Redwood Bark in Flower Beds?

I have used redwood bark in our lovely garden flower beds. Usually I have this removed yearly and soil amendment added before applying fresh bark. While planting my spring flowers I found the much of the bark is imbedded into the soil (a mess). There seems to be more bark then soil. What do you suggest


To get the flower beds back into correct condition?

Redwood Bark in Flower Beds?
Mulches such as redwood and cypress are both impressive and expensive. Unlike other alternatives of the hardwoods they do not decompose quickly or cleanly.


Where a customer insist on either of these mulches I spread a 2"layer of a double/triple shredded hardwood mulch first. Atop of that I add a maximum of 1" of the more decorative mulch. The hardwood will breakdown into soil much quicker. The combo works well.


Unless you excavate the site the redwood is there to stay for some time. Till the soil as best you can. Take a sample of your tilled soil to a reputable garden store for a soil test to see what your additive needs may be. Given it's very nature the redwood will not become soil for many years.


Another possibility that is both labor and cost intensive it to rejuvenate the soil and plant your spring/summer choices. Do this through landscape weed-block cloth. You can mulch over the cloth and when you remove the plants in fall simply remove the cloth and mulch.


Make your presentation of plants the focus of your garden not the mulch! Use the hardwood mulch for a few years and spend the savings on upgraded plant material.
Reply:It's always best to remove as much of the mulch from the soil as possible before continuing planting. I just finished dealing with a gardenbed that had the same issue. I took a sharpshooter shovel and broke the soil into 6" deep clods (ours has a lot of clay in it, so it was holding together). Then I broke up these clods of soil by hand, picking out the mulch, and any grubs, in the process. It took me about 3 weekends to complete the reworking of my garden, but I'm so glad it's done now........it's a lot of work, but you'll get good results.





The other option is to shovel off the layer of soil mixed with mulch, then replace the lost soil with compost and/or purchased garden soil.