Mulching is a simple garden practice that can have a large conservation impact on home landscape environments, as well as a beneficial effect on the overall environment of the earth.
Organic mulches improve soil condition, reduce water usage, and also help in carbon sequestration of excess global carbon dioxide, the gas involved in global warming. Determining how much mulch to use in a given area can be done with an easy calculation.
Mulches are organic or non-organic materials used for covering open areas in gardens and on farms. Coarsely ground dry plant matter, ground rubber products, and gravel or lava rock are all used as mulch in different settings. The most common organic materials used are cedar, hardwoods, pine, straw, and compost.
Mulches are spread evenly over the surface of the soil to a depth of two to four inches. When mulch is placed in areas with trees, a one foot circle of bare soil is left around the base of the tree for protection from insects.
Using mulches reduces the amount of weeds that can take root in the soil by blocking out light needed by germinating weed seeds. Fewer weeds means less labor tending the area, less use of weed controlling chemicals, as well as less use of gas powered equipment like mowers, weed eaters, and tractors.
Soil under the organic cover can still breathe, but evaporation of moisture is slowed down significantly. In this way, mulching conserves water. Since run-off of rain and irrigation water is slowed, soil erosion is also minimized.
When organic mulches are used, the material slowly breaks down, improving the humic acid content of the soil below. This provides the soil ecology with nutrients that feed soil bacteria, beneficial soil organisms like earthworms, and also fertilizes crops or landscape plants growing in the area.
Calculating
how much mulch is needed for covering a given area begins by determining the square footage of the space. If the area is square or rectangular, this number is found by multiplying the width by the length in feet.
When two inches of mulch cover is desired, the square footage is then multiplied by .17 and the product divided by 27. The result is the number of cubic yards needed.
For three inches of mulch, the square footage of the area is multiplied by .25, and for four inches of cover multiplied by .33. In each case the resulting number is then divided by 27, yielding the cubic yard amount of mulch needed.
Another approximate way of calculating the amount of mulch required is by remembering that one cubic yard of mulch will cover 100 square feet of area to a depth of just over three inches.
Mulching can also help reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels because soils contain almost 75 percent of all terrestrial carbon stores. When soil is mulched, these carbon stores are sequestered and trapped in the ground, rather than being released into the atmosphere.
Recycling plant matter by chipping or composting it for application as mulch also reduces carbon dioxide releases that would otherwise occur if the materials were left to rot or were burned.
Many companies now specialize in production of mulch and delivering it to homeowners for use in their gardens. Landscapes that are mulched with organic materials conserve water, reduce fossil fuel use, and sequester carbon, keeping it from contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
