I was in a pinch . I call for half a dozen bags of pine bark mulch to protect the roots of some of my shrub and a tears cherry red tree diagram before freezing fall weather condition kicked in . I have no hand truck to make a bad haul and did n’t need enough to justify a deliverance . The big box memory board is just a short drive , so I decide to go there and see what I could discover . But there was no mulch of the pine barque diverseness which I opt .
There was , however , dark-brown golosh mulch , black rubber mulch , red pencil eraser mulch . Nope . Rubber mulch inhibits water movement between the ground and plant , defeating the role of mulch . It ’s also been known to leach heavy metals into the soil , so … no .
Don’t fall for “shredded” mulch.
There was also “ shredded ” brown mulch , disastrous mulch , and a slimly deeper brown mulch ( it was a major trade name that you ’ll bump in every big boxful store ) . The front of the bag read , “ made from wood products . ” sound like trees , right ? Some would have stopped reading there and bought the mulch , content in believing that they were buying awood mulch made of true pine , hemlock , cedar , or a interchangeable tree metal money . But not me . I ’m suspicious .
I flipped the bag over to translate the ingredients:“ .. this mulch is made from pallet and construction refuse which has been dye . ”Nice .
So basically , this “ forest production mulch ” was made of old industrial palette that carry God knows what and construction debris , including moldy old timber , flooring , handrails , staircases , subfloors , insistence - treated Mrs. Henry Wood , and anything that at some point was made from a tree diagram . As long as it bears even a buy the farm resemblance to what was once wood , supplier of garden mulch can call it “ woods product . ” And all of that debris was nicely shredded and dyed to look like pine or cedar tree mulch . Hell no . Off I went across town to the indie garden center to get the veridical thing .
A revue by the University of Washington found that wood mulch made from structure debris can sometimes hold back heavy metal and chemical residue :
As with compost , woody mulch quality is act upon by the germ of material . Mulches created from branches and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree clipping often contain a diversity of leaves , woods , and barque , which contributes to a highly functional mulch . In direct contrast , woody mulch made from wood reclaim from construction and demolition debris can contain pressure - treated baseball bat . In one Florida sketch , 18 of 22 samples collected from rubble processing facility contained arsenic ( from chromated copper arsenate - treated Mrs. Henry Wood ) at assiduity greater than the state ’s allowable levels . Similarly , John Mill wastes that contained formaldehyde and other wood processing residues reduced survival of tree diagram seedlings when used as a mulch .
It ’s inauspicious that buyinggardenmulch practically requires a admonition stumper on the bag and a robust suspicion of spurious marketing claim . But the health of your garden is at stake . I ’ve bought that inexpensive construction debris mulch in the past when I did n’t know better . In it , I found a rusty nail and Sir Henry Joseph Wood that understandably came from a pallet ( I found a small piece with that very identifiable aristocratical dyestuff on it and nail holes ) . After 2 years , the mulch still had n’t broken down in my garden , which was of major concern to me . A layer of living mulch ( that is , mulch from lately felled Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree or yard waste ) should break down within a year with the help of biologic activity from the territory and a consistently soused or damp bottom layer .
Your garden should not be an alternative to a landfill . If the bag ( or when buying bulk , the greenhouse ) specifies the rootage and eccentric of mulch , it ’s legit ( like that pictured above ) . Pass on the construction debris mulch and gum elastic mulch and opt for living mulch .
