Lawn Care Rockton, IL Pros on Summer Mulching Tips and Rules

Summer comes with plenty of benefits, especially for homeowners loving to spend their free time outdoors. Nothing compares to quiet afternoons on the deck sipping cold lemonades, late night garden cocktail parties and dinners or fun barbecue Sundays. But a lush, green and healthy landscape needs all the care in the world – especially in summer. Your lush corner of paradise is constantly threatened by heat, scorching sunlight, dehydration, pests, and weeds and so on. Today our lawn care Rockton, IL specialists want to offer you a quick guide on summer mulching. If you are a seasoned gardener, you already know many of its benefits. But if you are a beginner, this is what you should know.

What Is Mulch?

Mulch is a bio product you can make by yourself at home or buy in a pre-made form from a specialized store. Its ingredients are usually natural ones: grass clippings, shredded bark and leaves, chopped twigs, newspaper shreds, manure, seaweed sometimes, and even compost.

There are two main types of mulch:

• Moister, grassier mulch: it contains plenty of grasses and leaves and less bark and wooden elements – this mulch is preferred because it decomposes faster and gets absorbed into the soil thus feeding the roots.
• Dryer, woodier mulch: it contains more hard elements like bark and twigs. It has a more decorative role, as it decomposes slower, not being able to feed the vegetation fast and properly.

What Are the Main Uses of Mulch?

Mulch is used for many intents and purposes. The moister variety is the one that covers a wider area of roles on your property:

• Fertilization: as it decomposes, mulch releases natural nutrients into the soil, feeding all your trees and plants. This moist variety needs however to be replaced from time to time to constantly feed the roots. If you don’t know when you should replace the mulch layer, ask your lawn care Rockton, IL specialists for their advice.
• Protective barrier: the mulch layer keeps the soil moist, cool and protected from heat. It also keeps pests and weeds at bay. Moreover, when installed around trees and shrubs or in flower beds, it protects the plants from unintentional physical accidents cause by lawn mowers and other gardening tools.
• Decoration: a mulch layer can also be colored, thus boosting your property’s looks with contrast, texture and depth. Dryer mulch is preferred for such landscaping design activities.

How to Install Mulch on Your Property?

Have your lawn care Rockton, IL team install the mulch around trees, shrubs, hedges and in flower beds. If you want to do it yourself, keep in mind the 3-3-3 rule: apply a 3 inch layer of mulch around each tree and plant on a 3 feet radius (to cover as much as the root system as possible), keeping a 3 inch distance between the mulch and the plants’ bark. Never allow the mulch to touch the bark of a tree or shrub, as it can cause infections that will eventually kill the plants.

Have your lawn care Rockton, IL team help you with your mulching activities and keep your landscape healthy and safe all summer long!