This Damn House

As if the sod we laid last year wasn't bad enough.

What price my conscience?

Mulch is good. Mulch keeps the soil moist and your plants' delicate roots warm in the winter. It prevents weeds and reduces erosion. And if it's organic mulch (rather than, say, gravel) it composts itself right there in your flower bed, adding its life force back into the system.

Here in New England we have an abundance of nature's own mulch: leaves. In our case, pounds and bushels and heaps of oak leaves. year after year, I raked leaves into the flower beds, spreading them around and patting them down to ensure an even coat. On top, a crisp, crunchy brown layer, reminiscent of bread crumb topping on a casserole. On the bottom, the moist fecund layer of decomposition.

Except that piles of leaves don't look like mulch / compost to your neighbors and potential buyers...they look like trash. They say "someone lives here who doesn't take care of her flower beds."

So this weekend I hauled out a metric buttload of oak leaves, both crispy brown and soft fertile black, and replaced them with shredded bark from some pine trees from who knows where, which had to be delivered by truck and then distributed by shovel and elbow grease. They too are breadcrumbs atop an eventual layer of composting ambrosia, but with a much higher carbon footprint and wear and tear on my back.

What's the point?