Mulch that stays in place

Hello everyone..I do not know if this is the place for this..but...

We live on a slight hill....and when it rains...hard..we get a wash out...of the mulch we have put down...Is there something..to buy that holds the mulch in place?....Dirt moves everywhere..along with the mulch...what a mess...This year we have had a lot of rain..and wash out..is bad..lol...there is a cement..walk..along side of this..and it gets the cement..really dirty...and the mulch goes all over the cement...hard to clean up....

Any one got a comment? thanks ahead...smiles..Diana

Sounds like you need to terrace it with somthing, rocks, landscape timbers or something. Can you post a picture?

Smokey

Or you might try a different size of mulch--I think bigger chips will slide down the hill easier than smaller chips or the fine hairlike shredded mulch (out here they call it "gorilla hair"). I have a hill that is reasonably steep and I have small bark pieces for mulch and they stay in place pretty well. We don't get a lot of rain overall, but it usually all falls during a couple storms in the wintertime, so we do get a good volume of water all at once. Here's a pic of my hill so you can get some perspective on the steepness (there's a wider area of hill to the left of the steps, all mulched)

Another option is pine straw. I've swapped to it because it's cheaper and works better for me. It's doing a better job of keeping weeds at bay and holding in moisture. And as an added bonus, I have some woods with several pine thickets where I can go rake/bag up all I want for free. It also doesn't wash out at all in a hard rain.

This message was edited Jul 11, 2008 7:31 AM

This message was edited Jul 11, 2008 7:31 AM

Hummmm....well let me explain somemore...we live on a small hill..but what the problem is ..when it rains...all the water from the top of the hill...comes rolling down the hill..to the back door..making it even more water there...it starts filling up..and moves to the side of the house..to keep the water going and carrys..the mulch with it..and dirt of course...this area...is about 27 inches...filled with mulch...on top of dirt...couple of shrubs there...thought maybe there was something else we could use that would stay in place..better..hahaha...could pour cement on the dirt..and still while wet...pour mulch..to make it stay..lol...I know..silly but....then it would not move...and always stay good...

The pine straw sounds good..but in our region..I think it is hard to buy...also would keep the bugs away....

well...any more sugguestions...? Thanks for the ones so far....

smiles..Diana ps will take pic...later...today...

Well we just had a 30 min. rain storm...and got 4/10th of a inch...and this is what the mess looks like..

this is the other side of the walk way.....what do you think...messy for sure...hard to clean the dirt off the sidewalk too....unsightly for sure...

any idea's? thanks...Diana

It would help to get a wider shot of the area and understand a little better where all the water's coming from and where it's going, but I'm starting to suspect that you need a drainage system of some sort rather than just a different kind of mulch.

I think you are right..maybe we sould bury a pipe with holes in it..but then it will not stop it all either...lol...well guess I will go and clean it up...maybe rain again later....thanks..for the input...waving smiles..Diana

Well lets see if this helps...remember this is our back door...it faces the street..with is up high..on these pictures...parking area..is black asphalt...the other side of the house..called the front..is on the lake side..no problems there..well here are three pictures...now remeber there is cement..at the bottom of the stairs...so putting in a drain..has to go under the side walk not a easy task...lol Always something....ok...here they are....

and another...

last one...did not take a picture to the right side walk..but in the other one..where the flood was it shows it..a little.

It doesn't look that sloped where the mulch is, so that tells me the problem is the volume of water that's draining into that area and while you might be able to find a mulch that stays in place a little better than your current one I doubt that's going to solve the problem, I really think you need to do something about the drainage. The other thing that's probably hurting you is that it looks like the soil level in that bed is lower than the edging around it on all sides, so that will contribute to turning it into a river when it rains, maybe if you leveled out the soil so it was the same level as everything else the problem will get better since the water can flow over the bed rather than just into it (depending on the volume of water, that may not stop your mulch from moving or dirt from getting on the sidewalk, but it would stop water from puddling up in the bed). Or if you can build higher edging around the bed on the side where water's flowing into it that could help too, although anytime you do something that's going to re-route water from going where it has been, you need to think about where it's going to go instead, it might just change the place you have the problem rather than solving anything. Installing proper drainage would fix things, but I was trying to think of some easier, less expensive alternatives.

well I was just looking around this site...I did not even know it was here...wowow there is a lot of pictures..of landscapes...anyway..on the side of the house..we have block...stairs..on the edge of the those stairs..there are edging..bricks..they look like this..picture..the edging..that is..this is Rusty's planting..I picked to show you..what if on the upper edge of our problem we put these...it would stop a lot of the water..but not all for sure...what do you think....?

Like I said, the thing to think about is where's the water going to go if it can't go into that bed. There are probably worse places for it to end up than where it is now...like along your foundation! But if you don't know where the water will go and don't mind getting a little wet, put it in as an experiment and make sure you go out and watch it during the first rainstorm and be prepared to pull it out right away if it's diverting the water in a way that's not good.

Hehehe..you are sweet...trial and error..is a good thing..lol...we can try it...or maybe just live with it...it is a pain...but it could be worst...for sure...get out the power washer....too...lol...Some times it does...go all the way to under the door..if it is really bad...never in the basement yet..but who knows....

thanks you are so nice...to try and help me...and I found a new part of Daves..I have never been too..so it is a learning ....thing for sure...thanks sweety..

smile....have a great rest of your day...Diana if I do find a way...I will let you know about it..hehehe...waving...

Glad I could help a little! But if it's going all the way under your door, I'd definitely look into installing drainage. The edging might fix the problem of getting mulch and dirt on the sidewalk, but I don't think it'll do much about the water by the house, I think it'll still get there but just take a little different path. That's definitely not a good thing, if you have really bad rains you could wind up with some serious problems that would be much more expensive to fix than the cost of doing the drainage.

True ......well have have had this problem for some time...we will see..where it takes the water too...We built this house a long time ago..and did not know what we were doing...lol...should have known...about the water problem...we even get the water from the hill above the street...so major rain..can be a problem...

happy day.....Diana

My next door neighbor's backyard is all sloped downhill towards his house. He has a large stand of azaelas directly in front of his patio. They are so large, that you can't see the rest of the yard. When I asked him recently why he didn't cut them down so that he could see his property, he gave me the story of why they were planted years ago.

According to Jack, when they bought the house 40 years ago, they had water problems. The water would run straight down the hill into the back door. The builder advised them to put shrubs out to absorb the water - hence the azaleas.

Shurbs can help to absorb excess water. Perhaps this could help with your problem. They don't need to be high to be useful. My neighbor is 90 years old, and I think over the years, he just allowed his to grow tall. Maybe you could edge the area with a hardy evergreen like a holly. There are many shrubs that grow just a couple of feet high that are attractive, and will provide nesting areas for wildlife as well. You may be able to find some with flowers or berries if you are interested in those.

thanks...pennefeather...I wish I could do that..maybe on one side I could..the other..side..well I have a one man golf cart..that has to park under the overhang..and that is how we get it out...to go down to the lake...but the other side I could do that..we tried holly..in the front once..but it was facing west..and they died..so I had not thought about the other side...good idea..it will not be balanced..but it keeps the water..and drinks..it up...that would help...thanks so much....smiles..and happy day....Diana...