Everybody loves the look of beautiful landscape plants in freshly mulched beds. However, mulch is more than just a nice “finishing touch” to a well-maintained landscape. Proper mulching is also one of the most important ways to maintain healthy landscape plants.
Mulching is actually nature’s idea. Nature produces large quantities of mulch all the time with fallen leaves, twigs, pieces of bark, spent flower blossoms and other organic material.
When applied correctly, mulch not only adds to the beauty of the landscape, but it provides many benefits for plants and soil. Some of these benefits are:
- Mulch holds in soil moisture, protecting plants from drying out.
- Mulch reduces weed growth, when the mulch itself is weed-free and applied deeply enough to prevent weed germination and smother existing weeds.
- Mulch keeps the soil cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, thus maintaining a more even soil temperature.
- Mulch prevents “soil splashing”, which helps to control erosion and keep soil-borne diseases from splashing up onto plants.
- Mulch improves the soil structure, as the decaying mulch adds nutrients to the soil.
- Mulch prevents crusting of the soil surface, thus improving the absorption and movement of water into the soil.
- Mulch prevents soils compaction.
- Mulch protects the trunks of trees and shrubs from damage by lawn equipment.
- Mulched plants have more roots than plants that are not mulched, because mulched plants will produce additional roots in the mulch that surrounds them.
Reder Landscaping carries the largest selection of mulch available in the Great Lakes Bay region, from shredded wood and bark products (natural and color-enhanced), to pine bark flakes and pine needles. To learn more about the pros and cons of the different types of mulches available to decide which one best suits your needs, consult our “Mulch Comparison Guide”.
Watch for our Mulch Discount each spring, beginning in April and continuing through May, when you can get a a 10% discount on all our varieties of bulk mulch.