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Not Sure How To Mulch? Read This.
Is spreading mulch in your future? I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume it is. Spreading mulch is easy. Idiots do spread mulch all the time that is a fact. The first thing many people do when they decide that they are worth more than minimum wage and pursue entrepreneurship is start spreading mulch for money. That being said, this leads to plenty of mulch that is badly spread. Have you ever seen a house with new mulch and it looks like hundreds of little ant hills? That looks like crap! Take the time to rake it out evenly or don’t bother doing it at all.
How To Spread Mulch
- Choose a mulch that compliments the color of your home. Don’t be the people with a purple house and red mulch. Contrast is good, clashing is not.
- Determine how many yards of mulch you will need. A cubic yard will cover 100 square feet (length x width) at 2.5 inches of depth. A previous blog post of mine addresses this issue – Calculating Coverage Per Yard. Also I made a video on yardage coverage. As you can see it is a common question – Video Explaining Yardage Coverage.
- IMPORTANT! Determine if you can afford the amount of mulch you need before you start making a mess of your yard. There is nothing more awkward than having to  re-spread your old mulch that you have just taken up because your Amex is declined.
- Call your local landscape company and set up a delivery (Obviously if you are going to pick it up this step is not applicable to you, idiot!). Schedule a delivery for when you plan on spreading the mulch. No need to have mulch sitting in the driveway for any longer than necessary.
- Prepare the area. This involves weeding and trimming shrubs if necessary. We want to have all that stuff done before we mulch, so we don’t mess up our pro mulch job.
- Choose if you would like to apply landscape fabric to prevent weeds. There are pros and cons to this. I myself don’t like it because I tend to apply a new layer of mulch each year. After a few seasons the old mulch has decomposed and you end up with compost on top of your fabric. Weeds will grow on top of this and it is a real pain to pull up.
- Make sure you have a wheel barrel and pitch fork. Pitch forks are ideal for mulch spreading, only use a shovel if you must.
- Spreading the mulch. Start applying the mulch at the farthest point first to prevent walking over the finished mulch.
- Fill the wheel barrel with mulch and dump it where you will be spreading the mulch. You can dump some in a few separate spots to make raking easier. Ideally you want at least 2 inches of mulch. This makes it less likely that any material will show through from below.
- Use a standard metal rake to level out the mulch. A uniform surface is the key to having a great looking mulch job.
Master these steps and you can propel yourself to mulch-spreading greatness. Ignore them, and you will forever be known as, “the idiot who can’t even spread mulch right, no wonder his wife left him.”
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