No one mulch material is better than any other, what to use depends on what you want to do. The purpose of any mulch is to 1) aid in "weed" suppression, 2) aid in soil moisture retention, 3) aid in keeping the soil cool, and 4) add some organic matter to your soil slowly over a long time period.
Use what you can get the most of for least cost that will do what it is supposed to do. Free is always better.

Well, it's starting from the other end (least desireable), but I don't think I'd put dyed material into the garden.

Pine products are acidic, so I'd love them here on my alkaline clay, but if I lived in a pine forest (where the soil is already acidic), I'd use something else.

I wouldn't use cypress mulch;
I always think it looks like chewed-up cardboard, & I'd rather use something that didn't involve raiding wetlands & shipping long-distance.

I my own self have a lot of fun chasing down tree trimming trucks for truckloads of mixed material.

As kimmsr says, free is always better.

I have a tremendous aversion to wood mulches, which always make me think I'm at a McDonald's when I see them.

So I would have to pick # 13.

I like a compost mulch, a chopped leaf mulch, a seaweed/newspaper/upper mulch and, in my vegetable garden, a hay mulch. Actually, I try to keep newspaper and seaweed mulches on all my beds, which I cover with an upper mulch for pretty and for safety. (Seaweed is slippery.)

My favorite uppermost mulch would be leaf mold if I could make enough of it.

Anything organic is good. I topdress with whatever compost I can make and top that with something else to keep it moist. I use grass clippings and mulched leaves a lot. Usually in late spring/ early summer I top all beds with some shredded wood (pine mostly). I like pine fines best but in large quantities it becomes pricey. If cost was no object, I'd use the pine fines.

I search Home Depot for the fines and ask for it ("fine pine mulch" or "soil conditioner" but they never seem to have a clue what I'm talking about. I have only found it at smaller, expensive nurseries.

Karen

That list is geared for Brad and Chloe's plantings around the pool at the McMansion where they are entertaining. It doesn't have much value for the productive veggie gardening I do.

I use lots of compost, leaves shredded with a lawnmower, grass clippings, spoiled hay, straw and lots of fresh wood chips if I can get a truck driver to drop them off.

>>> Color Mulch, Red - red colored recycled wood mulch that will add long lasting color. ????

(~Barf...) Isn't that what we plan our gardens to do?

Wayne

I couldn't say which is best, but from my own experiences, one needs to remember that they are not compost. I used double ground hardwood mulch on the areas where I walk, but in some places I raked it too close to where my veggies were growing. What happens is this stuff is not rotted, so draws nitrogen from the surrounding soil in the process. This denies your plants what it needs, and will stymie their growth. I did notice the difference, so applied 'meal' fertilizer, which restored the plants vigor and growth. Just something to be conscious of.

Trees and shrubs prefer environments rich in fungi that like slow decomposin substrates like wood and fiber. A natural mulch (not dyed or processed) is best. I would pick the mulch (source) most native to your environment for the lowest price. I have read (but not practiced) that contacting local chipper trucks have yielded free excellent sources of mulch after allowing the load to compost over a year.

Mulches provide cover, where compost can ammend the soil. Both are not inclusive but it is easier/cheaper to provide soil cover with a mulch and later benefit from it's decompositing than to try and mulch with compost.

I am trying something totally new this year. I found a company that sells all kinds or burlap including used burlap coffee bags that coffee beans are shipped in and I am using burlap as my mulch. The open weave lets water through.
I'm trying it for a season, I've already mulched the veggie gardens with it.

Well, it's not really necessarily "easier/cheaper" to mulch with wood than compost. I make my own compost and if I didn't I'm lucky enough to have access to free communtity compost.
And easier? How so?

I love Patrick's (magmagic) idea!

The best mulch is FREE mulch.
The second best mulch is whichever is cheapest and easiest to come by, if I can't get it for free.

I have tons of oak trees. And the primary mulch in my beds is chopped up oak leaves, mostly chopped with lawn mower. Some are run through a chipper/shredder.

My second favorite mulch is shredded pallets that I get from a local group that employs and houses homeless people to process the pallets. Its cheap, $25 for a heaping truck bed full. I usually get one truck load per year.

Native bark mulch is usually the best cost wise at least for me over here. They tend to have higher N so they break down a bit faster (google ramial wood chips)and dramatically improves soil. That is my preference.

I tend to stay away from super fresh bark mulch. They take forever to break down to be any benefical to soil biology.

At the stores, I tend to by aged hardwood mulch since the price is no different than bulk and we don't really have many trees around here to be chasing after tree guys. I just can't recall ever seeing one in my town.

Has anyone used alfalfa bales for mulch? I find that the green leaves add organic matter and the "straw-like" part helps maintain the water and restrict weed growth.

I've used straw for mulch, but alfalfa is too expensive for that. In the spring, I'll usually spring for a couple of bags of alfalfa pellets and spread some of those around.

For mulch, I, like Sylvia, chase tree service trucks. Every year some neighbor or other of mine cuts down or loses a tree and I get a mountain of shredded wood and leaves.

Thanks everyone for the input. I think I've learned that there is not any absolute best mulch to use except I AM avoiding cypress because of environmental issues - and anything that has a chemical smell or that smells like tires, LOL.

I plan to visit and browse the merchandise. I'm hoping the "Native mulch" looks good and has a good price.

I had a large tree pruned in our backyard and I was disappointed to learn they didn't chip and shred on site but took it somewhere else. Oh well, I may try to keep my eyes open for trucks in the neighborhood though I'm inclined to think the "aged mulch" might be better than fresh if I'm willing to pay... just a thought, I know there are different opinions.

Thanks again.

Elphaba-

Please read this - http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_org_research.php?id=69

Those fresh ramial wood chips that tree people trim down along the power lines are great stuff. They contain enough nitrogen (the green stuff you see when you scratch bark off) to help break them down fast enough to make the nutrients available to the roots. It's not about how they look. it's about improve the soil and making plants a lot healthier than without mulch and they are free. I finally found somebody that I might get free ramial wood chips. They are supposed to come through my town in March and April to do some trimming along the power lines so hopefully, they will dump off wood chips on my driveway!

No point in using cypress wood. They take long time to break down anyway.

I've always used native much for my mom's house in houston (dirt cheap compared to what it is up here even by same company) which is same as ramial wood chip except they have been aged. The problem is that I don't live in Houston so I can't go after tree trimmers there but the price is good enough. I think it was 15 dollars a yard which is much better than up here for over 30 dollars a yard by same company! Granted, there are a lot more trees in Houston...

Amen to what Lou said, just above, re: ramial wood. If you can get the shredded branches of trees under 7cm (about 2 1/2") and/or freshly ground local tree bark, it's a far better mulch than most.

As he said before, Google "ramial wood chips" and read. There's solid scientific evidence it works well.

All the best,
-Patrick

Interesting about the ramial wood. I was thinking that a shredder wasn't worth the trouble for me. We get lots of little branches that drop because of wind or rain and that are too big for the compost. I have been putting these out on the curb for the recycle pickup. HMMM..maybe I should be shredding after all. Thanks for the info.

I'd avoid any mulch made from whole trees ground down for mulch. That's the problem with the cypress, the swamps are being logged specifically to grind the trees into mulch. I was just reading about Louisiana allowing private landowners to clearcut their cypress stands at the same time the state is asking for billions of federal tax dollars to restore wetlands. It's positively insane; cypress swamps are known to protect against storms surges and presumably would be some of what would be restored at great expense to us federal taxpayers, while private landowners are profiting from creating the problem.

But, any other wood mulch created from whole trees will be just as bad, like the cedar listed. Why cut down a perfectly good tree just to make mulch out of it??

Mulches created from mill waste are fine; mulches from ground up trimmings are fine; mulches from bark are fine so long as the tree was being cut primarily for the wood and the bark is a byproduct.

What species of tree will be best depends on what grows locally. Cypress mulch might be fine if you live right next to a cypress mill. I live in Doug-fir and western hemlock territory, so that's what I get. In California, redwood bark and eucalyptus mulch are readily available, but it would be silly to ship them elsewhere. Texas has lots of oak and pine, which we don't have here. Texas should have lots of local pecans too I would think. If I lived in pecan growing territory, I'd use it. I used to live in California, and I used mulches made from rice hulls as it's one of the major crops in NorCal, and makes a good cheap mulch.

As far as helping the soil, you want something that will break down and add organic matter - compost, leaf mold, tree trimmings. Barks and woods don't really add much, they're used where people don't want it breaking down.