Mulch Installation In Salisbury

Bulk mulch typically costs $40 to $90 per cubic metre for standard blends and $100 to $150 for premium pine bark, plus $30 to $80 delivery. A typical suburban front garden needs two to four cubic metres to be laid properly at 75 millimetres, putting the material cost around $150 to $500. Supplied and spread jobs are quoted per square metre or as a project price that includes weeding, edging and spreading, with labour in this market around $50 to $80 an hour. Call Mitesh on 0406 147 913 and we will measure the beds and quote for free.

In Adelaide the two best windows are autumn and spring. Autumn mulching, roughly March to May, goes on while the soil is still warm and holds that warmth and moisture through winter, and it suppresses the flush of winter weeds before it starts. Spring mulching, around September to October, is the more important one locally because it locks moisture into the soil before the summer heat arrives and gives you the biggest reduction in watering through December to February. Avoid mulching onto bone-dry soil in the middle of summer, since you will simply be sealing dry ground, so water thoroughly first or wait for rain.

Laid badly, mulch causes real problems. Piled against trunks and stems it traps moisture and causes collar rot, which kills established shrubs and trees slowly enough that nobody connects the two. Fine mulches can become hydrophobic and form a crust that sheds water instead of letting it through, which is worse than no mulch at all. Fresh woodchip and uncomposted material temporarily draws nitrogen out of the top layer of soil as it breaks down, which can yellow shallow-rooted plants. Mulch that is too thick, beyond about 100 millimetres, can starve the soil of oxygen, and mulch laid over unweeded beds simply hides the problem for a few weeks. Laid properly at 75 millimetres, clear of stems, over weeded ground, none of those apply.

We weed the beds first, removing or treating anything perennial such as couch runners and soursob, since mulch will not stop those. Bed edges are cut and defined so the mulch has a clean line to sit against and does not migrate onto the lawn. The mulch is then barrowed in and spread evenly to around 75 millimetres, raked to a consistent finish, and pulled back clear of every trunk and stem. If the beds are on dripline, the mulch goes over the line so water is delivered underneath it. We finish by blowing down paths and driveways, and we remove any weeds and debris rather than leaving them on site.

Water beading on the surface means the mulch has gone hydrophobic, which happens most with fine, aged or compacted materials that have dried out completely through a Salisbury summer. The fix is a wetting agent and breaking the crust up with a rake, and choosing a coarser mulch next time so water can find its way through. Weeds growing through almost always means the layer is too thin, since anything under about 50 millimetres lets enough light through for seed to germinate, or that the bed was not properly weeded before the mulch went on. Wind-blown seed will always land on top and germinate in the mulch itself, but those are shallow-rooted and pull out with two fingers, which is a very different problem to weeds coming up from below.

For front gardens and presentation beds, pine bark is usually the right answer because it looks good, lasts two to three years and does not blow around. For vegetable gardens and for improving tired clay, sugar cane or straw is better because it breaks down into organic matter within a season, though it needs annual replacement. For under trees, along informal paths and on large blocks, woodchip is cost-effective and entirely appropriate. Pebble is the choice where you want a permanent surface and do not care about feeding the soil, such as side paths and drainage runs. Most properties are best with a mix, and we will price it that way rather than putting premium bark somewhere nobody sees.