As summer comes to an end and temperatures begin to drop, it’s time to start preparing your landscape for winter. One of the simplest projects homeowners can tackle in the fall is refreshing the mulch in their garden beds and landscaped areas.
Fall mulching isn’t just about making your property look neat before winter. A properly applied layer of mulch can help protect your soil, insulate plant roots, reduce moisture loss, and suppress weeds.
If your mulch has become thin, faded, or broken down over the growing season, fall is a good time to replace it or add a fresh layer.
Why Should You Mulch in the Fall?
Mulch serves several purposes throughout the year, but it can be particularly useful as your landscape heads into winter.
1. Help Protect Plant Roots
New Hampshire winters can bring significant temperature changes. Mulch provides an insulating layer over the soil, helping moderate temperature fluctuations around plant roots.
Rather than leaving exposed soil directly affected by changing temperatures, a layer of mulch provides additional protection.
2. Help Retain Moisture
Mulch can help slow the evaporation of moisture from the soil.
This can be especially helpful around trees, shrubs, and perennial plantings. While your landscape may not need as much water during the cooler months, maintaining appropriate soil moisture before the ground freezes is still important.
3. Reduce Weed Growth
A fresh layer of mulch can help suppress weeds by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching weed seeds near the soil surface.
Fall is a good opportunity to address weeds before winter and start the following growing season with cleaner, more manageable landscape beds.
4. Reduce Soil Erosion
Bare soil can be more vulnerable to erosion from rain, snow, and runoff. Mulch provides a protective layer over the soil and can help reduce the impact of heavy precipitation.
5. Improve the Appearance of Your Landscape
There’s also a simple aesthetic benefit. Fresh mulch can give garden beds a clean, finished appearance and help define the different areas of your landscape.
If you’re preparing your property for the winter or getting ready to sell your home, refreshing the mulch can be an easy way to improve the overall appearance of the landscape.
How Much Mulch Should You Use?
One of the most common questions homeowners have is how much mulch they need.
The answer depends on the size of the area and the depth of mulch you plan to apply.
Start by measuring:
- The length of the area
- The width of the area
- The desired mulch depth
If you have several separate garden beds, measure each area individually and add the totals together.
If you’re not sure how much material your project requires, PRO Landscape Supply can help you determine how much mulch to order based on your project.
Planning a larger landscaping project? A mulch calculator can also make it easier to estimate the amount of material you’ll need before ordering.
Should You Remove Old Mulch Before Adding New Mulch?
Not necessarily.
If your existing mulch has simply become thin or faded, you may be able to add a fresh layer on top.
However, extremely thick layers of mulch can create problems. You don’t want to continually pile new material on top of old mulch without considering the overall depth.
Before adding new mulch, take a look at what’s already in the bed. Remove excessive buildup, break up compacted areas, and make sure you’re not covering the trunks of trees or stems of plants.
How Close Should Mulch Be to Trees?
One common landscaping mistake is piling mulch directly against tree trunks.
Mulch should not be mounded around the base of a tree. Instead, leave appropriate space around the trunk so the trunk remains exposed.
The goal is to protect the soil and root area, not bury the tree itself.
Choosing the Right Mulch
Once you’ve determined how much you need, the next step is choosing the type of mulch.
PRO Landscape Supply offers several mulch options, each with a different appearance.
Black Mulch
Black Mulch is made from aged bark with an all-natural dye added for a black finish.
Black mulch creates a strong contrast against green plants and flowers and can give landscape beds a clean, defined appearance.
Brown Mulch
Brown Mulch is made from naturally aged spruce, fir, and pine and has a darker brown appearance.
It’s a good option if you’re looking for a more natural, understated color in your landscape beds.
Premium Mulch
Premium Mulch is a mix of spruce, fir, and hemlock with a light brown/red color.
This option can add a warmer appearance to landscape beds while still providing the practical benefits of mulch.
Cardinal Red Mulch
Cardinal Red Mulch provides a deeper red color for homeowners who want their mulch to be a more noticeable part of the landscape design.
When Is the Best Time to Mulch in the Fall?
There’s no single date that works for every property.
The goal is to complete the project while you can still comfortably work with the soil and before winter conditions make landscaping more difficult.
Fall can be a convenient time to mulch because many homeowners are already completing other seasonal landscaping tasks.
If you’re planning other projects such as planting, drainage improvements, walkways, or hardscaping, you can also incorporate mulching into your overall fall landscape plan.
What Other Landscaping Projects Should You Complete Before Winter?
Mulching doesn’t have to be your only fall project.
Fall can also be a good time to evaluate your property and identify projects you’d like to complete before winter or plan for the following spring.
Consider:
- Refreshing landscape beds
- Improving drainage
- Repairing or adding walkways
- Planning a new patio
- Installing or repairing retaining walls
- Addressing gravel driveways
- Replacing worn landscape materials
- Planning next year’s landscaping projects
Starting the planning process now gives you more time to choose the right materials and determine what your project will require.
Start Planning Your Fall Landscape Project
Whether you’re refreshing a few garden beds or planning a larger landscaping project, choosing the right material is an important first step.
PRO Landscape Supply carries mulch, stone, gravel, pavers, wall block, natural stone, and other landscape materials for residential and professional projects.
If you’re not sure which material is right for your project or how much you’ll need, contact PRO Landscape Supply for help planning your order.