i prefer natural color .. anything dyed ... starts fading.. and to my eye.. ends up looking yucky ... technical term there.. lol ..

chunks last longer ... less refill every year ... as compared to shredded ... cedar longer than pine .. pine needles if a local cheap thing great ...

i once used black .. and it cooked the plants in sun.. it just got to hot.. and held heat late into the night ...

place it 3 to 5 inches deep.. so that it settle to 2 or 3 ...its chunk size determination ...

most likely.. you will enjoy not weeding a properly mulched beds ...

there is no need to mulch under the canopy of larger hosta ... and keeping in mind.. mulch is a place for slugs to hide... leaving the bare ground.. gives you a place to put slug killer.. a buffer zone ... especially in fall.. when you dont need billions of slug eggs on or near the crowns ...

ken

A lot of the dyed mulch around here is ground up pallets and other junk wood. I generally prefer to get hardwood mulch from a local producer that is cheaper and better quality stuff than I get out of bags from the big box store.

There is a difference between wood chips and bark mulch :-) Wood chips, aka arborist's chips, are typically the by-product of tree trimming companies and are often available for free. They make an excellent mulch for just about anything as well as being a good surfacing material for informal paths or between rows in the veggie garden. Dyed mulches tend to be recycled wood products - the pallets mentioned above, construction scrap wood, ground up plywood, etc. Not something you really want to add to the garden, not to mention looking incredibly artificial! Bark mulches are just that......ground or shredded bark from whatever timber industry exists nearby and so tend to be pretty regional in nature. In my area, bark mulches are almost always Douglas fir or Western red cedar. Other areas may offer pine, juniper (Eastern red cedar), redwood, eucalyptus or cypress bark. They all work about the same :-)

What they sell here locally as "hardwood" mulch is often a mixture of shredded whole trees. It seems to be mostly oaks and maples although it seems to also include some non-hardwoods like pine. I think the place I buy mulch from sources a lot of their material from tree trimming companies.

I haven't yet had any luck finding a local source of free arborist chips (chip drop hasn't caught on here). I've read some articles about using them to improve soil structure. The garden professors' blog is a big proponent of using them where possible.

The hardwood mulch I've been using is similar minus the ground leaves and I get some of that component by composting the leaves from my yard every year and then reincorporating that into the beds before applying mulch.

When we lived in NC, the local city sold mulch and compost at very low cost. You had to be willing to pick out some trash but it was cheap. I seem to remember that NC may have some requirement for cities to sell recycled yard waste material that they collect.

gorilla hair? https://www.essentialhomeandgarden.com/gorilla-hair-mulch/#What_Is_Gorilla_Hair_Mulch

If available, pine needles used as a mulch is both great looking and a slug deterrent.

I have used pine straw on a small bed but at $9.00 a bale it's a little pricey for my large bed.

I've been using black pine for 15+ years....no issues.

I use pine bark mulch. I like the look and smell of the pine bark. I read that rabbits don't like it (false) and that it is slightly acidifying (good for my neutral soil). I only use about 2 inches to keep moisture in. I can weed and a couple of inches does reduce weeds, albeit not as well as 4 inches. I add a little every year after I move plants around the way I always do. I don't have a problem with slugs. Just rabbits, very large, very hungry rabbits.

Mulch is totally a personal preference. I like Soil Pep (bark fines) as mulch or mini nuggets. They are both made from pine bark here. Soil Pep is technically a soil conditioner but I like it as a mulch because it acts like a mulch but doesn't look chunky.

Wish I could get pine straw, but I use un-dyed shredded hardwood, in bulk, from a reputable source. It does break down and needs replacing every year... but it has tremendously improved my clay soil, which was almost impossible to dig into when I started.

I use bark mulch. I recommend the largest size because it's easier to get out of the way when working in the beds, especially if you're digging for a new plant or moving them around. The smaller chips keep ending up in the hole I'm trying to prepare. I would hate any mulch that is dyed. I prefer the natural look.

in the FWIW column, I tried a rubberized BBS mulch and it was pricey and did not like it at all. only used on paths, thank goodness. It stank/stunk/stinked for the longest time and tended to migrate in the rains. will not repeat that.

I use shredded hardwood mulch sold at the big box stores in bags for around $3 a bag. To save some $ and time on my knees putting the mulch down, I have been waiting until the plants are fully leafed out (late May in my area), and I have been pulling weeds while I wait. Once the plants are leafed out, I will mulch the open areas to prevent weeds the rest of the summer. I usually have to mulch a whole bed every 3 years or so. It always looks so nice when the hard work is done! I am very particular and will spread the mulch on hands and knees, placing it by the handful in some instances so as not to damage any plants. My husband gets exasperated by how slow I go and the fact I don't want him to help me, since he would just dump half a bag then quickly spread it around all willy-nilly. Hey, I don't ask for help, so he can't complain :) and it gets done the way I want it to look. I doubt I'm the only Type A control freak on here :)

We used to use shredded mulch but that does not work as well for us as small chips which are much more expensive but they kept the weeds down last year.

I use red mulch myself, as it makes the blue, green, yellow and gold colors of the Hostas really pop. Takes several trailer loads to complete the garden.

As with everything, it all depends on your own taste.

Mulch sold in big box stores is wood, mostly demolition wood dyed. It has no nutritional value. I found a source that sells pine bark mulch two ways. The first is lighter and the second is what they call dark mulch which is 'aged'. It costs $40 a yard ($50 delivery). It is fine, spreads easily and looks great. When it breaks down it will nourish the soil. It even has a nice smell to it.

Hey, Jon! Can't wait to see how the ravine looks this year! All those Sagae for starters....

Hi Jo, the Ravine is always a slow starter. A real heavy wet snowstorm brought down some very big branches, bent over a very large Windswept (Foxtail) conifer (I hope it straightens out). Thousands of smaller branches. It's starting to get cleaned up and yes there will be pictures....of course...the fake Sagaes (Imposters) are mostly in the Del and I have some really nice real Sagaes, one in Hosta la Vista and 6-7 more out front. Later.