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What Is Mulch?

Mulch is dried leaves or pine needles. Basically, any type works fine as long as it is aged. The best looking mulch is Double Hammered Hardwood, made from aged shredded hardwood. It does not contain manure or any sort of fertilizer, just wood. That is where it gets its pleasant earthy wood smell.

Processed Pine mulch also works well. It tends to be more expensive than Double Hammered Hardwood and other types of mulch, however. Some people prefer the piney smell of the wood.

You can make your own mulch, but you need to make sure the material is properly aged. Otherwise as time passes, your mulch will rob your plants of much-needed nitrogen. For example, fresh sawdust makes poor mulch.

If you're planning to mulch more than a small space, it is cheaper to buy it directly from a mulch supplier than to buy it in bags at the garden store.