What mulch do you use in your yard?

[Purrrrfecta]

Hi,

I want to put mulch out this year, and I am trying to find the best mulch for my yard.
I need some advice. What do you use? I read another post where someone stated pine mulch attracts termites. Is this true?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Connie

 

[ellone]

Rubber mulch - does not decompose so you don't need to replace it.

 

[veraletta]

Mulch attracts termites we found that out the hard way. So we use pea gravel. We took up all our wooden Railroad Ties and mulch. I now use brick and pea gravel.

 

[mhsjax]

Mulch also attracts those big wood roaches, palmetto bugs or whatever nice name that people put on them. They like wood, plus as our exterminator tells us, it hold in moisture and those bugs love that stuff. We will be switching to rock or the fake rubber stuff at some point. I am on a personal quest to end the world of roaches, at least my world. But I am in Florida, I am nor sure it can be done.

Seriously, on the termite thing, if you use mulch, be sure and keep about a 1 inch distance between the end of the mulch and your house.

 

[Swimalie]

We use the Scott's red mulch. So far, in 5 years of using it, we haven't had any bug problems. However, I did have a talk with the fire marshall and he recommended putting rocks up against the house. Mulch is flammable (a house and 7 others went up in smoke do to mulch catching on fire) so his recommended putting rocks the last few feet against the house, and then matching mulch.

We looked in to the rubber mulch and I really liked it but some has been found with lead in it so we won't use it.

 

[princessnoelly]

Rubber mulch - does not decompose so you don't need to replace it.

We have this under our kids swing/play set and love it. We bought it at Costco- least expensive place I found and they delivered it (came in bags). We have used wood mulch in the past and had bugs and it blew away. We use rock for every where else with weed block under it.

 

[daisax]

Just a caution that cocoa mulch is toxic to dogs!

 

[Topper]

Mulch also attracts those big wood roaches, palmetto bugs or whatever nice name that people put on them. They like wood, plus as our exterminator tells us, it hold in moisture and those bugs love that stuff. We will be switching to rock or the fake rubber stuff at some point. I am on a personal quest to end the world of roaches, at least my world. But I am in Florida, I am nor sure it can be done.

Seriously, on the termite thing, if you use mulch, be sure and keep about a 1 inch distance between the end of the mulch and your house.

Mulch is supposed to hold in moisture.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I have used the Scots black mulch for the last 3 years. I have not had any bug problems. Each year I buy 8-10 bags to refresh the beds. I had red rocks in the past, and made the mistake of using landscape fabric under it. Once the weeds broke thru it was a mess.

I use it in the beds, but not around the trees in the yard. I just let the grass grow up to the tree trunk and it looks fine (to me). Some people around here make huge 12-14" mountains of mulch around each little tree, looks weird to me.

 

[shortbun]

We mulch around trees and shrubs, along fence rows. We use gravel or ground lava against our house, mostly gravel of some kind with a row of shrubs forward of it. We also have brick sidewalk around the garage and back addition to the back patio. So far, even out outdoor areas are either cement or brick, no wood decks or mulch. The mulch I do use is finely shredded, black mulch.

 

[My3kiddos]

I use pea gravel since it's cheaper and I don't have to ever replace it. But beware don't ever buy your rock in bags it's way too expensive. Buy it directly from a quarry. Most have decorative stone shipped in and it's so much cheaper. I work at a quarry and we ship in pea gravel and sell it for $27.50 a ton. The same amount at Lowes would cost between $250-$300.

 

[Purrrrfecta]

I use pea gravel since it's cheaper and I don't have to ever replace it. But beware don't ever buy your rock in bags it's way too expensive. Buy it directly from a quarry. Most have decorative stone shipped in and it's so much cheaper. I work at a quarry and we ship in pea gravel and sell it for $27.50 a ton. The same amount at Lowes would cost between $250-$300.

This sounds like a good idea. Is this quarry in Lexington? Wondering how I could get it around 65 miles to my house.

 

[TheRatPack]

We have used Cypress in the past but sadly you can't really find 100% pure Cypress in my area anymore....most of it is mixed with Pine It has a TON of bugs in it, spiders...etc.

The rubber mulch is too expensive (10.00 a bag) and we have dogs so we can't use the cocoa mulch anymore (although I've used it in the past and it's nice!).

I may have to look in to something else.

 

[My3kiddos]

This sounds like a good idea. Is this quarry in Lexington? Wondering how I could get it around 65 miles to my house.

I'll pm you the details

 

[allison443]

I just ordered some black mulch for the yard..the guy at the garden supply place told me that hardwood mulch sometimes contains a fungus that causes black spots on aluminum/vinyl siding. He said cedar mulch doesn't have that fungus.
NO idea if this is accurate or not!

 

[tlbwriter]

Just a caution that cocoa mulch is toxic to dogs!

So its the Scott's dyed mulch, or at least that's what I have heard.

We used pecan shell mulch and it looks fantastic, but it's sharp!

 

[Swimalie]

I just ordered some black mulch for the yard..the guy at the garden supply place told me that hardwood mulch sometimes contains a fungus that causes black spots on aluminum/vinyl siding. He said cedar mulch doesn't have that fungus.
NO idea if this is accurate or not!

That's interesting. We have unknown black spots on our siding. They were there when we bought the house and it was 3 years old then. But these spots are way up high, as high as 10 feet up. I wonder if the mulch is where it came from. I would love to know how to get it off. Even our pressure washer hasn't worked.