Mulch

Pine mulch will help hold moisture in the soil

• Mulch should be applied on the surface of the BMP in a layer of 75 -100 mm.
• As in other landscaping applications, the mulch helps to preserve soil moisture for plant survival, and suppresses weed growth.
• Mulch is considered to be an normal finishing touch to many types of formal landscaping. Maintaining mulch application can help increase aesthetic value of LID BMPs.
• Regular fresh applications of wood mulch can also promote denitrification, reducing nitrates in impacted surface waters.
• Double-shredded hardwood or softwood mulch is recommended for LID facilities. Its fibrous texture knits together somewhat; providing limited erosion control.
• Mulch can also help to maintain the organic matter content of filter media, which provides cation exchange capacity for pollutant removal.

Contraindication

• In areas with particularly high flow (e.g. around inlets and forebays) coarse decorative aggregate or stone is recommended instead, as these will not float. All organic mulches have the potential to float and migrate in surface flow, particularly after a previously dry period.
• This advice also holds for stormwater planters, which often experience concentrated flow from a downspout disconnection or similar.

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a top dressing over vegetation beds that provides suppresses weeds and helps retain soil moisture in bioretention cells, stormwater planters and dry swales.

a top dressing over vegetation beds that provides suppresses weeds and helps retain soil moisture in bioretention cells, stormwater planters and dry swales.

Best management practice. State of the art methods or techniques used to manage the quantity and improve the quality of wet weather flow. BMPs include: source, conveyance and end-of-pipe controls.

Low Impact Development. A stormwater management strategy that seeks to mitigate the impacts of increased urban runoff and stormwater pollution by managing it as close to its source as possible. It comprises a set of site design approaches and small scale stormwater management practices that promote the use of natural systems for infiltration and evapotranspiration, and rainwater harvesting.

Includes the protection of soil from dislocation by water, wind or other agents.

The engineered soil component of bioretention cell or dry swale designs, typically with a high rate of infiltration and designed to retain contaminants through filtration and adsorption to particles.

A broad category of particulate material used in construction, including sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, recycled concrete and geosynthetic aggregates, and available in various particulate size gradations.

A shallow excavated surface depression containing prepared filter media, mulch, and planted with selected vegetation.