Mulch: A Tree's Best Friend | Kramer Tree Specialists, Inc.

Mulch: A Tree’s Best Friend

Mulching can reduce stress by furnishing trees with a stable root environment that retains more moisture than the surrounding soil and keeps tree roots cooler. Mulch also prevents mechanical damage by keeping machines such as lawn mowers away from the tree’s base.

Further, it reduces competition from surrounding weeds and turf. The fertility of the soil is increased as the mulch breaks down into the soil.

Mulching also improves soil structure by providing better aeration.

The single most important step in providing for the health of your trees, and a highly cost effective method, is to properly apply mulch at a 2" – 3" depth.

At Kramer Tree Specialists, Inc. we manufacture our own mulch products on site. We are able to offer competitive prices to our customers by utilizing a state-of-the-art grinders/recyclers. We provide:

For more specific information about mulch click below:

Our philosophy and ethics have not wavered since our beginning in 1974. Our goal is to empower you to be the caretaker of your trees so that you and future generations may enjoy them, and so that your trees may continue their essential benefit to our environment.

At Kramer Tree Specialists, our goal is to provide a quality product that is affordable and aesthetically desirable. We accomplish this goal by recycling the branches and chips form our tree care operations. We benefit the environment in two ways; not adding to the landfill problem and helping our customers affordably care for their trees.

Our philosophy has been to make a positive environmental impact; therefore we recycle all of our tree service by-products into mulch. Currently, all of our mulch products are returned to the landscape, rather than put into landfills.

Mulch Dump

Your trees will thank you for your care by being healthier, therefore resistant to disease pathogens and insect pests, and as an added benefit to our environment, will require less watering.

What Is Growing in My Landscape Mulch?

(PDF publication from the Department of Plant Pathology at PennState College of Agricultural Sciences)

Landscape mulches are used to protect soil, conserve moisture, moderate soil temperature, and limit weed growth, as well as beautify and unify landscape plantings. Most mulches are mixtures of shredded wood and bark residues from lumber and paper mills, arboricultural and land-clearing operations, and wooden pallet disposal or recycling facilities.

Like other organic matter, wood and bark decompose over time. The primary organisms involved with their decomposition are bacteria and fungi, which derive their energy for growth from the carbon-based compounds found in wood and bark. These compounds include cellulose, lignin, and simple sugars. Bacteria are microscopic organisms that are not visible in the mulch. Fungi also may be microscopic, but many develop visible reproductive structures.

The fungi involved in the decomposition of landscape mulches are natural components of the environment. Some fungi, such as the artillery fungus, are "recyclers" and break down woody tissue directly. Other fungi, such as slime molds, consume bacteria and other organisms living in the mulch. These fungi are not harmful to landscape plants and no known health hazards are associated with them unless they are eaten. They can be found April through October, usually following rainy weather.

This PDF publication from the Department of Plant Pathology at PennState College of Agricultural Sciences describes the four common types of fungi growing in landscape mulches in the eastern United States--mushrooms, slime molds, bird's nest fungus, and the artillery fungus.

Click on the link below to download a PDF version of the publication.

Telephone: (630) 293-5444 | Fax: (630) 293-7667 | 300 Charles Court, West Chicago, Illinois 60185

Mulch: A Tree’s Best Friend

What Is Growing in My Landscape Mulch?

KTS Complete Professional Tree Care