Mulch: red, brown, or pine-straw?

I’ve been doing black, but I also have pine trees and it sucks keeping it black. If you have lots of trees, don’t be like me.

Straw.



Probably sounds strange, but there are certain types of people who like red mulch. It may be stereotypical or prejudice, but we could pick off what type of plants and mulch people would like based on certain socioeconomic factors.

I do a mix of brown and pond rocks.

Pine straw

I just counted 17 pine trees that I can see from my kitchen window. And there are more. The straw falls all over the back yard and a ton collects on my deck. A rake, pitchfork, and wheelbarrow and I use pine straw out front.

I'm a pine straw man.

I also use pine straw , but if my neighbors cats keep crapping in it . Goodbye kitties .

I agree wholeheartedly that red mulch looks ridiculous. It’s not a color found in nature....it’s as fake as dyed hair and gel nails. It stains sidewalks and driveways, and the dye runs off into rainwater. Furthermore, it is sold in plastic bags that are discarded.

Pine straw is natural, undyed, and a renewable resource. Unlike cypress mulch or bark nuggets, no trees are cut down to harvest it. It eventually breaks down into the soil.

The only thing worse than Ugly fake colored mulch is the disgusting rubber shreds installed by my Bama fan next door neighbor. Sure, let’s spread industrial waste all over our gardens....yeah, that’s a good idea. Tires are so problematic that you have to pay a disposal fee when buying new ones. Yet you wanna spread rubber chunks on the soil? Not to mention they’re dark and hold a tremendous amount of heat. Incredibly bad choice in our hot, wet climate....and bad choice anywhere.

quote:

---

Red is tacky as hell. IMO you want your mulch to blend in as a natural ground plane color, not stick out like a sore thumb.

---

Spot on.