Spreading mulch on your garden beads, not only improves soil health, it helps conserves water, and enhances your landscape appearance. It acts as a protective barrier that reduces evaporation, blocks weeds, and balances root temperatures. However, when applying mulch to your garden beds, there are a few safety concerns to consider.
In late May and early June there are often deals to be had on bags or bulk truck loads of mulch. Typically the inexpensive mulch found at your local garden center is made from recycled wood waste (such as chipped pallets or scrap wood) that is tinted to give it a uniform color. While inexpensive brands of mulch are cost effective, they may not have undergone the same level of screening that more premium brands undertake.
On occasion you may find a stray piece of plastic or other foreign objects as you lay the mulch on your garden beds. What you may not anticipate is finding sharp pieces of broken glass in your mulch like I did yesterday.
We recommend wearing heavy duty work gloves while spreading mulch. The gloves will help protect your hands and also keep your hands from becoming stained by the mulches dyes.
Visit our Materials Calculator to get an approximate idea of how much mulch you will need.
Reasons to mulch:
Soil and Plant Health
Moisture retention: Mulch blocks sun and wind to slow down water evaporation.
Temperature regulation: It keeps roots cooler during hot summers and insulates against winter freezes.
Nutrient replenishment: Decomposing organic mulch feeds beneficial soil microbes and deposits nutrients back into the dirt.
Erosion prevention: The layer absorbs the impact of heavy rain droplets to stop topsoil from washing away.
Disease reduction: It stops muddy water from splashing soil-borne pathogens onto plant foliage.
Garden Maintenance
Weed suppression: A dense layer blocks sunlight from reaching weed seeds, stopping germination.
Less watering: Improved water retention means spending less time and money on irrigation.
Equipment barrier: It creates a designated perimeter that protects trees and shrubs from mower and string trimmer damage.
Aesthetic Value
Curb appeal: Fresh mulch immediately makes plant beds and borders look clean, neat, and professional.
Visual contrast: The dark, uniform texture highlights the vibrant colors of flowers and green foliage.
There is no “G” in HGTV. I know it looks like it’s there, but it’s really a silent G. Is it just me, or is HGTV run by complete idiots. Every time a home improvement program becomes popular on the network, it immediately disappears. Beyond that, I can’t remember the last time I actually saw a gardening program on the network. (In all honesty, I haven’t had cable in years, likely because there were no gardening programs and well, just how many episodes of House Hunters International can one person watch?)
Are you old enough to remember Victory Garden on PBS? James Underwood Crockett was the closest thing to an American celebrity gardener since Johnny Appleseed. After Crockett’s death, Roger Swain made a noble effort hosting the program, but PBS had long lost interest.
What about Martha Stewart you ask? While she does include gardening in her program, she doesn’t focus her energies on gardening alone. These days you’re more likely to find her baking brownies with Snoop Dogg than re-potting her gardenias.
Thankfully, thanks to streaming services like BritBox and gardening offerings on YouTube it’s easier to find gardening programs in the United States than ever before.
A Country of Gardeners
Since 1968 a considerable number of Britons tune in to BBC 2 most Friday nights for a program called Gardeners’ World. It’s long time host, Monty Don (pictured above) is a genuine celebrity in the UK, with over 1.3 million followers on instagram . The 2026 season is scheduled to start on the 13th of March. It’s a truly lovely program and by itself worth the cost of a BritBox subscription.
Gardeners’ World isn’t an anomaly. There have been many other successful gardening programs in the UK over the years. Including Gardeners’ Question Time which has aired on BBC radio since 1947. There are well over 800 episodes available on the BBC website. Beechgroveis a gardening program that has aired on BBC Scotland since 1978. It is also available on Britbox.
Alan Titchmarsh ( 173k) is another well known British gardener. He was the host of Gardener’s World from 1996–2002, prior to Monty Don tenure. He has since hosted the long running series, Love Your Garden, Ground Force, and most recently, Alan Titchmarsh’s Gardening Club (which as I write this, is available on Amazon Prime.)
The Proteges
Both Monty and Alan have had a fair number of assistant gardeners or “co-presenters” over the years and many of them have become quite well known themselves. The big question has become, when Monty Don does decide to move on from Gardeners’ World, which he has openly discussed, who will replace him?
David Domoney ( 149k) is a horticulturist and presenter who appeared on Love Your Garden, and is currently the resident gardener on ITV1’s This Morning. web | ig
Adam Frost ( 136k) is a garden designer and horticulturist known for his award winning gardens including seven gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show and as a presenter on Gardeners’ World. He is the author of the book Real Gardens: Seven amazing Chelsea Gold Medal-winning designs. web | ig
Rachel de Thame ( 130k) is a gardener and Gardeners’ World presenter who also hosts the BBC coverage of the annual Chelsea Garden Show. She is the author of several gardening books including A Flower Garden for Pollinatorsig
Nick Bailey ( 77.4k) is a garden designer who has created and managed gardens on four continents. His work ranges from gardens, horticultural consultancy, public speaking, writing, and presenting on Gardeners’ World. He is the author of three books including 365 Days of Colour in your Garden. web | ig
Arit Anderson ( 35.5k) is an award winning garden designer, and television presenter, best known for her work on Gardeners’ World and Garden Rescue. web | ig
Sue Kent ( 28k) is an avid gardener and presenter for Gardeners’ World and the Garden Rescue programs. Her professional gardening career began when she sent in a video of her garden to Gardeners’ World. The garden was so impressive, she was soon added to the program as a presenter. web | ig
Danny Clarke ( 23.1k) known as the Black Gardener, is a garden designer and television presenter who hosted The Instant Gardener (2015 -2016), Filthy Garden SOS (2021) and Love Your Garden (2021–). Impressed by Danny’s garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, the David Austin company, named a rose after him. The rose is called Dannahue, Danny’s given first name. web | ig
Notable British Gardeners
James Wong ( 601k) is an ethnobotanist, garden designer, television presenter, and a panelist on Gardeners’ Question Time. James is the author of multiple books including How to Eat Better. web | ig
Charlie McCormick ( 186k) is a gardener and floral designer who grew up in New Zealand but lives in the UK. He has written for or been featured in numerous prominent publications. “My garden philosophy is simple: you should always plant what you like even if nobody else does.” His book A Year at the Parsonage: The Story of a House & Garden will be released in October of 2026. ig
Harry and David Rich ( 83.2k) are brothers from Wales who work together in their landscape design business and on television as presenters of programs like Garden Rescue. They are the authors of the book Love Your Plot. web | ig
Alice Vincent ( 55.5k) is a non-fiction and horticulture writer, editor, and podcaster. After writing for the Telegraph for multiple years, she moved to the Guardian and became a features editor at Penguin Books. She also has columns in Gardens Illustrated and The New Statesman and hosts several popular podcasts. Vincent is the author of several gardening books including Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival. web | ig
Sarah Price ( 55k) is an award winning landscape designer who has won multiple Gold Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. Sarah is a contributing editor for Gardens Illustrated and also writes for House and Garden and The Telegraph. web | ig
Alys Fowler ( 40.5k) is a horticulturist and journalist. Her work has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, Gardeners’ World Magazine, Gardens Illustrated, Country Living, and The Daily Mail. She is the author of multiple gardening books including The Edible Garden and Eat What You Grow. ig
British Gardeners on YouTube
Benedict Vanheems ( 1.07M) is a lifetime gardener and the face of the GrowVeg YouTube channel. He has contributed as a writer and editor for Garden Design Journal and the Kitchen Garden. web | yt
Huw Richards ( 917k) is a Welch YouTuber, writer and horticulturist who has authored numerous books on vegetable gardening including The Vegetable Grower’s Handbook. yt
Mr. Sheffield ( 612k) is a house plant enthusiast living in occasionally gloomy Sheffield, England. Watch a few of his videos and you’ll know more about houseplants than you ever imagined. web | yt
Gerald Stratford ( 62.2k) is a lifetime gardener who in his 70s “went viral” through the merit of his personality and his rather “big veg”. So viral that the luxury brand, Gucci has featured him in several of their adverts. He is the author of the book, not surprisingly titled, Big Veg. web | ig | yt
Monty Don’s massive new 456 page book, filled with Derry Moore’s photos of spectacular British gardens will be released on May 5th.
From the northern tip of Scotland down to the southern Cornish coast, Monty visits numerous glorious gardens including Northumbria’s Alnwick Gardens, Beatrix Potter’s Lake District farmhouse and the rewilded walled garden on the Knepp Estate.
When seed bombs or seed balls began gaining popularity about a dozen years ago, their intent was considerably more radical than it is today. People would make simple earthen seed bombs and toss them where ever they saw a need for flowers, regardless of whose property they were on. The term “guerrilla gardening” was coined.
In reality, in weed ladened or heavily compressed soils wildflower seeds have little chance of germinating.
Here’s something more of a decorative approach, perfect for stocking stuffers or just a little fun.
Ingredients
Non-Toxic Air Dry Clay (5lbs) amazon Air Dry Clay Matt Varnish (50ml) amazon Natural Color Pressed Dried Flowers (80 pcs) amazon Organic Potting Soil amazon Heirloom Black Eyed Susan Seeds (500) amazonseed cos.
Grab a handful of air dry clay and roll it into a ball. This will give you a sense of the size of your seed ball. Ideally, it should be close to the size of a golf ball.
With the palm of your hand, smash the ball flat and then using your fingers nurse it into the shape of a shallow bowl. To avoid getting any oil residue from the clay on to your work surface, consider placing a sheet of parchment paper or similar between the table and clay.
Place a small amount of soil in the center of the clay bowl you’ve created. It take surprisingly little soil. Too much and it will easily overflow the clay bowl.
Make a small indentation in the center of the soil and then place seeds into the center of the indentation. The number of seeds required can vary depending on what type of seed you are using. I used about 6 to 8 Black Eyed Susan seeds per ball.
Carefully pinch the clay up over the soil. Once the soil is completely contained within the clay, the ball can be gently rolled between your hands to make it rounder. If a hole appears, add a touch more clay and smooth it into place.
Decorating
Squirt a small amount of the matt finish into the lid of the matt finish container or use similar sized receptacle.
Using a paint brush, paint a thin layer of matt finish, over the area you intend to adhere a dried flower.
Still using the paint brush and making sure its only slightly damp, place the point of the paint brush on to a dried flower. The flower should stick to the paint brush and lift away from its sheet. The dried flowers I purchased came with tweezers, but I found the paint brush works better.
Position the flower on the portion of the ball you covered in matt finish. Carefully coat the flower with a generous layer of matt finish until all parts of the flower are flat against the ball and adhered.
Follow your whim. Stop at one flower or add more until you’re happy with the seed balls appearance.
Allow the ball to dry for two to three days. Voila!
In my garden, after a rainfall, you can faintly, yes, hear the breaking of new blooms.
Truman Capote
The optimist
The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.
Khalil Gibran
After women
After women, flowers are the most lovely thing God has given the world.
Christian Dior
Love is like wildflowers
Love is like wildflowers; it's often found in the most unlikely places.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Where flowers bloom
Where flowers bloom so does hope.
Lady Bird Johnson
Let us live like flowers
Let us live like flowers, wild and beautiful and drenched in sun.
Ellen Everett
A flower blossoms
A flower blossoms for its own joy.
Oscar Wilde
The garden suggests
The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway.
Michael Pollan
Coffee. Garden. Coffee.
Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else?
Betsy Caas Garmon
No Gardening Mistakes
There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.
Janet Kilburn Phillips
The hum of bees
The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.
Elizabeth Lawrence
When the world wearies
When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.
Minnie Aumonier
There is nothing that is comparable
There is nothing that is comparable to it, as satisfactory or as thrilling as gathering vegetables one has grown.
Alice B. Toklas
To plant a garden
To plant a garden is to dream of tomorrow.
Audrey Hepburn
Help us to be ever faithful
Help us to be ever faithful gardeners of the spirit, who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth, and without light nothing flowers.
May Sarton
I grow plants for many reasons
I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.
David Hobson
The Glory of Gardening
The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.
Alfred Austin
Flowers are the Music
Flowers are the music of the ground from earth's lips spoken without sound.
The Webster Viridarium
