Landscaping is the act of adding new features to a lawn or public land to make it more attractive to those who see it or visit it, and landscape improvement can range from planting trees and shrubs and flower beds all the way to man-made items such as a swimming pool, a wooden deck for a house, an outdoor kitchen, a footpath, and more. Bark dust, meanwhile, can make the ground on a property more attractive, and bark dust and bark chips can be very useful for a playground or for making a lawn more attractive and more practical at the same time. Property improvement like bark dust is not just aesthetically pleasing, but also a smart investment; when done right, property improvement such as bark dust blowing can make a property easier to sell when putting it on the real estate market, and property improvement can make a good impression on the guests of a commercial piece of property.
Using Bark Dust
Those interested in landscaping should be aware that “bark dust” and “mulch” are functionally similar, but are not the same material. Bark dust is a form of property improvement made entirely from tree bark left over from lumber milling, and bark from trees is cork-like and has a limited wood content. Bark can be made into finer particles or larger, chip-like bits, depending on what a customer wants to use for their property. By contrast, mulch is material made from a number of shredded and broken up products, which can include bark dust but involves leaves, twigs, and anything else that can be used. For playgrounds, for example, contractors would probably rather use bark dust than proper mulch for creating a surface that park guests would want to walk on.
What are the uses of bark dust? Can leftover, shredded tree bark really be useful? It can. A layer of two to three inches of bark dust can be applied for landscaping, and fir and hemlock bark dust are particularly popular for this. Bark dust can not only make a lawn or front grounds more attractive, but a layer of bark dust is practical as well. This bark dust can act as a shield for the soil against erosion, and this can be a major relief for property owners concerned about the threat of soil erosion. Erosion can cause a lot of expensive damage to a property and is very ugly to look at, and some areas in the United States may be more susceptible to it than others based on aridity or other factors. Bark dust may also help trap nutrients and moisture in the soil, which can be useful for shrubs and tress and other plants that need care, and it can also maintain and regulate the temperature of the soil, which may be important for plant species that are sensitive to such things.
Why use bark dust for property improvement? Many Americans agree that a more attractive front or back lawn is something to be desired, and it can have a positive mental effect on a homeowner, seeing their attractive lawns, and this can make a property more appealing on the real estate market once the owner puts it up for sale. This means that landscaping, when done right, can offer a high return of investment, or ROI, something that any homeowner would want. Estimates show that a home’s resale value may increase as much as 14% when landscaping is done, and spending as little as 5% on a home’s landscaping may yield a ROI as high as 150% in some cases. Interested homeowners can look up and hire local landscaping crews and have professionals apply a layer of bark dust onto the front or back lawn as desired, and bark dust can be limited to certain areas where it is most useful. For example, a homeowner could make a low brick wall around a garden and have bark dust put down to protect the soil for flowers or shrubs. Covering an entire lawn may be expensive and time-consuming, but if strategic parts of the lawn are covered with bark dust, it can have the desired effect. Bark dust could also be put down around a tree to protect the soil around it.