A mistake?

I was hoping to post today about my project that required creative thinking, but I realized I forgot to take a couple of key photos so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead I'll post about something I did recently that could end up being a terrible mistake.

For the first time ever I decided to mulch the path on this side of the house. Read on to hear why I thought this was a good idea, and also why it may be a very bad one.

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First the reasoning that made this sound like a good idea...

This is the south side of the house, and in the summer it gets sun-baked. The soil is heavy clay and hard-packed, and nothing "good" grows in the path area -- the lawn turf has long been replaced by grassy weeds (or weedy grasses). Last year I had several large pots over here to give some shade and I really liked it, but that just made it even harder to mow and weed.

So my thinking was the mulch will:

1. help the soil retain moisture 
2. keep the ground cooler
3. attract earthworms which will further help with the soil
4. reduce weeding/mowing needs

Also, I have so much mulch this year, I'm looking for ways to utilize it all!

Sounds good right?

Now, the reason I think this could be a very bad idea: during heavy rains, quite a bit of water washes down the slope.

That could be because there's not much to stop it from soaking in. I added some rocks to help slow the water a couple years ago and it may have helped a little, but water still runs here.

So all of this mulch may end up in a big pile downhill in my yard. I'll know soon: thunderstorms are expected tomorrow. (The rocks are still there -- I mulched around them.)

So what do you think: was the mulch a mistake, or will it stay in place for a while?

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