Mulch: What Kind, How Deep, Where to Pull It Back
Wood chips for permanent beds, straw for vegetables, leaf mulch for woodland gardens — three mulches, three roles. Never volcano the trunk; always pull back from stems.
Wood chips for permanent ornamental beds. Straw for vegetable beds. Leaves (shredded) for woodland gardens. 2-3 inches deep. Always pull back from trunks and stems — mulch against bark holds moisture, rots the bark, attracts rodents. Never use dyed mulch in food gardens; rarely use landscape fabric under mulch (matted nightmare in 3 years).
Why mulch
Mulch does four things at once: conserves soil moisture (cuts watering 30-50 percent), suppresses weed germination by blocking light, moderates soil temperature, and slowly feeds the soil as it decomposes. A well-mulched bed needs roughly half the maintenance of an unmulched one. Skip mulch and you've made the work harder.