Just natural wood chips, dyed ones lose their color after a year and you need to get more every year to keep it bright and fresh
According-Taro4835
Stick to natural brown shredded hardwood mulch. Do not buy dyed black or red bags from the hardware store. Black looks artificial and quickly fades to a dull gray that will wash out entirely against your siding. Red just looks like a commercial strip mall. Natural undyed brown breaks down into real organic matter to feed your soil over time and provides a clean neutral backdrop so the green foliage actually catches the eye instead of the dirt.
Your bigger issue here is the structure of these beds. Picking a mulch color will not hide the fact that you have a massive void of empty space. You have a thin outer border of monkey grass and a couple of leggy shrubs pruned up into floating green boxes with completely bare ankles. You are missing the entire ground and middle layer inside the bed. Stop treating mulch like a permanent design feature. You need to fill that empty dirt with sweeping masses of low shade perennials or spreading evergreens. Mulch is just there to protect the soil and hold moisture until your plants actually grow together and cover the ground.
Euclid1859
Non-dyed
Office_Dolt
If you’re talking about the dyed mulch at big box stores, go brown. Brown won’t let you down. It rhymes so you have to do it.
I find the brown looks most natural. The black stands out the most. And red is just weird.
BringMeAHigherLunch
Always brown
Hot-Engineering5392
Consider pine bark nuggets. It’s not dyed and won’t throw off mold spores. We had an issue with tiny black dots getting all over our house from the dyed brown mulch.
Wabi-Sabi-Iki
Brown. It looks like fresh dirt.
M23707
Never Red – unless you are a fast food restaurant that has Golden Arches
derby106
pine straw
phoonie98
Always brown
ScubaLooser
When I first moved into my house it had black mulch and kept using black to top it for a few years. I eventually switched over to brown mulch and it’s 100% better. Looks more natural and absorbs less heat which too much radiant heat will potentially harm your tree and plants.
PhiDeltDevil
Triple shredded hardwood
tdcthulu
I like pine bark nuggets.
They last longer than standard mulch, are less likely to blow away, are an attractive natural ruddy brown color, and are a sustainable byproduct of the local pine lumber industry.
National-Jackfruit32
Never use dyed mulch, most of this comes from recycled pallets and other materials. You do not know what was stored on those pallets. Also does not decay fast enough so you end up with bleached out wood chips floating around in your beds.
Use double shred undyed bark mulch it breaks down and feeds the soil. If your plants are in need of a better boost triple shred would be the route to go as it breaks down faster.
Look into chip drop if you want free mulch dropped off! Also your local county composting facilities might have free pickup!! Easiest ways to get natural mulch for free. If it doesn’t look great, you could always use it in the backyard or as a base layer and put natural cedar or something overtop.
Mediocre-Coyote4387
Beautiful house!
RealisticBus4443
Brown. Black mulch gets so freaking hot, and only looks good for a short time.
30 Comments
brown. do not buy dyed mulch
Cedar brown mulch. Natural and misquote resistant
Just natural wood chips, dyed ones lose their color after a year and you need to get more every year to keep it bright and fresh
Stick to natural brown shredded hardwood mulch. Do not buy dyed black or red bags from the hardware store. Black looks artificial and quickly fades to a dull gray that will wash out entirely against your siding. Red just looks like a commercial strip mall. Natural undyed brown breaks down into real organic matter to feed your soil over time and provides a clean neutral backdrop so the green foliage actually catches the eye instead of the dirt.
Your bigger issue here is the structure of these beds. Picking a mulch color will not hide the fact that you have a massive void of empty space. You have a thin outer border of monkey grass and a couple of leggy shrubs pruned up into floating green boxes with completely bare ankles. You are missing the entire ground and middle layer inside the bed. Stop treating mulch like a permanent design feature. You need to fill that empty dirt with sweeping masses of low shade perennials or spreading evergreens. Mulch is just there to protect the soil and hold moisture until your plants actually grow together and cover the ground.
Non-dyed
If you’re talking about the dyed mulch at big box stores, go brown. Brown won’t let you down. It rhymes so you have to do it.
I find the brown looks most natural. The black stands out the most. And red is just weird.
Always brown
Consider pine bark nuggets. It’s not dyed and won’t throw off mold spores. We had an issue with tiny black dots getting all over our house from the dyed brown mulch.
Brown. It looks like fresh dirt.
Never Red – unless you are a fast food restaurant that has Golden Arches
pine straw
Always brown
When I first moved into my house it had black mulch and kept using black to top it for a few years. I eventually switched over to brown mulch and it’s 100% better. Looks more natural and absorbs less heat which too much radiant heat will potentially harm your tree and plants.
Triple shredded hardwood
I like pine bark nuggets.
They last longer than standard mulch, are less likely to blow away, are an attractive natural ruddy brown color, and are a sustainable byproduct of the local pine lumber industry.
Never use dyed mulch, most of this comes from recycled pallets and other materials. You do not know what was stored on those pallets. Also does not decay fast enough so you end up with bleached out wood chips floating around in your beds.
Use double shred undyed bark mulch it breaks down and feeds the soil. If your plants are in need of a better boost triple shred would be the route to go as it breaks down faster.
I myself stay away from the colored mulch, I prefer bark nuggets they look natural and it decomposes nicely over time [Bark nuggets](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Yardcare-2-cu-ft-Large-Western-Bark-YC-LBN/302608972)
Undyed cedar only. Forever and always.
Look into chip drop if you want free mulch dropped off! Also your local county composting facilities might have free pickup!! Easiest ways to get natural mulch for free. If it doesn’t look great, you could always use it in the backyard or as a base layer and put natural cedar or something overtop.
Beautiful house!
Brown. Black mulch gets so freaking hot, and only looks good for a short time.
Just put down compost as mulch.
Another vote for bark nuggets.
Dont buy the dyed shit, it looks stupid.
Natural wood, no color.
Always brown, most natural.
what ever you do do not by mulch that is dyed
natural.
Brown. Always brown.
Purple.
Because why not!?