winter (even though it’s still around 65 degrees here).
It’s not only a nice thing to do for your plants, it’s also a nice thing to do for your back since it’ll save you about a million tedious hours of weeding thanks to mulch’s magical (and pesticide free) weed-fighting ability.
And not only does mulch repel weeds, it seems to attract adorable little pooches with big ears:
So we’re never really surprised to find a sleeping chihuahua in our freshly mulched garden.
Yard work can really tucker you out…
Burger is so darn cute! We recently put down mulch and our dogs have been laying in it as well…I wonder if they’ll eventually figure out that it leads to dreaded bath time.
Ok, little new-to-being-the-homeowner me has a question: If you put the mulch down now, what do you do about the forty bajillion leaves that are going to fall in the next two months?
And where did you get the mulch?
How cute! Our dogs love mulch too, and they are going to be so excited that we are putting it in their half of the yard!Last year we were going to blow our leaves onto tarps and then put them in our composter, but we live up on a ridge and the wind blew them away before we could do it.
at first glance i was admiring your dark brown mulch, which is IMPOSSIBLE to find in Florida… THEN I noted Burger… what a precious angel! Penelope & Paisley love to sunbathe too… they send their love!
Mary B- Usually if you lay mulch down early enough before you actually have to clear leaves, the mulch gets rained on enough to “set” in which case you can just use a blower to blow almost all of the leaves out of the mulch (and then just hand pick the few that refuse to vacate the premises). It’s definitely not a good idea to mulch and then try to get rid of leaves a few days later, but we actually took these pics a few weeks ago (hence all the green trees) and will attack our leaves in another month or so, when the mulch is definitely going to have set for the season.
And although we could have waited to mulch until after all the leaves fell, some of our shrubs are very small and newly planted so we wanted to insulate them for the cold nights that started rolling in a few weeks ago (although older more established shrubs could probably wait a lot longer). Hope that helps!
Oh and Elizabeth, I can’t even express how jealous we are about your natural leaf blower (aka, the hill + the wind). John and I spend an entire weekend (sometimes even two) raking and blowing our almost-an-acre lot, so you’re certainly the luckiest girl in the world (with a super lucky hubby, too).
It’s also pretty funny to hear that other pups love mulch/sunbathing just as much as our little guy. Maybe we should have an annual mulch party for Burger and all of his dog friends (followed by a bath party of course).
xo,
Sherry
Aw, you chihuahua is a cutie! Ours is long-haired – and loves mulch as well – except not so much lying in it as eating it. :)