Back when I was a professional gardener, I had clients who insisted on having me lay down landscape fabric then putting bark on top of it to discourage weeds. I hated this practice and tried to talk ...

A few years ago, a gardening friend suggested I place a layer of compost in my flower beds before mulching with my usual shredded bark mulch. As my garden seemed happy and required less care that ...

Compost and mulch. Both are great soil conditioners, but how do they differ? Each serves as a time-release fertilizer and insulator. When augmented with livestock and poultry manure, nutrient-rich ...

For effective weed suppression without the need for a weed membrane, a mulch layer should ideally be three inches deep, ...

Mulching is a key garden task, but many gardeners miss the mark. Learn what mulch is, how to apply it, and what to avoid.

A rose by any other name may still be a rose, but mulches need defining. There are 17 different materials considered on the University of California’s Statewide Integrated Pest Management website, and ...

Let’s first start with soil. It's the loose stuff on the surface of the ground that covers over half of the earth’s land surface. It’s made up of minerals, organic matter, broken rock particles, many ...

Beautiful as they are, colorful autumn leaves can be a real clean up process. Instead of bagging them up or letting them blow away, you can turn them into a valuable resource for your garden. Leaf ...

Which mulch should you be using for your garden? - Experts look at the most effective coverings for your beds and borders.

Apples, plums, and other fruit trees don’t need as much fertilizer as fast-growing vegetables that complete their entire lifecycle in a single season. However, fruit trees that are growing slowly or ...