Who knew that such a small yard would need so much mulch?
Part of the reason that we picked our townhome is due to the small front yard that we would be responsible for. All told, it’s about 20 by 20 feet at most. The back half contains my raised beds and the front half has a tree and some bushes that the builder installed. I’m not in love with our current landscaping, but those are gardening thoughts for another day.
In May, when things finally thawed out and it appeared that winter might be over, we decided to refresh the mulch. The rest of our neighborhood had the same idea and, since we have an HOA, brown mulch was at a premium. Not to mention COVID precautions were in full swing. At first I thought 10 bags of mulch would do the job. I ordered it for curbside pick-up and sent Justin out for it.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough mulch. So, I ordered another six bags to finish the job. With sixteen bags in total I was able to do our entire front yard and about a third of my next door neighbor’s even tinier yard. Oh, did that lead to an awkward conversation! She’s not the most attentive gardener and I think I embarrassed her a little bit when the stark line of new and old mulch appeared. I was truly trying to help her out, but I also wasn’t about to send Justin out for the third time.
Next spring, I plan on ordering the same sixteen bags of mulch. I think it’ll be enough to do both of our tiny yards because I’ve added the four raised garden beds this year. The neighbor on the other side and I have decided that we’ll make sure that our middle neighbor’s yard is taken care of. The middle neighbor is super nice and she really tries to do her best with the front yard. She just has a lot going on and something had to give for her. I respect that.
The moral here: Buy more mulch and look after your neighbors.
Homespun in Colorado 