Mulch is much under rated, but mulching the soil is one of the best tasks you can do for your garden. The beauty of our plants and flowers, the quality of our fruits and vegetables all starts with the quality of our soil. It is easy to buy all the lovely flowering plants and bulbs only to find that they cannot thrive in our soil. Many gardeners or potential gardeners then become disappointed.
However, If we take care of the soil and keep it healthy and weed free, the rest comes naturally. Mulch offers a wide range of benefits to the garden in terms of the look and beauty of our gardens and if organic mulch, in practical benefits for the soil and the health and beauty of our plants. For both experienced gardeners and complete novices garden mulch can enhance and transform your garden.
You Might Be Asking What is Mulch?
Mulch is simply a layer of material thickly applied to the surface of the soil usually applied to beds and borders in our gardens.
It can be organic, such as wood chips, bark, straw and mulch compost. Organic is best if you need to improve the quality of your soil.
Mulch can also be inorganic, like gravel, sheeting, and rubber. Inorganic mulch can serve a practical purpose of weed suppression like sheeting but not be very pleasing to look at, or it can be very pretty especially if you use pebbles or glass beads.
Each type of mulch serves different purposes and can be chosen based on the specific needs of your garden.
What Are The Benefits of Mulch?
Mulching For A Beautiful Garden
I am always pleasantly surprised what a difference a little time spent mulching achieves to the look of the garden. The difference can be quite dramatic! Mulch always seems to make plants look so much better and the whole garden put together beautifully. We can also use different types of mulch to create specific areas of the garden whether you want a natural look or more formal approach for different areas.
Reducing Weeding!
This is my number one reason for spending time mulching in Spring. Although it takes time to mulch it saves so much more time in weeding. A thick layer of mulch which blocks out sunlight can inhibit much of the weed seeding and growth. This thankfully reduces the need for hand weeding. As I never use any chemical weed killer and am not a huge fan of endless hand weeding on my knees, it is essential for my garden. It is not a guarantee of no weeds, but as long as you use a thick enough layer of mulch, which is about two to four inches deep, it can cut down weeding quite a lot.
Moisture And Temperature Regulation
Mulch helps keep moisture in the soil by reducing evaporation. This is particularly beneficial for the summer during hot, dry periods. If using mulch for this purpose a Spring mulching is most beneficial. Mulch also acts like a blanket to keep the soil cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Our garden soil is heavy clay and it dries out and cracks in the summer and in winter becomes a hard, cold, wet block so these insulating properties are very important to our garden.
Mulching For A Healthy Soil
In gardening soil health and structure is where it all begins. Organic mulches always decompose or rot down over time. This adds important nutrients and improves the structure and overall fertility of the soil. An improved and healthy soil promotes plants to have a healthy root development which is key to a healthy plant and good flowers, vegetables and fruit.
Our heavy clay soil has nutrients but it is difficult for young plants roots to access via the heaviness of the clay. So it is very important to open up the structure of our soil so that plants can root more effectively. However if you have very light soil, sandy, stony or chalky soil, mulching can help to improve and add much needed nutrients and hold and firm up the structure of the soil.
So mulching with organic matter ultimately helps all types of soil. It is a hugely positive task to do and reaps benefits no matter what your soil type.
Types of Garden Mulch.
There are two main types of Mulch, organic and inorganic.
Organic Mulch
This includes materials like bark, well rotted manure, grass clippings, straw, cocoa mulch, wood chips, compost or prepared Mulch compost bags. These mulches rot down with time and enrich the soil with organic matter. Personally I prefer a mulch compost or bark. I have found straw attracts rodents which we do not want and grass clippings can look untidy and a bit messy in the main beds and borders. If you have a stables nearby they may give you or sell you their horse manure, however it will need to have time for it to rot down before you can apply it to the garden soil so you need an area to store it. A prepared mulch in bags is perhaps the easiest way to mulch.
A word of warning if you have dogs, do not use cocoa mulch as it is toxic to dogs and very attractive to them.
Inorganic Mulch
This includes materials like gravel, rubber mulch, glass beads, decorative pebbles, river rocks, weed suppressant membranes and plastic sheeting, even old carpet. These mulches do not decompose and will not add any nutrients to the soil. They are often used to suppress and control difficult perennial weeds but some such as gravel, pebbles and river rocks can also be used beautifully for decorative purposes.
We have used gravel and pebbles in certain areas. River rocks and large decorative pebbles look really beautiful in the right setting and can enhance the plants around them.
We don't use plastic sheeting generally across the garden as unless it is covered with another layer of organic mulch or pebbles it looks awful. Plus plastics can leach into the soil which is not great and I would certainly not use it on any area I wanted to plant vegetables, fruits or herbs to eat. It or weed suppressant membranes are however useful if you have an area that is riddled with difficult perennial weeds. We did use this successfully for an area of the garden that had a difficult invasive perennial weed. If using it for that purpose it is best to cover the area with weed suppressing membrane, plastic sheeting or an old carpet first, then cover that with a decorative mulch of pebbles or bark.
How to Apply Mulch To The Garden
Choose the type of mulch that suits your garden and how you would like it to look. Different area of your garden may need a different approach to mulch type. Some beds may be better with organic mulch where the soil needs improving or you want a natural look while other areas look better with pebbles for example.
Preparation Of The Garden Is Key
It is best to pull out any annual and perennial weeds from the beds we are mulching. It is easy and tempting to think you can skip this rather boring and tedious step but it is so much better to start with a weed free and clean area before mulching. Otherwise you may well find especially perennial weeds do still come up through the mulch.
Applying the Mulch
It is important to spread a thick layer of mulch about two to four inches deep on the borders and beds around your plants. I always do this by hand especially in an existing border so as not to damage any of the plants there. Do take care to leave a gap at the base of each plant free from any mulch to prevent any rotting and to allow rainwater to reach the plant roots. It is always better to spread a thick layer over a smaller area than a thin layer over a larger space.
It is best to mulch after a period of rainfall so you then keep the moisture in the soil. If no rainfall is forecast and you want to mulch, it is advisable to soak the soil beforehand with a watering can or hose. I would advise to always wear a good strong pair of garden gloves when spreading mulch to protect you and so there is no contact with your skin.
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Maintain the Mulch
There isn't really a lot of ongoing or regular maintenance, but we can add more organic mulch like bark or compost over time as it breaks down into the soil. Organic mulch requires a little more topping up and raking from time to time.
We tend to put it down once a year in spring, but ideally do it twice a year in Spring and again in Autumn/Fall especially if your soil is poor or impoverished. Spring mulching is great for weed suppression, locking moisture in the soil and improving soil structure. Autumn/Fall mulching can also be protective of plants when the frosts and cold weather comes.
For inorganic mulch, like gravel, stones or pebbles just add or rearrange if it needs readjusting or topping up. If you have laid inorganic mulch directly onto soil you may need to occasionally wash down with water and pick out any annual weeds that find their way into any gaps. If you do not want this task it is best to lay a layer of weed suppressing membrane underneath to minimise this further.
So mulching is a very beneficial task to do every Spring and Autumn/Fall in our gardens. I find it an easy, rewarding task that beautifies the garden and has ample benefits for many months.
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Reviewing The Benefits of Garden Mulch by Raintree Annie
