How to Landscape With Mulch

There are two basic kinds of mulch, organic and non-organic. One is not better than the other, they are just used for different projects. While some mulches are good for vegetable gardens they may not be good for your flowers or bushes. Done properly, mulch can protect the root system and add nutrients to the soil that the plants need. Your efforts on this project will pay off by adding health and beauty to your landscaping for years to come.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Mulch or mulches
• Landscape fabric
• Gardening gloves
• Shovel

1. Put mulch around your flowers. Flower beds are a perfect place to start your mulching project. The best mulch for your flower garden is layer of manure mixed with topsoil, with a layer of crushed leaves or pine needles on top. You want to use something that decomposes in your flower bed so it doesn't prevent new flowers from coming up through the ground. Make sure your leaves are ground up or already decomposing or else they will mat up and prevent the water from getting to the soil.

2. Mulch around your bushes. Clear an area around your bushes about an inch deep and lay landscape fabric. The landscape fabric will prevent most of the weeds from coming up, but won't prevent the water from getting to the bush. Fill in your area with a bark mulch. You can buy it in chunks or shredded and in different colors. Bark mulch also prevent weeds and retains moisture. It will also last a long time and you won't need to repeat this every year.

3. Mulch around your trees. Even adult trees look nice with a circle of mulch around them. You can make it look more natural by using a wood chip mulch. Wood chip mulches, if not properly aged, or if composed incorrectly can give off a toxin that can actually kill young plants or smaller plants. So this type of mulch is best used on adult plants.

4. Put mulch in your vegetable garden. Till your garden and mix in some compost and topsoil. After you plant your seeds, spread some shredded newspaper (only the black and white pages) and hay on top. This will make your soil rich in the needed nutrients to grow the vegetables. Compost and hay contain some seeds and you will get some weeds with this. Plant your rows far enough apart to be able to get in a pull the weeds.

5. Mulch around your deck, your child's swing set or your pool. Use a recycled rubber. This is a great product that will allow the water to drain through and prevents weeds. Dig a 6-inch bed around whatever you want to mulch. Put down a layer of landscape fabric and top off with the rubber. It will last forever, looks great and is much safer for kids to play on than wood chips or bark.

Tips & Warnings

• Dig down for your mulch bed or box it in. The thicker the bed the easier it will be to retain and maintain.
• If your plants are already established, dig at a slope from your plant out, so as not to disturb the root system.
• Do not use any products that have been treated with herbicides.