If you love how planting beds look with a clean edge and fresh mulch, but would love to hand this task off to someone else, it could be time to let a lawn care service ensure your Avon, CT spaces look stellar. Vibrant plantings, growing shrubs, and annuals need the protection of mulch to keep them healthy and strong. Since they are a crucial part of the landscape beauty, mulch is a top choice for maintaining growing, thriving plantings and giving your outdoor areas a polished look.
Related: Why Mulching is a Top Choice for Landscapes in the Avon and Berlin, CT Areas
The Usefulness of Mulch
Mulch is the unsung hero of planting beds, providing protection for the plantings and shrubs within. Overall, mulch is a beneficial material that can help to improve the health of your soil, suppress weeds, reduce erosion, retain moisture, moderate soil temperature, improve the appearance of your landscape, and provide a habitat for beneficial organisms.
Improves Soil Health: Mulch can help to improve soil health by adding organic matter to the soil, improving drainage, aeration, and water retention. When soil is full of nutrients, it provides nutrients for plants and helps to suppress pests and diseases that can cause planting failure. Healthy soil produces healthier plants, which are more resilient and vibrant.
Suppresses Weeds: Mulch can help to suppress weeds by blocking sunlight from reaching the soil which reduces the amount of weeding that needs to be done. When sunlight is blocked, weeds cannot photosynthesize and produce the food they need to survive. Mulch also helps to retain moisture in the soil, which can make it more difficult for weeds to germinate. and is most effective when applied in a two-inch layer.
Reduces Erosion: Mulch can help to reduce erosion by preventing wind and rain from dislodging soil particles. This can help to keep the soil in place and prevent it from being washed away. When raindrops hit bare soil, they can dislodge soil particles and cause erosion but the mulch layer acts as a cushion and absorbs the impact of raindrops, helping to protect the soil from erosion.
The Appealing Look of Mulch
While mulch serves a crucial role in protecting the health and growth of the planting beds and gardens in the landscape, it also improves the appearance with a clean edge and consistent appearance throughout the outdoor spaces.
Landscape professionals recommend a thick layer of mulch, between two to three inches, twice per year for the best conditions for plantings. Leaving the existing mulch in the planting beds and gardens provides beneficial food for microorganisms that break down the refuse and enrich the soil. Using high-quality mulch where you know the source provides beauty, protection, and healthy conditions for plantings.
Choosing Mulch Over Other Materials
Mulch is an exceptional choice to protect your landscape from moisture loss and weed overgrowth. It is durable, low-maintenance, and attractive. You might be tempted to consider having landscape fabric placed on the ground before the mulch, but this can hinder the breakdown of older mulch which creates a positive environment for microorganisms that boost the soil richness.
If you are interested in sustainable landscape practices, a landscape professional can utilize small pebbles and smooth river rocks in place of mulch to keep the moisture in the soil for plants to thrive.
Related: Can Mulching Really Help Planting Health in the Wethersfield and Southington, CT Areas?
About the Author
Birch Hill Landscape & Design is a full-service, woman-owned, family-run design/build contractor that has been serving residential and commercial customers in the Central Connecticut area for over 30 years. When you see our work vehicles, you know that another satisfied customer is benefiting from our experience, passion, and commitment to quality!
