Mulching is a fantastic way to keep your garden free from weeds, prevent winter weather damage, and improve the soil health of your garden. Some people, however, find it difficult to get the mulching process quite right. If you're planning to lay landscape mulch in your garden, here are four common mistakes to avoid.
1. Never mix mulch into soil
When you place new mulch into your garden, make sure that you do not mix it into your soil. Many beginner gardeners make the mistake of thinking it's best to mix the two, but in reality, mulch needs to be left on the surface to do it's job correctly. If you mix mulch into your soil, it will throw off the nutritional balance of the soil, damaging your plants and presenting an obstacle to healthy growth. Mixing mulch and soil will also make digging and weeding harder for you.
2. Make sure to get rid of weeds before mulching
Before mulching, it is very important that you get rid of the weeds in your garden. If you leave weeds behind, they'll eventually spread through your mulch. This allows the weeds to spread significantly without you noticing. By the time they appear through the surface of the mulch, you'll have a serious weed problem on your hands that's hard to tackle. As such, for your convenience, it's best to put the de-weeding work in ahead of time.
3. Don't over-mulch
Since mulch can be so beneficial to a garden, it's easy to make the mistake of thinking that more mulch is always better. However, aside from being a waste of money, over-mulching can actually harm your garden. The deeper your mulch is, the harder it will be for the roots of your plants to get enough oxygen. Deep mulch is also more susceptible to fungi that harm plants. Other than in exceptional circumstances, an inch or so of mulch is usually plenty.
4. Buy the right mulch
Ultimately, none of these tips will do much good if you don't have the right mulch to begin with. There are many types of mulch on the market, from rubber and stone to wood chips and bark, but the best for you will depend on your garden's needs. For example, inorganic mulch like stone is great if you don't want to reapply often, but organic mulches like bark are best for adding more nutrients to struggling soil. You'll also want to think about how much time your have for maintenance and which types of mulch suit the appearance of your garden.
Hello! My name is Cindy. I have decided to start a new blog which will detail the ways in which landscaping the grounds on your property can improve the way it looks and its value if you decide to sell. Before I called in a team of landscaping contractors, I had no idea about the benefits of landscaping. However, I was really unhappy with the way the grounds of my property looked. The team were great and they helped me to plan how I wanted to change the grounds. I learnt a great deal and I hope by sharing it with you I can help you to landscape your property.