Using Landscape Mulch

Video Transcript

"This next segment is about mulch. When you have a new landscape, you want to mulch it twice a year for about two years. This literally changes the texture of the soil, the mulch rots and becomes part of the soil. As you cultivate the soil each season, you want to cultivate it in the spring and fall and work in the mulch that’s there and re-mulch it. After 2 years, your soil will be in really good shape and you’ll only have to mulch it every couple of years or even longer. When it gets really dry and it’s not retaining moisture anymore and it needs to be mulched. The type of mulch I chose to use is called living mulch. This is made out of hard wood, shredded hard wood, and it has compost in it. It has the microbes already in it. This is a great thing to use for a new landscape because it helps introduce the microbes. The more ways you have to get the microbes in the better. When you mulch your bed, you want to put an even coating of mulch. A new bed needs about 4 inches, but once that’s in, you really only need about 2 inches after that, unless you’re in a very cold climate, and then you want to mulch it up around the plant to protect it from the cold. You just kind of sprinkle it around the bed, like that. Now one thing about mulch is that with the exception of this living mulch that has compost in it, most mulches that you put on actually robs the plant and the soil of nitrogen. It’s a good idea to sprinkle it with a little manure. One small bag of manure will do an entire landscape. You don’t need much, just kind of sprinkle it in to balance out the carbon in the mulch. "