Braving Rural Traffic Jams in the Pursuit of Cheap Mulch

We visited the "gardening ghetto" today, a stretch of rural highway lined with nurseries and greenhouses. My husband has been poring over the ads and flyers in the local newspaper, looking for the best price on bagged cedar mulch so we can finish the majority of the work that remains in the back.

After fighting traffic jams at crossroads with only flashing yellow lights, and endangering the health of our station wagon's suspension, we returned from our trip with 24 bags of regular cedar mulch.

My husband was busy in the garden this afternoon. First, he removed the ratty hinoki cyprus. It's a beautiful evergreen, but whatever it requires to make it look lush and healthy, we were not able to provide; so now it's gone and the garden looks better for it.

Then my husband covered the better part of the back yard using about half of the mulch we bought. You can see the result of his effort in this photo I took of a chickadee perched on the birdbath.


Photo belongs to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be borrowed without attribution.