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You need to consider many things when you are finding the perfect garden mulch for your landscape. The question can best be tackled by presenting the various garden mulches or landscaping mulches separately, but judging each based on the same criteria.

Before everything else, let’s hear a primary question most likely raised by landscaping practitioners: Does mulch covering affect soil pH at all? More specifically, does any garden mulch lower soil pH, as many have long suspected?

The composition of your soil pH has a hefty impact on plant health. Many people have apprehensions, as I have, on how garden mulch selection impacts soil pH, since it really affects the loam when it decays. Does your soil turn acidic if you use garden mulch covering with pine needles? What about having oak leaves as mulch in your garden?

Many people have thought garden mulch has minor effect on soil pH. For instance, while oak-leaf garden mulch may be acidic when fresh, most experts now say that it becomes more and more alkaline as it decomposes. Moreover, based on what I’ve read, it is now believed pine that needles making up a garden mulch reduces the soil pH to inconsequential levels, if ever.

With the question of the potential impact of garden mulch on soil pH out of the way, let’s reflect on some other issues surrounding garden mulch selection — some of which are quantifiable, others of which boil down to personal landscaping preferences. We would have to set things up clearly if only to make a decision, since a garden mulch can do well in one group  only to perform unsatisfactorily in another. Two obvious uses of garden mulch to which the reader will find little or no reference in this article are weed suppression and erosion control. They have not been included for a simple fact: a garden mulch done perfectly will eliminate weeds and erosion altogether.

These are the three parameters in our discussion.

    * “Insulation value in summer” is judged by the degree to which the garden mulch can keep the soil beneath cool and moist. A successful summer insulator will both reduce the need for watering and protect roots against extreme heat.

    * The consideration of whether or not the garden mulch needs to be removed in spring is grounded in the fact that heavy organic garden mulches can smother emerging spring plants. This is obviously less of a factor, however, for plants that remain alive aboveground, throughout the winter. Though even the latter can benefit from having the loam around the roots warmed by the heat of the sun, a process simplified by momentarily removing the garden mulch. Regarding the use of plastic sheet mulch, this is not important since the material have openings to give access to plants.

    * “Nourishment and aeration afforded to underlying soil by decomposition” is a standard used to distinguish the different landscape mulches. Though don’t be mistake the term “nourishment” into thinking that garden mulch and compost are the same.

I have been a Calgary Landscaping Contractor for many years. We specialize in Calgary Gardens and Calgary Landscape Design.  These techniques work anywhere in the world as well as in my area.

Written by: Custom Stone and Waterscapes ‎3829 Parkhill Place SW, Calgary, AB T2S 2W6 (403) 870-1142 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (403) 870-1142