What Are the Top 5 Tips You Need to Know about Mulch?

Resource Landscaping is relocating to Idaho and wants to spread its knowledge of the best tips when mulching your yard. 

Are you looking for the quickest way to enhance the exterior of your home? Then mulching your yard will give you precisely what you are looking for, a healthy yard and perfect curb appeal. Our experienced team has compiled the top 5 tips to help you get started. 

Choosing the right mulch is key to a healthy yard.

Walk into any garden store, and you will see rows of mulch, whether it’s shredded cypress, hardwood, cedar bark, straw, rubber mulch, lava rock, pea gravel, or river rock. Each type brings a different texture and benefit to a specific area of your yard. Making the right choice will make all the difference in future maintenance and how much cost you will incur to keep your yard having spectacular curb appeal. 

If you are looking to cover an area with high foot traffic like a pathway or playground, you may want to choose rubber mulch, which is an inorganic mulch. The benefit of rubber mulch is that it has a heavier consistency that will hold up to having everyone walk on it, and it won’t fly around on those windy days. In addition, with the size and weight of rubber mulch, it can act as the perfect barrier between sunlight and soil, which is a great way to deter weeds. 

The disadvantage of rubber mulch is that it doesn’t decompose and add any nutrients to the soil. Another thing to keep in mind is that it consists of zinc, so it shouldn’t be added to any areas with plants and trees as it can cause damage. You also shouldn’t place it near any outdoor areas you use for entertaining since the sun baking down on the mulch can cause odors in your yard. 

The most common mulch used in yards is organic mulch which consists of wood chips. Mulch comes in all different sizes and colors, which allows you to coordinate with the color of the exterior of your home. The best part of wood mulch is it decomposes into the ground and adds nutrients needed to keep your yard looking healthy. In addition, it helps to absorb water and create a healthy atmosphere for your trees and plants to flourish. The disadvantage of wood mulch is that it does fade over time, and you will need to change it every few years to keep your yard looking crisp and fresh. 

Why is it so important to properly mulch my yard?

Mulch has many advantages: it acts as a barrier and protects the soil from weeds and diseases. In addition, it provides the soil with the nutrients needed to have a healthy growing season and helps keep a balanced soil temperature that can then tackle all the elements of weather. But to accomplish all of these things, you need to apply the mulch properly. So that’s where we feel we can help. Our knowledgeable team wants to give you some great steps to get you started. 

The first thing you want to do is to make sure the area is free of weeds. Did you know weeds thrive on sunlight which helps them germinate? So adding a layer of mulch between the soil and the sun is a great way to keep you from spending countless hours picking weeds. Although you may find an occasional weed, one thing is for sure you won’t have flowerbeds filled with weeds where you are trying to figure out where the plants stop and weeds begin. 

Having the right amount of mulch applied is key to any success you will have in your overall maintenance. You need to spread it out evenly and approximately 2 inches high. 

This will help to reduce water loss and soil erosion, both critical in keeping a strong root system for plants and trees. 

Can too much mulch damage my yard?

If you pile on an excessive amount of mulch around trees and plants, it can create a mulch volcano. When this happens, it suffocates the plants and trees, causing damage. In addition, it creates an area for rodents and pests to find a home in the mulch where they gradually take away the oxygen from the trees and plants. 

Another disadvantage of too much mulch is if it ends up sitting on your grass. This can occur if you apply mulch on a windy day, as it can fly into areas of the lawn and take away oxygen from the grass. This can damage your lawn, and potentially, you may have to replace it. 

When is the best time to mulch?

It usually is the best time to take a walk through your yard during seasonal cleanup and see what the upcoming season will need to give you outstanding results. For example, in Spring, you usually want to give your yard a clean, crisp look, and what better way than to spread some mulch to give your landscaping a jumpstart to having a perfect curb appeal. On the other hand, in Fall, you may want to add mulch to create a blanket over the soil to protect it from the harsh elements of winter. Whichever season works best, mulching will give you some of the most incredible ways to enhance your yard. 

Should I hire a professional lawn maintenance service to do mulching?

When you apply mulch, it can be a very time-consuming job. Let’s start with all the trips back and forth to the garden store, not to mention having to spend a beautiful weekend hauling wheelbarrows of mulch around your yard. Now, if that hasn’t made you second guess your idea of doing your own mulch, let’s add knowing which areas will benefit the most from different types of mulch. That’s when our experienced team can bring you premium landscaping services and give you back some valuable time. 

We are now proud to provide lawn care, landscaping, irrigation, and more to the wonderful residents of Star, Boise, Meridian, and Eagle, Idaho.