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Mulch is a great way to help both yourself and your plants. Good quality mulch properly applied will keep the plants roots cool, conserve moisture in the soil, and greatly reduce weed growth. Weeds not only look bad but steal vital nutrients and moisture from the soil. From your perspective it looks great too!

Bark mulch is what is most commonly used. It is relatively inexpensive, attractive and durable, and easy to apply. While it is durable it will break down over time and add a fantastic amount of organic matter to build the soil for even happier plants over time. We sell two different types in bulk (by the cubic yard). "Red" is the classy, cinnamon colored mulch. Although it is somewhat brighter than what we have carried in the past (in response to customer surveys), this is not the nearly fluorescent pained woodchips one sometimes sees at used car lots. 2010 price for Red is $44.95 per cubic yard. The other one is a Dark Pine. Dark Pine is a rich and deep colored, like semisweet chocolate chips.  It is great for making the plants show up extremely well. The 2010 price for Dark Pine is $42.95 per cubic yard.

We do deliver to the area. We can usually deliver the same day or next day. The truck fits up to 6 cubic yards, and we have no minimum volume for delivery. We have a larger truck available for larger volumes, please call for delivery pricing for that. We gladly take orders over the phone for mulch deliveries. We encourage you to come in and take a look at our mulches. We are proud of our quality!

A note on much volume: Mulch is sold by the "yard" which is more accurately a cubic yard, or an cube 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet. Seems straight forward enough. Unfortunately our customers tell us that some unscrupulous sellers seem to have a smaller bucket on their tractor than we do. And it can be very hard to tell what an accurate measurement is. Put another way, if you were to order and pay for 100 cement blocks, but only 75 were delivered, you would feel as if you had been ripped off. As well you should! We had one customer come in to get a pickup truck load of mulch. He said he wanted 3 yards. We told him there was no way we could fit 3 yards in his small truck. He then said he has been getting it at {name deleted} for years and THEY can fit 3 yards in. We ended up loading his truck with two yards. He said that was the same volume the other place had been calling 3 yards all these years. The moral of the story? Don't be lured in by unrealistically low prices per yard. What really matters is how much it costs you to finish the project. So whether you get it form us, or somebody else, make sure you are comfortable with the supplier.

There are some specialty mulches such as Buckwheat Hulls and Cocoa Bean Shells which can be just as advantageous, but are significantly more expensive.

Other mulches that we do not recommend in general include crushed stone, and brick chips. Crushed stone an brick do not do anything bad, but they do not build the soil by adding organic matter over time. Organic matter in the soil is the key to long term success with your plants.

Following are some charts to figure out how much mulch you need. If you want to figure it out on your own, one cubic yard will cover about 300 square feet to a depth of one inch. For an initial application we recommend about 2.5 to 3 inches of mulch. To "refresh" an previously mulched are only about one inch is needed. deeper applications than this are not better, and can actually cause problems.

We also have bags of mulch. In addition to the Hemlock and Dark Pine we usually have Cedar and may have other types as well. To convert cubic yards to bags use the following chart. If you are trying to figure out if bagged or bulk is less expensive, usually bulk is. If you need more than about 15 bags (14-18 depending on type) it is less expensive to get it delivered, even with the delivery charge included.

Where Successful Gardeners Shop - - - Since 1947