Mulching to suppress weeds

I have moderately sized garden, with the front garden being almost as big as the rear. Both are lawned with borders and beds around. I have shrubs , rose bushes and small trees, perennials of various kinds and a fair few Spring bulbs amongst it all. My question is this.....
Obviously it can be a problem keeping on top of the weeds in the borders. I am thinking of mulching the whole lot with something that will not only look attractive, but also be ok around all types of plant/shrub/tree... oh and obviously will help with keeping it a bit more weed free than it is at present. I like the bark chipping type appearance, but can anyone advise me here. Is it ok to cover everything in this way? What would be a good thing to use ?
Thank you
Blue

 

There is another option Blue,you could go round with a hoe once a week EVERY week............It's rewarding and theraputic.You would be suprised how little time it takes and you get chance to check ALL your plants as you go round
You would still get weeds with a bark mulch and it would cost a bit and the birds would have great fun throwing it around everywhere.

 

Fresh bark chippings will also deplete your soil of nutrients.

If you are mulching to keep weeds down you should really put at least a 6-10 inch layer of well-rotted organic matter on, or the weeds will just come back through.

I would agree with Roders. Potter round every so often with a hoe, hand fork, and trug, and remove weeds yourself. It's therapeautic, healthy, gets you closer to your garden etc. Can't go wrong.

 

Ok thanks all. It's not that Im a lazy gardener, I just had a spinal injection and was wondering if I could make life a tiny bit easier for myself. :flag:

 

Hi Blueroses!!

I have to agree with Woo. I mulched my beds this year, after a hell of a lot of hard work and re-organisation. I am so so pleased with the result.

I bought some bags of the forest bark mulch, a dark coloured one. My soil tends to dry out and go rock hard, and the bark has stopped this happening. When you pull back a bit of mulch and look underneath the soil is lovely and moist and crumbly and it is already beginning to rot down into the soil, probably helped by the worms, which is adding lots of organic matter to the soil, which is what I really need.

On my rose bed I mulched about 3 inches deep. On my flower beds I have not done it as thickly as I am planting quite close together and it would just swamp some of my annuals.

When I decided to go for it, after getting some advice on here, I looked up 'mulching perennial beds' on google videos and there are some really good videos which really help (mainly American I'm afraid) and they taught me to 'think Doughnut' when you mulch around stems.. so you do not let disease get into the stems through the moisture.

The beds also look amazing - dark and wonderful. Also, although it is true that you can only hand weed, when you pull up a weed the whole lot - roots and all - effortlessly comes up, because the soil is moist.

 

Thank you all very much .... negatives and positives for mulching alike

WOO your garden looks fantastic ! :ntwrth:
Victoria Plum ( nice to see you here tee hee :wink: )...... that's really helpful and just the sort of feedback I need. :gnthb:

I think Im going to go for it. I find my soil compacts down and dries out too, so if it helps that , ....well... sorted !
Where did you buy your dark forest bark mulch V P ? I usually go to Homebase for my gardening 'bits and pieces' but there is also a big Garden Centre not too far away. I can get some help with the laying of it. I expect I will need to completely clear the soil of weeds first

 

This is a brilliant video - [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNvYihxfaVA"]YouTube- How to Mulch a Garden[/nomedia]

I used J Arthur Bowers Woodland Bark http://www.silverspringsgc.co.uk/bark-and-mulches
It's on this page if you scroll down. I really enjoyed doing it.

 

Yay.... Im off to look at those links now. I love doing stuff myself, but due to my spinal injection yesterday, I may need to enlist a bit of help with this bit :flag:

Thanks VP :gnthb:

 

I love doing stuff myself too. My hubby is a laid back 'mañana' man so I try and get on with it, cos I'm impatient when it comes to getting the garden done. But I rely on him to do the really heavy jobs.

Have fun! :thumb:

 

PS Blue - hope you are ok after your injection. k-l Sounds painful!

 

Thank you VP ............. Im much more comfortable today. Nice of you to ask x

 

Sorry for the late reply.
I just like browsing through posts and if i can help i try.
I bought "composted bark". It's not bark chippings much MUCH finer. It looks really good when you put it down. I have REALLY good soil in the back garden, very little weeds grow since putting it down.
The only thing that seems to grow is the bird seed I put out for the birds. I just pick them out the second I see them growing.

 

Thank you all for this. I think you may have solved a problem for me. B&C do 100 litres for £5.98 so I think I'll go shopping