2 minute read
Gardening Matters
MULCHES Gardening Matters
As I sit here in early March, we’ve had wall-to-wall rain for what seems like 63 weeks, boooo. However, there may be the odd day in the near future when you’ll need to retain moisture in your garden (pahahahaha), and mulching is a good way to do that, so here are some suggestions for mulches to bung on your patch. Mulches are best applied mid to late spring and autumn when the soil is moist (no worries there) and warm. Avoid applying them in winter/early spring when the soil’s cold or in summer when it’s dry. They’re spread over bare soil or on the surface of compost in containers and are either biodegradable or nonbiodegradable. As the name suggests, biodegradable mulches break down gradually to release nutrients into the soil and help improve its structure. Lack of space prevents a comprehensive list, but the usual suspects are composted stable manure, garden compost, leaf mould, bark and Strulch. Stable manure adds nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil, is widely available in this area, usually for free, but can smell yucky, isn’t very attractive and often contains weed seeds - because that’s what horses eat. It should be well-aged and/or heat-treated. Garden compost is also free and is as available as you’ve made it. As long as you’ve avoided adding perennial weeds to your compost heap/bin, it’s a good solution but takes a while to rot down sufficiently. Leaf mould is readily available if you’ve bagged it up the year before, but it needs at least a year to rot down, isn’t very attractive and you’ll need ONE HELL of a lot of bags to provide for an average garden. Bark exists in practically every garden centre. It’s longlasting, attractive and doesn’t blow away easily, but it’s relatively pricey and the pigeons have a right old time kicking it all over the place. But my most recent discovery, my one of choice now is… Strulch. This is an AMAZING product made from mineralised straw and I’d never heard of it until a customer introduced it to me (thank you, Helen). It’s very light, it suppresses weeds, doesn’t hold water (so rainfall can soak through to the soil), goes a very long way, and best of all, lasts for up to 2 years before degrading. Take a look at the website for more information: http://www.strulch. co.uk Non-biodegradable mulches, including slate, shingle, pebbles and gravel, don’t add nutrients but have the advantage of looking decorative. However, they can be costly and weeds have a nasty habit of pushing up between the gaps unless you lay membrane underneath. All in all, biodegradable mulches tick most of the boxes. As well as retaining moisture in summer, biodegradable mulches protect the roots of plants in winter, improve soil texture, encourage worms and can help prevent weeds, so what’s not to love? Mulch away.
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