Transcript:
Today. I’m going to top dress this, but over the past few weeks. I’ve been putting up quite a few of my plants and as you can see. I’ve got most of them on top of my potting table since the days are getting warm right now, and I’m starting to water them more. Now it’s a good idea to add some top dressing. Maybe you’ve asked this question. At some point, you know about using top dressing with pebbles and you might be asking. Is there any use for them other than just decorative because they just look, maybe they’re just a gimmick, but in my opinion, they are more practical than they are gimmicky. I have several reasons and several observations and this one’s I noted throughout my experience with using top dressing. So I figured it would be a good idea to share them with you. So my first reason is that the pebbles underneath serve as a barrier between the leaves, the lower leaves and the soil. Since there’s no contact between the two, this leads to reduced chances of rot when the soil is too wet number two. Having top dressing mitigates the effects of erosion. This is particularly relevant If you’re the type who hoses down their plants. Or if you’re like me, you expose them to the rain. So as you can see here? Most of the fine topsoil has been eroded, leaving the pockets of sand and may be compacted soil, whereas on this side, everything is protected by the barrier of top dressing number three density. So if you have top dressing, this reduces the chance of lighter materials from floating up onto the top of the soil number four, they do not tend to compact unlike regular soil. This means there’s lots of air pockets around them number five. Having air pockets means that they are poor conductors of heat exposed soil will heat up a lot faster than top grass soil. As a result, the roots are less likely to burn provided that you keep them dry, so make sure not to water your plants. When it is hot. Outside number six light colored pebbles reflect rather than absorb light. As a result, less heat is being radiated into the roots number seven sunlight that’s reflected off of the pebbles will bounce off of the lower leaves, and this will provide them with their share of sunlight, which they would need for photosynthesis. This could also reduce the likelihood of a dilation number eight. You don’t have to worry much about reflected light because reflected light is weaker than direct light. If you are worried about the possibility of reflected light, burning the undersides of your plant don’t be because by the time that there’s enough heat enough light to burn your plants through reflection. Then the plant itself should have long already long, been burned by direct light. And it’s only your fault that you left it there in the first place number nine, dark colored pebbles absorb heat, and this might be relevant to you. If you live in a cold climate number ten, there’s less likelihood of weeds growing on your top grass soil. Well, at least for the most part, sometimes they do, but at least it’s much easier, picking them off one by one rather than having an entire area full of weeds and now we’re back with the potting table so as I was mentioning earlier, I’m planning to top dress my pots, and that’s what I’m going to do now. such a mess might be easier if I use the deeper one. Yep, I was right. Yeah, sometimes. I have one of those stupid moments it happens. So I’m finally done up dressing this lot, but wait, there’s more man. I should do this another time. It’s a lot to go through, you know what? I just realized that I haven’t labeled the others yet. I better go do that. Now, now! All of them have labels. They’re here now in the neglect area. But there’s still a lot more to go through, maybe. I’ll do them next time now before you guys cry bias since I’ve only discussed the advantages so far, I’m going to quickly mention the downsides, depending on where you live. Pebbles cost more upfront than using organic materials as mulch such as woodchips bark or what have you, however, in the long run, pebbles might be cheaper because they do not break down or decompose with organic mulch. You will have to top up every few months or years, so the costs eventually add up in organic mulch, such as pebbles do not usually retain as much moisture as organic mulch, this may or may not be desirable, depending on your climate and the needs of your plant in organic mulch do not release nutrients back into the soil since they don’t break down, You’ll have to fertilize using other means, which you should probably be doing anyway. Leaf debris on pebbles might be hard to clean up while with organic mulch. You won’t care since they add to it now. Depending on the size of your pebbles, you could probably use a leaf blower or just good old hand. Picking winds will eventually blow soil into the pebbles, which will allow weeds to grow. But if you think about it. This problem is a lot worse with organic mulch, but in the end, we are talking about an arid garden If I were to deal with regular plants and trees, I wouldn’t use pebbles. I’ll go organic all the way you!