Making Trees More Beautiful

Posted on: 4 August 2022

Wood mulch can make a decent footing material for a playground. It's natural, affordable, and quite soft for kids to walk over. However, there are a few tips you should definitely follow if you plan on installing wood mulch beneath your playground.

Dig the area out, first.

You should not simply spread mulch over the grass or the ground beneath the playground. First, you need to excavate the area. Dig out the existing ground about a foot or so — no need to be precise. This gives the mulch a contained area to sit inside, which means less of it will get dragged off. You can use a backhoe to do this, or you can use shovels and do it by hand.

Put down landscape fabric.

Once you have the area dug out, the next step is to put down landscaping fabric. Once the landscaping fabric is in place, you can then install the mulch. Having the landscaping fabric there as a barrier will ensure you don't get weeds popping up in the playground. It will also help keep soil from mixing in with the mulch, which will mean kids don't get as dirty if they sit in or tumble into the mulch.

Choose a coarse-textured mulch.

You might initially assume you'd want a finer wood mulch because it is softer. But finer wood mulch breaks down pretty quickly, which means you'll have dirt under your playground before long. Coarser wood mulch will stay intact and in better shape for longer. And coarse mulch tends to feel softer to the touch than you'd think.

Add more mulch several times a year.

You don't want to wait for the mulch level to drop too low before adding new mulch. Adding just an inch or two of mulch to the top of the playground base will keep it looking fresh. It will also help keep kids clean when they happen to tumble into the mulch. You might want to have a load of mulch delivered in advance so you can store it and add just a few wheelbarrows full of it to the playground as needed.

Wood mulch used to be a really common flooring option for playgrounds, and it can still be a great choice. It's cheaper than rubber, softer than stone, and more readily available than almost all other mulch materials. For more information, contact a company like Watson's Tree Services-Soil & Mulch.