Blood And Bone: Enriching Lives Through Gardening

Tips to improve your landscaping with mulch layering

17 June 2021

Darren Stevens

Mulch products are a good solution to improving the health, condition and appearance of your landscaping areas, as long as you install and care for them appropriately. Here are some recommendations to help you keep your landscaping areas healthy and attractive with the right mulching practices.

Choose Your Mulch

There are many options to choose from with mulch, whether you want organic or inorganic mulch or a combination of the two. Keep in mind that inorganic mulch is not going to break down because it is not made of decomposable materials, and you won't have to replenish it as you would organic mulches. However, because organic mulches break down, they are going to benefit your soil more with their nutrient deposits as they decompose. 

Inorganic mulch can be made of recycled rubber mulch, rocks and gravel, which you can order from a mulch or landscaping supplier. Organic mulches can be made of pine straw, eucalyptus or pine bark, cocoa hulls, pea straw or Lucerne. Because these mulch materials are made of materials that are grown, they will break down and compost down into your soil to benefit your plants.

Plan to apply mulch to your garden plants and landscaping in the spring after the soil warms up. Then, again in the fall apply another layer of mulch to replace any that has decomposed down into the soil. This will help protect your vegetation over the winter if the temperatures dip low. Arrange your mulch delivery for new materials through your local shops or a mulch supplier.

Use Mulch Around Landscaping

The soil in your landscaping can be full of essential nutrients for vegetation, or it may be lacking one or more of the needed fertilizers that help your yard vegetation and garden plants grow well. When you apply mulch around landscaping plants, you can help restore essential nutrients while you make the area look nice. Mulch will also help retain moisture within the soil so your plants don't dry out and die from heat stress. The mulch barrier can also provide essential nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as it breaks down, releasing them back into the soil for improved plant health.

However, be sure you use mulch with care around your plants so you don't inadvertently cause harm to them. For example, around trees, don't set mulch directly up against the trunk of the tree. This can promote insects and disease that can harbour in the mulch and damage your tree. Leave several centimetres of space to allow for clearance of the mulch, but build up the mulch extending out around your tree to provide good soil coverage and good root protection to the tree.

To get started with this project, contact a local mulch delivery service.

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