Home Maintenance Monday 5/19/25: Time for Spring Mulching!
Mulching your flower and garden areas in the spring is an excellent way to control weeds, provide additional soil nutrients to your intentional plantings and offer bonus protection from some of the heavier rains we can get while additionally helping to retain soil moisture!
A good layer of mulch can also provide insulation from any late season cool weather and can boost the visual appeal of your landscape plantings.
This can be a relatively low-cost way of boosting your home’s curb appeal and almost ALWAYS winds up being one of the things that I recommend to homeowners who are thinking about selling.
Mulch is usually purchased in cubic feet and there are a variety of soil calculators available online to help you determine how much mulch you need for a measured area and how deep you want your mulch to be. You can usually purchase mulch in bagged amounts at your local home and garden supply stores, but if you have need for a larger amount of mulch, you can purchase whole truck-loads of mulch and top soil to be brought in and delivered to your property by your local landscaping supplies stores. Some of these trucks are even outfitted with blower systems that allow for your delivery to be blown directly into place!
If you are hand placing your mulch instead of having it blown in, it's recommended to use a wheelbarrow and shovel to move your mulch around and place your mulch in small piles to be spread out by rake or gloved hands rather than starting from larger piles which can have an unintended consequence of harming nearby plants.
I personally tend not to wear gloves in the garden but I DO recommend gloves for this activity, mulch can be QUITE splintery and it is worth protecting your hands during this activity!
On the same note, it's also worth wearing long sleeves and pants to protect your limbs and knee pads are also recommended if you're working on the ground for prolonged periods of time.
I tend to like to mulch for moisture retention, weed maintenance and beauty in the spring and mulch again for soil nutrients, insulation and putting my perennials to bed in the fall. If you're looking for something to do to boost your curb appeal this week, this can be a quick, easy and relatively cost-effective project to accomplish that can make a huge impact on the looks and moisture retention of your flower and garden beds throughout the coming summer months!
Resources:
"How to Mulch your Yard" website article found at: https://www.homedepot.com/c/ah/how-to-mulch-your-yard/9ba683603be9fa5395fab90328394da