Homeowner hit with warnings after considering 'abomination' of a landscaping product: 'Never a good idea'

Ask any green-thumbed homeowner, and you'll find out landscaping opinions are about as subjective as it gets. 

One Redditor recently found this out in r/landscaping when they posed a seemingly simple question about their landscaping — and while they got a lot of different suggestions, there was a pretty strong consensus about what not to do. 

They posted a photo of a section of their yard with shrubs growing from bare soil. The poster figured black mulch might look nice covering the dirt. 

"Add black mulch or leave it?" they wrote at the top of the post. 

The folks at r/landscaping had plenty of thoughts. 

"Black mulch is never a good idea," wrote one Redditor before pointing out that dark colors absorb heat and will dry out the soil. 

Other Redditors pointed out that natural mulch, as opposed to dyed, looks better and is less prone to fading — and therefore won't need to be replaced as often. 

"Instead of mulch under my yews and bushes I use drought-tolerant non-invasive groundcover and short flowering plants," wrote another. 

That commenter had the right idea. 

🗣️ If you were to switch from a grass lawn to a more natural option, which of these factors would be your primary motivation?

🔘 Making it look better 🌱

🔘 Saving money on water and maintenance 💰

🔘 Helping pollinators 🐝

🔘 No way I ever get rid of my lawn 🚫

🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind

Planting drought-tolerant native plants saves water, reduces the need to use chemicals in your yard, and saves time on maintenance.

Landscaping composed of native plants also provides a great habitat for bees and other pollinators like flies, beetles, and wasps. Helping these little critters out benefits all of us as much of our food supply — everything from fruits and vegetables to beans and more — depends on pollinators. 

Rewilding your yard by removing sterile grass and replacing it with thriving native plants is pretty much always a great call and a much better choice than a grass lawn when it comes to water savings and long-term monetary savings. 

Xeriscaping, or dry scaping, is another great way to have a gorgeous yard while conserving water. You can do this by planting drought-tolerant plants and also installing rocks, mulch, and pretty much anything that uses no or little water to maintain. 

Though we don't know what the poster ended up going with, the people in the comments certainly hope it wasn't the black mulch. 

"Dyed mulch is an abomination," wrote one Redditor. "Might as well just pave and paint."

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