Tips To Prepare For A Mulch Landscape Delivery

Mulching in your landscaping gives many benefits to your yard's appearance and the health of the vegetation growing within, which is why it is a practice many homeowners utilize. If you are new to mulching or need to supplement what you already have in your yard, you can update your yard and landscaping with a great choice of mulch material that is delivered right to your home.

Here are some tips to help you manage your upcoming mulch delivery and installation. 

Use Tarps

When you order mulch from a local supplier or a garden shop, you are likely going to need more than just a few bags. You might be able to get away with picking up single bags at a local shop to fill in a couple of bare spots, but for a full-yard mulch supplementation and application, it is best to order mulch in bulk. This will provide you with enough coverage to protect your soil and give your yard a rich mulch look.

When the mulch is delivered, it will be deposited in your yard or on your property in a location that is easily accessible by the mulch delivery driver. This may be right in the middle of your yard where you plan to disperse it, but it also may be in your front yard on the driveway. For this reason, plan to set out a large tarp or two on the site where the mulch will be dumped. This will make cleaning up easier and keep the rest of your yard free of mulch pieces. Then, if there is rain in the forecast, place another tarp over the pile to prevent it from getting wet before you can apply it. Wet mulch is much heavier and can compact the pile and make it harder to spread.

Prepare the Ground

The ground where you will be spreading the mulch needs to be prepped before you can spread it around. It is best to do this before the delivery so you can get to work spreading it as soon as it arrives to avoid compaction issues or the mulch pile being in the way of other activities. 

Get the soil ready for mulch by removing any weeds that are actively growing. Pull the weeds or treat them with an herbicide to eradicate them. Mulching is a great way to help prevent weed growth of new weeds, but won't kill any existing weeds. Add some nitrogen to the soil to enrich it for future bedding plants. You can do this with some bagged composted manure or you can mix grass clippings or coffee grounds into the soil. Don't apply any landscape fabric barrier to the soil before you add the mulch because this will create more work for you and won't benefit your soil's health at all.