Revisiting Mulched Borders

I have written about mulched borders before and outlined the benefits (cutting down on grass areas to mow, water retention, composting, etc. ).

Mulched borders are not a 'one and done' project. The mulch has to be replenished every year or so as the older mulch decomposes and integrates with the soil.

My husband recently got a load of ash mulch dumped and went to work restoring our borders. (He did this while Kansas City was under a heat advisory--I recommend touching up the borders in the spring or fall to avoid the heat!)

I really have come to enjoy these mulched areas. They define where many of our plantings are, and we don't have a huge weed problem in these areas (we do put down a preemergent).

Here's my husband, spreading new mulch over the old. You can just see the mulch from the last time we tackled this project at the bottom right of the photo. We use mulch leftover from RYAN's pruning business, so it is much coarser and does have leaves in it--if we wanted, we could top dress with a fancy mulch to give it a cleaner look. (We usually don't.)