When I first met my husband’s grandmother, it was at her tire shop. Yes, she owns a tire shop and there was something about the stacks of tires that all I could think about was how much fun it would have been being able to play with them as a kid. At the time, I basically saw two uses for tires, one was obviously for my car, bike, insert anything that requires tires here and for kids to play around in, I never thought that tires would be used for a basic gardening need, mulching.

Now that I have just walked down memory lane with you, let’s get to the important facts, mulching. It isn’t the best job in gardening but it has its purposes. Mulching, if you aren’t sure, is used for a variety of reasons including provide temperature control for the roots, controlling weeds and repelling insects. There are a number of items that you can use for mulching and they all have their pros and cons, much like everything else.

Although rubber mulch isn’t the organic answer for mulching, it is an eco-friendly option since they are reusing old tires. The number of tires discarded in Canada alone each year is roughly 28 million tires. I’m not sure if you have been in a tire shop with about 10 stacks of tires, probably 50 to 100 tires max, believe me, it is crammed and I can only imagine what 28 million is like.

With rubber mulch being offered to consumers, it helps alleviate some of the problems of used tires. If we are looking at this simply as a gardener, rubber mulch has many benefits. It has been proven to never decompose and it provides many of the benefits that other mulches provide.  It keeps the temperature at a proper degree, reduces the growth of weeds and allows nutrients through to the plants.  It can be as decorative as you want it and actually comes in several colors, including green, blue, terracotta, black and brown.

For pet owners, it does provide a non-toxic mulch that shouldn’t harm your pet if they ingest some, although I am not completely convinced about this.  Much like stones, I can see the consumption of rubber pebbles causing some quick jaunts to the vet to have them extracted.  The pebbles are said to be odorless and shouldn’t attract many insects. Since they do not decompose, you shouldn’t have to replace them often.

The price for rubber mulch is fairly high, with a yard of coverage ranging in price from 50 to 100 dollars but many manufacturers of the product really pump the fact that rubber mulch does not decompose and it is resistant to wash away.  Of course, I often wonder how resistant it is to walk away, when children collect the pebbles from your garden.

Rubber mulching is a great choice for any gardener but before you invest in it, you should figure out what it is you want in a mulch.  If you are looking for something that provides protection and nutrients, then this is not the mulch to go with.

Sirena Van Schaik

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Tags: eco-friendly mulch, Gardening, mulch, Mulching, organic mulch, recycled tires, reused tires, rubber mulch, tire mulch

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