Top Rated Tips to Maintain Your Mulch throughout the Seasons

Mulch can produce a vivid landscape and create an enticing, polished look. Mulch also allows plants to remain healthy and to sustain their strong growth. And there are many reasons to mulch your garden, some of them include, insulates, keeps the roots warm in winter and cool throughout the summer, holds moisture within the soil, it increases soil fertility, while also protects against erosion and compression, it helps to prevent harm to the plants by lawnmowers, and it doesn’t let weeds grow.

Here are several tricks and tips for keeping mulch stable and specific regardless of temperature.

In this post, you can learn how to look after mulch all year long, so that your garden is able to flower in spring and survive cold winter days.

Mulch Maintenance

Usually, mulches do not take much attention, and some mulch may last 10 or more years before replacement is needed. It is most important to check the size of your pile regularly and make sure that it is 2 to 4″ deep. But, with the time of exposure to the sun, mulch color disappears naturally and weeds often pull their small heads away regardless of what you do. Here are some top tips to take care of your mulch all year long.

Restoring Mulch Colors

Over time, mulch colors fade due to constant exposure to sunlight. In one or two months, the regular non-dried mulch can become greyish, while the brown or black mulch can retain its color for a year or more. Finally, without treatment, all mulches lose their color.

It is the best way to take over a thin layer or an inch of the fresh mulch to protect the grey mulch. Nonetheless, inspect the current mulch before you add new mulch to the old layers.

When the old mulch starts decaying, it’s time to completely fix it. Try to remove the pile before adding a new coat, simply because you don’t want to see too many layers because your plants could be destroyed. As mulch layers expand above 4 inches, they are hydrophobic or don’t let the water pass. There may also be too many types of mulch to suffocate the roots of plants. You can easily add fresh-colored mulch if you have the existing mulch layers down to one or two inches.

Weed Removal

Despite the incredible potential of mulches to restrain weeds, they are still able to come up from time to time. But some ways can well prevent from growing.

You should add additional mulch first if you see plants coming from your mulch. Try to maintain a minimum 2-inch mulch depth to keep sunshine reaching the soil and causing weeds growth. In order to prevent weed growth, the mulch must block sunlight. Choose gross bark mulches, either broken or chipped, as they gradually decompose and isn’t easily be blown away by air.

Furthermore, make sure that you pick the weeds by hand before they take over. In a single plant, thousands of seeds may be produced each season. Underweeds share in the soil, sunshine and nutrients with nearby plants, so try to remove weeds before the seeds grow.

A herbicide can be used to discourage the germination of weed seeds. Nonetheless, weeds that have already sprouted do not suppress herbicides. To add a herbicide before emergence, strip the mulch, cut the existing weeds and apply the pesticide according to package instructions. Maize gluten meal herbicides can also be attempted in organic form. After the herbicide has been sprayed, add the mulch.

You can use a herbicide spray for established weeds upon emergence. Be vigilant not to damage neighboring plants and talk to a nursery about the correct herbicides.

You can bypass herbicide entirely, instead, you can add a landscape fabric to prevent weeds from growing.

Turning and Mixing Mulch

Any season, you will want to mix and change your pile a few times to disassemble clustered pieces and to ensure that a compacted layer is not built above the ground. After several months, it can be helpful to rake or gently fluff mulch, particularly if it has covered. This can make it easier for air and water to reach the ground. And it refreshes the appearance, particularly of the fading bark mulches.

Replace Mulch Biannually

When layers are thin for any reason, you can add mulch. If it breaks down like dirt in your hands, because it isn’t successful any longer at that point, you will also need to remove the mulch.

In spring, add additional pile to replace old mulch or replenish that has been washed or blown away, to ensure the thickness of at least two inches. Be sure it is warm and moist soils before adding fresh mulch and maintain the moisture there and help prepare plants for summer heat before mid to late spring. If you apply mulch too early, or if the soil is cold and damp, germination can fail.

Apply fresh mulch in fall to insulate plants and protect roots against harsh temperatures during winter. Wait until you apply mulch after the first freeze, but add mulch until it becomes too cold. If you add mulch before the ground freezes, you may find a winter house seeker. To insulate plants without compacting under the snow, choose the loose materials like straw, hay and pine boughs. In the fall and the snow season, reduce the risk of plant loss by applying mulch.

No matter what season it is as you have plated mulch around new plants as early as possible.

Protecting From Blown or washing Away

You’re not alone if you’ve come out to see mulch dumped all over the yard. Even the hardest mulch sometimes cannot protect against strong wind or torrential rains. There are many different kinds of causes for mulch layers to be thin over time and need to be restored, to effectively protect surrounding plants and trees. Here are some tips for making the mulch stay:

Remove any herbs, leaves, or sticks periodically to preserve a mulch looking tidy, rake rubber mulch, in order for loosening capes which have been compacted over time. Spray mulch with water for any residue or dust which may have been deposited on the mulch. Restore any mulch which has been removed. Otherwise, rubber mulch is supposed to last for ten or more years. Few homeowners, however, prefer to stick on natural mulch because it is more expensive and has a distinct fragrance.

Some Extra Tips and Tricks

As you can see, mulch management is usually simple, and unlike other gardening activities, should not take too much time away. Here are a few helpful tips.

Don’t pile up the mulch around the trees; take care the mulch gets away a couple of inches from the plants and the trees to create something like a doughnut hole. Taper mulch from the base of the tree from 4 or 5 feet away. It will hold in too much humidity and allow bark to rot if you pile up mulch around the base of the tree. The bigger the base is mulched, the better it’s for planting.

Using lightweight mulch in vegetable gardens like hay or straw proves to be more productive. Don’t put so much mulch over the ground, stick to the regular 3-inch pile layer because plants can be suffocated by too much mulch.

Hold mulch and soil apart, merging of soil and mulch while the addition of new plants can be simple over time.

Nonetheless, you could avoid mixing the two, especially when using hardwood mulch. Moreover, the combination of mulch and soil can dry plants. In fact, too much soil-mixed rotting mulch will remove nitrogen from the ground. Rake the mulch before planting instead.

About The Author: Jackson Keil writes SEO articles and his articles have appeared in a number of sites including Calculator.tech and Prepostseo.com. His articles focus on balancing information with SEO needs–but never at the expense of providing an entertaining read.

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