| This factor had real appeal to my
wife. So, my wife decided to give it a try. She leveled the flower
bed, laid down some landscape fabric, then put down a few bags of the rubber
mulch. She then poked holes through the rubber and the fabric to plant some
flowers, including some great looking roses. The mulch also surrounded a
nice service berry tree in the center of the bed. For a couple years, all
looked good.
The rubber did indeed keep the grass from
encroaching into the bed. But, tragedy struck on the third year. The
12 year old service berry tree, my wife’s entire crop of prize roses and her
flowers all mysteriously died. I suspected the rubber mulch had something to
do with it. After a bit of research on the internet, we discovered that this
product does kill plants. Why would the manufacture sell this stuff as mulch
around plants? It took us several days to dig up all the dead plants,
including the dead tree and its deep roots.
We dug down a good 12 inches into the bed and
removed all of the contaminated soil. Some 30 bags were filled with soil. We then
put new garden soil into the hole. We bought a new tree, this time a plum
tree, and my wife planted a large number of flowers. After two years, the
tree and flowers seem to be doing well.
If you see this rubber mulch product on the shelf
at Lowe's or Home Depot, don’t use it anywhere near plants. It might be fine
for other areas, where you don’t want plants to grow, but don’t use it around
flowers or trees. |
