Mulch Delivery
Mulch Delivered to Maryland and Northern Virginia
Saunders Landscape Supply delivers mulch in Northern Virginia and Maryland. We sell a broad selection of it to fit most applications, including hardwood, cedar, leaf, colored-enhanced, wood chips or playground mulch. Order online or by phone to get it delivered right to your driveway in Maryland and Northern Virginia for FREE!
Material Calculator
Please use the calculator to determine how much material you will need.
Why Mulch?
It revitalizes the look and health of gardens, flower beds, plants
Mulch Looks Great
It is often the finishing touch of a well-manicured garden. It provides the “shape” of the garden or tree, much like the frame and shape of the canvas give boundaries to a painting. The strict demarcating line between yard and garden gives definition to your landscape. Anything you plant in it gets the strong feeling of intentionality, and the overall effect is one of meticulous planning. With our color-enhanced options, you can play with your palette and mix flowering plants and mulch based on pigments for an artistic look that transcends landscaping.
It also works well as an accent for manmade landscaping elements. Furthermore, having it around the perimeter of these features acts as a transitional space from the artificial to the natural. Your paved walkways, retaining walls and concrete stairs will flow seamlessly into your landscaping like they were put there by Mother Nature. Plus, they won’t have unwanted plants growing over them because the mulch keeps weeds at bay.
Mulch Suppresses Weeds
It keeps your yard free of weeds in two ways: suffocation and obstruction.
First, it suffocates weeds that have already germinated in the area. Apply a deep layer, and it should prevent any sunlight from reaching the soil. Weed sprouts won’t get their needed nutrients.
Second, it obstructs new seeds. Weed seeds blown
If you have particularly virulent weeds, you can try several layers of protection. Dig up the area, then place herbicide granules. Stake down weed cloth and weigh it down with wood chips, which decompose very slowly. On top of the wood chips, lay down double-shredded hardwood leaf mulch. The heavy mulch will keep the herbicide granules in place. The top layer will decompose much faster than the wood chips, so your only upkeep is replacing the top layer each season.
Mulch Moisturizes Soil
It generally helps
You can also lay it over a soaker hose or drip irrigation system. Since it will block most water from light rains from getting to the soil, a hose allows you to ensure even in dry times that your yard is getting the right amount of moisture. Plus, it keeps the hoses from sight, giving your garden a finished look while protecting your irrigation system. Uncovered irrigation systems risk UV damage and are exposed to the elements and foot traffic.
Mulch Can Control Insects
Some types can aid your gardens and lawns by deterring pesky insects. Cedar mulch contains a compound called thujone that has a menthol smell which repels a large number of insects. Moths, roaches, termites, beetles, Argentine ants and house ants all hate cedar mulch. If you have an infestation in your garden or yard, consider installing a layer of cedar mulch.
Mulch Insulates Soil
It acts a lot like insulation acts in your home. It prevents the extremes of weather from affecting your plants too much. When the temperatures dip, the soil around your plants will retain warmth underneath a mulch layer, promoting growth where the roots would otherwise be damaged. This effect even works overnight. When the mercury soars, the layer gives the soil much-needed shade.
Mulch Reduces Soil Compaction
Every gardener knows the pain of soil compaction. The back pain specifically, as you work hours hunched over your garden with a hoe to loosen up the soil. After all that toil, you don’t want to watch rain and foot traffic quickly press the soil back into a compacted mass. Compaction means roots struggle to break through the soil. Water and nutrients have nowhere to travel into compacted soil. And when water has nowhere to go, you get puddling and standing water, which can drown your whole garden.
A layer on top of your soil can substantially reduce compaction. The layer takes the force of footsteps, vehicles
Mulch Enriches Soil
It can be an important soil amendment. Leaf mulch, for example, decomposes into a natural soil conditioner, returning valuable nutrients to your garden and lawn. You can combine it with amendments like fertilizer so that rain naturally disperses the nutrients evenly over time. Even mulch without much nutrient value helps the soil beneath by holding any soil amendments you put down in place and preventing soil compaction, which allows the amendments to permeate easily.
Our Mulch Products
Double Shredded Hardwood
This is our best seller and the workhorse of our products. It does everything mulch should with no frills. It keeps weeds out and moisture in. Double shredded hardwood is made from local trees shredded twice to get uniform pieces.
It is then aged six months so it gets enough nitrogen to begin decomposition. If we sold it before then, it might actually leach nitrogen from the soil instead of decomposing properly and returning nutrients.
Leaf
Leaf mulch is a wonderful way to maximize your soil enrichment while still getting the benefits of mulching. The leaves are collected locally, then shredded and composted. The compost is shaken and stirred over the course of several months to increase the nutritional value of it. Leaves have 50-80 percent of the nutrients of the tree when they fall, so when leaf mulch decomposes, it gives your garden a shot in the arm for the next growing season.
Cedar
Cedar mulch gives off an aroma that repels insects, so you don’t have to worry about an influx of termites or centipedes in your garden. It also decomposes slower than usual because it’s a tough, durable wood. Cedar mulch is great for a bottom layer that will remain for more than one season that you can pile a decomposing mulch on top of, like leaf mulch.
Color-Enhanced
Our color-enhanced mulch is designed to keep its decorative shades much longer than regular wood-colored mulch. We sell red, black and brown. They will remain that color for the entire season while regular mulch tends to fade to grey within one-to-three months.
Our color-enhanced mulch is sourced from local trees and contains environmentally friendly dyes. When it biodegrades, it’s every bit as nutritious for your soil as all our other mulches.
Playground
Our playground mulch is made from de-barked wood chips. It is made solely from the interior of the tree, and it’s shredded more finely than our other types. These precautions make our playground mulch much softer than other types. These chips provide a soft basis for swing sets, slides, jungle gyms and other equipment. You can feel at ease when your children are swinging above a bed of playground mulch.
Proper Mulch Installation
Measure
The most critical step in laying down mulch is knowing how much you need. You need 1 cubic yard for every 108 square feet. You can use our handy calculator to determine your exact needs.
Clear
Rake the area you plan on adding mulch to and put all the debris to the side. Don’t throw it out. We’ll use some of it later.
Weed
Everyone’s least-favorite step. Pull out the undesirable plants and dispose of them however you want.
Edge
Grab a power edger or an edging shovel and define your garden’s boundaries. Make sure to set your edges 6 to 8 inches away from trees or your home’s foundation.
Sort
Here’s why we saved the debris from earlier. Find the organic material in this debris and add it back into your garden. It will return nutrients to the soil as it decomposes.
Amend
Add in your soil amendments, like fertilizer and pesticides. The mulch will keep these in place better than if they were directly exposed to rain and wind. If you plan to use a weed cloth, lay it down now.
Mulch
Finally! Spread your mulch evenly over your garden. You want at least 3 inches of it everywhere to ensure that it traps moisture and retains heat at optimal levels.
CONTACT US
MAILING ADDRESS
PO BOX 80
Clifton, VA 20124
MARYLAND
1008 W. Central Avenue
Davidsonville, MD 21035
VIRGINIA
4460 Brookfield Drive, Suite F,
Chantilly, VA 20151