Using bark chippings can bring many benefits to the gardener and there is none as important as their ability to suppress weed growth during the hotter parts of the year.

If gardeners didn’t use weed suppressants like bark chippings then the whole gardening calendar would be jam-packed with doing some sort of weeding schedule. Dealing with weeds are not the only thing that a gardener has to content with throughout the gardening year. Indeed, it makes little sense to use bark chippings simply for the purpose of preventing weed growth without understanding the other benefits that they have.

Mulching is the term that is often referred to as the primary method of putting goodness and organic matter back into the soil to ensure that it remains healthy and productive for future planting. Mulching can be done using a variety of materials, but the most common are using well rotted compost, natural bark chippings or a combination of both.

For gardeners, the way in which their garden is presented is highly important and comes near the top of the list. Many gardeners choose so called mulches that are made from things like rubber. Whilst these degrade very slowly and can make a garden look uniform, as mulch they are worthless. It has been noted in some areas that rubber chips can leach toxins into the soil.

Likewise, some gardeners have been swayed by the marketing from businesses that supply spray painted bark chippings so that they can choose from a wider range of colours. Paint toxins in the same way that toxins from rubber chips can be released and leached into the soil too.

Bark chippings that are made from natural source materials fair much better. They have the ability to hold water and release it slowly into the soil and plant root system without risk of saturation or the soil drying out. By decomposing into the soil, the additional organic matter will encourage worms, nature’s natural soil improvers, to use it as a habitat.