On side of a beer bottled we have a warning from Surgeon General warning us not to operate automotive vehicles or heavy equipment and goes on to say that alcohol could cause health problems. Have you ever seen such a warning on a bag of mulch or invoice you pay that nice young man from? While there is such a thing as natural death among plants, death without explanation is easily blamed as trees cannot say:

"Hey! I am dying because I cannot breathe anymore because you have put way too much mulch around my trunk!"

Nope, no tree can scream HELP! They can’t tell you I need water, my toes hurt, its hot out here; they are helpless unless we know instinctively problem. They can only get your attention if you WANT to hear what they have to say. Selective listening has serves no purpose when one deals with plants.

Where was I? Oh yes, this yearly freshening of mulch in beds...if you were a tree, you would see instantly why this is not a good thing. Trees have a natural breathing ring (as well as many types of shrubs and other woody plants) that develops right at point of their trunk where their "stem" and soil meet originally upon their sprouting.

When you pull a weed, properly extracting it from soil, it is going to deposit dirt on top of mulch. The more soil that is mixed with wood mulch, faster it will decompose and return to its’ previous state as soil. Remember what comes from soil returns to soil; it is a natural revolution no one can prevent.

--------------------

For more great Gardening articles, visit: http://www.LostInTheFlowers.com

While stone may look good to some — it is very costly and dirt will still collect on top of weed barrier. As soon as things start going to seed around protected area, there will be weeds everywhere in stone rooting into that thin layer of deposited soil on top of plastic. It is inevitable that weed roots beneath that plastic will creep around under it searching for an escape from dark. These undercover and unwanted roots will never be found to eradicate, making them a constant problem to try and get rid of.

Landscape cloth is better in that it allows consistent moisture and some airflow to roots, but it does let weeds pop through small holes in weave. Once you have a weed rooted through fabric, you will never be able to pull roots. These contrived barriers in long run will only make installation more costly and a false belief that you will now be weed-free. Landscape cloth has beneficial applications in some situations and is best left to control erosion and not weeds.

If you simply must have mulch, best choice for your shrub and tree beds is shredded hardwood or cedar bark mulch. Shredded bark mulches are fuzzy along edges causing them to mat down and knit together after a good rain to stop erosion of loose soil to a great extent. Wood mulch encourages bugs to take up residence in it as deteriorating wood is their natural habitat. This will add cost and need to spray chemicals on mulch to control bugs that would never have moved in plain soil. Many is horticultural professional who will not apply mulch to their planting beds for several reasons beginning with insects it attracts. Secondly, they are aware that over time wood mulch decomposes to be soil again, thereby raising soil level around plants in bed (causing future health problems with plants such as trees). Thirdly, because it makes it more difficult to weed bed.

--------------------

For great Gardening tips and articles, visit: http://www.LostInTheFlowers.com