Mulch · Houston
Red Mulch
Red mulch made from clean dimensional lumber we hand-pick, finished through a 1.5 inch screen and dyed with an iron-based colorant.
$35 per cubic yard
Retail price at the yard, before tax.
Pick up at the yard, or we deliver around Houston. Delivery details · Contractor accounts
The material
What it is
Red Mulch is made from clean dimensional lumber, finished through a 1.5 inch screen for a consistent texture, then dyed with an iron-based colorant.
Clean dimensional means kiln-dried two-by-fours, nothing treated, painted, or plywood. We pick through the incoming wood by hand to keep it that way.
Plan on one season of color. It is used in garden beds, on pathways, and around trees.
Process
How we make it
We cannot let this material age too long or it will not take the color. Aged wood will not take dye well, so the process here is different from our aged native.
Wood comes in on tree jobs and land-clearing jobs, and we hand-pick clean dimensional lumber out of it. Anything treated, painted, or plywood is set aside, and we go back through the trash pile to pull more clean dimensional out of it. Only that clean wood gets ground for red mulch.
The wood is ground, then ground a second time, and finished through the 1.5 inch screen. Then it is dyed with an iron-based colorant.
Uses
Best for
- Garden beds and landscape beds where a bright red color is wanted
- Pathways and areas around trees
- Color contrast against green foliage and lighter hardscape
- Moisture retention, so beds need less frequent watering
- Weed suppression and soil-temperature regulation
Good to know
What to ask about any dyed mulch
Iron-oxide colorants used on red mulch are benign; in testing, iron oxide reduced arsenic leaching. What matters is the wood that was dyed.
Dyed mulch ground from construction and demolition debris can hide CCA-treated or painted wood. Our Black Mulch page carries the research on what that leaches.
We sort our red mulch by hand, so we can tell you what the wood is: clean kiln-dried dimensional lumber, no treated wood, no paint, no plywood.
The smell test works here too. Our Aged Native Mulch page explains what sour mulch is and how to spot it.
Questions about Red Mulch
Clean, kiln-dried dimensional lumber. No chemically treated wood, no painted wood, no plywood, and we hand-pick the incoming wood to keep it that way.
The iron-based colorant used on mulch is benign. In testing, iron oxide has been shown to reduce arsenic leaching. The thing to check with any dyed mulch is the wood underneath, and ours is clean dimensional lumber.
Plan on one season. The dye maker rates the color for at least a year, but a sprinkler system running three times a week bleaches it faster than a bed that only gets rain.
Keep going
Related
Black Mulch
Aged native hardwood, dyed black with a carbon-based colorant.
$35 per cubic yardView product
Aged Native Mulch
Native hardwood, aged three to six months, finished through a 1.5 inch screen.
$30 per cubic yardView product
Proper mulch application for your garden beds
Bed prep, how to tell finished mulch, and how deep to spread it.
Read the guide