Hello, my name is Chester. I’m the founder of big lakes lawn care and today I’m going to give you a quick tip if you are installing your own mulch this year.

So, one mistake that people make when they’re installing mulch is that at the base of their plants and trees in their landscape, they mound the mulch up around the tree trunk or the base of that plant. It looks like a volcano, they do a volcano around the base of the plant. What this does is it chokes off that plant it chokes it off from getting oxygen, sunshine and water down into the root base and I’ve actually seen people install mulch improperly like this and kill a Japanese maple tree that had a trunk that was about three inches in diameter. It’s amazing what a small harmless little mound of mulch can do at the base your plants. It’s terrible for them.

So, if you’re installing your own mulch this year, what I would recommend you do is you install mulch up to the tree or shrub and then you cup it. We make a little moat and cup the mulch so it’s not resting up against the base of your plant. That will ensure that your plant can breathe and thrive and grow and your mulch will look awesome at the same time. Hope this helps. Thank you.