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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A landscape showing a lawn with freshly dug trenches and a curved dirt path leading toward two dark buildings by a lake.

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By Kent Gliadon • July 9, 2026

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