Mulch

Lovely Mulch,

Having weeded too many gardens and installed so many irrigation systems I have grown a slight obsession with mulch. Mulch is the gardener’s friend. It keeps weeds at bay, feeds the soil and holds moisture where the plants need it. Therefore giving you more time to enjoy the garden, your family…

Glorious.

My latest and greatest experiment is with a heavy layer of fresh tree mulch. Tree mulch has a great mix of timber and green leaves to help build a nice compost over time. It has large stringy bits that lock into each other. Our chickens have proved it is not impervious to all avian assault but it does stay in place well with a humble thrush or blackbird hunting for lunch.

Now that the chickens have a lovely new enclosure and clipped wings the mulch has settled down nicely. The moisture level underneath is holding well and the plants we have put in look great. Best of all no weeds have arrived on the scene! It has proved so successful that we intend to keep adding tree mulch to all of our gardens.

I came across the idea hunting info down on the internet. There are many good videos on Eden Gardening. Designed by God, made by people. Just like a forest floor. What could be more perfect. It even fits beautifully into a Darwinist model but I have yet to see it called Darwin gardening.

Most tree pruning companies make huge piles of mulch as a by product of their work. If you are in the area they are working and they can dump mulched tree material to you, they save loads in vehicle miles, staff time and dumping fees. You do of course have to invest some time into ringing around your local tree companies and you have to work in with their timing of jobs close to you. Some companies may be open to some payment to get things to you on a time that suits you. I run a system with my local tree people that they give me a ring when they have a truck of mulch near me. I have a designated dump zone for them to drop on. This is super easy for their truck to back onto which makes it more appealing to drop to me.

Of course any mulch is good, so don’t get too caught up on tree mulch if you can’t find any. Plus if you just have a small garden then a truck load of tree mulch will be the last thing you want to see. Maybe a lovely bale of pea straw will do the job nicely.