A master gardener at the farmers market made me question my whole mulching routine

Last Saturday in Portland I stopped at a stall where this older woman was selling herbs, and she asked how thick I lay my mulch. I said about 3 inches, like every guide online says, and she just shook her head and told me to go 1 inch max in our wet climate. She showed me the damp bark at the base of her pots and explained how 3 inches traps moisture against stems, which I never thought about. I went home and pulled back the mulch on my dahlias, sure enough the stems were starting to rot under there. It hit different because I'd been parroting that advice for 5 seasons without ever checking what was happening underneath. Has anyone else found that the standard online tips fail hard once you factor in your local weather? How do you adjust the usual rules for your zone?

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fiona3302d ago

Oh boy, is this the new gardening crisis of the week? Look, I get it, mulch can cause problems if you pile it right up against the stems like a volcano. But rotating mold on dahlias is pretty common in wet years no matter what you do. The online guides say 3 inches for a reason, that depth keeps weeds down and holds moisture during dry spells. One gardener at a market telling you to change everything after five seasons feels like a bit of an overreaction. Maybe just pull the mulch back an inch from the base of your plants and call it a day. That solves the rot issue without tossing out the whole rule book.