Rubber mulch???

[busy mom]

Has anyone had any experience with rubber mulch? Does it hold it's color, last from year to year, ect.?

 

[EMAW_KSU]

Has anyone had any experience with rubber mulch? Does it hold it's color, last from year to year, ect.?

For a play area?

 

[busy mom]

For landscaping...

 

[texasroni75]

Had a neighbor who bought rubber mulch for their backyard playset. It was a bit pricey, but held it's color for ages. It did make the play area safer and softer and it was pretty to look at.

However, it does have its pitfalls: it get very hot and smells - strong rubber chemical smell - in the summer. It gets tracked everywhere, and into your lawn and won't degrade, and is a pain to clear out. If you have a lot of trees - it's not easy to use a leaf-blower or rake to clean the leaves out of it. It's not good for around plants or in garden beds - it does the opposite of holding in water for roots - the water will run off of it and onto surrounding areas, and the heat generated from it can burn foliage.

 

[Northernlites]

I have it for landscaping. I hated paying
$100 per year for woodchips that blew away and lost color. IT sells for about $15 a bag, I bought ours a Lowes. We have it on all our flower beds where there are only small trees and hostas. I love it. It keeps it colour all year long. Also there is no smell at all, never was. It is a fabulous product. It looks great. It does not blow away and it keeps weed down and bugs away. Well worth the investment. The one I bought states it has a 15 year use cycle which is amazing. I never had any burning problems. The person who posted that stated their neighbor had used it not them. I am highly recommending the product.

 

[crisi]

I can't imagine picking it up and disposing of it.

We did rock "mulch" in our landscaping for the same reasons - we wouldn't need to replace it, it would - over the long term - be less expensive. But it was a huge pain to dispose of it when the landscaping changed. I still have it in spots, and I hate it. And where I've gotten rid of it, its still in the ground, making it difficult to plant.

Think it through from a long term perspective - $100 a year on mulch is a huge expense - and four hours to spread it a pain in the back end - but both of those things I'll gladly take for the biodegradability of it.

 

[LJSquishy]

We have a couple of raised beds with rubber mulch. I absolutely love it for certain areas! We bought the rubber mulch at Costco and it was $8.99 per bag. It has a 5 year color warranty I think...maybe 10 year, I can't remember. Edit: I checked the bag and it's a 12-year color warranty!

Anyway, rubber mulch is only good for areas that you aren't going to garden in much, such as around shrubs, trees, or empty areas. It isn't a good choice in flower beds if you are replanting or dividing plants regularly because it will get mixed in with the soil.

I put down weed barrier fabric underneath the rubber mulch. This will be our 3rd year with it and it hasn't faded. It does smell like rubber for a few weeks when you first put it down, but the smell does fade. It no longer smells even when the sun is shining on it.

For the rest of our property we have decorative rock...both 1 1/2 inch basalt (dark gray color) and also Woodstone (which is slate I believe and resembles bark sort of, it's gorgeous). We used to buy mulch every year but got tired of replacing it every year. We love the rock...and also the rubber mulch (in areas you don't mess with).

Oh, and the rubber mulch does not float away or blow away. It's not too bad in early spring when I tidy up the yard and have to pick the dead leaves out of it either from our neighbors trees.

 

[js]

This is all very interesting.
I love how the red mulch looks but hate having to do it every single year and yes, it does get expensive.
For those that have it, how does it hold up during the winter and snow.
It will be used around trees and up the side of my driveway where I have snowball bushes so not shoveling on it during the winter.
Thank you.

 

[SarahKate]

We have the red rubber mulch and have had it for about three years now. It did have a rubber smell when it came out of the bag but it dissipated and we don't smell it on hot days. We live in the Midwest and have hot summers and harsh winters. The color has not changed and is still the same. It does sometimes move around a bit more than wood mulch....if there's wind sometimes a little blows out if the landscaped area. I believe it's made from recycled tires so I like the idea of repurposing that type of material.

 

[LJSquishy]

This is all very interesting.
I love how the red mulch looks but hate having to do it every single year and yes, it does get expensive.
For those that have it, how does it hold up during the winter and snow.
It will be used around trees and up the side of my driveway where I have snowball bushes so not shoveling on it during the winter.
Thank you.

It holds up great in the winter. It just sits there all winter underneath the snow. It looks as good as new once the snow melts.

 

[kid-at-heart]

It is not good for the environment.

 

[Judique]

We have a couple of raised beds with rubber mulch. I absolutely love it for certain areas! We bought the rubber mulch at Costco and it was $8.99 per bag. It has a 5 year color warranty I think...maybe 10 year, I can't remember. Edit: I checked the bag and it's a 12-year color warranty!

Anyway, rubber mulch is only good for areas that you aren't going to garden in much, such as around shrubs, trees, or empty areas. It isn't a good choice in flower beds if you are replanting or dividing plants regularly because it will get mixed in with the soil.

I put down weed barrier fabric underneath the rubber mulch. This will be our 3rd year with it and it hasn't faded. It does smell like rubber for a few weeks when you first put it down, but the smell does fade. It no longer smells even when the sun is shining on it.

For the rest of our property we have decorative rock...both 1 1/2 inch basalt (dark gray color) and also Woodstone (which is slate I believe and resembles bark sort of, it's gorgeous). We used to buy mulch every year but got tired of replacing it every year. We love the rock...and also the rubber mulch (in areas you don't mess with).

Oh, and the rubber mulch does not float away or blow away. It's not too bad in early spring when I tidy up the yard and have to pick the dead leaves out of it either from our neighbors trees.

Agree with all of this! Especially putting down the weed barrier fabric.

Neighbor used the red colored one from Walmart. I found the smell intense but then it faded. I bought the brown color at Costco and the smell was less.

 

[crazymomof4]

We did a small area under a wooden playset. I regreted it after the first season. Biggest downfall is that it gets littered with seeds, leaf bits, tiny twigs and other debris that is blown in, carried by squirrels or dropped by birds, even if you don't have a tree directly overhead. The rubber mulch completely loses it's desired "neat" appearance with all this debris laying on it! and trying to sift through it is one of the most frustrating and time consuming things I've ever done!!! I did it once (so we could retain the mulch for 2nd season) and after that, no more!
Another issue is that with heavy rain, the rubber mulch bits will float..... taking them into your lawn if you don't have a substantial boarder around the mulched area.

Bottom line... NOT worth the expense IMO

 

[disneydeal]

I've got rubber mulch for landscaping and love it. Still looking good after 3 years And from my experience it does NOT...... get very hot and smells - strong rubber chemical smell in the summer.... oh and also it's never a good idea to but wood chips near house that would invite termites so I'd say rubber mulch is a definite plus. I believe I got mine at Lowes maybe its better quality than other places like walmart.