How to Lay Mulch in Your Yard Like a Pro

Here’s how to become your own mulch master

Photo: dvoevnore / Adobe Stock
Photo: dvoevnore / Adobe Stock
Em Norton
Written by Em Norton
Contributing Writer
Updated Oct 31, 2023
SKILL LEVEL
Easy
COMPLETION TIME
2 hours
COST
$50–$100
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What you'll need:
TOOLS
  • Garden rake
  • Shovel
  • Wheelbarrow
  • Gloves
SUPPLIES
  • Mulch (10 to 14 bags depending on project size)

Mulch has an abundance of benefits. It reduces weed growth, maintains soil moisture, regulates soil temperature and adds aesthetic appeal. To make the most of your mulch, we’ve developed a guide on how to lay mulch to take advantage of its benefits and enjoy its look.

Prepping to Lay Mulch

Before diving into laying mulch, it’s important to note that there are different types of mulch to choose from. The type of mulch you opt for depends on what kind of project you’re tackling. For instance, a vegetable garden could benefit from bark or wood chips, while colored mulch may be better suited for a flowerbed. Additionally, if you’re able to choose a day to complete the task, a sunny, warm day will be easier and more comfortable for you to complete it.

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  1. Prepare the Bed

    The first step in laying mulch is to prepare the bed where you will be spreading the mulch by removing debris and tidying plants. You should remove dried up leaves and sticks and prune diseased and dead branches from other plants and trees, and pinch off any dead parts of perennial or annual flowers. Finish this step by tidying the edges of the bed. To do this, you can use a shovel or spade to draw a defined line between the bed and your lawn.

  2. Water Dry Beds

    If the bed is dry—say there hasn’t been any recent rain—you’ll want to water it before you spread new mulch. Since mulch helps seal in moisture, you want to set up the bed for the opportunity to retain valuable moisture.

  3. Remove Weeds

    Just because mulch suppresses weed growth, doesn’t mean that removing weeds shouldn’t be a part of how to spread mulch. By removing pre-existing weeds before you lay the fresh mulch, you’re creating optimal conditions for the soil and plants to come.

  4. Apply Mulch

    Shovel the mulch from your wheelbarrow onto the bed, or shake the mulch directly onto the soil from the bag, into small piles. It’s especially important to make sure you apply mulch around the base of any plants in the bed to protect them.

  5. Spread Mulch

    Once you have the amount of mulch you need, spread it evenly across the bed using your hands—make sure to wear gardening gloves to protect your hands from getting scratched by debris.

    While the mulch cost will go up the more you need to use, you don’t want to skimp out and have it be uneven. It will probably take a couple layers of mulch to cover the entire bed, depending on its size. So keep shoveling or shaking out piles of mulch onto the bed and spread accordingly as you go.

  6. Check Depth

    The final step in how to lay mulch is to check its depth to ensure you have an adequate amount before moving on.

    As previously mentioned, how much mulch you need depends on the size of your bed. However, when it comes to the mulch’s depth, the rule of thumb is pretty universal. To deter weeds from invading your soil, the mulch needs to be about three-inches deep. If you can see bare soil poking through the mulch, you need to add more.

DIY vs. Hiring A Pro

Spreading mulch is a very doable task–even for beginner DIYers. When you do it on your own, you cut down on landscaping costs by only needing to buy supplies, and perhaps any gardening tools you don’t already own, instead of also needing to pay for labor and for the delivery of the mulch.

That being said, if you’re running short on free time, don’t feel you can do this task safely on your own, or if the project at hand is large enough to go beyond the DIY-scope, you can seek out the cost of mulch delivery near you and browse potential pros to tackle the landscaping on your behalf.

Frequently Asked Questions

While you don’t need to put anything down before mulch, you can apply a pre-emergent herbicide to prevent weed growth. As long as you remove weeds before you spread mulch, you should be in the clear. But a herbicide is something that you can put down before mulch as an extra layer of protection.

Mid to late spring is the best time of year to mulch. If you do it too early in the spring, the mulch could slow down the warming process of the soil and affect how well plants grow. By mid to late spring the temperatures are usually steadying, making it an ideal time to spread mulch.

It is not necessary to remove old mulch before putting down new mulch. While you can remove the old mulch if you feel inclined, it shouldn’t affect the new mulch if you leave it. Mulch does gradually break down and add nutrients to the soil, so leaving old mulch could promote fortifying your soil long term. The only time you absolutely need to remove old mulch is if it is infected or is surrounded by other diseased plants, as this could negatively affect your new mulch and plants.

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Learn more about our contributor
Em Norton
Written by Em Norton
Contributing Writer
Em loves combining their budget-savvy instincts with a passion for home improvement. With plenty of experience writing in the financial industry, Em acknowledges that it’s crucial to budget for home projects and to have the full scope of these projects from a financial point of view. Their home saving tips can be found on personal finance sites like Borrowell and Money Under 30.

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