When it comes to using mulch, not everyone is in agreement. While mulch is pretty much universally acknowledged as being useful, not everyone agrees on where, when, and how to use it. For example, should you make a garden mulch bed? Or leave your beds non-mulched?
In this article, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of using mulch in your garden bed. Oh, and here’s a little spoiler: it’s pretty much all pros!
Should I Use Mulch in My Garden Bed?
When it comes to deciding whether or not you should use mulch in your garden beds, the answer is nearly a unanimous yes! Mulching provides a huge number of benefits no matter where you do it.
These pros include:
- Helping to keep moisture in the soil
- Preventing weeds from sprouting in your beds
- Makes your beds look more attractive
- Helps to keep your garden safe during temperature changes
- Improves the health of your soil
As you can see, it’s definitely in your best interest to mulch your garden beds. There aren’t really any cons to mulching, aside from the cost of mulch – which can easily be avoided if you use eco-mulch or upcycle your compost or grass clippings.
The real work is figuring out how to do that properly.
How to Properly Mulch a Garden Bed
Here’s a quick step-by-step guide on how to properly prepare your garden beds for mulching.
- First, make sure that you kill any weeds that are in your garden bed. If you’re spraying them, do it a week or two before you put down mulch.
- Do any pruning prior to mulching. Picking debris out of the dirt is less hassle than picking it out of mulch.
- Clean the beds up! Get rid of any leftover leaves or debris.
- Till the soil. This makes it easy for oxygen and water to move through the layer of mulch.
- Rake the soil, making it smooth and flat for your even distribution of mulch.
- If you’re using a pre-emergent weed killer, do it now: after everything’s cleaned up but prior to actually mulching.
- If you choose to do so, you can add a weed barrier at this stage. Weed barriers are a thin layer of fabric placed over the soil that prevents the growth of weeds while allowing your plants to thrive.
- Start mulching! Spread the mulch evenly throughout your garden beds at whatever depth you’ve decided upon.
If you follow this mulching routine, then you’ll almost certainly produce a beautiful and productive garden bed. Proper mulching will make these beds resilient against weeds, capable of retaining moisture, and pleasing to the eye.
Wrapping It All Up
Mulching is one of the best ways to improve the health of your garden. Not only does mulching make your property look neat and organized, it helps your plants grow strong and resilient.
One of the best things you can do with this is to apply mulch to garden beds on raised concrete. This will help you turn a previously unusable plot of concrete into a thriving garden.
It’s also in your best interest to look for ways that you can use eco-mulch. This helps support the environment and supports sustainable thinking.
