LANDSCAPING After checking out selections, choose mulch that matches home

Pebbles, chips, shredded tires or bricks? The choices abound.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Mulch Madness is under way.
It's always a safe bet to go with hardwood chips, the perennial favorite. These days, cocoa hulls are making a strong showing, and shredded car tires have become a contender. Rocks have been hit or miss since the 1970s.
Here's a new strategy for choosing mulch: Pick one that coordinates with the building material and style of your home. It's a given that mulch is a moisture retainer, a weed barrier and a soil cooler. But it should have a nice understated look, too.
Gravel is good for several house types. It attractively and subtly contrasts with homes that have wooden or vinyl siding.
Black Mexican beach pebbles or ground bricks make great pairs with stucco Mediterranean- and Southwestern-style homes, says Kristopher Dabner, owner and landscape designer of the Greensman in Kansas City. And Japanese garden-style white pea gravel is a natural fit with a modern home.
A neutral-colored home can be accented by slate or volcanic rocks, says Dan Nelson, division manager of Embassy Landscape Group in Kansas City. A house with darker tones could be lightened up with Missouri river rocks.
Not always the best pick
But rocks aren't always the right choice. Although they don't have to be replaced each year like other natural mulches, they cost twice as much. And small stones sometimes don't have the right look.
"I would never use rock with a stone- or brick-front house," says Jeremy Karstetter, landscaping designer for Nature's Design. "It looks too rigid."
Dark cocoa hulls, pine needle straw and dirt-colored hardwood scraps are the ways to go for homes that have brick or stone fa & ccedil;ades. Their cottagelike looks are natural fits with bungalows and Tudors.
Brown mulches eventually fade to gray and aren't as attractive, Nelson says. A trend in mulching is dyeing hardwood dark brown so it will retain color better. He's also heard about people asking for sports team colors since the technology has become available.
Watch out for red
Avoid red dyed mulch, even though it's popular, landscape designers say. In addition to leaving a pinkish hue on your concrete after a rainfall, red mulch becomes too much of a focal point. Those bursts of color compete for attention with foundation plants and the house.
"Mulch should be a backdrop," Dabner says. "Wood is never that color of red."
Landscapers also aren't fans of the new rubber mulch, made of shredded car tires. In theory, it seems like a great idea: It takes tires out of the landfill and is cut and dyed to look just like wood-chip mulch.
But rubber doesn't decompose, says Dennis Patton, an extension horticulture agent. It never breaks down to improve the soil, and then it gets in the way of plants and will be difficult to remove.
Rocks have those same problems, making it a pain if you want to swap them out for something else.
So keep rubber mulch out of the front yard, landscapers say, but use it around children's play equipment and for backyard pathways.