Mulch is a great way to improve your landscape. It provides many benefits, including improving the appearance of your garden and yard, preventing weeds from growing in your landscaping, and retaining water within the soil. Mulching also helps protect plants from excessive moisture loss during hot days and cold nights. Understanding the benefits of mulch can help you have a beautiful and lush landscape. However, when it comes to purchasing mulch, home gardeners are faced with the choice of buying bulk mulch from their local farm market or bagged mulch from the garden center at their local home improvement store.
Buying Bulk Mulch is More Economical
Although smaller quantities of mulch can sometimes be more convenient, convenience typically costs more money. Although bagged mulch is more expensive, many home gardeners claim they don’t need enough mulch to justify buying it in bulk. Your average bag of mulch will cover two cubic feet. By the time you mulch your flower beds, around your trees, and other landscaping features, home gardeners often use 10 to 15 bags of mulch. If you catch it on sale you might get it for $2 a bag. However, at regular prices, you are going to pay $4 to $5 a bag. This could have you spending anywhere from $40 to $75 for 20 to 30 cubic feet.
Bulk mulch is purchased by the cubic yard which contains 27 cubic feet. A cubic yard of mulch can cost $25 to $35. Even at $35 per cubic yard, which is more than most farm markets charge when buying mulch in bulk, that’s still only $1.30 per cubic yard – a price you can only beat if you scoop up multiple bags at the occasional sale price. For those homeowners with larger properties, buying it in bulk is the way to go. However, price isn’t the only reason to buy bulk mulch.
Better Quality
The fancy packaging of bagged mulch can lead you to believe that you are buying a better quality material but that isn’t true. It is unfortunate, but some mulch suppliers will put a lower quality product in an attractive bag. When you buy mulch in bulk you can clearly see what you are purchasing. With bagged mulch, you could be unpleasantly surprised when you break open the bag. The moisture trapped inside could cause mold and mildew. The quality or color might not be what you expected. With bulk mulch, you won’t be disappointed.
Less Plastic Waste
Using natural mulch is already environmentally friendly but by buying it in bulk, you’re taking your environmental efforts one step further by reducing the amount of plastic waste generated. Those plastic bags are not biodegradable. Even with a smaller area, those bags can start to pile up. To equal one cubic yard of bulk mulch, you would have to purchase 14 bags of mulch. By buying in bulk, that’s 14 fewer bags to pollute the environment. It may seem like a small contribution, but if more people bought mulch in bulk instead of bags just think how much we could reduce our ever-growing plastic waste. Buying mulch in bulk is a more environmentally-conscious option.
Bulk Mulch at Oasis Family Farm
Like the idea of buying your mulch in bulk but not sure you need a whole cubic yard? How about going in on it with your neighbor? Or you could use half now and have enough to refresh your landscaping in the fall. Oasis Family Farm offers three different varieties of mulch that range from $20 to $25 per cubic yard. That’s 93 cents or less per cubic foot! We also carry screened topsoil. So when you’re shopping for your gardening supplies be sure to stop by our location in Robbinsville, NJ to get your mulch and topsoil. Bring the family with you and check out all the fun activities we have to offer. See you at the farm!
