Ep 249 - Living Mulch: Layering with Native Plants

Replacing mulch with living layers that nourish soil, support wildlife, and gently teach us patience.

What if you could stop mulching—and let plants do the work instead?

In this episode, we explore “living mulch” with native groundcovers and layered plantings that support soil, wildlife, and a self-sustaining garden. Along the way: spring planting timing, a client story, and a gentle reminder—plants sleep, creep, then leap.

🌱 Related Episodes

If you’d like to dig a little deeper, these earlier episodes pair beautifully with today’s conversation:

·         Ep 247: Leaf Mold, Mulch, and the Lesson of Letting Go 

·         Ep 206: Soil Temperatures and Sowing Seeds 

·         Ep 121: Admiration for Ants & Safe Remedies 

·         Ep 31: Comedy of Crickets, Mayapple of My Eye 

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I'd love to hear your garden and nature stories, as well as your thoughts on topics for future podcast episodes. You can email me at AskMaryStone@gmail.com.   

You can follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook and Instagram #MaryElaineStone.

You can also listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your favorite podcast app.

Thank you for sharing the Garden of Life,
 Mary Stone
Columnist & Garden Designer

More about the Podcast and Column:

 Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.

 It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from Mother Nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in, in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.

Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone 
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
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Transcript

Ep 249 - Living Mulch: Layering with Native Plants

Sat, Apr 18, 2026 8:43PM • 13:12

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Native living mulch, garden inspiration, planting patience, vegetable garden, soil temperatures, native plants, ground covers, carpenter ants, neem oil, diatomaceous earth, native mulch alternatives, garden care, native plants benefits, spring planting, garden design.

SPEAKERS

Mary Stone

Mary Stone  00:00

Mary, Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary stone, and welcome to garden dilemmas, delights and discoveries. It's not only about gardens, it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learn from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So let's jump in, in the spirit of learning from each other, we have lots to talk about.

Mary Stone  00:26

Hello there. It's Mary stone on a very hot screen porch. I worked out in the field yesterday for a favorite client who is about an hour and a half away in Piscataway, New Jersey, and it rose to 92 degrees. It was a very long day, quite a flip flop from our normal spring temperatures, and it took a toll on me because of the heat, but also on Jolie. She's not used to me being gone for so long, and she's a little stressed today, so I have a day at home in my office here with many breaks to chase squirrels and take a dip in the creek for Jolie, that is.

Mary Stone  01:01

Thanks to those who reached back after our last week's chat, healing after winter in the Garden of Life, I so appreciate your kind words over the changes going on in my life, and I can't thank you enough. There is so much wisdom that we can gain from our gardens and nature and much healing. And I'm so grateful to share this garden of life with you. 

Mary Stone  01:23

Chilly temperatures are on their way back, so let's not jump ahead in planting here in New Jersey or anywhere else for that matter. I think we'll even have a freeze later in the week, and that's spring for you. One day we're in short sleeves and shorts, and the next we're reaching for sweaters again. It's nature's gentle reminder to slow down, to observe and to plant with patience rather than urgency. 

Mary Stone  01:48

I did get my snap peas in the vegetable garden and my broccoli rabe. I've never tried to grow broccli-rabe, but I look forward to it. They say when peepers peep it's time to plant peas, and it surely is a time for the peepers, I have to tell you, the nighttime course is deafening, especially with this heat wave, but is the sound I absolutely love. I also bought some carrot seeds and beet seeds, which was an inspiration by my birder buddy and meadow expert Dennis Briede, who said they are the most nutritious vegetables. So I had to dig into the specifics. Carrots are rich in beta carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A supporting vision, skin and immune health. Beets, with their deep jewel tones, are packed with antioxidants and nitrates that help support heart health and circulation. Both are powerhouses beneath the soil. So I look forward to planting the seeds and see what comes of it.

Mary Stone  02:45

It certainly is fun to begin planting the vegetable garden, but don't jump in too early, as I said. Because soil temperatures and the risk of frost are closely tied to timing, as we discussed in Episode 206 soil temperatures and sowing seeds. I'll put a link in the show notes, in case you missed it. 

Mary Stone  03:05

Speaking of having patience, I visited with Karen and Jeff, dear clients featured in Episode 247, leaf mold mulch and the lesson of letting go about using their wood chips from the trees they needed to take down. It was fun to see them using something so valuable. Last year, we planted two gardens together, chock full of all native plants. And Karen is anxious to add more plants, but I keep reminding her that the plants need some space, because they first sleep, then they creep and they leap and to be patient as they do so, a perfect transition for this week's story featuring living alternatives to mulch using native plants, and it starts like this.

Mary Stone  03:50

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. Recently, we explored the world beneath our feet, leaf mold, wood chips and the idea that over time, our gardens can become their own living mulch, especially when layered thoughtfully. That idea stayed with me as I walked with Jolie the other morning thinking about the seasonal ritual of mulching that many people endure.

Mary Stone  04:17

While I do use mulch during garden installations, and I typically use Hemlock mulch, which breaks down to nourish the soil. I have to say, the client in Piscataway, I converted from the dark mulch to the natural Hemlock mulch, and the health of their plants has been remarkable. It's so exciting to see. But of course, again, when you plant a garden, having mulch down helps suppress weeds, and after a few years, the need for mulch fades when you have a layered garden, which is a design technique that uses an assortment of plants of varying heights, shapes and textures that overlap, no more mulching, though some may prefer refreshing the garden edges and light touches of mulch around the borders, which is what we do for many of our clients.

Mary Stone  05:02

I came across a column I wrote years ago titled planting mulch alternatives, inspired by a client whose newly purchased wood mulch, and it was actually the pine bark that I often use, became a home to carpenter ants. Sandy found colonies of ants and termites in her pine bark mulch, and the close to home part of that story was at the time I was tackling carpenter ants that nested in the screen porch. So Sandy's dilemma was my dilemma too. I wrote back to Sandy. Oh my Sandy, if you have already spread the mulch, sprinkling it with diatomaceous earth, could work well to kill both critters. Despite my new found admiration for ants, we certainly can't have termites and carpenter ants living in our homes. And diatomaceous earth is the fossilized remains of microscopic oceanic plants that destroy the waxy echo skeletons of insects such as ants and termites, bed bugs and fleas, yet it's safe for people and pets.

Mary Stone  06:02

I've read that the food grade de is recommended for treating an ant infestation, plus my go to neem oil is another remedy that Sandy could use in her mulch, and I think that's what she did, mixing a half a teaspoon of liquid soap with four cups of water, then mix in a teaspoon of neem oil. The mixture breaks down in about eight hours, so you have to use it immediately once you make the mix. In episode 121, we spoke about the kind ways to encourage ants to move elsewhere. I'll put a link in the show notes. 

Mary Stone  06:33

Another way to avoid ants in your mulch, or termites for that matter, is to clothe your soil rather than cover it with mulch. And ground covers don't have to be ground huggers alone, whether true creepers, perennials, sedges or even low shrubs, ground covers knit the garden together, suppressing weeds, moderating soil temperature, and native plants invite pollinators and wildlife into the garden. So here's a list of some of the lovelies I enjoy.

Mary Stone  07:04

 For sunny and partly sunny spots, consider creeping flocks, which forms a soft, bright, colorful carpet in the spring, and the foliage remains evergreen, so it makes a wonderful ground cover that hugs the soil. There's wild strawberry whose small, white flowers and edible fruits delight both people and pollinators.

Mary Stone  07:25

There's bearberry, which you do not want to confuse with barberry, the terribly invasive plant we do not want to plant anywhere, anytime, ever.

Mary Stone  07:34

Bearberry is a low, evergreen shrub, and it's a favorite for dry, sandy soils, offering structure, flowers and berries through the season. And green and gold, which creates a cheerful semi evergreen mat that thrives in a range of conditions. In those in between, spaces where sun filters gently through. You can choose golden ragwort, one of my favorites. It forms dense colonies and sends up bright yellow blooms in spring. Another one of my favorites is foam flower and woodland phlox. They add a softer, more delicate layer. And then there's woodland stone crop, which fills in with surprising resilience. It's one of the few sedums that is native, that I just love so much.

Mary Stone  08:20

And then there are the shady places, the woodland edges and spaces beneath the trees, where the garden takes on a subtler tone. Here, Pennsylvania Sedge creates a soft metal like carpet that can even stand in for a traditional lawn. Wild ginger offers a glossy, heart shaped leaf that hugs the ground as well. While may apple and wood anemone appear in spring like small woodland miracles before gently fading back.  We spoke about May Apple way back in episode 31 - comedy of crickets, may apple of my eye. Yhe charming plants look like a swath of glistening umbrellas or large shiny shamrocks. Maybe why this big kid adores them, imagining woodland fairies hiding below.

Mary Stone  09:08

A side note here, each morning, when taking Jolie over the footbridge crossing my pond, I marvel over these early spring lovelies emerging. And this morning, a bumblebee was jumping from one lovely white star like flower to another in a patch of wood anemone, so lovely to watch.

Mary Stone  09:34

I'll put a link to the blog post in the show notes that you can click through to the botanical names on each one of those wonderful native mulch alternatives. 

Mary Stone  09:44

What I've come to appreciate most is that these plantings ask for patience. Living ground covers take time to settle in and find their rhythm. I love the saying plants sleep creep and then leap. In the first year, plants invest energy into establishing strong roots. In the second year they begin to grow, and it is until the third year that they truly begin to fill in and produce bountiful flowers and foliage. But in that waiting, something deeper happens, the garden begins to take care of itself. Just as we spoke about previously, when leaves break down and return to the soil, nourishing what lies beneath these living layers do something similar. They hold moisture, feed the soil and support life above and below the ground.

Mary Stone  11:15

There's an irony about the yearly cost and expense of mulching. I find this to be true because many folks hire the same crew to mulch in the spring, mow their lawn and then remove the leaves in the fall, and guess what? The mulch goes with it, perfect obsolescence, right? But indeed, beautifully clothed gardens of native plants, rather than mulch give back, rather than get taken away, they return year after year, deepening their roots, softening the work and reminding us that when we plant with intention, the garden begins to care for us as much as we care for it. 

Mary Stone  11:53

So thanks so much for joining me on this very hot spring day. Jolie is stirring a little bit after her sunbathing in the bean bag chair. Can't imagine that she's not overly heated. We will go back to chili temperatures. I will get those carrot seeds and those beet seeds in the garden, and we'll see what comes of them. By the way, does anybody have a tip on how to plant tiny, little seeds? I mean, radish seeds are so tiny I don't even know how you do it. So if anybody has some tips, I would love if you could email me at Ask Mary stone@gmail.com. Because the more that we share and learn together, the more we can grow beautiful things, including vegetables and including our hearts. So thank you again. I look forward to the next time on the screen porch.

Mary Stone  12:41

 You can follow garden dilemmas on Facebook or online at Garden dilemmas.com and on Instagram at hashtag. Mary Elaine stone. Garden dilemmas delights and discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling. Thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch, and always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.