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When determining which garden mulch or landscape mulch is best suited for your landscaping needs, there are many factors to consider. The question can best be tackled by presenting the various garden mulches or landscaping mulches separately, but judging each based on the same criteria.

Before everything else, let’s hear a primary question most likely raised by landscaping practitioners: How can the mulch in the garden alters the soil pH? More particularly, would the soil pH of your garden be diminished to some extent when you apply mulch?

The soil pH composition has a big contribution on the stamina of your shrubs. Since garden mulch could influence that composition as it decomposes, it’s understandable that people (myself included) have often expressed concern over how garden mulch selection impacts soil pH. Does your soil turn acidic if you use garden mulch covering with pine needles? What about garden mulch composed of oak leaves?

A popular belief of landscape professionals is that garden mulch has insignificant changes in the pH composition of your loam. Such is the case, when your garden mulch is made up of oak leaves, it starts out acidic when its green, but decays more and more as an alkaline in the end. Furthermore, based on my reading, it is now generally thought that a garden mulch composed of pine needles lowers soil pH to only a negligible degree, if at all.

With the question of the potential impact of garden mulch on soil pH out of the way, let’s reflect on some other issues surrounding garden mulch selection — some of which are quantifiable, others of which boil down to personal landscaping preferences. Since a garden mulch can rate higher in one class only to perform poorly in another, we would then have to make a decision. Two distinct purposes of garden mulch on which a beginner will find little information in this article are weed suspension and erosion control. They have been excluded for a sole reason: a garden mulch applied well mow down weeds and erosion at the same time.

These are the three parameters in our discussion.

* “Insulation value in summer” is determined by the levels on which the garden mulch can keep the soil below to remain cool and clammy. A notable summer insulator will both lessen your need for watering and it guards the roots against severe heat.

*   The argument of whether to get rid of the garden mulch or not when springtime comes is based on the fact that substantial garden mulches can stifle sprouting spring shrubs. This is clearly a non-factor for plants that is growing above ground. Though even the latter can benefit from having the loam around the roots warmed by the heat of the sun, a process simplified by momentarily removing the garden mulch. Regarding the use of plastic sheet mulch, this is not important since the material have openings to give access to plants.

* “Nourishment and aeration afforded to underlying soil by decomposition” is a benchmark used to approximate the different garden mulches. Nonetheless do not be mislead by the “nourishment” word, thinking that compost and garden mulch are interchangeable.

I have been a Calgary Landscaping Contractor for many years. We specialize in Calgary Gardens and Calgary Landscape Design.  These techniques work anywhere in the world as well as in my area.

Written by: Custom Stone and Waterscapes ‎3829 Parkhill Place SW, Calgary, AB T2S 2W6 (403) 870-1142 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (403) 870-1142

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