Landscaping: Why You Should Use Mulch
One of the easiest ways to ensure a good landscape and improve your property’s curb appeal is to incorporate mulch as a fixture of your lawn. Mulch is far and away the cheapest addition to most lawns so it won’t break the bank, but it will yield dividends many times over its initial cost in terms of curb appeal and overall property value. Whether you live in the city, country, or suburbia, mulches are the unsung heroes of the garden.
Why use mulch, anyway? The most basic benefit of mulch is moisture retention. Yields are directly affected by the amount of water in the soil and, in dryer climates where rainfall is scarce, conscientious homeowners and investors will want their soil to retain as much water as possible. Large properties with trees often utilize wood mulch as an important way to increase the longevity of the trees. The mulch acts as a moisture trap, but without causing stagnant water issues. This is especially helpful for absentee property owners such as landlords and homeowners that go on vacation often. Mulch also makes for a helpful camouflage for areas under trees where the soil is bare. By covering the top of the soil in a thin layer of organic material, you can drastically reduce the level of moisture evaporated from the soil. Mulching can retain up to 80 percent of added moisture in your soil. When you keep the top of the soil protected from direct heat, it will lose less water, and thus be a better environment for your shrubs, grass, and trees. Mulch also has the ability to breathe and not become a place where mold issues arise, which would be unhealthy for plant life.
Beyond basic environmental reasons for wanting to prevent soil erosion, bulk mulch can serve the purpose of enhancing topsoil. While wood mulch is a likely candidate for creating new soil under trees or shrubs to prevent erosion, stone mulch can help soil stay in place. Rock mulch is particularly helpful for areas around the home that might have bare patches of earth, which can be particularly prone to erosion. Erosion isn’t always an aesthetic concern for the lawn, either; rock mulch helps keep remaining earth in place and when properly graded helps direct water away from the foundation of the home. Another driver of landscaping costs are animals digging up plants or grass, and common offenders include neighborhood dogs, woodchucks, gophers, and squirrels. All of these animals like to dig in the earth, and installing a deep helping of rock mulch usually helps to deter these types of visitors.
There are a lot of different types of mulch you can use, depending on your circumstances and needs. There are also many different ways to keep the cost down or get your mulch for free!
Wood Chips
The most common mulch option is wood chips, shredded wood, or saw dust, but it’s important to note that you should avoid treated wood since it tends to be loaded with chemicals which aren’t good for your grass or garden (or you, especially if you’re growing vegetables to eat!). There is debate over whether you should place fresh wood chips in your garden, and popular opinion is on both sides of the fence. Fresh wood chips may decrease nitrogen levels in your topsoil initially, but it eventually cycles back to the soil by naturally breaking down. Whatever you decide in the end, wood is nice and heavy and it will keep the soil moist and cool along with keeping weeds away from your plants. Wood chips are also a nice aesthetic choice as well because they can come in different colors, depending on the type of wood used. Cedar mulch, for example, has a beautiful rusty color that pairs well with rock gardens and shrubbery against a green lawn, while mixed mulch tends to have a rich black color.
Leaves
Leaves are a favorite mulch of many gardeners, and they’re usually free! Autumn is obviously the best time to collect them, and it’s especially helpful if you want to spread them as mulch over areas of your lawn in preparation for the winter. Oak and maple leaves, in particular, are popular mulch material because they’re plentiful and decompose in a way that’s healthy for topsoil. Running your lawn mower over the leaves turns them into shredded mulch, which helps release some moisture and also makes them a little easier to spread. Be mindful of sticks and other debris, though, to avoid damage to your mower. If you run out of leaves on your own property, you may find that more are free for the taking since your neighbors probably won’t mind you raking their lawns for them, and will happily load you up with as much as you need. For a double benefit of being the neighborhood hero and getting your mulch for free, consider leaves.
Grass Clippings
Grass clippings make great mulch, and the best part is that you’ll have no shortage of them if you mow your lawn regularly. You’ll also be redistributing garden and lawn matter to other areas of your garden, which carries the added benefit of providing a place to dispose of that matter. The grass clippings will add nitrogen and much needed nutrients for beneficial microbes that already inhabit the soil in the unique microcosm that is your lawn, which your plants will love. Be careful about removing grass clippings from the side of the road, though, because you need to be sure that the grass clippings you pick aren’t chemically laden with fertilizers and pesticides. The only other issue that might crop up is that if the clippings come from a weedy area of your lawn, you may be unknowingly transferring weeds or undesirable plants to where they don’t need to be.
Rock Mulch
Rock mulch is best for keeping your soil in place and for erosion management. It’s not always the best choice for certain plants, so you’ll want to restrict it to places where it serves the purpose of either aesthetics (because it looks great) or proper drainage. If you grate rock mulch properly, it can direct runoff away from the foundation of your home or other areas of the lawn, making it extremely useful for long-term management of structural aspects of your property and lawn. This is not to say it’s only for those purposes, though; rock mulch works great for shrubs, and is especially useful for keeping weeds away.
Pine Needles
Worthy of an honorable mention here is pine straw, which makes a great mulch but mostly only for acid-loving plants. In other words, if you’re growing a vegetable garden, pine straw works quite well for blueberries, strawberries, garlic, tomatoes, and potatoes. In some parts of the US, pine straw is a free and widely available resource, especially in the southeast and New England. Some drawbacks to pine straw mulch are that it can be messy, the color fades very quickly, and it’s very (very!) flammable.
Mulching can be expensive, but not if you go about it the right way. Many communities have options for free mulch, such as yard debris recycling programs that turn debris into mulch, which allow citizens to gather it for free or a very small cost. Sometimes tree companies give away shredded branches as mulch, and landfills may have some free mulch options as well. Check online forums and hardware store bulletin boards for options in your local area. Mulching is probably not out of your reach.
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– Get It Right Solutions