Hi Everyone, We planted just over 60 Excelsa in November last year. We didn't put down any ground cover in hopes that they would get lots of water over the winter and would start to root ... so far all the trees are doing really well! To make things a bit nicer, we would like to put down some bark mulch around the trees. Our idea was to lay down some landscape fabric to keep the weeds down and then lay down a nice thick bark mulch. Should I be concerned about doing this? Is there anything I should be aware of? Also, does anyone have thoughts on what type of bark mulch to put down - ie. are certain chips nicer/better then others? We paid some good $$$ for these trees and a number of hours putting them in place so we don't want to do anything that might screw them up at this point - so we thought better to ask in advance. Thanks for any help. C
You should have mulched at planting time. Skip the fabric and get some mulch now, choose whatever you like the look of.
Ron, Thanks for the quick reply. Question - why no landscape fabric? Weeds are already starting to grow vigorously - so that is why we wanted to put the landscape fabric down. Thanks again. C
Mulch and leaves decay into a humus layer, weeds grow in humus layer, on top of fabric - the stuff doesn't work unless you keep it bare and exposed on top.
From my experience, the weeds will just grow through the cloth if there is an abundance of them. It will hold them back for a while, but not too long. If you weed before you put the cloth down it will help. If there are no seeds in the bark mulch, you won't have any new weeds grow. However, the weeds will eventually grow through the cloth from the ground underneath. There will be less of them so it will make pulling them easier. As for the bark mulch itself, it will help not hinder as long as you do not bury the root collar of the Excelsa. The root collar is the area where the most gas exchange happens, so you do not want to cover that up!
