3 Mulching Mistakes To Avoid
From hardscapes and flowerbeds to trees and trees, the various elements that compose your landscape design can be overwhelming. Fortunately, combined together, landscaping adds appeal and value to your home. Of course, one key component of landscaping that many homeowners forget about is mulch. While it is a decorative accent, mulch is also necessary for helping lock in moisture, which your plants need to grow and thrive. With this guide, you will learn a few common mulching mistakes to avoid when updating your landscape.
Mulching on Top of Old Mulch
Most homeowners and even landscapers find it easy to spread mulch on top of their old mulch. This can save time and a great deal of energy, but it can also negatively affect your landscape design.
Remember that mulch may have been added numerous times to a bed, eventually creating a thick layer of old mulch that covers soil, weeds, and other debris. Even if you place a thick layer of new mulch on the flowerbed, you may still have weeds, pests, and other issues affecting your plants and the look of your landscape design.
For the best look and growth of your landscape beds and plants, remove a few inches of old mulch before installing new mulch.
Laying a Weed-Control Barrier
Another common mistake homeowners and landscapers make is laying a barrier of plastic, netting, newspaper, or other material on top of the soil before installing the mulch. These barriers are used in hopes of preventing weeds from growing up through the soil and mulch. While somewhat effective, the weed-control barriers require a lot of work to not only install, but also maintain.
Also, some types of weed control barriers, such as heavy-duty plastic, will prevent water from seeping into the underlying soil. This affects your plant's growth, but it will also lead to a water run-off problem, which can turn your landscaping into a soggy mess.
Your best option is to clean out any weeds first. Then, spray a weed-control solution onto the soil and the new mulch for extra protection.
Installing Too Little or Too Much Mulch
Finally, installing too little or too much mulch are also mistakes to avoid.
Too little mulch will not enhance your landscape design, but too much mulch can also affect your landscape's look because it may appear messy at times.
Most experts recommend installing around 3 inches of mulch to landscape beds for the most effective design.
