What Are The Different Types of Garden Mulches?

Are you looking for the best garden mulch?

If yes, it’s helpful first to discover their different kinds.

So explore our list of garden mulch types so that you buy only the right one.

Shredded Leaves or Wood Chips

You can find a bunch of decorative wood chips or shredded leaves form a local store to mulch your flower, garden, or shrub border. In case you are looking for an inexpensive option, contact the local tree-care facilities as they can provide you with the best mulches.

However, you can buy high quality shredded leaves and wood chips online as well.        

If you already have trees in your garden or backyard, you can find fallen leaves and create nutritional mulches yourself without spending a single penny. A lawn mower is enough to make bags of leaves mulches.

Grass Clippings

This is readily available mulch. Grass clippings can be made at home and later used as the garden fertilizer. If you have leftover grass clippings, use them for your garden or vegetable as these are rich in nitrogen and promotes better growth.   

Compost

Find another purpose for your compost. Use them as mulches. This will enrich the soil with nutrients and make the plants happy but make sure that when mulch is dry, it’s not a better place for plant roots to grow. This indicates that you have to spread a thin layer of compost and top it with other mulch like chopped leaves. This let the compost to stay damp and biologically active that provides utmost benefit for your garden fruits, flowers, and vegetables.  

Hay or Straw

If you have vegetables in the garden, cover them with straw and weed-free or salt hay. It will look clean and crisp, plus, this type of mulch retains moisture in the soil. These mulches will also prevent weed and add more organic matter to the soil. Ensure that you go for seed-free and weed-free hay. Avoid piling the mulch around the stem of the vegetable or fruit trees to avoid slug and rodent damage. 

Plastic Mulch

A sheet of black plastic film can work like magic. As it spreads over the smooth soil, the sheet allows sun heat to reach deep inside the soil, creating a 3^o warmer microclimate than the unmulched plants. The plastic sheet remains warm and dry; therefore, it protects the flowers and fruits of vining crops like melons, strawberries, and cucumber from decomposing. Also, the plastic sheet prevents weed growth & preserves soil moisture.

Land Fabrics

Landscape fabrics are the best mulches to place on your plants. They allow the air and water to reach easily around the roots of the plant and promote weeds to come up faster. However, when exposed to light, landscape fabric degrades over time. To make them last for more time, cover the fabric with a second layer of mulch.

Just like plastic mulch, keep the fabric mulch from the shrub as their roots grow up into the fabric and you will have to rip the fabric upon their removal.  

So which garden Mulch are you going to try first?