Bark mulch supplies trends tight once time

Tag : Bark Mulch

Last summer, buying bark mulch for gardening and landscapingprojects often required an extensive search and a hefty expense.

A year later, things haven’t changed all that much, althoughappearances might suggest otherwise as bark is in stock at mostretail outlets in the mid-valley.

“It’s not as bad as last year, but it is still notreadily available,” said Tom Krupicka, owner of Tom’sGarden Center. “I just heard from our supplier thathe’s out of hemlock.”

Krupicka noted that he has hemlock bark on his lot in North Albanybut doesn’t know when he might get more.

“It has been a wet spring, so there hasn’t been a pushright out of the gate to get bark,” said Krupicka. “Andthe price is up again.”

A year ago, retail hemlock bark prices jumped from $15 to $25 ayard. This year costs are up on all wood products. Hemlock is $35 ayard and fir is $30 a yard.

“Fuel costs have added some to the expense,” Krupickasaid. “But the bark itself is still very hard to get.Suppliers just don’t have any. That’s the way it iswith any wood product.”

At The Bark Place in both Albany and Corvallis, the bins still havemulch but material is getting harder to find, according to managerBrad Wilson.

“We’re coping,” he said. “I anticipate wewill be able to supply our customers through the season. Idon’t think we’ll suffer any long-term outages.”

Wilson said The Bark Place has been traveling to Washington toreplenish bark supplies.

“A lot of factors are contributing to reduction inmulch,” said Wilson, who cited the housing slowdown and thefact more mulch is being used for electricity.

Krupicka thinks that with improving weather, customers will startsearching for bark or more affordable alternatives.

He pointed to composts in general and mint-straw in particularbecoming more popular. Krupicka also said filbert shells areincreasingly being used as mulch.

Wilson thinks compost will eventually be the ground cover of choicebecause of cost and availability.

“People will adjust to what they can get,” he said.

Krupicka agreed pointing to a need to save.

“I think people will look for ways to save. They willprobably want a cheaper alternative or maybe put off buying anymulch at all for a year,” said Krupicka.