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The county also has free "wood chips" made from pallets. They last longer than the mulch and are good for walkways. The grinders have powerful magnets in the chutes that remove 99.9% of nails.
Depends on the county, I guess. We got the chipped pallet mulch, and it was full of nails. A friend used it on his dirt driveway and got two flat tires.
I do the same thing, but since I am a single dad and my time is needed all over the place, I usually get the bags of mulch and work on one bed at a time. Or perhaps two.
What's the compromise? Too much work for one person. You still like the mulch look, which I have to agree it makes the surrounding area look a lot better. I do like the look of rubber or rocks, too, but in only some scenarios.
Boiling it down, you have work to do outside, even with rubber or rocks. I would think the latter has more work than mulch does. You would sometimes need to remove all of the rocks to remove dead debris from other seasons (leaves, branches, tree seeds - maple trees are the worst ). With mulch, it would be a little easier to work with.
I guess the compromise would be for you to suggest to him that you take care of the beds by adding mulch. However, if the only way is to get a truck to drop off the kind of mulch you like, you might have to look at additional options to help move it to your beds. Enlist the help of the neighbor kids, as one suggestion.
One bed is approximately 30’x12’. Might even be 40’. The length of 3 vehicles. We would need to buy at least 100 bags of mulch. We get an entire gmdumo truck delivered every spring.
I get bagged shredded bark for most areas to mulch because I only work on a little at a time, and because it is compatible with our natural ground cover. When trees are being cut down, you might be able to buy the chipped wood and pick up a truckload or have it delivered. My husband did this one time. I wish he would do it a few more times.
I am thinking it might be better to use lava rock around the cacti, though. What kind of mulch you use depends on what plants, soils, and climate you have. Not just on what is convenient.
Rocks are definitely inconvenient due to their weight, but I can see places where they would be the best fit.
Whatever you do, don’t take X amount of mulch and spread it thinly over a large area. Spread it thicker over a smaller area and next time do another area thickly also. Spreading too thinly over a larger area does not work well; the weeds can still come up from below and find sunlight.
We are in the north east. Our house is very wooded. Everything stays damp so mold is a concern
Why are you putting new mulch down every spring? It should last several years. All you have to do is turn it and/or rake it to get it looking like new again. Put down a good thick layer of it, not a thin sprinkling.
As for rocks, it's hard to get leaves and twigs out of it after a windstorm, and weeds grow in between the rocks as well. As for rubber mulch, I'd politely decline. Natural mulch is best.
It breaks down and decomposes. I put a 6” layer of mulch down last spring. We can see dirt poking through now so it is definitely not a matter of turning it over.
We get free mulch from the county. They take all the green waste and compost it about half way and will load it up for free to anybody with a pickup truck or larger. Another option is the tree trimming companies will drop off (deliver) for free the stuff they grind up. We don't go the free wood chip route because it's raw chips including all the pests and diseases the trees had, but some people don't mind it. The county also has free "wood chips" made from pallets. They last longer than the mulch and are good for walkways. The grinders have powerful magnets in the chutes that remove 99.9% of the nail pieces.
Call around and explore your free options.
I tried the county landfill route before, which is $10 a truck load. I am still battling the weeds that created. It is better to spend the money for treated mulch. As I have stated, this is not a small flower bed.
It breaks down and decomposes. I put a 6” layer of mulch down last spring. We can see dirt poking through now so it is definitely not a matter of turning it over.
Mine breaks down and decomposes too, but it definitely lasts longer than a year. Do you walk on it? Walking on it breaks it down faster. One of my beds has had the same mulch on it for 5-6 years, 4 inches thick. I don't walk on it, and it looks like new once it's turned and raked.
I live in the Pacific Northwest (it's rainy), and the garden is partly shaded...the bark still lasts for several years.
Six inches of mulch with dirt poking through after a year...something isn't right there, it just doesn't add up.
Mine breaks down and decomposes too, but it definitely lasts longer than a year. Do you walk on it? Walking on it breaks it down faster. One of my beds has had the same mulch on it for 5-6 years, 4 inches thick. I don't walk on it, and it looks like new once it's turned and raked.
I live in the Pacific Northwest (it's rainy), and the garden is partly shaded...the bark still lasts for several years.
Six inches of mulch with dirt poking through after a year...something isn't right there, it just doesn't add up.
We walk on it to weed. The deer walk through it and we have lots of those. The neighbor across only mulches every other year. I am not sure why we struggle but we do.
I use black pine bark mulch from a local supplier. It is close to coffee grinds in consistency and color. It is also expensive. I have ordered three to five cubic yards at a time and it is a bear to wheelbarrow around the yard. I order every two to three years and it is a major two-day project for me alone. Occasionally I will get a dozen or so bags just for around the patio or certain beds for touch up. It is only one weekend and it looks great all summer. Eventually I will pay to have it done. Usually I’m sore for several days and I’m getting close to springing for it.
Around here, also in the NE, a lot of folks use rocks. But leaves and weeds creep in. Rubber is literally junk. Heats up in the sun, which is bad for plants, and reeks. Mulch is the way to go. Try to have it done every other year for a reasonable amount of money by a reliable, local landscaping service.
There are different grades of woody mulch. Where we used to live, a garden supplier sold bulk quantities of big new bark chunks, smaller new bark chunks, shredded bark (breaks down faster than the other two), and different sources of each by the kind of evergreen tree. There were many choices of those plus they sold rock mulch.
The big bark chunks decompose more slowly, but there are more gaps between the chunks unless you lay down several inches thickness, which is advisable anyway.
If mold is a risk, the big bark chunks also shed water better than the shredded stuff.
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). With mulch, it would be a little easier to work with.
