What is Mulch and How Does it Benefit Your Garden?

It’s a huge milestone in everyone’s life: closing on your first house. It’s time to celebrate, but you also have a lot of new responsibilities.

Now that you’re your own landlord, you have to take care of things like your plumbing, your house maintenance, and—yup—even your yard.

You might have a green thumb around the house, but how much do you know about yard care? Most folks moving from rentals aren’t experts.

So, you probably have some questions.

What is mulch? How do you keep weeds from wrecking your garden? How can you spend as little time as possible mowing the lawn?

You don’t have to wonder any longer. Keep reading for everything you need to know about mulching and what mulch is for.

Read Also:

• Excellent Landscaping Ideas to Really Bring the Most out of Your Yard
• How to Plant Your First Organic Garden (Wheel hoes & More)
• Set It and Forget It: 3 Ways to Use Landscaping Stones
• 9 Reasons You Should Start Gardening
• 5 Basic Lawn Care and Maintenance Tips
• How to Get a Lush Green Lawn?
• The Vertical Garden Trend

What Is Mulch?

How many yards have you seen that are only grass? Probably not too many—there’s usually at least a small garden bordering the house.

If you think about it, it makes sense: In the shadow of the roof and gutters, the grass is unlikely to grow well. So, people plant flowers and other plants that grow well in the shade.

In many other cases, homeowners have decorative or food gardens elsewhere in the yard, as well.

Have you ever wondered what the material that flowers and other garden plants often grow out of is called? It’s not dirt, and it’s not grass. So, what is it?

It’s mulch! Mulch is another term for organic material spread over the soil. It has a variety of functions.

What Does Mulch Do?

You’re likely to find something about mulch in any list of landscaping tips. One reason mulch is popular is for simple aesthetics—just to add visual interest to the yard.

Mulch has many practical uses as well.

• Mulch helps control the moisture in the soil
• Mulch insulates, controlling soil temperatures
• Mulch beds block weeds from reaching daylight
• Organic mulches fertilize the soil
• Mulch protects garden plants

Why Use Mulch in Your Garden and Yard?

No matter what kind of garden or yard you have, you’ve got a reason to use mulch. Why should you use mulch? Well, consider these factors:

• Using mulch grows healthier plants, more easily
• Mulch reduces the risks of your plants drowning or drying up
• Mulch helps stop your plants from freezing
• Mulch turns pests away
• Landscaping your garden with mulch will put equity in your pocket
• You have less grass to water with mulch, saving money and protecting the environment

That’s not a comprehensive list, either. There are so many reasons to use mulch, whether you’re looking to cut down on maintenance, grow a better garden, protect plants from the elements, protect the environment, or just make your yard prettier.

Looking for More Home and Garden Tips?

So, what is mulch doing in yards, gardens, parks, greenways and everywhere else? Turns out, it’s doing a lot of things at once!

Mulching is one great step towards the perfect yard, but it’s not the only thing you have left to do.

How is your garden doing, to start with? Do you have plans for your landscape yet, or know the next steps you should take to improve your yard?

For tips on all these things and more, browse our blog!