Providing your garden with essential nutrients requires a little effort.
All you have to do is research for a proper way to help your garden’s trees and plants. One of the most popular ways is mulching, which will provide huge benefits to different plants in your garden.
We reached out to the qualified arborists at Canopy Tree to bring you the best advice. Mulching will help your trees to grow and become healthy. Yes, mulching is one of the best ways, which will let you achieve a lush green garden that you’ve always dreamt of.
Let’s scroll down and know all about mulching.
What is Mulching?
Mulching is the process of adding a protective covering of sawdust or compost to the soil. This protective covering is called mulch, and it helps keep the garden moist and promotes fast growth of plants and trees.
Mainly, mulch is used to prevent the growth of weeds in your garden from preserving the nutrients for your trees only.
Several ingredients can be utilized to create customized mulch. They are available in organic and inorganic forms. You can make your own mulch, or you can go out and buy any premade mulch for the proper growth of your plants.
How to Choose the Right Mulch?
While choosing mulch for your garden, you have to focus on a few pointers before you get it home. If you are buying mulch for the first time, you will come across three colors. These are black, red, and brown mulch with different properties.
Choose a hue or accent that matches your house décor. But, if you reside in a hot environment, you should prefer a lighter color. Dark colors consume more heat which can damage your trees in the garden.
Try to look out for premium quality mulch as cheap quality mulch can be hazardous to the health of your garden. Zimmerman Mulch is a top supplier of quality mulch and delivery services.
Types of Different Mulch and Their Benefits
Mulch is made up of various materials, and it comes in various compositions as per the need of customers. They are majorly divided into two types: organic and inorganic.
Here is a detailed list of materials –
Benefits of Organic Mulch
Organic mulch, as the name suggests, is made using natural ingredients. Let’s explore them–
Bark
If you are looking to put something hard into your mulch, then the bark is considered to be the best. It is better to use bark where you are not frequently digging as it doesn’t mix with the soil.
Mixing it into the soil can be hard, but you can opt for much finer bark mulch.
Grass Clippings
These are mainly used to prevent the growth of weed. Grass clippings often contain high water content, and after a little time, it gives out the bad odor.
This mulch doesn’t let water pass through, and it turns pretty slimy after a while. These clippings are the best weed killer, and with a mower, you can add them easily into the soil for better growth.
Newspaper
If you want to create mulch in a cost-effective manner then opt for newspapers. These have been in use for a very long time, and with the rise of organic ink used in newspapers, they make for perfect mulch.
To use newspapers as mulch, place a few sheets of them around the plant. Moist them using a normal amount of water and cover it with a weed killer and organic mulch.
Shredded Leaves
The shredded leaves are the best for your garden. They are free to use, and they promote earthworm development in the soil.
People often avoid using dry leaves as they have a lighter color, but they are packed with some amazing benefits for the garden.
Straw and Hay
If you have a vegetable garden, straw and hay are your go-to munch. This will last for the whole season as straw decomposes really slowly. Straw and hay make for a perfect home for spiders which adds to pest protection.
Benefits of Inorganic Mulch
Inorganic mulch doesn’t add any kind of nutrients to your garden. This can be helpful for plant growth, but they don’t decompose easily.
Plastic and Landscape Fabric
Plastic gets hot in summer, and it can be harmful to your plants. You can use plastic to prevent weeds around trees and shrubs. For fabric, make proper holes during installation to help water pass through the fabric.
Gravel and Stone
Before you install gravel or stone, give it a proper thought. Stone is pretty hard to remove, and it should be used for plants that like a little extra heat. They work amazingly to drain the proper amount of water into the rock beds.
As a whole, this is all you should be aware of about mulching. Before you go out to choose mulch for your garden, make sure you keep the points discussed above in mind.
