Mulch – Pine Straw vs. Nuggets

Q: Which do you recommend: pine straw mulch or pine mini-nuggets for putting around plants. I know mulch serves two purposes: appearance and retaining water.

A: I think it’s more your judgement of appearance than anything else. Some people like the texture of straw, others like the dark brown of nuggets.

My wife uses mini-nuggets almost exclusively because she likes their look.. However, we had to buy several brands before we found one that was mostly bark nuggets rather than being a poor mixture of nuggets, compost and wood fiber. Do your own research and buy several bags of nuggets at the same time, to avoid differences in batches coming out of the bagging plant.