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Bark chippings are essential garden mulch
Bark mulch has now become a staple of the gardener’s armory against some of the more common gardening problems.
Weed problems are greatly curtailed using bark as a solution.
When weeds are eliminated before the mulch is spread, they shouldn’t come back with so much ferocity.
Bark chippings are great for preventing water loss in soil
This can dramatically reduce the amount of water that your garden needs. Bark chips provide a layer of insulation to the substrate minimizing evaporation from both the sun and wind.
Bark chippings mixed in with clay soils will help loosened its density.
Making the soil more friable is a key to successful gardening, allowing it to be more easily worked.
One of the more overlooked but obvious aspects of bark mulch is that it is decorative. There are many different kinds of bark used for decorative purposes, including maple, pine as well as other species.
Decorative bark can be used throughout the garden – in the vegetable and herb garden, in the flower garden and at the base of trees. As a decoration, adding bark mulch along driveways… Continue reading
Garden Mulch is a protective layer placed on top of the soil .
It is better to use a variety of organic materials for garden mulching, but you can also use plastic film, they are a great tool for the organic gardener.
Applying Mulch is well worth the time and effort it takes as it both conserves moisture in your soil by slowing evaporation and also helps stop weed seed from germinating. It will also protect the soil surface from the damaging effects of heavy rain and compaction . An additional benefit of using organic mulch is that it will encourage worms to populate and will generally help improve and maintain a good soil structure.
A variety of materials can be used for mulch.
However the texture is very important , it needs to be fairly compact but also allow air and moisture to filter through to the surface of the soil . Home made compost , wood chippings, bark, leaf mold, lawn cuttings that have been dried out , well rotted manure and straw will all make suitable garden mulch. They will give you a choice of finishing… Continue reading
When determining which garden mulch or landscape mulch is best suited for your landscaping needs, there are many factors to consider. The argument can be understood by showing to you the standards of the different garden mulches.
Before everything else, let’s hear a primary question most likely raised by landscaping practitioners: How can the mulch in the garden alters the soil pH? More specifically, does any garden mulch lower soil pH, as many have long suspected?
The soil pH composition has a big contribution on the stamina of your shrubs. Since garden mulch could influence that composition as it decomposes, it’s understandable that people (myself included) have often expressed concern over how garden mulch selection impacts soil pH. Does using pine needles in your landscape mulch lead to your garden soil withering away? What about having oak leaves as mulch in your garden?
A popular belief of landscape professionals is that garden mulch has insignificant changes in the pH composition of your loam. Such is the case, when your garden mulch is made up of oak leaves, it starts out acidic when its green, but decays more and more as… Continue reading
Posted in Mulch | 
erosion control, garden mulch, garden mulches, garden soil, landscape mulch, pine needles, shrubs, soil ph, weeds | 
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