Mulch Day 2025

I typically rank Mulch Day as one of my top five favorite days of the year. It is also one of my top five smells. Baby’s breath. New car. Fresh mulch. Pipe tobacco. Fresh laundry. I may be missing a few. (Does anyone smoke a pipe anymore? I can’t recall anyone doing it since I was in college, and they were assuredly NOT smoking tobacco. I have fond memories of my dad smoking a pipe. His favorite was Amphora tobacco, which is still around. I checked.)

Imagine, if you can, a fleet of landscaping trucks parked in your driveway and down the street, with an army of workers preparing to clean beds, cut down trees, remove debris, edge the beds, and finally, mulch the garden. It’s about 10 a.m. and you leave to go to an important family event (not to ruin my image, but Linda and I left to attend our grandson, Cameron’s, first birthday party.) You return around 6 p.m. and a magical transformation has taken place. The garden is immaculate, with a fresh coat of dark brown paint (mulch) that covers all dead leaves, sticks, weeds, etc. You are happy and sad. Happy because the garden looks (and smells) wonderful. Sad because you know that from this moment on, it won’t look as good as it does today, not counting, of course, the addition of beautiful perennial flowers that hopefully will be making their appearance from now until the end of the season.

I went out and took a bunch of pictures of the beds this morning to capture the moment and thought you might enjoy the photos. I’m glad I did because it has been rainy and very windy ever since, so plenty of bric-a-brac has landed in the garden.

Looking from the screened porch deck down to the steps bed. Even the slate steps look better after mulch day. Japanese Pieris shrubs (bottom center) look pretty this time of year. Lower left are the rhodos that don’t ever flower. Photo: April 13, 2025

The dead trees have been cut down and the debris removed from behind the house. We are probably going to plant grass from the end of the fence (right) straight across to the lawn on the left. Thanks to Geoff for pointing out the sorry state of this wooded section.. Photo: April 13, 2025

The back bed. Waiting for the blue star, plumbago, and toad lilies to make their appearance. I’m worried that the mulch will smother the new spring growth. That’s not a “thing,” is it? Three days after I took this photo, two different hostas showed themselves in the steps bed, so I guess I should relax. Photo: April 13, 2025

The red astilbe in the center of the astilbe bed is right on schedule. The goldenstar on either side of the steps looks like it did well over the winter. The Blue Zinger sedge at the front of the bed (right edge of the photo) has been dug up and divided. The anemone (windflower), Pop Pop’s azalea, and elegans hosta (upper right corner of the bed) look good to go. I need to put scrubbing the stone steps on my to-do list. Photo: April 13, 2025

The newly named Encore Azalea Bed looks strangely empty without the ostrich ferns crowding out the back of the bed. My brunnera (in front of the azaleas) are much smaller than they were at this time last year. I checked my April 2024 photos. I guess it was a colder winter, but I wouldn’t know because I was in Florida. (I’m not smirking.) I moved two of my coral bells to the front of the bed so you can see them better. I feel like this bed needs more plants. Hmmm. Photo: April 13, 2025

The variegated liriope (light brown plants) in the firepit bed have been dug up and divided. The Autumn Joy sedum (front left and center right) haven’t been eaten by rabbits or deer yet, reminding me I need to get started spraying, perhaps on a day when the wind isn’t howling at 30 mph. The blue veronica (speedwell) next to the firepit have all checked in and look ready to grow through their supports. Photo: April 13, 2025

This view of the water feature bed looks totally different from previous years since I removed the Canadian yew shrubs next to the patio wall. I’ve planted an Encore hydrangea (top center), transplanted feather grass (right of the hydrangea), Japanese Hakone (forest) grass to the left of the hydrangea, and Blue Zinger sedge hidden behind the Cherry Laurel bush to the left of the picture. In the foreground the Solomon’s Seal plants are off to a great start. To their right is a groundcover called Epimedium, and behind them are baby Hot Lips turtlehead plants. Photo: April 13, 2025

Here's a view from the east side of the water feature. The allium are all present to the left in this picture, but the plumbago in front of them have yet to make an appearance here or in the back bed. I added three feather grass last year (left center near the wall and far right) and am anxious to see how they’ve weathered the winter. I have yet to see any signs of the Rozanne geraniums that used to reside in the front center of the bed. Linda reports they haven’t appeared in the front yard either. Displaying my usual Type A lack of patience, I plan to install Woodland Phlox here in early May if the geraniums are a no-show. Photo: April 13, 2025

The bird feeder bed, featuring iris (left) gifted by my neighbor Patty. She gave me some purple iris plants to go with last year’s yellow, so it should look great when they pop. Russian sage in the center made it through the winter. There’s a bunch of other stuff in this bed, including coneflower, yarrow, black-eyed Susan, daylilies, coreopsis, hydrangea, and ornamental grass in the back left corner. Last year I stuffed this bed with annuals, so I’ll see how some of the other plants fill in this spring and decide on the annuals in a month or so. Photo: April 13, 2025

You can see one of the transplanted ostrich ferns in the left front of the Woodlands bed. There are several other ostrich ferns that made it through the winter. The same goes for red and white astilbe, though I can’t tell how robust the plants will be this year. I don’t think the white astilbe will ever come close to the healthy, vibrant plants they were before I transplanted them from the back of the old gazebo. Photo: April 13, 2025

The co-star of the spring garden, and clear star of the woodland bed, gets its own photo here. These three bleeding heart plants look absolutely beautiful this time of year. Their co-star for early spring flower honors is the Lenten rose near the steps bed. Unfortunately, you must walk a bit to see the bleeding hearts, so they don’t get as much press as the Lenten rose, which benefits from a showier location near the entrance to the garden. Photo: April 13, 2025

Forgive me if I got carried away showing off the beautifully mulched beds. As mentioned earlier, my only concern is smothering spring growth with two inches of mulch. Linda says if the plants can push their way through soil that has compacted over the winter, they can find their way through fresh mulch. My reading says not to put mulch over the crowns of spring plants because it blocks sunlight. It’s always something.

Other than haunting the local nurseries and looking for new perennials, I don’t think there’s much else to do but spray the deer and rabbit repellant and watch the plants grow. What fun! I’ll get back to you in a few weeks and let you know how it’s going.

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