Mulch has many practical uses. It protects your plants, suppresses weeds, retains moisture, and gives any garden or landscape that polished look. Maybe you have a few spruce trees on your property, or you have started seeing spruce mulch in the stores and you wonder; is spruce good for mulch?
Spruce mulch is typically a mixture of pine and spruce bark. This mixture has the same benefits as regular hardwood mulch, but it breaks down slower and can be aromatic. If you’re looking for a cost-effective, long-lasting much that smells like fresh pine forests, then spruce mulch is for you.
You can purchase spruce mulch from large retail chains or small, locally owned landscape suppliers. If you have some spruce trees on your property, you can even make your own spruce mulch. Depending on what you need it for, spruce mulch could be perfect for your landscape.
What Exactly Is Spruce Mulch?
Spruce mulch may sound pretty self-explanatory, but often it’s a mixture of spruce and pine tree bark. Spruce and pine trees are related after all, they are both evergreens, conifers, and produce needles instead of broad leaves.
The differences between the trees are somewhat subtle. Pine trees produce clusters of usually longer needles, whereas spruce trees produce small branches covered in short needles. Spruce trees also grow straighter and produce that conical, “Christmas tree shape.”
Pine and spruce mulch is made when machines strip the bark from the tree trunks when they are being processed for lumber. Pine and spruce lumber is often used for construction. Because of its availability and good workability, spruce lumber is the number one choice of construction wood in Europe.
Check out our article about the best spruce trees, for more information on spruce!
What Makes Spruce Mulch Special?
There are many benefits to using spruce mulch. As we said, spruce mulch is usually mixed with pine bark, but these nuggets make a great, long-lasting mulch. Even on its own, spruce mulch is a great mulch, here are the reasons why.
Spruce Mulch Lasts Longer
Most hardwood mulches are shredded into small pieces. Sometimes the mulch is even double or triple ground, making the pieces even smaller. Because of this, it breaks down and decomposes rather quickly.
Spruce mulch is mostly nuggets of bark, which are bigger than the ground up hardwood. The bigger pieces don’t have as much surface area exposed to the elements, and so it takes longer for them to decompose.
The bark is also naturally resistant to water and decomposition. Tree bark is much like our skin, it surrounds the living tissue of trees and protects the inside of the tree from water, air, insects, and illness. This natural resistance also keeps tree bark mulch from breaking down quickly.
Spruce Mulch Doesn’t Increase Soil Acidity
This is a myth that has been circulated for many years. Still many people swear that it’s true, but evergreen mulch does not increase the acidity of the soil. Pine needles won’t increase the acidity of the soil, and neither does pine or spruce mulch.
Pine needles are acidic, but they do not add that acidity to the soil. Pine trees grow in acidic soils, but don’t change the soil to suit their needs. The acidity in the needles is broken down by bacteria before it has a chance to alter the pH.
The reason plants have a hard time growing underneath pine trees is because of the thick, shallow roots, too much shade, and because the canopy is so thick, not much water can get through.
Trying to change the acidity of the soil by adding evergreen needles or mulch is like trying to change the color of a lake by pouring a few vials of food coloring.
Spruce Mulch Is Aromatic
If you enjoy the smell of fresh pine wood or the scents that perfume the air after cutting one down, you’ll probably enjoy the scent of spruce mulch. The scent comes from the oils and sap in the trees and it’s more aromatic the fresher it is.
The scent is similar to cedar shavings, but it’s not quite as strong and doesn’t have the “bite” that cedar wood does.
Spruce Mulch Has All The Benefits Of Hardwood Mulch
A thick bed of hardwood mulch offers benefits such as:
- Weed prevention—weeds have a hard time penetrating through a layer of mulch. And when they actually do, it’s much easier to pull them out of mulch, than hard, dry, compacted soil. Mulch also prevents most weed seeds from germinating so you have fewer weeds overall.
- Moisture retention—You won’t have to water your flowers or garden plants when you have a bed of mulch. It helps to keep moisture in the ground and prevents excess evaporation.
- Ground and root protection—Mulch helps to keep the soil from getting too hot in the summer, and protects the roots from freezing during the winter. It’s like having a blanket when the weather gets cold and having a cooling fan during the heat of the summer.
- Mulch adds organic material—Even though spruce mulch breaks down slower than typical mulch, it still decomposes. When mulch begins to decompose, it provides the plant’s roots with beneficial nutrients, which help to enrich the soil.
- Breaks up clay—If you live in the south, you know all about the red clay soil and how hard it can be to grow certain plants in this dense dirt. You can add soil amendments to loosen it up, or just add some mulch. Over time, the mulch turns into rich soil that helps to alter the thick clay.
Spruce mulch does all of the above. So if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative or a longer-lasting organic mulch, you can’t go wrong with spruce mulch.
Did you know that pine needles can also be made into mulch? To learn more, check out our article all about it!
Can You Use Spruce Mulch In Your Vegetable Garden?
You certainly can. Mulch in your vegetable garden offers the same benefits as listed above, and can lead to stronger plants, soil enrichment, and bigger yields.
The only caveat here is to be careful using wood mulch under and around tomato plants. The wood chips can be sharp and damage the tender tomato stems. The best mulch for tomato plants is usually straw, shredded leaves, and grass clippings.
Can You Make Your Own Spruce Mulch?
If you are looking at the spruce trees on your property and are wondering if you can use them to make your own mulch, know that you certainly can. Depending on the equipment you have, or have access to, you can make your own mulch.
It can take some time and some methods are labor intensive, but it can certainly be done. If you are planning on cutting your spruce trees down, or they have been damaged by a storm, converting them to mulch is a viable option.
Let’s get into it and learn how to make your own spruce (and more) mulch.
Rent A Tree Chipper And Make Mulch For Yourself
Unless you have a tree cutting business, you probably don’t own a large wood chipper. For the 99% of us who don’t, you can rent them for a decent price. They generally rent for about $100 a day, depending on the size.
Chippers are usually sized by the diameter of the wood they can grind up. The smaller chippers usually can handle branches around 2 to 3 inches in diameter. These machines can fit in the back of a pickup truck or into a large SUV.
Larger machines (which I recommend if you have access to a trailer hitch) can chip larger-diameter branches. These can be up to 6 to 8 inches in diameter. If you need a larger chipper, you’ll have to haul an industrial-sized wood chipper.
Before renting a chipper, we recommend always contacting a professional before starting.
Cheaper Isn’t Necessarily Better
I recently owned a piece of property that had been neglected for years. It had so much undergrowth and wild, unkempt trees that desperately needed heavy pruning. To save some money I trimmed them myself, but then ended up with a huge pile of limbs and brush.
To get rid of the expanding brush pile and create some free mulch, I decided to rent a wood chipper. I decided to go with the 2-inch chipper because most of the wood was smaller limbs and saplings that needed culling.
It made a very large pile of beneficial mulch that would have cost me more than what it cost to rent the chipper. The problem was, I was brutally sore for two days after.
The Chipper Beat Me Up!
I think the blades were dull. I couldn’t tell because I have never used a chipper before, but if I threw the branch into the chipper and let it go, it could clog the machine up. Then I’d have to spend time removing the jam.
I solved this problem—probably unwisely—by holding tight to the branches to keep them from being dragged into the blades and clogging them up like rope around a mower. After a whole day of fighting with the chipper, I was in pain for days after.
Purchase Your Own Chipper For Small Branches
Again, maybe the machine I rented wasn’t the best and needed some maintenance. I was too hard headed to call the rental center to find out. But if you want to do it yourself you will probably have better luck with your own electric chipper.
These machines are relatively expensive, don’t require gas, or oil changes, and won’t produce foul smelling exhaust. The Sun Joe Cutting Diameter Electric Silent Wood Chipper/Shredder is a highly rated electric chipper.
It can shred lawn waste up to 1.7 inches in diameter and reduce the size of your brush pile. To handle all the spindly branches that are too small to burn, chip them into mulch. I’m sure this one won’t make you feel like you’re trying to wrestle the Kraken.
Go Bigger If You Can
If I had it to do over again, I would have gone with a bigger machine. Even though none of the branches were over 2 inches in diameter, the smaller machine had trouble with them.
As far as my personal experience, if you can afford, or are able to tow a larger chipper, go ahead and get it to save your back, shoulders, and arms, and save yourself a lot of frustration.
How To Make Spruce Mulch Without A Chipper
You can make your own wood mulch without a chipper, but it’s a tedious and very labor-intensive process. You will need a chainsaw, a sharp axe, and a hatchet.
The first step is to cut the spruce tree down. If you have never cut a tree before, or if it’s close to any buildings or structures, call a professional to cut it down for you.
Now that the tree is down, cut the branches off the main trunk, and then cut the branches and trunk into smaller sections. Cutting them to about 24 inches in length will be sufficient.
Cut Several Grooves Through The Logs
When using your chainsaw, you want to make sure the blade is sharp and doesn’t have a lot of slack.
Now, take the sections of logs, and cut strips into the logs along the grain. The thicker the logs, the better for this process.
Tips For Cutting The Groove
You’re not trying to cut all the way through, what you are doing is cutting about halfway to three-quarters of the way through the log. After the first cut along the grain, you’ll probably notice a lot of thin wood shreds. This is part of the mulch you are looking for.
These shreds of wood tend to clog up the chain-drive gear, so you’ll have to shut off the saw and clean out the wood tendrils so it doesn’t cause the saw to overheat. Depending on the thickness of the log, you may have to clean it out after each cut, or every other cut.
Continue to cut several grooves through the logs and soon you’ll have a large pile of thin, shredded spruce mulch. Try to cut a deep groove about every inch or so. This way you get more out of each log.
Now It’s Time To Swing The Axe
Once the logs are grooved and you have a large pile of shredded spruce mulch, you can make your own wood chips with a hatchet or axe. Just take the axe of your choice and start chipping away at the logs. With the deep cuts in the logs, when you chop at them with your axe, you’ll get small wood chips you can add to your shredded mulch so it lasts longer.
This LEXIVON V28 Chopping Axe is a great, sharp, ergonomic axe that’s made for chopping up chunks of wood. You’ll have wood shavings and your own mulch in no time.
Use the long chopping axe along with the WilFiks Chopping Axe, which comes highly rated. With these two tools, you can turn those spruce trees into mulch.
For tips on how to cut down a spruce tree, click to check out our article!
Don’t Have A Chainsaw?
You can still use an axe to chop up mulch from the tree. Just start chopping on the tree and let the wood chips fly. As I said, these methods are extremely labor intensive, but if you’ve been looking for that lumberjack body, this is certainly the way to get it.
Considering a truckload of mulch can cost $300 to $500, maybe cutting mulch yourself isn’t such a bad idea. Especially if you end up getting a ripped body as a result, just saying.
Is Fresh Wood Mulch Bad For My Garden?
There is concern among many gardening enthusiasts that fresh wood chips, sawdust, and other woody mulch products—if they haven’t been aged appropriately—will tie up nitrogen from the soil.
Even if fresh wood chips were nitrogen-robbing thieves, they couldn’t remove enough of the nutrient to affect trees and shrubs that are already established. Plants that have established root systems could still get nitrogen from other areas of the soil. Remember, a tree’s roots can extend up to three times the size of the canopy.
The little nitrogen that is taken from the wood chips isn’t going to affect the tree. So if you put a two-foot ring of mulch around the tree, even if all the nitrogen was eliminated from under the mulch, it won’t harm the tree at all.
Leave The Wood Chips To Age
If you are still concerned about nitrogen being tied up for months, then just leave the fresh chips to age for 6 months to a year. After that time the fresh wood chips will have started the decomposition process, and started adding nitrogen to the soil.
Woody mulch actually increases nitrogen in the soil. Even freshly cut wood chips don’t absorb or remove nitrogen from the soil. If you are concerned about nitrogen levels, apply a layer of compost to the soil before laying the mulch.
By the time the compost is used up, the wood chips will start to biodegrade and continue to release nitrogen into the soil.
Use Mature Mulch For New Plants
If you are planting new bulbs, seeds, or just starting your garden, you may not want to use fresh cut mulch. “Aha!” you say, “it does affect the plants if it’s not aged.” There don’t appear to be many studies that support this theory.
The reason for using aged mulch with new plants is that they need more nutrients to get established. Their roots are trying to grow, and at the same time, new plants are expending a lot of energy in growing new leaves, branches, and stems.
Adding a mulch that decomposes quickly, or an aged compost is best to get these new plants started. Since fresh-cut mulch will take a long time to start decomposing, it may not be the best alternative for non-established plants.
Mulch won’t take the place of fertilizer, though. Check out our article on spruce tree fertilizers for more info on that!
What To Do With Leftover Mulch
If you have a lot of mulch left over and don’t have any more beds that need it you can store it until next year. Just store the leftover mulch in a dry area, outside and away from any structures.
It’s best to bag it up in thick, black plastic bags, but make sure the bags have several small holes in them so it’s able to breathe. You can also leave it in a pile if it’s too much to bag up, just be sure to “turn” it occasionally. Just like compost, the mulch will need to be stirred to prevent mold and let the mulch deep inside get sunlight and air.
Weed Before Applying Mulch
For mulch to be an effective weed barrier, you should get rid of existing weeds first. Getting rid of the weeds first assures you have fewer that will need to be pulled out later. After the mulch is applied, it makes it harder for seeds to germinate. It can still happen but at a much-reduced rate.
To get rid of the weeds, first, you can use a garden hoe and chop them out before adding a thick layer of mulch. You can also go the old-fashioned route and pull them straight out.
Another way to get rid of weeds is to pour boiling water on them. Be sure you don’t have any plants nearby that could be harmed because if the hot water hits the roots, it could damage them or prove fatal for the plant.
Why Mulch Might Attract Insects
Fresh and decomposed mulch does attract insects. There are a lot of bugs that are attracted to moisture such as pill bugs, crickets, earwigs, ants, spiders, millipedes, and centipedes.
Insects will come for the moisture, and places to hide, and then the predators will follow. I have seen centipedes, spiders, beetles, and others in mulch before, but I have yet to find termites in any beds of mulch. I’m not an expert on termites, I’m just reporting my findings.
If bugs and termites are prevalent in your area, or you just don’t want insects getting close to your house because of mulch, there are options. Applying a one to two foot barrier of inorganic mulch such as river rocks, or shredded tires around your house can reduce the number of insects that get into your house.
Let’s Wrap It Up!
Spruce mulch is just as good, if not better than other more expensive hardwood mulches. It can last longer, it’s usually less expensive and it provides the same benefits as more expensive mulch.
You can even make your own mulch by renting or buying a wood chipper, or cutting it up yourself. Just use your chainsaw, hatchet, and trusty chopping axe if you have the energy and physical stamina.
Go ahead and spruce up your landscape with some new mulch—sorry, I was holding that in this whole time and couldn’t resist.
References
Arentoft, B. W., et al. “A new method to evaluate the weed‐suppressing effect of mulches: a comparison between spruce bark and cocoa husk mulches.” Weed Research 53.3 (2013): 169-175.
Fang, Shengzuo, Baodong Xie, and Jiujun Liu. “Soil nutrient availability, poplar growth and biomass production on degraded agricultural soil under fresh grass mulch.” Forest Ecology and Management 255.5-6 (2008): 1802-1809.
Downer, Jim. “Mulch effects on trees.” Western Arborist 35 (2009): 30-34.
Ramakrishna, A., et al. “Effect of mulch on soil temperature, moisture, weed infestation and yield of groundnut in northern Vietnam.” Field crops research 95.2-3 (2006): 115-125.
