You know how we feel about mulch. We’ve not been subtle. So it’s not surprising when you consider that Beavers are mulchers in their natural habitat, creating it every time they chew down a tree.
In fact, this isn’t even our first mulching blog. But it’s not just us revisiting our flame. Mulch in fall is an important topic to cover, and though it has some of the same benefits as mulching the rest of the year, there are some specific benefits for the autumn and winter weather.
So, you want to know why we mulch in the fall. Pull up a log in the dam because the Beavers are about to lay it on thick.
What Is Mulch?
Hear us out. You may think “what is mulch” is a ridiculous question. After all, we’ve all seen mulch, right?
But the definition of mulch is more expansive than you might think. Mulch can be natural, artificial, or something in between. So we can define mulch as anything that we lay over our plants to give them benefits.
Natural Mulch
Most of the mulch we use in gardening is natural mulch. They come primarily from plant matter, such as shredded tree bark. Different parts of the country have popular mulch materials, like corn cobs out west.
The benefit of natural mulch is that it eventually breaks down and feeds the landscape. But, of course, that could also be construed as a con since you will ultimately need to replace it.
Stones are the exception to this rule. Stone naturally occurs in nature but doesn’t break down. Some stone mulches have been altered, making them the perfect segue material between natural and manufactured mulch.
Manufactured Mulch
Manufactured mulch is, as expected, manufactured. Examples include polished glass, plastic, and rubber. The benefits of a manufactured mulch are its uniformity and the fact that it remains intact forever.
The Benefits of Mulch In Fall
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the meat of the blog. Why mulch in the fall? And how is it different than mulching the rest of the year?
(Perhaps the Only) Color
First of all, mulch is pretty. Some homeowners may know nothing more than that about mulch, and that’s enough. But during the autumn and winter, your mulch may be the only color you have in your yard after your flowers have died or gone dormant.
Whether that’s true for your landscape or not, mulch comes in many colors and materials, and you can use it to add some variety to your yard.
Insulation
Here’s the big one. It will be no surprise that fall and winter get colder than the rest of the year. One of the mulch’s primary functions is protecting your plants from changing temperatures.
In the summer, that means avoiding cooking new plants in the summer heat. But when you mulch in fall, throughout the fall and winter, your plants’ roots are protected from freezing temperatures, ice, and snow.
Weed Barrier
Mulch is a weed barrier. That’s not much different in the fall than in the rest of the year. Mulch gives weeds less ground that’s friendly for them to take hold and makes new weeds easier to spot if they break through.
Where it’s slightly different in the fall because weeds are less likely to start growing. So you may not realize you’re in danger of getting weeds, but they can begin to form and gain strength to make your spring a little more challenging.
Seasonal Cleanup
One of the services that Busy Lil Beavers offers is seasonal cleanup. It’s a good idea to have your yard cleaned up between seasons at least once a year.
While in fall, you may think of cleanup as leaf collection, it can also involve laying down mulch to replenish what has broken down to feed your plants.
Conclusion
We Beavers love our mulch, and mulch in fall is at least as necessary as the more popular spring mulching option. Maybe you don’t have anything pretty growing right now, but that doesn’t mean the non-blooming plants don’t need protection!
Besides, when your landscape is barren, some attractive dyed or natural mulch, perhaps in concentric circles, is what you need to liven up your yard. So if you’ve got mulch questions, let us know. We want to help!