subject: How To Prepare Your Landscape Beds Before You Apply Mulch [print this page] Many home owners use mulch because of the way mulch makes the landscape look. For this reason the preparation before you apply mulch is just as important as applying mulch or choosing what type of mulch to use or for that matter, the color of mulch that is most appropriate for your landscape.
If you do the proper preparation before applying your mulch your beds will look great for years to come. It will also help reduce the future maintenance for your mulched beds. By doing the proper prep work before you mulch you will save yourself a lot of work in the future.
First of all, it is imperative to remove all weeds and grass from the area you are mulching or applying the mulch. Be sure that you are pulling the weeds and grass from the roots to ensure they will not grow back. The reason for this is so that the grass and weeds do not grow through the mulch. What happens is that mulch keeps moisture in, allowing the weeds to grow. If there is sunlight shining through the mulch it will assist the grass in growing faster and larger.
The last thing you want is to have weeds growing through your mulch after you spent all this time mulching your beds. In addition, it is much easier to pull weeds before you mulch. With the mulch down on your beds it is very difficult to get to the root of the grass or weed popping through the mulch.
After effectively weeding the area you are going to apply mulch, I strongly recommend putting down landscape fabric. This works as a shield between the ground and your mulch. This will help prevent weeds and grass from growing through your mulch. If you have plants or flowers you wish to plant over this area just cut an appropriate hole in the landscape fabric for the bulb of the plant. After you have the weeds pulled and landscape fabric down, you are now ready to mulch!
As you can see, preparing your landscape beds for mulch isn't as easy as it appears. If you want it done right and to ensure your mulch job looks great, it takes a lot of time and preparation. Some home owners short cut the prep work and don't even weed there beds. What happens is it looks great for about a month or so but then weeds and grass start popping through. At that point your mulch no longer looks nice and it is way more time consuming and challenging to eliminate unwanted grass and weeds through the mulch.
If you want your landscape beds to look great but don't have the time to make sure it is done right, there is a solution!
