You’re Over Mulching Your Landscape: Here’s How We Know

The Top Signs You’re Over Mulching

Remember that whole too much of a good thing argument someone gave you when you were a kid and that’s why you had to stop eating your fifth bowl of ice cream? Okay, well, as it turns out (and hey, we didn’t want to believe it either), that entire argument makes perfect sense—even in the world of landscaping.

Especially when it applies to mulch.

That’s right—you can absolutely, 100 percent, totally, without question over mulch your landscape—it’s actually pretty easy to do it, too.

Look, we know what you’re thinking. You’re sitting there like, “wait a second, haven’t you guys told us before that mulch could be the saving grace of our property? That it could help us fight weeds and keep our soil moist? That it could be the perfect aesthetic addition to our landscape?”

We totally have. And we stand by all of those things. There are actually a ton of great reasons to include mulch in your landscape design plans—but over mulching will pretty much cancel out any of those benefits.

In other words, if you want to reap the rewards of mulch, you need to make sure you’re balancing your mulch levels.

Not sure if your landscape—whether it’s commercial or residential—is over mulched? We got you covered. Read up on the following signs that can help you determine whether or not your landscape is suffering from some mulching heavy-handedness.

Underground Root Flares

You know how trees are living things? Well, just like other living things, they need to breathe. Trees need space to exchange gases through their bark and through their root hairs. When you pile up mulch against your tree trunks, you run the risk of suffocating your roots, blocking them from being able to exchange those necessary gases. If you check for your root flares (where the top of the root emerges from the trunk of your tree) and aren’t able to see them—AKA they’re underground—you know you’ve got a problem with over mulching. Your root flares should be healthily above the ground—too much mulch will suffocate your tree’s root flare!

Rotting Flower Stems

Just like with tree branches, too much mulch will suffocate your stems or cause them to have excess moisture trapped against them. This essentially invites rot, mold, infestation, and infection onto your flower stems, ultimately causing them to rot away. It makes sense, right? Mulch is often added to help retain moisture—too much of it can cause moisture problems.

Mulch Volcanoes

We know what you’re thinking but trust us—it’s not as cool as it sounds. This is one of the tell-tale signs of over mulching. Even if you think you don’t know what it is, you’ve seen this before. Where the mulch mound piles up against the tree trunk. The reason this won’t work? The base of your tree needs to breathe—its roots need oxygen. When you stifle those roots with a big, beautiful pile of mulch, you run the risk of giving your tree mildew and root rot. Further, mulch will trap moisture against your tree’s bark—an easy environment to foster diseases and insect infestations. In short, keep your mulch piles away from your trees.Of course, there are more ways to tell if you’ve over mulched your commercial or residential property. If you find that you’re dealing with symptoms like soggy soli, diseased plants, bug infestations, soft bark at the base of your trees, dead branches, smaller leaves than normal, and leaves dropping earlier in the season than is typical, then you’re likely dealing with an over mulching issue!The good news? You can mulch without over mulching—you just need to be cautious about overdoing it. Want even better news? We can help. When it comes to mulching your yard, Landcrafters knows what’s what. No matter what you’re looking for in the mulch service realm—from your first layer of mulch to mulch reduction services—Landcrafters can help. After nearly two decades in the business, we know a thing or two about multitudes of mulch, and we’d be more than willing to share that knowledge with you! Reach out to us directly from our site right here, or give us a call at (727)-201-3947.