And don't forget to mulch your flowerbeds...

I spread/ dragged 17 miles of manure yesterday on the hay meadows just before this new front brings moisture.

You know my back was filling good this morning till I looked at that.

One day y’all will wise up and use rubber mulch. I put ours down 5 years ago and it still looks new. Only thing better than rubber mulch is rock, but rubber mulch is considerably cheaper and lighter than rock

Cost is pretty much a wash. 14 yards of black mulch is about $350 delivered. 14 yards of rubber with a 12 year color guarantee is closer to $4000. I think the cons outweigh the pros.

I gave up on mulch a long time ago. It just washes out and looks crappy, plus the trees and beds don’t do any better with it versus without it.

Get organic compost, use as mulch.
Keeps weeds out, moisture in AND it feeds the soil.
Take your truck to the materials yard and load up.

I don't put mulch around trees and don't understand why people do it. Tree roots need to breathe. The quickest way to kill a tree is to pile stuff around the base. I planted a pecan on the side of the house and neighbor lady came over and piled a bunch of mulch around it. She thought she was helping so I bit my tongue. The next day the mulch was gone. I also do not use donuts when planting a tree. Years ago I went to rocks in my beds. They aren't going anywhere.

Saved my back a little.

I’ll be putting in a new back lawn for the second time in 4 years. St Augustine due to big leafy oaks. 2 neighbors in back also are dead so I’m assuming some kind of related problems. I did water pretty well with a sprinkler system. The guy that does my lawn stuff hunts free on my land so I’ll only have to pay for out of pocket expenses.

We’ve had two extremely - unheard of hot, dry, intense Summers in a row with way above average temps on consecutive days. That intense heat will kill trees, grass and foliage of every kind.
St. Augustine almost demands normal temps and decent rain - but not too much. And it’s still susceptible to fungus and disease. And then there’s the record low temps in our recent Winters.
Maintaining a lawn in the Central US has been tough the last two years.

Not having to mess with it for at least 12 years is priceless

I had rubber mulch years ago. I didn't like it. Didn't look natural and eventually it would get blown out of the landscaping beds onto the grass or yard. Then it's like picking up little pieces of trash. The color also doesn't last nearly as long as advertised.

We're dealing with this now. Did absolutely nothing to stop weeds. Terrible investment for us, luckily, we only did the front.