ok, is there a better way?????

21 years ago

This will take a minute, so please stay with me. I live on a heavily wooded lot and have some very large beds. Every year I put down about 2-3 truckloads of compost, and then in mid-to-late May put down 2-3 truckloads of mulch. Every fall I get many thousands of acorns......so much so, it's easier to take up the mulch (with acorns) and redistribute the recycled mulch on the edge of my woods. Talk about a pain! The squirrels (and neighbors) find this highly entertaining, especially if I perform for them in the rain. So, please tell me.....am I missing an easy way to do all of this? TIA, Suz

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Comments (3)

Brent_In_NoVA
21 years ago
Wow, my back got sore just reading your post. Yea, it seems like there has to be an easier way. That seems like a lot of work and a waste of mulch. What is the big problem with leaving the acorns in place? Dealing with the seedlings?

- Brent
oogy4plants
21 years ago
I can't understand why you need to add that much compost every year to the wooded garden beds. Do you also remove all the leaves on top of the mulch?

Leaves make an excellent mulch by themselves in a woodland garden, especially oak leaves that decompose slowly. My plants have no trouble coming up in my wooded garden through the leaves in the spring.
If the appearance bothers you, you can put some hardwood mulch on top of the leaves. In any case, I think that you could remove any sprouted acorns in the spring with a weed whacker and just apply more mulch. That should take care of them.

Do many acorns sprout now on the edge of the woods?

It sounds like you are doing more work than is really necessary for a woodland garden.
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Mandyvilla
Original Author
21 years ago
Oh, I wish I could just leave the leaves, but if left in place you wouldn't be able to see any ferns, let alone hostas (some 3 ft. across) or perennials. Tried that a long time ago, looked bad and actually kept water away from the plants and created a slug safe-house. Formed a very dense mat. As far as the acorns, I paid my ll yo to pick them up by the bucketful. He was filling a 5 gallon bucket every hour or so, almost went broke. The sprouts if not picked up create another mess. Too many treasures to use a weedwacker.

Now I use the leaf hog on the leaves. The hog shreds them and I use in the compost or other areas (because if I put it back down, I would still have the acorn issue)to keep weeds down. Won't try pre-emergent (and not to sure it would work anyway) , too many things coming up or self seeding (astilbe).

One bed, or section is 40ft by 12 ft. Has hollies, hosta, astilbe, wintergreen, hydrangea, lady's mantle, lirope, some azaleas, ajuga, nandina, ferns. I don't know that I would exactly call it a "woodland" garden, but it's definitely a shade garden.

My perennial garden on the other side of the house is larger and is part sun - hydrangea, lungworts, gingers, echinacea, lysmachia, primrose, foxglove, penstemmon, weigelia, duetzia, phlox, balloon flower, more fern and hostas, daylilies.....

I just guess that's going to be the price I pay to garden on my little piece of paradise. Today was a wonderful day to compost:) Suz