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Spring is a glorious time of year with the exception of the dreaded chore of mulching (well that and breathing in pollen). Last week I had the largest pile of mulch in the history of gardening delivered to my yard! I stared at the gargantuan pile with laser beams shooting out of my eyes – I was hoping I could move the pile with my superpowers but no such luck. SO I chugged back an icey water, put on my girly gardening gloves and lined up my various shovels, steel rake, and wheel barrel. It was time to break out the biceps…..and the quads….and the core strength (aka use my back instead of my abs and hurt myself).
Mulch is what I refer to as a necessary evil. If you want a garden oasis small or large you need mulch to retain the moisture of the soil around your plants, suppress weeds, keep the soil cool and make the garden bed look more attractive. But it just SUCKS, period. There I said it…..MULCH and everything to do with mulch, SUCKS……until you are done and it just looks so beautiful!
SO anyway, back to my 5 days straight of mulching. I attacked the 10 yard pile with reckless abandon. We have various garden beds that literally span our 1 acre property. There is one on an uphill slant at the end of our long driveway, a large one in the front yard, then the actual massive bed that flanks the front porch and runs all along the entire side length of the house, a bed that runs along the 40 foot long pool and lastly, the backyard patio bed which is like a small yard in itself. Just picture the amount of wheel barrels I had to motor to all the corners of the Earth (while sweating profusely and getting an occasional beep from random people driving by….they must have been in awe of my landscaping skills!). By the way the beeps usually make me jump and involuntarily fling mulch onto myself.
Like moving the heavy stinky pile isn’t bad enough, then you have to spread it evenly and meticulously around your 80 million plants. Maybe if I really had 80 million plants, at that point I might be able to afford a crew of more able-bodied men to tackle the job. Anyway, I did my job (and my husband helped a little but not really) and it was totally worth the effort. Everything looks so clean and refreshed and I think I secretly enjoy the quiet time and physical exertion. Oh and I forgot to mention, we always get our mulch from Grillo! This year we used Grillo’s highest quality mulch – 100% pure Hemlock Tree Bark Mulch – a unique and beautiful looking mulch with a dark brown appearance.
There’s still no shortage of things to do around the property but at least the evil mulch is done!
Erica Baker is the co-owner of Bakermedia, a popular Connecticut web design and social media agency, and owner of Erica Lee Baker Yoga Studio