Keeping a garden is a really meditative, enjoyable pastime. If you have a patch of earth that you look after, you know that gardening requires a lot of accessories. There are, of course, the usual things that you will need like appropriate clothing and gloves, as well as things like bulbs, trimmings, and mulch to enrich the earth. You probably know that there is both organic and inorganic mulch, but what about more specific types? Here are the six types of mulch that are available now.
1. Wood Chips/Leaves
This organic style of mulch is by far the most economical. You can either buy bags of grass clippings or bark trimmings from a local nursery or call up a local landscaping company and ask if they have any that they can just give to you.
2. Grass Clippings
If there is always a lot of grass left over after you mow your lawn, gather it up and use it to line your flower beds for a quick, ready organic mulch that will enrich your soil with their nutrients.
3. Food Waste
Keeping a compost bin in your kitchen is not only great for any vegetables that you might be growing, but it can really imbue your earth with nutrients and minerals from the food that you eat. It is pretty easy to start a compost bin of your own. You can start one today and have useable mulch within a month.
4. Straw
In addition to having a folksy, cool look, using salt hay or dry straw to mulch your garden beds is perfect if you plant vegetables. Hay contains ingredients that enrich the soil and give it nutrients that help vegetable plants grow well. However, the coverage of this mulch can expose your vulnerable baby plants to rodent and insect damage. It is better not to let it gather around the base of plants.
5. Plastic Mulch
Using plastic mulch just entails stretching sheets of black plastic tightly over a garden. Black plastic is perfectly suited to trap the sunlight and keep it warm and humid in the space between the ground and the plastic. Plastic ensures the moisture in the soil is not allowed to dissipate, keeping the environment moist and humid and helping small fruits like strawberries stay protected from the sun. However, do not use this type of mulch around the bases of shrubs or hedges. It has been known to damage the growth of shrubs.
6. Landscape Fabrics
Geotextiles or other types of landscape fabrics are perfectly designed to benefit the growth of your plants. These fabrics do deteriorate over time, but you can prolong their life with a second coating of mulch. They are designed to promote the growth of good bacteria and the proliferation of essential nutrients in your soil.
