Gardening - All About Mulching
ian Williamson
Mulch is a layer of material spread on top of the soil to
conserve soil moisture, discourage the growth of weeds, help
prevent erosion and prevent large fluctuations in soil
temperature. In other words, mulch modifies the soil micro-
climate around your growing plants.
Ideally, mulch is light and permeable enough to allow water and
air to pass through, yet dense enough to inhibit or eliminate the
growth of weeds.
Mulches may be organic (usually plant material), mineral (crushed
stone or gravel), or synthetic (plastics and geotextiles).
Understanding their differences will help you choose the best
mulch for your situation. Generally speaking, organic and mineral
mulches cool the soil while synthetic mulches warm it up.
Any biodegradable material can be used as an organic mulch. Some
of the most easily attainable materials include shredded or
chipped bark, shredded leaves, hay, straw, and peat moss.
Avoid using whole leaves unless you mix them with straw or some
other light material as they tend to mat down and get soggy. They
can actually prevent water and air from reaching the soil
beneath.
Grass clippings are an excellent choice of mulching material.
They're so small they start breaking down and enriching the soil
almost immediately. If you do use grass clippings, be sure they
don't have pesticide residue on them. Many lawn treatments
contain herbicides that kill broadleaf plants, including those
that you may be trying to grow in your garden. And of course, if
you're mulching a vegetable garden you don't want to be adding
poisonous chemicals to it.
You may be fortunate enough to live near a source of industrial
by-products that are useful for mulching. Some ideas are sawdust
or shavings from sawmills, spent hops from breweries, or
composted manure from mushroom growers.
Careful with the sawdust. It's deficient in nitrogen so you might
want to mix it with some compost. Also, softwood sawdust is
acidic, so you don't want to use it too close to plants that
prefer a neutral or alkaline soil.
Advantages of mulching:
Mulched plant roots are not subjected to extreme temperatures.
Unmulched roots get hot and dry in the summer and can be damaged
by the heaving of soil during sudden frosts and thaws in winter.
Organic mulches and some mineral mulches contain nutrients that
gradually wash down into the soil and fertilize the plant roots.
Weeding and hoeing the garden are practically eliminated when you
mulch! The few weeds that manage to poke up through the mulch are
easily nipped out, and there's no need to cultivate because the
mulch keeps the soil loose.
Mulch protects the soil from the drying action of the sun and
wind, and protects it from erosion from wind and hard rain.
Mulched plants can often endure a long dry spell with hardly any
watering.
Mulch protects vegetables such as squash, cucumber, unstaked
tomatoes or strawberries that lie on the ground when they're
ripe. The mulch keeps them clean and dry, preventing rot and
mildew. Likewise, low growing flowers will not be splashed with
mud in a mulched flower bed.
When not to mulch:
Seedlings planted in very moist soil should not be mulched until
they are well established, as the higher soil moisture can
encourage damping-off, a fungal infection that is usually fatal.
If the soil is waterlogged from spring rains, let it dry out a
bit before mulching perennials to avoid crown rot, another fungal
infection. It is best to leave an open circle a few inches in
diameter around the base of each plant for air circulation.
Don't mulch a low-lying, wet soil.
There's too much to learn about mulching to fit it all into one
article, but I hope you can see that mulching has great benefits
for your garden and for you.
Your plants will benefit by having their roots protected from
heat and dryness in the summer and from frost heaving in the
winter, your soil will stay loose and friable, weeding will
disappear off your chore list and you'll save water too!
For more Garden Articles by Ian Williamson please visit
http://www.real-articles.com/Category/Gardening/92
See Also:
All About Organic Gardening
Index of Gardens & Gardening
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