embrace. Please visit their website and follow their guidelines to make your yard an Urban Oasis!
How we feel about fertilizer and mulch:
At Urban Oasis Project, many of us do not use commercial fertilizer at all, but rather use lots of mulch in our yards. I have been adding a few
inches of mulch to my planting beds in the landscape several times a year for many years. Never use red mulch or cypress mulch. Red mulch
Cypress mulch is not illegal, but should be. There are hundred-year-old cypress trees being cut down from southern wetlands to be ground up
as mulch. These trees are necessary to healthy local habitats. Don't buy cypress mulch! More info on why not to use cypress mulch:
Always use pine nuggets or locally chipped tree trimmings. Make sure the trees ground up were not Brazilian Pepper or other invasive species.
(Know your local landscapers and make friends with them. Many will bring you free chips instead of paying to take them to the landfill.) The mulch
slowly breaks down, building the soil, creating a home for soil organisms and worms. When I moved to my house in 1998, the "soil" was just sand
and rock. Now, you can reach in and grab a handful of soil which is black and rich, and full of native earthworms which have come to live in the
soil, fertilizing it with their castings.
