For Immediate Release:

Monday, December 11, 2017

Mulching 101
Andy
We always love your advice. Need help on this one. You encourage a mulch over the soil to retain moisture among other things.
Here is the dilemma. An agent in my office also volunteers for a fire station near his home in Arizona. He was assigned to the San Diego fire-lilac. He experienced several bad situations with mulch igniting and basically acting as kindling. We have mulch everywhere at our home and are thinking of removing it. Wetting it only to quickly dry out in high, dry winds isn’t the solution. Should we replace it with some rock like pee gravel or larger?
Any help would be appreciated.
Jack and Christine
Hi
Thanks for the question.
It is a critical question too since the issue here is the health of the soil but also not to provide a fire with anything that could cause the fire to spread and do more damage.
I understand your confusion in that I am always talking about mulching mulching mulching. Let me clarify this.
First off it is essential to have healthy soil if you expect to have trees, etc. living on it. You should treat your whole property as one living being, and in this way, you may see that there are many things you should be doing that will not only keep your soil and in turn its trees but also help your property to maintain a low fire profile.
There are several areas where the application of mulch, along with compost and other soil amendments is not only highly beneficial but required. In such areas as the garden, fruit trees, roses, flower beds, lawns. These areas it is understandable that they should have good soil. In other areas, you are just trying to keep a low fire profile by not having anything run up to the house that may burn.
Wood chips are not mulch. I am assuming that the “mulch” that you are talking about is either decorative bark, recycled shredded tree, or some other type of tree product. These things by the very fact that they are basically small pieces of “wood” will burn and therefore should not be used as a mulch around the house or their areas.
The mulch that I am always talking about is called azalea/gardenia mix, and it does not burn since it is a soil product. It is made from aged wood and earthworm castings. This breaks down into the soil and needs to be replaced.
The fire department does not want the mulch to be more than 4 inches. Which is fine if it is a soil mulch and not a wood chip mulch. I would not use wood chip mulch in fire-prone areas. Especially not decorative bark. You mention small rocks as a mulch. They will work just fine but do very little to the health of the soil. The use of stones as a mulch will work well against fire and should be used in specific areas that you know would be more prone to burning.
So there are several things you can do to provide a “mulch” while protecting your home from fires. What I think you should do is to plant a living mulch one that will not only contribute to the health of the soil but also protect your property from fires. Kurapia is an excellent place to start. It does not burn too quickly, requires minimal watering once established and has roots that will go down 10 feet, holding the earth and water.
A California native. It is a beautiful ground cover with little white flowers a good part of the year. 60% less water, and requires no mowing and even helps the bees. This ground cover will grow well on slopes as well as a lawn replacement. Try Soils Solutions at 805-236-9272
There are many other different types of native grasses and ground covers you can use.
A great Grass to grow is Buffalo Grass, it doesn’t produce really tall and doesn’t burn well.
Another is called No Mow and waves in the wind.
I hope this helps.
With the fires around us and very little rain in sight, we have to be proactive and think down the road and then apply it to now. Ground covers are a great way to control the health of the soil and to help with fire prevention. With a simple drip system set to water once or twice a week (after established.) The first month I would water two or three times per week. But once they get growing they will spread out and every year will cover more and more area. They will make a significant natural barrier for your homes and property.
They can be grown along the highways and on dangerous slopes to control slides.
Another good thing about Kurapia is that it will grow well along the coast because salt doesn’t bother it. Kurapia grows so fast and gets so thick that it keeps weeds from getting established.
An important note here:
Please realize that watering the ground cover is very different than watering your trees. Especially with Kurapia since its water requirements are very different than trees. You should always water trees on their timer program and set to water a good long time say 1 or 2 hours once or twice a month via drip using a 2 gallon per hour drip head. While Kurapia will require much less watering and if you just watered for these, the trees will die because the roots of the trees are not getting any water. So place the Kurapia and the trees each on their timer program. Fruit Trees require very different watering then trees. Never water the lawn and think the trees will be beautiful. If you do then when your tree starts to die it will be too late to help them since the soil will have been dead by then.
any questions?
Leave it in the comments below and I always answer….
Thanks!
andy Lopez