I have a mulching question?

Like hay? that's curios Know what it was?

Probably a good idea to move it out. If it is organic it can go onto the compost pile, if you have one. If not from organic material, it goes byb-bye. Add compost, top soil if you need to change elevations (hopefully not more than an inch), scratch the soil a bit to loosen it up if compacted. Apply new mulch.

good question!

You've gotten some weird answers to this question.

I'm not sure that I would want to use mulch that was guaranteed for 2 years. I'd be worried about what strange chemicals they'd added to the mulch to prevent it from breaking down, and what that would do to my plants.

Most people add a new layer of mulch every spring, on top of the old stuff.

When I add mulch to my garden, I expect it to feed my plants. The soil micro-organisms break it down, and that includes the mushrooms that come up.

Mulch looks good, and gives the bed a finished look, but that isn't why I add it to the bed. I add it to the bed to hold moisture, and block weeds, and to build top soil.

Absolutely DO NOT remove the old mulch!

The soil micro-organisms have done a lot of work breaking it down, it's feeding the plants. If you were to remove any of it, you would find the feeder roots from the plants growing through it, and raking off the mulch would damage the plants!

I don't understand this need to compulsively tidy the garden when it harms the plants.

I have been there...4 years ago, I put a nice thick layer of mulch around my pond....the next 2 years, I just added a little bit to the top and it looked real nice again....then last year, I had these really rare mushrooms that would sprout up every other day, all around the pond. The really bad part is that this type of shroom attracted tiny ants like you wouldn't believe...I found out it was because the mulch on the bottom was mildewey and is the cause of these weird and annoying mushrooms....DO NOT JUST ADD TO LAST YEARS MULCH

I would rake out the old. Then add the new mulch. If it is real dry then it has lost most of it"s power to help your garden.

Try to rototill this hay with the newly purchased mulch. It is okay and it will last longer. This will make a good base and not need much topsoil.

mulch over the top of the old stuff