Cover the ground

Keep the soil covered for these important reasons:

• Retain moisture – This is as important in fall and winter as in summer and spring. In fact, winter drought is a common reason for dead or damaged plants come spring.
• Regulate soil temperature – Heat and cold can kill roots. In addition, as water expands and contracts due to freezing and unfreezing, plants crowns and even roots can be pushed out of the ground.
• Suppress weeds — Preventing light from reaching the soil can go a long way toward preventing weed germination
• Reduce soil erosion and compaction — Rain hitting bare soil can dislodge soil particles or press them together more tightly, the latter causing compaction.
• Build soil — If the soil is covered with something that decomposes readily, it will add organic matter to the soil. Also, the various organisms who digest the organic matter create cavities in the soil that retain air and water. This process improves the structure of the soil.

Here are some alternatives to using bagged mulches:

• Leave the leaves: Leaves make a great mulch that provides all the soil benefits listed above plus protects a habitat where many insect larvae overwinter.
• Use native groundcovers as green mulches: Sedges, (more sedges), and other groundcover native plants provide multiple benefits beyond soil improvement.
• More green mulching strategies: Planting densely and planting multiple layers are additional approaches to green mulches, discussed in sections below.
• Soft Landings: Leaving the leaves or using green mulches are particularly beneficial under native trees for the larvae that fall from these trees as part of their life cycles. Leaves and green mulches provide overwintering habitat for these insects or make the soil more pliable for them to burrow in there for the winter. Native trees are the larval hosts for significant numbers of insects, who will simply fall to their deaths if “soft landings” are not provided.

Warning: Under no circumstances use landscaping fabric as a mulch.

Plant in Drifts

lots of same species in same place—to increase feeding efficiency

Plant Densely

Plant Plugs

Plant Multiple Layers

(trees, shrubs for structure/habitat; explain herbaceous vs. woody)

Plant for Continuous Bloom