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Best Mulch for Landscaping

March 13, 2013
Home » Blog » Best Mulch for Landscaping

Gardeners and landscapers of all sorts love shredded or chipped bark mulch to create that ‘finished’ look in beds and yards. And it’s also good for keeping the weeds down. But there are different types of mulches for different applications.

Mulching is a multi-purpose technique, and it helps to be aware of some of the other reasons you might want to mulch.

In the first place, mulch is an excellent way to add nutrients to the soil without resorting to fertilizers. Plants — any plants — pull nutrients out of the soil in order to grow. They sometimes put nutrients back in as well, but not the same ones, and not as much. In the same way that if you grow carrots in the same soil over and over the soil will “wear out,” mulch refreshes the organic matter in the soil so that your trees, hedges, and perennials will stay healthy.

The second best reason to mulch is that bare soil erodes too easily. Rain washes it away, wind blows it away, and perhaps worst of all, without any mulch to hold the water there, precipitation merely drains off instead of soaking in, meaning that watering becomes a never-ending chore.

The third reason to mulch, of course, is to keep weeds down.

Traditional bark mulch is somewhat akin to Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. It looks very good, and if taken care of, it will last a long time, but it doesn’t do the main job of mulch very well — refreshing the soil. Bark mulch breaks down very slowly, and is high in carbon, which means that it doesn’t add that much in the way of nutrients.

There are ways to get around this: by adding topsoil or compost underneath of the bark mulch, you can have the best of both worlds, but it does mean slightly more work. Instead of just tossing more mulch on top in fall, you will need to pull back the old mulch, add the compost, then put the mulch back down on top. This is how you will ensure a healthy, professional-looking planting.

For all your mulching needs, contact us today. We deliver to your driveway!