How to Mulch, The Three Musts of Mulching

hi there my name is John Holden I graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in ornamental horiculture in 1993 I started land Designs Unlimited I design install and maintain landscapes for homeowners in Upper Fairfield County Connecticut today I'd like to share my passion with you how you doing today folks on the way to the uh the job this morning I was thinking about you know what I'm going to say and and later today I'm going to film a video about how to REM mulch Gardens but one of the things I wanted to touch on I want to do a separate piece because it's just so important is what I'm going to call the three musts of mulching you know what are the three most important things you can do when you're mulching and let me just go over them real quick for you the first must of mulching is you must never apply mulch deeper than 2 to 3 in the most mulch you should ever have in your landscape is 3 in deep if you go to your landscape if you buy a new home or if you're a landscape contractor and a customer calls you to mulch their home if there's more than 3 in of mulch you take some of that mulch away before you put fresh fresh mulch down or just take some away turn what's there the second must of mulching is you must never touch mulch to the base of trees I can't tell you how often I'll be out looking at Landscapes and I'll see what we call a mulch volcano where you'll see the trunk of a tree or shrub and then it looks like vvus there's just this this mound against the trunk of the tree that is so bad for trees and shrubs it's a place for insects to Harbor it's a place for disease to Harbor it keeps the bark wet all the time what happens when wood is wet all the time it rots so what I encourage you to do is when you're mulching you know leave a good 6 in to a foot gap between the edge of the mulch and the tree and what I usually do is I'll kind of feather it down if I'm mulching when I get near the tree I'll just kind of either push it with my uh Pitchfork getting close to the tree or if I'm REM mulching and I'm just kind of shaking it off I'll just feather it down I mean it doesn't have to be a clear delineation but I just don't want to see you people making it higher if anything The Mulch dep should be lower next to your trees and then the final must of mulching which it's taken me while to come around to and learn is before you reapply mulch you really need to take the time and turn your mulch what you're going to want to do is take a tool like this guy right here this is called the garden weasel you'll just take this and drag it along the ground and turn that mulch before you apply new mulch now why is that so important because mulch is supposed to allow water air and nutrients through it but what happens is with a lot of mulches especially the the ones with a lot of wood contact content they get so matted down that by the time you come back a year later they're they're impervious to water the water literally rolls off them so what you really need to do and the third must of mulching is either turn the mulch with a garden weasel you can take a a metal rake and and stir it up a little bit you can use a pitchfork whatever it takes but please before you apply more mulch you know cultivate it or turn it before plying than thanks a lot for watching today folks and if you can just take away the three must ultion from this video you are way ahead of most gardeners out there have a great [Music] [Music] day

Channel: CTSCAPER

Views: 767,588

Keywords: Mulch, how to mulch, how to apply mulch, how to mulch a garden bed, mulching, how to mulch plant beds, proper mulching techniques, beginners guide to mulch, how to mulch a flower bed

Id: 7hbcifblzUY

Length: 3min 54sec (234 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 04 2013