I have a garden at the top of a hill under two oak trees. I put down pine bark fines because it was my understanding that they were better for the plant/soil than hardwood. However, every time we get a hard rain, the mulch tends to wash downward and pile up against plant stems/stalks and eventually makes its way to the bottom where I put in a terrace before the lawn. I can't take the soil at the bottom up much higher because I have three more oaks along the side of the garden I don't want to kill.

Does anyone else out there have a sloped yard with gardens? If so, what type of mulch do you use? How deep is the mulch? Does it actually stay where you put it? Does it blow around when using a leaf blower in the fall?

Thanks!

Flo

Yup. Me.

I've learned to use rocks, edging bricks, etc. on the downhill side to keep mulch within the gardens (mostly Hosta - no surprise there). Yeah, it piles up somewhat at the rocks but a rake puts it back in place. Believe it or not, I've found that thicker mulch doesn't wash away as much as thinner mulch. I use (ugly) shredded trees from my property first and decorative mulches as a topping.

What sort of decorative mulches do you use - hardwood? pine? shredded or fines? I've read that shredded hardwood is the best to use on sloped areas and I've seen community entrances where it seems (from a distance, anyway) to stay in place, but I've read that hardwood mulch isn't good for plants. I thought about using my mulched up leaves as they would eventually help my low OM, but I used all of those on my lawn

I have some rocks and small boulders (large pieces of slag that I've dug out of the garden)that I've tried to place strategically here and there and I've done the brick thing as well. I just stack the bricks (no mortar) so they tend to slide around a bit. I just restack them.

Mostly dyed, shredded Cedar stuff.

Me, too. My backyard pitches down to the swale, plus my back garden is raised and slopes down from the deck to the lawn to absorb the height difference the deck fellow designed in.

I use a rough-cut (black dyed because I like it) mulch and don't have too much trouble with it washing. Any rougher mulch should do OK, as Andy noted.

Overall, I prefer rough hardwood mulches anyway. They allow more oxygen infiltration even using heavier coverage, water penetrates more easily, and many creatures (like slugs) don't particularly care for it. Toads and the like don't seem to care, which is good--I like toads and enjoy seeing them in the garden.

Exceptionally heavy rains might dump the edge of the garden onto the lawn, but I just rake it back on the rare occasions when that happens. I don't use any blockers there because I just happen to prefer the more natural, unbounded edge. Over time, the gardens have been walking outward a bit from mulch setting, but that's maybe six to eight inches in five years, and I'm fine with that.

but I've read that hardwood mulch isn't good for plants.

Depends. Something like shredded hardwood pallets will have been chemically treated. I honestly have no idea where mine came from, but suspect that at least some of it is pallets. I've noticed no issues, and use 1 to 4 inches per year of the stuff.

Like any other mulch, keep it away from the central stems of permanent plants (I don't worry about annuals and never have an issue).