# Rubberized Mulch



## Terry Jackson (Jan 4, 2008)

Has anyone tried the fairly new rubber mulches that are available now? I looked at it at Lowes and it's kind of Pricey, but if it the color holds up and it last along time and still looks good would it be ok in a garden railroad setting? The wood mulch I have used is starting to decay now and turn to sawdust. Cats love it.


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## Steve Stockham (Jan 2, 2008)

Terry,
I have used the rubberiffic mulch in my garden for six years now and I swear by it! The color holds fast and it doesn't float away when the heavy rains flood my layout. I use both the red and the brown but I am also slowly reducing the area of mulch as I add more plants and groundcover. Here are some pics of my layout with the rubberific mulch:


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

ugh..no thanks.. 
not for me.. 

maybe its inert, maybe it wont really harm anything.. 
but to me, it just seems like throwing garbage in the garden.. 
and people 50 years from now will be cursing your name as they pick out millions of little rubber bits from the ground, to plant their garden.  

Scot


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## eheading (Jan 5, 2008)

We work part time at Disney World's EPCOT where they use the rubberized mulch extensively. They use it primarily in playgrounds, make it 8 or more inches think and when the kids fall off the playground equipment they don't get hurt. We have used a little of it and it seems to work well. The "experts" at Disney tell us you should not use it around trees and plants. It is not toxic, but it does not provide any nutrients to the trees and plants as a "natural" mulch would.

Your railroad garden looks really nice, Steve. We've found what you have, that its weight keeps it from migrating out much. If your plants are doing well in it, I'd say "go for it"!

Ed


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

I recall looking at the rubber stuff a few years ago at the two big home center chains. The - I won't call it "fine print, how about "smaller - the smaller print on the bags indicated a small percentage of metallic content. These are recycled tires, aren't they? I don't think I'd want that if there's even the slightest chance of human contact. The bag said to wear heavy gloves when working with the stuff.

Or does someone make a 100% non-metallic mulch?

JackM

I went with red stones. Not cheap, but think how much I'll save on bandages!


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Posted By Steve Stockham on 01 Apr 2011 12:39 PM 
Terry,
I have used the rubberiffic mulch in my garden for six years now and I swear by it! The color holds fast and it doesn't float away when the heavy rains flood my layout. I use both the red and the brown but I am also slowly reducing the area of mulch as I add more plants and groundcover. Here are some pics of my layout with the rubberific mulch:































*My wife was saying the very same thing about planting the other day. It's better to cram more plants in than to use mulch to extensively.*


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Posted By eheading on 01 Apr 2011 02:24 PM 
We work part time at Disney World's EPCOT where they use the rubberized mulch extensively. They use it primarily in playgrounds, make it 8 or more inches think and when the kids fall off the playground equipment they don't get hurt. We have used a little of it and it seems to work well. The "experts" at Disney tell us you should not use it around trees and plants. It is not toxic, but it does not provide any nutrients to the trees and plants as a "natural" mulch would.

Your railroad garden looks really nice, Steve. We've found what you have, that its weight keeps it from migrating out much. If your plants are doing well in it, I'd say "go for it"!

Ed




Mike McGrath, on NPR, says that mulch should not be placed around trees. He is not a mulch lover. Even a little bit. He claims that wood mulch can do more harm than no mulch at all. But I can understand the use of the rubber mulch in certain applications. The playground being one.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Maybe you use it around your rubber tree plant?


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Posted By Torby on 02 Apr 2011 08:11 AM 
Maybe you use it around your rubber tree plant? 






BRILLIANT !!!!!


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## Steve Stockham (Jan 2, 2008)

The mulch holds in moisture. Around my tree is cottonseed mulch. The soil is a very nasty clay that I have added over a ton of topsoil to and mixed in. The mulch is not the round bits of rubber that you see on the playgrounds but pieces shredded to look very much like cyprus mulch. The plants don't seem to mind at all and_ there isn't a termite problem! _All in all, if you're going for trains in a garden rather than a miniature world, this would be a viable option!


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## jgallaway81 (Jan 5, 2009)

As for the issue with the metallic content, its probably just a liability issue. If they warn you, and there happens to be a single 1" thread in a 50lb bag, then they are [email protected] url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/CEHtmlEditorProvider/Load.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css);


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

While I'm sure Disney uses recycled rubber from other sources, some types of rubber mulch, such as the material sold at Home Depot and Lowe's, is made from recycled tires which do have metallic content. "Liability issues", all right. I'd feel pretty liable if my granddaughter got that single 1" thread in her eye. 

JackM


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## Steve Stockham (Jan 2, 2008)

In all the mulch I have put down, I have never so much as come across a single strand of metal in this rubberific mulch! This is not to say that there isn't _any_ metal but that I have yet to _ever_ come across some!


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

Different strokes for different folks....I think the rubber mulch is a great idea for retaining color and such.


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## bvdrr (Jan 3, 2008)

I guess if I was too interested in metal bits in the mulch,I might be temped to run one of those large magnet on a stick thru it,just to remove any metal bits.I have one in my workshop to pickup small things I drop and you would be surprised what they can pick up! 
Fred


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## tom h (Jan 2, 2008)

Being a sanitation engineer I will add my 2 cents, since our company brings our tires to a tire recycler that makes mulch, there will be no steel in the mulch, first there process takes it all out, second, they sell it for scrap, more money for them, they do get it ALL out.

Tom H


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## dieseldude (Apr 21, 2009)

I don't know the facts about this for sure, but I've heard that rubber mulch can leach various chemicals into the soil. If that is true, it would really be a pain to try to scape it all back up and find a place to dispose of it. Just a thought.


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## eheading (Jan 5, 2008)

My wife and I work part time at Disney World. They used the mulch made from recycled rubber tire mulch a lot in various playgrounds. It is definitely wonderful stuff. They don't recommend it for around plants and trees, but it isn't because it is toxic to the plants. Rather, it just does not provide any nutrients for the plants/trees. It is supposed to be very benign as far as leaching bad chemicals into the ground.

Ed


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

I have been eyeballing this stuff for a while and have checked out several places that have used it, and I like it. I think it would be great around a garden railroad, and plan to use it on my hillside,where wood mulch wouldn't survive a rainstorm. I also have seen the manufacturing process and Tom H is right, there is a big magnetic seperator that removes probably 99% of the metal from it. I know, there is a 1% chance you could end up with a 1" metal piece in your eye, but you also have a chance of a 747 falliing from the sky and landing on your house. Is there a warning that says: "This Product has been known to cause Cancer in California" If so, I will run right out and buy some, because that means it is good stuff!!!! 

Chris


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## jgallaway81 (Jan 5, 2009)

I don't know if the tires are washed before or after they are shredded, but the only chemicals I'd be worried about would be the stuff the tire picked up off the [email protected] url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/CEHtmlEditorProvider/Load.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css);


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## post oak and otter lake (Dec 27, 2007)

I have used it on sections of my raised layout. It has lasted longer the organic mulch that washed away or blew away. Also the neighborhood cats don't dig it up like they did other materials. I bought big bags of it at Sam's for less than the smaller bags at Lowe's in the spring. 

Roger 
POOL RR 
Caddo Mills,TX


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