How to Remove Mulch in Transplanting Irises
It is advisable to transplant the irises after some years to another location. When planting iris, mulch is necessarily used to cover the soil and keeping weeds from growing around. Mulch also help to retain the soil’s moisture and provides nutrients for the iris. However, when transplanting these irises, the mulch has to be carefully removed.
Tools Needed:
- A rounded point shovel: This tool is capable of getting deeper to the root system.
- A spade is used to cut and divide the iris because it is sharp.
- Rake.
Removing the Mulch:
- Turn over the mulch around the iris with the rake.
- Excavate around the iris: Use the spade to remove or pull back all the mulch around the iris. This will expose the soil around the iris. Note that the mulch is used to retain the soil's moisture and also to keep weeds down.
- Notch around the iris: Using the spade, slit the iris to get a clear surrounding to be able to get the root of the iris.
- After notching around the base of the bunch of irises, use the shovel to dig up. Have it in mind that mistakenly, you can cut into the rhizomes but you don’t have to worry about that because some will continue to grow even after the cut.
- Looking at the bunch of irises, you may see some mulch on it. This means that the mulch is till remaining. All you have to do at this point is to use your hands to remove them or rather shake them off.
- Rather than use your hands, you may wash the irises with a sprayer from the hose to remove all the mulch and dirt. This will enable you to also see where the rhizomes are joined to one another.