Mulch Like a Pro | How to Mulch Tutorial | How to Mulch and Edge | Landscaping Tips | LawnCrack

[Music] all right well thanks for joining us on our first loyal green instructional video uh today we're going to be doing a pretty straightforward mulch job which is going to entail edging mulching weeding applying the pre-emergent uh we're going to prune anything in need uh everything like that to get this place looking good um this particular house is going up for sale so we're going to do everything we can to make the the front of this house look as good as possible so you could come over here take a look at the condition of our beds right now our Edge is not real good looks like the homeowner uh started to attempt to cut in the edge uh but we're going to really clean that up and make it much more professional um but as you can see we have a lot of weeds in here um our Edge is not good the lines are not smooth and flowing um so that's pretty much what we're going to do and then uh we're going to add the mulch make it look good so the first step we do when doing a mulch job is we're going to take our string trimmer and we're just going to cut in a line which I started to do over here um but I'll I'll redo this and then continue to do the rest once I have that line snapped in with a trimmer I'm going to come by with our spade and we're going to cut this Edge in grade it in so the mulch is retained in the bed and is not flowing into our grass uh so here we go [Music] [Music] [Music] all right so I made my initial pass then I just kind of visually double check it see how the lines are looking how straight they are if the curve should go in or come out a little bit make sure we have all the where the grass is kind of deterior deteriorating where it meets the bed we try to just Edge out a little farther so we have nice full grass right up to our bed we don't have the best grass on this lawn but you know what I mean so once we have the edge snapped out with our string trimmer now we need to come in and cut it with our Spade I would highly recommend investing in a All Steel Spade um it makes a world of difference this thing has some weight to it um it's not going to break this is the King of Spades if you want this exact one this is the longer one but I am right-handed so I'm going to start on this side of the bed I'm going work my way cutting in like this if I was left-handed I'll start and go the opposite way uh just to make it [Music] easier I'm just gonna stick my shovel right on that line that I snapped with string trimmer make sure I keep my the face nice and even so my cuts are going in nice and even we're to have a nice even bed Edge um I'm going to go through it first and cut the edge in and then I'm going to come back from the other side and grade it so we have a nice we have our Edge then we have a nice slope going down to the edge if you can see right now where they had previously started the edge we just have a hump right here this hump is not going to look good on the finished product so we need to get rid of that we're doing this in January cuz that's how we do it at loyal green but uh the ground is really nice and soft if the ground was harder I may need to stomp on it like this um whenever you're pulling back it's good idea to put your boot right here so when you leverage your shovel you don't mess up your your Edge but this is nice and soft I can just real quickly and easily go in here like this and get this Edge cutting [Music] I'm not too worried about where I'm throwing this dirt right now but I just want to make sure I'm not throwing around the base of the plants or anything like that try to leave it where it is just get it to a more open area in the bed where you can spread it [Music] out okay so we got the edge cut in we to come back and grade this in um I'll just do this little section right here um for the video purposes but this is kind of what we're going for come here Jeff we want a nice gradual slope down to our Edge when we start getting into areas like this that's too much of a hump we need to knock that out just simply done like that we're going to go through the whole thing then we're going to come back pull this out either with a rake or by hand spread it out we're going to go through make sure all our weeds are hit all the roots on the weeds turn them over throw the mulch on top of them we're in the middle of January so we're not too worried about weeds growing right now but we will put the pre-emergent down which will have some lingering effects into the spring uh help with weeds throughout the year so that's step one to uh loyal green MCH job that' be good okay so we are a little farther along come on up here show this so we have our bed edged at this point uh We've graded the edge in so we have a nice grade coming down our mulch won't wash out stay in place we have our border cut in to keep the mulch and grass separate uh we've gone through and hit all the weeds in the bed with the shovel to uh disrupt the root system turn of them over um we're still going to put the pre-emergent down here in a second uh but we're we're coming along uh what's left to do at this point is always double check your Edge you need to get down here on your hands and knees and clean that thing out you don't want any little bit of dirt mixing in with your mulch at the edge um just a little something that gives it a more professional look when it's done uh we're also going to take our blower blow any kind of dirt or anything that has got into the grass in the edging process get all that back in it could be dirt uh mulch that came out uh leaves clippings whatever it may be but so we're going to do that here in just a second but you uh any Edge you have with the grass you cut in like this if you come over here now we have a bed Edge that is not grass we have these blocks uh this could be blocks it could be concrete whatever the same principle is going to apply we just need to create a little lip here so our mulch is not overflowing into our grass again um you can do this two ways if it has been done previously you can just take your shovel and scrape like this if you just need to go an inch or so if you need to go more than that best just to angle your shovel like this and scrape down that bed just scrape it down until you have 2 in or so to hold your mulch in so when you put your mulch on top of that dirt it's still going to be below the top of the block and we'll be good so uh before I clean the Edge by hand I'm going to blow everything back in because some of the stuff that blows back in it's going to go right into our Edge if we clean the edge first we'll be double cleaning as I blow around the bed Edge I'm also going to get any kind of debris or anything that's on the concrete get that all out of the way um we have a little bit of buildup of leaves over here so I'm probably going to blow them into a corner we'll throw them in a bag or something it's not very much at all [Music] okay that's really all there is to that get your blower close to the ground blow the stuff back in um it's not really making it real pretty at that point I'm quickly just going to run run back down my line make sure everything is out of my Edge as I go I'm going to try to smooth this out a little bit so once we get to the stage where we're mulching all we are doing is mulching we're not messing around with weeds we're not messing around with little dirt humps here and there it's ready to go oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] okay so we have that pretty much how we want it as I was blowing uh a little bit of debris and leaf build up we had over here found some weeds growing in the cracks we'll just run through those with a weed eater uh knock them out of there and then uh blow it back off real quick but so now we have our bed is edged weeded prepped um the next step we need to do before the MCH goes down is to pre-emerge it which we have in here it's the old PR jug but it's does not have PR in it a similar commercial uh bed pre-emergent product but you just want to get an even application over the whole bed um and hopefully this will prevent a decent amount of weeds you're not going to stop every weed by putting out a pre-emergent but it will help hi there the driveway just that looks nice thank you I'm glad you have a nice day for it yeah lovely so I'm going going through at this point and uh getting everywhere I can get from the outside then I'll go back through the inside of the bed apply the pre-emergent in the inside of the bed um then once that is uh complete we'll be ready to uh get rid of those last couple weeds blow it back off and this will be uh ready to mulch okay so we are all edged prepped uh ready to go we need to blow off a little bit more but we'll uh we'll do that here in a second I'm going run through how the the actual mulching goes uh the way I prefer to do it is however many wheelbarrows we have we line our wheelbarrows up we fill them all up at the same time then you take your wheelbarrow spread your mulch come back there's a full wheelbarrow you take that one if they're all empty you fill them all up and then it's just a rotation just like that but very simple I mean you just take your Pitchfork get your mulch into your wheelbarrow you want to go like this make sure your mulch is down in the wheelbarrow so when you're Wheeling through your your lawn you're not spilling mulch out everywhere it's a huge pet peeve of mine mulch in the grass or grass in the mulch you'll find that out about me everybody that so going up a little curb like this need to be careful get your handles low so the front the wheel bear doesn't hit and knock you over but we'll come over here we're mainly focusing on this bed for this uh video obviously so how I'm going to do this I'm going start over here you don't want to Malt yourself into a corner um you always want to get your your edge of your wheelbarrow over the edge of the bed so as I'm taking Mulch and moving it if some Falls it's falling into the bed instead of into the grass if you get a little bit in the grass it's not that big of a deal you can blow it back in at the end but then you're probably going to get a little bit of grass thatch whatever it's going to blow back in So if possible just get all your mulch in the bed right off the bat um so I'm going to start mulching here and then I'm going I'm get as far in as I can from here but anything else I'll just bring the wheelbarrow to the center of the bed and come and mulch to where I stopped on the edge so I have my wheelbarrow over the edge of the bed when I'm going around plants like this I like to just make little piles and then I'll spread that out get up right to the edge on a plant like that we'll lift that up get our mulch underneath you don't want your mulch uh going real high up on the trunk anything you want to get it just right to the base of the trunk that can lead to uh disease and fungus and stuff like that growing can harm your plants I'll go ahead and mulch around this little r up here right here all right good enough I get to uh an open place in the bed like this and it's just a matter of throwing the mulch out I like to use the like basketball pass analogy as if this was the basketball throw the mulch out like that just the mulch is going to break up as it's going down it's going to lay even and just kind of pay attention as you go to see where it needs more mulch you get a little hump knock it out just like that you start to get around the edge you need to go a little slower and uh hand place it in there my mulch on my edge here you notice I'm leaving a nice 2-in lip here so on our bed Edge like we don't we don't want to mulch up to that the top of that edge or that'll didn't just totally pointless to cut our Edge in so I'm getting my mulch right to the edge right where I want it then I can come back and shake it this is another method I like to use when mulching just shake it down let it let it fall nice and even kind of if you're in a more open area it's easier to do that if you're going more targeted you might want to shake it out like that that's about it I'll show you how to do this plant real quick where we have uh more branches that we can't really just set the mulch right around the plant I'm going to set the mulch on the edge lift the branches up push the mulch in get my wheelbarrow over the edge so as you can see I made a nice decent Siz pile here I'm to come in carefully lift the branches spread that mulch up to the base of that plant I'm going to continue to go all around that plant and all around the bed until it's all mulched we have a nice even coating of mulch probably roughly 2 in um might go slightly heavier on this bed it has no mulch in it at all uh but if you get if you get your mulch going 3 in deep it's going to start to cake and Patty up and you're going to get that white fungus grown in it's no good um I mean the main purpose of the mulch is decoration you're going to get a little uh moisture retention uh a little weed suppression but I mean basically we're making the stuff look good insulate the roots of the plants especially over the winter that's how we do it recording yeah okay so here we are at this mulch job uh we are very near complete um we have a little bit of tamping to do and then we just need to blow everything off um make sure everything's cleaned up and we're good to go uh so basically what I'm going to do is take this regular uh hard rake and go around all the edges I just want to Tamp it down just to try to keep that in place where water might be flowing down the edge or something like that try to keep our mulch in place if we had we don't really have any big slopes here if we had a big slope I might just go ahead and run down a whole Hillside with this just get it all tamped down but there is not much to this swing over here I'm just going to take my rake and go right down the edge you know maybe go 8 12 Ines in with it just get it nice if I see something unlevel out in the middle I'll hit that um as I'm going around doing this I am looking at the rest of the mul job to make sure nothing was missed um we don't have any bare spots we don't have any uh pieces of weeds or anything poking through for try to get around this drain a little extra a little bit of the Hill here just get this whole thing try to keep this in place that's that maybe real this run down this okay as you can see we have a little bit of uh debris on our blocks here uh tiny bit of mulch has got in the grass want to make sure any kind of retaining wall blocks uh rocks in the landscape uh sometimes a little mulch will end up on a a window sill like that um sometimes you might end up with a little bit of mulch on the the foliage of the plants knock that off blow that off whatever just get it into the bed off the plant around here go down this Edge then now I'm going to fire up the blower and I'll show you how uh how we blow this off a lot of times when I get close to the bed I'm just going to be at an idle I don't want the mulch blowing and opening up bare spots or nothing like that we just want to get uh any little debris that's got shouldn't be get it back in the bed'll be good a [Music] [Music] and that's all there is to that um it's really that simple [Music] a [Music]

Channel: LawnCrack

Views: 1,642,580

Keywords: How to mulch and edge, how to mulch, how to mulch your yard, how to mulch a garden bed, mulch like a pro, mulch tutorial, business coaches for landscape, how to profit in lawn care, how to quote mulch jobs, how to start a lawn care business, landscaping 101, landscaping business, landscaping tips, lawn care business, lawn care business tips, lawn care tips, running a lawn care business, how to install mulch, how to lay mulch, mulching your garden, mulching, spreading mulch

Id: C-syww7zymw

Length: 27min 37sec (1657 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 05 2017