Like most other aspects of your landscape, it’s important to check on your mulch, especially for the summer season. Mulch decomposes over time and if those layers aren’t replenished, your garden won’t receive the benefits of the mulch it once had. Here are some of those benefits:
Beating The Heat
The drastic rises in soil temperature that accompany the summer season can dry up and even kill your plants’ roots. A good amount of mulch stabilizes the soil’s temperature, preventing harsh spikes in heat. In addition, plants that are protected by mulch tend to grow deeper and healthier roots than plants that aren’t.
This means that mulched plants will acquire more nutrients over the course of summer than non-mulched plants. Mulch also protects bacteria that combat disease and against pests from extreme temperature changes. This leaves the bacteria to do their duty in protecting your plants.
Moisture Retention
Mulch also helps prevent moisture from evaporating from the soil prematurely. This is crucial to maintain your garden’s health, as mulch provides plants a fair chance at accessing the moisture for nutrients.
A good practice to maintain after your mulch has been spread over your soil is watering the mulch to weigh it down and keep it in place, improving the mulch’s ability to retain moisture in the soil. We also recommend regularly checking the moisture levels underneath the mulch to gauge whether it needs more or less watering. Optimal watering should make the soil feel damp, but not soaked.
Weed Control
Mulch helps cut down on weeds, which can be harmful to plants and sod. However, existing weeds must be dealt with before laying down mulch, or else they will survive and sprout up among the layers of mulch.
There are two types of mulch, organic and inorganic, and which type you purchase will be dependent on what your garden needs. Inorganic mulch tends to last longer and is mainly used for weed control: however, it’s usually more expensive, doesn’t offer any sort of nutrients to your plants, and can possibly do damage depending on where it’s placed.
On the other hand, organic mulch tends to do everything that inorganic mulch does and more; it just needs to be replaced every so often because it decomposes over time.
Either way, when searching for fresh mulch you’ll want to find a local supplier that offers bulk landscape materials as they’ll be a more trustworthy source for quality products to support your landscaping needs.