Lessons learned, that is...
I learned some hard lessons yesterday while I was laying mulch in my garden.
1. Mulch stinks. Humid wood is SUPER stinky!
2. I'm allergic to cypress wood. As soon as I opened the bags of mulch I was sneezing and itchy eyed!
3. Mulch is much more expensive than I expected! The kind I wanted was $5 a bag, and I was needing 50 bags (I thought)! Which leads to #4...
4. Mulch covers way better than bags of dirt. If you recall in one of my other posts, I've unloaded a LOT of dirt this spring! "I" meaning Me and my sweet hubby, but anywho! Because of my frequent return trips to stores for bags of dirt, I was expecting to need lots of mulch. Not so much.... I bought 50 bags! I know, you're probably shaking your head and saying something like, "oh my goodness". Yeah, that's what we said as soon as we got it in the truck bed. Whoa! Once again, Randy was right. I guess I'll learn in years 16-20 that I should start listening to him because I haven't learned that in the last 15 years! I laid out the big flower bed worth of mulch and used 6 bags! Yes, only 6. It's not a typo! If you passed 3rd grade math, you know that leaves 44 bags! Luckily, we can take it back! And, to make matters worse, I hate the way it looks. THAT leads me to #5.
5. Cypress mulch is ugly. It's yellowish/orangeish and looks like straw or hay. Poop! It's gross! I knew better and went with the cheaper option ($2 a bag) instead of what I wanted (the black mulch) at $5 a bag. But, if I would have known I only needed 10 bags instead of 50, I wouldn't even be writing this post to explain my hard headedness! THIS, leads me to a hard to post #6!
6. Listen to your little sister. Mal knew what she was talking about on this one, and most (99%) of other gardening conversations! She told me to do the black mulch because it will look like the fresh dirt look I like, and I didn't listen! Ugh!
So now, I've created more work for myself. Today, we are driving to Dallas to meet Dad and Autumn to clean out stuff from there storage building. The husbands are getting tools, a smoker, a generator, and some furniture! Were going shopping! Fair trade, I think!
When we get home this evening, I'm going to load up all the extra mulch, take it back to Home Depot and get the money back. $80 will go a long way for some more flowers or iron work!! Hot dog! Autumn says she is going to buy us black mulch for our beds because she knows how awesome it will look. Isn't that the sweetest thing ever!
It looks like I'll be cleaning out ugly mulch and laying down black mulch in the next day or so! I'm actually excited! I'm ready for it to not look like a flower bed outside of a barn!
Here are pictures....
This is the load of mulch we bought...
This is after I laid down 1 bag and I knew I had multiple problems... Way too much ugly mulch!
I should have stopped there and implemented a new plan, but I carried on... The good thing is that it's fixable and I'll know better next year!
- Posted using BlogPress from Britany's iPhone
1 comment:
I got way into working in my yard the last few summers. It is such a great stress reliever. It's one of the things I know I'm going to miss being over here...No yard to mow, no flowers, mulch, rock, bushes, etc. to tend to! You'll have to tend for the both of us.
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