Archive for the ‘Mulch’ Category

The reason for mulching is to cover the beds surrounding your plantings to prevent weeds and retain moisture. Here are a few questions you may want to ask yourself before deciding on what material to use:

How Long Will I Live There?

If you plan on living at your home for the next 20+ years, then stone would be an acceptable choice.  However, if you plan to move before then you may want to consider bark mulch from a value standpoint.  Stone is much more expensive for the material and installation.

How much maintenance am I willing to do?

Both require maintenance, but different types.  Bark mulch will need to be top dressed–a thin layer added on top of the existing, approximately every other year.  If you choose to install stone mulch, you should strongly consider purchasing a leaf-blower if you don’t already own one.  Debris collects in the voids of the stone and will decompose and clog over time if not regularly cleaned out.  We recommend going though with the blower once in the spring and once in the fall.

Removing Stone Once You Tire of It – Very Labor Intensive

It takes 3 man hours to remove 100 sq ft. It may take longer if there is no fabric and dirt has to be removed and the stone cleaned if you want to remove. It can be very labor intensive and expensive to remove. So once you put it in, you better like it. Ha

Will I be planting in the mulched areas?

It is far easier to plant in beds that are mulched with bark.  It is a matter of pulling back the bark and digging into the soil.  Stone mulch is heavier and more difficult to move. Also, there is typically either plastic or filter fabric underneath that will need to be cut into in order to dig.

Summing It Up

Bark mulch will reduce the weeds for the most part, but some are relentless enough to still pop up. It is easier to pull weeds out of bark mulch because it is a loose material.  The plastic or filter fabric used underneath stone mulch helps to prevent weeds, but using plastic will inhibit the penetration of water into the beds.  Weeds WILL be able to grow in the sediment that accumulates in the void space of stone mulch if it is not cleaned out regularly.

Here’s a great article on how to mulch. If you catch anyone doing the volcano method, deputize yourself as the tree police and tell them to back away from the tree, then proceed to show them the proper way.

This article was printed in Kramer Tree Specialists, Inc’s newsletter – they are  out of Illinois – I thought it was a good reminder to our clients and blog readers.

Mulching