When it comes to tending to your home’s garden, there are all sorts of helpful “tips and tricks” out there to either get you started or keep it thriving. These are not only helpful to those who choose to take on their yard projects themselves but those who may enlist the help of lawn professionals and want to care for it in between maintenance visits. One of the easiest, most beneficial ways to care for your plants and flowers – or even small trees – is to invest in some quality mulch to have laid down on the ground around this greenery! There are so many excellent benefits that can come with this type of installment, and it’s hard to keep track of them all!
Why mulching is crucial for your garden
Laying down mulch in your garden is a great way to break up the monotony of green colors or flowers that you could have all over your landscape. It provides earth tones that can beautifully bring the whole look together. But aesthetics aren’t the only reason you may want to consider this as an option for your home! Mulch can help keep the soil residing beneath those plants in your yard healthy itself; if the soil is healthy, your plants will be, too. It can improve soil moisture, keeping plants from drying out too quickly. Reducing soil erosion or compaction is also a big job, which are two issues many homeowners face with their lawns! Mulch can also increase nutrition within your soil as it begins to decompose by improving the soil structure. This betters the use of those nutrients and offers much better drainage in the ground.
On the surface of the ground itself, you can find many solutions mulch can give, too. For example, mulch can actually help to keep weeds out of areas you don’t want them to encroach on, as they can steal much-needed nutrients from your plants and flowers. These nuisances are an eyesore for your garden, and when mulch is installed, it can help keep them from taking hold and spreading like wildfire! It is also excellent for temperature control for your plants, which may not be able to fend for themselves in that regard. Shallow-rooted plants can really struggle in the colder months, so the mulch can do a great job keeping them from succumbing to frost or cold damage. On the other end, it can also maintain suitable temperatures in the intense heat by creating a barrier to avoid from the sun.
How to choose the best mulch for your needs
It can be a challenge to choose what you want for your lawn, especially when there are lots of options to choose from. Mulch is no different; there are other colors made of different materials to choose between. These colors can go great with the theming you want for your home and do different positive things for the plants they’re on top of. Red mulch is often the most common color used for this type of lawn addition and is used fairly regularly in commercial areas (business properties and such). The brightness of the color provides excellent contrast with your plants, especially if they are of the lighter shade varieties. It can also work well in rock gardens! However, it’s important to note to be cautious around any driveways or walkways since it’s typically dyed as you wouldn’t want it to stain those areas. It also breaks down a bit faster since it is made from recycled wood chips.
The other two most common types of colored mulch are brown mulch and black mulch. Brown mulch can be an excellent option for your lawn, as it has a lovely natural color that’s more understated at the same time. This is great if you choose to make various plants the center of attention and do not want to detract from them. Both light and darker-colored plants pair very well with it, making it a universal color for just about any garden you may have! It is important to remember that it does, however, tend to fade the fastest after about one season. Black mulch is another standard color for commercial use and residential because its color is very long-lasting. It is preferable to use with hardy plants, as it draws in heat that may not be too good for more ‘delicate’ plants. These mulch types have different downfalls and pros that should be considered, but there’s something for everyone!
The best ways to install mulch
There is a way to do most things right, and installing mulch on your lawn is no different! When you’re prepping the area, the first thing to do is clear out old mulch you had there before if you ever did. It’s best to edge around the area you’re working with to keep the mulch from spilling onto the grass, creating a messy appearance. Another way to avoid that disheveled appearance is to level out the area as best you can around where you’ll be laying it down. It’s preferred to lay down landscape sheeting for added weed control before you lay down the mulch itself, although some homeowners opt for an all-natural approach without it.
Once that prep work is done, it’s time to start installing the mulch; this can be made easier for you if you have a wheelbarrow you can dump the mulch into. With a shovel or your hands, you can start placing smaller mounds in the area you’re working with. Don’t dump a bunch of mulch out at once, then try to work out from there, as it’s harder to gauge how much you’re placing down. This is especially important, as you should have no more or less than two to four inches of mulch at any given time around those plants! Using a rake (or often more easily gloved hands) to gently smooth out the mulch, and make sure to leave about an inch of space between it and any tree trunks/plant bases to ensure you aren’t suffocating the plants or their root systems. Beyond that, make sure when you water for the first couple of days, it is a light watering, and you should be good to go!
Where this practice came from
Did you know that the practice of mulching has been around for thousands of years? It’s true; the origin of the word itself comes from the German word ‘molsch,’ which means soft or decaying. Some of the earliest examples of mulch being used agriculturally were in written records during 500 B.C. in China. There is evidence, too, that it was used in many other regions throughout the ancient world. Societies would use green manuring, which was cutting down crops to mix the material from it into the soil to give it extra nutrients. Some of these materials included Indian Sunn Hemp and Seaweed from areas like Ireland and Scotland. These weren’t used much for their aesthetic properties but served a lot of the same function as modern mulch does for us today.
More modern mulching techniques began to emerge around the 17th or 18th century. In the Persian market, gardeners would use straw or wood chips to help grow and maintain their strawberry crops! Over time, as people began to notice the benefits of mulch, it became a more common practice. By the 1900s, many homeowners started to use these techniques to improve their flower beds and other aspects of their landscapes. The idea began to use rocks or other materials that wouldn’t degrade purely for the visual appeal. Other materials such as rubber mulch began to gain popularity, but wood mulch is still the most widely used material to this day!
How to get started
If you’ve never embarked on this particular lawn adventure before, there is plenty of information to help you begin out there if you don’t know what you’re doing. It can be a great segway into participating in do-it-yourself projects on your landscape, and if you’ve got the confidence for it, then all the props to you! There is a lot of ground to cover, though, if you’re just getting started. We understand here at Copperhead Landscaping that some folks may not have that confidence or time to take care of it. However, there are plenty of professionals who know precisely what they’re doing and who can happily advise you on what will be best for your home and the plants that live there!