Mulching Your Plants Are Is Good For Them Unless You Get Some Toxic Mulch

The increasingly-used practice of mulching provides valuable benefits to both soil and plants, and is something that is recommended. There is one difficulty, though, at least in a number of parts of the country. This is because in these places a waste product generated by sawmills, hardwood bark, is shredded and utilized to make mulch which has become commonly used. Those sawmills had troubles disposing of the waste bark which resulted from the practice of denuding the logs before sawing them.

Presenting the bark in the form of mulch was genuine genius, but unfortunately the product is not always safe for garden use. As a space-saving strategy, the bark is heaped into piles, which can get very high in winter season when demand is low. The hazard for your garden arises from the mulch being compacted too tightly by the front end loaders having to drive up onto the heaps. The bark material is not going to decompose unless it's given oxygen, and time, which is achieved by air passing through it. If condensed too tightly, the movement of air is inhibited and the waste matter becomes increasingly hot, to the extent that it could spontaneously combust.

Once it warms up, it also causes the mulch to become toxic, because it can't release the gas. Digging into the mulch and spreading it releases a terrible stink and also poses a danger to your plants. Your plants could be burn-damaged because of the hot, poisonous gas which escapes from the mulch. Surround your plants with this noxious matter and in a quick space of time they will go from green to brown. The yard may very well be turned brown by dumping a heap of this kind of mulch on the lawn. You could be completely unsuspecting, and only be alerted that the mulch was bad when you discover the damage.

The unhealthy mulch carries a strong odor once you get down to it in the pile, but so does the good mulch, and the scent is different, but you may not be able to tell the difference. It might be somewhat darker in color, so if you suspect a problem, take a couple of shovels full, and put them around your least important plant, and see what happens. Make certain that you take mulch from inside the pile, rather than on the edges. If nothing has happened to the plants for more than 24 hours, the mulch should be fine.

While it's not the end of the world, this type of problem is rather prevented than experienced. It may not make you too thrilled to put something on your plants, and later discover they were burned. Stay away from toxic mulch by purchasing from a place you trust and who can give you some type of guarantee or assurance - you do, after all, want to get the benefits of mulching.