Mulch - what to do?

[Russ_Boston]

In another thread there is discussion about how flammable the basic pine straw mulch is.

Question: If I buy new - what type of mulch should I replace it with and who should I use to do the work?

Thanks

[handieman]

In another thread there is discussion about how flammable the basic pine straw mulch is.

Question: If I buy new - what type of mulch should I replace it with and who should I use to do the work?

Thanks
:22yikes:
Here's a subject that could go on and on.
Pine Straw= semi ugly, cheap, actually has some nutritional value, don't flip your cigarette in it!
Stones/rocks=Pretty, no nutritional value, dark stones can actually make the ground underneath so hot it kills roots, must use weed gard underneath or else you will have a stony flowerbed
Rubber= No nutrional value, washes out of beds when heavy rains occur, will drift in heavy winds, weedguard must be used, dark and will make bed very hot.
Pine/cyprus mulch (shredded) easy to use, will blow in heavy winds, little nutritional value, Weedguard not imperative, must be refreshed yearly, fades in color.
Pine Nuggets= small ones will blow and wash out of beds. easy to apply, some nutrional value, weedguard not imperative, will fade in color, needs to be refreshed yearly

So there, are you totally confused now??
:shrug:
Handie

[steaknife]

We used Sunscape - they advertise on TOV - and were very pleased with his suggestions and pricing. He did the work when we were gone and is used to working with absentee owners.

[JohnN]

there's another big long thread on this topic, but it's stated pretty well

I chose to use nuggets, they don't blow that much and I like that it's natural and will build the soil/sand somewhat over time and it helps retain moisture and doesn't get hot. Nor do I really see any significant bug activity.

But.. to each his/her own.

Have Dirt Will Travel has gotten a lot of recommendations for heavy stuff.

[Barefoot]

In our last house, we tried to eliminate weeds by replacing mulch with rock. (And rock is way more expensive than mulch but lasts forever). We picked the colour and type of rock at "Dirt Cheap" and had it installed by "Have Rock Will Roll".

Instead of picking weeds off mulch, I ended up picking weeds off rocks. (Well, actually, I used a lot of vinegar to attempt to kill the weeds "naturally", but that is another story).

Now we've moved, and we're back to mulch again. This time, I have no idea how we'll proceed. :shrug:

[Army Guy]

Russ, I know last time you were talking about the possiblity of a CYV. If that is still the case. Yes, they come with pine straw, but overwhelmingly (sp?) people in CYVs are opting for the no maintence of medium since stone. It was we opted for, and now our "yard-work" consists of 15 minutes with a container of Roundup and we are done. We could not be happier. Plus in the heavy rain squalls we get here, pine straw and any kind of mulch tends to getted "flushed" our of your yard and into the drive and street for you to clean up.

Army Guy

[Jeff Bieberfeld]

up north we always used hardwood mulch; it faded but stayed put, and had to be re-applied each year.......and the plants loved growing in it. i hve had the same good results here; it needs re-application as it decomposes, but it allows moisture through it, and the few weeds that germinate are easily pulled out. and the plants love it. if i wanted a total no-work at all ever yard then i would be up in some multi-story building with no yard at all.
so, that's my input.

:welcome:

[GMONEY]

We have landscaping curb around the whole house, we had a bunch of the mocha brown rubber mulch. Got is from Brownes in Fruitland Park. They are bigger pieces, not the playground mulch which is really small. Really like it alot, had for about 3 years, has not faded, the wind does not blow it away, and only the smaller pieces move around alot when alot of rain. If you have the curbing around the house you need gutters also to keep from making a moat around the house also. But we did go to Dirt Cheap and get some of the large Seminole Chips and mix it in with the mulch. helps alot. We are getting more of the Rock now. But you must use a good weed barrier under the rock. Helps to spray with a good weed killer also. We have some issues with the zoysia grass spreading under the curb, due to its nature. But not that bad. But the larger Seminole Chips helped out alot.

[jebartle]

We have always used pine straw, we like the natural look....Never thought about the safety issue, interesting.....We usually let the Villages determine what plants and when to plant for the recommended choice....:D

[TrudyM]

Russ, I know last time you were talking about the possiblity of a CYV. If that is still the case. Yes, they come with pine straw, but overwhelmingly (sp?) people in CYVs are opting for the no maintence of medium since stone. It was we opted for, and now our "yard-work" consists of 15 minutes with a container of Roundup and we are done. We could not be happier. Plus in the heavy rain squalls we get here, pine straw and any kind of mulch tends to getted "flushed" our of your yard and into the drive and street for you to clean up.

Army Guy

You can even be creative. I had a neighbor when we lived in CA that had used different colors and sizes of stone in swirls around a bonsai looking shrubs and large rocks it looked like ripples in a pond and was so cool.:coolsmiley: However the rock we had in direct sun was kind of hot.

[golfnut]

we had mulch removed the first year and replaced with river rock, we also used Have Rock will Roll, they did a great job removing old mulch putting down a heavy duty weed barrier then put down the rock, almost no maintenance in 4 years except a monthly walk around with a bottle of round up in hand....gn

[NJblue]

Unless you really don't like the pinestraw mulch, you don't need to get rid of it right away. Both our house and our neighbor's are a year and a half old and still have the original pinestraw mulch. It's getting kind of thin, but our service sprays it once in awhile and the weeds stay at bay pretty well. By waiting to put the final mulch down, you have more flexibility in terms of tweaking your landscape. Once you put down stone, landscape fabric and especially curbing, it becomes much harder to make changes.

I'm getting ready to replace it but I haven't found a mulch that I like yet. The stones are too light colored for our taste. I'm reluctant to use shredded hardwood since it will need replacement a lot. A neighbor just had pine bark put in and it looks really great - a nice deep rich brown ... exactly what we are looking for. However, in looking at houses that have been around for awhile the deep brown seems to fade into an unattractive gray. Right now I'm leaning toward rubber. I have seen some at Lowes with a nice brown color and the pieces are shredded to actually look like hardwood mulch as opposed to chunks of ground up tires which some rubber mulch looks like.

[Barefoot]

The stones are too light colored for our taste.

If you go to Dirt Cheap on 441 they have many, many different stone colour choices including some dark ones.

[Army Guy]

NJBlue, you are correct. We have pine bark at our Alabama house, and yes looks great for the frist month or so, then turns gray in no time. Plus you must add/replace every year.

Army Guy

[GMONEY]

I got our Seminole Chips from dirt cheap also. those are very nice in color. good size for flower beds..