Mulching

Mulching is one of the most important ways to maintain healthy landscape plants and is often overlooked when planning an outdoor living space. A mulch is any material applied to the soil surface for protection or improvement of the area covered. Mulching is really nature’s idea. Nature produces large quantities of mulch all the time with fallen leaves, needles, twigs, pieces of bark, spent flower blossoms, fallen fruit and other organic material.

When applied correctly, mulch has the following beneficial effects on plants and soil:

• Mulch prevents loss of water from the soil by evaporation.
• Mulch reduces the growth of weeds, when the mulch material itself is weed-free and applied deeply enough to prevent weed germination or to 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 not only stops erosion but keeps soil-borne diseases from splashing up onto the plants.
• Organic mulch can improve the soil structure. As the mulch decays, the material becomes topsoil. Decaying mulch also 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 the trunks of trees and shrubs from damage by lawn equipment.
• Mulch helps prevent soil compaction.
• Mulch can add to the beauty of the landscape by providing a cover of uniform color and interesting texture to the surface.
• Mulched plants have more roots than plants that are not mulched, because mulched plants will produce additional roots in the mulch that surrounds them.

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