Diversity and Design in the garden

Been kind of busy doing car shopping but as I sit here at the computer with the window open it is a wonderful cool temperature. The breeze drifts in bringing the scent of the Jacaranda tree just outside, the male dove is once again trying to convince is partner that the branch he is sitting on is a good one for a nest (it isn't) and it is wonderfully quiet.

The cool temps will give way to oppressive heat but not as bad as yesterday..unless you are driving in a car for a half hour with no AC. Rocky just came and meowed that we're behind schedule on taking him for walkies and I think two dogs in the area heard him as they are barking now.

There isn't a whole lot of garden diversity in my area. We have various trees that can be listed on two hands, same with shrubs and vines. I'm not saying it isn't green around here it's just not lush and full. Sometimes that is what can grow in your soil and climate zone or maybe it's just lazy gardeners.

The more money you have the more disposable income you have to do gardening (if that's your thing). 

 

Diversity does not mean tons and tons of different plants but plan for varieties of textures and colors, leaf shapes and flower timing. A lot of home gardens are a mish mash of 'ooh that's pretty' 'oh I need some color for a party coming up' 'oh I need something tall there' and the ever present, 'I need to block my neighbors so I want some tall trees/bushes/bamboo'. 

 

Knowing what goes where and looks good takes an education or at least some knowledge of landscape design.  But the inherent understanding of color/form/style can come from art design or study that you had once in your college days. I am lucky that I spend 3 1/2 years going to college as an adult to learn landscape design and it has stuck with me. I had one art class in high school and color theory/wheel has stuck with me and was useful in design.

Nature works in odd numbers unless you are doing a balanced garden but even then you can still work in odd numbers. Look at any flower and count the petals, look at a compound leaf and count the leaflets. Fibonacci numbers are all over the place as well.

 

I find it awesome but unless you have enough space for a wonderful spiral garden, how does this work in a small garden? 

Work in threes, fives or sevens. If you want to plant a flower bed think about how it would look out in the wild. Maybe one here, a cluster over there a bunch in another spot because that's where seeds fell or the main plant is growing that divides every year. 

Plan for bulbs in the spring summer and fall and small perennials inerspersed throughout the yard to cover the bare spots when they die back.

Plan for waves of color. The most amazing use of color I saw was actually at Sea World. 

They had a small lawn area, no bigger then 20x40 with a bed surrounding it in a horseshoe. They made a flower rainbow. Starting on the left they planted red flowers that gave way to orange, then yellow, green, blue then purple. I was stunned when I realized what they had done. Mostly cutting and wildflowers  and I recognized what flowers and plants they used. I think I have a picture of it waaaayyy deep in my archives not going to dig it out now. Don't forget to plan for your pollinators but that will come if you use the right flowers.

Diversity in all things is a fact of nature. People didn't come up with it on their own, it's always been out there showing us the natural order of things for us to admire and imitate.

Favorite flower, comparison and it's still hot.

One of my favorite bushes is the lantana. This is just one variety among dozens and it is the larger growing bush variety lantana camara, possibly the variety 'Radiation' I mentioned it before but it is now in full bloom and had to take pictures of the variation in the flowers.

It is well known for the combination of colors in each flower head and range from yellow/orange/red to white/pink, nothing dark or blue colored yet, closest is a lavender variety but that's a ground cover. This is a favorite flower of both butterflies and hummingbirds due to the type of flower and the coloring. Some people don't like it because it gets so big but there are now hybrids that stay smaller, maybe 3' tall and that or wider. perfect for smaller gardens where you still want that splash of color in the middle of summer and a bush that will stay green all year around.

If you have a hummingbird feeder but don't seem to be getting any hummers, this is one plant to put in your yard that will get some attention. It is also the favorite plant among many butterfly species like swallowtails and monarchs.

 

I mentioned watering the spare bed and letting it soak. Here's what it looks like about 24 hours later.

 

 

It's a little more level now and that small bit of green in the right corner is wild purslane, The soil was still very moist and easy to work so getting some amendment in there will be fun, as long as I can get a little shovel rather than using the hoe, cultivator or the trowel. (I pulled the purslane out after I took the picture). So this bed is about the right size for one 4" container of zucchini. 

I saw a video the other day about staking up zucchini plants so it's easier to pick the fruit. The person said you can use a tomato cage but putting a stake down next to the stalk and then tying it up as it goes works best. I just remember zucchini plants sprawling all over and still being able to pick them. Will see how it works.... as soon as I get the amendment and the plant. Maybe next week. It gets so blasted hot by 11 am that I don't want to go anywhere.

 

Going to mention here when to know if you've got suckers coming up or what you planted. I got the question occasionally when I was working and depending on the plant you have to know what you're looking for.

Roses, it's easy.

 The white rose is an Iceberg, common rose planted all over the country and very popular in So. California. Tough rose bush flowers a lot and takes little maintenance if you're inland.  Now see the burgundy colored flowers? Those are the rootstock growing up and it's easy to tell because of the flower color but if it weren't flowering, and on other plants and trees as well, look to where the stems are coming from.

A good 99% of roses are all grafted as well as most fruit trees. Grafting is a process of taking a growing part of one plant and inserting it under the skin or into the core of another plant. Various reasons and it's a huge topic that I won't cover right now.

For roses the rootstock on most of them is a variety called Dr. Hurd. It really has no flower value for fragrance, it mildews easily and tends to just grow rampantly. Why do they use it then? It has a stronger root and is resistant to some diseases. It was never meant to be grown on it's own merits after it was discovered to have desirable traits for the hybrid industry.

So when you see something like this coming up you need to dig down and try to break or cut it off as close to where it is growing from. If your main rose doesn't seem to be growing, the whole thing comes out and toss it. Time to get a new one. The rootstock is so strong that when the grafted rose fails from age or disease or whatever, it takes over. We have a few in our planting beds around the complex. Makes me itch to get a shovel, dig it out and plant another rose.

Now as for fruit trees, on some there is an obvious bump within about a foot of the base of the tree called the 'graft collar' or 'graft  junction' or 'bud union' depending on what type of graft and plant. Anything coming from below that point is suckers and needs to be removed.

 

 

See that little jog in the trunk? That's the graft joint and all those little branches are coming from below there need to come off. This is on a citrus tree and the leaves are very different than a standard citrus leaf so it's easy to tell. In this case you need to pull them off at a downward angle to get the growth point as well. If you don't it'll just keep growing new ones from that point.

A lot of people feel that killing suckers would harm the plant as if it were giving birth to babies. Oh heck no honey! they are called suckers for a reason, they will reduce the vitality of the tree or plant that may still be trying to grow so get them out of there!

Maybe if we called them leeches people wouldn't feel so bad about them.

 

Saw this on our corkboard in the patio... word to the wise. Lol!

 

The cartoon below it which I didn't get a picture of was two snails seemingly maybe a leaf distance between them and one is saying, 'If we weren't so far away I'd come over there and beat you up!'

 

Forgot to water yesterday, things to do and it's blasted hot.

 It is now full on summer for my side of the country. Record heat all the way to the midwest and some parts of the east coast. Been mostly Southwest records this early in the season so to that, I already covered when to water and how. 

I thought of a funny adaptation of 'What we have heah is a failyah to communicate' and instead of communicate it was something else to do with gardening. Eradicate? Irrigate? Cultivate? Something. Oh well.

Still haven't gotten the other bed properly amended, but I did water the heck out of it today.

Now what I did was, watered my other bed 'thoroughly' (meaning the water likely went down maybe a 1/4 inch. Then I turned to this bed, which had purslane starting to grow in it, hosed it down, grabbed the hoe and sprayed, hoed, sprayed continually until it was this puddle/pool about an inch deep. THAT should be well watered and drained by tomorrow. Will go pick up that bag of Happy Frog and maybe a zucchini plant before it gets too late in the season.

Now let's do a comparison between the Happy Frog soil and the Miracle Grow Raised Bed Soil

MG Raised Bed ingredients are:

"This product is regionally formulated from (one or more of the following: peat, processed forest products, and/or compost), and (sphagnum peat moss and/or coir), poultry litter, alfalfa meal, bone meal, kelp meal and earthworm castings."

 

Fox Farms Happy Frog Soil Conditioner:

"Contains finely screened pH-balanced forest humus, earthworm castings, bat guano, beneficial microbes and humic acid. Happy Frog Soil Conditioner stimulates root development and helps plants access the uptake of important micro-nutrients."

 

See the difference? Other than the wording there is a world of difference in what they place an emphasis on in the mix. MG is good, it has a lot of organic stuff in it and generally good. No complaints there. 

The Fox Farms also adds the microbes and humic acid as well as bat guano (likely instead of 'poultry litter'). There is forest humus as well as humic acid..both good for what I need. But given my soil composition having the additional forest products/compost and peat moss is sounding better. The MG seems to have more composty type things (and it is about $5 cheaper) and if I need any of the microbes and other nutrients, that's what the fertilizer is for. I will likely take the fertilizer and mix it with the soil then mix it into the dirt.

 

Now to the wording. Most every amendment you put in the soil, whether it be fertilizer or compost will stimulate root development. There are buzz words that companies use to catch the attention of the consumer to make it sound even better than it is. It's not lying, it's embellishing. There are some advantages to using products with micro organisms and micro nutrients over just plain compost. 

Frankly, MG got on the organic band wagon likely when people started preferring organics over their quick fix fast growth products. All plants need to grow at their own pace, growers force plants to grow quicker because they need to make a profit and get their plants to selling size quickly. Home growers don't need to do that.

Example 1: My tomato and pepper:

 

Planted May 28, 2021

June 18, 2021

Growing by leaps and bounds for sure! And flowering very well also!

So with only the soil that was in the ground (amended and I never did test it) using a good organic fertilizer, these will be producing fruit in another two weeks for sure. 

They've doubled or tripled their size in a matter of almost three weeks. I can only hope for results just as good with a zucchini plant in the other bed.

I explained about fertilizers and soil before but it's always good to see what the ingredients are and where they come from. Then judge what you need by what your base soil is like. I love how well the sandy clay drains which is good, but then you add in forest products and compost and other organic matter and it starts holding things together at the same time creating drainage as well as holding more water around the roots. We shall see what happens. 

Pictures when I get there.

No gardening today but an interesting and pretty tree.

 On the topic of favorite plants there are so many to choose from even if you deal with local ones you see all the time. When I was taking landscape architecture/design in college it was a lot of fun because we would go on walks around campus and use what was planted there for one semester and then we would go to Balboa Park for the other two semesters. 

One of my favorite trees I learned about is called Acacia Baileyana 'pupurea'.

The original variety has wonderful blue grey/green fern looking foliage which is pretty in it's own right but purpurea is even better. The new growth and flower branches, as well as some of the leaves, have a light purple tinge to them. Hard to see in this photo so will have to find it online.

Good shot of the new growth in full sun.

 

It just makes me smile seeing it and oddly enough it was in the parking lot of a Costco in Santee (next town over). 

I don't know why I'm attracted to this variety but maybe it's because it's so unusual as a tree and the colors are in my favorite range.

 

 

Acacias as some many know are very tough and a good portion of them come from Africa. They are actually in the bean family and it's obvious when you see the seed pods in the late spring/early summer.

There are hundreds of varieties and the feathery foliage is actually their most common form. Several varieties new growth starts ferny and feathery looking then shifts to a solid leaf and others form a winged stem that essentially acts like a leaf. This one keeps the blue tinged ferny leaves and has the bonus of purple new growth and flower buds. It makes it look delicate but it isn't.

Extremely drought tolerant, fast growing (double or triple it's size in three years), this particular variety doesn't offer much shade but given enough room can get up to 20 feet tall and wide. Once established (more on that later) they need almost no water on the coast and just occasional water inland. By occasional I mean a light watering maybe once a month if it's really hot. Almost all acacias have the same type of flowers, small puffballs of yellow to cream that have a lot of pollen. A lot of people are allergic to them which is a sad state of affairs when you're dealing with such a gorgeous color specimen as this one.

Just a little plant geek squee when I saw it in the parking lot and had to take a picture or two. The plants planted around the base are yellow gazanias, another tough groundcover and it echoes the yellow of the flowers.

 So about that term, 'when established'. Technically it means when the roots have grown out of the confines of the original rootball and are taking in nutrients and water from the surrounding area. That can vary greatly depending on the plant. Faster growing plants it can be in a few months (like tomatoes) or in the case of larger trees, could take up to a year or more. Fast growing trees like the acacia can be established within a year or so. 

 Now some directions for plants say 'water weekly/daily until established', well how are you supposed to know if they don't tell you how long that is? Do your research ya ninny! 

Seriously, I don't know how many times someone has asked me questions that could easily have been answered had they just used the technology at their fingertips! 'I want to get an orange tree, how do I grow it?' 

Now I can understand if someone is used to coming into a nursery and not used to having technology at hand. Get a book! Now this seems rather counter productive and makes my job less essential but here we are, still encountering less than insightful people who don't want to take the time and do research on their own.

 

I had one lady want a Canary Island Date Palm but only wanted one about 6 feet tall. Let me show you something.

Phoenix canariensis, man for scale

That is a 6' man standing next to that palm tree. Granted he's in a ditch because they've just finished digging it in. Those fronds are full size. The trunk is bigger around than he is and it's been trimmed! That pineapple looking area is where they trimmed the lower fronds off for aesthetics.

So I asked the lady how big a back yard she had. Told her that at six feet off the ground the fronds are going to be twenty feet or more across. 'Oh I don't want a plant that big!' too bad lady that's what they do.

She just liked the looks of it and only saw them from a distance. Talked her out of it thankfully, she only had about a forty foot wide yard about twenty feet deep. Ummm yah, no.

So when considering planting trees, as I've said before, consider their mature size and what they might run into. 

It's later than I thought. Way to hot today, got to 100 and was inside for most of the day. Stay cool out there folks! This is going to be a bad summer for sure.

Getting in the garden before it gets too hot

 

7:25 am

It's a wonderful 63 degrees and quiet for a Monday. Decided to get out and see if the soil needed water and it was dark but definitely will need some water before it gets too hot. Going out for breakfast and some shopping then will water. The bed will be in full sun by then and not ideal but early enough that it will be fine. The flowers on the two plants are doing well, tomato is branching out like crazy which means it's gotten hold of the fertilizer I suspect.

 

One note about using a tomato cage, don't assume it will just stay neat and tidy in the confines of those wire areas. Tuck branches up and in and guide it to grow up to be supported by the cage. Oh and yes, you will need a bigger cage. Better Boy is an indeterminate tomato (covered that when I planted it) which means, if I'm lucky this boy will get taller than the 3' cage I have around it now. It also means that having it fruit this small is okay as it will continue to do that for the duration. 

You can see below that I dug a little in the soil to check the moisture in the soil. The soil was dark but really wasn't even damp so it would need water definitely with our heat wave. 

Pepper flowers!

 

 

Best water meter is at the end of your arm. Your fingers. You can feel how much moisture is in the soil and with experience, know if it will need watering depending on the weather. I hesitated watering but then knew what little moisture was in the soil would evaporate within hours and watering in the evening was not going to be soon enough.

 

 

 

 

 

It is now 10:50 am and it is not peaked for temp at 83. Predicted for my area is close to 90 by 1pm. Yuck. I just went out and watered the bed, thoroughly soaked the soil. Since the sun was blasting on it and it would be most of the day I tried to only water the soil around it. Difficult with how big it's getting and the spray setting I was using.

I was almost finished and another senior lady peeked around the corner and said, 'don't water the lemon' I told her I didn't, she complained that every year someone waters it and the lemons all fall off. So she must be the one that put the sign up. I told her when was it last fed. She didn't hear me and complained again about watering, I repeated, has it been fed yet? She said no but it likely needs it. I told her yes, that's the bigger problem. She didn't want to hear any other reason than someone overwatering it 'every year'. I've only been there for a year so it's not me that's been 'overwatering' it.

 She was dropping off things for the community table and I walked past just as she dropped something on the ground so didn't hear me say I worked at a nursery for 20 years, it needs food.  Wonder who took the tree food then? 

 

On the topic of unlikely places for plants and what they need. I give you spider plant growing at the base of a jade bush and surviving. That sucker gets full on sun all day and here this little spider plant is trying to squeeze out from under that huge jade. No way to get it out so it will survive and it's already putting out a stem with flowers on it (going from left to right behind the overgrown zinnia stem).

Next we have someone's plant, likely from the previous tenant that has left it behind. An indoor palm, possibly Areca and a creeping charlie. Again, look who's the faster grower and that whole pot needs to be in more shade. Yellowed leaves, cramped quarters in that pot... surviving, not thriving. Sad state of affairs really. (oh that's Rocky at the bottom of the picture).

Coriander seeds.

 

Culinary plants with two uses. 

Cilantro aka Coriander aka Chinese Parsley. The leaves are used, as a good number of people know, primarily in Mexican dishes and some Asian dishes. First time I encountered it a friend had used it in sandwiches instead of lettuce or sprouts or normal things that would go on a sandwich. Because of that I said I didn't like it for many years. It wasn't until I wanted to make my own salsa or tasted properly made salsa that I realized it was the error of my friend not me that caused the prejudice. Some people claim it tastes like soap, maybe.. if I twist my brain around it that way but I don't want to spoil my brain on it.

The second use for cilantro are the seeds...commonly called coriander after the actual plant name Coriandrum sativum. I haven't had any recipes that call for coriander but then I haven't had many Middle Eastern or Asian dishes that used it. I think my mom had a bottle of ground coriander in her spice rack but not sure. 

Cilantro grows very quickly from seed and the best example is my former sister in law had a pretty good size raised garden bed that she had thrown cilantro seeds...ahem, coriander in and just let it do it's thing. Subsequently it was a perpetual cilantro bed where the stalks were at least two or three feet high and constantly blooming and seeding through the summer. When I lived with her for a year we would go out and pull whatever leaves we needed off the plants and go make salsa.

She no longer lives in that house but I wonder if the next owners/renters still kept the garden.

 

Comparison pictures and 'the invisible garden crew'

 

 Remember my caution about watering when they wilt? The second picture was taken around 4pm and the bed was in full shade for at least an hour. See the different in the leaf positions? Not being beat down by the sun the plants had a chance to recharge the vascular pressure and they were fine.

Now that doesn't mean they couldn't use a good watering again so I did.

 

So I did the dig test and as you can see, the surface looked bone dry but underneath it was still nice and moist. Due to the oppressive heat we are going to get I decided to water anyway and there you go. Because I have such good drainage and the soil is nice and loose I'm not worried about them being overwatered. I'm also watering all the way to the wall to prep that for the beans I will be planting hopefully soon. After I get that aloe moved. And the soil prepped (still waiting for money).

I mentioned previously about the unseen (or seldom seen) garden grew that works under your mulch. Most people consider them pests and in certain situations, yes they are.  

This crew is comprised of,

Snails and slugs

Earwigs (pincher bugs)

Pillbugs/Rolypoly

Earthworms

We all know that any of these in your garden can be a problem. Yes, even earthworms although those are considered a good sign you have healthy soil. With all my digging I haven't encountered any which is not good but I'm okay with it and will explain.

Slugs and snails are clean up crew but can invade your plants as well. They typically hone in on decaying matter and hide under leaves brush and mulch. They usually mate in the spring and lay clutches of eggs under the ground to hatch when the soil starts warming up. 

Trivia: Snails are hermaphroditic meaning they can be either male or female depending on the situation and therefore have the capability of being both at the same time.

Joke: You know why snails move so slow? One half keeps telling the other to ask for directions.

(heard on the radio years ago from a pest control company and I passed that around work at the nursery and someone was offended. Really?)

Anyway. Besides being tasty as a french snack, snails and slugs with proper maintenance can be beneficial in a compost pile but they don't care where they go for food and that means your plants are a tasty meal as well, usually in the spring. (My brother swears he fed me a snail when I was about 2 years old, don't remember it happening of course.)

There are organic controls for them involving sulphur, iron phosphate, beer traps and copper tape.

Next is earwigs, the ugly and dangerous looking pincher bugs. They are another pest that also feeds on decaying matter under mulch and leaves but also likes to eat tender flowers. Petunias are a favorite of theirs. They don't like to climb very far so rarely found on anything taller than small bedding plants.

Remember that product you can use for caterpillar and worm control? Yep spinosad can also be used to control earwigs, pillbugs and some grubs in the soil. Usually it's found combined with the iron phosphate commercially sold as Sluggo Plus©.

Pillbugs or roly polys are almost the same but one rolls up completely in a ball (pill bugs) and the other doesn't. Generally look like a little grey armadillo, remember Bugs Life? Yeah they were in there too, love that movie!

Pillbugs really are garden clean up, I uncovered a pile of dog poo once and there were dozens of them underneath just having a feast. When there are too many of them they will climb into small plants but their mouth parts are so small they do little damage compared to the others on the list.

 

Earthworms are beneficial but also too many of them can be a problem in your soil. Worms eat organic matter and process it out to make worm castings. Worm Sign! ((heheh sci fi reference there). Ever go out in the morning and see little piles of moist dirt all over your lawn? That's worm castings. It's mostly sandy gritty by product and actually makes your soil heavier. It's beneficial to soils that are low nutrient and oddly enough has another benefit but it's costly. 

It was discovered over a decade ago that worm castings has a chiton type product in it that plants can absorb and acts as a repellent against whitefly. The downside is you have to put a two inch layer on the ground around your bush or tree and repeat that process about every two weeks. Worm castings are not sold in large bags, biggest is maybe 1 cubic foot and it's expensive. So yeah, nice try but I'll stick with other products.

 

The flowers are coloring up!

 

Before watering

After watering.

This is going to be my second bed, that white/grey area at the top of the photo is a good size puddle. Still have some leveling to do and fix that front board. Down in the right corner you can see the remains of another board that was sunk into the ground. Going to try and uncover that some more and see about moving that short board to the end and get another piece of wood for the front. That board along the wall has a strip of shade cloth stapled to it. Not sure what that was used for. Really need to get that bed fixed or it's going to be too hot to plant seeds. Again this is taken a little after 4 pm so that's the shade of a tree that is on it. Still plenty of hours of full sun there and it gives you another perspective on the position of the beds relative to sun direction.

 

I hope I get some money soon, not just for things I need but to get this garden going!

 

Watering and mulch - and a visual.

 

Wilted? I think not.

 

This photo was taken around 1pm, hot cloudless summer day. The soil looks dry, the plants are droopy, the leaves and stems have no stiffness to them, 'oh no! I need to water, they look so thirsty!' Hold it right there. Put the hose down and step away from the plants nice and easy.

I mentioned previously about the vascular system of plants and how in hot weather they will look thirsty. "3'o'clock wilt" is the term I used. This is it and I suspect they look even worse now that it's an hour or so later. Yes the ground looks absolutely parched dry and it's hot but I will wait until they are shaded by the building at least an hour before going back out there to check on them. 

This isn't to say they may well need watering, but resist the urge to water in the middle of the day for a couple of reasons.

1. It's hot. Water evaporates when it's hot and it's not going to help any putting water on them right now. Even if you ran it on the ground only, the soil is warm. It won't cool them down. They'll survive. 

2. Water actually on the plant when the sun is beating down can damage the leaves. Yep, boiled spinach anyone? Many times well meaning plant parents/gardeners have the hose handy right near the garden, in the sun. They see this happening and pick up the hose, spraying hot water on them.

 

Many times during the last three summers I was at work, all the pipes are run along the framing of the shadecloth. In the sun. Even an hour or two of sun jacks the temperature of the water to scalding. I would have to stand there and spray the water into the air above the plants, letting it cool down first before actually watering. i had to make sure anyone else watering knew about that and instead of just wasting water washing the cement, put it on spray and aim it up high above the plants. The droplets cool down sufficiently before hitting the leaves and it cools the air as well.

So, if you know it's going to be hot and sunny, water in the evening really well. Next up, a word on mulching, what and why. 

 

Perfect timing to talk about mulch. 

Definition of mulch first:

noun: mulch

material (such as decaying leaves, bark, or compost) spread around or over a plant to enrich or insulate the soil.

 

The term mulch has been tossed around (heheh) sometimes used interchangeably with compost as the same thing. Almost but not quite the same. One can be both but not the other way around.

Mulch specifically is used as the definition says, to enrich or insulate the soil. Yes, some mulch can be used in the soil but not usually. Compost can be used in the soil and sometimes as a mulch. 

Mulch has consisted of many things over the millennia that farmers and gardeners have needed to enrich the soil. Composted manure, shredded bark, wood chips, pine needles, leaves, and recently rubber. 

What you use and where is a biig topic. Some plants don't want mulch around their roots and others have a dire need of it.

The primary purpose for mulch is to keep the soil evenly moist and to moderate the temperature around the roots. It is also for aesthetic reasons but that's a side point from it's actual purpose. If you put a two inch layer of mulch around your plants that can save you from watering for at least a week.

A week, minimum. Imagine the water savings you would have!

Mulching is the best thing to do for areas with large spaces between plants to conserve moisture and cool down the garden. 

Depending on where you live, there are a variety of types available. At your typical garden center (actual nursery) there are three or four size grades of redwood bark. Large chunks 2-3 inches (called 'ankle breakers') all the way down to 'mini' you could use in a container.

Obviously the larger the chunks the more you have to use to get good coverage so typically medium to small is good in the average garden. 

(I remember the larger ankle breaker chunks being used in playgrounds when I was a kid.)

Also keep in mind the proportional look of the yard. Small plants, small spaces, don't use the larger size mulch, go for medium or small (this is an aesthetic aside as well as being practical). 

Two inches minimum is needed for adequate moisture retention and coverage. Be sure you have a good border of some sort to keep it from shifting into other areas.

Another product called 'shredded redwood' or 'Gorilla Hair' is used in some cases and it looks just like it sounds. Shredded fibers from redwood stripping that lays down like hairs and eventually turns into a mat. This is good and bad. Bad in that you can't water over it, the water will shed right off much like the pine needles (usually only available back east unless you have a pine forest in your back yard. Not my favorite. ) The good side for shredded redwood is it does form a mat and if you are doing drip irrigation or point watering it's fine. 

All the natural redwood products eventually lose their color and turn a dusty grey brown. If you don't like that, there are alternatives. 

Now what about that stuff you see in the Big Box stores? The colored stuff that holds it's color, looks pretty for a long time and, it's a mulch right? Yes it's a mulch but it is horridly inconsistent in the pieces. Mostly chipped wood, shreds, slivers, all colored in either a reddish, brown or black. 

Do not use this in a vegetable garden! Not that it's toxic but the coloring does come off over time.

Great for commercial and ornamental areas where you want a pretty looking garden for curb appeal.

One other mulch that had a poor start but is actually really nice is cocoa mulch.

It uses the cocoa bean hulls from processing the beans for the cocoa industry they are shell like and has a few benefits and cautions.

Benefits are that it is an even color, doesn't break down, small scale and smells great in the hot sun. 

In the process of it breaking down a fungus will grow, covering areas with a white network of filaments. Don't panic, this is natural and actually helpful. All byproducts break down and is rarely noticed, this one is more so. It also has another benefit as being a minor deterrent to cats using your garden as a litter box. The shells are small enough to get in between the pads of their feet and make it uncomfortable. 

Wait, isn't cocoa and chocolate bad for pets?

Yes, yes it is and when the product first came on the market customers were cautioned to not let their dogs eat the shells as they still had some residual theobromine and caffeine which is the harmful stuff in chocolate. As of the latest articles (the most informative from the AMVA in 2006) said that if you have a dog with indiscriminate eating habits, use something else. They would have to ingest a lot in order for toxicity symptoms to show up. Dogs can also have issues with the small bits choking on them just like any other bark.

So anyway.

Mulching, very good. Do it, do it now! Best time to do it is in the spring or early summer before it gets hot. Water down the area well, put on your mulch, don't pack it but kind of get it firmed into the bed then water again to moisten the mulch or it will absorb the water from the soil.

Mulches eventually break down and composting into the soil, which is good. If you have to add mulch, rake the old mulch around a bit, getting the larger bits spread out and a little more into the soil then add the new stuff on.

Later on, a word on what you might find under that mulch and the hard working 'garbage crew' that helps your garden and your soil.