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2796 Views 21 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  Grassmechanic, 
turkp15
I wanted to get a ballpark of how much it would be for 5 yards of that red mulch from a landscaping supply store or a nursery?

Thanks
~jeff
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J
In the Chattanooga area it would cost about 140.00 your cost.
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J
I am paying $24 a yard, $20 if picked up.

John
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G
Who's choice for red?


Red is not natural.

When you see red mulch in the landscape, what is the first thing your eyes catch? What are you looking at mostly. Red mulch.

Your planting, you would prefer to show your plants and design concept. Or is the red mulch the main feature of the landscape.

Red mulch is the worst creation ever made. That is my opinion.
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B
i had planned on using Sweet Pete mulch for my last job, but everyone in the area is out of it till august (happens every year for some reason). The customer wanted the job done ASAP so we went with red cedar. It really went well with the hedges and small flowers he has along the house. We ended up using it under the trees too, but i think those would have done better with sweet pete, which is the more typical black/brown color.
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KCLandscape
When you put down that pretty red mulch, you are creating problems...
The reason it is dyed is that usually that stuff is the lamest, bug ridden, softwood crap; it's the only way they can sell it short of making it into compost, which takes more time and resources.

Bugs love it

As said before, why would you put lots of dollars into beds, plants, berms, trees and groundcovers only to detract from the beauty of the design and plantings by putting something down that takes the eye away from the design and plants?
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KCLandscape
Hardwood Mulch single ground - 12.00/yd
Double ground 13.50 yd
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dvmcmrhp52
I agree with Glan on the worst creation ever made,even though I had to finish a small stone border,and bed job with it today.(customers request on the mulch,and the customer happens to be a neighbor! so I get to look at it every day!)
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M
the BLACK dyed!!!!!!!! YUCH!!!!!!:blob4: :blob3: :blob1: :dizzy:
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N
$20yd. plus $50 for delivery. Thats at our Garden Center here in North Jersey
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P
You guys can complain about died stuff all you want. All I know is that I charge an arm and a leg for the stuff so you can eewwwee all you guys want.

Most customers that choose the died mulches, just don't want to deal with the smell of naturally darkened mulch with compost.

As far as using cheap bug ridden wood, majority of died red and black are made out of shredded pallets. :cool:
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chefdrp
" I love the smell of fresh mulch in the morning"
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G
I agree with GLAN and the others about steering clear of dyed mulches. Why? The main reason is that there are CHEMICALS used in the dyes that are detrimental to the long term health of plants, especially perennials. Anything natural, including stone, is better than dyed mulch, IMHO.
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P
Anything natural, including stone, is better than dyed mulch,
Click to expand...
Agreed to a certain point. Natural mulch is usually shredded or chipped wood mixed with compost. Naturally decaying, and chemically breaking down. If that HUGE pile of mulch at your supplier is not turned frequently and moved often, the chemical breakdown can release ammonia that can damage plants and grass.
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G
Ahhhh, but I'll take a little ammonia (nitrogen) any day over the chemicals in the dye used in red mulch.
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M
and I've never seen it mixed with compost.
It will heat up and break down all by itself, though it certainly would do it quicker with a nitrogen source like grass clippings.
Finished compost doesn't have anything that would accelerate the breakdown of ground wood that I know of.
Carbon/nitrogen/oxygen
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G
well guys I guess I dont share your dislike of the black dyed mulch. Yes it has its downsides..takes N out of the soil as it composts, the dye will stain you and anything it touches, a mess to work with.....but...you can't beat the look of it months later. When the "real stuff" (which is now more full of scrap wood than in the past no matter where I buy it) fades to grey in 2 months, the black mulch will be looking as good as it did the day you put it down. As far as plant damage, I respectfully and strongly disagree. We've been using allot of it for 5 straight years and have not seen a single plant/perennial problem from its use. In fact, since so many businesses are requesting it, we are using it before we install the flower displays and the flowers are doing fine( we do fert all flower displays every 3 weeks.) Years ago you could buy high quality "real: bark...but now its junk in my opinion.

I've used the black on my own property for 8 years and have not had a single problem and my planting beds have over 200 different perennials in them along with annuals.

Now the red mulch hurts my eyes....it just makes too much of a statement in the landscape.....just my opinon on dyed mulches
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P
That's the only reason I have been using so much of the died mulches. We maintain alot of upper scale houses (550K and up), and I would rather charge them more for the died stuff and have less problems.

Maybe our "natural" mulch is a little different than in other parts of the country. It consists of a mix of EVERYTHING that landscapers and tree companies dump. We have used it several times, and have had plants die, wither, grass die and brown, etc. We have also had a case where a womans annuals died within a 12hr time period after the mulch was installed.

Also, the naturally blackened wood will fade within 6-8 months, and settle to the surface. Not that I totally agree with died "fake" mulch. I just find it saves headaches on better accounts. We do however use natural in certain instances. :cool:
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G
On a related issue, I've had a few people ask me about black rubber mulch. Its only sold in bags and its hard to find. I have no desire to get involved with that stuff. It would seem that black rubber would get very hot,,,,more so than even stone or the fake black mulch. The rubber mulch does look pretty real...you almost can't tell its rubber.. I forget the actual cost per bag but doing a whole property with it would be very expensive.
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A
I really love natural brown mulch, black it's ok, but red really doesn't look good (my opinion), but what can you do if Mcdonalds calls you and says, we want you to mulch our propety, are you going to tell'em it can't happen, that is bad for the plants and so on? do you think you'll be able to sell'em natural mulch? what about all the customers that drive by and think it looks so nice, and they want their houses the same?

I always suggest using natural, but it customers wants black, black it is.
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