Growing Your Agricultural Business With the Right Tools

Finished Building Your New Flower Gardens? Make Them Nice And Tidy With Mulch

4 June 2017 by Clayton James

If you have just finished building your new flower gardens and have all your flowers planted, you know how much work this can be. Even though the gardens will be beautiful once the flowers start to grow you can make them nice and tidy by adding mulch to the gardens. Mulch also offers many other benefits. Below is some information about this so you can get started:

Benefits of Mulch

The main benefit of mulch is that it keeps your flowers healthy. This is because when it rains, the mulch retains the moisture in the soil, which can keep your flowers watered longer. This is especially beneficial if you live in an ahead that has hot temperatures.  

Some types of mulch add nutrients to the soil when the mulch breaks down. Two types of mulch that will do this for you is compost and pine straw. Compost is inexpensive and you can buy it bagged at any garden center. You can also make compost at home to make it yourself. Pine straw adds nutrients to the soil as it breaks down, and it can also be purchased at garden centers or specialty centers like McLean Wood Products.

Mulch can also suppress weeds from growing into the garden. This is beneficial for you as you will not have to spend a lot of time pulling weeds. It is also beneficial for your flowers as the weeds will take some of the moisture and nutrients away from your plants.

Types of Mulch

Besides compost and pine straw, there are different types of mulch you can choose from, including:

Organic Mulches

Organic mulches are the best types to use as they provide nutrients to your soil when they break down. Two types of organic mulches include:

• Bark wood chips: This type of mulch is generally acidic. For this reason, if your soil is already acidic you should not use this. You can purchase a soil test kit. Some soils do not have enough acidity, however, which would make this the perfect mulch for you.
• Leaves: If you have a lot of trees the leaves can be used as mulch. Leaves break down over time, which can be good for the soil but you will have to replace them often. The leaves need to be chopped up before they are used as mulch.

Inorganic Mulch

Inorganic mulches do not break down over time so the mulch lasts mulch longer. They do not provide nutrients to the soil, however. Some inorganic mulch types include stone, rock, landscape fabric, and pulverized rubber.

Inorganic mulches work well for decorative purposes, and they will also control weeds in the garden. Stones and rocks do absorb and reflect heat, however. This is advantageous as it can warm the soil to get flowers ready to plant in spring. It can harm flowers, however, if you live in an area that has hot, dry weather conditions.

Contact a landscape contractor if you have questions. They can also teach you how to apply the mulch to your gardens.

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