Picking The Right Landscape Surface Material For The Job

Many people new to the gardening world are often confused by the number of options available when deciding which landscape surface material they should use.  Mulches, soil amendments, and fertilizers; it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

After you have decided where to put your garden you will have to make a decision on whether you are going to build a free standing raised garden bed or plant directly into the ground.  There are many advantages to a free standing raised garden bed including an extended growing season. This is because the soil in a free standing raised garden bed  warms up faster than the ground soil. If you choose to plant in the ground, you may want to consider using edging stones to define your garden bed. Edging can be used to frame in the area that you are mulching to help keep it in place.  The next time you are browsing through supplies, edging stones should be on the top of your list to check out! 

When selecting plants for your free standing raised garden bed or inground garden whichever the case may be, try to pick hardy plants whose requirements are similar to what your area naturally provides.  If your plant does have specific needs that are not being met there is likely some type of surface material that you can use to supplement its current conditions.  If you have chosen a plant that requires well drained soil and you want to plant it in an area dominated by clay, you will need to condition the soil first with soil amendments.

TO create better drainage with clay soil you should mix compost into it. Your compost

can consist of about anything that is organic in nature. Fallen leaves, chicken manure, Cow manure, are a few examples. Adding coarse sand to your compost and clay soil mixture is key as it helps to seperate the clay mixture. After conditioning the soil add your plants and water them often.

Occasionally, one surface material is mistaken for another. A perfect example would be soil amendments and fertilizers.  Many people assume that these are one in the same.  Typically a fertilizer provides nutrients to improve the quality of the plant whereas a soil amendment is used to improve the quality of the soil.  While it is possible that a soil amendment can also be a fertilizer, you will find that most times this landscape surface material is used to treat different issues. Soil amendments can be anything from manure, to sand, and even gravel.

Once you have finished planting you will want to add a top layer of mulch.  Using mulch will help keep the soil cool and moist and will help to protect against weeds. There are many types of mulches that can be purchased in the surface material section of your local hardware store.  For a cost effective alternative, you can make your own mulch.  In the fall when you are raking up bags of leaves, do not throw them out, crumble them up and use them for mulch. You can also use your lawn mower bag to collect grass clippings and if you have a pine tree in your yard, gather the fallen pine needles and use them as mulch for your plants as well!
 All in all there is a lot to learn about picking the right surface material for any of your desired applications.