5 Most Common Mulches

Bark Products

• The most common mulches by far in North America are byproducts of the forest and paper-making industries. Bark mulch made from hardwood is most often shredded, resulting in a fine, dark brown covering. Softwood bark mulch comes shredded or in small to large chunks and is made from pine, fir, redwood and other trees. It is usually rust-colored. Mulches are available bagged or in bulk.

Compost

• Homemade or commercial compost is a top choice for mulching vegetable and flower gardens because it adds nutrients to the soil as the soil's animal life breaks it down. Gardeners make compost by piling together fresh and dry materials such as vegetable and fruit kitchen waste, dry leaves and yard debris. Keeping the pile moist and turning it often results in rich compost in a few months. Commercial compost often relies on finely shredded bark as its base ingredient.

Gravel

• For commercial landscapes, gravel is common. It is also used in home garden beds as a mulch for plants that need good drainage. Many succulents, for example, rot if their necks remain wet, so gravel mulch about 1 inch thick at their bases helps wick water away. Gravel comes in many styles and colors and works well where soil won't be washed into it or masses of leaves fall on it.

Wood Chips

• Because of their ready availability from arborists, power companies and city yard-waste facilities, wood chips are a common mulch. They are particularly valuable for covering play areas for children and dogs because they are soft and don't produce splinters the way bark products do. They are also the preferred mulch for garden paths between and inside flower and vegetable beds.

Sawdust

• Sawdust is a common choice where it is cheap and easily available. It is especially suited for mulching acid-loving plants such as blueberries, camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas. Aged sawdust is a better choice for use in gardens, because as it decomposes, sawdust uses nitrogen from the soil. Add nitrogen fertilizer to plants mulched with it, and there shouldn't be a problem.

Other Common Mulches

• Each region or community may have an abundance of a certain type of byproduct for use as mulch. Straw and hay are commonly used to mulch large vegetable gardens, hill up potatoes and for winter protection for plants. Shredded leaves are common where large, deciduous trees grow. Dried grass clippings are commonly recommended as an easily available mulch. While peat moss is still a popular mulch, its sustainability is in question, so coconut coir, which has similar properties, is becoming more common.