So what type of mulch should you use? Which one is the best - organic or non-organic?
The answers are whatever you want and both types can be best - it's up to your personal preference, how much you want to work, and your purpose in using it. Organic mulch - such as pine bark or wood chips -- is preferable when you like to dig around and turn your soil, allowing the mulch to decompose into soil. Non-organic mulch - rocks, pebbles, or the newer rubber mulch, a recycled product from used tires - doesn't need replacing and can be another source of color and texture.
The benefits of using organic mulch is that if you use certain wood mulches, they become a pervious groundcover that will allow percolation of water into the ground, allowing easier decomposition and eventually enriching your soil. You can also help the environment by using recycled organic mulch from your own yard waste or municipal recycling center, which is often free. Organic mulches can be a good source of compost while adding a natural, tropical, or wooded forest ambiance to your garden design. Types of organic mulches available are cypress, eucalyptus, pine bark, meleleucca, and shredded recycled wood products.
The downside of using organic mulch is that they require more work when you have to replace it (some wood types more often than others do) every one to two years. Organic mulches, such as cypress, meleleucca, and eucalyptus will fade quickly too, going from glossy golden browns and grays to matte, dull colors in a matter of weeks. Organic mulches like pine bark nuggets and pine needles can last for up to three to four years, keeping their color the entire time depending on your soil conditions and location. Speaking of color, there are mulches now on the market dyed to resemble redwoods and other unnatural color schemes. This is a choice that only you can make with your design palette. My advice is that if your mulch is the prettiest element in your landscape, you may need to rethink your landscape design. Colored mulches work best in designs of evergreen, non-flowering landscapes that also take into account your house colors. If in doubt, use a color wheel and keep your landscape palette, including your mulch within the same color group. Let your natural mulches be the aesthetic framework for your garden mural.
Non-organic mulches like rocks, stones, pebbles, and lava rocks can be a more permanent solution for the "Stepford", non-maintenance yard. Rocks can be used to contribute to a southwestern theme for a desert garden or add unique interest to a water garden feature whose theme is carried throughout the yard. Advantages of using pebbles, stones, or rocks in your landscape as mulch is that it reduces maintenance - you won't have to replace it except maybe once every ten years or so, if installed properly with a meshed landscape fabric underneath it. If you don't use landscape fabric, you will see your stones quickly sucked into the chasms of the earth below, benefiting an unknowing but grateful gardener in China. Make sure you have cleared your garden bed of any weeds with tubers, rhizomes, or bulb-like roots. They will thrive underneath garden mesh even without sunlight and heat and you will find that you have even more weed problems in the future.
