Winter may be tightening its grip, but the impending kickoff to the New Year has many of us at least fantasizing about spring landscaping and garden maintenance – including on commercial properties. One of the tasks to start thinking about is mulching for your trees – reapplying an existing layer or adding some to fresh planting – and how to best go about it to benefit tree health and vigor.
Importance of Mulching
You may ask: Why mulch in the first place? Well, this practice has loads of benefits, and actually mimics an entirely natural tree process that takes place outside the realm of human agency. Both deciduous and evergreen trees naturally shed foliage, twigs, senescent branches, and bark as part of their growth and self-regulation processes. That litter accumulates as a layer of duff around the base of the tree.
The duff as well as the resulting humus boosts soil moisture, wards against erosion, and provides organic matter and nutrients to the soil. When we mulch our trees and shrubs, replicating that natural phenomenon in a cultivated setting, we’re aiming to reap those and other benefits.
Other advantages of mulching include:
- Weed and grass suppression, improving tree growth
- Moderating soil temperature
- Protecting roots and trunk base against damage from lawncare activities
Mulching Tips for the New Year
Spring is a fine time to mulch. Organic mulches typically need annual reapplication, and if you’re planting new trees – it’s a good season to do so for both hardwoods and conifers, generally speaking – mulching will be part of the finishing-off process.
If you’re preparing to mulch a newly planted tree, be sure to remove as many weeds as possible ahead of applying the mulch. Also, level the site as best you can.
You’ve got lots of options for kinds of organic mulch, from bark and woodchips to lawn clippings and pinestraw. An all-too common mistake is to pile mulch up against the base of the tree. That practice – the so-called “mulch volcano” – is a no-no! Mulch that’s in direct contact with the trunk can encourage rot and infestation, so leave a little space between the base of the tree and your mulch layer.
That layer ought to be on the order of two to four inches deep, with a gentle inward taper. If planting a new tree, extend the mulch outward to roughly three times the rootball diameter. Ideally, mulch should be applied to the tree’s dripline: the outer perimeter of the canopy over the ground surface. This ensures mulch provides its protective, moisture-holding, and grass/weed-suppressing coverage over the majority of the tree’s root zone.
Give your trees the best foundation for strong growth and sound health with the right mulching approach! Now’s a great time to plan for annual mulch reapplications and/or tree plantings during the New Year. And whether it’s dropping off woodchips for mulching purposes or handling trimming, pruning, stump-grinding, or any other aspect of commercial tree care in Vallejo, CA, get in touch with E Z Tree, going strong since 1996.
