Faded mulch? How to bring the colour back with Colour Shot

Mulch looks fantastic the week you lay it. Twelve months of New Zealand sun later, that rich brown has bleached to a tired grey — even though the mulch itself is still doing its job perfectly well. Replacing it costs real money and sends good mulch to waste. There's a smarter option: recolour it where it lies.

1. Why mulch fades

UV light breaks down the natural tannins and lignins that give bark and wood chip their colour. The surface layer greys first — the mulch underneath usually still looks new, which is why raking sometimes "refreshes" a bed for a few weeks. Fading is cosmetic: greyed mulch still suppresses weeds and holds moisture. If the only problem is the look, you don't need new mulch — you need colour.

2. What Colour Shot is

Colour Shot is a water-based mulch colourant from the Landscape Lock range. It's a concentrated dye carrying pigments in suspension — you dilute it, spray it over the bed, and the mulch pieces absorb the pigment. It does three jobs at once:

• Rejuvenation — restores old, faded mulch to a rich, freshly-laid look.
• Contrast — a deeper, uniform base colour makes green plant-life stand out sharply.
• Uniformity — evens out patchy beds where old and new mulch have been mixed together.

One litre of concentrate covers approximately 20–30 m² at the standard application rate — for most gardens, one bottle recolours the lot.

3. Choosing your colour

4. How to apply it

1. Shake the concentrate well — every time before use. Pigments settle.
2. Dilute 50 ml of concentrate per litre of clean water in a pump-action garden pressure sprayer, and shake the sprayer after mixing.
3. Hold the nozzle close to the ground and apply a light, even coat.
4. Let the first coat dry, then apply a second light coat perpendicular to the first. Two thin coats, never one heavy one.
5. Rinse your sprayer and nozzle immediately after use.
6. Colour dries quickly, but allow 24 hours to fully cure.

5. Lock the colour in

Colour Shot restores the look; Landscape Lock keeps it that way. Once the colour has fully cured (24 hours), spray the bed with Landscape Lock to bond the mulch in place against wind, rain and leaf blowers — and to block the UV exposure that fades mulch in the first place. Recolour, lock, and the bed stays looking freshly laid for the season.

6. Where to get it

Colour Shot is part of the Landscape Lock range in New Zealand — see where to buy, or contact sales@landscapelock.co.nz for availability of Forest Brown and Jet Black near you. Full application instructions are on the how-to-use page.

These are summary instructions and general guidance only — coverage is indicative and varies with mulch type and technique. Always follow the full label instructions before applying.