subject: Important Details You Should Find Out about Red Mulch [print this page] Important Details You Should Find Out about Red Mulch
Have you ever used red mulch before in your garden? It consists of several materials and it is normally colored with vegetable dyes. This is why the mulch looks attractive for a long time. The main purpose of providing mulch covering is to protect the soil from the harshness of climate including erosion or summer heat. When you apply the red type of mulch properly, it could help you achieve the traditional roles of mulching. These are:
* Water conservation
* Temperature regulation
* Reducing destructive weeds
* Soil enrichment
The red mulching can either be artificial or organic made of red plastic and wood chips respectively. It has become a typical choice of many garden owners. The fact that this type of mulch comes in different styles explains why numerous people choose it. It plays the above listed roles and simultaneously gives your backyard a lovely appearance. The biggest percentages of people who use red mulch prefer the wood chips to red plastic.
They specifically choose the wood chips because of their aesthetic qualities. Wood chips are normally made of pine or cedar barks, which are shredded and dyed. Plastic mulch is typically a huge red garbage bag that covers the yard entirely. It has tiny holes that are made to help the plants breath. Even as the red plastic mulch is unpleasant to look at, it has a major advantage as well. Experts confirm that red plastic is able to reflect extra sunlight, which is needed by the plants for purposes of making chlorophyll.
The results of this are high yields in your garden. Wood chips mulch does not compare with plastic in terms of sunlight reflection characteristic. The usefulness of this red mulching is enabled by these sunlight reflection capabilities, as manufacturers would have us believe. There have been previous research facts confirming the usefulness of red mulching. According to those studies, the red mulching increased the harvest by fifteen to twenty percent. Lately, other researchers are contradicting those findings but still they have continued to favor the wood chips. As a word of caution, red mulching product is not recommended for usage in vegetable gardens or flowerbeds.
One of the biggest demerits of using this type of mulch is the CCA component. Chromated Copper Arsenate or the CCA is used to treat the reused lumber used to make the mulch. So far this component's use is banned by the Environmental Protection Agency. The problem with it is some products that contain it might still be finding their path to the markets. Here are some few shopping tips:
* Buy only red mulch made from raw rubber: You should use any possible technique to distinguish between the mulch made of natural and recycled wood. The latter is not really recommended.
* Biodegradable dyes are recommended: Always check if the dyes used to make the mulch are hazardous or else they will do your garden no good. Some of the petrochemical dyes used are harmful to the soil because they are not natural.
