I am a Mulch believer! I feel the weedless beds, the balanced moisture and temperature balance of the roots in a mulched bed are very important and well worth the cost and effort of mulching. I feel the less stress put on a plant (Daylily) the better. There are more reasons that would depend on location, abundance of mulch, zone and type of mulch that would make a difference in the application of Mulch too. There are many types of mulch that may be used also. But the "Bottom Line" I will always continue to Mulch...it's nice to spend weekends weeding....IMHO

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Rick

I am also a big believer in Mulch. This is the first year that I applied mulch (previously looking at the cost only). Well, well worth the investment and daylilies are doing fine and weed free. I made sure to Preen all beds first - fairly heavy application before the mulch. I will continue to mulch each year.
Best of luck!

Rick's showing off again :)
Soooooooo beautiful, Rick - no matter how many times I see it!!!

Yes, I mulch too. Some people have to be careful not to put the mulch right up to the daylily, so if you think it's causing a problem you could pull it away from the crown of the plant a little bit. But I wouldn't get rid of the mulch completely. If your weather has been that wet this year (lucky you), they would have likely had the fungi anyway - mulch or no mulch.

Tammy

I heard that dirt splashing on foliage caused lots of diseases,,I have always mulched,,it keeps the beds neat and the foliage looks much better in mulched beds,,I even put pine bark mulch on my potted plants as a top dressing,,it makes them look neat,,it keeps the potting soil from splashing out in heavy rains and it keeps down weeds and the roots cooler,,BUT it is a lot of work,,

Dot

Now Tammy....hehehe... I just did that to see if ya wuz payin attention....LOL Sorry for the poor over exposure on the first pic..geee didn't realize how bad it was till posted on here...:(

Rick

ten lashes for Rick for that overexposure,,I'm embarrassed for ya,,HEY your beds look GREAAAAATTTTT !! Can I just come live with you and you can do all the weeding,,I will take pictures so you don't have to worry about overexposure,,I'm always willing to help out,,I can cook too,,oh and one little Q,,how come I don't see any name tags on all those lilies ? Are you psychic ?

Dang..those lashes...smart..geezzzzz....You must look very close....DOT
They are marked...but to be honest, they are marked in many ways. They each have a nametape buried in the rootball, they each have a 8 inch hard plastic nametag in front of each plant. I also have a map depicting evry plant location in every bed. And finally each is photo mapped too. The large beds in the top pic have their nametags in green...look very close you can see them. I keep the Mulch at their tips in all the front beds...in the back/side beds they are not so deep. I must Always be very careful with overexposure...have very light skin...LOL
Thanks for your kind comments on the beds DOT...much appreciated.

Rick

Dang..those lashes...smart..geezzzzz....You must look very close....DOT
They are marked...but to be honest, they are marked in many ways. They each have a nametape buried in the rootball, they each have a 8 inch hard plastic nametag in front of each plant. I also have a map depicting evry plant location in every bed. And finally each is photo mapped too. The large beds in the top pic have their nametags in green...look very close you can see them. I keep the Mulch at their tips in all the front beds...in the back/side beds they are not so deep. I must Always be very careful with overexposure...have very light skin...LOL
Thanks for your kind comments on the beds DOT...much appreciated.

Rick

I thought some of you may be interested in the easy way to determine how much Mulch you may need.

First: Measure the length and width of the area to be covered.
Multiply the length by the width to get the total square feet.
Then, multiply that by how many inches of mulch you plan to put down.
Finally, divide that total by 324 to arrive at the number of Cubic Yards of mulch to use. Most Bulk Suppliers sell by the cubic yard.

In bags, mulch usually comes in 2 - or - 3 cubic foot amounts. A 2 cubic foot bag covers about 12 square feet of bed at 2 inches and about 8 square feet at 3 inches.
A 3 cubic foot bag covers about 18 square feet of bed at 2 inches and about 12 square feet at 3 inches.

Rick

Excellent Rick. Great job on the hardscape and gardens.

Now, I took your overexposed picture, copied it, corrected the exposure, lighten it up and blew it up and I finally did see something that looks like it was a marker, but I can't be for sure. I will say that your "markers" don't call attention to themselves.

Tom

Geez, if I didn't mulch my garden beds I wouldn't have any garden, only weeds they grow so darn fast.