Bark Mulch For Your Garden
Want To Know About Bark Chips, Well Here You Have Found Our Bark Chippings Support Site
We have developed this website to help to answer all your queries and questions about buying garden bark on the internet Our core business is a website called turfandstuff.com where we sell all sorts of bulky garden products. However there were so many questions asked of us about our garden bark that we have decided to develop this new website.
What you should be looking for with your bark mulch supplier
To buy bark for your garden, you should first of all consider how much you will require. To calculate how much wood bark you will need, you need to measure the area that you wish to cover with bark. If you can get an average width and an average length, all you need to do is decide on a depth
The depth required depends on several factors. See the table below for all the factors:
Please note, if you have a chronic weed problem like thistles, rosebay willowherb or Couch grass (rack) then you MUST use a weed control fabric below your mulch layer.
Now use our bark volume calculator below to work out what you need.
Once you have decided how much bark you require, you need to decide on the quality you require.
There are several bark types available, however I always recommend a middle ground.
Firstly, there are larger bark sizes or “nuggets” available. However there are two problems with those. Firstly, more light can get through to the soil and hence greater weed growth, the only solution being to use a thicker layer or weed control membrane. Also your lovely, encouraged and prized blackbirds will throw it about all over the place whilst they hunt out their diet of worms, slugs and snails. Wind is also more likely to catch the larger pieces.
Secondly, there is a very fine grade available (the fines from the bark chip grader) these are commonly referred to as composted bark. This product is absolutely excellent for soil improvement tasks, especially trying to break up heavy soils. It can also be used to mulch the surface of annual or vegetable borders where it can be gradually incorporated into the surface of the soil. The problem is that you won’t get more than 1 year mulching effect from this product because fresh, wind blown weed seeds can easily germinate on the surface on the fine bark. If you have laid a good thick layer (over 4”) then there is a chance some of the weeds will be very week because of the distance to nutrients. However at 2” depth, weed seeds will root right through it.
So my recommendation is to go for the middle grade, often referred to as decorative garden bark chippings.
These will be graded on a approximate 10mm/60mm grade. The mix in sizes within the product will cause the bark to consolidate a little better. The slightly finer content will fill the gaps blocking out the light and so preventing weed growth. The finer material however is not so fine as to be desirable by weed seeds for germination.
Once you have decided on which bark type you require, you then must decide what pack type you would like.
The best value is normally achievable by buying bulk bags of bark.
We offer the largest pack size available on the internet. It measure 2.5 cubic metres. It is supplied in a large bulk bag, strapped onto a pallet. The problem with smaller bags is that your handling and disposal problems are increased. Our bags are polypropylene and are easily recycled back into all sorts of useful products, like garden furniture or decking boards.
If you don’t require as much as 2.5 cubic metres, we also have a smaller and very popular 1.5 cubic metre bulk bag available.