Can You Use Rit Dye On Mulch?

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If you enjoy having mulch in your garden, but it keeps fading, and you don’t want to keep digging it up and replanting it, you might want to consider dying it. 

But should you use rit dye? Is it safe? How do you use it?

Rit dye is water-based rather than oil-based, allowing it to safely stain both wicker and wood and let the natural wood grain to be able to show through without it chipping or peeling like paint. It is CPSC certified and safe for outdoor wood, including mulch.  

So, what is mulch dye, why would you decide to use it, and how would you if you wanted to? 

Why Use Rit Dye on Mulch?

This way, you can have a gorgeous-looking lawn without re-purchasing new bags of mulch every time it starts to fade.

It is the quickest and easiest way to make your mulch look great, which makes your garden more appealing.

How To Use Rit Dye

Rit dye, like most mulch dye, is very simple to use if you want to use it. Here is a handy video you can watch to understand how:

But in short, if you would like to dye your mulch, you will need a few pieces of equipment:

• Rit mulch dye in the color you’d like
• A pump sprayer (even the cheapest one will do)
• Gardening gloves
• A leaf blower or a rake to perfect the look

After you have everything, you need to follow the steps below:

Pick The Color You Want

Rit has over 50 colors that you can choose from.

If you can’t find the exact shade you were looking for, you can either dilute or concentrate it to a different shade or mix the shades together to get what you want. 

Prepare Your Mulch Beds

There are a few ways you will need to prepare your mulch beds for dying correctly:

• Remove debris – such as weeds, dead leaves, dog toys, etc
• Level out any mulch so there aren’t any bare patches
• Cover any plants or borders which you don’t want to be dyed accidentally
• Make sure that the mulch is dry – don’t spray the dye on wet dye, and don’t spray on mulch if it’s forecasted to rain within three hours of your dying.

Fill Your Pump Sprayer

You should have approximately 3 cups of water for every ½ cup of dye, but that might not necessarily be the correct shade for you.

If it’s not, nothing stops you from playing around with the concentrations to find the color that is right for you.

Spray The Dye

Now that your garden bed is fully prepped, it’s time to spray the dye. This is the easiest part and the most satisfying!

Pros And Cons of Mulch Dye 

There are positive and negative aspects of mulch dye, which means it may or may not be the right choice for you. 

The Advantages of Mulch Dye

• Choice of color – being able to choose the dye means you can also choose the colors. You can complement your home’s colors or choose a different color every time you reapply the dye.
• Dyed mulches are more resilient – the dye covering them protects your mulch from the elements, which delays the mulch decomposition process.

The Disadvantages of Mulch Dye

• Some mulch dyes can be environmentally unfriendly – Rit dye is non-toxic, non-carcinogenic, and approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Still, cheap mulches can be ecologically dangerous, and you’ll need to be careful.
• Dyed mulches can sap nitrogen from the soil – the good news is that dyed mulch is much more resilient, but the bad news is that this will deplete nitrogen as they take longer to break down.

Is Mulch Dye Poisonous?

This is one of the most asked questions surrounding mulch dye – is it safe to put outside? 

Well, according to the labels of most common mulch dyes, it is safe for everything that might come in contact with it, such as:

• Pets
• Plants
• Other wildlife

However, this is only after it dries. Before then, it might be at risk of leaching out, including if it rains. Ensure the mulch is dry, and everything will be fine. 

Rumors said that mulch dye was dangerous for the environment, leaching chemicals into the environment, but it is thought that the source of the wood mulch may be the culprit.

This means you need to be extremely careful when using recycled wood. Some from construction or demolition sites can even contain lead-based paints.

This, alongside other common chemicals used in the construction industry, such as chromated copper arsenate and creosote, are where the real danger is, not the dye on the mulch. 

If you’re unsure, look for the US Mulch and Soil Council logo. An MSC approval stamp will ensure that your mulch and dye are harmful.

Is Mulch Dye Bad for Plants?

It has become quite important for many gardeners to ensure that a lot of what they do is good for the ecosystem and their garden.

As mentioned before, if the mulch is sourced responsibly, the dye will not harm the garden or the environment. 

Studies have shown dyes to have no harmful effect on plants or soil. Many of these dyes’ ingredients have been safely used in food dyes.  

Is Mulch Dye Bad for Dogs?

Most mulches don’t seem to be very appealing to pets, but there is always the chance that some pets will fall in love with the mulch and try to mess with it, such as:

• Chewing
• Digging
• Nestling

Knowing what kind of mulch you’re using is the key to keeping them safe, but the dye itself has been certified to be safe enough to use in food, so it is generally considered safe.

How Long Does It Take for Mulch Dye To Fade?

How long dye will last depends on a multitude of different factors, mostly to do with the elements:

• Rain
• Sun
• Other extreme weathering 

Sun exposure is the most damaging of the three, but in general terms, you can expect brown or black mulch to last about a year or so.

However, this may be different for other colors; for example, red is the most susceptible to sun damage, meaning it may be sun bleached the soonest. 

Conclusion

Not only can you use Rit dye on mulch, but some very much recommend it as the best way to keep your mulch looking vibrant and appealing.

It’s straightforward to apply as well, only needing some rit dye, a pump sprayer, gloves, and the tools to do some simple prep work on your garden.

Sources

• Seasonal Preferences
• The Home Garden Guru
• Rit Dye
•  The Heathered Nest