A few years ago, a gardening friend suggested I place a layer of compost in my flower beds before mulching with my usual shredded bark mulch. As my garden seemed happy and required less care that ...

Some mulches are better at blocking weeds, some are more attractive, and some contain organic matter that breaks down to ...

Beautiful as they are, colorful autumn leaves can be a real clean up process. Instead of bagging them up or letting them blow away, you can turn them into a valuable resource for your garden. Leaf ...

Let’s first start with soil. It's the loose stuff on the surface of the ground that covers over half of the earth’s land surface. It’s made up of minerals, organic matter, broken rock particles, many ...

Many folks are now improving new and established gardens with mulch, but be wary of where you get it. It is possible to spread insects like the coconut rhinoceros beetle, sugarcane borer and fire ants ...

Fallen leaves are often seen as garden waste, but they are actually a valuable natural resource. When used correctly, they ...

While compost and mulch may seem interchangeable, they have distinctly different uses in sustainable landscaping. Photo courtesy San Diego County Water Authority Seventh in a series republished with ...

A rose by any other name may still be a rose, but mulches need defining. There are 17 different materials considered on the University of California’s Statewide Integrated Pest Management website, and ...

Compost and mulch. Both are great soil conditioners, but how do they differ? Each serves as a time-release fertilizer and insulator. When augmented with livestock and poultry manure, nutrient-rich ...

It takes time and effort to turn yard waste into mulch and compost. It doesn't help when people put trash in their bins. Here ...