Project details
Skill
1 out of 5Easythough it requires working on your knees
Cost
$200 and up, depending on size of garden bed
Estimated Time
1 to 2 hours
In this video, This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook shows a homeowner how to properly mulch garden beds.
Steps for mulching a garden bed
- Cut a fresh border along the edge of the garden bed with a manual edger.
- Rake up all the existing mulch to reveal the topsoil.
- Shovel the excavated mulch, soil, and grass into a wheelbarrow and add it to the compost bin.
- Use a three-tine cultivator to carefully scrape old mulch from around base of the plants and trees.
- Use pruning shears to snip away all the secondary root growth from around the tree.
- Remove all the old mulch from around the tree.
- Order a truckload of mulch and have it dumped onto the driveway.
- Fill the wheelbarrow with mulch, and then use an ensilage fork to transfer the mulch to the garden bed.
- Rake the mulch out to 1 to 2 inches deep. Be careful not to pile mulch up against the base of the plants.
- Rake the mulch away from the outer edge of the garden bed, so it’ll be easier to trim the grass with a string trimmer.
- Spread an inch of mulch around the base of the tree, keeping it away from the trunk.
Tools
Tools & Materials
- Lawn edger
- Garden rake
- Shovel
- Wheelbarrow
- Three-prong cultivator
- Bypass pruning shears
- Ensilage fork – 10-tine