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Garden Mulch 101 - Selecting the Proper Garden Mulch

Soil pH and the Various Landscape Mulches

By David Beaulieu, About.com Guide

When determining which garden mulch or landscape mulch is best suited for your landscaping needs, there are many factors to consider. The question can best be tackled by presenting the various garden mulches or landscaping mulches separately, but judging each based on the same criteria.

Before beginning, let's look at a preliminary question that many landscaping enthusiasts have: How does garden mulch affect soil pH? More specifically, does any garden mulch lower soil pH, as many have long suspected?

The composition of your soil pH has a hefty impact on plant health. Since garden mulch could influence that composition as it decomposes, it's understandable that people (myself included) have often expressed concern over how garden mulch selection impacts soil pH. Does the use of garden mulch composed of pine needles lead to an acidic soil? What about garden mulch composed of oak leaves?

The most widely held view at present seems to be that garden mulch has little impact on soil pH. For instance, while oak-leaf garden mulch may be acidic when fresh, most experts now say that it becomes more and more alkaline as it decomposes. Furthermore, based on my reading, it is now generally thought that a garden mulch composed of pine needles lowers soil pH to only a negligible degree, if at all.

With the question of the potential impact of garden mulch on soil pH out of the way, let's reflect on some other issues surrounding garden mulch selection -- some of which are quantifiable, others of which boil down to personal landscaping preferences. We will have to prioritize in order to make a decision, since a garden mulch that scores high in one category might perform miserably in another. Two obvious uses of garden mulch to which the reader will find little or no reference in this article are weed suppression and erosion control. They have been omitted for a simple reason: any garden mulch employed properly will cut down on weeds and erosion. These are the two constants in this discussion.

Preliminary Notes About Mulching and Garden Mulch

·         "Insulation value in summer" is judged by the degree to which the garden mulch can keep the soil beneath cool and moist. A successful summer insulator will both reduce the need for watering and protect roots against extreme heat.

·         The consideration of whether or not the garden mulch needs to be removed in spring is grounded in the fact that heavy organic garden mulches can smother emerging spring plants. This is obviously less of a factor, however, for plants that remain alive aboveground, throughout the winter. But even the latter can profit from having the soil around their roots warmed by the spring sun, a process facilitated by the temporary removal of the garden mulch. In the case of plastic sheet mulch, this factor is irrelevant, since holes are poked through the material to provide access for the plants.

·         "Nourishment and aeration afforded to underlying soil by decomposition" is one of the criteria used in the following pages to compare the various landscape mulches. However, do not be fooled by the word "nourishment" into thinking that compost and garden mulch are synonymous. For details on the distinction read, "Fall Cleanup: Raking Leaves for Compost and Garden Mulch."

Pine Straw Mulch

Appearance: Pine straw mulch provides the reddish-brown color (although less vivid) that redwood bark mulch offers.

·         Insulating value in summer: Good

·         Insulating value in winter: Good

·         Need to remove in spring: Yes

·         Nourishment and aeration afforded to underlying soil by decomposition: Fair

·         Lets water and oxygen move freely into the soil: Excellent

·         Ease of application and maintenance: Good

Wood Chips, Sawdust and Bark Mulches

·         Appearance: Good

·         Insulating value in summer: Good

·         Insulating value in winter: Good

·         Need to remove in spring: Yes

·         Nourishment and aeration afforded to underlying soil by decomposition: Fair

·         Lets water and oxygen move freely into soil: Good

·         Ease of application and maintenance: Good

Stone Mulch

·         Appearance: Good, if used around trees, cacti and succulents; but stone mulch may not be aesthetically appropriate for vegetable or flower gardens.

·         Insulating value in summer: Fair. Stone mulch tends to heat up, but it also retains much of that heat within itself.

·         Insulating value in winter: Fair. Again, while stone mulch easily grows cold, at least it keeps much of that cold off your soil.

·         Need to remove in spring: Yes

·         Nourishment and aeration afforded to underlying soil by decomposition: None

·         Lets water and oxygen move freely into soil: Yes

·         Ease of application and maintenance: Good

Mulching With Partially Composted Leaves

·         Appearance: Fair

·         Insulating value in summer: Excellent

·         Insulating value in winter: Excellent

·         Need to remove in spring: Yes

·         Nourishment and aeration afforded to underlying soil by decomposition: Excellent

·         Lets water and oxygen move freely into soil: Fair (unless leaves are very finely shredded).

·         Ease of application and maintenance: Fair

Straw and Hay Mulches

·         Appearance: Straw brightens your area nicely; hay is less attractive, but provides a softer look (and feel!)

·         Insulating value in summer: Excellent

·         Insulating value in winter: Excellent

·         Need to remove in spring: Yes

·         Nourishment and aeration afforded to underlying soil by decomposition: Excellent

·         Lets water and oxygen move freely into soil: Excellent

·         Ease of application and maintenance: Fair

·         Note: Straw is preferred over hay, because the latter tends to be riddled with weed seeds.

·         Note: Straw is one of the best mulch choices for winter protection, due to its insulation potential. Being hollow, each strand of straw provides dead air space -- perhaps the #1 characteristic of an effective insulator.

Below is the BEST solution providing you plan on being in your house for over 5 years. Some brands of this stuff last as long as 20 years   you will notice that pine straw is not included.  as a general rule pine straw costs app. 1/3rd less that wood mulch – jj