Why You Should Be Mulching Your Garden

“The Love Of Gardening Is A Seed Once Sown That Never Dies” – Gertrude Jekyll

You ask why mulching? Well here’s a logical answer to that question, you see at the beginning of each growing season it’s typical for most landscapes and gardens to carry a rough and lifeless look. Rain and snow from last winter certainly seem to take a toll on a landscape that was thriving only a few months before.

Despite this, you put on your gloves and get started with preparing your garden for the upcoming planting season. Perhaps you’ve cleared the garden beds of last year’s leaf litter, laid down fresh soil and already planted a number of new plants.

Sounds promising but there’s still one thing you haven’t done to ensure the health and longevity of this season’s plantings and if you didn’t know, mulching is a popular gardening technique which basically uses certain organic and inorganic materials to cover soil.

Learn How Mulching Can Help Gardeners Achieve Appeal

Over time, mulching has proven to be a very effective gardening technique that lends help, protection and nourishment to blooms. In fact, gardeners who utilize mulch are guaranteed to see fantastic results throughout their garden.

Despite popular belief, mulching a garden goes way beyond modern, garden aesthetics and is more than just a colorful addition that complements a home’s exterior.

If you take a trip to your local garden center you’ll see that there are plenty of garden-bed coverage options available, that can benefit your garden one way or the other, however the big question is are they as effective as mulch?

The answer to that may very well be no since mulch can serve many purposes in gardens as opposed to using a number of different gardening products to achieve the same results. Firstly, because most forms of mulch are organic, they tend to help plants absorb and retain moisture, as well as to slow the process of evaporation from the soil.

Secondly, mulching is an excellent way to mitigate overwatering gardens by absorbing a great deal of the water that would otherwise waterlog the soil. Aside from this, when temperatures begin to soar in the summer, mulching plays an integral role in the health and growth of plants by maintaining the right amount of moisture when it gets too heated.

So in essence mulching is the perfect way to maintain consistent moisture levels in gardens when it’s heated since too much water can be just as bad as not enough water.

Mulch Offers Protection From The Elements So You Have Longer Lasting Blooms

Mulching

Any gardener knows that it’s inevitable for a garden to endure extreme conditions when the seasons change each year, so finding effective ways to offer plants protection is always something that gardeners have to take into consideration.

Again, mulching can serve as the ideal solution since it acts as a formidable shield against the elements. On extremely hot or windy days, mulch can effectively serve as insulation to prevent the evaporation of water from plants and during cold periods, it captures heat from the sun to help regulate the temperature of the soil. Additionally, it offers exceptional support to plants and stability to the soil, to help plants to stay firmly rooted, where gardens are situated in extremely windy regions.

Can You Say Weed Control? – Say Goodbye To Menacing Weeds With Mulching

Weeds are a gardener’s worst nightmare and though they can’t be avoided completely if left to grow, they can choke and hinder the growth of plants. Covering soil in mulch pretty much deprives weed seeds of the light they need for germination and since it also prevents weed seeds from coming in contact with the soil, they are not able to fully take root.

Mulching? – Take A Look At The Most Popular Types Of Mulch Gardeners Use

With all this talk about mulch and the exceptional benefits it offers you’re probably wondering which materials out there are best to use for mulching. Well, to be honest mulch can come in many forms but it is said to be more beneficial when used in an organic form.

Here are some examples of natural materials that can be used for mulching. These include:

Wood Chips
Grass and Straw
Pine Needles
Bark Nuggets
Compost
Leaf Litter

Organic mulches have been discovered to not only offer protection and heat to plants when they break down but they also provide essential nutrients and improve soil quality as well.

Some Gardeners Find Inorganic Mulches Work Well

Gardeners who do vegetable gardening or are into agriculture, tend to utilize these particular types of mulch more since apart from their typical benefits, they also serve a unique purpose. Some of these include:

Gravel
Stones
Geotextiles
Black Plastic.

Uniquely, inorganic mulches serve as an effective form of pest management but along with this they help prevent root rot, allow for increased air permeability and permit easier rainfall penetration to plant roots.

So depending on the gardening environment, the choice of mulch used is usually determined by what is being grown and the existing conditions within a particular garden.

Since this article wouldn’t be complete without making mention to how mulch is applied in a garden, we’ll get straight into the juicy details on the right way to apply mulch.

No More Mistakes – Mulching The Right Way Brings The Best Results

Though many people may be under the impression that mulching is nothing more than spreading a bit of grass or wood chips at the top of garden beds, FYI it’s not. Mulching is actually a very beneficial gardening technique should it be done accurately.

To give you a better idea of how you should really be applying mulch, here is a definitive guide to mulching the correct way. Follow these steps and you’re sure to see mind-blowing results.

Firstly, you will have to make an honest determination of how much mulch you will need to buy to get adequate coverage throughout your garden, especially if it is to be laid down nice and thick. ( Be careful not to add too much mulch as you can suffocate the plants)
Once you’ve purchased your mulch and ready to go, your next step would be to give your soil a good turning and apply any product nutrients such as fish meal or blood meal before you lay down your mulch.
For gardeners who are mulching to combat weeds, it is important that you must first remember to weed the soil beforehand. This is essential if mulching is to be done properly and for it to be effective and secondly it should be laid down thick enough to discourage the reappearance of new weeds.
Now it’s time to lay down your mulch. When using organic mulches like shredded bark, wood chips or leaf litter, these should be laid down about 3 inches deep and shredded hardwood spread no more than 2 to 3 inches deep. For mulch consisting of coarse bark nuggets 3 to 5 inches deep should suffice and for landscapes that include trees, these can be mulched at about 8 inches off the ground.
Although the laying of mulch is fairly easy, HOW it is placed is another thing and if not done correctly, can hamper plants. Therefore, when laying mulch down, it should be kept no less than an inch away from the crowns and stems of plants. This is mainly because wet mulch resting against the stems of flowers and vegetables can cause rot. So without further ado, it’s time to get started.

What’s your favorite type of mulch? “Personally, I’m a black mulch, shredded wood kind of gardener.” – Garden Enthusiast.

Do you need help mulching? Don’t know what mulch you should get? Call us at DK Landscaping we will gladly help you with mulching your garden. We also provide expert advice on the best mulch to use for your garden and even help you pick it out at the store.

We can mulch your entire landscape and take all the stress off your hands. Contact us at (707) 280-3632 to schedule your appointment or you can also visit our website dklandscaping.com for more information on our services.