How To Spread Mulch

I’ve been spending the last couple weekends creating some new landscaping around my house and one of the projects I’m dedicated to doing this year is properly mulching my flower beds and trees. In the past I’ve tried other forms of weed control like putting down plastic and even some fancy chemicals, but I’m quickly learning that old-fashioned mulch seems to work the best and is almost always the cheapest, best-looking option. Here’s a little bit of everything about mulch and using mulch around your home.

What is Mulch?

The term “mulch” can refer to a lot of different categories, but mulch is generally some sort of ground covering you spread down in flower beds and around trees to prevent weeds, regulate soil temperature and keep moisture in the ground from evaporating too quickly. Using mulch ultimately means you’ll use a little less water (because it often keeps the soil beneath it moist for plants) and you won’t have as big of an issue with weeds. In my experience some weeds almost always find a way to grow where you don’t want them, but mulch definitely makes the weeding job much easier by severely limiting the weeds.

Mulch basically serves as a type of blanket in flower beds, covering the soil but still preventing water to reach the roots while keeping out the drying heat, sunlight and seeds and spores which could land in the soil and start growing weeds. Mulch can also be effective in controlling soil erosion on slight slopes and it can help keep your plant roots warmer during cold spells.

Types of Mulch

There are lots of different types of mulch, but they generally fall into three categories: natural organic mulch, natural inorganic mulch and synthetic or rubber mulch. Each type of mulch have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Natural organic mulch can be made from a variety of materials, but it’s most often made out of shredded or ground up trees, tree bark, newspapers or processed wood fibers. A lot of cities and townships around the country actually offer to pick up Christmas trees from the curb each year and the trees are then shredded and used for mulch around community buildings and gardens. Natural mulch does often need to be reapplied from one season to the next because it does eventually break down and blow away. It breaks down slowly so some people just rake off the top layer of old mulch at the start of a season and then add a “topping off” layer their mulched beds from one year to the next.

To make natural mulch trees to have to be cut down and shredded in some cases, but it’s still a natural and it is biodegradable. Many stores now sell natural mulch that’s been dyed a rustic red or dark black color which doesn’t fade in the sun nearly as quickly as the non-dyed natural mulch. Insects also tend to like mulch, so some people recommend putting down an insecticide around areas with a lot of mulch.

Natural inorganic mulch usually covers things like stones, gravel and other natural materials which don’t normally break down in a season or two. We’ll discuss natural inorganic mulches at a later time.

Synthetic or rubber mulch does not come from a rubber tree (at least not directly!). Rubber mulch or synthetic mulch can also come from various types of materials, including old ground up tires, man made materials, and lots of other chemicals. Synthetic mulch is often heavier than natural mulch so it doesn’t blow away, often doesn’t fade very quickly and will generally last a few seasons. You’ll initially pay more for synthetic mulch but it’s available in a wide selection of colors, both natural and unnatural looking, and will often last through several seasons or more.

The choice between natural and synthetic mulch is personal one and, like almost all gardening questions, there are people who feel strongly about both sides. Some argue that rubber mulch doesn’t break down naturally, but some companies claim their products do break down over time. Rubber mulch can burn and often smolders and is a little more difficult to extinguish than natural mulch. Even mulch colors can be debated because lighter colors in theory reflect more

How To Use Mulch Around Trees

If you have trees around your yard you may want to consider offsetting them against the grass by mulching around them or putting a bed of flowers around them and then mulching that. Two years ago I put in a small Japanese Red Maple and I’ve since nicked the small trunk about a dozen times with my lawnmower because the grass grew right up to it. I’ve used a weed trimmer around it, but that also damages the bark and isn’t really very good for the tree.

For smaller trees like my little Japanese Red Maple I just took a shovelful or two of mulch and spread it around the base in a circle. I wore gloves and evened out the 2 inch thick circle of mulch around my sapling. Avoid making a “mulch volcano” around the base of your tree with a pile of mulch that’s more than a few inches thick. If your mulch is too thick you’ll actually be cutting off the possible supply of water and air that can reach the roots.

I also used my gloved finger to just run a little ring around the trunk, pushing the mulch a few inches away so it wasn’t completely touching the tree trunk. It will eventually all settle so you may have to pull the mulch away from the trunk from time to time throughout the season. You really don’t want to completely cover the roots of a small tree with mulch. You need to make sure that some air and water can get right to base of the tree trunk and roots when it rains.

The same is true when you’re mulching around larger trees: Feel free to use a few inches of mulch around your tree in a circle, but don’t pile the mulch right up against the bark of your trees. That mulch can hold in moisture and can basically make the bark around the base of your tree soggy and soft which can invite disease and pests. Instead, keep a few inches of space between the base of your tree and the mulch circle surrounding it. You may also want to use some sort of landscaping barrier like stones or blocks or a plastic landscaping fence to keep your mulch in a neat circle.

How To Mulch Flower Beds

Put mulch down in flower beds is a pretty straight forward procedure, but you might want to prep the bed before you go shoveling or dumping mulch in your beds. Most people first apply mulch in the late spring to early summer when the growing season is just starting up.

1. Weed the beds as well as you can ahead of time. Rake out any debris or anything other than the soil and flowers itself. Your soil should be flat and even because any bumps or hills will also show up when you spread your mulch if you spread it evenly.

2. Water your flower beds really well. This will help keep them moist because when you put down mulch it will help lock in some of that moisture.

3. Some people recommend putting down nitrogen to help your plants grow or even insecticides to keep away the bugs if you’re using natural shredded mulch. I didn’t do either this year, but I might in the future.

4. Now is the time to start spreading your mulch. You can do this a number of different ways, based on how big your flower beds are. I use a regular shovel and just drop a few large shovels full of mulch around my plants. I don’t bother using a pitchfork unless the shredded mulch I’m using is has been shredded into particular large pieces. For home use I typically use bags of mulch with smaller chips, so a shovel is fine.

5. I then put on some gardening gloves and begin to spread the mulch out evenly, making sure it’s between 2-4 inches thick. The mulch will settle a little bit so you can plan to add a little more later in the season. I literally use my hands to make sure everything is spread out where I want it. When it comes to my plants I again use my hands and leave about a 2 inch gap all the way around the stem of the flower or plant for the same reason I leave a circle around my trees when I mulch them: I want water to be able to reach the center roots of my plants quickly and I don’t want to smother my plants and lock moisture against the stem.

6. If you’re using dyed mulch you may want to now hold off watering few days because a lot of the dyed bagged mulch suggests that it needs a few days of air drying to really cure the dye well.

7. You’re done! Throughout the season you can rake off a little bit of the top layer if leaves and other debris start to fall on your mulch. I generally do this after the early summer pollen season is done. I then hand sprinkle a thin “refresher” layer of mulch over my beds just to make them look a little more maintained. This method of putting a light new layer of mulch over an old layer is called “top dressing” and it basically makes your beds look freshly mulched and replaces some of the mulch which made of been blown or eroded away throughout the season.

In the fall you can leave the mulch in place or, if it’s natural mulch some people actually choose to turn it over and into the soil, which basically increases your soil’s nutrients and fertility to some extent for next year. You can also put down mulch in late fall around perennials to help protect them from the cold of the winter months.

Good luck and happy mulching!