What about Mulch: Mulch has many textures, colors, types of material as well as many different uses in the landscape. Since mulch is not just wood chips, some areas use other materials as mulch. Now mulch is a covering over the ground/soil around plants, cover bare ground/soil where you don’t want to have weeds or lawn to take care of, used to prevent soil erosion, quickly fill in wet areas on construction sites (instead of stone, depending on the location) or a temporary road to prevent soil compaction. Most people know mulch is used for fresh looking curb appeal, aid in controlling weeds in the garden beds, help retain moisture for plants to use, steady ground/soil temperature, adds nutrients to the soil or a laboring task in the spring either every year or every other year.
Mulch has been used for centuries in agriculture to help with crops. Now many different stories and times are referenced as to when mulch became popular for using in the landscape for purpose and decorative. So, I’ll just add my own story to the list of mulch becoming popular. Decades ago (late 1980’s) my father started ordering bark mulch for the gardens around the house to control weeds and improve the look of the house, because of shows like “This Old House” and “The Victory Garden” explained the benefits of mulch. People walking by would ask about the mulch and then soon those people were spreading mulch over the bare soil in their gardens and the rest of the family started spreading mulch as well, especially after seeing that there were less weeds to deal with. In old pictures, whether its family photos or historic photos, you saw bare soil or decorative stone in garden beds. Now, you can get it in bags from everywhere even grocery stores and some gas stations even!
Details of mulch: Commonly mulch is made of wood chips, but some areas use other material for mulch. In the southeastern USA pine needles are used as mulch. Pine nuggets were pieces of pine tree bark, the size of large potato chips, I don’t see it available as much in my area today. Continuing with pine tree parts, I’ve seen crushed pine cones as mulch once. Cocoa shells and Peanut shells that’s what I’ve heard and seen, there could be more natural materials that have been used as a mulch.
On to non-natural materials that includes construction debris (dimensional lumber, sometimes old fences and pallets) get grinded into smaller pieces, the same way natural wood is ground into smaller pieces, then it gets colored sprayed for better looks. Usually, this type of mulch is cheaper, you have the possibility of getting metal pieces (nails, screws and small hardware). The equipment used to produce mulch has improved, but most of the time this mulch is listed or noted as being made of construction debris.
Rubber mulch was made of used tires and other rubber products. At first a lot of rubber mulch you could find pieces with the metal mesh in it and again the equipment to produce Rubber Mulch has improved and are less likely to find metal mesh pieces. As a side note, I personally haven’t heard many people looking for rubber mulch lately, when rubber mulch first became available people asked about it.
Colored/Dyed years ago the color would wash away or fade, now the colors don’t fade as much. Whatever you use to spread colored mulch with, will have some tint of the color on the surface until it rains or washed off. Not just red mulch, but black mulch or brown mulch can be colored and usually it is listed as colored mulch. There is no wrong color of mulch, pick what you like and enjoy. The materials used to create dye for mulch coloring varies. There is a mulch color spray available to mix with water and you spray it over the mulch to freshen the color.
Natural/Natural colored. Fresh wood chips from a chipper have the natural color of the wood until it starts to fade and gray. Natural color, depending on who you talk with the way of naturally coloring mulch sometimes leads you to dyed mulch. Most mulch suppliers I work with, put wood chips in a pile and let the pile get hot to the point the chips start to char and darken, then the pile gets mixed to evenly char all the chips for a uniform color and not start a fire. If you have ever had a pile of wood chips in a yard and dig into the pile, then chips will get darker in color as you dig deeper into the pile. How long the dark color lasts depends on how much sun the mulch gets and by who makes it. Also, getting the natural dark color means the wood chips are in the process of decomposing.
Mulch Texture. Fresh chips directly from a chipper is not a uniform size since branches or limbs are not the same diameter. Smaller chippers (like DR power chippers make small chips), bigger chippers (like the larger units that tree companies have make bigger chips). Now you can also get double grind/shredded or triple grind/shredded, each time the pieces get finer and smaller. Mulch/Bark blowers like finer mulch to flow through the hose (talk about this later in this post), the texture of the mulch is a choice like color and wood species type. Smaller chips decompose faster than larger pieces, which can change how often mulch needs to be spread.
Wood Species. These are the natural wood chip sources, not Construction debris. Common types are Pine, Hemlock, Cedar, Fir, Hardwood Blend (Oak, Maple, Beech, Hickory, Mahogany and Walnut are the most common), Softwood Blend (Pine, Spruce, Cedar, and Douglas Fir are the most common), other mulch blends maybe listed with the state name or a local name to have a unique product name. Single species mulches are higher priced then blends, since it is only made of that species. Blends whether it’s called by a state name, local name or just called hardwood or softwood is a mix of local tree species.
Bulk or Bagged mulch: So, one (1) cubic yard is twenty-seven (27) cubic feet, when you are looking at a big mulch project and adding up prices. If you a small area that you are mulching or a location that you can’t have bulk mulch delivered, then bagged mulch is great. Large areas to cover then the math shows that bulk mulch is a good option. Bag mulch holds its color for a year or more and the chips are uniform in size, but expensive if you have a large area to cover.
Mulch layer thickness: This is a debated topic, most say 2”-3” inches. Then others say thicker or thinner, a new garden bed a thicker mulch layer to cover bare soil is okay. A garden bed that has had mulch spread over it for years and the mulch hasn’t decomposed much then a thinner layer is okay. Or if you remove the old mulch each year before you spread new mulch then a thin layer is fine since you are going to remove it next year anyway. In some situations, with healthy organisms in the soil that aid in decomposing the mulch which plants use as nutrients, a thicker layer will still look good and keep weeds down and also feed the organisms.
Benefits and Downsides of Mulch: Mulch does need to be redone or replaced every year or every several years. Wood decomposes overtime, some wood species decompose slower than others (i.e. Cedar and Oak). Areas that either wash away from stormwater or blown away during seasonal maintenance events. Depending on the health of the soil, supporting organisms that aid in breaking down wood chips into organic matter for plants and trees to use for nutrients. Colored mulch, mostly Red dyed mulch, decompose slower. Loss or bleaching of mulch color, whether it is dyed or natural color. These are some reasons that change how often you redo or add mulch.
Benefits of Mulch: Nice finishing touch of garden beds “Curb Appeal”.
Helps control weeds growing in the garden bed. Covering weed seeds, preventing them from getting sunlight and the weeds that do grow through the mulch layer have weaker roots.
Cedar wood is known for the scent it has, but it also is slower to decompose and is also good at repelling insects.
Holds moisture in the soil. By the wood absorbing rain/irrigation water.
Helps slow soil temperature changes. Being on top of the soil, the sunlight has to heat the mulch layer before radiant heat reaches the soil below, then during the night the heat in the mulch keeps the soil warm. In spring and fall this helps plants to start growing/continue growing and not be easily affected by frost.
As the mulch decomposes, it adds nutrients to the soil for the plants.
Depending on the species of wood mulch, you have a pleasant scent in your yard.
Builds a layer of compose that works into the garden bed soil.
Downsides of Mulch: Mulch lasts a year or so before you have to spread it again.
Depending on what and how the mulch is made it could have weed seeds in it that can be spread throughout the yard, have insects or fungus from the trees it’s made from causing headaches.
Some material that is uses in the dye to color the mulch can introduce chemicals into the soil and effecting the plants.
If the mulch is made from construction debris, treated lumber chemicals are introduced into the soil and shouldn’t be around edible plants, that also means water runoff from construction debris mulch working its way down hill to edible plants. Plus, the any metal hardware getting pass magnets during the mulch making process could be in the mulch getting in your hands or feet.
In areas where water collects or drains slowly, the mulch doesn’t dry enough and starts growing mold and fungus.
Mulch can introduce insects into the yard. (If the wood had insects in it when it was processed or where the mulch is stored insects can invest the mulch.
Depending on how much mulch you need for your property, it can be expensive and time consuming.
The color of the mulch fades.
After years of spreading mulch, the height of the garden bed raises with a layer of composed old mulch, that sometimes has to be removed to keep from the garden beds becoming mounded.
When to spread mulch: Normally ads from stores say spring or before Memorial Day. After years and truckloads of mulch spread, the best time to spread mulch is either at the very beginning of the growing season (before tulips and daffodils spout), at the end of the growing season (after the leaves are cleaned up and flowers and shrubs are pruned for the colder months), right after planting a new garden bed or after shrubs have been trimmed (so the fresh mulch isn’t ruined by little trimmed shrub pieces throughout the mulch). I have seen and been told to spread mulch and then trim shrubs making a mess of fresh mulch, this situation does happen.
Since spring plants spout through an old mulch layer, a layer of fresh mulch won’t harm or prevent any spouting plants.
Having fresh mulch going into the winter months, makes the yard look fresh and clean until spring. Either time of year means less plants to spread mulch around, easing the task of spreading mulch a little bit. Also, you get to enjoy the plants and flowers growing and blooming surrounded by fresh mulch. Mulch suppliers will sell you mulch anytime of the year
as long as they have it.
Now if you have shrubs and not plants or flowers, then trimming the shrubs as usual first then spreading mulch after does make everything look great.
Equipment to spread mulch: Now working for other companies and growing up using a shovel to load the wheelbarrow and then to unload and spread, or use your hands to spread the mulch (now in tight areas using your hands maybe the easiest way, but not to go over the whole yard). Seeing one company using a mulch fork to load wheelbarrows and a smaller mulch fork or manure fork to spread the mulch. You can move more mulch with a fork then a shovel or hands and a fork is easier to push into the mulch pile to get the next fork full. Wheelbarrows, carts or front-end loaders to move the mulch from the pile to where you are spreading, could be a whole blog post. I found a kit to add rear wheels and a push bar to most wheelbarrows, I put the kit on a commercial 10 cu.ft. double wheel wheelbarrow and never disappointed with building it. But now you have powered wheelbarrows, carts to tow behind something, power dump carts and attachments for lawnmowers and a front-end loader to scoop and lift for you is a nice thing to have. All of these are good things to have, choose what you want to use to move the mulch. Dumping the mulch out in small piles throughout the garden bed and then spreading with a rake is fast in open areas without working around too many plants. Even better if you can dump and spread the mulch evenly.
Now this next tool gets top marks to spread mulch fast, Bark Blower. A machine that feeds mulch into a blower that under air pressure blows mulch through a hose and spreads the mulch, as long as you load the hopper that feeds the blower. Now with these blowers can spread fast, after they are setup to run, can spread a thin layer of mulch if you are looking for just a cover layer. The mulch lays flat without lumps, now for most homeowners this is not something you are going to buy, maybe rent or hire someone who uses one.
Bagged mulch is just cut one end and spread, just don’t lay the bag down flat, cut the top open, fold the bag out and spread the mulch to cover the bag. The plastic bag will prevent water getting through to the soil.
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