Mulch Over or Not????

[Single Track]

Need some advice from all you gardeners. I'm looking for the pros and cons of either removing the pine straw before putting down mulch or putting the mulch on top of the pine straw.

The landscaper plans on removing, laying a weed mat down and then the mulch but he has indicated that either way could work.

What do you think? Any experience with doing either?

[gomoho]

Don't let him lay mulch over the pine straw - you will have one great big mess. Also if you have any slope at all beware that weed mat does not allow water to drain into the soil rapidly and your mulch may float.

[Geewiz]

Don't let him lay mulch over the pine straw - you will have one great big mess. Also if you have any slope at all beware that weed mat does not allow water to drain into the soil rapidly and your mulch may float.

Agree....

[Uptown Girl]

I agree with gomoho. We have neighbors on the corner who have a slight slope and nugget mulch. Every time we get a good rain, the mulch floats out and away.... into their turf and even onto the street. Takes away from the otherwise lovely look of their home and gives them an extra chore to contend with.

[jblum315]

I have nugget mulch over pinestraw and its fine, but then my lot is level so no problem of mulch washing away.

[thelegges]

i like the pine straw

[gomoho]

I have shredded mulch which doesn't float as much, but these are new beds I am developing in the back of my home and I do have a slope. Had the weed mat put down then pulled back up when I saw the water drainage issue. Waiting for the first good rain
to see what I'm really dealing with.

[travelguy]

never put weed mat under organic mulches; weed mat should only be used when you are mulching with stone. as far as plants are concerned, the best mulches for successful gardening and optimum plant health are woody mulches such as pine bark, or any other shredded wood mulch. pine straw is great, allows water and air to penetrae, does not wash or blow away and looks nice. however, it decomposes rapidly and you will be re-freshening it at least once or more each year.

[perrjojo]

never put weed mat under organic mulches; weed mat should only be used when you are mulching with stone. as far as plants are concerned, the best mulches for successful gardening and optimum plant health are woody mulches such as pine bark, or any other shredded wood mulch. pine straw is great, allows water and air to penetrae, does not wash or blow away and looks nice. however, it decomposes rapidly and you will be re-freshening it at least once or more each year.


:agree:

The purpose of any natural mulch is to enrich the soil....no weed mat please. Use a product called Preen to keep weeds from germinating.

[Geewiz]

:agree:

The purpose of any natural mulch is to enrich the soil....no weed mat please. Use a product called Preen to keep weeds from germinating.

Yep! Mulch is designed to suppress weeds....but, the real purpose is to retain moisture.

[CFrance]

The pine straw was constantly getting into our house. Bits of it blew onto the sidewalk, stuck to our shoes, stuck to the dog's fur. I was constantly having to sweep the walk and vacuum the tile floor inside. It also faded very quickly. Just FYI.

[gomoho]

Anything other than stone does have a downside - blowing away, tracking in the house, having to replace and refresh every year. But the upside is you are cultivating the earth not creating a barrier for Mother Nature to frown upon. Yes I was a tree hugger and love things organic - wish I could wake up one morning and all the rock in my front yard disappeared! But I also understand there are folks who are no more interested in pulling a weed or designing a landscape than they are in getting an unnecessary root canal. So the weed mat and rock serve their purpose in the right environment.

[BobandMarilyn]

I put pine bark nuggets over pine straw 18 months ago with no weed block.. Pine straw is almost completely decomposed, very few weeds, no slope.

[kittygilchrist]

this is the first place I've lived in a lifetime of Florida where pine straw was valued as a longterm mulch. Happily, my dog likes to pee in it.
Kitty

[gomoho]

Well now made I need to develop a "pine mulch pee station". Hmmmmm

[CFrance]

this is the first place I've lived in a lifetime of Florida where pine straw was valued as a longterm mulch. Happily, my dog likes to pee in it.
Kitty

Well now made I need to develop a "pine mulch pee station". Hmmmmm

Our dog too! Happily, he will pee in the stones as well, although not his favorite.

gomoho, I've had my years of organic gardening, and really enjoyed it. Then we moved to a condo, where I discovered container gardening. Now I'm here and would like to free up as much time as possible for exercise and pickleball and socializing. So we took the easy way out o landscaping. I enjoy viewing the landscaping of those who do their own and sometimes wax nostalgic, but I know I would not keep that up due to time and so much bending, so I continue with the container gardening and rock mulch in the yard landscaping.

But I still love the look of bark mulch and a real crisp natural edging.

[justjim]

If you want as little maintenance as possible use rock with the weed mat. Mulch if you intend to do more "gardening" but it will require considerable maintenance by you or hired help. It took us a couple of homes in TV and a couple of landscapes to make "rock converts" of us.

[Single Track]

Need some advice from all you gardeners. I'm looking for the pros and cons of either removing the pine straw before putting down mulch or putting the mulch on top of the pine straw.

The landscaper plans on removing, laying a weed mat down and then the mulch but he has indicated that either way could work.

What do you think? Any experience with doing either?

Thanks to everyone for your opinions. Most of you thought it would work best by putting the mulch on top of the pine straw without the weed mat and that's what I went with. The landscaper used red shredded mulch and it looks so nice. It took 6 yards of mulch and I'm thrilled with the finished product. By the way I'm still using the small private landscaper because whenever I call him, he calls me right back and he does such nice work. He is Joe McCormic at 352 266-5684.