Short answer: For most yards in View Ridge, Wedgwood, Ravenna, Laurelhurst and Windermere, medium bark or arborist wood chips are the right default. Use compost as mulch on vegetable and annual beds you are actively feeding. Skip dyed mulch and rubber mulch entirely.
We mulch a lot of beds in Northeast Seattle, and the same question comes up on nearly every job: "Which kind should I get?" The honest answer is that it depends on what is planted, how much shade and slope the bed has, and how the yard is meant to look. This guide walks through every common option, what it costs, how long it lasts in our wet-winter, dry-summer climate, and where we would and would not use it.
The main mulch types, compared
Arborist wood chips. Best for trees, shrubs, native plantings, large beds
Medium bark (fir/hemlock). Best for ornamental beds, foundation plantings, front yards
Fine bark. Best for flat beds, pathways, under groundcovers
Coarse bark nuggets. Best for flat decorative beds only
Compost / mulch mix. Best for vegetable beds, perennial borders, new plantings
Leaf mulch. Best for shrub beds, woodland gardens, under trees
Straw. Use in vegetable beds only
Gravel / crushed rock. Ideal for parking strips, xeriscape, paths, drainage areas
Arborist wood chips
Arborist chips are the chipped-up branches and leaves that tree crews produce when they prune or remove trees. They are the most ecologically sound mulch available and often the cheapest, because tree companies would rather drop a load nearby than pay to dump it.
Why we like them: the mix of wood, bark and leaf breaks down slowly, feeds soil fungi, and builds the kind of soil that trees and shrubs want. Washington State University horticulture research has long favored arborist chips over bark for woody plantings for exactly this reason.
Where to use them: around trees (keeping chips 6 inches off the trunk), in native and woodland-style beds, along back fences, and anywhere you want a large area covered cheaply. They are ideal for the big maple-shaded lots in Wedgwood and the wooded edges along Ravenna Park.
Where not to use them: front-yard beds where a uniform look matters, and vegetable beds, where you want something that breaks down faster.
Bark mulch: fine, medium and coarse
Bark is the mulch most people picture. In Seattle it is usually Douglas fir or hemlock bark, sold by the cubic yard in three grades.
Fine bark looks tidy and spreads easily, but it compacts, crusts and washes away faster than the other grades. Use it on flat beds and paths only.
Medium bark is the all-purpose choice. It knits together enough to stay put on gentle slopes, holds moisture well and looks good for about two years.
Coarse nuggets last the longest but float in heavy rain and roll downhill. Keep them on flat, contained beds.
A note on cedar: cedar bark and cedar chips are fine around established shrubs and in paths. Avoid fresh cedar directly around seedlings and young annuals, which can be sensitive to it.
Compost and mulch mixes
Compost used as a mulch feeds the soil as it breaks down. Local products like Cedar Grove compost and the various "garden mulch" blends sold at Seattle-area suppliers fall in this group.
Use a 1–2 inch layer on vegetable beds, perennial borders and around newly planted shrubs. Because it decomposes within a season, plan to reapply yearly. It is not a weed barrier on its own; weeds will germinate right in it if the layer is thin.
Leaf mulch
If you live under the big-leaf maples, oaks and sweetgums that line streets in Laurelhurst, Wedgwood and Ravenna, you already have a free mulch supply every fall. Shred the leaves with a mower, then spread 2–3 inches over shrub beds. Whole leaves mat down and can smother small plants, so shredding matters.
Leaf mulch is the single best thing you can do for a woodland or shade garden. It is also what the plants were evolved to grow in.
Straw
Straw is for vegetable beds and nothing else. It keeps soil moisture even, keeps mud off tomatoes and squash, and turns into the soil at the end of the season. Buy straw, not hay; hay is full of seed.
Gravel and crushed rock
Rock is a good choice for parking strips, drainage areas, paths and modern, drought-tolerant plantings. It does not break down, does not feed the soil, and heats up in summer. Do not use it around rhododendrons, azaleas, ferns, hydrangeas or anything else that wants cool, acidic, humus-rich soil, which describes most of what grows well in Northeast Seattle.
What not to use
Dyed mulch. The color fades to gray within a season, the dye runs in winter rain, and it is often made from ground pallets and construction waste rather than bark.
Rubber mulch. It never breaks down, sheds microplastics, and gets hot. It belongs under playground equipment, not in a garden bed.
Fresh sawdust. It ties up nitrogen as it decomposes and compacts into a crust.
Mulch volcanoes. Piling any mulch against a tree trunk or the base of a shrub traps moisture against the bark, invites rot and rodents, and slowly kills the plant. Keep a bare ring of 4–6 inches around every trunk and stem.
Matching mulch to what grows in Northeast Seattle
Rhododendrons and azaleas. Use medium bark or arborist chips, 2–3 inches, kept off the stems
Japanese maples. Try arborist chips or medium bark; never rock
Sword ferns and native woodland beds. Leaf mulch or arborist chips work well
Hydrangeas. Medium bark or compost mulch
Lawn edges and foundation beds. Go with medium bark for a clean line
Parking strips. Definitely crushed rock, or medium bark with a hard edge
Vegetable and cutting beds. Compost in spring, straw in summer
New trees. Arborist chips in a 3-foot ring, 3–4 inches deep
How deep, and how much do I need?
Spread bark and chips 2–4 inches deep. Compost mulch goes on at 1–2 inches. Thinner than 2 inches of bark will not suppress weeds; thicker than 4 inches can starve roots of air.
To estimate volume: multiply the bed's length by its width in feet, multiply by the depth in inches, and divide by 324. That gives cubic yards.
Example: a typical View Ridge front bed of 50 feet by 4 feet at 3 inches deep is 50 × 4 × 3 ÷ 324, or about 1.9 cubic yards. Round up to 2.
Frequently asked questions
Does bark mulch attract termites? Not in any meaningful way. Western Washington has very few termite problems to begin with, and bark does not draw them. Keep mulch a few inches off wood siding and foundations as a general precaution.
Is cedar mulch bad for plants? No. Fresh cedar can slow germination of seeds and seedlings, so skip it in a new vegetable bed. Around established shrubs and trees it is fine.
Can I put mulch over existing weeds? Small annual weeds, yes; 3 inches of bark will smother them. Perennial weeds like morning glory, blackberry and horsetail will push right through. Pull or dig those first.
How often do I need to re-mulch? Medium bark and arborist chips: top up every 1–2 years. Compost and leaf mulch: every year.
Should I put landscape fabric under mulch? We recommend against it in planted beds. Fabric blocks the organic matter from reaching the soil, and weeds eventually grow on top of it anyway. Use it only under rock or gravel.
Which mulch is best for a dog-friendly yard? Medium bark or arborist chips. Avoid cocoa-shell mulch, which is toxic to dogs.
Serving View Ridge, Wedgwood, Laurelhurst, Windermere and Ravenna. [Get a mulch quote] · Related: [When to mulch in Seattle] · [How mulch cuts your summer water bill]