I'm so happy that I don't have to worry about aesthetics and can use leaves as mulch. Just raked a bunch of them out of the beds today. I put them in a spot where the lawn crew can run over and mulch them, then I put them back into the beds for the worms to eat this summer.

Do you remember when they were putting that HORRENDOUS rubber mulch down everywhere? It was killing everything in the soil, and they had to take it out of playgrounds because they found out the dust from it was toxic to children...well, everybody, really.

What next?

FWIW, it's still under the swings and practically everywhere else in the park where I work. The stuff 'migrates' yards away from the site, despite efforts to contain it with plastic barriers.

It is a soft landing for falls, & definitely helps prevent serious injury, but newer, improved applications use a bonded matting material, rather than loose shreds.

So, the researcher in Reading, England says not to water plants so much. OK, when I am living in an English climate I will revisit this advice.