By now you have heard of the many benefits of mulch. It keeps down the weeds, keeps roots warm, and looks as pretty as the flowers it protects. South Carolinian gardeners swear by the stuff. Questions still crop up about mulch despite its ubiquity, especially around autumn. Is it time to put on a layer or should you wait? How often should you touch up your mulch? There are few real rules to guide you in your decision to replenish your mulch, but there are some conditions that might lead you to want some more mulch in your yard.

The Old Mulch Looks Faded

Mulch takes about a year to lose its color. UV rays and time break down the compounds that make up the color. You can wind up with patches of mulch looking bleached if you have spots that receive more sunlight. Even if the bleaching is evenly distributed, it looks shoddy when it’s surrounding your vibrant shrubs.

You Aim To Keep Down Spring Weeds

Many people like to refresh their mulch in the Spring so it looks perky when all the new flowers are in bloom. The drawback of waiting until Spring is that it allows weed seeds to germinate, which puts you at a disadvantage in the battle against weeds. If you lay your mulch in the fall, you keep seeds from getting in the ground and block any seeds that are already in there from the sun.

It Has Decomposed Down

Mulch is great for feeding plants and conditioning soil. It feeds plants and neutralizes the pH of dirt. Unfortunately, it can only give its nutrients by breaking down. As time passes, it decomposes and eventually becomes the ground it covers. To get the full benefits of mulch, you will have to keep throwing mulch on the top of the old stuff. You don’t have to take the old stuff off. It’s still doing good work; it’s just not mulch anymore. Deciding when to refresh your mulch requires a bit of expertise. Fortunately, your local landscapers will have some good suggestions about when to add it. And when you decide to add mulch to your landscape, you can use our convenient mulch calculator to determine how much you need for your project. Keep in mind that we deliver three types of all-organic, high-quality mulch made from hardwood chips for your mulching projects.