Red Mulch Delivered in Bulk

Red Mulch is made from hardwood that has gone through a grinder two times. The first pass breaks logs, limbs and recycled wood into rough pieces, and the second turns them into fine, fibrous shreds. Those shreds lie flat and interweave, so a finished bed has a smooth, even surface that resists blowing and drifting.^[1]

Color is the whole reason to choose it. The wood is sprayed with a red colorant, in most cases based on iron oxide, the same family of pigment that colors red brick and clay roof tiles. It bonds to the shreds and stays bright for the season. Strong sun softens it over the months toward a rusty, cedar like tone, and a light top up the next spring restores the original red.^[1]

The weight runs about 800 lb per cubic yard, so a load is easy to move with a fork and a wheelbarrow. Red Mulch is sold by the yard, the measure that tells you directly how much bed area a delivery covers.^[1]

Red works best where you want the beds to be part of the design. Next to dark green yews, hollies and boxwood, the color contrast is striking. It makes a planting of white or yellow flowers look crisp and bright, and it ties the yard to a red brick house, a red front door or terracotta pots.^[1]

Commercial properties use it heavily for the same reason. Office parks, shopping center islands and entrance signs get red beds because they read clearly from a moving car. At home, the same effect helps a mailbox bed, a corner planting at the end of the drive or a circle around a flagpole stand out from the lawn.^[1]

Some combinations need care. Red can fight with pink and orange flowers, and it can look harsh beside cool gray stone or blue siding. If your beds hold many warm flower colors, test a small area first, or choose brown for those beds and save red for the ones with plenty of green. A bed of evergreens with a few white blooms is where red looks its best year round.^[1]

Prepare the bed so the red sits on clean ground. Remove weeds and grass, cut a sharp edge at the lawn line and rake the soil level. Bright mulch shows every bump and every weed that pushes through, so careful prep pays off more with red than with a natural tone.^[1]

Spread the shreds with gloves on, since fresh colorant can tint skin and clothes. For a refresh over last year's layer, use 2 inches, about 0.62 cubic yards per 100 square feet. A new bed on bare soil looks full and blocks weeds at 3 inches, which needs about 0.93 cubic yards per 100 square feet.^[1]

Big display beds with few plants can take a heavier blanket for weed control. At 4 inches Red Mulch uses about 1.23 cubic yards per 100 square feet, and at 6 inches about 1.85 cubic yards. Beds packed with perennials do better with a thinner cover so water and air still reach the roots.^[1]

Leave open space around each stem and trunk instead of piling mulch against the bark. Then rinse any red dust off the walk, the driveway and the siding with a hose. Rinsing before the end of the day keeps the colorant from setting into porous concrete.^[1]

Black Shredded Mulch gives as much contrast as red but in a darker, more formal way. It suits gray, white and stone homes where red can look out of place. Each of these two shades makes green leaves stand out, so the color of the house usually decides between them. Red leans warm and casual, and black leans cool and formal.^[1]

Brown Shredded Mulch is the restrained option. It blends with the ground, hides fading well and suits almost every home. Choose brown when you want the plants to carry the color, and red when you want the bed itself to add color.^[1]

Wood Chips skip the dye and the fine texture. They are chunky, slow to break down and better suited to paths, play areas and wooded corners than to showpiece beds. Many yards combine red in the front beds with chips in the back of the property. The chips also make a good path through a bed edged in red, since the plain wood keeps the eye on the colored border.^[1]

Gravel Valet brings Red Mulch from mulch manufacturers and landscape supply yards near the delivery address. These yards collect hardwood from tree crews and wood recycling, grind it twice, run it through a colorizer and stockpile it to cure before loading.^[1]

Because each yard grinds wood from local trees, the size and feel of the shreds can differ a little between regions. The red itself is controlled by the colorant, though the exact shade can lean brighter or deeper from one yard to the next. When you want the new load to match beds you mulched before, say so on the order.^[1]

Covering several beds with bagged red mulch takes a tall stack of small sacks, each one wrapped, palleted and shipped to a store before you carry it home. Bulk delivery cuts out the wrapping and the store, and the mulch goes from the yard pile to your property in a single trip.^[1]

Color consistency is a real benefit with red. Bags from different production runs can vary in shade, and red shows those differences more than any other color. One bulk load means every bed matches.^[1]

Bulk also saves your back and your car. There is no loading bags into a trunk and no colorant smudges on the upholstery. The truck drops the whole order at once, and you spread it on your own schedule.^[1]

Measure the length and width of every bed you plan to cover and total the square feet. Pick your depth, then use the coverage figures above or the area calculator to see how many cubic yards to order.^[1]

Choose the drop spot with care. Fresh red colorant can mark light concrete if the pile sits on it through a rain, so a tarp or a gravel patch makes a better base. The spot should be firm enough for a heavy truck and close to the beds to shorten your wheelbarrow runs.^[1]

Enter your ZIP in the order box to see the delivered amount for your area. Gravel Valet confirms the delivery date with you before the load goes out.^[1]