Choosing A Mulch Color For Your Plant Bed
Top dressing a plant bed is an important decision when designing a landscape bed for your home. You want to compliment the colors of the plants, provide a welcoming atmosphere, and work with the color of your home.The top dressing should also be functional and low maintenance. Here at KG Landscape, we highly recommend a nice hardwood mulch and we carry it in a variety of colors.
What are the advantages of mulch as a top dressing?
There are many advantages to using a quality hardwood mulch. The biggest advantage is that mulch can protect the plants and ground. The hardwood holds in moisture and prevents drought during the hot summer months. It does the same for the plant roots by preventing the sun from beating down on them and by retaining water from rainfalls. Another advantage is that it has the ability to compliment your house color more closely. Because of the variety of colors and types, it is a lot easier to find something that fits your color palette.
What colors of mulch are available and when should I use them?
Milk Chocolate
– The most popular mulch color that we have at KG Landscape. It’s super adaptable to any landscape, very affordable, and still high quality. It’s good for houses that are in the middle of color spectrum, not too white and not too dark. The natural brown color matches up with just about any plants, it especially plays well with very green plants like evergreens and leafy plants like astilbe and daylillys.
Dark Chocolate
– The second most popular color we use at KG Landscape is dark chocolate mulch. This is a much darker brown, almost black, mulch that is similar to the milk chocolate but just dyed a different color. This mulch is nice for plants the have big flowers that are blooming often. The pops of color are extremely vibrant with the dark background. Many clients also like the dark color with their light or dark home color.
Red
– This bright red dyed hardwood mulch is definitely not as popular as the choices above. There are certain people who just love this bright color around their home or backyard. We offer this color of mulch but it is not used very often.
Blonde
– Basically the same as the red color above. We offer this color of mulch but it is not requested as often.
Western Red Cedar
– A very popular selection by many of our clients. This mulch is a little more expensive than the hardwood mulches above. It’s made from cedar wood and shipped from the West Coast to Minnesota which increases the cost. However, the benefit is a beautiful, subtle red mulch that is seriously perfect for any application. The higher cost scares some customers away but it really is worth every penny.
If you’re looking for mulch in the Minneapolis or St. Paul area, we are here for you.
Give us a call at 763-568-7251 or contact us here. Either way, we’ll work with you to choose the right top dressing for your plant bed and house.
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When Pergolas Don’t Last, There’s Always a Reason After nearly two decades of building outdoor spaces across Medina, I’ve seen what happens when pergolas aren’t designed for Minnesota’s conditions. You can spot them a mile away—posts that lean, beams that twist, and concrete pads that have heaved out of level after just a couple of winters. It’s not because homeowners cut corners intentionally. It’s usually because whoever built it didn’t account for what our climate really does to structures that aren’t anchored right. Medina’s heavy clay soil doesn’t drain well. It holds moisture, freezes solid, and then expands like a hydraulic press pushing on everything above it. When pergolas are set on surface-level post bases, that pressure has nowhere to go but up—and the whole thing moves. Even small shifts can cause joints to separate, wood to crack, and hardware to loosen. That’s how a $15,000 structure starts looking tired after a few years instead of standing straight for decades. The truth is, pergolas here aren’t just about shade or looks. They’re about structure, drainage, and how every piece ties into the patio beneath it. A pergola that stands tall through Minnesota winters is built on the same principles as a good foundation—it’s only as strong as what’s underneath it. If you live in Medina and want to enjoy your backyard without worrying about your investment warping or sagging, start with design that respects the environment it’s built in. That means thinking beyond lumber and stain colors. It means understanding soil movement, water management, and the importance of integrating your pergola with the patio below it.
Solutions for Properties in Minnetonka You can always tell a Minnetonka yard that’s fighting its slope. Water doesn’t lie, it finds the weak spots every time. I’ve walked plenty of properties where a backyard starts beautiful in June, but by September, the patio is heaving, the grass near the pool looks like a marsh, and the homeowner is wondering how it got so bad so fast. The truth is, when you’re dealing with rolling terrain and heavy clay soils like we have around Minnetonka, you can’t just move dirt and hope gravity behaves. You need a plan that manages water from the surface all the way down through the subsoil. This is what I’ll walk you through here. You’ll see what actually causes drainage issues on sloped properties, how poor planning leads to cracked patios and shifting pool decks, and the smart drainage systems that can stop those problems for good. Whether you live near Lake Minnetonka or up in the higher ridges closer to Deephaven or Woodland, understanding how your yard sheds water is the difference between a property that lasts and one that’s constantly under repair. The Real Challenge of Sloped Minnetonka Yards Minnetonka is known for its hills, lakefront properties, and mature trees, but all that beauty comes with a set of challenges below the surface. Most of the soil here is dense clay. It holds water like a sponge and drains slowly, which means after every heavy rain, that water looks for a way downhill. If it doesn’t have a proper outlet, it ends up collecting right where you don’t want it, like along your patio, at the base of a retaining wall, or near your pool deck. I see this every season: homeowners trying to solve slope problems with a quick regrade, a layer of rock, or a simple surface drain. Those things might help for a while, but they don’t address what’s really happening underground. Clay soil doesn’t just get wet—it becomes saturated, expanding and contracting with every freeze-thaw cycle. When that happens under a patio or wall, it doesn’t matter how well-built the surface looks. The ground will move, and that movement cracks stone, shifts pavers, and slowly tears apart everything on top. The other challenge with sloped lots is how water interacts with gravity. It accelerates downhill, gaining momentum as it goes. When it hits a flat area like a patio, the water loses speed but not volume, pooling instead of flowing. That’s why I tell clients that “flat spots” on a sloped property are both an opportunity and a responsibility. They’re the best spaces to create usable outdoor areas, but they have to be engineered to handle water movement. I’ve worked on plenty of Minnetonka yards where the backyard has a beautiful view but terrible grading. You can have a perfect slope on paper, but if it directs water toward your house or creates a bowl effect between structures, you’ll end up with soggy soil and standing puddles that never dry. The goal is to move water off and away while keeping the surface level enough for comfort and usability. It’s a fine balance, but when it’s done right, it completely transforms how a property functions.