Dear Dr. Dirt: I am considering planting Knock Out roses and grass along the south side of my house. A friend suggested I use the new rubber (old tires) mulch since it is more environmentally friendly ...

Happy almost spring! As with so many of these thorny eco-dilemmas, the answer depends upon whom you ask. Passionate people on both sides of the mulch aisle will try to convince you that this product ...

Choose mulch that drains well and don’t pile it too thick. Leave a gap around stems to help everything dry out faster.

Q. Our HOA is considering using rubber mulch in a large area. In your experience, what is the up side or down side? I have read that as it deteriorates the chemical and all ingredients break down and ...

Q: I recently put down recycled rubber as mulch for my front flower bed. It looks great now, and I like what I’ve heard about it not being an attractant for insects. I dug out the bed, removed an ...

American drivers wear out nearly 300 million tires annually. That’s a lot of rubber to find a use for. One solution is to shred it, dye it, spread it around plants and call it mulch. But wait! Rubber ...

Two garden terms you might often see mentioned in these columns are “compost” (decaying organic matter) to enrich our sandy soil and “mulch” (material spread around plants to reduce evaporation, ...

Mulch is a blanket, an organic material applied to bare soil around plants. Effective mulches include shredded hardwood bark, pine needles, coarse compost, and shredded native tree trimmings. Mulching ...

People tend to equate a higher price tag with greater quality, but that's not always the case, especially with mulch upgrades ...

Q: I have two questions. First, I read the other day that to encourage birds in your yard, not to use dyed mulch. My concern is that I used dyed mulch in a new part of my vegetable garden and wonder ...

Mulching soil is one of the kindest ways that we can look after our gardens. Well-rotted compost or manure will help to bind light, sandy soils as well as increase the amount of moisture that can be ...

Rubber playground surface material may protect kids from some injuries but be harboring a different source of harm, a study in Boston suggests. Researchers tested lead levels in the soil, sand, mulch ...