Mulch is a Must for a Healthy, Work Free Flower Garden

Mulching around your flowers not only adds an additional decorative element to your flower bed, mulch is a must if you want a healthy, work free flower garden.

Mulch stimulates your flower's natural growing conditions, and can mean the difference between healthy looking plants with prolonged bloom time and puny looking plants with small blooms. Mulch also keeps the weeds and grass from growing in your flower garden, which means less maintenance work for you.

The primary functions of mulch is too prevent moisture evaporation from the soil and to maintain even soil moisture and temperature. You won't have to water your flower garden as often if you use mulch, and the mulch will prevent the soil from becoming too hot from the sun's rays and scorching the flower roots that grow near the soil's surface.

A nice layer of mulch around flowers prevents weed growth in your flower garden and prevents soil compaction so tender roots can grow easier. Mulch also acts as an insect and disease trap, certain wood mulches also act as a pest deterrent, and over time the mulch will break down and become an organic soil builder.

While wood mulch can be purchased in a several shades of color to match your outdoor flower garden decor, it is not necessary to spend money on mulch. Grass clippings, pine straw, leaves, compost, rotten manure and shredded newspaper all are excellent forms of free mulch. Some landfills offer free wood chips and compost, all you can load and haul yourself.

You can use inorganic items for mulch also- plastic sheeting, roofing paper, shingles, or any like item that you may have leftover from a building project. Inorganic mulch is not the best, since it will not break down, but it will serve the primary functions of mulch.

Before you mulch, place a single sheet of newspaper on the soil beneath your flower, sprinkle lightly with Epsom salts, then add your mulch. The Epsom salts dissolves and acts as a quick root growth stimulator for your flowers. Three to six inches deep is the usual amount of mulch that is recommended.