What is Garden Mulch and What is it Used For?

  • By Paul Day Tree Surgery
  • 06 Dec, 2019

Gardens can make a world of difference to your home. As well as being a great place for you, your family or your housemates to hang out in the summer and throw garden parties, they can also add a significant amount of value to the price of your property. 

Whether you want to install an outside dining area, build a stylish shed, include a gazeebo or bring more living space outdoors, a well-maintained garden can add as much as 20% to the price of your home. This can equate to tens of thousands of pounds added to the price of your property, which you certainly won’t want to miss out on! 

If you’re a keen gardener with green fingers, there are a number of excellent additions you could choose to increase the value of your property and make your garden a more welcoming place to be. Be sure to include plenty of outdoor furniture and balance the design of your outdoor space to make it as appealing as possible. It’s important not to overcrowd the space and think of it as another room within the home. You wouldn’t leave rubbish lying around your living room, so don’t do the same to your garden. Introducing electric light can also be another great way to brighten up your garden and make it more appealing. 

More important than any of this is ensuring that your garden is well-maintained and attractive. One sure-fire way to achieve this is to utilise garden mulch, but what exactly is it and what does it do?

From Garden Bark to Compost, Different Types of Mulch and How They’re Used

Mulch is a material which is laid on top of soil as a covering and retains moisture, keeps the soil at a cool temperature, curtails the growth of weeds and makes garden beds more appealing. This material can also help to improve the fertility of the soil and improve its organic content. 

The moister the mulch, the more nutrients can pass through to the soil, whereas dryer mulch will pass fewer nutrients to the soil but decompose more slowly. Each different type of mulch has its own singular use; here we provide a bit more info on each.

Bark

Bark mulch is one of the most common types of mulch used in your garden. This material is best used around the base of trees and shrubs as well as areas where there will be limited digging. For example, around walkways, fountains and perimeter garden beds. 

If you are going to be changing an area and adding more plants, it may be best to choose another type of mulch. Bark lasts for a long time, but it doesn’t mix well into soil and can be a pain to continuously move if you’re going to be consistently adding more vegetation to a particular area.

Compost

Compost is one of the most versatile types of mulch you can use. As well as being able to make it yourself using food scraps and grass, compost will mix into the soil effectively and can insulate plants as well as provide a boost to their nutritional content. As long as the areas you want to use this mulch on are weed-free, you can use compost anywhere in the garden.

Grass Clippings

Grass clippings have very high water content and so decompose much quicker than other types of mulch. This can cause foul smells to linger in your garden, so it’s advisable to use this type of mulch sparingly and keep it to the more remote areas of your garden. If you are looking to prevent weeds from growing, however, grass clippings are an excellent choice. 

One of the most cost-effective ways to mulch your garden using grass clippings is to mow your lawn with a specialised mulching mower and then leave the clippings on the lawn or place them in a bag. If you want to use your own grass clippings in this way, make sure that you haven’t used a weed killer recently or this can cause damage to your flowers and vegetables. Keeping grass clippings from your lawn is a great way to save money and reduce waste.

Newspaper

Newspaper mulch is gaining popularity nowadays, somewhat surprisingly. As the vast majority of newspaper printers now use organic inc for their pages, this means that this type of mulch shouldn’t negatively impact your plant life. Newspaper paper has excellent moisture retention capabilities, can prevent weeds from thriving and is excellent at controlling the temperature of soil. 

When using newspaper as mulch, lay down around six sheets amongst plants and then spread a bit of water on top to moisten them. Follow this with another layer of organic mulch like compost to further protect plants against the growth of weeds.

Shredded Leaves

Shredded leaves are an excellent mulch and free to use all over your garden. This material can be used in any area of the garden, but some may think that it is unsightly. However, if shredded leaves are spread across the garden in the spring before the majority of growth takes place, the leaves will blend in with the rest of the garden in a relatively short time. If you want to mulch your vegetable patch, it’s worth spreading it across the area during the autumn period as it will decompose across winter ready for spring.

Straw

Finally, straw is another popular mulch which is used for vegetable gardens. Straw and hay can also be used to stop soil from ricocheting up onto plant leaves or garden paths and spreading soil diseases. Straw decomposes at a very slow rate and, therefore, will last for the duration of the growing season and will also attract beneficial insects which help to keep other pests in check. Straw is also easy to work into the soil, so makes for light work when planting a new crop.

The Benefits of Using Mulch For Your Garden Maintenance

In general, using mulch has a wide variety of benefits for your garden. As discussed earlier, mulch will allow you to retain as much of the moisture in the soil as possible. This helps to cultivate and encourage growth within your garden naturally without having to water it quite as much. The better moisture in your soil, the healthier your plants and vegetables will be. 

Using organic mulches - like the ones listed above - are always recommended over synthetic mulches as they will contribute to the overall health of your soil as the material breaks down. Although synthetic mulch will not have to be replaced, they do not pass nutrients down through the soil. 

Mulch also reduces the impact of the winter months on your garden by locking in moisture, nutrients and better insulating your plants against the cold weather. This controls winter injury and will also control the growth of weeds all year round.

Paul Day Tree Specialists: Expert Tree Surgery and Landscaping Services in Sheffield

If you’re looking for a tree care specialist in Sheffield, look no further than Paul Day. Our professional tree surgeons can provide a wide range of landscaping services, including hedge maintenance, paving, decking and fence installation. 

As local gardeners, landscapers and tree surgeons, we’ve been working with local residents for many years and have helped countless people in Sheffield, Rotherham, Worksop and the surrounding area keep their garden in ship shape. 

When looking for garden mulch in the area, Paul Day should be your choice. We can supply chippings and logs for any landscaping project as well as mulch to retain moisture in your garden soil. Whatever your requirements are, we can help. 

To find out more about our services, please feel free to contact us today. You can call us on either 01 909 519 675 or 07 909 743 488 and email us at paul.daycountryside@btinternet.com.

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