How to Use a Carpet Pad as Garden Mulch
Often used in flower gardens, mulch protects the roots of flowers, helps with water retention and reduces weed growth. Pulverized pine, cedar and bark chips are common types of mulch, and if your flower garden requires a lot of it, it can really bust your budget. But if you have some old carpet padding or know a friend who is having new carpeting installed, you can use the old carpet pad for mulch instead. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Carpet pad
- Sharp pair of scissors
- Masking tape
- Pitchfork
- Heavy-duty shovel
- Shovel
- Flowers
- Compost
Instructions
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1
Remove the carpet pad, and use a sharp pair of scissors to cut the padding into 3x10-foot manageable strips. Roll the strips up, and secure each roll with a piece of masking tape.
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2
Prepare the soil in your flower garden for planting. Use a pitchfork or heavy-duty shovel to break up large pieces of earth, creating a fine soil.
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3
Carry the rolls out to your flower garden. Remove the tape from one of the carpet pad rolls, and lay it over the soil. Continue the process of unrolling the carpet padding, and laying it over the soil until all of the soil in your flower garden is covered.
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4
Cut holes in the carpet padding according to how you would like to arrange your flowers. Use the scissors to cut a hole just big enough to slip the root-balls through for burial.
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5
Use a shovel to remove enough dirt from each hole to cover the root-balls of each flower. Place the flowers in the holes, and backfill with the original soil. Gently pat down the soil around each root-ball to remove air pockets.
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6
Apply a 2- to 3-inch layer of compost over the carpet padding. The compost will add further nourishment to the flower garden and also disguise the carpet padding.
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Tips & Warnings
Roll up the carpet pad and secure it with tape to make it easier to store it away for later use.
If you need more mulch, use the carpet itself. Cut it up into strips, and lay it over the soil just as you did the padding.
Do not use the carpet padding in a vegetable or fruit garden. The chemicals in the carpet padding can transfer to the soil, rendering your harvest unsafe to eat.
References
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Comments
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That is called... pollution. There are dangerous chemicals in that padding that should not be in the soil or groundwater.
