Mulch is vital in protecting your plants and retaining moisture during the summer.
Spring is a fantastic time for spending hours in your garden. After being cooped up in your house all winter, you can finally enjoy fresh air, bright sunlight, and quality time outside in your garden. Before you dive into planting perennials, annuals, or vegetables in your garden, it is important to get the garden ready for what is to come.
Mulch serves a vital role in protecting delicate plant roots, preventing weeds, adding organic matter to the soil, and retaining moisture during the drier parts of summer. Here are some tips for applying new garden mulch this spring.
Clean Up Your Yard
Trees and bushes drop debris like seeds, leaves, and twigs into your yard during fall and winter. Before laying down your new mulch, cleaning your yard and trimming away where needed is best. Remove all debris from your yard and mow your lawn often.
Also, check your plants and trees for dead spots that may have appeared over the winter. Make sure to cut out any dead spots. If any plants or flowers are primarily dead, it may be best to remove them completely.
Avoid Mulching When It’s Cold
It’s best to avoid mulching in the early weeks of spring when the ground is still cold. Adding a layer of mulch will trap in the cold, making it harder for the soil to warm up. Instead, give the earth some time to warm under the sun, then add mulch to insulate the roots. Now is the perfect time! Try stirring up the old mulch gently to let it dry.
Also, if you’re adding new plants to your landscape design, their roots need time to develop. They can do that through a thin layer of mulch, but a thick layer may be impossible to penetrate.
Laying the Mulch
Prepare the area first to ensure you will benefit from mulching your landscape. Ensure the soil has proper drainage and enough nutrition by adding compost before any protective covering. An ideal depth for your mulch is 2-4 inches. Piling it thicker may make it too hard for new seedlings to grow through the mulch. When mulching around trees, apply mulch away from the tree trunks to avoid wood rot. Instead, use the mulch to cover the tree’s underground root system.
Call the Professionals
If you want to be sure that you follow mulching best practices this spring, contact Lehnhoff’s Supply for expert help. Our landscape professionals can help determine the ideal type and amount of mulch for your landscape. When in doubt, it’s best to call in support from the experts rather than risk doing anything that may hurt your landscape’s growth.
Questions? Lehnhoff’s Supply is Here to Help
If you still have more questions about how to apply mulch in your garden for spring and summer, the trained professionals at Lehnhoff’s Supply are here to help you.
Find us at 2708 Belair Road, Fallston, MD 21047 and give us a call at 410-510-7646. For tips, tricks, and to see what we have been up to, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!
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