Mulch

Mulching offers many benefits for landscaping in your yard and gardens. Some of these include retained moisture, weed control, improved drainage, lower soil temperature, erosion prevention and protection from mowers and trimmers. As they decompose, mulches also release minerals into the soil and leave behind humus which is good for plants. Wet weather can cause mulch to produce some undesirable consequences. Gardeners most often spread mulch in spring and fall. The combination of seasonal rains and fresh wood chip or bark mulch can result in the proliferation of nuisance fungi on the mulch surface.

A discarded cigarette, drought-cured mulch and gusty winds created a powerful fire cocktail Friday afternoon destroying a Danville drug rehab facility that opened less than a year ago. The self refind clinic at 106 Belinda Blvd. was closed and empty when the fire was reported just before 2 p.m. Assistant Fire Chief Woody Ball was paying his lunch bill at nearby Applebee’s when the alarm sounded and was on the scene within a minute. Ball said when he arrived a fence at the southeast corner of the brick building was ablaze with the flames being blown up into the underside of the roof protruding over the edge of the structure.

Josh Snowden with Red River Ranch of Stanton hauls a huge load of tree limbs to a mulching machine at the Winchester Municipal Utilities compost facility on Van Meter Road, top. Snowden was in the process of mulching the 34,100 cubic yards of trees and limbs downed during the ice storm in January. A Red River Ranch employee sifts through the mulch, bottom. The tree limbs were brought to the facility by city, county and state road crews and local residents cleaning up from the ice storm.

Mulch has many benefits around plant beds, foundation shrubs and other gardening locations in the yard. However, nuisance fungi occasionally grow on mulch applied to landscape plants and trees. In landscape beds and gardens, mulch helps control weeds, prevents extreme soil temperature fluctuation, decreases water evaporation and improves drainage.   Mulch also reduces mower and string trimmer damage by suppressing vegetation near shrubs and trees. As it decomposes, mulch produces organic materials to improve soil and otherwise benefit plants.

A $17,500 grant allowed Nicholasville-Jessamine County Parks and Recreation to purchase 35 tons of rubber mulch that was spread out over the playground area at City-County Park on Thursday. “Every year, we've got to put new mulch down, and it gets rather expensive to cover that big of an area,” parks director Duane McCuddy said the 20,000-square-foot area. The grant was obtained by Jessamine County director of public services Mike Cassidy. “It was through the division of waste management, and it was a crumb-rubber grant,” Cassidy said.

I'm reviewing several calls at the office asking about the fungus problems with mulch. Mulch has many benefits around plant beds, foundation shrubs and other gardening locations in the yard. However, nuisance fungi occasionally grow on mulch applied to landscape plants and trees. In landscape beds and gardens, mulch helps control weeds, prevents extreme soil temperature fluctuation, decreases water evaporation and improves drainage. Mulch also reduces mower and string trimmer damage by suppressing vegetation near shrubs and trees.

Live Christmas trees that made holidays bright will be used to help May flowers bloom. Boyle County will dry discarded trees, chip the wood and give the mulch away. Solid Waste Coordinator Donna Fechter asks residents to remember to recycle their trees after Christmas. There will be drop-offs at the water treatment plant off of Lexington Avenue for Danville residents and at the Perryville Convenience Center for county residents. Decorations and lights should be taken off of the trees.

Hopefully, you had a chance to mulch your strawberry plantings before the early winter cold. Mulch helps reduce the freezing and thawing of the soil that breaks off the small roots and in some cases can lift the plants partially out of the ground, translating into smaller berries and reduced yields. Mulching also slows plant development in the spring which reduces the chances of frost injury to the flowers. Mulch conserves moisture, keeps berries off the ground which reduces rot development and keeps dirt off of the berries.

Conkwright FFA agriculture students, from left, Yasmeen Navarro, Brianna Brooks, Amber Gilbert and Rebecca Chambers remove old mulch from around the flag pole in front of the school Tuesday afternoon. The students were cleaning up and placing new mulch around the flag for the visit from U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler Thursday morning. Chandler will be presenting the school a U.S. flag that has flown over our nation's capital. James Mann/jmann@winchestersun.com

A touch of paint, a layer of mulch and some minor repairs soon had the playground at Lykins Park ready for the large crowd that will be attending the annual Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival concert Sunday evening. Winchester-Clark County Parks and Recreation Department employee Larry Huff neared completion painting the swings red, white and blue, top photo. Hauling mulch for the playground was Sam Anderson, background. Once the tedious work was complete, Huff used a roller to finish the job, bottom photo.

Mulch has many benefits around plant beds, foundation shrubs and other gardening locations in the yard. However, nuisance fungi occasionally grow on mulch applied to landscape plants and trees. In landscape beds and gardens, mulch helps control weeds, prevents extreme soil temperature fluctuation, decreases water evaporation and improves drainage.   Mulch also reduces mower and string trimmer damage by suppressing vegetation near shrubs and trees. As it decomposes, mulch produces organic materials to improve soil and otherwise benefit plants.

A $17,500 grant allowed Nicholasville-Jessamine County Parks and Recreation to purchase 35 tons of rubber mulch that was spread out over the playground area at City-County Park on Thursday. “Every year, we've got to put new mulch down, and it gets rather expensive to cover that big of an area,” parks director Duane McCuddy said the 20,000-square-foot area. The grant was obtained by Jessamine County director of public services Mike Cassidy. “It was through the division of waste management, and it was a crumb-rubber grant,” Cassidy said.

Last week, I talked about ways to save money and energy during the summer months by making your air conditioning use more efficient. This week, I'm going to share ways to conserve water use during the hot summer months. There are a few simple things you can do that will help the environment and make a big impact on your water bill.   Let the ride go a bit Not washing your car is one way to cut back on your water use. Obviously, if your car is extremely muddy or dirty in any way that's dangerous, you need to get it clean.

Last month I warned that setting out tender annuals too soon is not a good idea. Not everyone listened. Yes, I saw you at that local house of temptation, your favorite plant supplier, buying those luscious ferns, begonias and mandevilla hanging baskets, so I couldn't resist buying some, too. Then, just as I feared, we had a frost and it all had to come back inside or be covered for a week. Now we can safely leave all our annuals outside. Temperatures are no longer dropping to frost levels.

- On Monday, emergency personnel conducted five local transfers and two out-of-town transfers. They also responded to two general medical calls, two cardiac cases, one respiratory case, one motor vehicle assist and two falls. - Firefighters responded to a mulch fire at 3:38 p.m. at 1520 W. Lexington Ave. - Firefighters responded to a mulch fire at 4:08 p.m. at 722 Boone Ave.

A Winchester woman was taken to the hospital following a kitchen fire Monday afternoon. Deborah Henry, 58, of 102 Fitch Ave., was treated for smoke inhalation by Winchester Fire-EMS personnel and transported to Clark Regional Medical Center after fire broke out in the kitchen of the home around 3 p.m. Another resident, Chad Abner, also was in the residence at the time of the fire and was removed by Winchester Police, who assisted firefighters at...

A mulch fire at a golf-course clubhouse drew fire trucks Wednesday but did not result in any permanent damage. Nicholasville firefighters responded to Connemara golf course and found a smell of smoke in the clubhouse but could not find the source at first, battalion chief Bob Carpenter said. “We started taking some floor up inside, and we had smoke underneath the floor - when we took the flooring up, it came up at us,” Carpenter said. “At that point, we thought we were on fire in the floor.” After about 15 minutes, firefighters located the source of the smoke - a small mulch fire that had broken out on dry ground covered by an awning at the front door.

Hopefully, you had a chance to mulch your strawberry plantings before the early winter cold. Mulch helps reduce the freezing and thawing of the soil that breaks off the small roots and in some cases can lift the plants partially out of the ground, ultimately causing smaller berries and reduced yields. Mulching also slows plant development in the spring which reduces the chances of frost injury to the flowers. Mulch conserves moisture, keeps berries off the ground which reduces rot development, and keeps dirt off of the berries.

Hopefully, you had a chance to mulch your strawberry plantings before the early winter cold. Mulch helps reduce the freezing and thawing of the soil that breaks off the small roots and in some cases can lift the plants partially out of the ground, translating into smaller berries and reduced yields. Mulching also slows plant development in the spring which reduces the chances of frost injury to the flowers. Mulch conserves moisture, keeps berries off the ground which reduces rot development and keeps dirt off of the berries.

A discarded cigarette, drought-cured mulch and gusty winds created a powerful fire cocktail Friday afternoon destroying a Danville drug rehab facility that opened less than a year ago. The self refind clinic at 106 Belinda Blvd. was closed and empty when the fire was reported just before 2 p.m. Assistant Fire Chief Woody Ball was paying his lunch bill at nearby Applebee’s when the alarm sounded and was on the scene within a minute. Ball said when he arrived a fence at the southeast corner of the brick building was ablaze with the flames being blown up into the underside of the roof protruding over the edge of the structure.