Sawdust, I have discovered, is an excellent mulch for daffodils. Its greatest advantage is its almost total suppression of weeds. This has allowed me to grow a collection of 135 varieties with very little care.
Anyone who has ever hoed and weeded a planting of several hundred daffodil bulbs can appreciate the elimination of this chore at the busiest time of the year in the garden.
Applying Sawdust Mulch To Daffodil Beds
This mulch also protects flowers from splashes of muddy soil during a heavy downpour when the plants bloom; heavy rain can ruin many varieties.
With sawdust mulch, you can inspect the daffodil bed in early spring without getting your shoes muddy or packing the soil.
This is especially appreciated in my garden, for the soil is a very sticky clay loam. The sawdust also conserves moisture, but this is not too important in the case of daffodils, as their growth is pretty well completed before we have a serious moisture shortage in the East.
You can apply sawdust mulch in November or December or some other “convenient time when there is nothing else to do in the garden.
An hour or two with a wheelbarrow in cool weather can be substituted for several hours of warm-weather hoeing and hand-weeding.
I dump several loads of sawdust on the daffodil bed, then level it to a depth of 3″ or 4″ inches with a rake or small board. It settles to a depth of about 2″ inches by spring.
You will need additional sawdust each year as it rots rapidly and is incorporated into the soil, gradually increasing its organic matter content.
An occasional coarse weed or two may come through the mulch, but a few minutes’ work will remove any of these.
Common Misconceptions About Sawdust Mulch
It makes little difference whether the sawdust is fresh or weathered or from hard or soft wood. Some gardeners believe that sawdust makes the soil acid or is otherwise injurious to plants.
This is not the case, and it may be used freely for mulching daffodils without fear of injury. This belief may have arisen from the fact that the bacteria that rot the sawdust draw heavily upon the nitrogen in the soil.
Successful Growth in Various Soil Conditions
A temporary nitrogen shortage may result if the soil is low in nitrogen or if large amounts of sawdust are incorporated into the soil. If plants are nitrogen-starved, the foliage turns yellow, and growth is reduced.
However, you can add enough nitrogen to the soil to supply the bacteria and the plants. Ammonium nitrate, sulfate of ammonia, and nitrate of soda are common and satisfactory nitrogen sources.
My daffodils, planted in a fairly fertile, heavy clay loam, have made excellent growth without supplementary nitrogen.
44659 by George L. Slate