Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Garden
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 08-22-2017, 08:46 AM
 
741 posts, read 1,744,901 times
Reputation: 223

Advertisements

I bought the house brand new from the builder three years back and since then I did not do anything to the plant beds other than moving the pine straws that fell from the pine trees in the lawn to these beds.

But now I am getting interested to keep these beds nice and planting flowers/bushes/small trees.

I am in South Carolina and is it worth it to mulch the plant beds early September or is it prudent to wait until early Spring (say March or April) next year?

I am planning to put pine straw mulch around the couple of pine trees and a palm tree [Last three attached pictures]. and other type of mulch [not decided on the type but debating between Black vs Brown vs Composite] around the house as shown in the first six attached pictures.

I would go for all pine straw but my wife wants different type of mulch at least surrounding the house, since the neighbors are not using pine straws as mulch.

Would it look fine to have pine straw in some areas and different type of Mulch in other areas?

I have hard time deciding the type of mulch that I should go for - Black vs Brown vs Composite vs Brown [http://www.homedepot.com/b/Outdoors-.../N-5yc1vZbx4a]

Please advise what type of mulch I can go far considering that they are good for plants/small trees/bushes etc., and at the same time yard looks good and stay away from fire or termites (though I have termite warranty and insurance etc.,).
Attached Thumbnails
Mulching Suggestions-mulch-area-1.jpg   Mulching Suggestions-mulch-area-2.jpg   Mulching Suggestions-mulch-area-3.jpg   Mulching Suggestions-mulch-area-4.jpg   Mulching Suggestions-mulch-area-5.jpg  

Mulching Suggestions-mulch-area-6.jpg   Mulching Suggestions-pine-straw-mulch-area-1.jpg   Mulching Suggestions-pine-straw-mulch-area-2.jpg   Mulching Suggestions-pine-straw-mulch-area-3.jpg  
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 08-22-2017, 12:58 PM
 
6,079 posts, read 4,444,164 times
Reputation: 13634
Pine mulch will have a higher acid content so I would use it only with plants that might like that. The colored mulches are for aesthetics and as long as you stick to some rule, like all trees have pine straw, flower beds have one color, it should be fine. Just don't end up with a mishmash. You can consider how much you want what you planted to stand out and what color the house and trim are.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-22-2017, 01:30 PM
 
3,886 posts, read 3,481,617 times
Reputation: 5287
Colored mulches are often a real mulch coated with some type of pigment. Do you really want that in your garden?

Shredded bark (undyed) in my yard breaks down nicely in a year or so, really improving the soil. Wood chips? Always though they were bad because they sucked nitrogen from the soil, but recent reading from reputable sources (ag extension services) says otherwise, so that's another option. Thing to watch out for is that wood chips and bark (like those nice big bark nuggets) work well on flat areas only. I had a neighbor next door, slightly above me, that had his yard service put out nice big pieces of bark every spring. By summer they were all in my yard.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-22-2017, 09:16 PM
 
3,320 posts, read 5,545,839 times
Reputation: 9681
Pine straw looks best IMO.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Garden
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:19 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top