Spring is here in Delaware, and most of us have started planting our gardens and working outside. May is the perfect time to open up the shed, break out the tools and get your landscape ready for summer. But don’t forget to add on the mulch. Mulch helps suppress weeds, protect your soil, and help to provide it with the nutrients it needs to stay healthy. If you aren’t sure about which mulch to choose or whether or not to use it this season at all, here is a list of reasons why it is considered a beneficial option for every landscape and garden.
First, What Exactly is Mulch?
Mulch is a protective layer of various materials, either organic or inorganic, spread over soil or around a tree or plant serving, as a protective layer. Organic mulch includes formerly living materials such as grass clippings, compost, wood chips, sawdust, pine needles, and shredded bark. Inorganic includes synthetic materials such as black plastic and landscape fabrics. Both types of mulch have their advantages, but organic mulches improve the soil as they decompose.
Five Different Benefits of Using Mulch
Benefit One: Mulch Improves and Protects The Soil
The hot summer heat and cold winters we experience in the Wilmington and Newark areas can cause exposed soil to dry up, crack, and become unusable. Mulch provides a blanket of protection in the winter and a layer of insulation in the summer. This helps keep your soil at a balanced temperature.
Over time, the mulch will be broken down into the soil by insects and weather. When this happens, it deposits organic matter into the ground providing it with additional benefits such as:
- Increased moisture retention
- The ability to retain extra nutrients
- Improved soil structure
- Improved draining process
- Aids in Preserving Water
During our hot summers, your plants are more susceptible to moisture loss. A layer of mulch will help to shade them and slow down the evaporation process, retaining moisture. When you add mulch to your landscape or garden, you will quickly notice the reduction in the amount of watering you will have to do throughout the year, and who doesn’t like the sound of that!
Benefit Two: Sends the Weeds Packing
Weeds require two things to survive, water and sunlight. They are nutrient thieves taking the valuable minerals your vegetation needs. Add a crisp, clean layer of mulch into the picture, and it smothers out existing weeds by cutting off their air supply and preventing sunlight from reaching them. By shading the soil, it will also help prevent new weeds from germinating. And just like that, those extra nutrients are returned back to your trees, shrubs, and flowers, allowing them to flourish throughout the year instead of those obnoxious, annoying weeds.
Benefit Three: Protects Trees and Shrubs
In Delaware, our harsh winters and hot, humid summers can take a toll on any garden, trees, and shrubs. These different weather patterns can be exhausting on plants. A layer of mulch helps to protect them by adding insulation to the soil and roots, regulating the temperature, and protecting against climate stress and damage. Utilize mulch as added protection to help secure all the hard work you performed on your garden and landscape this spring.
Benefit Four: Adds Instant Appeal to Your Delaware Landscape
Adding mulch adds instant appeal to any landscape. There are so many different types and colors of mulch, you can match them to coordinate with different areas. Adding curb appeal to your home, mulch will complement your flower beds, garden, plants, and even your trees.
Get Superior Mulching Service From the Professionals at Quality Cut Lawn Service.
Now is the perfect time to add mulch to your outdoor living space. If you are looking to upgrade your garden beds, flowers, trees, or any area of your landscape, give the professionals a call at Quality Cut Lawn Service. Our mulching service is second to none. We offer a variety of colors. Whether you want to do it yourself or want our team of professional lawn care specialists to spread and edge the property for you, Quality Cut Lawn Service will create the perfect mulching solution to suit your property, vision, and budget.
We also offer a variety of other landscaping and design services to help boost your curb appeal. To learn more, call us at 302-420-7597 or contact us here today.