Hi, I’m David Epstein. I’m doing a little weeding here in the garden. And of course one of the things to help keep the weeds down is mulch. And there are many different types of mulches out there. You won’t have as many weeds if you mulch. Mulch also have to keep moisture in during the heat of the summer.

Let’s talk about the types of mulches out there just for a second. You’ve got things like pine bark mulch, you’ve got hay, you’ve got composted mulches, you’ve got forest floor mulch which we use here. You also have buckwheat hulls which I really like if you’re looking for a Japanese type of garden and you have cocoa shell mulch. Let me show you the cocoa shell mulch and tell you the one big caveat about using it.

So, here we are in front of bags of cocoa shells and they really do make a beautiful mulch. If you’re chocoholic like me, it’s smells like chocolate. The problem is some dogs love to eat this stuff and it can be very toxic to dogs. There had been case of dogs actually dying if they eat too much of this. So, if you have a dog at home, I have three, I can’t use this. It’s a better idea not to use it than chances.

So my advise, there’s a lot of mulches out there. Create the look you want, protect your soil, help protect the plants, help keep the weeds down. But if you have dogs, don’t use cocoa shells. There’s a lot of other things out there.

Come back every week for all of our videos. They’re out there, here at Growing Wisdom.