This page details how to and not to do some landscape task such as mulching and pruning, but if more categories are included there will be a list the links to a page for each task, where examples could include water features, plant placement, TBD still under construction.
Mulch
The purpose of mulch is both aesthetic and functional, but this works only if it is done correctly. Unfortunately many people have copied so called experts that mulch improperly. A typical series of mistakes is not clearing weeds, including turf grass, from the area to be mulched then putting the mulch to close to the plants regardless of whether to much or to little mulch is used. Only about 3 inches of mulch is required, although more of a mulch that does not compact such as pine straw can be used temporarily for frost and freeze protection. Mulch should be excluded within a foot of plants with perennial above ground stems to protect them from insects and diseases that are hiding in or living on the mulch could then use the mulch as a vector to the plant especially if the mulch is wet for a prolonged period. This pattern of bare areas around trees can even be observed in nature where leaves often do not touch the trunks of large trees and in cases were they do there is a greater risk of fire damage especially on hardwoods. I have even lost sapling trees when wind blew mulch against the bark during a storm and a fungus girdled the tree because the mulch was not repositioned in a timely manner, but the first symptom is often the tree being snapped off at the ground line due to rot and/or insects that have bored into the trunk. A ring of mulch can then extend as far as desired from a minimum of three feet in diameter for a newly planted sapling. When mulch is applied as specified here nearly 4 cubit feet of mulch is initially required per tree, which works out to at most 7 trees per yard of mulch.
Prune
Pruning, unlike the illegitimate practices of topping and shearing, is the artful removal of selected branches and stems to repair or prevent damage to a plant, improve the form of a plant, and/or stimulate the growth of a plant. Although proper pruning may reduce the size of a plant that is not a good reason to prune, but if it is then size at maturity of the plant was to large for where it was planted. Correcting damage consist of removing dead or broken limbs. Ideally the amount of dead/damaged material removed is maximized relative to the amount living/health tissue that is incidentally removed in the process.
