Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: mark smyth on July 30, 2009, 06:38:34 PM

Title: Rubber mulch
Post by: mark smyth on July 30, 2009, 06:38:34 PM: While at a local garden centre today I saw some fine composted bark that I could do with to top dress my beds. That's not bark said the outdoor sales person. It's shredded and chipped tyres. It comes in a range of colours. I acquired a wee sample when no-one was looking

This is a close shot so to give you an idea the 'root' is only a couple of mm wide
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: mark smyth on July 30, 2009, 06:52:19 PM: This is better
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: Carol Shaw on July 30, 2009, 06:56:20 PM: So are you planning on using in Mark?
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: David Shaw on July 30, 2009, 07:03:43 PM: Surely you wouldn't use it as a mulch on the garden!!!! I thought it was intended for childrens play areas. I wouldn't even use it on a path in the garden.
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: mark smyth on July 30, 2009, 07:05:23 PM: I just saw it and decided to show it. Why cant it be used as a mulch?
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: Anthony Darby on July 30, 2009, 07:48:15 PM: Never seen a red tyre Mark! My cousin uses black recycled tyre rubber for their horses training area.
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: mark smyth on July 30, 2009, 08:33:49 PM: :P ** It's available in many colours
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: David Shaw on July 30, 2009, 09:09:07 PM: I would have thought that it could leach all sorts of 'nasties' into the soil?
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: Anthony Darby on July 30, 2009, 09:40:31 PM: Quote from: mark smyth on July 30, 2009, 08:33:49 PM
:P ** It's available in many colours
Not recycled tyres then?
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: Maggi Young on July 30, 2009, 09:49:19 PM: Yes, it is recycled tyres.... never heard of dye ??
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: Anthony Darby on July 30, 2009, 10:29:06 PM: So how do you dye something that is black?
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: Paul T on July 31, 2009, 12:04:42 AM: My concern with that mulch is.... what happens when it gets mixed in with the soil. You'd never get the lumps of rubber out of your garden again? Then again, I suppose the same goes for gravel or stone mulch. :-\
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: Lesley Cox on July 31, 2009, 01:02:17 AM: It would be smelly on a hot day. :-X
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: Martin Baxendale on July 31, 2009, 01:03:07 AM: Maybe the narcissus flies would just bounce off it.
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: Anthony Darby on July 31, 2009, 08:30:06 AM: Quote from: Lesley Cox on July 31, 2009, 01:02:17 AM
It would be smelly on a hot day. :-X
Must be designed for the British market then? ::)
Title: Re: Rubber mulch
Post by: gote on July 31, 2009, 09:23:57 AM: Quote from: Paul T on July 31, 2009, 12:04:42 AM
My concern with that mulch is.... what happens when it gets mixed in with the soil. You'd never get the lumps of rubber out of your garden again? Then again, I suppose the same goes for gravel or stone mulch. :-\
This would be my objection too. I have got some parts of a thirty years old houshold waste heap in the soil of a part of the garden. The parts that are paper, food left overs etc are fine but the plastic shreds need to be laborioulsy sieved out. I find also the expanded clay pellets that come with some pot plants to be a nuisance.
Göte