Has anyone tried dying mulch?

[Ruth n Jersey]

Our mulch around the trees held up pretty good through the winter. My son usually freshens it up with a few new bags of mulch. This year he found a product to dye existing mulch.
I was surprised he fell for this. I have my doubts. It is only dying the top layer. I'm pretty sure a chipmunk could easily disturb the dyed mulch and we will be back to square one.
It is suppose to be safe but stains like crazy. I got a few drops on the garage floor and even bleach won't remove it.
Time will tell.

 

[Timetrvlr]

Are other colors available? I'm not fond of dark brown.

 

[Ruth n Jersey]

Are other colors available? I'm not fond of dark brown.

They have black which is what we should have bought, Not sure about red or any other colors. I noticed it made it through quite a down pour yesterday. We will see.

 

[RadishRose]

I don't understand why.

 

[Ruth n Jersey]

I don't understand why.

We tried it because our mulch was still good but seemed a bit faded. We have a lot of trees in front and it takes a truck load of mulch to do the job. The dye is much cheaper without all the hard labor involved in putting new mulch down. Having it done is also quite expensive.

 

[RadishRose]

Thanks @Ruth. It just never occurred to me that faded mulch was undesirable. Diminishing mulch, yes.

 

[gennie]

Bleached out mulch would never have bothered me. My tolerance level for such things is quite high.

 

[Don M.]

"Black Mulch" is wood chips (of multiple varieties) that have been "Stained". That stain generally doesn't last more than a few months, and the rain, etc. will soften the stain such that you Will get it all over your shoes, etc. The BEST, and longest lasting mulch is Cedar. It's reddish color is throughout the wood, and Cedar deteriorates much slower than most woods....making it the best bang for the buck.

 

[Ruth n Jersey]

Bleached out mulch would never have bothered me. My tolerance level for such things is quite high.

It shouldn't bother me either but I come from a long line of "everything has to be perfect yard people". My dad managed a nursery his whole working life. This was way before big stores like Home Depot . He started out doing tree work and landscaping then took care of the nursery and greenhouses.
The topic of conversation around our dinner table was always about trees,plants and what bug was attacking what. .
He took great pride in his own yard and sometimes excessively.
One year I wanted a pool but there was no way he was going to give up one inch of his beloved lawn.
I got my pool but my mom had to give up her tomato patch so it could be set up. lol
So that is why bleached mulch drives me nuts. lol
I might add that my dad never approved of mulch. A circle around each tree was carefully cultivated,weeded and trimmed neatly after the lawn was cut.

 

[RadishRose]

It shouldn't bother me either but I come from a long line of "everything has to be perfect yard people". My dad managed a nursery his whole working life. This was way before big stores like Home Depot . He started out doing tree work and landscaping then took care of the nursery and greenhouses.
The topic of conversation around our dinner table was always about trees,plants and what bug was attacking what. .
He took great pride in his own yard and sometimes excessively.
One year I wanted a pool but there was no way he was going to give up one inch of his beloved lawn.
I got my pool but my mom had to give up her tomato patch so it could be set up. lol
So that is why bleached mulch drives me nuts. lol
I might add that my dad never approved of mulch. A circle around each tree was carefully cultivated,weeded and trimmed neatly after the lawn was cut.

I see what you mean Ruth, but how nice it is to have a "perfect" yard, isn't it? I think your dad was a great benefit being in the nursery business! Knowing how to grow things whether ornamentals or crops; you were lucky.