Also a few questions. My gardens are mostly on sand. Can I expect bark to disappear into the sand or likely stay on top? Also, how much bark do you usually purchase per square footage or yardage? And, do you find you replace it often, or it stays fairly well?

Can't answer all your questions, but will attempt a couple. I've used pine bark mulch for a number of years. Starting every late spring I put down several inches of it on every bed--or I should say, I try to. Very time-consuming and I don't always makes it to all the beds by the end of summer. (Wish I could convince some family-members that mulching is "FUN"!)

Although occasionally I decide the mulch is a bit thin in places and add more, normally I just do this mulch thing once a year. By the next spring, some of the mulch--but not all of it--will have broken down and become part of the soil.

Normally the mulch stays in place--unless you have a lawn service that loves to haul out those high powered blowers to blow all the leaves out of your garden bed. That will scatter your mulch to the four winds. I have a level yard, so no problem with run-off, but I assume that if you garden on hillsides or even where the ground slants off at an angle, a hard rain might send a mulch-clogged stream to the lower level. Other than those two exceptions, I can't think of anything that will interfere with the placement of the mulch.

I wouldn't do without mulch. Keeps in the moisture, discourages weeds, and gives a neat, polished look to the gardens.

Kate

There's no harm in bark, or just about any organic material, used for mulch. If you get the cheaper grade of bark, it contains fines that will disappear into the soil and help a sandy soil with long-lasting organic matter. The coarser pieces will stay on top.

But personally I don't think you should be embarrassed by having manure and straw visible. Anybody with proper values is going to be looking at the plants, not the mulch. Leave the perfectly tidy mulch to people whose ideal landscape is grass with meatballed holly bushes.

I cannot remark on the sand as I garden in clay but I have used several types of bark as mulch. Takes a long time to put down and I find myself having to constantly re-apply because I have been planting and moving things constantly so then it doesn't look too neat once disturbed. However, my dh is adamant that he likes the beds mulched and he helps put it out, so I dont complain much. I put it down about two inches thick since I mulch with leaves again in the fall so I go through a standard bag for about 16 sq feet give or take. We did reapply this year after last year because it does tend to decompose.

I'm a mulcher to a certain extent. Pine bark mulch is my choice. The only word of caution I might use is that spider mites love mulch. I have all but given up putting it on my potted roses (especially minis), because the mites love to hide in it over winter. The heavily mulched beds can become infested also. Where I hadn't gotten around to mulching as heavily last winter the infestation wasn't as bad this year. So just a word of caution.....BTW, Michael: I love your statement about people with proper values should always look at the plants, not the means of creating them. If you saw my covered back porch, you'd know why I say that. That's where a lot of my gardening supplies go to keep out of the weather. So just kick the bags of mulch/potting soil/manure aside when you come to my house and look at how pretty the flowers are - lol.......Maryl

I think a good looking mulch contributes a great deal of beauty to a garden. Con of bark is 1 bag doesn't go far, and you want a thick layer. Also bark rolls down slopes--so it's not good on slopes. Other than that, all plus. Bark lasts a long time. I have a bed on the north side of the house that had the same nice layer of bark, looking good, since 2008. I finally added more this past spring. Just don't dig it into the soil when you plant stuff. Scrape it away carefully from a large area and pile the soil on a tarp when you dig a hole. Keeps it looking good longer.

cannot imagine not mulching to the drip line....guess that is why I am invaded by spider mites...that and the rocks that surround the drip line.

Thank you all for your information. I'm tempted to try some, in perhaps a small area, just to enjoy the look of it. Michaelg, I treasure your comment most. I am a very messy person my nature, and in the garden, the ranch hick in me comes out. Plants are willy nilly, nothing planned, borders are just "things" around the property that I drag up to separate things. A neat, tidy garden isn't me, and I ultimately don't want to spend the money to do the entire garden. Sometimes its nice to hear stuff like that for reinforcement of ones inner self.

Harmony, for years I put down home grown horse manure with wood chips over it. I put it down about two inches thick. My horses are free range and hardly ever stalled, so there were lots of weed seeds, thus the necessity for the wood chips to block the weed seeds from sprouting.

Fairly recently, I have been going to a large barn and getting their manure which is about 50/50 wood shavings/manure (they must be stall mucking fools considering the amount of wood shavings). I put it down at least four inches thick and have had very few weeds coming through. I actually like the look of this as well as I do the wood chips, and it saves me a ton of money since I don't have to buy chips--not to mention my roses seem to love the thicker mulch. I was concerned that putting it down this thick would affect my volunteer annuals, larkspur, Queen Anne's Lace, etc., but that hasn't been the case. They're coming up everywhere. Of course, that may be because I'm cursed with armadillos that come through periodically and tear everything up, and then I have to go in and fix it.

I guess I've gone around my elbow to say you think it looks messy to others because you know it's horse poop out of your barn, but that's not necessarily true. I'll bet it looks fine.

I have just recently learned how important mulching really is. I "knew" this, but I have so much going on that I didnt get around to mulching much. Last year, I zeroed in on a bunch of my roses along my front fenceline, cleaned the grass out from around them well, loaded on horse compost from my stalls [and I am one of those stall mucking fools!!] then I put bagged wood chips from Home Depot on top. I was amazed at how much better these roses did than the ones I have yet to get to! Now I am on a tear to do every rose on the place like this. I do have help stripping stalls and tell my helper to just pile the stuff in the manure cart and I will dispose of it. So hope to get them all mulched this way soon. I think that by using the wood chips on top of the horse compost, that helps keep the compost there longer. And it sure helped with the weeds! I am a believer now.....seeing these roses do so well has inspired me to get the rest of them done. Once a year, I think I will only have to dump a few shovelfuls of compost on each rose, then a little bit of wood chips - not the huge amounts I put on right at first.

If you are unsure, try it on a few and compare.

Alameda, I went over a year w/o adding manure or mulch to my beds because of knee surgery. My roses were looking terrible, and I was blaming it all on the heat. When I finally got able to mulch this year, it made a huge difference in the roses and everything else. Things go bad so slowly it sometimes takes awhile to figure out what's going on.

I think that mulching is the best thing for all gardening and for years back east I used wood chips which are available free from the tree cutters where we lived in CT. Now here in CA there are no tree cutters and no free chips that I have been able to find so it will have to be the expensive pine bark chips.

Yes to mulch. I use bark mulch except on hills, where I use pine straw because it doesn't roll down the hill. Luckily I have my own supply of pine trees and don't have to buy it anymore.

I have clay, so I have to mulch. But I do love the look of a freshly mulched flower bed. And yes, the plants are the main show, but a messy bed can detract from that. To me, putting down a layer of mulch on a bed is like covering a mess in the house with a sheet, it covers up a lot of sins. Then only the beautiful flowers are visible.

Yes, you have to reapply it, I don't do each bed every year, but usually every other year. And the areas that have been mulched for years have wonderful top soil and are moist and easy to dig in as opposed to spots that are not.

We don't have lawn guys, but I have kind of mastered the art of blowing the leaves and other debris off the mulch without disturbing too much of it. I do have issues with mulch getting on the lawn, and I have to rake it up before we mow, or being flooded out if we have a lot of rain. Then I just rake it back in place.

There was a thread here awhile ago about colored mulch. I have been buying the colored mulch (brown, not that awful red color). It is fine on established beds, but I would not use it on areas where you have young plants or seedlings. The color does last a lot longer than plain bark mulch and it is crafted to NOT deter water from the roots of plants. Plain bark mulch can form a layer that rain cannot penetrate.

floridarosez9, I too had knee surgeries - 3 of them - and it took awhile to catch up with things I had to neglect. I am glad to know mulching really does work for everyone as that will inspire me to finish mulching all my roses. My row of old garden roses in full sun in back of my barn bloomed superbly this year - I had dumped my horse compost thickly all over them - no wood chips - but I think that really gave them a boost. I am now putting more compost on them and will topdress with the wood chips. The first bed I did when I moved in my house, I mulched with compost spring and fall religiously - now the soil is loose, crumbly and totally wonderful. I am in process of redoing another bed that had sunk due to not topdressing - I could tell the difference in the plants - its in full all day sun and the drought of 2011 killed many roses even though I watered well. I think it was the lack of building the beds up and mulching - I dug everything out and am in process of putting down layers of horse compost and some great soil that I truck in. When I finally get things replanted, I most definitely am going to mulch. Having horses, I will always have compost, so plan to be more diligent in future with mulching, especially after hearing what everyone else says about it.
Judith

Another stall mucking fool here! I bed my horses on a pelleted pine product that turns into almost a sawdust sized end product. It breaks down into compost quite quickly. Although, I've just switched to pelleted straw which I think will be even better in the garden. Nothing like a win/win in both the barn and the garden!

Like some others here I'll use the compost from the stalls to mulch a few inches thick then top dress with pine bark in places I want a more finished look.

Instead of chips I like what's sold (in Lowe's or Home Depot) as "Pine Bark Fines--Soil Conditioner. The individual pieces are quite a bit smaller than typical pine bark chips so it takes less time for them to incorporate and improve your soil. Since I'm using it on top of the stall compost mulch I don't use very much of it at all. I think the texture of the smaller fines is quite and elegant look.

I haven't had roses long enough to advise specifically for them, but my perennials have been amazing doing this for the last two years.

Judith, one was bad enough. I can't imagine three.

Sub, I'll have to check out the pine fines, but I'm doing good to get the manure in the beds, so maybe not. We'll see.