How to Select the Right Mulch for Your Landscape

Mulching is a critical part of keeping your landscape looking its very best. Proper mulching can help your shrubs and flowerbeds look fuller and your vegetable gardens grow a healthier crop. Learn how to select the right mulch for your landscape in this Lowe’s video:

There are two categories of mulch: organic and inorganic.

Organic mulch is best suited for shrubs, flowers and vegetables.

When you’re planting new beds or mulching intensively grown beds, more dense mulch like manure works well. It breaks down the fastest, and as it decomposes it improves the soil structure. Manure mulch is rich with nutrients that will help make your vegetable gardens more productive and your flowerbeds look fuller.
For vegetable gardens, wheat straw mulch helps to protect your plants from fungus and disease which can cause plant rot. It also helps to deter pest insects from laying eggs and multiplying in and around your garden. It’s commonly used to mulch freshly seeded lawns as it helps protect the seed from birds and rodents and retain soil moisture while the seed germinates.
Pine bark mulch works well in shrub or flower beds and under evergreen trees. It insulates and helps moderate the soil temperature . It blocks direct sunlight which helps to keep the soil from becoming crusty and compacted which can inhibit water absorption. As it decomposes it releases acid into the soil, so it’s a great mulch to use around acid-loving plants. It also releases aluminum into the soil, so it’s a perfect mulch to use around hydrangeas. Pine bark is slow to decompose, so it lasts a long time.
Pine straw has some of the same benefits as pine bark, but its needles will naturally interlock, making it very stable in heavy rain, so it’s better suited than pine bark to use on sloped areas and will help you control soil erosion.
Wood chip mulch is a popular option in landscape design. It’s available in a number of different colors and it works well on slopes and under trees. Cedar wood chip mulch has the added benefit or repelling insects. All wood chips are slow decomposing, so it lasts a long time, but wood chip mulch can leach nitrogen from your soil, so it’s a good idea to add fertilizer once or twice per season.

Inorganic mulch is best suited for walkways and heavy traffic areas.

Landscape rock is available in a wide variety of colors, sizes and textures, which gives you a lot of design options.
Shredded rubber mulch is made from recycled tires and is widely used as ground cover on playgrounds. It provides a little shock absorption and helps to make play areas safer.