I wouldn't. It looks "fake" to me and doesn't blend in well with the natural beauty of plants IMO.

"Evil" is a pretty strong word :-) I find them offensive aesthetically - they look unnatural and as noted above, detract from the plantings rather than accent them. The dyes themselves tend to be harmless.....most are vegetable or mineral based. But the wood that comprises these dyed mulches is what tends to be problematic. Rather than a by-product of the lumber industry as most bark mulches are, dyed mulches tend to be made from scrap lumber - recycled shipping pallets, construction debris, old plywood concrete forms, CCA treated lumber, etc. Not stuff I'd want to spread around my garden.

I prefer really dark mulch myself and I use compost pretty exclusively for that purpose. It is almost black in color (compost = 'black gold') and doesn't fade with age like wood mulch does. It does need to be replaced more frequently as it breaks down faster but it works just as well for other mulching purposes and has the benefit of being more nutrient rich than a wood mulch.

i once used a very dark.. if not black mulch ... and it cooked the plants in the heat of the day ... and retained heat.. deep into the night ... [i see gal in the PNW doesnt have to deal with heat and black mulch.. go figure ...]

and i also hate the reds .. too many peeps think it matches their brick ... and they are wrong [really, really wrong...] ... and worse.. a year or two later its pink..

i prefer natural wood.. which turns grey over the years ... much closer to nature ...

sometimes it amuses me.. to think these peeps have taken interior design to the ultimate.. taking it out the door.. and into the garden ...

go with ma nature.. and you usually win in the long run ... its when you start fighting her .. that you usually end up losing.. or regretting it ... like when the mulch ends up pink ....

ken

No, just no. I detest the look of packaged mulch, and the worry about god knows what toxins it might be permeated with. The only "mulch" on my property is a mix of fallen leaves, dead grasses and whatever else mother nature chooses to gift me with.

I certainly intend to garden for colour, but for me that's flower colour.

I also never use mulch, except for black cedar mulch; that to keep areas with shrubs weed-free. Personally, I like to see (and interact with) the soil at least while it's still exposed in spring and then especially later in fall.

I'm not against shredded bark or bark chips at all - in fact, I bought some cedar a couple weeks ago; just the dyed stuff I'd stay away from. I prefer fallen leaves, but I ran out and needed mulch so the bagged stuff is great. Expensive, but great.

I use the triple ground bark mulch, dark brown color, I get at a local nursery; but only use it as edging around stone walls and hedge borders. I like the neatness of it. Leaf mulch for the flower beds.

mxk3, I'm almost out of leaf mulch too. I had only two bags leftover from Fall and used one this morning.

Apparently I'm the only one in this neighborhood who doesn't like the dyed mulch. Oh well, I'm fine with that.

One problem I see with the dark dyed mulch is that every little dried leaf and browned, fallen petal really sticks out against the dark background. Otherwise it does look nice if that's the look you're going for.

Katob, you are NOT the only one.

EWWWW, Tacky Tacky. Only thing worse is rubber mulch.

To each their own, I guess. I use the black dyed mulch because I feel like it reads as black soil and the plants themselves pop against it and they are the stars. As stated above it's a natural vegetable dye, and if I don't mulch not only is water retention much more difficult, weeds become a nightmare.

I use a string trimmer, and in some tight spots, hand trimmers, to *mow* the weeds and grass between my plants. I dislike black in the garden, or bare soil for that matter (altho my soil is more of a dark brown). I like my flower beds to rise up out of the lawn like islands of color in a sea of green. Dyed, and/or rubber, mulch looks to me like industrial waste, and basically it pretty much is, certainly the rubber mulch. But as has been said, to each their own.

Such great comments. It’s interesting, because in my garden, I actually do not like to see bare space anyway. So in my back garden, there is no mulch because everything is densely planted, and soil is great. The front is almost as full - but there are some more empty spaces which look great with a finishing touch. I decided to go with the bark nuggets, as I’ve done previously, augmented with some shredded natural cedar (because it was on already on sale, plus I got an additional 50% off because it was a ripped bag lol).

Because I was looking for bagged wood chips or equivalent I happened to look at bags of "brown mulch" recently. And I'm pretty sure they said on them the dye was poisonous - to wear gloves therefore when handling the product - and so on.

If C.C.A. wood is being ground up and sold as bagged mulch that stinks. At least people buying from among remaining stocks of treated whole timbers have had it made apparent to them what was involved. By the red warning labels stapled onto them, if nothing else.

I used municipal mulch this year, I have been to the recycling yard many times and seen first hand the fresh pile, the recently chipped pile, and the finished pile. The only bad thing is I cant know for certain if somebody sprayed their trees with anything before it was dropped in the brush pile, or if there's black walnut chips or other nasty stuff. There were a few pieces of plastic trash I had to pick out too. It looks almost black though, quite nice. Smells like compost.

The long term plan is all plants and no mulch, but thats going to take a while.

Ive used fresh brown natural chips from a tree service and bagged cedar mulch in the past too, I didn't even consider the color when using it. The color should be similar to dirt IMO.

Interesting! To me, this looks like the dyed black mulch I see bagged. Our municipal compost looks brown, at least what I can remember seeing a few years ago. Or maybe that was some kind of mulch. I honestly have hardly any visible space anyway, so I'm thinking not an issue after all...

I'm not a fan of the black or red dyed mulches, but I don't mind the brown. It's a little too evenly-colored to look natural, but not nearly so much so as the red/black. I prefer undyed mulch or even just wood chips from our city's organic yard (free, but you have to bag it yourself!).

Not counting the red dyed mulch... which to me never looks good in a typical home garden situation... anything that is consistently colored will work. To me mulch is just suppose to be a nice frame for your plants.... not call you eye to it (ie: red).

Looking into it .. as stated about... the dye isn't the issue... it's if the wood is the recycled building wood that might have preservative treatments. I am in the midwest... so maybe it's a bigger issue elsewhere in the country... but I have only once seen mulch being sold in bags that was recycled building wood/pallets/etc. It was the cheapest stuff... and It wasn't dyed either... so you can easily ID for what it was. Even if they sold it dyed... I would still think you would know since you aren't getting bark pieces and you see the finished/cut edges of the wood.

Do people come across this type of mulch elsewhere?