Tammy - don't feel bad! I've been gardening for about a hundred years and I still have mulch questions. You could probably get 5 gardeners talking about it and end up with 5 different good ideas.

A couple years ago (the year after the hurricanes) I was very excited to find free woodchip mulch available at a local arborist's place. I filled dozens of bags and spread it all over the garden. A few people here cheered me on and a few cautioned that there may be weeds and other bad stuff mixed in. I took a chance and ended up with hundreds of weeds. I still think it was a good idea but I could have used something to suppress the weeds, especially when I first put down the mulch.

If you have large areas, try putting down a few layers of newspaper before you spread the mulch. This will do a good job keeping weeds from getting through. Some may suggest cardboard but my experience with cardboard is that it takes too long to breakdown and water can't get through it. Even in a heavy rain, the soil underneath can remain dry. Maybe if you took a garden fork and punched a bunch of holes in it...

Avoid cypress mulch because good trees are taken down to supply it.

Dyed mulch - like the red stuff - can be pretty and retains its color much longer than the natural brown stuff. But there are questions about the dye and how healthy that is for your garden. I used it once and it looked great but I've been convered and won't use it again.

Large pine bark chips spread quickly and last a long time. They don't tend to wash away in rain storms. Smaller 'pine fines' are composted pine bark. Pine fines are awesome for amending your soil (so it's less compacted), for using as mulch (but it breaks down pretty fast) and even for use in containers.

Eucalyptus mulch is favored by environmentalists and it's wonderful to use. It's not always easy to find but I think folks here could help you find a supplier close to you. Most of it is from trees grown on plantations specifically for mulch. If I'm wrong about that, someone please let me know! I think it's a bit more expensive but not by a lot.

Pine straw is used as a mulch in Georgia and North Florida quite a bit. I love the way it looks and always used it when I lived in Atlanta. But it has a tendency to make the soil pretty acidic. Biosphere has it but I rarely see it for sale anywhere else in the area.

Whatever you choose, you'll be better off to have a good thick layer of mulch. The weeds and the watering will be overwhelming if you don't do it.

Happy gardening!
Kate

Shredded Cyprus mulch near the house. River Rock or Drain Field Rock right up against the house. Pine Bark for everywhere else.

If you don't put it down at least 3" thick, don't bother.

Having messed around with mulch a little too much over the past year, I have a few mulch related comments:

1. If you are allergic to mold/dust (like me) you will want to wear a mask when dealing with mulch. Or you may end up with a sinus infection (like I did).

2. You can usually get free mulch dropped in your driveway from local tree service companies. Of course, you would want to ask them for "only the good stuff", making sure that they are a reputable company and only bring you clean mulch that does not contain any palms or poison ivy. Problem with this is they usually bring a lot, it's not always ground up as small as you might like and, of course, you have a mountain of it in your driveway.

3. The big box stores (*think* rhymes with "goes") have 2 cubic foot bags of mulch for under $2 per bag. Or you can go $2.50 per bag for the non-floating kind, which also happens to be environmentally consciously harvested. They also have rubber mulch (for more permanent placement), eucalyptus mulch and colored mulch, if you're into bold colors. Personally, I think people use too much red mulch around Orlando. I like the more natural look.

4. Speaking of the natural look, the pine bark nuggets are quite nice, but then they are a little bit pricier than standard mulch.

5. The type of mulch you need (and how much) really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you want to kill a large area of your lawn and make room for new flower beds, you might want to consider going with the free stuff from a tree trimming company. You can always top it off with a thin layer of the pretty mulch from the store. To kill the lawn, put overlapping layers of wet newspaper directly onto the grass and cover with at least 6 inches of mulch. You don't even have to spray the grass to kill it. Of course, if you don't take great care to overlap the newspaper, or you don't make the layer of mulch thick and even, you will have sprigs of grass trying to grow through here and there. Do it right the first time and you won't have to rake back the mulch to fix any of the problem spots.

6. If you are just trying to beautify some existing beds, you might be better off spending $ for mulch at a big-box store, hauling it home in your trunk and carrying it bag by bag to it's final destination in your yard.

7. You don't need different types of mulch for different flowers. Mulch is just the ground cover that keeps the weeds at bay. It's breaking down slowly, so it will add some nutrients to the soil over time, but it's not going to really affect the plants around it other than to keep them moist when watered, keep their roots shaded from too much sun, and keep the yard looking nice.

8. There is such a thing as too much mulch. Some don'ts: Don't put it directly onto the plants, around them is the goal. Don't put it too thick right up against the sides of the plants because they need to be able to breathe and get some sunlight on their nether regions! Don't smother the base of your trees with mulch because you think it looks better. It's suffocating your trees! It's best to keep it at least 3 inches deep, but be mindful about trying not to go too high up the sides of your existing plants. Deeper is better if you are trying to kill whatever is underneath it.

9. Just because you have mulch doesn't mean you won't have weeds again. Those weeds are hearty! Those weed seeds will float on the winds and stow away in bird droppings until they find their way to your yard and will try to root right in your mulch. Fortunately, they are easier to pull when they are on top of the mulch rather than growing up through the mulch because you did a poor job prepping the area below. If you want to get really crazy, you can put down some pre-emergent weed killer, then the newspaper, then the mulch. Whatever you do, you will eventually have to pluck some weeds from the top of your mulched beds.

10. Snakes, worms and toads like mulch. As do termites, roaches and sometimes ants. Mulch is wood. If you have a wood frame house, don't put mulch up against it!

11. You can plant right into your newly mulched areas. Just pull back the mulch a little, put down a little soil and your plant, a little more soil around the roots, snuggle it up with a mulch sweater, water and voila!

12. Unless you have a wood chipper hanging around your house, it's hard to make your own mulch from tree limbs and cuttings. However, you can use all sorts of things for mulch: leaves that drop from your trees, grass clippings that you have bagged from you mower, shredded cardboard. Be creative if the cost of mulch is prohibitive.

13. Your mulch will break down over time and you will need to periodically replenish it. I think my mulch needs to be topped off a little every year. Replenish your mulch before it shows bare ground underneath, before weeds start to grow through it from below and if the color fades too much for your liking. You replenish it by just throwing more mulch on top of the existing mulch. But remember, don't smother your plants!

As you probably guessed, I've spent way too much time with the mulch in my yard recently. I hope you do find some of this to be helpful. Have fun with your mulch; mulch is your friend.

Any kind of mulch is good but FREE mulch is the best.
After the hurricanes of 2004 , I had the tree company dump all the wood chips from my trees - mostly oaks - in a huge pile on my property . Those wood chips made the most fabulous mulch ! I used it as a driveway and around every tree and bush . I had to have " mulch parties " to get enough help to get it all hauled around .
The downside : the wood chips degraded much faster than I expected and floated away with every heavy downpour . Great soil amendment though !
While visiting a friend , I saw a new approach to mulch .
Every year she and her husband drive around with their trailer and nab every bag of leaves by the curb that they can find . They get 100's . Then , they spread the leaves very thickly as their driveway , walk-ways and around every flower and tree . They now have very little grass left . Their yard is gorgeous and feels like visiting a forest . When you walk , it is so quiet and smells great . I hope to try this when I get up the nerve to snag some curbside bags .

May I recommend Melaleuca mulch. The tree this is made from is a very invasive tree that the state of Florida is trying to eradicate. The University of Florida did a test & found it to be the most termite resistant of all mulches available. It is sometimes hard to find but more & more nurseries are beginning to carry it.

Anyone know a place in Orlando that sells the melaleuca?

I personally stopped using cypress mulch a few years ago when I finally realized where it was coming from! I have been very pleased with both pine bark nuggets and most recently, eucalyptus mulch.

I've noticed that WalMart is stocking a LOT of eucalyptus mulch this year, and also that they are the first big box garden store to have agreed not to sell cypress mulch harvested from natural settings on the gulf coast.

I've attached an article on mulch written by our Water Quality Agent that may be of interest.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mulch

Wow!!! Thank you so much for all the info. I can't imagine how much time you all have saved me...not to mention how many plants lives! I have a lot to think about but you have taken the guess work out. Thank you for taking the time to give such detailed replies. I'm excited to get started! If it weren't for the kids (and money) I'd cover the whole acre in mulch and make it my oasis....but alas, I must use restraint and leave them some grass. Pity. lol Thanks again everyone and anyone else feel free to chime in, I'm still listening!
Tammy

I stopped using mulch. I've found I can make a quick pass with an oscillating hoe in each bed and it takes care of the weeds. I treat hoeing as part of the routine, like mowing. I put the money and time I would have spent on mulch into compost.
With mulch I often had trouble with water running off the top of the mulch rather than penetrating the bed, but regular cultivation with a hoe improves water penetration.

I had all the problems mentioned above with mulch from the tree trimmers--invasive weed seeds, termites, molds, fungi, allergies.

I also had trouble with nitrogen deficencies in the soil.

The biggest problem I had with mulch was that it had to be constantly replenished for it to work and look good. It breaks down very fast here. I was going through many, many cubic yards a year, and I have a small garden.

Not only are cypress and cedar not sustainable choices for mulch on an ethical/environmental level- but they also have the ability over time to form a barrier that can deplete your plants of nutrients and water b/c they are such incredible woods- they don't break down at the same speed as say pine, and they have a tendency to coalesce into a barrier.

I'm a pine girl. :-)

Good luck!

Naomi

Something else you should do is plant high. Set your plant up higher than the soil level then mulch.

I only use bark mulch around things at the very first, or to beautify. I've never had mulch dropped in my yard, but I've been tempted. I would NOT recommend getting mulch from the power company, unless you don't mind trying to kill millions of brazilian pepper seedlings. I have enough of those, thank you.

If you have a bulk landscape supplier near you, you can buy a truckload of mulch pretty cheap and have it delivered. I think mine delivers free for 5 yards or more (a lot of mulch!). They usually have basic, better, and cypress. Basic is pretty rough stuff, but you can use it as underlayment for the good stuff, which is more finely chipped and more attractive.

If you know someone with a chipper/shredder (or you can rent one), you can have the landscape companies drop mulch, then you can re-chip it to make it prettier. As above, ask them for "good stuff" and use it as underlayment if you're concerned about looks.

I use mostly oak leaves, because I have a lot of oak trees. My soil in my beds was sucky before I got here, pure sand, and using the leaves every year has really built it up.

Okay, you have lots of interesting and some conflicting comments above. Let me try to sort this all out for you. I worked 7 or 8 years as a landscape designer and installer, so the comments I'll make come from that level of experience. I also maintain my own garden and have enough of a spread of microclimates as needed to know what works and what fails.

1. Unless you have a strong back, lots of help, and plenty of wheelbarrows, buy the mulch in bags. Bulk is cheaper, but it's also backbreaking work to move it from point A to point B.

2. What to use? Cypress and Eucalyptus are great choices for beds that are close to your house, as I mentioned above. And yes, there are healthy trees cut down to make both, owing to the great demand. So if you are a tree-hugger, then dont use them. (If thatÂs the case, give up your Christmas tree as well. Sorry, pet peeve of mine.) I favor Pine Bark nuggets for every other part of the garden where you have plant material and River Rock for right up against the house.

DonÂt put Pine Bark next to the house; carpenter ants and termites love it! I have one long stretch next to the house that does have Pine Bark, but the area is bone dry, even when it rains thanks to the gutters. One of these days, IÂll rake it away from the foundation and dump 40 bags of rock. By the way, a bag of rock covers less than the size of the bag for some reason. As soon as you dump one out, half of it seems to disappear. If you think you need 30 bags of rock for an area, buy 40 - youÂll use Âem.

Avoid "green mulch" at all costs. Why do you think itÂs free? No one wants it. The stuff is all full of seeds that will turn your garden into vacant lot. For every tale of success with the stuff, IÂll give you five horror stories.

The absolute best mulch in the world is River Rock. It allows for drainage, it retains moisture, it helps anchor the roots, and if you put down ground cloth first, the rocks wonÂt sink into the soil below them or wash away. You can rock fully established trees and palms and it looks great. Always use 3 different sizes to make it look natural. River Rock makes great pathways - lay it on top of cheap Drain Field rock and ground cloth. Use precast stepping-stones or large pieces of flat rock surrounded by the River Rock for your pathways.

3. How much? As I stated above, if youÂre putting down less than three inches, youÂre wasting your time and money. My rule of thumb has always been that a bag covers the area of the bag and thatÂs it.

One other thing to consider: the trees and shrubs you put in should at some point provide enough leaf mulch in your beds that youÂll never have to mulch them again. Your pathways and the edges of exposed beds will be the only areas you will have to touch up as time goes on.

There are three places in Osceola that carry melaleuca mulch, Forest Hills in Kissimmee. VanderPol's & another one that I can't recall the name of right now but it is on E. U.S Hwy. 192, have it in St. Cloud.

Tammy, this is a topic near and dear to my heart. We mulch much like nativemel. We have found a tree company we trust to bring us hardwood mulch with no junk in it. They usually dump a truckload at a time. This is particularly good stuff because it always has chipped up branches (browns) and leaves (greens) mixed in together. This basically composts in place and is great stuff to amend your beds. We also are big leaf collectors in spring. I love the look of leaves as a mulch, and earthworms love the combination of leaves and wood chips. Around Christmas time, we get chipped up Christmas tree mulch from our church, and it is great stuff and smells amazing! Grass clippings are great any time of year. Basically, any material which was alive at one time (organic material), IMHO, is the best mulch. It works to suppress weed growth, but also feeds your soil, earthworms, and hence, your plants. Put cardboard or newspaper down before you spread it, and it will be a long lasting weed suppressant.

In this day and age, I feel we need to stop sending so much valuable organic material to the landfill. These materials can be obtained free, but also, we can feel good about doing our part to recycle. Not only all this, but it feeds our plants and lets them require less fertilizer and water. A great situation all around.

We, like castorp, found that many of the fine mulches created a barrier not
allowing the water to penetrate the soil. We use pine bark. We also use our chipper.

The whole idea is to shade the surface roots of the newly planted plants from the sun.
Once the plant is established with some deep roots , and there is some leaf litter..
( I know.. some people don`t like the looks of it ) Then we just let nature do its thing.

A combination of using the heart hoe , round up, and old fashion pulling is what we do with the weeds. And then some weed we allow to grow. And there's other areas we keep the bark. It depends on the plant and location.

I can`t tell you how many time a new friend / acquaintance, finding out that I like plants,
have asked me to look at their yard. I see 3-4 inches of finely shredded mulch
submerging the bottom of the tree/ plant. And everything is dry as a bone.

Even with the pine bark , you must not place it right up the plant for too long...

It isn't an exact science....no wonder people get confuse !

Oh my Gosh! So much to think about! Just a tad bit of history on the property...We had about 50 pine trees removed a few years ago so I think the soil is already fairly acidic. The house is woodframe so I want to be careful not to attract termites. And almost all gardening is going to be "new". I don't think having mulch dropped off is an option only because I would be primarily doing the work myself without help. While my kids would have good intentions, their 7 & 10 yr old bodies would lose interest soon. My husband, wonderful as he is, is not a dirty hands kind of person. Give him a law to interpret any day. So my youngish, but Fibromyalgic body will have to work in spurts alone.
Ricky: Your garden is amazing! An absolute paradise. I would love to have the talent you obviously have. One question though: How does the river rock retain moisture? Simply by blocking the sun? or is it the type of rock? I love the idea of the rock since we have an outer wall that is stone (Old pic, ignore silly kids, notice stone wall)

Ok, I'm going to reread everything and think on it......
Thank you all SO much! I'll keep you posted.
Tammy

The River Rock retains moisture the same way another covering over the soil would - it creates a barrier to evaporation and blocks the drying effects of the sun. The ground cloth that goes under it helps as well.

Tammynewb - save yourself the backache, buy bagged mulch. I agree with Ricky. A bag of mulch really only covers a spot the same size of the bag or else you're spreading it too thin.

Don't put down rock without the ground cloth underneath or else it will just sink into the dirt and be mixed in and forever lost.

Yes, lots of pines probably means your area is quite acidic.

And for anyone in Orlando area - Word of Mouth is where I got my clean free mulch, weedless mulch.

I hope this doesn't constitute "advertising", but if so I guess the moderators will delete it. I am a Master Gardener in Osceola County and we began selling the melaleuca mulch last fall at our twice-a-year plant sale when we found out nobody sold it in this area. Since we are not "sellers," but "teachers," we've been trying to get nurseries to carry it in the area. Thus, Vander Pol's, Forest Hills, and Osceola Garden Center, as mentioned above.

Check with your local Extension Office for the study on melaleuca mulch and termites. It can be found by searching under "Landscape Mulch" on EDIS or solutionsforyourlife.com, the Extension UF/IFAS website.

We are hoping to add a couple more outlets in Osceola for the mulch so we can re-order regularly. Right now it is an unknown market, so they are hesitant to commit. For now we have to coordinate all the small orders to get it in a truckload at a time--please be patient!

I personally like melaleuca because it does all that mulch is supposed to (suppress weeds, cool roots in summer, warm them in winter, break down into soil, evens out the look) while being resistant (NOT repellant) to termites. Using it as an alternative contributes to clearing out the melaleuca from south Florida while not promoting the clearing of cypress trees in north Florida--sort of a two (or three) for one deal!

Btw, the Extension Office in Osceola County has a regularly updated list of the local outlets for melaleuca available in the Plant Clinic: 321-697-3000 or stop in at Heritage Park in Kissimmee.

I hope this information helps, and that it gets posted.

I bought the last 3 bags they had at Vander Pols yesterday on my way home from work. They said they would be getting more tho!

Many Counties have free mulch available. Some will say it is no good. I'm inclined to agree it isn't the best but for large area's it is okay. I'm neutral on its quality, it will have some rock and a little trash debris in it. In St. Petersburg it looks fine and I've seen much worse from a tree company dropping a bunch of wet palm trees or (even worse) bannana trees mixed in with their untreated mulch. Also the pest factor. If there are big Sago fronds chipped up & mixed in with a tree company free product you will have the scale sailing all over the place on your property the same with a fungal disease.
These factors are more troublesome even then the weed factor. The way I see it weeds will come in no matter what I do from all sides (birds, wind blown, neighbors property, feet, etc).
The Counties mulch is supposed to be treated to kill weeds, bugs and some bacteria. I believe this to be the case. I have not found this to be the case with tree company mulch, however the tree company mulch can be of a high quality oak/hardwood chip if you are familar with the company.
I've found no real extra weed problems with this, nor any roots sprouting Pepper trees in it like some roots in tree company mulch. You can also get strictly "log mulch" often from the County at certain times. It will be pine, oak, and of course pepper or other log quality chipped trees.
Bulk loads are delievered at a decent rate. When you look at a finsihed bed it is fine. The break down is fast. It does the job at the right price.

We have gone with a combination of all of the above. When my husband hears the tree crews in the neighborhood, he will see what they are cutting and ask them to drop off the load at our house instead of taking it to the dump. This is how we covered our driveways. Up close to the house I do use cypress mulch because I have not yet found a good alternative. I buy both in bulk and by the bag depending on whether it is a big project or a small one. We have had so much ground to cover that it would have bankrupted me to buy it all by the bag. Up along our front fence where the azaleas are planted and now on the driveways we rake the oak leaves to create the mulch for those areas.

Do what works best for you. It sounds like bagged mulch combined with rocks may the best option for you.

Does anyone know of a reason that I would not want to use small pieces of 100% cotton fabric. I am a sewer and as I was cleaning out my workroom trash can, I could not stand the thought of throwing it out. Other than it would hold water, I could not think of anything! Anyone got any thoughts. I mostly do vegetable gardens with straw. I now live in NW Georgia and of course we are under drought restrictions. Thanks for any help.

I would be concerned that it would get moldy. It's going to take a long time to break down - years.

Donnb,

How are you able to sell melalueca mulch? I've talked to tree trimmers here in Dade and they've told me they can't give or sell me the chipped up oak tree they just trimmed because county ordinance prohibits it, fearing it might contain melalueca seeds. Is this just a problem in Dade or near the Everglades?
I'm happy to see some use for maleleuca, but worry that the rest of the state is going to be as overcome with it as we are if people are mulching with it. You don't have problems with it sprouting from seeds up there?

I could never use it anyway, I'm pretty badly allergic and I also wonder if people who are allergic to the flowers might have trouble with the mulch. It's a pretty common allergy down here.

(and to add my two cents to this mulch conversation, down here in the deepest of south florida, a good thick layer of newspaper with a nice thick layer of eucalyptus mulch lasts about a year. Weed cloth simply doesn't work down here _ our weeds are smarter than any cloth. And rocks, even white rocks, get so hot, they scorch the plants, but that may not be a problem in central florida.)

susannah

How thick should the newspaper layer be?

I put my newspaper down pretty thick because I was worried that the vigorous lawn and weeds would defy me and simply grow right through it. I would unfold a section, lay it down, unfold another section and lay it down overlapping one side of the first section. Some of those sections were 4 pages on each side, so I'm guessing mine was 8 pages thick at that point. Then I would overlap with more newspaper in the opposite direction. So I probably ended up with a fairly even 12 single sheets thick, maybe 14 sheets. For the really big areas, I went to the warehouse store and got cardboard boxes.

Natives and Veggies,

The mulch we are selling has been composted to stay at 140 degrees for 90 days, which pretty much fries the seeds! Once in a while someone tells me they had a weed problem, but I've had mine in for seven months now and haven't had a problem. I've had less trouble than with any other mulch I've ever used, but I keep it between 2 and 3" deep. My guess is those with problems spread it too thin, but I have no way of knowing. The manufacturer is from Ft. Myers and it is marketed pretty heavily in south Florida--but not up here.

Re: newspaper. Everything I've read recommends using 5 pages or less. When I do use newspaper I go 3 or 4 layers to make sure water can penetrate easily.

I know it has been since 2008 when you first posted this comment and i just found it today, in 2010, but if you are still interested in a mulch alternative, LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THIS MESSAGE!! I am lauren johnson with tropical shell landscaping what we do is where you would put traditional mulches such as red mulch, rock, etc. you can put seashells it is extremely beneficial to you in multiple ways but my two favorite ways are: it does not blow or wash away! That's right! Its just heavy enough to not get blown or washed away but light enough to be kid and pet friendly. The best of all it is CHEAP what makes it cheap is the fact that you put it down once and you're DONE it is so beautiful and can really give your yard, office surroundings, etc that POP you've been looking for! Don't hesitate call us today for a free estimate!! This is for the south FL area, so if you are located anywhere else we would be more than happy to mail it to you but we wouldn't be able to install it for you... check out our website at tropicalshelllandscaping.com or call us at 954 530 8255!!
thank you!