Mulching, these days, is starting to become popular, due to the benefits it brings to the plants and soil in your garden beds. There is one issue, though, at least in certain parts of the country. This is because in these places a waste product produced by sawmills, hardwood bark, is shredded and used to make a mulch which has become commonly used. The sawmills had difficulties dumping the waste bark which resulted from the practice of denuding the logs before sawing them.

While using bark to produce mulch was a handy option for the lumber yards, but it’s not perfect. In the form of a space-saving measure, the bark is heaped into piles, which can get very high in winter season when demand is low. The task is done with front end loaders that, when driven up on top of the piles of bark, excessively compress the waste, resulting in a problem for the gardener. To be able to decompose, the waste bark has to be exposed to oxygen across a period of time, which means air has to flow through the pile. The temps of the decaying bark, when it’s so compacted that airflow is limited, can get very high, and there’s even the danger that it could catch alight.

Since the ensuing gas can’t be released through airflow, the mulch can actually be contaminated and become toxic. Excavating into the mulch and distributing it releases a terrible stink and also presents a danger to your plants. Your plants might be burn-damaged through the hot, noxious gas which escapes from the mulch. Surround your plants with that noxious matter and in a quick space of time they will go from green to brown. If you happen to get a mulch stack like this and it gets put on your yard it could turn the grass brown. Regrettably you will only know that the mulch was toxic when you discover the undesirable “browning of the green.”

Both good and bad mulch have formidable, though different, smells when you dig into them, but not everybody can tell the difference. An additional suggestion is that bad mulch is a touch darker, and if this alerts you to a potential problem you can test it by placing some around a plant that you don’t value too much. Make sure that you take mulch from within the pile, and not on the edges. If after twenty four hours your plant is still fine, then the mulch is most likely okay.

While it’s not the end of the world, this kind of problem is rather prevented than experienced. Picture adding mulch around your plants with the best of motives, only to discover they had been burned. Steer clear of toxic mulch by buying from a place you trust and who can give you some type of guarantee or assurance – you do, after all, want to get the benefits of mulching.