Having Mulch Delivered For The First Time

There are several ways to buy mulch for your yard. You can pick up bags of mulch at your local garden or home improvement store. You can have mulch loaded into the bed of a pickup truck you own or rent. Or, you can go with what's usually considered the easiest option: having mulch delivered. Mulch delivery is pretty easy to navigate and arrange for, but there are a few tips you'll want to follow your first time around.

Calculate roughly how much you'll need.

Most mulch delivery companies allow you to order by cubic yard. They may have a minimum order, such as 5 yards. The fact that they deliver by volume, not weight, actually makes it easier for you to precisely determine how much mulch you need. You can calculate the area of your garden beds, multiply it by the depth of mulch you want to apply, and then determine how much mulch you'll need. Order a little more than you think you'll need, as this will give you extra for areas where you may want a little more coverage.

Check the forecast.

When you have mulch delivered, the delivery company will generally dump it in one pile. You'll have to move it into your garden beds. This is a lot harder to do when the mulch is wet with rain. So, check the forecast when arranging for mulch delivery, and don't plan on having it delivered until you'll have a couple of clear days to move the mulch after it's dumped. (Moving mulch can be physically demanding, so allow yourself a little extra time.)

Have it dumped on a tarp.

Having mulch in your yard can be a pain. It will get kicked up when you drive over it with a mower, for example. You can keep things a lot tidier if you put down a tarp for the delivery company to dump the mulch on. Make sure it's a large tarp so the driver has a lot of room to maneuver the dump truck. Anchor it down with some rocks on either side so it does not slide as the mulch is being dumped. 

With the tips above, you can more easily have mulch delivered to your home. Once you do this, you will be more familiar with the process and should have an easier time repeating it each year when you need more mulch for your gardens.

For more information, contact a local company, like Red Mill Landscaping & Nursery.