How to... Mulch Left on Garden Bed

Hi guys,

I hired an arborist to get rid of some trees in my house. He left all the mulch from the stumps on the garden beds as shown in the picture.

The idea is to plant some trees later but I'm not sure if I can use that mulch as soil or do I need to put that mulch aside so I can buy soil for the garden bed?

 

Well one tree was an Oleander and the other one a Bottlebrush.

It doesn't look like a huge pile but I removed the mulch left from one of the trees to flatten the soil and it made quite a pile at the back where we put it.

We are not sure what to plant there, maybe some Hedges or Golden Biota Conifers. Can I just make a hole in it and plant the trees using the mulch as soil?

 

Scrape the mulch away from where you want to plant till you get to bare soil.

Dig the hole and fill with water. When nearly empty, plant the tree then water again. Scrape the mulch back over the bare soil, keeping it around 10-15cm away from any plant trunk/stem.

 

The mulch/chip will break down over time
The Oleander shouldn't be too bad after a day or two, just keep an eye out for seed/regrowth and remove/poison.
You could level off the mulch over the area and leave it for a week or two, water it in to help reduce any nutrient burn (caused by the recntly mulched plants).

 

If it a valuable tree I am planting depending on soil I add a bag of soil improver to hole before planting

 

If you have a dog you'll probably need to get rid of the oleander mulch in case it eats it.

But yes if you want to replant then you'll probably need to move mulch off if you want to improve the soil, plant then move mulch back

 

Oleander tastes absolutely horrible, nothing will eat it, enough to kill that is. Unless they have no taste buds.

Mulch is for keeping weeds from popping up and also keep moisture in the soil below.
The ground is for planting trees. If planting trees, make sure you know their requirements such as soil depth, drainability etc etc. many trees dont like "wet feet", so make a raised section to plant into and make sure the mulch isnt heaped up around the trunk as stem rot could occur. Again, research the tree to find out its unique idiosyncrasies.

Oleandar mulch (or any mulch) should be fine so long as it's been left awhile (weeks or months) to dry out and render any toxins obsolete. Green mulch has a tendency to pull nitrogen out of the soil to help break it (the mulch) down, therefore leaving the plant with nil or little nitrogen. let it sit for a few weeks before mulching the garden.

 

Yep. just a taste then rinsed mouth out. All good, but it is foul so nothing will eat more than that first taste and most likely spit it out (as I did).

 

Had a row of oleandars, very large, for decades in a open paddock and nothing ever touched them. Horses, cattle, dogs, chooks, pigs, sheep, humans all had access to them even in drought, nothing ate them. But, I guess I should add the disclaimer that apparently they are toxic. So, dont eat it!

 

Thank you guys, yesterday I started to remove some of the mulch to level the ground and placed it behind the shed. Next step is replacing the current fence for a higher Good Neighbour fence in agreement with the guy next door. After that we wold think of what trees to put there.

 

As another poster mentioned, fresh woody mulch will draw nitrogen out of your soil as it breaks down. This can make your plants go yellow. You can try to minimise this by sprinkling blood and bone (which is high in nitrogen) down under your mulch.

 

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Oleander tastes absolutely horrible....
You tried it?

The Y-man

Sorry to take the thread off course but that reminds of a painting crew I once hired for the outside of an old weatherboard house. Three brothers with wooden teeth who looked liked extras from the Deliverance movie – great at their job though.

I tried to warn them that they could be sanding back lead-based paint. They just grinned and said ‘nah mate – it doesn’t even taste like lead paint’ and kept on going.

 

They were taking the **** out of you.

 

Depending on if that yard is facing north then that would make a excellent home veg's garden,just buy a bag of lime 2 bags of sugar cane mulch any organic compost mix and just dig it into the bed..
With the Oleandars as the smell from those tree's stays around for a long time,and i have several on a property in nth nsw the wood from those tress is sought after by wood=workers ..imho..

 

Yes, backyard is facing North. I'm not sure but there is no smell from the oleanders that were taken down and I haver a very good sense of smell!

Why do you say that North facing backyard are good for veg's gardens?

 

North facing seems to work well in Brisbane ,and it may work in your local area that sqm's in your backyard under veg's would save you a lot of money over one year and feed your family in organic food that you know where it came from..Plus the set-up costs would be very low just labour ..imho.
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With the Oleanders on the property that i a have 10% share in the company title ,some are 70 years old and several times a year pre summer pre winter they put out a smell that stays with you for a long time

 

The sun, the light. Gets the winter sun allowing veges to be grown year round depending on frost sensitivity/location. Most veges need sunshine to grow and grow well.