Choosing a Mulch That Looks Good and Your Garden Will Love
News
2024
Inspiration
Residential
Tips
We don’t generally think of mulch as a material that can enhance the design of our home, right? Mostly we think of it as ground cover for our garden, covering up dirt and surrounding our plants. But mulch can be a beautiful feature for your home, adding texture and colours to the design of your garden.
Good mulch is full of rich organic matter and is a food source for your plants keeping them healthy and alive for longer. It’s also a great way to keep the temperature of your soil more consistent – ideal to do before extreme cold (to insulate) or hot weather (to retain moisture).
We’ve put together some tips on selecting the right mulch for your garden, so you get a gorgeous natural look plus the right nutrients for your plants.
Go natural
The most valuable mulch is called ‘organic’ or ‘forest litter’. It gives you a beautiful soft and varied texture and deep brown colours to complement your natural setting. It’s made from recycled local product including wood, soil and leaves which break down to make your soil nutrient-rich. Your trees will look and feel a million bucks. It also helps with water retention and reduces weed growth and plant stress.
Added bonus! It’s usually the cheapest mulch because there are no added products and labour. You can contact us for forest litter mulch.
Avoid the carpark look
Nothing takes away from the beauty of your home design and landscape than red, blue or black dyed mulch. This type of mulch is hard wood chips with added colourants. You’ll find this type of mulch in carparks because they provide dense ground cover which prevents weeds but gives no nutrients to the garden. In fact, the cover can be so dense that water can’t get to the soil. Mulch with nasty chemicals can also harm your plants and the creatures who live in your soil.
For the kids
If you’re using mulch in a kids play area, you might like to use tan bark. We all remember this from under the monkey bars at the school playground. It provides a softer fall than hard wood chips and isn’t as messy as organic mulch when the kids are rolling around in it. There are regulations for how this mulch is made so check with your landscape supplier that it’s playground certified.
A nice even spread
Spread your mulch nice and evenly across your garden – around 100mm thick. When you get to your plants or trees, leave space around the trunk. Don’t pile mulch around the trunk because it can cause collar rot. In a few years, you’ll need to top your mulch up because it will have broken down feeding your soil.
We originally wrote this article for one of Australia’s leading interior websites, Style Curator.