Lots O Mulch

I wanted to talk a little today about mulching in the fall.  Is there a benefit, and what is the benefit to mulching your flowers beds in the fall?  That is question that you should be asking yourself.  Most people put down mulch in the spring, but very few mulch in the fall.  Why is that?  I say that most of it is money and by the time fall rolls around, they don’t care about doing more yard work.

So what would be an added benefit to mulching in the fall?  The first thing is the color.  Fresh mulch always looks good and adds appeal to a house no matter what time of year it is installed.  Another indirect benefit would be that usually before people mulch, they want to pull weeds and trim the shrubs.  That would mean that you would top off your shrubs and make your beds look perfect going into winter.  As we have talked about before, the shrubs go dormant for winter and with pruning them at the end of the season, they look good all winter.  The last benefit would be extra weed control.  Mulch, of course, will not prevent all weeds, but it will hinder many of them, so you can keep down many of the winter weeds.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I think spending the money for more mulch and not wanting more yard work are the biggest reason for NOT mulching in the fall.  That brings us to the question, ‘If I don’t mulch in the fall, what can I do to make my beds look the best they can?’  That is actually easier than you might think.  Get rid of any weeds, trim the shrubs, and rake out the mulch from the spring and viola, you have a nicer looking bed than your neighbors!!  You still have to put the work into it, but you don’t have to spend any money.  Great for you, bad for the garden centers.  HaHa.

If you want total winter weed control no matter if you mulch or not, spread the granular Treflan over all the mulch areas and it will prevent weeds for up to 4 months.

Happy Mulch