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The ugly truth about beauty bark
Come the spring we order yards of bark, mulch and other landscape materials to bring vitality to our flower beds. What a satisfying sight and smell of freshened beds. Two of the most common uses of landscape materials are to fill gaps under our fences and hide the ugly concrete foundations below the siding. I agree that it looks clean and maintained to do this. But there’s an ugly side to beauty bark, wood-destroying organisms! The most common Pacific Northwest WDOs are rot fungus, carpenter ants and termites.
Ants love to create tunneled highways through thick bark and mulch. When these landscape materials are against the siding they have direct and unseen access siding, wood building materials and the inside of your home. Harmless thatching and sugar ants love to use these conditions as access for food expeditions. Infamous carpenter ants see this as an invitation to a home-style feast! Landscape clearance is an important part of my WDO inspection. I recommend 6 inches of bare concrete foundation exposed between the “dirt” and wood siding. Avoid piling beauty bark up against your home.
Our fences are usually made from cedar wood. This is one of the most durable exterior woods due to its many oils. How do you know if your fence is cedar? If untreated it has weathered into a color that I call “Northwest Gray” (seen in picture to the left). They also have that distinct “spa” smell. Cedar slats can last ten years and even twenty years in some cases. But when landscape materials are piled up against the slats they begin to rot out at the bottom. They soon have the jagged tooth appearance as rot fungus (and weed whacker hits) due their damage. Minimize wood contact with landscape materials and your fence.
Some helpful advice to save you big bucks and nuisances later one!
