Five Mulches, Five Jobs: Choosing the Right One for Your Garden

Every mulch we sell does the same three things: suppresses weeds, holds moisture in the soil, and protects plant roots from Melbourne's temperature swings. What separates them is how long they last before they need topping up, how they look, and what they cost per cubic metre. Here's the honest rundown.

Landscapers Mulch — the long-haul option

Landscapers Mulch is a coarse, chunky wood mulch built for large areas. The heavy texture is the point: it breaks down slowly, so you top up far less often than with a finer mulch.

Use it for: large garden beds, commercial and broad-acre landscaping, and any area where getting back in to re-mulch is a hassle. It is the mulch to choose when durability matters more than a manicured look.

Pine Garden Mulch — the classic garden bed choice

Pine Garden Mulch is a natural pine bark and wood mulch. It breaks down over time, which sounds like a drawback but is actually the trade-off you're buying: as it decomposes it feeds organic matter back into the soil.

Use it for: general garden beds, around trees and shrubs, and anywhere you want the mulch to improve the soil underneath it as well as cover it. The natural pine tone suits most garden styles.

Black Mulch — for contrast

Black Mulch is a dyed wood mulch, and it is chosen for how it looks. The deep black makes foliage and pale hardscaping pop in a way natural mulch never does.

Use it for: modern and contemporary garden designs, feature beds near an entrance or path, and colour-contrast plantings where the mulch is part of the design rather than just a functional layer.

Red Mulch — warmth against green

Red Mulch is the other dyed option, in a warm red-brown that pairs particularly well with green foliage.

Use it for: garden borders, feature beds, and established plantings where you want to add visual warmth without changing anything else in the garden.

Recycled Mulch — the budget workhorse

Recycled Mulch is made from recycled green waste. Colour consistency varies batch to batch, which is exactly why it costs less.

Use it for: general garden mulching where performance matters more than appearance — back gardens, screening beds, side-of-house strips, and any large area where the budget is the constraint.

Choosing in one line each

Mulch	Pick it when
Landscapers Mulch	The area is large and you don't want to re-mulch often
Pine Garden Mulch	You want the soil improved as the mulch breaks down
Black Mulch	The bed is on show and you want sharp contrast
Red Mulch	You want warmth against heavy green planting
Recycled Mulch	Large area, tight budget, appearance secondary

How much you'll need

Mulch goes down at 50–75mm for garden beds. That means a bed 4m by 2m at 75mm needs 0.6m³ — far less than most people guess. Our guide on calculating quantities has more worked examples.

Worth knowing before you order two colours: different materials never share a truck tray, so black mulch for the front bed and recycled for the back is two loads and two delivery charges.

Browse the range in the Mulch collection, or call 1300 21 21 11 if you want a second opinion on which one suits your beds.