Rubber Mulch

[TheBrumstead]

My husband works for a tire company and can get shredded tires for free. We have a butterfly/hummingbird "garden" next to the porch on one side. The other side just has a small evergreen bush. It was nicely mulched when we bought the house 6 years ago, but we've let it slide and haven't remulched it, so there's not much there. How is rubber mulch for an area like this? Any concerns? I usually put in a few annuals, but no veggies/fruits in this area.

 

[so lucky]

I don't really remember seeing anything planted with rubber mulch. Only around playground equipment and the like.

 

[desertlady]

I wouldnt use rubber mulch for plants,

 

[ninnymary]

Too many chemicals went into making those tires. I wouldn't use them.

Mary

 

[thistlebloom]

There is a commercially available rubber mulch that they sell in the Box stores, and it was put down in a landscape I work in ( not by me ).

Let me tell you how much I dislike that stuff!
During the fall it gets loaded with plant debris, so cleanup means some of it gets removed because there is just no way to rake leaves out of it without taking some mulch with it.
That means I can't bring the leaves home ( I like to stockpile them for the garden ) because that rubber will never break down, and like Mary said, too many chemicals involved.

I suppose you could blow some of the debris out, depending on what was in it (larger leaves and twigs will blow out ), but from a maintenance opinion it's a real pain.

It does have an application, in arenas for instance, but I don't think you'd be happy with it in the long run in your landscape.

 

[ducks4you]

Find a horse owner who wants to cover their mud arena with it.

 

[TheBrumstead]

Find a horse owner who wants to cover their mud arena with it.

I used to have horses. I'm not talking a truck load full, just a few bags for a small area. I don't want to kill my butterfly bushes though...

 

[ducks4you]

Use it in a sparse walkway.

 

[Detlor Poultry]

Too many chemicals went into making those tires. I wouldn't use them.

Mary

X2

 

[The Mama Chicken]

Actually it's perfectly safe. I have been researching Earthships for years (houses built out of filled recycled tires) and there is a report from the University of Wisconsin that says tires don't leach chemicals into the soil (or VOCs into the air), even if they are chipped. Here's a link to the page where I found the name of the report.
http://earthship.com/offgassing
That being said, I don't think it would be the easiest mulch to deal with and it doesn't add anything to the soil. Plus it would collect a lot of heat, which could be a problem in the summertime.