Rubber Mulch

[thistlebloom]

But it won't kill your plants Brumstead, so since your talking about such a small area, and it's free, why don't you try it and decide how it works for you?

 

[StupidBird]

IMHO, no.

Went to a school with gym floors made of recycled tires. Once. Got so sick I nearly passed out, never went back to that building. Earthships are sealed units, basically, keeping the tires isolated from air and water, so I wouldn't be as worried about off gassing.

I've also worked on a few Hazmat sites; the best was folks using "safe" industrial bits as mulch and a decade later finding out just how nasty the stuff turned out to be. Yes, it was pretty and the plants still grew.

Anyhoo, I cruise the neighborhoods after a nice weekend and pick up all the free bagged pinestraw and leaves from the industrious homeowners. The brown paper yard waste bag goes down flattened with the pine straw on top...voila, I saved 3.75 a bale, and kept stuff out of the county landfill. I use the leaves in the vegetable garden, tossed in the chicken run, around the fruit trees in the mini orchard.

While I'm on my soap box, DON'T ever use the free pecan shell mulch!!!!! ARGH what a mess! First, the little bits of nut left in the shells attracted every rodent in a mile. Then, the whole mess stained EVERYTHING permanently. Including my two little boys, their clothes, the carpet, the pavement... Then the whole mess molded and matted into a waterproof shell. And to complete my misery, I learned that pecans, much like black walnuts, secret a toxin that kills all other plants, and is very persistent, not breaking down for years (almost twenty years later, some things are finally growing back).

Please learn from my mistakes.