When it comes to landscaping, it’s shocking how much difference tidy mulch beds can make to the overall appearance of your home. Raising the value of your property by up to 12%, landscaping and hardscaping is a huge part of your home’s overall aesthetic. If you are lucky enough to have a home with beautiful old trees, mulch can be a great way to really draw the eye to these natural landscape features. In addition, if you’ve recently found trees for sale and are looking to plant them, mulching can add to the overall health of the plants — but only if you do it right.
The Most Important Thing You Will Ever Learn About Mulch And Trees
Mulching trees is very simple actually, but you have to remember: don’t let the mulch touch the tree trunk. Trees like to breathe. They do this through their leaves and through their trunk. When you pile mulch in a mound around the tree you will negatively impact the overall health of the tree. Keeping the mulch away from the trunk allows the tree to benefit from the mulch without dying.
So Why Mulch Trees At All If It Kills Them?
Because, properly done, mulch can insulate the soil from extreme weather changes, primarily heat and cold. Especially in a new tree, mulch protects the tree while its roots take hold in the soil. Mulch can also cut down on weeds and other forms of root competition. And where, from a practical perspective, it can make mowing the lawn easier, from the tree’s perspective, it reduces the damage caused when lawn mowers run over roots above ground.
Clear out the grass
Remove the grass from around your tree. You want an area around 3 to 10 feet wide. If you poor your mulch right on to the grass you have to wait for the grass to die before you really get the look that you want, and if you have resilient grass it may end up growing through the mulch and destroying the aesthetics you are going for.
Add the mulch
Fill the space you’ve cleared with natural mulch. Spread it out so it’s no more than 2 to 4 inches deep. Any deeper and you could suffocate the tree.
Keep the mulch away from the trunk
As mentioned earlier trees breath through their trunks. Keeping the mulch from touching the trunk is the best thing you could do. If you’re planting a new tree you can use the mulch to create a sort of well around the base of the tree. When it rains the well will fill with water and feed the tree.
These same instructions can be applied when planting and mulching shrubs. When you’re looking for mulch for sale target natural materials that will degrade into the soil over time. Bark or wood chips will work to feed the tree and can be replenished yearly. Some mulch for sale is created from recycled plastic or stone. Where its great to have recycled materials used in your landscape project, they could end up adversely affecting the health of your tree. A lot of places with mulch for sale are well versed in the best mulch for the job you need.