Not all landscape mulches are created equal, however most do perform the same job: filling in an area of a landscape as either a design element or as a filler for areas where nothing grows. Landscape mulch comes colored and not, with the colored material available from Rocky Mountain Compost available in Black, Red, and Cherry Brown. Why would you use a mulch like this? Because it is an environmentally friendly landscaping material, and it retains its color for at least two years. It is a good alternative to using bark chips, and can be as visually appealing, if not more so, in certain applications.
Applications for landscape mulch
Garden beds, flower garden beds, benefit greatly from the use of mulch. Even mulch contained with a decorative border can be a unique and beautiful design element all on its own. But mulch isn’t just for looks, it can also protect plant root systems from weather, and, as the mulch breaks down, it can add nutrients to the soil (if the mulch is itself a natural substance, there are recycled plastic mulches).
Building a garden bed that’s full of plants and mulch is simple: choose an area for the bed (if there’s grass in the area, remove it, digging down to the level of the roots, then add your border—any border works fine, this is a decorative element as well as a functional one, so choose accordingly—then fill the cavity of the garden bed with the mulch. Later add your flowers—if you’ve put down landscape fabric to prevent the grass from returning, make sure to notch holes in the landscape fabric, holes that are wide enough to accommodate the plants as they grow, and then plant.
If you’re building a new garden bed, don’t add the mulch until the ground has had time to unfreeze from the winter. The mulch will insulate the ground and slow the thaw, which could make for a bad planting of flowers and shrubs, etc., later.
If you have any questions about mulch, or how much you’ll need (a quick answer is to check out the calculator included on the website) give Rocky Mountain Compost a call today.
