From away to garden.com and Robinhood Radio.com, this is Away to Garden with Margaret

Roach.

You're a weekly invitation to dig in and grow.

I get a lot of questions every year about mulch, about how to use it, when to use it,

which kind to use.

And today we'll talk about all that.

But also even more important about what goes

on in the soil beneath that mulch layer when you mulch with an organic material. So more

in a moment, but first these messages.

Programming and underwriting support from Royal Botanic Gardens publishes of Cue Pocket

books, small gift books illustrated from Cue's vast collection of botanic alert.

The most recent book, Fungai, about the strange and singular world of mushrooms, toadstools, and their kin, in bookstores now.

Underwriting support from color blends, supplying top quality spring blooming, Dutch flower

bulbs, to landscape professionals, and ambitious home gardeners.

More information on the web colorblends.com.

My guest today is Bill Fountain-No, Professor Emeritus of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University,

and former technical advisor to the US Mulch and Soil Council, the Industry Trade Association.

Hi Bill, and welcome to the program. I'm so glad to have you on. Hello.

Hi Margaret. Thanks so much. I appreciate the opportunity to chat about one of my favorite subjects.

Me too. Me too. You know I'm a mulcher. So I so enjoyed collaborating with you on a recent

New York Times gardening column, which was so popular because as I said in the introduction,

people have lots of mulch questions and concerns. So maybe we start with some of the basics,

...