Episode 27: Grumpy’s Low-Maintenance Mulch Tip

About This Episode

In this week’s episode of Ask Grumpy, Steve Bender, Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener deals with a reader’s daylily dilemma. Plus, Grumpy shares his tip about gravel mulch.

Question Of The Week

I read that pine straw is too acidic to use as a mulch for daylilies. What else would you recommend?

Grumpy Gardener Answer: Well, first of all, pine straw is not too acidic for anything. It's just that people think it is because pine trees are associated a lot with the Southeast, and we have lots of pine trees and lots of pine straw and pine needles, and our soil is acid, so people think the pine needles are going to acidify their soil, they won't. But they are a great mulch, and I love to use it because it's natural. If you don't have pine needle mulch or pine straw, just use whatever is common to your area, like ground bark or shredded hardwood bark or cedar bark, whatever you have, they all do good jobs. Now, as far as what else will I recommend, definitely don't use rubber mulch, that's just awful. Please don't use ground up pallets that are dyed red and orange and blue and purple, that's really bad; use the natural stuff, because the natural materials, as they decompose they will put organic matter into the soil and that's the best thing you can put into the soil besides your plants.

Tip Of The Week: Gravel Mulch

Yes, and I know that sounds a little weird to some of you. I always am recommending organic mulches, but sometimes, an inorganic mulch can work really well, and, so what I want to get across today is that, if you're looking for a very low-maintenance, inexpensive mulch, one thing that you can do is gravel. Now, what do I mean by gravel? First of all, I am not talking about lava rock.

You can use two things, you can use this ground limestone that has a kind of a gray color, but it's an earth-tone color. I like earth tone colors for mulches. Another is a pea gravel, and when you get that, try and get a little bit of a brown color to it, an earth tone again, because it's going to look much more natural, like soil. What I really do like about these kind of gravel mulches: they're inexpensive; anybody can do it; they are very low-maintenance; they keep down weeds; they keep moisture in the soil. So they're doing everything that you want a mulch to do.

And if you do it right, it really looks neat up in front of your house. One thing you do have to remember though is that when you're using gravel, you need some sort of a border in front to keep the gravel granules in place. You can use rocks or bricks, but that will keep all that gravel in place. And it really does look good, and you can plant your shrubs in it. It'll keep down the weeds, the shrubs will be happy, and you'll be happy.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener. For more than 20 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow Ask Grumpy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don't miss an episode.

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.